STUDENTS NAME: CITRA YOENITA MHD ILHAM

GRADE:

ENG 236: Semantics and Pragmatics Spring Semester 2004: MON & THU 1.30 3.00pm
English Program, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures University of Cyprus
Kleanthes Grohmann (M 004, Phone x2106) Email: kleanthes@punksinscience.org
February 26, 2004

MID-TERM EXAM

EXAM QUESTIONS [ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS; MAX POINTS INDICATED]

1.

In your own words, provide definitions for the following terms in either A or B:
A

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.

expression meaning
utterance meaning
descriptive meaning
social meaning
expressive meaning
context of utterance

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.

homonymy
polysemy
hyponomy
opposition
antonymy
heteronymy
[12]

Answers:

a. homonymy different words identical in sound form and spelling / different

words which sound (homophone) and have the same spelling (homograph) but
completely has different or unrelated meanings
b. polysemy a single word that have different or multiple meanings but related
meanings
c. hyponomy one word denotes a subclass of as another
d. opposition - gradable
e. antonymy words that have opposite meanings to another words which is
divided into gradable and non-gradable
f. heteronymy involves more than two expressions. Heteronymy is not related
to scales or opposite extremes.

2.

Most sentences of any natural language can be used in different CoUs to communicate

different information, although their meaning remains the same. How is that possible?
[8]

3.

Try to determine word by word the descriptive, social, and/or expressive meaning
of all the expressions in the following dialogue.
A: Hey, Aphrodite. Did you attend that stupid lecture yesterday?
B: Unfortunately. Im sorry, honey.
2

Answers:

Descriptive: respond
Social: Aprhrodite from Greek
Expressive: stupid (swear word negative expressive meaning) -

[10]

4.

Discuss the difference between polysemy and the variation of meaning due to
metaphorical shit, metonymical shift, and differentiation.

Answers:

In many cases of polysemy, meaning variants are interrelated by way of

metonymy, metaphor or differentiation. Polysemy refers to a single word having more
interrelated meanings or better: meaning variants. Polysemy is a matter of single
lexemes in single languages. To see the point, consider the colour adjectives in English
where many of them are polysemous, with meaning variants not primarily relating to
colour properties. For example, green may mean unripe fruits. Polysemy plays a major
role in the historical development of word meanings because lexemes continually shift
their meanings and develop new meaning variants.
A term that primarily refers to objects of a certain kind is used to refer instead to
things that belong to objects of this kind or a change in the meaning of words is called
metonymy. The corresponding type of meaning shift will be referred to as metonymical
shift which shifted the reference of the word from a standard referent to an essential
element of the underlying concept.
While metaphorical shift involved the meaning shift of a word or phrase which
shifted from its normal uses to a context where it is evokes a new meaning. The shifted

meaning build new concept in the target domain by borrowing parts of the concept in
the source domain. Other example of lexemes with metaphorical meaning variants are
terms such as mouse for a computer mouse, light in a light meal, or the majority of
idiomatic expressions like kick the bucket or make a mountain out of a molehill.
Differentiation is a common source of polysemy where a lexeme may have a
meaning variant that applies to a special case if what the basic meaning of the lexeme
applies to. In other word, differentiation adding conditions to the original concept.

[12]

5.

For the following sentences, which one is the proper negation, A or B? Check the
truth conditions of A and B: which one is essentially true if the positive sentence is
false?

a.

All the students are smart.

b. Its always snowing here.

c.

Hes still here.

d. Somebody kissed me.

Not all the students are smart.

All the students are not smart.

Its never snowing here.

Its not always snowing here.

Hes not yet here.

He isnt here anymore.

Nobody kissed me.

Somebody did not kiss me.

[8]

6.

Which of the following statements are true, which ones are false?
a.

It is logically impossible that A entails not-A.

- True

b. A and not-A are always logically contrary. - True

c.

If A is logically true, then not-A is logically false. - False

d. If A entails not-B, then B entails not-A. - False

e.

If A is contingent, then not-A is either logically true or logically false.

- False
[15]

7.

What are meaning relations? How do they differ from logical

relations?
[6]

Answer:
Meaning relations is the meaning of words or sentences which
described explicitly whereas logical relations is the truth conditions
of two sentences which may be related to each other in various
ways.

8.

If A is the hyponym of B, what does this mean for the way in which (a) the
meanings, and (b) the denotations, of A and B are related to each other?

-logic

Answer:

If A is the hyponym of B, B is called a hyperonym of A. In other words. If A is hyponym

of B, then A is a kind of B. Hyponym is a relation between words that result from relation
between their meanings and leads to a relation between their denotations where the
meaning of the hyponym contains the meaning of the hyponym and the denotation of the
hyponym is a subcategory of the denotation of the hyperonym.

[8]

9.

Determine the meaning relations that hold between the following pairs of words; it
may be necessary to distinguish different meaning variants.
a.

top-down, bottom-up

directional opposites

b. chair, wardrobe

heteronyms

c.

directional opposites

d. same, different

converses

e.

turn on, turn off

antonyms

f.

more, less

converses

before, after

[12]

10.

The adjective cool has several antonyms. Try to determine the pairs of opposites and
the meaning cool has in each case.

Answer:
Several antonyms of cool are
i.

Cool/warm - indicating fairly low temperature

ii.

Cool/friendly showing no friendliness or interest in others

[9]

[Q1-5: 50, Q6-10: 50] TOTAL: [100]

BONUS [ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS OF EITHER A OR BFOR EXTRA POINTS!]

A.

a.

Which possible parts of meaning are not captured by

the logical method, and why are they not?

b.

Those
of meaning
do not
contribute
Discussparts
the limits
of thethat
logical
method
for theto the
investigation of descriptive meaning.

c.

Discuss the ways in which the logical method is useful

for the investigation of word meaning.

B.

a.

What is the difference between homonymy and polysemy?

Answer:
Homonymy refers to two or more words which have either same sound (homophones),
have the same spelling (homographs), or both but have unrelated or different
meanings. While polysemy refers to a single word having multiple related meaning.
Polysemy has related word origins and polysemous words can be understood if we
know the meaning of one word. For instance, he drink a glass of milk with He
forgot to milk the cow. The word milk has related meaning although they have a subtle
difference.
Homonym has different origins and the meaning of homonyms cannot be guessed
since the words have unrelated meanings. For example, right vs write and pray vs
prey. Both pair words have different spelling but they share the same pronunciation.

b.

Explain the difference between hyponomy and meronomy.

Answer:
Hyponomy refer to the structure of lexical hierarchies which characterizes as the
most fundamental subordination or superordination in hierarchies. In other words,
hyponym is transitive. Potato is kind of vegetables and vegetable is a kind of plant.
A cheetah is a kind of cat and cheetah is type of animal.
While meronymy is when something is referred to by a smaller part of the whole or
called part-whole relationship between lexical items. For example, as finger is part
of hand

c.

Which special feature distinguishes taxonomies from arbitrary hierarchies

based on hyponymy?

Answer:
The underlying structure of taxonomies is a hierarchy with two or more levels: a
topmost hyperonym like vehicle, a level of general terms such as car, bicycles, boats,
aeroplanes where such systems represent a special type of hierarchies. Subordinates
in taxonomies are not just arbitrary but hyponyms that denote sub-kinds.