Handout 2
Ex. 1. Gradable antonyms: marked vs unmarked?
How old is he? Five years old.
old – young
In each of the following pairs determine the ‘unmarked’ member:
small – big
dangerous – safe
early – late
fresh – stale
good – bad
wide – narrow
thick – thin
near – far
short – long
cheap – expensive
easy – difficult
full – empty
many – few
strong – weak
wild – tame
Ex. 2. Determine the lexical relations between the following pairs:
pregnant – not pregnant
wound – wound
dead – alive
steal – take
give – receive
murder – kill
need – knead
awake – asleep
buy – sell
punch – hit
flower – flour
happy – sad
woman – lady
sole (of foot) – sole (only) – sole (fish)
wind – wind
bear – (carry) – bear (tolerate) – bear (animal)
Sense relations between sentences
Ex. 3. Match the terms with the definitions and examples:
entailment
mutual entailment / paraphrase
contradictoriness
………………………….. – when sentence X is true, Y must be true too; the truth of sentence
Y follows from the truth of sentence X.
………………………….. – both sentences X and Y have the same meaning.
………………………….. – it impossible for both sentences X and Y to be true at the same
time (given the same circumstances).
Henry was chewing a tulip. / Henry was chewing a flower.
I saw a mouse. / I saw an animal.
He murdered Bill. / He killed Bill.
I saw a big mouse. / I saw a big animal.
John is Tom’s father. / Tom isn’t John’s son.
David stole a pound of beef. / David didn’t take a pound of beef.
John killed Bill. / Bill died.
It is hard to lasso elephants. / Elephants are hard to lasso.
Room 404 is below this one. / Room 404 is above this one.
I am not fond of semantics. / I detest semantics.
My father owns this car. / This car belongs to my father.
John boiled an egg. / John cooked an egg.
We went in a small car. / We went in a small vehicle.
That was an expensive sandwich. / That was an expensive meal.
Henry was chewing a tulip. / Henry was not chewing a flower.
Henry chewed up all my tulips. / Henry chewed up all my flowers.
A tall pigmy came in. / A tall person came in.
John killed Bill. / John didn’t murder Bill.
Mary is Ann’s parent. / Ann is Mary’s child.
Sentence ambiguity
When is a sentence ambiguous?
What is lexical ambiguity?
What is structural ambiguity?
Ex. 4. Disambiguate the following sentences. Are they lexically or structurally ambiguous?
I saw her duck.
The thing that bothered Bill was crouching under the table.
Flying planes can be dangerous.
I saw him walking by the bank.
The chicken is ready to eat.
Old men and women left.
Cinderella watched the colorful ball.
Fine for parking here.
The proprietor of the fish store was the sole owner.
It takes a good ruler to make a straight line.
I cannot recommend visiting professors too highly.
The Principle of Compositionality – the meaning of a phrase or sentence depends both on
the meaning of its words and how those words are combined structurally. The sentences John
loves Mary and Mary loves John mean different things even though they contain the same
words.
Ex. 5. Invent 2 sentences: one as an example of lexical ambiguity and the other of structural
ambiguity.
Semantic properties
Ex. 6. For each group of words given below state which semantic property or properties are
shared by the (a) words and the (b) words, and what semantic property or properties
distinguish between the classes.
a. widow, mother, sister, aunt, seamstress
b. widower, father, brother, uncle, tailor
a. bachelor, man, son, paperboy, pope, chief
b. bull, rooster, drake, ram
The (a) and (b) words are __________________
The (a) words are ________________________
The (b) words are ________________________
The (a) and (b) words are __________________
The (a) words are ________________________
The (b) words are _____________________
a. table, stone, pencil, cup, house, ship, car
b. milk, alcohol, rice, soup, mud
a. book, temple, mountain, road, tractor
b. idea, love, charity, sincerity, bravery, fear
The (a) and (b) words are __________________
The (a) words are ________________________
The (b) words are ________________________
The (a) and (b) words are __________________
The (a) words are ________________________
The (b) words are _________________
a. pine, elm, ash, weeping willow, sycamore
b. rose, dandelion, aster, tulip, daisy
a. book, letter, novel, notebook, dictionary
b. pencil, ballpoint, crayon, quill, charcoal, chalk
The (a) and (b) words are __________________
The (a) words are ________________________
The (b) words are ________________________
The (a) and (b) words are __________________
The (a) words are ________________________
The (b) words are ________________________
a. walk, run, skip, jump, hop, swim
b. fly, skate, ski, ride, cycle, canoe, hang-glide
a. ask, tell, say, talk, converse
b. shout, whisper, mutter, drawl, holler
The (a) and (b) words are __________________
The (a) words are ________________________
The (b) words are ________________________
The (a) and (b) words are __________________
The (a) words are ________________________
The (b) words are ________________________
a. alive, asleep, dead, married, pregnant
b. tall, smart, interesting, bad, tired
The (a) and (b) words are __________________
The (a) words are ________________________
The (b) words are ________________________
a. alleged, counterfeit, false, putative, accused
b. red, large, cheerful, pretty, stupid
(Hint: Is an alleged murderer always a murderer?)
The (a) and (b) words are __________________
The (a) words are ________________________
The (b) words are ________________________
Evidence for semantic properties
Semantic properties are not directly observable. Their existence must be inferred from
linguistic evidence. One source of such evidence is found in speech errors, or “slips of the
tongue”, that we all produce. Consider the following unintentional word substitutions that
some speakers have actually spoken.
Intended Utterance
Actual Utterance (Error)
bridge of the nose
when my gums bled
he came too late
Mary was young
the lady with the dachshund
that’s a horse of another colour
he has to pay her alimony
bridge of the neck
when my tongues bled
he came too early
Mary was early
that lady with the Volkswagen
that’s a horse of another race
he has to pay her rent