http://www.ebook.edu.vn 84 Exercise 21: Does polysemy or homonymy contribute to the lexical ambiguity in each of the two given sentences. (1) She cannot bear children. (2) The cat sat on the mat. ________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Exercise 22 : In what way are homonyms related to lexical ambiguity? ________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Exercise 23 : In what way is a polysemous word related to lexical ambiguity? ________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ http://www.ebook.edu.vn 85 Exercise 24: Explain the structural ambiguity in each of the following sentences: 1. The drunkard visitor rolled up the carpet. 6. They are cooking bananas. 2. Is he really that kind? 7. They are moving sidewalks. 3. My fianceùe is reserved. 8. John loves Richard more than Martha. 4. I saw her slip. 9. Old men and women will be served first. 5. I saw her duck. 10. The thing that bothered Bill was crouching under the table. 1(a) The drunkard visitor rolled up the carpet. 1(b) The drunkard visitor rolled up the carpet. 2(a) Is he really that kind? 2(b) Is he really that kind? 3 (a) My fianceùe is reserved. 3(b) My fianceùe is reserved. http://www.ebook.edu.vn 86 4(a) I saw her slip. 4(b) I saw her slip. 5(a) We saw her duck. 5(b) We saw her duck. 6(a) The y are cooking bananas. 6(b) They are cooking bananas. 7(a) They are moving sidewalks. 7(b) They are moving sidewalks. 8(a) John loves Richard more than Martha. 8(b) John loves Richard more than Martha. http://www.ebook.edu.vn 87 9(a) Old me n and women will be served first. 9(b) Old m en and women will be served first. 10(a) The thing that bothered Bill was crouching under the table. 10(b)The thing that bothered Bill was crouching under the table. 2.15 Anomaly 2.15.1 Definition Anomaly is “a violation of semantic rules to create nonsense .” [Finegan, 1993: 148] Ex1. That bachelor is pregnant is semantically anomalous because bachelor is [+male] whereas pregnant is [+female]. Ex2. My brother is the only child in the family is an English sentence that is grammatically correct and syntactically perfect; however, it is semantically anomalous because it represents a contradiction. The meaning of brother includes the semantic feature [+having at least one sibling] whereas the only child in the family is [+having no other sibling]. http://www.ebook.edu.vn 88 2.15.2 Anomaly and contradiction Anomaly involves us in the notion contradiction in the sense that semantically anomalous sentences constitute a type of contradictory sentences. For example, John killed Bill, who remained alive for many years after is semantically anomalous because the so-called sentence represents a contradiction: no living organism can remain alive after being killed. In fact, Bill died right at the moment John killed him. Exercise 25: Explain the anomaly of each of the following sentences. 1. Christopher is killing phonemes. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 2. My brother is a spinster. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 3. The boy swallowed the chocolate and then chewed it. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 4. Babies can lift one ton. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ http://www.ebook.edu.vn 89 5. Puppies are human. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 6. My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 7. The bigger key and John opened the door. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 8. James sliced the ideas. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 9. Jack’s courage chewed the bones. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 10. I hear the cloud. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 11. The tiger remained alive for an hour after the hunter killed it. http://www.ebook.edu.vn 90 ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Exercise 26 : How can each of the given sentences be changed to avoid anomaly? 1. ____________________________________________________ 2. ____________________________________________________ 3. ____________________________________________________ 4. ____________________________________________________ 5. ____________________________________________________ 6. ____________________________________________________ 7. ____________________________________________________ 8. ____________________________________________________ 9. ____________________________________________________ 10. ___________________________________________________ 11. __________________________________________________ http://www.ebook.edu.vn 91 Section 3 33 3 SENTENCE MEANING “SENTENCE MEANING is what a sentence means, regardless of the context and situation in which it may be used.” [Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 269] 3.1 Proposition, utterance and sentence 3.1.1 “A PROPOSITION is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which describes some state of affairs. The state of affairs typically involves persons or things referred to by expressions in the sentence. In uttering a declarative sentence a speaker typically asserts a proposition.” [Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 19] Ex1. The following pair of sentences expresses the same proposition: 1(a) Harry took out the garbage. 1(b) Harry took the garbage out . The following pair of sentences expresses different propositions: 2(a) Isobel loves Tony. 2(b) Tony loves Isobel. http://www.ebook.edu.vn 92 Ex2. The following pair of sentences expresses the same proposition: 3(a) John gave Mary a book. 3(b) Mary was given a book by John. The following pair of sentences expresses different propositions: 4(a) George danced with Ethel. 4(b) George didn ’ t dance with Ethel. Exercise 27: Do the two following sentences have the same proposition? (1) Mr Dindlay killed Janet. (2) Mr Dindlay caused Janet to die . ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Exercise 28 : Explain why the two members of each of the following pairs of sentences 35 do not share the same proposition. 35 This means the two members of each pair are not paraphrases of each other. http://www.ebook.edu.vn 93 1(a) John is the parent of James. 1(b) James is the parent of John. 3(a) The fly was on the wall. 3(b) The wall was under the fly. 2(a) The hunter bit the lion. 2(b) The lion bit the hunter. 4(a) Jack was injured by a stone. 4(b) Jack was injured with a stone. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ 3.1.2 Distinction between a proposition and a sentence “Propositions, unlike sentences, cannot be said to belong to any particular language. Sentences in different languages can correspond to the same proposition, if the two sentences are perfect translations of each other.” [Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 21-22] For example, English I’am cold , French J’ai froid, German Mir ist kalt and Vietnamese Toâi laïnh can, to the extent to which they are perfect translations of each other, be said to correspond to the same proposition. [...]... http://www.ebook.edu.vn 103 3 .4 Entailment 3 .4. 1 Definition 3 .4. 1.1 “Entailment is a relationship that applies between two sentences40, where the truth of one implies the truth of the other because of the meanings of the words involved.” [Goddard, 1998: 17] For example, John was killed entails John died Obviously, John died could not be true any time before it was true that John was killed 3 .4. 1.2 “An entailment... pregnant’ is the earlier assumption that ‘George got Mary pregnant’ 1 04 http://www.ebook.edu.vn in a language This knowledge allows us to communicate much more than we actually ‘say’.” [Peccei, 1999: 14] 3 .4. 2 Characteristics 3 .4. 2.1 “Entailment applies cumulatively Thus if X entails Y and Y entails Z, then X entails Z.” [Hurford and Heasley, 19 84: 108] Take the following as an example: X, Some boys ran down... the fly 4( a) Gina plays tennis 9(a) Jane is a spinster 4( b) Someone/Gina plays sports 9(b) Jane is married 5(a) Kevin boiled an egg 10(a) The beetle is alive 5(b) Kevin cooked an egg 10(b) The beetle is dead 108 http://www.ebook.edu.vn Section 4 UTTERANCE MEANING “UTTERANCE MEANING is what a speaker means when he makes an utterance in a particular situation.” [Hurford and Heasley, 19 84: 269] 4. 1 Presupposition43... Someone/Alan planted flowers 3(a) Mary owns three houses 13(a) All dogs have fleas 3(b) Mary owns a house 13(b) My dog has fleas./Some dogs have fleas 4( a) Alvin is Mary’s husband 14( a) My uncle teaches at the community college 4( b) Mary is married 14( b) My uncle is a teacher 5(a) The wolf killed the bear 15(a) My pet cobra likes the taste of chocolate 5(b) The bear is dead 15(b) My pet cobra finds... than the presupposition (an earlier assumption41).” [Yule, 1996: 32] 3 .4. 1.3 “Entailments are inferences that can be drawn solely from our knowledge about the semantic relationships 40 For brevity here, as elsewhere in the little textbook, we speak of entailment between sentences, rather than, more strictly, between the propositions underlying sentences 41 Quite contrary to the entailment ‘George didn’t... 4. 1 Presupposition43 4. 1.1 Definition and characteristics 4. 1.1.1 Presupposition is “what a speaker or writer assumes that the receiver of the message already knows.” [Richards et al, 1987: 228] Thus, ‘John doesn’t write poems anymore’ presupposes that John once wrote poetry And ‘Would you like another beer?’ presupposes that the person called you here has already had at least one beer 4. 1.1.2 “Presuppositions... utterances on particular occasions Exercise 29: Fill in the following chart given by Hurford and Heasley [19 84: 23] with ‘+’ or – as appropriate Thus, for example, if it makes sense to think of a proposition being a particular regional accent, put a ‘+’ in the appropriate box; if not put a –. ’ Utterances Sentences Propositions Can be loud or quiet Can be grammatical or not Can be true or false In... virtually the same meaning, a paraphrase.” [Peccei, 1999: 3] 3.3.1.3 “A sentence which expresses the same proposition as another sentence is a paraphrase of that sentence.” [Hurford and Heasley, 19 84: 1 04] 3.3.1 .4 “Sentences are paraphrases if they have the same meaning (except possibly for minor differences in emphases).” [Fromkin and Rodman, 1993: 132] Consider the two following sentences: (1) The girl... a sofa’ directly asserts Annie has a sofa ‘Don’t sit on Annie’s sofa’ presupposes Annie has a sofa.” [Peccei, 1999: 19] 4. 1.1.3 “Speakers often make implicit assumptions about the real world, and the sense of an utterance may depend on those assumptions, which some linguists term 44 presuppositions ” [Fromkin and Rodman, 1993: 161] In the following dialogue, for example, both A and B know (1) who Simon... rules for combining meanings and the conditions under which sentences are true or false.” [Fromkin and Rodman, 1993: 146 ] 96 http://www.ebook.edu.vn 3.2.1 “An ANALYTIC sentence is one that is necessarily TRUE, as a result of the senses of the words in it.” [Hurford and Heasley, 19 84: 91-92] Ex1 All elephants are animals The truth of this sentence follows from the senses of elephants and animals Ex2 . [19 84: 23] with ‘+’ or – as appropriate. Thus, for example, if it makes sense to think of a proposition being a particular regional accent, put a ‘+’ in the appropriate box; if not put a –. ’. proposition as another sentence is a paraphrase of that sentence.” [Hurford and Heasley, 19 84: 1 04] 3.3.1 .4 “Sentences are paraphrases if they have the same meaning (except possibly for minor differences. under the fly. 2(a) The hunter bit the lion. 2(b) The lion bit the hunter. 4( a) Jack was injured by a stone. 4( b) Jack was injured with a stone. ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________