湖北工业大学11级英语专业语言学作业
Test Five: Semantics
[Mainly taken from lxm1000w’s exercises. – icywarmtea]
I. Choose the best answer. (20%)
1. The naming theory is advanced by ________.
A. Plato B. Bloomfield C. Geoffrey Leech D. Firth 2. “We shall know a word by the company it keeps.” This statement represents _______.
A. the conceptualist view B. contexutalism C. the naming theory D. behaviorism 3. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. Sense is concerned with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form. B. Sense is the collection of all the features of the linguistic form. C. Sense is abstract and decontextualized.
D. Sense is the aspect of meaning dictionary compilers are not interested in. 4. “Can I borrow your bike?”_______ “You have a bike.”
A. is synonymous with B. is inconsistent with C. entails D. presupposes
5. ___________ is a way in which the meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning
components, called semantic features. A. Predication analysis B. Componential analysis C. Phonemic analysis D. Grammatical analysis 6. “Alive” and “dead” are ______________.
A. gradable antonyms B. relational antonyms C. complementary antonyms D. None of the above
7. _________ deals with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic
world of experience. A. Reference B. Concept C. Semantics D. Sense
8. ___________ refers to the phenomenon that words having different meanings have the same
form.
A. Polysemy B. Synonymy C. Homonymy D. Hyponymy 9. Words that are close in meaning are called ______________.
A. homonyms B. polysemies C. hyponyms D. synonyms 10. The grammaticality of a sentence is governed by _______.
A. grammatical rules B. selectional restrictions C. semantic rules D. semantic features
II. Decide whether the following statements are true or false. (10%)
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湖北工业大学11级英语专业语言学作业
11. Dialectal synonyms can often be found in different regional dialects such as British English
and American English but cannot be found within the variety itself, for example, within British English or American English.
12. Sense is concerned with the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic
world of experience, while the reference deals with the inherent meaning of the linguistic form.
13. Linguistic forms having the same sense may have different references in different situations. 14. In semantics, meaning of language is considered as the intrinsic and inherent relation to the
physical world of experience.
15. Contextualism is based on the presumption that one can derive meaning from or reduce
meaning to observable contexts.
16. Behaviorists attempted to define the meaning of a language form as the situation in which the
speaker utters it and the response it calls forth in the hearer.
17. The meaning of a sentence is the sum total of the meanings of all its components.
18. Most languages have sets of lexical items similar in meaning but ranked differently according
to their degree of formality.
19. “It is hot.” is a no-place predication because it contains no argument.
20. In grammatical analysis, the sentence is taken to be the basic unit, but in semantic analysis of
a sentence, the basic unit is predication, which is the abstraction of the meaning of a sentence.
III. Fill in the blanks. (20%)
21. __________ can be defined as the study of meaning.
22. The conceptualist view holds that there is no __________ link between a linguistic form and
what it refers to.
23. __________ means what a linguistic form refers to in the real, physical world; it deals with
the relationship between the linguistic element and the non-linguistic world of experience. 24. Words that are close in meaning are called __________.
25. When two words are identical in sound, but different in spelling and meaning, they are called
__________.
26. __________ opposites are pairs of words that exhibit the reversal of a relationship between
the two items.
27. __________ analysis is based upon the belief that the meaning of a word can be divided into
meaning components.
28. Whether a sentence is semantically meaningful is governed by rules called __________
restrictions, which are constraints on what lexical items can go with what others.
29. A(n) __________ is a logical participant in a predication, largely identical with the nominal
element(s) in a sentence.
30. According to the __________ theory of meaning, the words in a lan-guage are taken to be
labels of the objects they stand for.
IV. Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)
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湖北工业大学11级英语专业语言学作业
31. 32. 33. 34. V. 35. 36. VI. 37.
Entailment Proposition
Componential analysis Reference
Answer the following questions. (20%)
What are the sense relations between the following groups of words?
Dogs, cats, pets, parrots; trunk, branches, tree, roots （青岛海洋大学，1999） What are the three kinds of antonymy? （武汉大学，2004） Analyze the following situation. (20%)
For each group of words given below, state what semantic property or properties are shared by the (a) words and the (b) words, and what semantic property or properties distinguish between the classes of (a) words and (b) words. (1) a. bachelor, man, son, paperboy, pope, chief b. bull, rooster, drake, ram
(2) a. table, stone, pencil, cup, house, ship, car b. milk, alcohol, rice, soup
(3) a. book, temple, mountain, road, tractor b. idea, love, charity, sincerity, bravery, fear （青岛海洋大学，1999）
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湖北工业大学11级英语专业语言学作业
Test Six: Pragmatics
I. Choose the best answer. (20%)
1. What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning
_________ is considered. A. reference B. speech act C. practical usage D. context
2. A sentence is a _________ concept, and the meaning of a sentence is often studied in
isolation. A. pragmatic B. grammatical C. mental D. conceptual 3. If we think of a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it
becomes a (n) _________. A. constative B. directive C. utterance D. expressive 4. Which of the following is true?
A. Utterances usually do not take the form of sentences.
B. Some utterances cannot be restored to complete sentences. C. No utterances can take the form of sentences.
D. All utterances can be restored to complete sentences.
5. Speech act theory did not come into being until __________.
A. in the late 50’s of the 20the century B. in the early 1950’s C. in the late 1960’s D. in the early 21st century
6. __________ is the act performed by or resulting from saying something; it is the
consequence of, or the change brought about by the utterance. A. A locutionary act B. An illocutionary act C. A perlocutionary act D. A performative act 7. According to Searle, the illocutionary point of the representative is ______.
A. to get the hearer to do something
B. to commit the speaker to something’s being the case C. to commit the speaker to some future course of action
D. to express the feelings or attitude towards an existing state of affairs
8. All the acts that belong to the same category share the same purpose, but they differ
__________.
A. in their illocutionary acts B. in their intentions expressed C. in their strength or force D. in their effect brought about 9. __________ is advanced by Paul Grice
A. Cooperative Principle B. Politeness Principle C. The General Principle of Universal Grammar D. Adjacency Principle
10. When any of the maxims under the cooperative principle is flouted, _______ might arise. A. impoliteness B. contradictions
C. mutual understanding D. conversational implicatures
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湖北工业大学11级英语专业语言学作业
II. Decide whether the following statements are true or false. (10%)
11. Pragmatics treats the meaning of language as something intrinsic and inherent.
12. It would be impossible to give an adequate description of meaning if the context of language
use was left unconsidered.
13. What essentially distinguishes semantics and pragmatics is whether in the study of meaning
the context of use is considered.
14. The major difference between a sentence and an utterance is that a sentence is not uttered
while an utterance is.
15. The meaning of a sentence is abstract, but context-dependent. 16. The meaning of an utterance is decontexualized, therefore stable. 17. Utterances always take the form of complete sentences
18. Speech act theory was originated with the British philosopher John Searle. 19. Speech act theory started in the late 50’s of the 20th century.
20. Austin made the distinction between a constative and a performative.
III. Fill in the blanks. (20%)
21. The notion of __________ is essential to the pragmatic study of language.
22. If we think of a sentence as what people actually utter in the course of communication, it
becomes an __________.
23. The meaning of a sentence is __________, and decontexualized.
24. __________ were statements that either state or describe, and were thus verifiable.
25. __________ were sentences that did not state a fact or describe a state, and were not
verifiable.
26. A(n) __________ act is the act of uttering words, phrases, clauses. It is the act of conveying
literal meaning by means of syntax, lexicon and phonology.
27. A(n) __________ act is the act of expressing the speaker’s intention; it is the act performed
in saying something.
28. A(n) _________ is commit the speaker himself to some future course of action. 29. A(n) ________ is to express feelings or attitude towards an existing state.
30. There are four maxims under the cooperative principle: the maxim of __________, the
maxim of quality, the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner.
IV. Explain the following terms, using examples. (20%)
31. Conversational implicature 32. Performative 33. Locutionary act 34. Q-principle (Horn)
V. Answer the following questions. (20%)
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