EXERCISES ON SEMANTICS
Mr. Anh
Exercise 62: (UNIT 6)
(1) Say which of the following sentences are equative (E), and which are not (N).
My parrot is holidaying in the South of France
E / N
(b) Dr Kunastrokins is an ass E / N (c) Tristram Shandy is a funny book E / N (d) Our next guest is Dr Kunastrokins E / N








Circle the referring expressions in the following sentences.
(a) I am looking for any parrot that can sing
(b) Basil saw a rat
(c) These matches were made in Sweden
(d) A dentist is a person who looks after people’s teeth








Answer:
1) (a) N (b) N (c) N (d) E (2) (a) I (b) Basil, a rat (c) these matches, Sweden (d) None







Exercise 63:
(1) Can the proper name Mohammed Ali ever be used as the predicator of a sentence? Yes / No
(2) Can the proper name Cairo ever be used as a predicator of a sentence? Yes / No
(3) In general, can proper names ever be used as predicators? Yes / No






Can the verb hit ever be used as a referring expression? Yes / No
Can the preposition on ever be used as a referring expression? Yes / No
In general, can any verb or preposition be used to refer? Yes / No


* Any verb, preposition, adjective, adverb, conjunction or interjection MUST NOT BE a referring expression.





Answer:
(1) No (2) No (3) No (We would analyse cases like That man is an Einstein as being figurative for That man is similar to Einstein, where the real predicate is similar, and not Einstein, but this analysis could conceivably be challenged.) (4) No (5) No (6) No: they are always predicates and can
never be used as referring expressions.







Exercise 64:
(1) Is a man in John attacked a man a referring expression? Yes / No
(2) Is a man in John is a man a referring expression? Yes / No







Answer:
(1) Yes (2) No







Exercise 65:
(1) Imagine that you and I are in a room with a man and a woman, and, making no visual signal of any sort, I say to you, ‘The man stole my wallet’. In this situation, how would you know the referent of the subject referring expression?
…………………………………………………………..
(2) If in the situation described above I had said, ‘A man stole my wallet’, would you automatically know the referent of the subject expression a man? Yes / No





(3) So does the definite article, the, prompt the hearer to (try to) identify the referent of a referring expression? Yes / No
(4) Does the indefinite article, a, prompt the hearer to (try to) identify the referent of a referring expression? Yes / No




Answer:
(1) By finding in the room an object to which the predicate contained in the subject referring expression (i.e. man) could be truthfully applied (2) No (3) Yes (4) No







Exercise 66:
(1) Can the referent of the pronoun I be uniquely identified when this pronoun is uttered? Yes / No
(2) Can the referent of the pronoun you be uniquely identified when this pronoun is uttered? Yes / No
(3) Imagine again the situation where you and I are in a room with a man and a woman, and I say to you (making no visual gesture), ‘She stole my wallet’. Would you be able to identify the referent of She? Yes / No







Answer:
(1) Yes (if equating it with the speaker of the utterance is regarded as sufficient identification). (2) In many situations it can, but not always.
(We usually, but not always, know who is being addressed.) (3) Yes (that is, in the situation described, if I say to you, ‘She stole my wallet’, you extract from the referring expression She the predicate female, which is part of its meaning, and look for something in the speech situation to which this predicate could truthfully be applied. Thus in the situation envisaged, you identify the woman as the referent of She.







Exercise 67:
(1) Does the phrase in the corner contain any predicates? Yes / No
(2) Is the phrase the man who is in the corner a referring expression? Yes / No
(3) Do the predicates in the phrase in the corner help to identify the referent of the referring expression in (2) above? Yes / No
(4) Is the predicate bald contained in the meaning of the bald man? Yes / No
(5) Is the predicate man contained in the meaning of the bald man? Yes / No







Answer:
(1) Yes (in and corner) (2) Yes (We say that the phrase in the corner is embedded in the longer phrase.) (3) Yes (4) Yes (5) Yes







Exercise 68:
(1) In The whale is the largest mammal (interpreted in the most usual way) does the whale pick out some particular object in the world (a whale)? Yes / No (2) So is The whale here a referring expression? (3) In The whale is the largest mammal does the largest mammal refer to some particular mammal? Yes / No
(4) So are there any referring expressions in The whale is the largest mammal? Yes / No







Answer:
(1) No (2) No (3) No (4) No







Exercise 69:
Are the following generic sentences?
Gentlemen prefer blondes. Yes / No
Jasper is a twit. Yes / No
The male of the species guards the eggs. Yes/No
A wasp makes its nest in a hole in a tree. Yes/No (5) A wasp just stung me on the neck. Yes / No

The + N (singular) = Ns (plural) > Generic
A = Any = Every > Generic




Answer:
(1) Yes (2) No (3) Yes (4) Yes (5) No







Exercise 70:
(1) Do unicorns exist in the real world? Yes / No
(2) In which two of the following contexts are unicorns most frequently mentioned? Circle your answer.
(a) in fairy stories
(b) in news broadcasts
(c) in philosophical discussions about reference
(d) in scientific text books
4 sacred animals: dragon, unicorn, turtle, phoenix.






(3) Is it possible to imagine worlds different in certain ways from the world we know actually to exist? Yes / No
(4) In fairy tale and science fiction worlds is everything different from the world we know? Yes / No
(5) In the majority of fairy tales and science fiction stories that you know, do the fictional characters discourse with each other according to the same principles that apply in real life? Yes / No
(6) Do fairy tale princes, witches, etc. seem to refer in their utterances to things in the world? Yes / No







Answer:
(1) No (2) (a) and (c) (3) Yes (4) No, otherwise we could not comprehend them. (5) Yes (6) Yes







Exercise 71:
According to this view of what counts as a referring expression, are the following possible referring expressions, i.e. could they be used in utterances to refer (either to real or to fictitious entities)?
God Yes / No
and Yes / No
Moses Yes / No
(4) that unicorn Yes / No
N, Pro >< V, Adj, Adv, Conj, Interj, Prep






Answer:
(1) Yes (2) No (3) Yes (4) Yes







Exercise 72:
(1) If unicorns existed, would they be physical objects? Yes / No
(2) Do the following expressions refer to physical objects?
(a) Christmas Day 1980 Yes / No
(b) one o’clock in the morning Yes / No
(c) when Eve was born Yes / No
(d) 93 million miles Yes / No
(e) the distance between the Earth and the Sun
Yes / No




(f ) ‘God Save the Queen’ Yes / No
(g) the British national anthem Yes / No
(h) eleven hundred Yes / No
(i) one thousand one hundred Yes / No

1100: eleven hundred
1900: nineteen hundred
2019: twenty nineteen (two thousand and nineteen)
939: nine thirty-nine
1905: nineteen oh five





Answer:
(1) Yes; it’s difficult to conceive of them in any other way. (2) (a)–(i) No








Exercise 73: Is the universe of discourse in each of the following cases the real world (as far as we can tell) (R), or a (partly) fictitious world (F)?
(1) Newsreader on April 14th 1981: ‘The American space-shuttle successfully landed at Edwards Airforce Base, California, today’ R / F
Mother to child: ‘Don’t touch those berries. They might be poisonous’ R / F
(3) Mother to child: ‘Santa Claus might bring you a toy telephone’ R / F






(4) Patient in psychiatric ward: ‘As your Emperor, I command you to defeat the Parthians’ R / F
(5) Doctor to patient: ‘You cannot expect to live longer than another two months’ R / F
(6) Patient (joking bravely): ‘When I’m dead, I’ll walk to the cemetery to save the cost of a hearse’ R / F








Answer:
(1) R (2) R (3) F (4) F (5) R (6) F, dead people do not walk in the real world







Exercise 74:
In the following situations, are the participants working with the same universe of discourse (S), or different universes (D), as far as you can tell?
A: ‘Did Jack’s son come in this morning?’
B: ‘I didn’t know Jack had a son’
A: ‘Then who’s that tall chap that was here yesterday?’
B: ‘I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure Jack hasn’t got any kids’
A: ‘I’m sure Jack’s son was here yesterday’ S / D







(2) Time traveller from the eighteenth century: ‘Is the King of France on good terms with the Tsar of Russia?’
Twenty-first-century person: ‘Huh?’ S / D
(3) Optician: ‘Please read the letters on the bottom line of the card’
Patient: ‘E G D Z Q N B A’
Optician: ‘Correct. Well done’ S / D








Answer:
(1) D: in A’s universe of discourse Jack’s son exists; in B’s he does not. (2) D (3) S












Good luck!