SEMANTICS
Samples of Exam Questions
I. Give a complete definition for each of the following terms:
- Proposition
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- Speaker meaning
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II. Define each of the following terms. Then, explain the differences
between the terms in each pair and give examples to illustrate these
differences.
-Sense / Proposition
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-Reference / Utterance
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-Equative sentences / Generic sentences
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III. In relation to the semantic notions discussed in the course, what are the
following examples of? Be very specific.
1. Calling customers can be annoying. (Ambiguous)
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2. Left / Elevator
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3. My brother / The supervisor of the Customer Service Department (assuming
that we are talking about the same person)
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4. That woman.
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IV. Give ONE clear and specific example for each of the following. Make
the necessary clarifications to represent your examples.
1. An expression which has constant reference.
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2. An expression which has sense but has no reference.
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3. Two words with the same sense but belonging to different languages.
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4. The gap between sentence meaning and speaker meaning.
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5. A predicator that is a noun.
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6. Two predicates that have the same sense but different parts of speech.
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V. "Semantics is an attempt to set up a theory of meaning". Give two
characteristics of this semantic theory?
1. ______________________________________________________________
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2. ______________________________________________________________
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VI. Read each of the following questions. Then, circle the best answer.
1. Which sense of the following expressions is a proposition?
a). Nancy has joined an intensive English language program.
b). Nancy (not understood as an elliptical sentence
fragment)
c). An intensive English language program (not understood as an
elliptical sentence fragment)
2. In which of the following sentence pairs, can one member of the pair be
true and the other can be false?
a).
-Omar met Hisham at the coffee shop.
-Omar didn't meet Hisham at the coffee shop.
b). -My friend bought a new laptop.
-A new laptop was bought by my friend.
c).
-The technician turned off the machines.
-The technician turned the machines off.
3. Which of the following is correct about 'reference'?
a). a relationship between expressions and other expressions which have
the same meaning.
b). the set of all referents which can potentially be referred to by an
expression.
c). a relationship between a particular referent in the world and an
expression used in an utterance to pick that referent out.
4. In which of the following utterances, is the proposition asserted by the
speaker?
a). "Fix my washing machine, please!"
b). "Have you finished your research paper?"
c). "Successful people work hard to achieve their goals."
VII. Read the following statements and circle either (T)rue or (F)alse.
Statement
T / F
Not all utterances are actually tokens of sentences, but
sometimes only of phrases or single words.
Propositions can be said to be true or false, whereas
T / F sentences and utterances can not be said to be true or
false.
T / F
Professors of semantics are the primary source of
information about meaning.
T / F
The same proposition can be expressed by different
sentences.
Many sentences are used by speakers not to give
T / F information at all, but to keep the social wheels turning
smoothly.
Sentences and utterances can be said to belong to
T / F particular languages and dialects, but propositions can
not.
T / F
Semantics, like other branches of linguistics, is
prescriptive, not descriptive.
T / F
True propositions correspond to facts, but false
propositions do not correspond to facts.
VIII-Could each of the following be used as referring expressions?
-Today
yes / no
-God
yes / no
-about
yes / no
-I
yes / no
-Sarah
yes / no
-a book
yes / no
-6 o'clock
yes / no
-the dragon
yes / no
-send
yes / no
-66 kilometers
yes / no
IX-Circle the words which can be predicates ?
He – school – about – not – fat – Mohammed – travel
X-Circle the words which can be referring expressions?
asleep – girl – Suzan – the – whimsical – Dammam – but – send
XII-The naughty boy is behind the tree.
a. Analyze this sentence semantically into a predicator and arguments?
-Predicator: _________________________________________________
-Arguments: ________________________________________________
b. Of what degree is the predicate which functions as a predictor
in this sentence?
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