English SEMANTICS Your NAME:
QUIZ 1 by Agent K. Your SCORE:
1. Decide if the following statements are true (T) or false (F). (9 pts - 3 pts each)
A. ___ If p = F and q = F, then p → q = F.
B. ___ A synthetically true statement is true because, depending on the facts, it can
be denied or rejected.
C. ___ In English, it’s always the case that adjectives are used for states and verbs
for dynamic situations.
2. Fill in the blanks with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS: (9 pts - 3 pts each)
A. The meanings of sentences cannot be listed in a lexicon like the meanings of
words: they must be created by rules of combination, or specifically, sentence
meaning is __________________________________________.
B. Prototypes refer to the __________________________________________ of a category.
C. Viewing presupposition as a truth relation allows us to capture a difference
between the behavior of presupposition and entailment ________________________.
3. Identify the sense relation of the following pairs of words: (15 pts - 3 pts each)
A. forward - backward ______________
B. right - wrong ______________
C. math - history ______________
D. fish - school ______________
E. bring - take ______________
4. Decide if the following situations are achievement, accomplishment or activity.
Justify your choice in each. (12 pts - 4 pts each: 2 pts for choice + 2 pts for explanation)
A. We delivered a presentation about situation types. ____________________
B. He finally got to the mountain peak. ____________________
C. She walked to school eagerly. ____________________
You can use this space for an extension of your answers.
English SEMANTICS
QUIZ 1 by Agent K.
5. Identify the participant role of the underlined nominals: (15 pts - 3 pts each)
A. People often think that they can study Linguistics well.
B. This quiz might not really captivate you.
6. Decide in each set if the (i) sentence entails or presupposes the (ii) sentence.
Justify your choices. (20 pts - 10 pts each: 5 pts for choice + 5 pts for explanation)
A. (i) Harry sold the phone to Draco. ☐ entailment
(ii) Draco bought the phone from Harry. ☐ presupposition
B. (i) She didn’t realize he loved her. ☐ entailment
(ii) He loved her. ☐ presupposition
7. Using truth tables, decide if (a) and (b) together entail (c). (8 pts)
What is this rule of valid inference called? (2 pts)
(a) If Tom bought this pen, then he liked to write.
(b) He didn’t like to write. ☐ entailment
(c) Tom didn’t buy this pen. ☐ no entailment
8. Analyze the use of modality, mood, aspect, and tense of this sentence. (10 pts)
You could have done this quiz a lot better than this.
You have 50 minutes for this! Good luck! Page 2
