Practice 3: SEMANTICS
1. State whether the following statements are true or false. Then write T for true statements and F for false
statements in the blanks provided.
a. __F___ I have seen a high chair entails I have seen high furniture. (TÍNH TỪ MANG NGHĨA KHÁC
NHAU – HIGH LÀ GRADABLE, NGOÀI RA CHÚ Ý ALL, NOT)
b. __T___ Eat is a two-place predicate in all cases.
c. ___F___ The linguistic expression rose has both sense and reference. (ĐỂ CÓ REFERENCE
THÌ CẦN THÊM THE)
d. ____F____ A proposition is asserted in the utterance “John, get out of here!” (CÂU TRẦN
THUẬT THÌ MỆNH ĐỀ MỚI ĐƯỢC XÁC NHẬN, ĐÂY LÀ CÂU MỆNH LỆNH NÊN CHƯA
XÁC NHẬN)
e. __T____ The two utterances “My wife is waiting for me at home” and “My wife isn’t waiting for
me at home” have the same presupposition.
2. Fill in each blank with ONE appropriate word.
a. Such expressions as my house, they, the president have VARIABLE reference.
b. Rose, daisy, tulip and sunflower are some of the _HYPONYM_ of flower.
c. Mary did something is a(n) ENTAILMENT_ of Mary visited Switzerland.
d. The hearer’s giving excuses is the _PERLOCULTIONARY_ act of the utterance “You are ten minutes late!”.
e. One _PROPOSITION__ can be expressed in different sentences, which are paraphrases of one another.
3. What is the sense relation in each of the following pairs? If the relation is antonymy, specify the type of
antonymy.
a. gas / liquid ___MI____
b. virtue / sincerity ___HYPONYMY
c. exhale / inhale ____REVERSE__
d. attractive /gorgeous ____SYNONYMY____
e. descend / ascend ____REVERSE______
4. State whether the following sentences are analytic, contradictory or synthetic. Write A(nalytic),
C(ontradictory) or S(ynthetic) in the blanks provided.
a. _ A(nalytic)_ If A is taller than B, and B taller than C, then A is taller than C.
b. _ A(nalytic)_ A car is a means of transport.
c. _ C(ontradictory) __ The athlete runs without moving his body.
d. _ S(ynthetic) _ Thailand is in Europe. (CĂN CỨ VÀO THẾ GIỚI BÊN NGOÀI)
e. _ S(ynthetic) __ Thanksgiving is celebrated in November.
5. Identify one core presupposition in each of the following sentences.
a. The driver should have done the test.
____The driver did not do the test____________________________________
b. What interested the boy?
_______ Something interested the boy ___________________________________________
c. Tom intends to move his house.
_____ Tom has not moved his house___________________
d. My sister stopped staying up late.
___My sister used to stay up late
e. After Helen won the competition, she became famous worldwide.
_____________ Helen won the competition
6. Decide whether the following utterances are performative or constative. Then write P for performative
utterances and C for constative utterances in the space provided.
a. ____ C __ The president has declared the state of emergency.
b. __ P ____ Visitors are requested not to feed animals.
c. __ P ____ We thank you for your straightforward comments.
d. ___ P ___ I predict that the pandemic will end soon.
e. ___ C ___ We visit our hometown on a monthly basis.
7. For the following utterance, give 2 situations so that the utterance performs 2 different types of acts.
Then interpret the utterance in light of the situations you provide and classify it according to the
intended acts.
“The scenery is beautiful.”
SITUATION 1
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Interpretation:
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Classification: …………………………………………………………………………………
SITUATION 2
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Interpretation:
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Classification: …………………………………………………………………………………
