Exercises for Semantics, Syntax, and Pragmatics:
1. For each group of words given below, state what semantic property or properties are shared by the (a) words and the (b) words, and what semantic property or properties distinguish between the class of (a) words and (b) words.
A a. widower, mother, sister, aunt, seamstress
b. widow, father, brother, uncle, tailor
The (a) and (b) words are_________________________________
The (a) words are_______________________________________
The (b) words are _______________________________________
B a. mare, bitch, doe, ewe, vixen,
b. actress, girl, maiden, spinster, witch
The (a) and (b) words are_________________________________
The (a) words are_______________________________________
The (b) words are _______________________________________
C a. sapling, seeding, bud, shoot
b. child, kitten, puppy, larva
The (a) and (b) words are_________________________________
The (a) words are_______________________________________
The (b) words are _______________________________________
D a. ball, table, ring, rock
b. sincerety, courage, nobility, faith
The (a) and (b) words are_________________________________
The (a) words are_______________________________________
The (b) words are _______________________________________
2. Which of the following sentences is ambiguous? Why?
1) The girl found a glove on Main Street.
2) The girl found a book in New York.
3) The girl found a book on Main Street
4) The girl found a book on language.
3. There are several kinds of antonymy. By writing a C, G, or R in column C, indicate whether the pairs in column A and B are complementary, gradable, or relational opposites:
A B C
good bad
expensive cheap
pass fail
lessor lessee
hot cold
poor rich
teacher pupil
asleep awake
husband wife
legal illegal
beautiful ugly
parent offspring
alive dead
rude polite
larger smaller
giant midget
4. Ambiguity may be lexical or syntactic. The following sentences are syntactically ambiguous. The double meaning is not due to any ambiguous words, but rather to the fact that the words can appear in two different phrase-structure trees. Indicate the two meanings of the sentences, and give the phrase-structure tree of the sentences.
1) The girl saw the dog with the telescope.
2) Mary and Joe or Bill frightened the dog.
5. Consider the following conversation:
A: Would you like to come to our party tonight?
B: I’m afraid I’m not feeling so well today.
Among the four maxims of CP, state which one B is intentionally flouting, and what implicature is produced from B’s saying.
6. Analyze the following conversation, and state which of the four maxims B is intentionally flouting, and what conversational implicature is produced from B’s saying.
A: Shall we get something for the kids?
B: Yes. But I veto I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M.
7. Analyze the following Chinese conversation, and state which maxims the participants are intentionally flouting, and what conversational implicatures are produced from Yao and Fang's questions and answers.
(背景：姚玉卿，女，电影演员，因角色需要，她拜方之秋为师学戏，一段时间以后，他们在喝咖啡时的对话)
(1)方：姚小姐，学戏和拍电影哪个更累？
(2)姚：和你学戏不累，不过就这样坐这儿喝咖啡更好，最好永远这样。
(3)方：对不起。
(4)姚：是不是你已经结婚了？
(5)方：不，不，不。是我已经订婚了，是我师傅的外孙女……
(6)姚：你爱她，对不对？
(7)方：我师傅对我很好。
（电视剧《情陷上海滩》）
I. Write the symbol which corresponds to each of the following phonetic description. (10%)
( F ) 1. When the obstruction created by the speech organs is total or complete, the speech sound produced with obstruction audibly released and the air passing out again is called a fricative.