-
I. Decide whether each of the following
statements is
True
or
False
.
1.
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.
2.
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.
3.
Linguistic forms having the same sense
may have different references in different
situations.
4.
In
semantics, meaning of language is considered as
the intrinsic and inherent relation
to
the physical world of experience.
5.
Contextualism is based on the
presumption that one can derive meaning from or
reduce meaning to observable contexts.
6.
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.
7.
The meaning of a sentence is the sum
total of the meanings of all its components.
8.
Most languages have sets of lexical
items similar in meaning but ranked differently
according to their degree of formality.
9.
“it is
hot.” is a
no
-place predication because it
contains no argument.
10.
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.
II. Fill in each of the following
blanks with one word which begins with the letter
given.
11.
S________
can be defined as the study of meaning.
12.
The conceptualist view holds that there
is no d______ link between a linguistic form
and what it refers to.
13.
R______
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.
14.
Words that are close in meaning are
called s________.
15.
When two
words are identical in sound, but different in
spelling and meaning, they
are called
h__________.
16.
R_________ opposites are pairs of words
that exhibit the reversal of a relationship
between the two items.
17.
C____
analysis is based upon the belief that the meaning
of a word can be divided
into meaning
components.
18.
Whether a sentence is semantically
meaningful is governed by rules called
s________ restrictions, which are
constraints on what lexical items can go with what
others.
19.
An a________
is a logical participant in a predication, largely
identical with the
nominal element(s)
in a sentence.
20.
According to
the n____ theory of meaning, the words in a
language are taken to be
labels of the
objects they stand for.
III. There are four choices
following each statement. Mark the choice that can
best
complete the statement.
21. The naming theory is
advanced by ________.
A.
Plato
B
.
Bloomfield
C. Geoffrey
Leech
D. Firth
22. “We shall know a word by the
company it keeps.” This statement represents
_______.
A. the
conceptualist view
C. the
naming theory
B.
contexutalism
D.
behaviorism
23. 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 de-contextualized.
D. Sense is the aspect of meaning
dictionary compilers are not interested
in.
24. “Can I borrow your
bike?” _______ “You have
a
bike.”
A. is synonymous
with
C. entails
B. is inconsistent with
D. presupposes
25. ___________ is a way in which the
meaning of a word can be dissected into meaning
components, called semantic features.
A. Predication
analysis
C. Phonemic
analysis
B. Componential
analysis
D. Grammatical
analysis
26. “alive” and
“dead” are ______________.
A. gradable antonyms
B. relational opposites
C. complementary antonyms
D. None of the above
27. _________ deals with the
relationship between the linguistic element and
the
non-linguistic world of experience.
A. Reference
B
.
Concept
C. Semantics
D
. Sense
28.
___________ refers to the phenomenon that words
having different meanings have
the same
form.
A.
Polysemy
C.
Homonymy
B.
Synonymy
D.
Hyponymy
29.
Words that are close in meaning are
called ______________.
A.
homonyms
C.
hyponyms
B.
polysemy
D.
synonyms
30.
The
grammaticality of a sentence is governed by
_______.
A. grammatical
rules
C. semantic
rules
IV. Define the following terms.
31.
semantics
32.
sense
34.
synonymy
37.
homophones
38.
Homographs
40.
hyponymy
43.
grammatical
33.
reference
39.
complete
homonyms
41.
antonymy
42.
componential
analysis
44.
predication
45.
Argument
B.
selectional restrictions
D.
semantic features
35.
polysemy
36.
homonymy
meaning
46.
predicate
V. Answer the following
questions.
48.
Why do we say that a meaning of a
sentence is not the sum total of the meanings of
all its components?
49.
What is
componential analysis? Illustrate it with
examples.
50.
How do you distinguish between
entailment and presupposition in terms of truth
values?
51.
How do you
account for such sense relations between sentences
as synonymous
relation, inconsistent
relation in terms of truth values?
52.
According
to the way synonyms differ, how many groups can we
classify synonyms
into? Illustrate them
with examples.
53.
What are
the major views concerning the study of meaning?
How they differ?
47.
Two-place
predication
Suggested
Answers
I. Decide whether
each of the following statements is
True
or
False
.
l.F
2.F
3.T
4.F
5.T
6.T
7.F
8.T
9.T
10.T
II. Fill in
each of the following blanks with one word which
begins with the letter
given.
11.
Semantic
s
l
III. There are four choices following
each statement. Mark the choice that can
best complete the statement.
2l.A
IV. Define the following
terms.
31. Semantics:
Semantics can be simply defined as the study of
meaning in language.
32.
Sense: Sense is concerned with the inherent
meaning of the linguistic form. It is
the collection of all the features of
the linguistic form; it is abstract and de
-contextualized.
33. Reference:
Reference 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
34. Synonymy: Synonymy refers to the
sameness or close similarity of meaning.
22.B
23.D
24.D
25.B
26.C
27.A
28.C
29.D
30.A
l
l
12.
direct
13.
Reference
14.
synonym
s
15.
homophone
s
16.
Relationa
17.
Componentia
18.
selectiona
19.
argument
2
0.
naming