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Study questions
1. How is the term“prototype” used in semantics?
Key: The prototype is thecharacteristic instance of a category, as in the case of ‘robin’ being theclearest example, or prototype, of the category ‘bird’ for many AmericanEnglish speakers.
2. Using semantic features,how would you explain the oddness of these sentences?
(a) Thetelevision drank my water.
(b) His dogwrites poetry.
Key: (a) The verb drink requires asubject with the feature [+animate] and the noun television has the feature[−animate].
(b)The verb write requires a subject with the feature [+human] andthe noun dog has the feature [−human].
3. Identify the semanticroles of the seven noun phrases in this sentence.
With her newgolf club, Anne Marshall whacked the ball from the woods to the grassy areanear the hole and she suddenly felt invincible.
Key: Instrument (her new golf club);Agent (Anne Marshall); Theme (the ball); Source (the woods); Goal (the grassyarea); Location (the hole); Experiencer (she)
4. What is the basiclexical relation between each pair of words listed here?
(a) damp/moist
(b) deep/shallow
(c) furniture/table
(d) married/single
(e) move/run
(f) peace/piece
Key:
(a) synonymy
(b) antonymy
(c) hyponymy
(d) antonymy
(e) hyponymy
(f) homophony (or homophones)
5. Which of thefollowing opposites are gradable, non-gradable, or reversive?
(a) absent/present
(b) appear/disappear
(c) fail/pass
(d) fair/unfair
(e) fillit/empty it
(f) high/low
Key:
(a) non-gradable
(b) reversive
(c) non-gradable
(d) gradable
(e) reversive
(f) gradable
6 Are these underlinedwords best described as examples of polysemy or metonymy?
(a) The pen is mightier than the sword.
(b) I had topark on the shoulder of the road.
(c) Yes, Ilove those. I ate a whole box on Sunday!
(d) The bookstorehas some new titles in linguistics.
(e) Computer chips created an important new technology.
(f) I’mgoing to sue your ass !
Key:
(a) metonymy
(b) polysemy
(c) metonymy
(d) metonymy
(e) polysemy
(f) metonymy
Tasks
A. What is theconnection between an English doctor called Peter Mark Roget and the study oflexical relations?
Key: Roget's dictionary, has gainedfamous reputation as was it published but it also has some defects. In hisdictionary, Roget grouped lexical items according to ideas. Lexical items,senses are grouped according to proximity of meaning. It is organized as ahierarchy of concepts, and at the lowest level, there are sets of words calledsynonyms.
B. In this chapter, we discussed metonymy, butnot metaphor. What is the difference between these two ways of using words?
Key: (1) A metaphor is theexpression of an understanding of one concept in terms of another concept,where there is some similarity or correlation between the two. For example, weuse the phrase "a blanket of snow" to describe a snowfall that coversthe ground evenly, as if the snow were a fabric.
(2) Metonymy is a figure of speech involving the substitution of aword or phrase with another closely associated with it, as in "The Crown isagainst a hitching post in the courtyard," when referring to a king orqueen.
D. Which of these pairsof words are converses (also known as reciprocal antonyms)?
above/below,asleep/awake, brother/sister, buy/sell, doctor/patient, dry/wet, enter/exit, follow/precede,husband/wife, older/younger, true/false
Key: Examples of reciprocal antonymy are: above/below, brother/sister,buy/sell, doctor/patient, follow/precede, husband/wife.