Week 7 Application: Semantics

Team 1
Alice Abernathy
Delaney Drury
Brian McDonald
Joel Goode
Team Answers

A look at how we know word meaning and how word meaning changes;
meaning in sentences and the concept of propositions. Each Team
member must do a portion of the examples in any item that has
multiple examples.

Practice

Do the following from the text (12th edition)

1.Identify each of the following statements as being either mostly about

lexical semantics or mostly about compositional semantics:

a. The phrase purple books describes a group of objects (books) that

have a certain property (being purple).

This is mostly about compositional semantics because it has to do

with the meaning of a phrase (aka how individual words are put
together and how this affects meaning).

b. The words couch and sofa mean roughly the same thing.

This is mostly about lexical semantics because it has to do with the

meaning of individual words.

c. Water under the bridge means something different from bridge

under the water.

Here we have compositional semantics — phrasal explication of

idiomatic phrasing as compared to compositional phrasing.

e. The opposite of open is shut.

 This is an antonymic examination in lexical semantics.

f. Paris is a word that refers to a particular city in France.

Lexical semantics as Paris is a singular word, not a phrase.

g. If the sentence Harold likes checkers and backgammon is true,

then the sentence Harold likes backgammon must be true as well.

Compositional semantics as there is a proposition being made

“Harold likes checkers and backgammon” and a truth value. The way
the sentence is syntactically designed, “likes…and” demonstrates
that both objects(checkers, backgammon) are liked (V).

h. . Bird means something like ‘warm-blooded, egg-laying animal with

feathers, wings, two legs, and a beak.’

Lexical semantics due to the statement referring to a single word,

“bird”.

j. Jelly beans that are lemon flavored has the same meaning as
lemonflavored jelly beans.

I would say that this is talking mostly about compositional semantics

due to the fact that it is taking a jelly beans that are flavored with
lemon and creating a phrase that has the same meaning.

2. We discussed expressions such as unicorn and the queen of United

States that have no referents.

i.Come up with four more examples of expressions that have no referents.

4 examples

1. Chewbacca
2. The president of England
3. hobbit
4. Darth Maul

ii.Explain in your own words why the notion of sense is important, taking
into account the particular examples you came up with for part (i).
Sense in lexicology is essential to our ability to comprehend meaning
outside of physical perception. Experiential perception encompasses
physical perception, but also expands to imaginative and abstract
perception.

5. For each expression below, specify what its reference is. For example,
the reference of New York City is the actual city in the state of New York in
the United States, the reference of dog is the set of all actual dogs in the
world, and the reference of sleep is the set of all individuals in the world
who sleep.

A. France: a country in Western Europe that borders Spain and

Germany

B. Book: the set of all actual books in the world

C. red The set of all things which semantically fall under the lexical
category “red”. The word itself is definitionally broad, as it
encompasses a wide range of colors, emotions, political implications,
and other essentially subjective meanings. The most literal meaning
of “red” is still subjective, as measurements of the color spectrum are
conducted by sense-relative devices (in both the physical and lexical
meanings of the word “sense”). Spectrophotometers can give us an
accurate reading by way of predictability, but that pattern recognition
is still contained within consciousness.

D. Noam Chomsky This references the set of all things which are
denominated “Noam Chomsky,” including the linguist and any other
being who shares his name.

E. eat: The set of all the individuals and animals in the world who eat
(bite, chew, swallow, digest).

F. fox: The set of all foxes in the world.

G. student A set of people in the world that learn and study different
topics.

H. Massachusetts A state in the New England region which borders

the Atlantic ocean and the capital being Boston.
7. Explain in your own words why the expression student, a noun, cannot
have any particular individual in the world as its reference. Give an
example sentence to illustrate your point, and explain exactly how your
sentence shows that student cannot refer to any particular individual.

The textbook defines a referent as “the particular entities in the world

to which some expression refers” and that “the collection of all the
referents of an expression is its reference.” Thus, an individual
student can be a referent, but a reference would have to include
every single referent in the world (which would be every student in
the world). For example, in the sentence “Elaina and Alex were
students at the University of South Alabama,” we see that “Elaina”
cannot be the reference for “student” because she is not the only
student to exist in the world (because “student” is also used to refer to
“Alex” as well).

The reference is the larger group while the referent is the smaller
group which is contained by the larger. For example, in “Reese is
William’s older brother,” family members would be the reference for
brother.

8. In what way is each of the following pairs of words related? In cases of

hyponymy, indicate which word is the hyponym and which word is the
hypernym; in cases of antonymy, tell what kind of antonymy it is.

A. Shallow – deep: this is antonymy; specifically, this is a gradable

pair

C. suite – sweet: this is homonymity

D. table – furniture: this is hyponymy; table is the hyponym and

furniture is the hypernym

E. unmarried – married Complementary antonymy

F. study – studying In the sense that study is a verb, studying is the

gerund participle form of the root word and the two are synonyms.

G. move – run: hyponymy as move is the hypernym and run is the

hyponym

H. sofa – couch: synonym, the references of both words are the same
 I. green – blue Gradable pair, antonymy

J. punch – touch Hyponymy, touch is a hypernym of punch

10. Come up with your own hierarchical hyponymy relationship for some
noun like the one given for poodle in File 6.2. It should have at least four
hierarchical levels. (For an extra challenge, try to do this exercise with
verbs as well!)

Submit hierarchical hyponymies for 4 different nouns

1. Hierarchical hyponymy: Persian (cat)

2. Hierarchical hyponymy: Reese’s cup - dessert

Dess
Pi
Apple
Lemon Ca
Hard
Chocolate
Sma Hersh
ey’s
Cook
Peanut
Butter
 3.

Cr
Nil A
Saltw Mon
Kom
Be
Lace
Alli
Alli
C
Blac
Y

4.

Black caiman- reptile

12. Classify the following pairs of antonyms as complementary, gradable,

reverses, or converses:

A. wide/narrow: Gradable
B. smoking/nonsmoking: Complementary
 C. inflate/deflate: Gradable
D. defeat/lose to: Converse
E. good/bad: Converse
F. innocent/guilty: converse antonyms
G. hot/cold: gradable antonyms
H. teacher/student: complementary
I. grow/shrink: converse

16. We noted that the reference of intransitive verbs like swim is a set of
individuals (i.e., exactly those individuals who swim). Consider transitive
verbs such as like or hate. Can we take their reference to be just a set of
individuals? What do you think the reference of such verbs is?

Transitive examples: Alice likes chocolate chip cookies.

Alice hates coconut cake.
I think the reference would be everyone who likes chocolate chip cookies
and everyone who hates coconut cake as the object gives specification to
the verb.

Since both subjects and objects are arguments of transitive verbs, then the
reference would have to be all pairs of nouns that have that sort of
relationship – the reference for “like” would be the answer to the question
“Who likes what?” A referent would be “Alice - cookies” and the reference
would be the combination of all subjects that like all objects.

Another example might be write — the verb write would contain essentially
all things which are themselves the act of writing — sort of turning the act
into a noun, or dissolving the distinction.

17. For each of the following expressions, determine whether it expresses

a proposition or not. Remember, if you are dealing with a proposition, you
can question its truth value. For example, we know that Fido is a dog
expresses a proposition because we can ask Is it true that Fido is a dog?
Conversely, a dog all by itself does not express a proposition because we
cannot ask Is it true that a dog?

B. like Bob: This is not a proposition because it does not have a truth
value (you cannot ask “Is it true that like Bob?”).

F. accidentally: Not a proposition — there is no subject, nor even a

verb to imply some act occurring. An unattached adjective or adverb
could never be propositional on its own.
 G. Polly liked Although it would be more propositional if there were an
object, the meaning can still be taken as propositional. Polly could
have been generally amiable.

H. under the bed There is no claim, so this cannot be a proposition.

I. Sally likes to sleep: This is a proposition because it has a truth

value (you can ask “Is it true that Sally likes to sleep?”).

J. bring some beer This is not a proposition because it does not have
truth value. “Is is true that bring some beer?”

18. For each of the following sentences, specify its truth conditions, i.e.,
under what conditions it would be true. For example, Fluffy is a cat is true
just in case the individual Fluffy really is a cat.

C. It will rain tomorrow. This would be true under the condition that
there is indeed precipitation in the form of rainfall between the
timespan of 12am tonight to 11:59pm the next day.

D. Peru is a country in Europe. This would be true under the condition

that Peru really is a country that is situated within the continent of
Europe.

E. Paris is the capital of France. This would be true under the

conditions that Paris is indeed the capital of the country of France.

F. The earth is not flat. This would be true under the conditions that
the Earth is not flat in shape, but another shape entirely.

G. The moon is made of green cheese. This would be true if the

moon were made of green cheese.

H. Some computers are able to synthesize human voices. This would

be true if the conditions of our current reality in which computers can
indeed synthesize human voices were in fact true.

I. Last week a monkey and an elephant escaped from the zoo, broke
into the National Gallery, and stole a valuable painting.

This would be true if

1. A monkey and an elephant left the enclosure of the zoo.
 2. They moved together to the National Gallery and broke through
the locked doors.
3. Either the elephant used its trunk to take the painting or the
monkey used its hands to take it.
4. They left the building without being apprehended.

J. You are currently looking at a copy of the 12th edition of Language

Files.

This would be true if

1. My computer was open to the textbook.

20. Assign truth values to propositions expressed by each of the following

sentences:

B. To have a truth value means to be either true or false.

The truth value of this proposition is true.

C. The reference of a sentence is the proposition expressed by it.

The truth value of this proposition is false.

D. The sense of a sentence is the proposition expressed by it.

This is false.

F. The reference of a sentence is not a set of individuals in the world.

This can either be true or false.

G. The reference of a sentence is a truth value. False

H. If you understand the proposition expressed by some sentence,

then you know its truth conditions. True

J. It’s possible to know the truth value of some proposition without

knowing its truth conditions.

The truth value of this proposition is false

K. For every proposition, there is somebody in the world who knows

its actual truth value.
 The truth value of this proposition is false

21. For each of the following pairs of sentences, tell whether they have the
same truth conditions or different truth conditions, and explain how you
know.

A. I ate turkey at Thanksgiving. I ate turkey at New Years.

○ They have similar, but not the exact same, truth
conditions. The truth conditions for both involve having
eaten a particular type of poultry during a holiday at some
point in the past, but the particular holiday differs between
the two.
B. There’s a sofa in the living room. There’s a couch in the living
room. These share the same truth conditions because the subjects
are synonymous.

D. Susan closed the door. The door was closed by Susan.

They have the same truth conditions; they both answer who closed
what. The only changes in the sentence are syntactical changes.

E. Penguins live in Antarctica. Penguins live on the coldest continent

on Earth.

Both truth values are true due to being able to answer the same
question of “Where do penguins live?” The only difference is of the
environment or location that they reside in.

23. For each pair of the following sentences, determine whether one entails
the other, whether they are mutually entailing, whether they are
incompatible, or none of the above. Explain your answers.

B. My last name is Jones. My father’s last name was Jones.

○ This is none of the above. Your father’s last name being Jones
does not necessarily mean that your last name will be Jones,
nor does your last name being Jones necessarily mean that
your father’s name was Jones (most common example being
when a woman adopting her husband’s last name makes her
name different from her father’s). However, they are not
incompatible because it’s very plausible that you share a last
name with your father.
C. Bob inherited a car from his grandma. Bob owns a car.
○ This is also none of the above. Bob inheriting a car from his
grandma in the past does not necessarily mean that he owns
that car (or any other) in the present (such as in the case that
he sold it). Neither does Bob currently owning a car mean that
he once inherited a car from someone else. They are not
incompatible because it is possible that Bob inherited a car and
currently owns that (or another) car.
D. Sally lives in Ohio. Sally lives in Europe. These are incompatible
statements. Ohio is not in Europe.
E. Sally lives in Ohio. Sally lives in the United States. These
statements entail each other. Ohio is in the United States.

F. Polly speaks Russian. Polly is from Russia.

Mutual entailment as the two entail each other. If Polly grew up in

Russia, then she speaks Russian.

G. Polly doesn’t speak Russian. Polly is from Russia.

If Polly was born in Russia and didn’t grow up in Russia, then it

is possible that she does not speak Russian. However, if Polly grew
up in Russia, she would have had to learn Russian in order to be a
part of everyday life in Russia. As the latter is the most likely
situation, the two propositions are incompatible.

I. Not all dogs bark. Some dogs don’t bark.

The sentence “Some dogs don’t bark” entails the first sentence
due to the fact that is some dogs do not bark then it has to be
true that not all dogs bark. The same goes for the first sentence
entailing the second. If not all dogs bark, then some dogs do n
ot bark has to be true. These sentences are mutually entailing.

K. Polly thinks that fido is a dog. Fido is a dog.

Fido is a dog entails that Polly must think that Fido is a dog if in fact
Fido is truly a dog. However, if we try to see if the first entails the
 second we see Polly thinking Fido is a dog does not necessarily
mean that he is a dog.

24. If two propositions are mutually entailing, what, if anything, do you know
about their truth conditions? Explain, using specific examples.

If two propositions are mutually entailing, then that means their truth
conditions are the same. For example, the statements “Sally owns a
housecat” and “Sally owns a Felis catus” are mutually entailing and they
have the same truth condition of “The individual named Sally is in
possession of a small domesticated feline.”

27. Each underlined expression below is an idiom. For each of them,

explain (i) what its non-compositional, idiomatic meaning is, and (ii) what its
compositional meaning is.

A. The cat is out of the bag.

○ i) Its idiomatic meaning is that some secret/gossip is now
openly known by everyone.
○ ii) Its compositional meaning is that a small feline is
outside of a flexible container/sack.

C. That’s water under the bridge.

Idiomatically it means a problem between two people has been

resolved. Literally, it means water beneath a unifying crossing.

D. A picture is worth a thousand words.

● Its idiomatic meaning is that a picture or painting or visual

representation tells more about the subject in less time
than reading a composition about it
● Its compositional meaning is that one will pay the same
amount for a picture as they would for a composition
containing one thousand words.

F. It was Polly’s birthday, so I picked up the tab.

● The idiomatic meaning is that I paid for the tab instead of Polly
as it was her birthday as a generous gesture.
 ● Its compositional meaning is that I physically picked up the tab
for Polly’s birthday.

Bonus point:

33. Why is lexical semantics alone not enough to interpret the

meaning of a phrase or a sentence? On the other hand, could we
work on compositional semantics without having information from the
lexical side? Why or why not?

Lexical semantics alone is not enough to interpret the meaning of a

phrase or a sentence because the order of words/syntax also
contributes to meaning past the individual definitions of words. For
example, we know that “Savannah likes Brian” and “Brian likes
Savannah” have two different meanings despite having the exact
same words. However, lexical semantics is key to compositional
semantics – without understanding the meanings of individual
components, there would be no way of knowing how the way they are
put together changes/forms the meaning of the whole phrase.

11. Consider the verbs sweat and perspire. Do they have the same
sense? If not, how are they different? Do they have the same
reference? If not, how are they different? Would you consider them to
be synonyms, according to the definition of synonyms in File 6.2?
Why or why not?

Sweat and perspire do have the same sense as the mental image for
both conjures beads of water dripping from a body. The reference is
the same as human bodies involved in sports or who live in hot
climates perspire or sweat. Per page 431, “two words are
synonymous if they have exactly the same reference” which thereby
identifies sweat and perspire as being synonyms.