Unit 1:

Semantics - the study of meaning in language

Sentence meaning (or word meaning) is what a sentence or words mean

Speaker meaning - what a speaker means (i.e. intends to convey) when he uses a piece of language

The same sentences are used by different speakers on different occasions to mean (speaker meaning) different
things.

Semantic theory deals with semantic facts, facts about meaning.

E.g. Alive means the opposite of dead.

Unit 2: Sentences, Utterances, & Propositions

1. An utterance (lời phát biểu, lời nói)

- any stretch of talk, by one person, before and after which there is silence on the part of that person.

- the USE of a piece of language by a particular speaker, on a particular occasion

- An utterance is in a particular accent

- Accent and voice belong strictly to the utterance, not to the sentence uttered.

2. A sentence

- An abstractly ideal string of words put together by the grammatical rules of a language.

- expressing a complete thought.

E.g. I would like a cup of coffee.S

Coffee, please. - NS

Please put it in the kitchen.S

In the kitchen - NS

- Not a physical event (not tied to speaker, time or place)

*Utterance : có ngoặc kép “ ..”

Sentence: italicized in nghiêng

• A SENTENCE - a grammatically complete string of words

3.Proposition (Nghĩa mệnh đề)

| A proposition (nghĩa của lời phát biểu)- that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which
describe some state of affairs.

The state of affairs typically involves persons/things referred to by expressions in the sentence and the
situation/action they are involved in. In uttering a declarative sentence a speaker typically asserts a truth.

Rule:

• The notion of truth can be used to decide whether two sentences express different propositions. If one sentence
is true and the other is false (in any circumstances) => they express different propositions.

E.g. John gave Mary a book/Mary was given a book by John->same propositions

John gave Mary a book/ Mary gave John a book-> 2 câu khác nghĩa, different propositions
• When a speaker utters a simple declarative sentence, he asserts the proposition.

•By uttering a simple interrogative/ imperative, a speaker can mention a particular proposition, without asserting
its truth

E.g. 1.‘John can swim.’

2.‘Can John swim?’ ->Have the same propositional content.

Cùng proposition nhưng câu trần thuật số 1 assert truth, câu 2 thì là câu nghi vấn nên không assert truth

4.Exercise: Decide T or F

1. ‘Jane is a genius’ and ‘Is Jane a genius’ have the same proposition?

2. ‘Jane is a genius’ and ‘Jane’s father is a genius’ have the same proposition?

3. ‘Bring me a cup of tea’ and ‘I’m a waiter’ have the same proposition?

4. ‘Hondas are easy to fix’ and ‘It’s easy to fix Honda’ have the same proposition?

5. ‘Helen rolled up the carpet’ and ‘Helen rolled the carpet up’ have the same proposition?

6. ‘Go away’ assert a proposition by the speaker?

7. ‘I am a student’ assert a proposition by the speaker?

5. Which of the following is either sentence (S) or utterance (U)? Type the letter S or U right in front of the
number of each sentence.

8. ___S__“Where are you going, John?” asked his grandmother.

9. ___U__ “Is it ok if I sit here?”

10. ___S__ Please put it in the kitchen.

Unit 3: Reference & Sense

1.Sense (ý nghĩa)

- dealing with relationships inside the language (Nói về mqh về nghĩa bên trong ngôn ngữ)

-Related to semantic meaning (the sameness of meaning)

RULE: Every expression has meaning HAS SENSE, BUT not every expression has reference.

VD: almost (có nghĩa, nhưng không có đối tượng trong thực tế -> no reference)

2.Reference (quy chiếu)

- dealing with relationships between the language & the world

By means of reference, a speaker indicates which things in the world (including persons) are being talked about.

E.g. My husband is in the kitchen. (quy chiếu đối tượng husband và kitchen ngoài đời)

a. 1 expression quy chiếu nhiều đối tượng -> variable reference

VD: My mom. (Mỗi người sẽ quy chiếu 1 người mẹ khác nhau)

b.Normal everyday conversations never refer to different things-> constant/invariable reference

VD: Vietnam, the Sun, tên riêng…(khi nhắc đến, chỉ có 1 đối tượng duy nhất)

Không có Việt Nam thứ 2 trên thế giới->cố định-> constant/invariable reference

c.Same referent (vật quy chiếu)

VD: The Morning star và The evening star đều quy chiếu đến the planet Venus. (nhưng khác nghĩa: Sao Chổi và Sao

3. RELATIONSHIP: SENSE – PROPOSITION

- Both related to meaning

- Sense can be proposition, or not

VD: John has a car: sense = proposition

A red car: has sense, not proposition (because proposition expresses a complete independent thought)

• A word can have more than one sense.

Practices (p. 30)

Does the word bank have the same meaning in the following sentence pairs?

(1) I have an account at the Bank of Scotland (ngân hàng)

We steered the raft (lái bè) to the other bank of the river (bờ)

(2) The DC-10 banked sharply to avoid a crash (chuyển hướng)

I banked the furnace (lò) up with coke (than cốc) last night (chất đống)

4.RELATIONSHIP: REFERENCE – UTTERANCE

- Both are acts performed by particular speakers on particular occasions

- Utterance mỗi người mỗi khác = reference

Vd: 2 người đều nhắc tới “John” sẽ quy chiếu 2 John khác nhau.

Ex: mean, meaning, meant….có khi reference, có khi sense (p.34)

Practice (p. 34)

What is intended by the word mean, meaning, etc. in the following examples, reference (R) or sense (S)?

*R: quy chiếu về cái gì đó

S: thường có từ “mean”, nói về nghĩa

(1) When Helen mentioned ‘the fruit cake’, she meant that rock-hard object in the middle of the table R / S

(2) When Albert talks about ‘his former friend’ he means me R / S

(3) Daddy, what does unique mean? R / S

(4) Purchase has the same meaning as buy R / S

(5) Look up the meaning of apoplexy in your dictionary R / S

(6) If you look out of the window now, you’ll see who I mean R / S

5.Exercise: What is intended by the word mean and meaning in the following sentences, reference (R) or sense
(S)? Type the letter R or S right in front of the number of each sentence.

__S___ 1/ Commence has the same meaning as start.

__S___ 2/ What does the word exertion mean?

___R__ 3/ When I say the little dog with the floppy years, you’ll know which I mean.

Unit 4: Referring expressions

• A referring expression (cách biểu đạt có sở chỉ) - any expression used in an utterance to refer to something or
someone (cụ thể), i.e. used with a particular referent in mind.

E.g. - Tom loves Mary.

- There’s no Tom in Mary’s life.

• The same expression can(not) be a referring expression depending on the context.

Practice:

1. A man was in here looking for you last night. A particular man & a referring expression? YES

2. The first sign of the monsoon (gió mùa) is a cloud on the horizon no bigger than a man’s hand. NO

3. Forty buses have been withdrawn from service by the Liverpool Corporation. YES

4. This engine has the power of forty buses. NO

-A linguistic context gave a vital clue as to whether the indefinite NP was(not) a referring expression but doesn’t
always give a clear indication.

E.g. - Nancy married an American. YES

- Nancy wants to marry an American. NO

- John is looking for a car. NO

- John is looking for a certain car. YES

- I am looking for any parrot (không đề cập cụ thể) that can sing. No

-DEFINITE NP (NAMES, PRONOUNS, THE + N): Most used in referring exp (not all)

VD: He loves Mary.

If anyone marries Mary, he’s in for a bad time. (he ở đây không biết là ai)
VD: The whale over there is a mammal -> R.E

>< The whale is a mammal -> Generic sentence -> not R.E (the+N: chỉ chung cho cả loài)

- OPAQUE CONTEXT:

· Là ngữ cảnh mà khi thêm các quy chiếu cùng 1 đối tượng (same referent) thì có nghĩa khác nhau

VD: John is standing in the corner. -> John và the person in the corner là same referent.

Nhưng khi đặt 2 quy chiếu này vào câu khác (opaque context) sẽ mang nghĩa khá

“John is about to faint” >< “the person in the corner is about to faint”

Vd sgk p.41

-Thường đi kèm Verb: want, believe, think, wonder about, look for ,…hoặc GENERIC SENTENCE

-An equative sentence (câu tương đương)

is one which is used to assert the identity of the referents of two referring expressions, i.e. to assert that two
referring expressions have the same referent. (2 referring expressions đều quy chiếu chung một referent, phải đc
xác định, đổi chỗ được cho nhau mà k đổi nghĩa)

Practice:

1. John is the person in the corner. YES (đổi 2 vế gạch chân nhưng nghĩa không đổi: the person in the corner is John.

2. Henry the Eighth is the current President of the USA. YES

3. Cairo is not the largest city in Africa. NO

4. Cairo is a large city. NO (does not state identity of reference, không thể đổi chỗ cho nhau)

5. Dr Jekyll is Mr Hyde. YES

6. Ted is an idiot. NO (an idiot không phải là referring expression)

Unit 5: PREDICATES

-The PREDICATOR of a simple declarative sentence (câu trần thuật) is the word (sometimes a group of words) which
does not belong to any of the referring expressions and which, of the remainder, makes the most specific
contribution to the meaning of the sentence.

-describes the state or process in which the referring expressions are involved.

Mummy is asleep.

The white man loved the Indian maiden.

Jimmy was waiting for the downtown bus.

PRACTICE: Predicates -referring (arguments)

1. I’m thirsty.

2. My sister is in Los Angeles.

3. The Mayor is a liar.

4. The girl who is standing in front of the school gate is very intelligent.

5. The cultural museum is behind the central hospital.

key
1. I’m thirsty.

2. My sister is in Los Angeles.

3. The Mayor is a liar.

4. The girl who is standing in front of the school gate is very intelligent.

5. The cultural museum is behind the central hospital.

• The predicators in sentences can be of: adjectives, verbs, prepositions, and nouns.

Which of the following can be predicates?

Thirsty, between, genius, or, in front of, not, intelligent, but, proud of, woman, Fred, You

Key:

Thirsty, between, genius, or, in front of, not, intelligent, but, proud of, woman, Fred, You

- PREDICATE: any word which can function as the predicator; 1 câu có 1 predicator nhưng có thể có nhiều predicate;
predicate trong câu này có khả năng trở thành predicator trong câu khác.

>< PREDICATOR (phải ở trong 1 câu)

Ex: A tall, handsome stranger entered the saloon

Predicator: enter

Predicates: tall, handsome, stranger, saloon (can function as predicators in other sentences. E.g: Tom is tall, That
building is a saloon, etc.)

He is tall.

He is handsome.

1. a) The male gorilla at the zoo had a nasty accident yesterday. NO

b) The gorilla at the zoo is a male. YES

DEGREE OF A PREDICATE: is a number indicating the number of arguments (SỐ LƯỢNG ARGUMENTS CẦN PHẢI CÓ)

-One-place predicate: run (She is running)

-Two-place predicate: love (Tom loves Mary), different, identical, similar

-Three-place predicate: give (She gives me all her money), bring, between

NOTES:

-Transitive verb (ngoại động từ) (2-place predicate vì cần có tân ngữ) >< intransitive verb(nội động từ) (thường là
1-place)

-Most nouns are one-place predicates, except “inherently relational” nouns such as father, mother, son,… -> two-
place predicates.

Vd: John is the son of Mary (Argument: John + Mary)

John is an idiot.

Unit 6: Predicates, referring expressions, and universe of discourse

1. Predicating expressions:

There are some phrases, in particular indefinite noun phrases, that can be used in two ways, either as referring
expressions, or as predicating expressions, depending on the context.
e.g:

Is a man a referring expression in the following sentences?

1. John attacked a man. YES

2. John is a man. NO => Predicating expressions

2.A generic sentence (câu khái quát)

is a sentence in which some statement is made about a whole unrestricted class of individuals, as opposed to any
particular individual. (câu phát biểu về toàn bộ chủng loài nào đó, không nhằm nói riêng lẻ một cá nhân nào trong
chủng loài hay nhóm đó.)

The whale is a mammal -> Generic sentence

>< The whale over there is a mammal (not GS)

PRACTICE:

Are the following generic sentences? 3. The male of the species guards the eggs. Yes

1. Gentlemen prefer blondes (cô gái tóc vàng). YES 4. A wasp (ong vò vẽ) makes its nest in a hole in a
tree. Yes
2. Tom is a genius. NO
5. A wasp just stung me on the neck. No

3. REFERRING EXPRESSION:

Any exp can be used to refer to any entity in the real world or in any imaginary world will be called referring
expression.

Vd: eleven hundred -> a particular number

Tomorrow -> a particular time

4.UNIVERSE OF DISCOURSE:

-for any utterance as the particular world, real or imaginary (or part real, part imaginary)

*Any expression that can be used to refer to any entity in the real/imaginary world -> referring expression.

Vd: Santa Clause, God,…

* Expressions like: time, the British anthem, eleven meters…. -> Referring expressions (although they do not
indicate particular objects, but a particular time, a particular song, a particular distance)

Unit 7: Deixis & Definiteness

- Deictic words (chỉ từ): small sets of words whose meanings vary systematically (khác nhau có hệ thống) according
to who uses them, and where and when they are used are called deictic words. (nghĩa không cố định, tùy thuộc vào
người nói, người nghe, thời gian, địa điểm… của lời nói)

- Deixis (Greek word) -> pointing

– A DEICTIC word is one which takes some element of its meaning from the context or situation (i.e. the speaker,
the addressee, the time and the place) of the utterance in which it is used.

- Deictic terms help the hearer to identify the referent of a referring expression through its spatial (không gian) or
temporal (thời gian) relationship with the situation of utterance.

-A few predicates have a deictic ingredient: come, go, bring, take

Come: tới gần người nói

Go: tới chỗ khác (không phải chỗ người nói)

Flexibility + tenses indicating past, present, future

“I will be here tomorrow” Tom said

->Tom said he would be there the next day.

Choose the deictic word: here, Monday, Vietnam, today, you

- REPORTED SPEECH: deictic terms in the original utterance -> other -> preserve the original reference. (Từ nào
chuyển đổi chính là deictic word)

Vd: John “Why wouldn’t you come to London with me yesterday?” (come là John muốn mình đến với John)

* Tenses (thì) cũng là deictic

>John asked me why I wouldn’t go to London with him the day before (go là tôi rời chỗ của tôi đến chỗ John)

A came to B’s house.

B said “Go into the house” -> The house chỉ có một và hai người đều biết nó

- Definiteness: A feature of a NP selected by a speaker to convey his assumption (giả định) that the hearer will be
able to identify the referent of the NP, usually because it is the only thing of its kind in the context of the utterance,
or because it is unique in the universe of discourse.

- Definiteness:

- Proper names

- Personal pronouns

- Phrases introduced by a definite determiner (the, that, this, these, those)

=> All definite NPs are referring expressions. They are necessarily semantically definite.

≠ definite NP in generic sentences. The+N: giống loài

* The definiteness of a ref. exp. gives the hearer a clue in identifying its referent.

Which would be the more appropriate utterance in this situation?

1. Gardener to his wife (b)

2. Gardener to the doctor (a)

a. ‘I’ve just stuck a fork through my foot’

b. ‘I’ve just stuck the fork through my foot’

Unit 8: EXTENTIONS AND PROTOPYES

1. EXTENTIONS:

-The EXTENSION of a one-place predicate is the set of all individuals. It is the set of things which can POTENTIALLY
be referred to by using an expression whose main element is that predicate.

E.g. – The extension of window is the set of all windows in the universe.

- The extension of red is the set of all red things in the universe.

- The context helps the hearer identify a particular member of the extension.

- Refer to things: no longer exist + do not yet exist + existing (all times, past, present, and future).

Vd: I will buy a cat. (refer to potential cats in the future – not yet exist)

-Predicates are tenseless.

-In actual use, predicates are almost always accompanied in sentences by a marker of tense => restricting the
extension of the predicate (e.g. was dead; is dead)

2.PROTOPYES:

-The prototype of a predicate can be thought of as the most typical member of the extension of a predicate.

-In a language community as wide as that of English, there are problems with the idea of prototype, due to cultural
differences between various English –speaking communities.

E.g. - a double decker bus – prototype for predicate bus for a British English speaker

- A skyscraper – building for a New Yorker

3. Ostensive definition: (vật, người cụ thể)

- By pointing (hiện hữu, có thể dạy ng khác bằng cách chỉ vào đồ vật)

- Which of the following can be learned by ostensive definition?

desk love determination ambition

bottle nose red motivation

->motivation không thể dạy bằng cách chỉ vào 1 người được-> k phải ostensive

->chỉ vào cái bàn, ng khác hiểu desk là cái bàn-> ostensive

*WRAP-UP:

• The REFERENT of a R.E is the thing picked out by the use of that expression on a particular occasion of utterance.

• The EXTENSION of a predicate is the complete set of all things which could potentially be the referent of a R.E
whose head constituent is that predicate.

• A PROTOTYPE of a predicate is a typical member

Unit 9: Sense properties & Stereotypes

1.SENSE:

- Sense of an exp is its indispensable hard core of meaning.

- Can be thought of as the sum of its sense properties (analytic,synthetic,contradiction) and sense relations
(synonymy; hyponymy; antonym; homonymy, polysemy)

Trong bài ktr, thi có thể hỏi antonym nằm trong sense properties đúng không?

2.SENSE PROPERTIES:

-An ANALYTIC sentence: TRUE 4. No cat likes to bathe. S

-A SYNTHETIC sentence: either T or F 5. Bachelors are male. A

-A CONTRADICTION sentence: FALSE 6. Bachelors are married. C

1. All cats are animals. A 7. Bachelors are lonely. S

2. Cats are not vegetables. A 8.Helen’s ten-year-old brother is a girl.C

3. Cats never live more than 20 years. S

3. STEREOTYPE: KHÁC PROTOTYPE

-a list of TYPICAL characteristics or features (đặc điểm tiêu biểu của 1 loài/ 1 vật)

Prototype ( 1 con vật tiêu biểu của loài)

VD: prototype của bus ở Anh là double decker bus (phổ biến, tiểu biểu ở Anh-> sang quốc gia khác thì prototype
thay đổi, vd hay dùng nhất là xe buýt 2 tầng ở Anh)

Stereotype của bus: (nếu các đặc điểm): rộng, to, chạy theo chuyến, giá rẻ,..

E.g. -The stereotype of CAT: quadruped (4 chân), domesticated, black / white / grey / tortoiseshell / marmalade /
combination of these colors, adult specimens ~ 50 cm long from nose to tip of tail, furry, sharp retractable claws,….

-Desk: a long flat narrow surface, quadruped, wooden/iron/glass

Unit 10: Sense relations (1)

Identity & similarity of sense

BETWEEN PREDICATES:

1. SYNONYMY:/SYNONYM

• The relationship between two predicates that have the same sense.

E.g. – Fall/ Autumn

PRACTICE:

1. The thief tried to CONCEAL/HIDE the evidence YES

2. These tomatoes are LARGE/ RIPE NO

Note: Not between words because words have many sense

Ex: ripe and mature are synonyms, so “a ripe/mature cheese”, but only “a mature person”, not “a ripe person”

1. How many KIDS/CHILDREN have you got? S

2. He comes to see us every FALL/AUTUMN .S

3. Nothing is more precious to us than our FREEDOM/LIBERTY S

4. We’ve just bought a new HOUSE/APARTMENT .NO

2. HYPONYMY (BAO NGHĨA):

-a sense relation: the meaning of one predicate is included in the meaning of the other

Ex: scarlet(đỏ tươi) is a hyponym of red because the meaning of red includes the meaning of scarlet

-> Red is superordinate term(more general );

scarlet is a hyponym of red(more specific)

-> Superordinate term is more abstract, general, or schematic than hyponyms

Animal – cat, dog, pig, Eger, ….

Flower-tulip, rose,...

- Synonymy can be seen as a special case of hyponymy -> SYNONYMY= SYMETRIC HYPONYMY

-> Rule: If X is hyponym of Y, vice and versa -> X and Y are synonymous

SYNONYMY IS TO PARAPHRASE/ AS HYPONYMY IS TO ENTAILMENT

BETWEEN SENTENCES:

- PARAPHRASE: A sentence that expresses the same proposition as another sentence -> PARAPHRASE of that
sentence

Ex: 1. “Bachelors prefer redhaired girls” is a paraphrase of “Girls with red hair are preferred by unmarried man.”

2.My father owns this car

This car belongs to my father

3.James is the parent of John

John is the parent of James

- ENTAILMENT: X entails Y if the truth of Y follows the truth of X

Công thức (cụ thể entail chung), nếu X đúng suy ra Y đúng thì X entails Y

(nếu là câu phủ định thì ngược lại, xem chi tiết ở dưới)

Ex: John ate all the chocolate entails John ate something (cụ thể entail chung)

1. John cooked an egg entails John boiled an egg . NO cook bao quát hơn boil-> câu đề là chung entail riêng (sai với
công thức)-> câu sai

2. John boiled an egg entails John cooked an egg YES

3. I saw a boy entails I saw a person YES

->TWO SENTENCES ARE SAID TO BE PARAPHRASE OF EACH OTHER IF THEY HAVE THE SAME SET OF ENTAILMENT
(ENTAIL EACH OTHER)

* for A contains X and B contains Y, X is a hyponym of Y -> A entails B (khang dinh, rieng -> chung)

Ex: Henry is chewing a tulip ENTAILS Henry is chewing a flower

X: tulip ; Y: flower ; tulip is a hyponym of flower -> Henry is chewing a tulip entails Henry is chewing a flower

*Two negative sentences A and B, identical except that A contains X and B contains Y, X is a hyponym of Y -> B
entails A

Ex: Henry was not chewing a tulip VS Henry was not chewing a flower

X: tulip ; Y: flower ; tulip is a hyponym of flower -> Henry is not chewing a flower entails Henry is not chewing a
tulip

*HYPONYMY & SYNONYMY are sense relations between predicates.

* ENTAILMENT & PARAPHRASE are sense relations between sentences.

UNIT 11: SENSE RELATIONS: OPPOSITENESS AND DISSIMILARITY OF SENSE AND AMBIGUITY

- TYPES OF ANTONYMS: ANTONYMY: the opposite of meaning

BINARY ANTONYMS: predicates come in pairs, btw them exhaust all the relevant possibilities (if one predicate
entails the negative of the other -> binary) (2 từ đối lập nhau, thường dịch là không A thì B)

Ex: true – false (not true =false or not false = true)

Same – different; dead-alive; awake- asleep; in- out, married-unmarried; deciduous-evergreen

Vd: dead-alive (không chết thì sống)

Same – different (không giống thì khác)

Four-way contrast: man, woman, boy, girl…

CONVERSES: predicate describes a relationship btw 2 things, and the other predicate describes the same
relationship BUT WITH THE OPPOSITE ORDER -> CONVERSES

Ex: parent-child: Ms. Lan is Minh’s parent = Minh is Ms. Lan’s child

Own-belong to; Buy-sell; borrow-lend, husband-wife, lessor-lessee;…

Ex: - the season system: Spring, summer, fall, winter

The physical-state system: liquid, solid, gas

The seven-member system: Mon – Sunday

MULTIPLE INCOMPATIBILITY:
Ex: spring >< summer, table >< chair

GRADABLE ANTONYMS: 2 predicates are opposite ends of a continuous scale of values (ở giữa vẫn có những khả
năng khác xảy ra)

Dau hieu: thêm sau được “very, very much, how” Vd: long – short (long-medium-short)

Ex: tall-short; clever-stupid; good-bad; love-hate;

Không cao thì chưa chắc đã lùn (vì có thể ng đó chiều cao trung bình)

Không giỏi thì chưa chắc đã dốt (vì có thể ng đó có IQ trung bình)

- CONTRADICTORY:

Antonymy is a relationship for predicates, Contradictoriness – sentences

A proposition is a CONTRADICTORY of another proposition if it is impossible for them to be true at the same time.
Or one entails the negation of the other.

Ex: Room 404 is below this one >< Room 404 is above this one

STATEMENT: Given 2 sentences, both identical except for X and Y, X is an antonym of Y -> 2 sentences are
contradictories, BUT NOT ALWAYS

Ex: John owns three male cats VS John owns three female cats

Although male >< female BUT John may have 3 male cats and 3 female ones -> true at the same time

- AMBIGUITY:

AMBIGUOUS: (1 từ có nhiều nghĩa)

+ a word or a sentence is ambiguous when it has more than one sense

+ A sentence is ambiguous if it has two (or more) paraphrases that are not themselves paraphrases of each other

+ A word/phrase is ambiguous when its synonyms are not themselves synonyms of each other.

HOMONYMY (đồng âm dị nghĩa): ambiguous word that have senses that are not related to each other

-Homonymy là một trường hợp của ambiguity, trong đó những nghĩa/sense của cặp từ không có liên quan gì với
nhau.

Ex: ‘Bank’, 1 nghĩa ngân hàng và 1 nghĩa bờ sông thì 2 nghĩa không liên quan gì với nhau nên đây là một trường hợp
homonymy.

POLYSEMY (da nghia): a word has several related senses. (có nghĩa hao hao giống đặc điểm nhau

Ex: Mouth (of a river VS of an animal)- miệng sông và miệng động vật

Tiêu biểu có fork: cái nĩa (có 3 cái chĩa ra) và ngã 3 đường ( cũng có 3 đường chĩa ra 3 hướng

-Một từ hoặc cụm từ ambiguous sẽ có ít nhất 2 synonyms không cùng nghĩa với nhau.

Ex: ‘Coach’ vừa có synonym là ‘Trainer’, cả hai mang nghĩa là huấn luyện viên.

‘Coach’ còn có synonym khác là ‘Bus’, cả hai mang nghĩa là xe khách.

2 từ ‘Trainer’ và ‘Bus’ không cùng nghĩa với nhau song chúng lại là synonym của ‘Coach’ do ‘Coach’ có nhiều nghĩa
khác nhau.

-Hiện tượng một câu bị ambiguous do từ nhiều nghĩa mà ra sẽ được gọi là Lexical Ambiguity.

Ex: We saw a match sẽ bị ambiguous do từ ‘match’ vừa có nghĩa là một trận đấu thể thao vừa có nghĩa là que diêm.
-Hiện tượng một câu không có từ đa nghĩa nào nhưng lại có nhiều cách kết hợp cụm từ với nhau thì được gọi là
Structural Ambiguity (hoặc Grammatical Ambiguity).

Ex: Old men and women là một cụm bị structural ambiguous vì có hai cách kết hợp cụm từ ở đây:

‘Old’ đi chung với mỗi từ ‘men’ ra cụm ‘Old men’ riêng và từ ‘women’ riêng, nghĩa là các ông già và phụ nữ.

‘Old’ đi chung với nguyên cụm ‘men and women’ ra nghĩa các ông bà già.

Ex: Câu We saw the hunters with binoculars có thể hiểu theo hai hướng:

1 là tụi tui nhìn mấy ông thợ săn có ống nhòm, paraphrase lại là We saw the hunters who had binoculars.

2 là tụi tui dùng ống nhòm để nhìn mấy ông thợ săn, paraphrase lại là Using binoculars, we saw the hunters.

Tổng hợp câu Structural or Grammatically Old men and women

ambiguous:
Tổng hợp câu Lexical ambiguous:
The chicken is ready to eat.
Jane is waiting by the bank
Climbing plants can look strange.
They are moving sidewalks
The English history teacher knows a lot
The minister married my sister
She’s selling synthetic buffalo hides
He gave me a punch
The long drill was boring.
The grass was very expensive.
The boy saw the man with a telescope.
PARTICIPANT ROLE
AGENT: người/vật thực hiện hành động

AFFECTED: người/vật bị tác động

INSTRUMENT:vật được dùng để agent thực hiện hđ

LOCATION:địa điểm

BENEFICIARY:ai được lợi (hoặc hại) sau hành động

EXPERIENCE:ng trải nghiệm (thường đi với các giác quan)

THEME: vật /người được trải nghiệm

- ROLE FRAMES:

Vd: John opened the door.

The key opened the door

The door opened.

Role frame: (ARGENT) AFFECTED (INSTRUMENT)

*Recommend các bạn nên practice thêm bài tập trong sách (mk cũng đã soạn 1 số bt trong sách trong các file ôn
tập, ktr

1. Which example below is a case of antonym in this definition?

A gradable antonym is one of a pair of words with opposite meanings where the two meanings lie on a continuous
spectrum.

A. lawyer/client B. legal/illegal

C. car/truck D. friendly/unfriendly (GRADABLE ANTONYMS)

2. Which of the following is an example of polysemy?

A. Yesterday he gave me a ring and I promised to wear it forever. / Yesterday he gave me a ring but I was too busy to
answer it.

B. Tears of gratitude shone in his eyes/ His look tears my heart.

C. Mike gave me a punch on the nose/ Mike gave me a fruit punch.

D. He has served his time in prison / This old bike has served me well.

3. The predicator behind used in the sentence Is that your shoe behind the couch? is an example of:

A. four - place predicate B. two-place predicate

C. three-place predicate D. one-place predicate

4. Which underlined words of the following cases is an example of social deixis?

A. We did ten years ago. B. I met this weird guy yesterday

C. Do you like the White House, Your Majesty! D. Move the table from now!

5. Which of the following cases of deixis is mentioned in the statement below?

This kind of deixis places the perspective of the speaker with respect to the past, the present and the future.

A. spatial B. personal

C. temporal D. social

A.location, B. people, D. relationship

6. Which of the following is NOT a correct statement about sense?

Sense is defined as

A. its relationship to semantically equivalent or semantically related expressions in the same language.

B. its relations to other expressions in the language system.

C. Only words that may be used to refer have sense.

D. All words in a language may have sense, but only some words have reference.

7. What is the sense relation between the two sentences (1) & (2)?

Sentence 1: Mary is the eldest child in a big family, so she's hard-wroking.

Sentence 2: Mary has younger brother and sister.

A. 1 contradicts 2 B. 1 presupposes 2 C. 1 entails 2 D. 1 paraphrases 2

8. Which of the following pairs contradicts each other?

A. The pen is on the table / The table is under the picture

B. Tom is worse than Mary in Maths / Mary is better than Tom in Math.

C. Joe is the only child of Jim / Jim has 2 children.

D. Not many countries have rivers / Some countries have rivers.

9. Which of the following is contradictory?

A. These people should stay in this place – Those people should leave this place.

B. These stripes are vertical – Those stripes are not horizontal.

C. These people come late – Those people come early.

D. These students are hard-working – These students are lazy.

10. The referring expressions the current President of the US in Joe Biden is the current President of the

US is used:

A. as the variable reference

B. as constant reference

C. as the hyponym of President of the US

D. as the superordinate of President of the US.

11. Which of the following sentences doesn’t have the same propositional content as the others?

A. Spinsters prefer bachelors. B. Unmarried women prefer bachelors.

C. Unmarried men ared prefered by spinsters. D. Unmarried women are prefered by bachelors.

12. The sentence “A bee stung me on the neck yesterday” is not a generic sentence because

A. The subject of the sentence does not refer to any particular individual bee in the world

B. The subject of the sentence refers to a particular individual bee in the world

C. The verb of the sentence is used in simple past tense to talk a bout a past definite act

D. answers B and C are correct

13. Which of the following is an example of the statement: “Some sentences which contain no

ambiguous words can be ambiguous.”

A. In big cities, supplying drugs to innocent children is illegal.

B. Only from Monday to Thursday the club will open to members.

C. Flying plane can be dangerous.

D. I don’t like the case in which goods can be stored or moved.

14. In which of the following cases, 1 does not entails 2?

A. 1: Alan lives in Toronto. 2: Alan lives in Canada.

B. 1: Alan lives in Canada. 2: Alan lives in Toronto.

C. 1: Lee kissed Kim passionately.2: Lee kissed Kim.

D. 1: Ben has been murdered. 2: Ben is dead.

15. Which of the following is referentially ambiguous?

A. Pavarotti is a big opera star.

B. Americans make more telephone calls than Canadians.

C. The crane that I bought yesterday was dead.

D. The best actor on the planet is Maryline Monroe.

crane: A machine used in construction or A bird. -> không rõ đang nói về vế nào

16. Hyponymy is defined as

A. relationship between two predicates that have the same sense

B. a sense relation between predicates such that the meaning of one predicate is included in the meaning of the
other

C. any expression used in an utterance to refer to something or someone

D. a word or phrase that has two or more synonyms that are not themselves synonyms of each other

17. Which of the following statements is NOT CORRECT?

A. If a sentence X entails a sentence Y and sentence Y also entails sentence X, then X and Y are paraphrases of each
other.

B. The falsity of a contradiction follows from the sense of the words in this sentence.

C. Given two sentences, identical except that one has a predicate X where the other has a predicate Y, where X is a
hyponym of Y, then the sentence containing X can presuppose the sentence containing Y.

D. A tautology (e.g. women are always women) is an analytic sentence.

18. Which of the following is NOT entailed from the sentence David saw a big mouse?

A. Someone saw a big mouse. B. Someone saw an animal.

C. David saw an animal. D. David saw a big animal.

19. Of what degree is the predicate put in “They put their flag on the moon”?

A. three B. four C. two D. one

20. What sense relation is there between sentence 1 and sentence 2?

Sentence 1. Giraffes like Acacia leaves and hay and they can consume 75 pounds of food a day.

Sentence 2. A giraffe can eat up to 75 pounds of Acacia leaves and hay every day.

A. S1 contradicts S2 B. S2 entails S1 C. S2 paraphrases S1 D. S1 presupposes S2

21. Which word or phrase in the sentence “The fat girl stabbed the man with the sharp knife” is most likely to cause
ambiguity?

A. the man B. observed

C. the fat girl D. with the sharp knife

22. Which of the following is lexically ambiguous?

A. Credit cards are useful because consumers do not have to carry large amounts of money.

B. Semantics is a branch of linguistics.

C. My sister saw an old bat.

D. I invited the person with the microphone.

23. Which of the following most appropriately DOES NOT describe the reference?

A. Reference is the relationship between utterances and the world.

B. Reference is the relationship between certain uttered expressions and things in the world.

C. Reference is the relationship between certain uttered expressions and certain things in a particular

context of the utterance.

D. Reference is the relationship between the sense properties of a predicate.

24. Which one of the following pairs of predicates is multiple incompatible antonyms?

A. the earth – the moon B. borrow – lend C. lawyer – client D. male – female

25. What is the sense relation between the two sentences: Kim is Olga’s aunt and

Kim’s is Olga’s niece?

A. Paraphrase B. Entailment C. Presupposition D. Contradictory

26. Which one of the following sentences is NOT likely to be ambiguous?

A. Did you see the film last weekend?

B. Did you enjoy it?

C. Did you see the latest superhero film at the cinema during the weekend of the 4/5th July?

D. Did you feel satisfied with the canteen?

27. “Tom is a bachelor” is an example of

A. simplicity B. syntheticity C. analyticity D. contradiction

28.The sentence Fred said that he would pay me on Friday is

a. lexically ambiguous

b. structurally ambiguous

c. an analytic sentence

d. all of the above

29. The predicates beautiful and ugly are gradable anonyms because

a. they describes the same relationship when mentioned in the opposite order

b. between them exhaust all the relevant possibilities

c. both of them belong to the open-ended English achievement system

d. these two predicates are at opposite ends of a continuous scale of values

30.Which of the following expressions of the sentence Osama bin Laden is hiding in Afghanistan is the constant
reference?

a. Osama bin Laden

b. Afghanistan
c. hide

d. a and b

1. What is intended by the word mean and meaning in the following sentences, reference (R) or sense (S)? Type
the letter R or S right in front of the number of each sentence.

_____ 1/ Commence has the same meaning as start.

_____ 2/ What does the word exertion mean?

_____ 3/ When I say the little dog with the floppy years, you’ll know which I mean.

2. In which of the following sentences does the definite article the signal definiteness?

Type the letter Y or N right in front of the number of each sentence.

_____ 1/ My younger sister usually plays the piano every evening.

_____ 2/ The woman living next door to me is very witty.

_____ 3/ The dog is said to be a faithful animal.

3. Which of the following is a GENERIC sentence? Type the letter Y or N right in front of the number of each
sentence.

_____ 1/ The bird is the egg-laying animal.

_____ 2/ ABBA is my favorite band.

_____ 3/ Vinh is the largest and densely populated city in Central Vietnam.

4. Which of the following is an EQUATIVE sentence? Type the letter Y or N right in front of the number of each
sentence.

_____ 1/ My uncle is holidaying in Italy.

_____ 2/ Canberra is the capital of Australia.

_____ 3/ Mr. Bao is our teacher of Grammar and Semantics.

5. Which of the following is either sentence (S) or utterance (U)? Type the letter S or U right in front of the
number of each sentence.

_____ 1/ “Where are you going, John?” asked his grandmother.

_____ 2/ “Is it ok if I sit here?”

_____ 3/ Please put it in the kitchen.

6. Which sentence is Analytic (A), Synthetic (S) or Contradictory (C)? Type the letter A, S or C right in front of the
number of each sentence.

_____ 1/ The shark is the most dangerous fish in the ocean.

_____ 2/ All misers waste money.

_____ 3/ The triangle is three-sided.

_____4/ Their car suddenly broke down. That was why they came to the meeting on time.

_____ 5/ Every female dog is a bitch.

7. Indicate the predicators and arguments in the following sentences. Write them in the blank lines provided.

1. My father is reading a newspaper.

2. The students put the books on the shelf.

8. Identify the participant roles of each of the underlined noun phrases in the sentences below. Write them in the
blank lines below the sentence.

1. The terrorists sent the letter bombs to the President.

..................................................................................

2. The plumber used a modern tool to repair the water tubes in the house.

..................................................................................

3. The delegate left Hanoi for Ho Chi Minh city.

..................................................................................

Tổng hợp câu Structural or Grammatically Old men and women

ambiguous:
Tổng hợp câu Lexical ambiguous:
The chicken is ready to eat.
Jane is waiting by the bank
Climbing plants can look strange.
They are moving sidewalks
The English history teacher knows a lot
The minister married my sister
She’s selling synthetic buffalo hides
He gave me a punch
The long drill was boring.
The grass was very expensive.
The boy saw the man with a telescope.
*này đã có trong file lý thuyết, remind thui

1. The word drive is an example of polysemy because

a. drive (of a car) and drive (of a nail) are identical in spelling

b. its two senses (drive a nail) and (drive a car) both contain the concept of cause sth. to move

c. drive (of a car) and drive (of a nail) are identical in pronunciation

d. none of the above

1. Which of the following is analytic?

a. The pentagon is six- sided

b. Young Juan’s pet is not a mammal.

c. A triangle is three-sided figure

d. My snake is not reptile

2. Which of the following is the case of analytic sentence?

a. Superman is not Clark Kent

b. Superman is Clark Kent

c. Clark Kent is not Superman

d. Superman is Superman

1. Which of the following mentions DOES NOT a connection of language to the world?
a. extension

b. sense

c. reference

d. all of the above

1. Which of the following DOES NOT HAVE the correct entailment?

a. Bill didn’t see a flower entails Bill didn’t see a rose.

b. Bill didn’t see a person entails Bill didn’t see a boy.

c. Bill didn’t see a boy entails Bill saw a person.

d. Bill didn’t see a rectangular entails Bill didn’t see a square.

2. Which of the following involves different possible things that the same expression may refer to?

a. sense

b. variable reference

c. constant reference

d. no reference

3. Which of the following HAVE the correct entailment?

a. Bill saw a flower entails Bill saw a rose.

b. Bill didn’t see a rose entails Bill didn’t see a flower.

c. Bill didn’t see a rose entails Bill saw a sunflower.

d. Bill saw all flowers entails Bill saw a rose.

4. Which of the following is the contradiction sentence?

a. That bachelor is an innocent man.

b. That bachelor is not human being.

c. That bachelor is never married.

d. That bachelor is male.

5. Which of the following expressions of the sentence The present Prime Minister of Viet Nam is Nguyen
Tan Dung has constant reference?

a. Nguyen Tan Dung

b. Viet Nam

c. the present Prime Minister

d. a and b

6. Which of the following is NOT independent of circumstance or particular occasions or topic of

conversation?

a. sense

b. variable reference
c. constant reference

d. extension

7. Which of the following utterances would be the most inappropriate?

a. Please get me a cup of coffee.

b. Please bring me a cup of coffee.

c. Please take a cup of coffee.

d. Please go to me with a cup of coffee.

8. Which of the underlined expressions in the sentence “Barrack Obama is the elected president of the United
States of America” are referring expressions?

a. Barrack Obama

b. the elected president of the United States of America

c. is

d. a&b

9. Which of the following is an example of the statement?

Some sentences which do not contain ambiguous words can be ambiguous

a. Yesterday a 14th century chair was bought by a dealer with a beautifully carved wooden leg.

b. He gave her a gold ring yesterday.

c. He is really so kind to me.

d. I sawed a rotten branch of the ash tree in my garden.

10. Which of the following pairs are NOT gradable antonyms?

a. beautiful - ugly

b. far - near

c. deep - shallow

d. parent – off-spring

11. The predicate afraid used in the sentence John was afraid of this spider is

a. one-place predicate

b. two place-predicate

c. three-place predicate

d. none of the above

12. Which of the following can be true or false?

a. sentence

b. utterance

c. proposition
d. all of the above

13. Which of the following is NOT a generic sentence?

a. A bear never eats the dead body.

b. A bear is the animal that typically hibernates during winter.

c. A bear sleeps almost during a winter.

d. A bear is sucking honey from the bee nest.

14. Which of the following is an example of the statement:

Some sentences which contain ambiguous words are ambiguous

a. The chicken is ready to eat.

b. You’re so kind to me.

c. The cranes were transported by the ship.

d. Fred said that he would pay me on Thursday.

15. The expression one of the greatest playwrights in English Literature in the sentence William
Shakespeare is considered one of the greatest playwrights in English Literature is

a. constant reference

b. a referring expression

c. never refers to different things or person

d. a&b

16. Which of the following pairs are hyponym - superordinate?

a. daisy - sun flower

b. loyal – virtue

c. give - take

d. steal – borrow

17.Which of the following pairs are paraphrases?

a. Tom loaned money from ABC Bank. ABC Bank loaned money to Tom.

b. John and Mary are twins. Mary and Tom are twins.

c. Room 101 is above this room. Room 101 is below this room.

d. Bill killed Tom. Tom died.

18. Which of the following is the synthetic sentence?

a. Bachelors are male.

b. Bachelors are not reptiles.

c. Bachelors are not human being.

d. Bachelors are lonely.

19. Which of the following pairs are NOT gradable antonyms?

a. worse than – better than

b. hot – cold

c. ugly – beautiful

d. near – far

20. Which of the following underlined is an example of referring expression?

a. Mother to child: If you don’t behave properly, I’ll report this to your nanny, boy.

b. Mother to child: This dog will not bite you, son.

c. Mother to child: The air – goddess will come in your dream.

d. Mother to child: Don’t touch that barking dog because he may bite you.

21. Which of the following is the case of polysemy?

a. fast (quickly) and fast (not eat)

b. punch (hit with a fist) and punch (a kind of strong alcoholic drink)

c. head (body part) and head (hit with the head)

d. ball (round object) and ball (dance)

22. The underlined in “Please open the door” is:

a. deixis

b. constant reference

c. predicator

d. variable reference

23. The pair unmarried and married are binary antonyms because

a. both of them can combine with very

b. between them exhaust all the relevant possibilities

c. both of them can be used in comparison construction

d. all of the above mentioned

24. Which of the following refer to the thing or person being talked about in the context of the utterance?

a. variable reference

b. extension

c. sense

d. none of the above

25. Which of the following is incorrect?

a. Analyticity is a sense property of a predicate

b. Contradiction is a sentence which is always false

c. Syntheticity is a sense property of an individual sentence.

d. Analyticity is a sentence which is always true

26. Which of the following pairs of expressions binary?

a. borrow - lend

b. give - take

c. conceal - reveal

d. evergreen - deciduous

27. Which of the following is the case of homonymy?

a. row (line) and row (argument)

b. fork (of a road) and fork (a tool)

c. branch (of science) and branch (of a tree)

d. neck (body part) and neck (of a bottle)

28. Which of the underlined is the argument of a simple sentence?

a. This dog will not bite you, son.

b. This dog will not bite you, son.

c. This dog will not bite you, son.

d. This dog will not bite you, son.

4.Exercise: Decide T or F

1. ‘Jane is a genius’ and ‘Is Jane a genius’ have the same proposition?

2. ‘Jane is a genius’ and ‘Jane’s father is a genius’ have the same proposition?

3. ‘Bring me a cup of tea’ and ‘I’m a waiter’ have the same proposition?

4. ‘Hondas are easy to fix’ and ‘It’s easy to fix Honda’ have the same proposition?

5. ‘Helen rolled up the carpet’ and ‘Helen rolled the carpet up’ have the same proposition?

6. ‘Go away’ assert a proposition by the speaker?

7. ‘I am a student’ assert a proposition by the speaker?

PRACTICE: Predicates -referring (arguments)

1. I’m thirsty.

2. My sister is in Los Angeles.

3. The Mayor is a liar.

4. The girl who is standing in front of the school gate is very intelligent.

5. The cultural museum is behind the central hospital.

Are the following generic sentences?

1. Gentlemen prefer blondes (cô gái tóc vàng).

2. Tom is a genius.

3. The male of the species guards the eggs.

4. A wasp (ong vò vẽ) makes its nest in a hole in a tree.

5. A wasp just stung me on the neck.

Is “desk” ostensive ?

-An ANALYTIC sentence:

-A SYNTHETIC sentence:

-A CONTRADICTION sentence:

1. All cats are animals. 5. Bachelors are male.

2. Cats are not vegetables. 6. Bachelors are married.

3. Cats never live more than 20 years. 7. Bachelors are lonely.

4. No cat likes to bathe. 8.Helen’s ten-year-old brother is a girl.

REVISION TEST (1) 1718

I. Decide if the following statements are TRUE (T) or FALSE (F)

1. Semantics is a branch of linguistics dealing with the forms of words.

2. Speaker meaning is sometimes distinct from linguistic meaning.

3. Many different referring expressions may be used to enable the listener to identify the same referent.

4. Reference, extension and prototype all focus on the relationship inside the language.

5. Homophones are words which have the same sound form but which have different meanings and written forms.

6. Sometimes synonyms can have either positive or negative connotations.

7. THEIR and THERE are homographs.

8. The same sentence can be realized by different utterances.

9. A sentence which expresses the proposition as another sentence is an entailment of that sentence.

10. The semantic structure of a simple declarative sentence reveals two major roles: subject and predicate.

11. Polysemy takes place when a word has many unrelated meanings.

12. The predicate "give" is a two-place predicate.

13. The sense relation found in SPRING/SUMMER/AUTUMN/WINTER is multiple incompatabilities.

14. Hyponymy is a sense relation between predicates in which the meaning of one predicate is included in the
meaning of the other. For example, the meaning of FISH include the meaning of SALMON and SARDINE.

15. A stereotype of a predicate is a typical member of its extension.

16. An analytic sentence is one which may be either true or false depending on the way the world is.

17. There are some phrases, in particular indefinite noun phrases, which can be used in two ways, either as
referring expressions, or as predicating expressions.
18. If a referring expression is a deictic term, it helps to identify the referent through its spacial, temporal
relationship with the situation of utterance.

19. The two sentences (a) A cat is chasing a rat and (b) A rat is being chased by a cat have different propositions.

20. The affected participant is the person deliberately carrying out the action described.

II. Choose the correct answer A, B, C, or D to each question.

1. Which of the following is not about sentence (or word) meaning?

A. It is what a speaker means when he or she uses a piece of language.

B. It is what a sentence or a word means.

C. It is what it counts as the equivalent of in the language concerned.

D. It is the answer to the question "What does X mean?"

2. ………..is any expression used in an utterance to refer to something or someone, i.e., used with a particular
referent in mind.

A. The predicator of a simple declarative sentence.

B. A referring expression

C. A synonym

D. The extension of a predicate

3. Donald Trump and The President of the USA in 2017 refer to the same………...

A. sense

B. referent

C. proposition

D. idea

4. The two sentences (a) The weather is fine and (b) Is the weather fine? are said..

A. to have the same proposition

B. to be contradictory

C. to be paraphrases of each other

D. to entail each other

5. "Jill" in the sentence Jill liked the present plays the role of...

A. affected

B. agent

C. experiencer

D. beneficiary

6. The word BANK (the edge of a river) and BANK (a finacial institution) are.

A. homonyms

B. antonyms

C. synonyms
D. homographs

7. DEAD and ALIVE are………...

A. gradable antonyms

B. relational antonyms

C. scalar

D. complementary antonyms

8. Propositions………….

A. can be true or false

B. can be grammatical or not

C. can be in a particular regional accent

D. can be in a particular language.

9. Bachelors are married men is an example of..

A. analytic

B. synthetic

C. contradictory

D. expressive

10. In which of the following sentences does the predicate "gift" function as a predicator?

A. John gave Mary a gift

B. This watch is a gift

C. The gift is precious

D. Mary liked his generous gift.

III. Identify the thematic roles (participant roles) of each of the underlined noun phrases in the sentences below:

1. Mary put the new book on the shelf.

2. Charles built Emily a bookcase.

3. We removed the stones from the stove.

4. The climbers finally reached the summit of the mountain.

5. Mary cut the cake with a knife.

IV. Disambiguate the following ambiguous sentences by giving each one two paraphrases which are not paraphrases
of each other.

1. The boy looked at the dog with one eye.

2. He fed her cat food.

3. The burglar watched the millionnaire walk upstairs through the keyhole of the mansion door.

4. My friend and I are getting married this summer.

5. Visiting relatives can be boring.

REVISION TEST (2) 1819

I. Decide if the following statements are TRUE (T) or FALSE (F)

1. The sense of an expression is its place in a system of semantic relationships with other expressions in the
language.

2. Every expression that has meaning has sense, and also has reference.

3. Uttering is an act performed by particular speakers on particular occasions.

4. A referring expression is any expression used in an utterance to refer to something or someone.

• I.e, used with a particular referent in mind.

5. Mary. a car. and between could be used as referring expressions.

6. Auckland is a large city is an equative sentence.

7. In The gorilla at the zoo is a male, the predicate male functions as a predicator.

8. give is a three-place predicate.

9. The prototype of a predicate is a list of the typical characteristics or features of things to which the predicate may
be applied.

10. Cultural differences result from different prototypes.

11. Synonymy is to hyponymy as entailment is to paraphrase.

• 12. The Sun. the earth. the Evening Star have constant reference.

* 13. A double-decker bus could be a prototype for the predicate bus for a British-English speaker.

14. flower is the superordinate term of tulip, rose, carrot, sunflower, cucumber, cherry.

15. Antonymy is not restricted to just one part of speech.

II. Choose the correct answer A, B, C, or D to each question.

• 1. A(n)...is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which

describes some state of affairs.

A. utterance

B. sentence

C. proposition

D. argument

• 2. Which is NOT true about sentence?

A. Sentences can be true or false.

B. Sentences can be grammatical or not.

C. Sentences are in a particular language.

D. Sentences are in a particular regional accent.

3. Which of the following could NOT be used as a referring expression?

A. my teacher

B. travel
C. Donald Trump

D. a dog

4. Which of the following is NOT an equative sentence?

A. The Beatles is my favorite band

B. The male of the species guards the eggs.

C. The person in the corner is my English teacher.

D. Angela Merkel is the current Prime Minister of Germany.

5. Which of the following is a two-place predicate?

A. pretty

B. kick

C. female

D. between

6. How many referring expressions are there in the sentence A wasp makes its nest in a hole in a tree?

A.none

B. one

C. three

D. four

7. In which of the following utterances is the proposition asserted by the speaker?

A. "Please keep your room tidy and clean."

B. "Have you ever met with a celebrity?"

C. "How about going to the movies this weekend?"

D. "My literature teacher has finished writing a novel."

8. In which of the following does the definite article the signal definiteness?

A. She taught herself to play the piano.

B. The house next to mine is very beautiful.

C. My father likes listening to the radio.

D. The average American family watches TV after dinner.

9. Which of the following connect(s) language to the world?

A.sense

B.extension

C.reference

D.B&C

10. Which of the following sentences is an analytic sentence?

A. Mary's kitten is so cute.

B. Alice's five-year-old daughter is a girl.

C. Tom's wife is an English history teacher.

D. University students are afraid of exams.

11. Which of the following is a contradictory?

A. Our uncle is going to buy a new house.

B. George Washington was the first president.

C. My unmarried brother is married to a spinster.

D. Newly-married couples go on honeymoon the day after the wedding.

12. Which of the following pairs of words are converses?

A. parents/offspring

B. awake/asleep

C. South/North

D. love/ hate

13. Which of the following pairs of words are binary antonyms?

A table/chair

B. honest/dishonest

C. interviewer/interviewee

D. high/low

14. fork (a place where a road divides into two parts vs. an instrument for eating) is a case of....

A. polysemy

B. hyponymy

C. synonymy

D. antonymy

15. The two sentences (a) Tom can swim and (b) Can Tom swim? are said

A. to have the same proposition

B. to be paraphrases of each other

C. to be contradictories

D. to entail each other

III. Indicate the predicators and arguments in the following sentences:

1. The soup was boiling.

2. Mary watered the flowers.

3. Alice is doing her homework.

4. My brother is a chef.

5. Helen put the book on the table.

IV. Identify the participant roles of each of the underlined noun phrases in the sentences below

1. Andrea sent the package to her mother.

2. Jane sliced the sausage with a knife.

3. The window was broken by Charlie.

4. Mary smelled the burning cake from the oven.

5. We saw our former teacher in Paris.

Test 1

1. Which of the following is an example of synonymy?

A.give & receive B.lend & borrow C.kids & children D.flower & tulip

2. Which of the following is an example of polysemy?

A.port (seaport & port wine)

B.kind (nice & type)

C.fork (in a road vs. instrument for eating)

D.steer (to guide vs. young bull)

3. Which of the following is an example of homonymy?

A. mouth (of a river vs. of an animal)

B.fork (in a road vs. instrument for eating)

C.tail (of a coat & of an animal)

D.bank (financial institution vs. the side of a river)

4. Which of the following is an example of hyponymy?

A.lend & borrow B.animal & flower C.deep & profound D.meal & lunch

5. Which of the following pairs are binary antonyms?

A.brass & plastic B.greater than & less than C.love & hate D.awake & asleep

6. Which of the following pairs are converses?

A.breakfast & dinner B.parent & child C.tall & short D.dead & alive

7. Which of the following is synthetic?

A.Bachelors are unmarried men.

B.Cats are animals.

C.Sam's wife is married.

D.The library is modern.

8. Which of the following is analytic?

A.Cats are animals.

B.That girl is her own mother's son.

C.Allen is Mary's brother.

D.My son is twenty years old.

9. 'a key' in 'Daisy opened the door with a key' is a/an/the……..

A.agent B.affected C.theme D.instrument

10. Which sentence is contradictory?

A.Dogs never live more than 20 years.

B. Cats are not animals.

C. Bachelors are male.

D. Birds are not vegetables.

11. Which pair of sentences are paraphrases of each other?

A.No one has led a perfect life. Someone has led a perfect life.

B.We’ve just bought a dog. We’ve just bought something.

C.The house was concealed by the trees. The house was hidden by the trees.

D.I ran into the house. I went into the house.

12. Which of the following has the correct entailment? ( means “entails”)

A. John saw a big mouse. John saw a big animal.

B. Henry chewed up all my tulips Henry chewed up all my flowers.

C. All Rachel’s birds died. All Rachel’s pets died.

D. I saw a boy. I saw a person.

13. Which of the following has the correct entailment? ( means “entails”)

A. David took a pound of apples. David stole a pound of apples.

B. John didn’t get savaged by a horse. John didn’t get savaged by an animal.

C. That was an expensive sandwich. That was an expensive meal.

D. We traveled on a small bus. We traveled on a small vehicle.

14. Which CAPITALIZED pair of words has the same sense?

A.These tomatoes are LARGE/RIPE.

B.You have my PROFOUND/DEEP sympathy.

C.We’ve just bought a new HOUSE/APARTMENT.

D.Tom got a bullet wound in his HEAD/ARM.

15. Which is the ambiguous sentence?

A. Cairo is a large city. B. John is the person in the corner.

C. Fast cars and motorcycles are dangerous. D. John’s car is red.

16. Which of the following are NOT deictic words?

A. now, there, then B. I, you, we

C. dogs, cats, fish D. this, that, these

 17. Which sentence is synthetic?

A.My clock is a device for telling the time.

B.Tom’s wife is married.

C.The boy is his own father’s son.

D. Some typewriters are expensive.

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18. Where is the speaker? (imagine normal circumstances for the following utterance )

“Please don’t bring food into the computer room.”

A. In the computer room. B. Not in the computer room

C. Don’t know D. B and C

19. In which of the following examples, “a man” is a referring expression?

A.The person who was killed by the road was not a man.

B.Mary is not a man’s name.

C.The first sign of the monsoon is a cloud on the horizon no bigger than a man’s hand.

D.A man was in here looking for you yesterday morning.

20. Which of the following words normally has “constant reference”?

A. The Sun B. The school-yard

C. My bicycle D. The weekly newspaper

21. What is the semantic role of the underlined expression of the sentence?

Dane is proud of his family.

A. predicators B. referents C. predicates D. arguments

22. Which of the following underlined expressions is the referring expression? (imagine normal circumstances for
the following utterances )

A. Alice married a Norwegian

B. Mary wants to marry a Norwegian.

C. John is looking for a car.

D. Dick believes that a man with a limp killed Bo Peep.

23. Which of the following sentences indicating that the speaker is NOT in the hospital?

A. Please bring my son to the hospital for me.

B. Please come to the hospital with my son.

C. Please go to the hospital with me

D. Please take me away from the hospital.

24. The sentence Siblings are not relatives is?

A. analytic B. contradictory C. synthetic D. none of them

25. Which of the following can be in a particular regional accent?

A.Sentences B.Utterances C.Propositions D.Extension

26. Which of the following is dependent on a particular context?

A. sense B. intension C. extension D. reference

27. Which of the following involves a set of things?

A.sense B. prototype

C. reference D. extension

28. Which of the following can be in a particular regional accent?

A. sentence B. utterance

C. proposition D. A and C

29. Which of the following pairs are hyponym – superordinate?

A. daisy – flower B. son – father

C. give – take D. kill – cause to die

30. 'her boyfriend' in 'Hoa knitted her boyfriend a scarf.' is a/an/the……..

A.agent B.affected C.beneficiary D.exeperiencer

Choose True or False

1.A speaker's knowledge of the sense of a predicate provides him with an idea of its extension. T

2. A sentence is tied to a particular time and place; an utterance is not.

3. If two expressions have the same referent, they always have the same sense.

4. Every noun phrase beginning with the definite article 'the' is necessarily semantically definite.

5. The predicates 'above - below' are converses.

6. Analyticity is a sense property of sentences.

7. A 'double-decker' could be a prototype for the predicate 'bus' for the Vietnamese.

8. The stereotype of 'cat' would include some characteristics: quadruped, domesticated, either black or white in
colour, etc.

9. Reference is independent of any particular occasion of utterance.

10. 'pretty', 'drink', 'woman', 'if' and 'about' are all predicates.

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11.“We saw your son over here” has 2 deictic words.

12.Synonym is a relation between predicates, not between words.

13.“Once a month” is an utterance.

14.“Once a month” is a sentence.

15.Role of “student” in “the teacher gave students extra homework thì students” is affected.

16.“The old man and woman are sitting on the bench” is ambiguous.
17.“Mark fixed the chair with a hammer.” The role of hammer is agent.

18.“i gave that book to her yesterday “has 2 deictic words.

19.When Helen mentioned ‘the fruit cake’, she meant that rock-hard object in the middle of the table is sense.

20.“The” in sentence “I go to the store to buy food” helps define definiteness.

Test 2

1. Which word or phrase in the sentence I bought an old French dictionary is most likely to cause ambiguity?

A. bought B. I C. dictionary D. old French

2. The word earth is an example of polysemy because:

A. Its two senses (of our planet and of soil) both contain the concept of land.

B. Earth (of our planet) and earth (of soil) are identical in pronunciation.

C. Earth (of our planet) and earth (of soil) are identical in spelling.

D. None of the above.

3. Which of the following can involve a set?

A.Sense B.Reference C.Extension D.Prototype

4. Which of the following could be used as referring expressions?

A.Mai, a house, the Moon B.smart, handsome, awake

C.upon, when, or D.run, make, dance

5. In which of the following does the definite article 'the' signal definiteness?

A. The playground next to my primary school is big.

B.The whale is a mammal.

C.The male of the species guards the eggs.

D.The rose is a flower.

6. Which of the following cannot be used as a referring expression?

A. the B. love C. ugly D. all of the above

7. Of what degree is the predicate between in the following sentence?

Dundee is between Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

A. one-place predicate B. two-place predicate

C. three-place predicate D. none of the above

8. Which word or phrase in the sentence Mary took her parakeet to a small animal hospital causes ambiguity?

A. Mary B took.

C. her parakeet D. small animal

9. Which of the following pairs has the same set of entailments?

A. John and Mary love each other.

Mary and John love each other.

B. Visiting relatives can be boring.

It can be boring to visit relatives.

C. Bill killed Tom.

Tom died

D. Tony loves Anne. Anne loves Tony.

10. Which of the following is the contradiction?

A. Bachelors are male.

B. Bachelors are not reptiles.

C. Bachelors are not human being.

D. Bachelors are lonely.

11. Which of the following sentences is equative?

A.Daisy is my best friend's niece.

B.Wellington is a large city.

C.The woman in the corner is not Helen's aunt.

D.My parents are holidaying in Ha Long.

12. Which of the following is NOT a generic sentence?

A. The bear never eats the dead body.

B. The bear is the animal that typically hibernates during winter.

C. The bear in that cage can’t swim.

D. The bear likes honey of the bee.

13. Where is the speaker? (imagine normal circumstances for the following utterance )

“Could you take this novel into the bedroom for me?”

A. Don’t know B. In the bedroom

C. Not in the bedroom D. A and C

14. What is the degree of the verbal predicate “gave” in the sentence?

Herod gave Salome a nice present.

A. 1 B. 2 C. 3 D. 4

15. Which of the following examples is NOT a generic sentence?

A.The whale is a mammal.

B.That whale over there is not a mammal.

C.Gentlemen prefer blondes.

D.A wasp makes its nest in a hole in a tree.

16. Which pair is a gradable antonym?

 A. top - bottom B. dead - alive

C. chalk - cheese D. beautiful - ugly

1 7. Which pair is a binary antonym?

A. copper - tin B. same - different

C. love - hate D. below - above

18. Which sentence is analytic?

A.Mary’s sister is eighteen years old.

B.Mary’s eighteen- year- old sister is a girl.

C.Tony’s wife is not British.

D.My clock is fast.

19. Which pair of expression is a converse?

A. mother - child B. love - hate

C. conceal - reveal D. spring - summer

20. Which of the following sentences is generic?

A.Americans like to eat apple pies.

B.The whales at Seaworld entertain visitors.

C.A wasp just stung me on the neck.

D.Tom is a liar.

21. Which of the following expressions in the sentence The restaurant is opposite the hotel is the predicator?

A.The restaurant

B.opposite

C.be

D.the hotel

22. How many referring expressions are there in the utterance: 'These novels were written by a well-known
author'?

A.one

B.two

C.three

D.four

23. Which of the following is not a predicate?

A.hate

B.building

C.and

D.between
Tài liệu do ThuMinh soạn

24. Which of the following is an example of antonymy?

A.season & spring

B.Monday & Sunday

C.deep & profound

D.cook & fry

25. Which of the following sentences is generic?

A.Americans like to eat apple pies.

B.The whales at Seaworld entertain visitors.

C.A wasp just stung me on the neck.

D.Tom is a liar.

26. Which of the following expressions in the sentence The restaurant is opposite the hotel is the predicator?

A.The restaurant

B.opposite

C.be

D.the hotel

27. How many referring expressions are there in the utterance: 'These novels were written by a well-known
author'?

A.one

B.two

C.three

D.four

28. Which of the following is not a predicate?

A.hate

B.building

C.and

D.between

29. Which of the following is an example of antonymy?

A.season & spring

B.Monday & Sunday

C.deep & profound

D.cook & fry

30.ruler (an object to measure length vs a leader) is an example of.....

A.polysemy B.antonym C.synonym D.hyponymy .

31."Ring" (a piece of jewelry vs a sound made by a phone) is an example of:

A.polysemy B.antonym C.synonym D.homonymy .

Choose True or false:

1. In 'Jack is a doctor', the predicate 'doctor' functions as a predicator.

2. 'put' could be called a three-place predicate.

3. There are three deictic terms in “I'm going to see her tomorrow.”

4. 'The cat chased the rat' entails 'The cat chased an animal.'

5. Analytic sentences can be sometimes true, sometimes false, depending on the circumstances.

6. 'The long drill is boring' is ambiguous.

7. 'Jane is a genius.' & 'Is Jane a genius?" have the same propositional content.

8. 'the Sun', 'this building', 'my mother' always have constant reference.

9. ‘The dog is a faithful animal’ is an equative sentence.

10. Propositions can be true or false.

11. A prototype of a predicate is a typical member of its extension.

12. Reference is a relationship between sentences and things in the world.

13. A single sentence could be expressed by using several different propositions.

14. 'Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam' is an equative sentence.

15. 'my niece' in '1 sent my niece a birthday present' is the Affected.

16. 'The cassette player' in 'The cassette player is sitting on the table' is a Theme.

17. The phrase 'a pencil' is sometimes a referring expression and sometimes not, depending on the context and
circumstances of use.

18. The universe of discourse in 'Don't forget to submit your assignment by this weekend' (Teacher to students) is
the fictitious world.

19. 'Furniture' is the hyponym of 'table'.

20. 'A bird lays eggs' is a generic sentence.

21.A proposition cannot be said to be in a particular language.

*********The end ******