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Nha Trang University
Faculty of Foreign Languages
SEMANTICS & PRAGMATICS
Compiled by Pham Thi Kim Uyen, MA in TESOL
Nha Trang, Jannuary 2012.
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COURSE OUTLINE
Subject
SEMANTICS & PRAGMATICS
Units of credit
2 (30 periods)
Prerequisites
Grammar, Phonology, Morphology,
Syntax
Suggested self- study
90 periods
Instructor
Ph
ạm Thị Kim Uyên
Contact detail

cell phone: 0918 599 505
Textbooks:
1. Yule, G. (2006). The Study of Language. Cambridge University Press.
3. Fromkin, V.; Rodman, R.;Collins, P. and Blair, D. (1999). An Introduction to
Language. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.
4. Pham Thi Kim Uyen (compiled). Semantics and Pragmatics. Nha Trang
University.
Week
Contents

Textbook
1
Course introduction and meanings of
words
(Textbook 1, 2)
2
Semantic features and semantic roles
(Textbook 1,2 )
3
Synonymy and antonymy
(Textbook 1, 2)
4
Hyponymy and prototype
(Textbook 1)
5
Homophones, homonymy and polysemy
(Textbook 1)
6
Word play, metonymy and collocation
(Textbook 1)
7
Ambiguity, paraphrases and entailment
(Textbook 1, 2)
8
Semantic review
(Textbook 3)
9
Invisible meaning, context, deixis
(Textbook 1)
10

Reference and inference
(Textbook 1)
11
Anaphora and presupposition
(Textbook 1, 2)
12
Speech acts
(Textbook 1)
13
Politeness
(Textbook 1)
14
Pragmatic review
(Textbook 3)
15
Revision and end-term test
(Textbook 3)
3
Subject objectives:
This subject provides a lively introduction to semantics and pragmatics. Its
specific objectives are to help students:
1. Deal with the conventional meaning conveyed by the use of words,
phrases and sentences.
2. Recognize what speakers mean by their utterances.
3. Explore a wide range of questions related to semantics and
pragmatics.
Assessment for all students
- Final test : 50%
- Mid-term test: 50%, including:
Class attendance: 5% (> 3 absences: FAIL)

In- class exercises: 15%
Group presentation: 30%
Guidelines for group presentation
1. A group of 5 students formed randomly will be working together and each
student will be given an individual mark by the teacher, the other members and
the other groups.
2. Each group will present the contents given, including explaining definitions
and giving illustrated examples. All kinds of other activities that help the class
have better understanding of the lessons are encouraged.
3. The presentation is limited around 10 minutes. Any presentation that exceeds
or falls short of the time allowed will be deducted by 10% of the total mark.
4. Copying all information from the textbooks mentioned above is
prohibited. A penalty of 5% will be applied to any violence.
5. The presentation slides must be submitted by the due date of presentation
or one day later. Overdue ones will be given a penalty of 10% for each late
week. NO exceptions will be entertained.
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SEMANTICS
The words Fire Department make it sound like they’re the ones who are starting
fires, doesn’t it? It should be called the “Extinguishing Department”. We don’t call
the police the “Crime Department”. Also, the “Bomb Squad” sounds like a
terrorist gang. The same is true of wrinkle cream. Doesn’t it sound like it causes
wrinkles? And why would a doctor prescribe pain pills? I already have pain! I
need relief pills!
Carlin (1997)
From the above examples, Yule (2006:100) gives the following definition of
Semantics: “Semantics is the study of the meaning of words, phrases and
sentences. Linguistic semantics deals with the conventional meaning conveyed by
the use of words, phrases and sentences of a language.”
* Conceptual and associative meaning

According to Yule (2006:100), “Conceptual meaning covers those basic, essential
components of meaning that are conveyed by the literal use of a word. However,
different people might have different associations or connotations attached to a
word.”
Ex: The basic components of a word like “woman” might include “adult, female
human being”. However, different people might have different associations to the
word like “sweet”, ‘attractive” or “talkative” or “inferior”.
Fromkin, Rodman, Collins & Blair (1997: 205) use other terms: denotation and
connotation. Denotative meaning “is the type of meaning which may be describe d
in terms of a set of semantic properties which serve to identify the particular
concept associated with the word in question.” Connotation appears when a word
“may convey certain affective or evaluative associations.”
* Semantic features
Semantic features are "the smallest units of meaning in a word." (Richards et al,
1987: 254). Yule (2006) finds out some basic elements like [ +animate], [ +human], [ [
+female], [ +adult] which are helpful in differentiating the meaning of each word in a
language from others.
Ex: The noun father may have the following semantic features: [+human],
[+male], [+mature], and [+paternal].
* Semantic roles
According to Yule (2006), the noun phrases in a sentence can fulfill some roles as
follows.
Agent is the entity that performs an action.
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Theme is the entity that is involved in or affected by the action. The theme can
also be an entity that is simply being described.
Ex: The boy kicked the ball.
agent theme
The room is clean.
theme

If the agent uses another entity in order to perform an action, that other entity fills
the role of the instrument.
Ex: He opened the door with the pin.
instrument
When a noun phrase is used to designate the entity as the person who has the
feeling, perception or state, it fills the semantic role of experiencer.
Ex: She enjoyed the party.
experiencer
Where an entity is fills the role of location.
Where the entity moves from is the source and where it moves to is the goal.
Ex: She saw a cow in the yard.
location
We traveled from Hanoi to Nhatrang.
source goal
* Lexical relations
Synonymy
Synonyms: Two or more words with very closely related meanings.
Ex: big / large
broad / wide
buy / purchase
We should notice that there are many occasions in which one word cannot be
replaced by another although they are synonymous. For example, the word center
sounds normal in We live in the city center, but middle doesn’t fit in this sentence.
Antonymy
Antonyms: Two forms with opposite meanings.
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Ex: fast / slow
true / false
There are three main types of antonyms: gradable antonyms, non-gradable
antonyms and reversives.

Gradable (opposites along a scale) antonyms can be used in comparative
constructions (Ex: I’m taller than her). In addition, the negative of one member of
a gradable pair does not necessarily imply the other (Ex: not big doesn’t mean
small).
Non-gradable antonyms (complementary pairs): Comparative constructions are
not normally used here, but the negative test is (Ex: not alive means dead, true
means not false)
Reversives: Antonyms of this type is found by ‘doing the reverse’. (Ex: unpack
can be understood as the opposite of pack, it doesn’t mean not pack).
Hyponymy: When the meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another.
animal
mammal insect reptile
dog cat ant bee snake crocodile
In this hierarchical diagram, the meaning of insect is included in the meaning of
ant, so ant is the hyponym of insect. Similarly, snake is the hyponym of reptile. In
these two examples, insect and reptile are called the superordinate (=higher level)
terms.
Two or more words that share the same superordinate terms are co-hyponyms. For
example, ant and bee are co-hyponyms and their superordinate term is insect.
Prototypes: The idea of “the characteristic instance” of a category
Ex: robin is the prototype of bird
chair is the prototype of furniture
The categorization process involved in prototypes can be different in different
contexts. For instance, most Vietnamese people would recognize the word lotus as
the prototype of the category flower but those in the other countries might
disagree.
Homophones: When two or more different (written) forms have the same
pronunciation, they are described as homophones.
Ex: pale /pail right /write
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Homonymy: The term homonyms is used when one form (written or spoken) has
two or more unrelated meanings.
Ex: bank: (of a river) / (financial institution)
pupil: (at school) / (in the eye)
Polysemy: Two or more words have the same form and related meanings.
Ex: head (the object on the top of one’s body,
on top of a glass of beer,
person at the top of a company)
A dictionary can help if we are not sure one word is an example of homonymy or
polysemy. Yule (2006) suggests that if the word has a numbered list of different
meanings within a single entry, it’s polysemous. If two words are treated as
homonyms, they will be categorized in two entries.
Word play is usually used for humorous effect. Homophones, homonymy and
polysemy do contribute to a lot of word play.
Ex: Why is 6 afraid of 7?
Because 789. (use of homophones)
Metonymy: Using one word to refer to the other thanks to the close connection
between these words.
Ex: She is boiling a kettle. (kettle -> water in the kettle)
They need a roof for a month. (roof-> house)
Collocation: Words frequently occur together.
Ex: wear make-up
grow a beard
There are some common ways to form collocation:
- verb + noun
- adjective +noun
- adverb + adjective
- adjective + preposition
- noun + noun
* Ambiguity

“A word or sentence is ambiguous when it has more than one sense.” (Hurford &
Heasley, 1997).
A word is ambiguous “if it has two (or more) synonyms that are not themselves
synonyms of each other.” (Hurford & Heasley, 1997). Thus, both polysemy and
homonymy do contribute to lexical ambiguity.
“A sentence which is ambiguous because its words relate to each other in different
ways, even though none of the individual words are ambiguous, is structurally (or
grammatically) ambiguous.” (Hurford & Heasley, 1997)
* Paraphrase
Sentences are paraphrases if they have the same meaning (except possibly for
minor differences in emphases).” (Fromkin, Rodman, Collins & Blair, 1997:209)
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There are some ways to paraphrase a sentence:
- Change individual words
- Change the sentence structure
- Change both individual words and the sentence structure
* Entailment
“[An] entailment is something that necessarily follows from what is asserted.”
(Yule, 1996)
There are two types of entailment: one-way (or asymmetrical) entailment and two-
way (or symmetrical) entailment
We should keep in mind that:
- Hyponymic relations between words result in a great number of one-way
entailment.
- Paraphrases are two-way entailments.
- Relational antonyms do contribute to two-way entailments
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SEMANTIC EXERCISES
1A. Characterize conceptual and associative meanings of these words: child,
woman, fox, slender

1B. How do the following words in each pair differ in connotation?
politician, statesman cautious, timid
lawyer, shyster inquisitive, nosey
bargain, haggle sensitive, touchy
violin, fiddle
1C. It might seem that any name would be appropriate as a label for a commercial
product as long as it is easy to remember.
However, companies with products to sell make great expenditures of time, talent
and money to select brand names which will project the preferred ‘image’ for cars,
cosmetics, detergents et al., but names are often chosen for their connotation
rather than for what they denote. Why is Caterpillar a good name for an earth-
moving tractor but not for a sports car? How would you rank the following as
possible names for a sports car?
Butterfly Cheetah Dolphin Owl Rattler XL4
Would you care to suggest others?
Give an example of a possible name for a men’s cologne (which of course is never
called perfume) and an example of a name which is very unlikely.
2A. For each group of words given below, state what semantic features are
shared by the (a) words and the (b) words, and what semantic features distinguish
between the classes of (a) words and (b) words
1. (a) widow, mother, sister, aunt, seamstress
(b) widower, father, brother, uncle, tailor
The (a) and (b) words are ______________
The (a) words are ____________________
The (b) words are ____________________
2. (a) bachelor, man, son, paperboy, pope, chief
(b) bull, rooster, drake, ram
3. (a) table, pencil, cup, house, ship, car
(b) milk, tea, wine, beer, water, soft drink
4. (a) book, temple, mountain, road, tractor

(b) idea, love, charity, sincerity, bravery, fear
5. (a) rose, lily, tulip, daisy, sunflower, violet
(b) ash (t
ần bì), oak (sồ
i), sycamore (sung dâu), willow (li
ễu), beech (sồi)
(c) pine (thông), cedar (tuy
ết tùng), jew (thuỷ tùng), spruce (vân sam),
cypress (bách)
6. (a) ask, tell, say, talk, converse
(b) shout, whisper, mutter, drawl, holler
7. (a) lobster, shrimp, crab, oyster, mussel
(b) trout, sole, herring, salmon, tunny, mackerel
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2B. Identify the semantic features of each of the following words
1. aunt
2. hen
3. oak
4. flower
5. palm
6. bachelor
7. actress
8. plod
9. ewe
10. fly
11. stallion
12. doe
13. elm.
14. chick
15. pap

16. tiptoe
17. pine
18. owe
19. honesty
20. maid
2C. Consider the following table. How many semantic features can you find in
each of the given words
English
Vietnamese
Chinese
brother
anh
huynh
em
đ
ệ
sister
mu
ội
ch
ị
t
ỷ
2D. Explain the contradiction of each of the following sentences
1. Christopher is killing phonemes.
2. The tiger remained alive for an hour after the hunter killed it.
3. My brother is a spinster.
4. The boy swallowed the chocolate and then chewed it.
5. Babies can lift one ton.
6. Puppies are human.

7. My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor.
8. The bigger key and John opened the door.
9. James sliced the ideas.
10. Jack’s courage chewed the bones.
3A. The following sentences consist of a verb, its noun phrase subject, and various
objects. Identify the semantic relation of each noun phrase by writing the letter a,
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p, l, i, s or g above the noun, standing for agent, patient, location, instrument,
source, or goal.
1. The boy took the books from the cupboard with a handcart.
2. Mary found a ball in the house
3. The children ran from the playground to the wading pool.
4. One of the men unlocked all the doors with a paper clip.
5. John melted the ice with a blowtorch.
6. The sun melted the ice.
7. The ice melted.
8. Broken ice still melts in the sun.
9. The farmer’s daughter loaded hay onto the truck.
10. The farmer’s daughter loaded the hay with a pitchfork.
11. The hay was loaded onto the truck by the farmer.
3B. It is often the case that the subject of the sentence has the semantic role of
agent, as can be seen in the previous exercise. With verbs like receive, however,
the subject is not the agent. Think of five other verbs in which the subject is
clearly not the agent. Can you identify the actual semantic role of the subject in
your examples? For instance, we would surmise that the subject of receive has the
semantic role of goal.
3C. Identify the semantic role of each noun phrase in the sentences below.
1. In October, I gazed from the wooden bridge into the small river behind our
college.
2. I have forgotten everything that I learned in grade school.

3. The Grand Tetons tower majestically over the valley.
4. The snow completely buried my car during the last storm.
5. Fifty kilos of cocaine were seized by the DEA.
6. Lou was awarded one thousand dollars’ worth of travel.
7. The hurricane destroyed the island.
8. Their ingenuity never ceases to amaze me.
4A. The following pairs of words are synonymous, but they do not share all their
senses. For each pair, (a) give a sentence in which the two can be used
interchangeably, (b) give another sentence in which only one of them can be used.
1. deep / profound
2. ripe / mature
3. broad / wide
4. earth / soil
5. side / edge
4B. English, because of its double-barreled vocabulary, Germanic and Romance,
seems to have numerous pairs and even trios of synonyms. Ten such pairs of
nouns are given below. For each pair try to decide what difference the two words
have—a context in which one is possible but the other is not, or a difference in the
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effect created where they share a context. You may also want to say which is of
Old English origin and which came from French.
ache, pain error, mistake
altitude, height force, strength
center, middle labor, work
cord, string pace, step
dale, valley sight, vision
In the phrase a funny story we can replace funny with the synonymous adjective
humorous. In a funny feeling a better synonym for funny is peculiar, but humorous
and peculiar are not synonymous with each other. Each predicate below is
illustrated in several contexts. Give a synonym for each context and test to see

whether a single term can be synonymous in more than one of the contexts.
a clear sky, a clear stream, a clear speech
a wild party, wild geese, wild rice
5A. Are the following pairs of words complementary antonyms?
1. chalk / cheese Yes / No
2. same / different Yes / No
3. copper / tin Yes / No
4. dead / alive Yes / No
5. married / unmarried Yes / No
6. love / hate Yes / No
5B. Are the following pairs of words relational antonyms?
1. below / above Yes / No
2. love / hate Yes / No
3. conceal / reveal Yes / No
4. grandparent/ grandchild Yes / No
5. greater than/ less than Yes / No
6. own / belong to Yes / No
5C. Identify the continuous scale of values between the two given words
1. love / hate
2. hot / cold
3. big/ small
4. rich / poor
5. none / all
6. possibly / certainly
7. never / always
5D. There are several kinds of antonymy. By writing a c, g or r beside each pair,
indicate whether the pairs in columns A and B are complementary, gradable, or
relational opposites:
A B
good bad

expensive cheap
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parent offspring
beautiful ugly
false true
lessor lessee
pass fail
hot cold
legal illegal
larger smaller
poor rich
fast slow
asleep awake
husband wife
rude polite
5E. When a jury decides a verdict, guilty and not guilty are treated as _______
antonyms.
5F. Among the following pairs of antonyms, which are binary and which are non-
binary? What problems do you find in making this decision?
true, false
tall, short
expensive, cheap
beautiful, ugly
happy, unhappy
pass, fail
hot, cold
deep, shallow
legal, illegal
rich, poor
fast, slow

rude, polite
5G. Give an antonym for the adjective in each of the following collocations:
a light package
a light color
a tall building
low prices
low heels
a hard problem
a hard chair
a soft voice
a narrow road
a narrow mind
a thick board
thick soup
a sweet apple
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sweet tea
a strong body
strong feelings
What is the antonym of raw in the following?
raw fruit, raw materials, raw weather
6A. Identify the difference between a hypernym and a hyponym. Then draw a
chart to show the relationship between
1. animal and foal
2. fowl and rooster
3. animal and child
4. plant and coconut
5. plant and rose
6. vocal organ and tongue tip
7. vehicle and convertible

8. locomote and amble
9. head and eyelash
6B. Provide three hyponyms for each of the following terms: insect, clergyman,
sport, walk, talk
6C. Identify a superordinate (included term) for each of the following sets
1. physics, biology, botany
2. chancellor, dean, chairman
3. aunt, grandmother, cousin, nephew
4. coffee, tea, milk
6D. Rearrange the following set of terms from the most general (the highest
superordinate) to most specific (the lowest hyponym)
1. animal, feline, lynx, mammal, vertebrate
2. rectangle, quadrilateral, polygon, parallelogram, square
7A. What parts does a prototype shoe have? Do those parts have parts?
7B. The extension of bird includes robins, eagles, hawks, parrots, ducks, geese,
ostriches and penguins. What is the intension? What do all the referents of bird
have in common and which is not shared by non-birds? Which of these—robins,
eagles, etc.— seem to you to be closer to a prototype and which farther away?
Will all speakers of English agree about this?
Distinctions that we take for granted often turn out to have fuzzy boundaries when
we try to explain the difference. We might say, for example, that the difference
between a tree and a bush is a matter of size, but a tall bush can be bigger than a
tree, and in any case a bonsai tree and a sapling are smaller than any bushes.
8. Find the homophone for each of these words:
1. altar
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2. beech
3. boar
4.coarse
5. crews

6. deer
7. draft
8. fare
9. flour
10. grate
11. herd
12. knight
13. nose
14. leek
16. maid
16. pail
17. reign
18. scene
19. thrown
20. whole
9. Dictionaries have a single entry for the common noun needle but list various
‘meanings,’ including the eleven below. Is this a single lexeme? If you think it
should be considered as more than one lexeme, how would you divide? (Don’t be
influenced by the order in which the definitions appear here.)
1 the thin, short, pointed leaf of some trees, such as the pine and spruce.
2 a pointed instrument, usually metal, with a sharp point and an eye through
which thread is inserted, for sewing.
3 one of a pair of pointed instruments, usually metal, each with a hook at
one end, used for crocheting.
4 one of two or more pointed instruments, made of metal, plastic or other
material, around which yarn is wrapped, used for knitting.
5 a pointed, hollow instrument connected to a container which is fitted with
a plunger, used for injecting medicine, drugs or other liquid substances into
the body.
6 a pointed, hollow instrument through which dyes can be inserted into the

skin of an individual, creating tattoo designs.
7 a pointed instrument which is heated in some way and used for burning
signs in wood.
8 a pointed instrument which is part of a gramophone and which moves in
the continuous groove of a record.
9 a pointed piece of metal or other substance, as on a compass,
speedometer, thermometer or the like, which moves and indicates some
value, numerical or other, from a range of values.
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10 the slender, tapered top of a spire.
11 a rock formation which is very narrow in proportion to its height.
10A. Classify each of the following words as either polysemous or homonymous.
If you think that the word is polysemous, try to say how the two senses are related.
After considering your own intuitions, you might consult a dictionary to see if the
two senses are listed as subparts of one entry or under separate entries.
1. nail (fingernail vs. carpenter’s nail)
2. fire (conflagration vs. shooting a weapon)
3. fire (shoot a weapon vs. dismiss an employee)
4. plane (aircraft vs. flat or level surface)
5. craze (to make insane vs. to make a pattern of cracks in the glaze of a
ceramic object)
6. book (printed matter vs. to charge with a crime)
7. swallow (small bird vs. to ingest through the throat)
8. story (tale vs. level of building)
9. to waffle (breakfast food vs. to waver)
10B. Several nouns are listed below. Each is followed by two or more illustrations
of how the lexeme is used or by two or more short definitions. For each noun try
to decide whether the form represents one lexeme with two or more senses
(polysemy) or two or more different lexemes that happen to be pronounced (and
spelled) alike (homonymy). Don’t consult a dictionary before finishing this

exercise.
bark the bark of a dog; the bark of a tree
bit a tool for drilling into wood; the cutting edge of an axe; the mouthpie ce
of a bridle; a small quantity of any substance; a small role in a play or film
compound a substance composed of two or more elements; an enclosure
containing land and several buildings
corn a grain (in North America, maize; in Scotland, rye); a calloused place
in the epidermis, especially on the foot
flight the act of flying; the act of fleeing
foot the foot of a person or animal; the foot of a hill; the foot of a bed: the
foot of a table; the foot of a
ladder; the foot of a page; 12 inches
horn one of two hard, projected growths on the head of certain animals; a
wind instrument
junk any useless material; a type of sailing-vessel
pole a long, comparatively slender piece of wood or metal, more or less
rounded; either of the two
points, north and south, where the earth’s axis of rotation meets the surface;
one of the two points on a battery where opposite electrical forces are
concentrated
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quarry an animal that is being pursued or hunted; a place from which stone
is excavated
school an educational institution; a group of fish of the same species
moving together
tattoo markings made on the skin by injecting a dye; a signal on a drum or
bugle
11. Answer these riddles and explain why they have humorous effect.
1. What do you call a kitten drinking lemonade?
2. What do you call a fish without an eye?

3. When does a boat show affection?
4. Why was the baby ant confused?
5. Why did the banana go to the doctor?
6. What is the difference between a jeweler and a jailer?
7. What is in the middle of Paris?
8. If you drop a yellow hat in the Red Sea, what does it become?
9. What grows down when it grows up?
10. What occurs once in a minute, twice in a moment and never in a thousand
years?
11. How could a cowboy ride into town on Friday, stay two days, and ride out
on Friday?
12. What can you put in a wood box that will make it lighter?
13. What is the largest ant in the world?
14. Would you rather have a tiger eat you or a lion?
12A. Talking of a pair of garden birds in early summer: They’ve got two hungry
beaks to feed. What figure of speech is seen in the sentence in italics. What is the
vehicle? What presupposition is needed to understand the example?
12B. What do the underlined words substitute for?
1. He succeeded to the crown.
2. He is too fond of red tape.
3. Backstairs did influence.
4. He is the best pen of the day.
5. Who brought fire and sword into our country?
6. We need a force of a thousand rifles.
7. The kettle is boiling.
8. The conquerors smote the city.
9. Why don’t you recognize the power of the purse?
10. Tom is taller than John by a head.
11. She has a good head of business.
12. The princess captures the hearts of the nation.

13. The marble speaks.
14. All our glass is kept in the cupboard.
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15. I have never read Keat.
13. There are some common ways to form collocations. Fill in the blanks.
1. verb + noun: t_____ a vacation
m____ progress
c________ fire
p_____ attention
s______ electricity
2. adjective +noun: a__________ measure
h________ rain
A b____ decision
r_______ exercise
m________ voyage
3. adverb + adjective: h________ qualified
c________ chosen
c________ satisfied
f_______ aware
r______ decorated
4. adjective + preposition excited _____
sorry ______
different ____
shocked ____
hopeless ____
5. noun + noun: birth c_________
beauty c_______
farewell p______
fuel t__________
ceasefire a______

14A. Both polysemy and homonymy do contribute to lexical ambiguity. Explain
the lexical ambiguity of the following sentences by providing two sentences that
paraphrase the two meanings.
1. The captain corrected the list.
2. The long drill is boring.
3. When he got the clear title to the land, it was a good deed
4. The proprietor of the fish store was the sole owner.
5. We like the ball.
6. They passed the port at night.
7. He was knocked over by the punch.
8. They were waiting at the bank.
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9. The camel swallowed the chocolate and then ate it.
14B. The following sentences may be either lexically or structurally ambiguous or
both. Provide paraphrases showing that you comprehend all the meanings.
1. I saw him walking by the bank.
2. We laughed at the colorful ball.
3. The police were urged to stop drinking by the fifth.
4. I said I would file it on Thursday.
5. I cannot recommend visiting professors too highly.
15A. Are the following pairs paraphrases of each other? Indicate your answer by
circling either P (paraphrase) or NP (not paraphrase).
1. John is the parent of James. P/NP
James is the child of John.
2. John is the parent of James P/NP
James is the parent of John
3. My father owns this car. P/NP
This car belongs to my father.
4. The fly was on the wall. P/NP
The wall was under the fly.

5. Some countries have no coastline. P/NP
Not all countries have coastline.
6. The hunter bit the lion. P/NP
The lion bit the hunter.
7. The hunter bit the lion. P/NP
The lion was bitten by the hunter.
8. Sam sliced the salami with a knife. P/NP
Sam used a knife to slice the salami.
9. Jack was injured by a stone. P/NP
Jack was injured with a stone.
10. The house was concealed by the tree. P/NP
The house was hidden by the tree.
11. It is hard to lasso elephants. P/NP
Elephants are hard to lasso.
12. The needle is too short. P/NP
The needle is not long enough.
15B. Give possible paraphrases of each of the following sentences.
1. It’s cold in here.
2. Her mother is unhappy.
3. My friends loathes string beans.
4. I’ll look for that book right now.
5. Steve hugged Jane.
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16A. Distinguish one –way entailment (=>) from two –way entailment (<=>) in
the following sentences.
1. John is a bachelor. John is a man.
2. Eliza plays the flute. Someone / Eliza plays a musical instrument.
3. Alan planted roses. Someone / Alan planted flowers.
4. I’m wearing black boots. I’m wearing black footwear.
5. Mary owns three canaries. Mary owns a canary.

6. All dogs have fleas. My dog has fleas. / Some dogs have fleas.
7. My father owns this car. This car belongs to my father.
8. The Crawfords sold their house to the Wilsons. The Wilsons bought
the house from the Crawfords.
9. I gave Erin the summons. I gave the summons to Erin.
10. I saw Ted at the party. It was Ted that I saw at the party.
11. It was fifty miles to the nearest service station. The nearest station is fifty
miles away.
12. Alvin is Mary’s husband. Mary is married.
13. My pet cobra likes the taste of chocolate fudge. My pet cobra finds
chocolate fudge tasty.
14. My uncle teaches at the community college for a living. My
uncle is a teacher.
15. The wolf killed the bear. The bear is dead.
16. Jenny and Kevin are twins. Kevin and Jenny are twins.
17. Some countries have no coastline. Not all countries have a coastline.
18. John is the parent of James. James is the child of John.
19. Bachelors prefer redhaired girls. Girls with red hair are preferred
by unmarried men.
16B. Which of the following pairs illustrates entailment?
1. George Washington chopped down a cherry tree entails George Washington
chopped down a tree.
2. George Washington chopped down all the cherry trees entails George
Washington chopped down all the trees.
3. George Washington did not chop down a tree entails George Washington did
not chop down a cherry tree.
16C. The following True or False?
1. John did not train an elephant entails John did not train a mammal.
2. John trained a mammal entails John trained an elephant.
3. John did not train an elephant entails John trained a mammal.

4. John trained an elephant entails John trained a mammal.
16D. Which of the following sentences entail which?
1. The students liked the course.
2. The students loved the course.
3. The rain stopped.
4. The rain ceased.
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16E. For each sentence below, write another sentence that is entailed by it.
1. Martha killed George.
2. Tiny Abner bought a new desk.
3. Tom plays the violin beautifully.
4. My mother paints pictures.
5. Kevin is Kim’s husband.
6. Fred drove to Francine’s apartment in his convertible.
17. For the following set of sentences, state what truth relation holds between A
and B: presupposition or entailment.
1. A John knew that the window was open
B. The window was open.
2. A. John passed the test.
B. John took the test.
3. A. Biff likes Muffy’s new car.
B. Muffy has a new car.
4. A. Biff likes Muffy’s new Mercedes-Benz.
B. Biff likes Muffy’s new car.
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PRAGMATICS
What is Pragmatics?
The following example is borrowed from David Lodge's Paradise News:
'I just met the old Irishman and his son, coming out of the toilet.'
'I wouldn't have thought there was room for the two of them.'

'No silly, I mean I was coming out of the toilet. They were waiting.' (1992:65)
In this short story, the speakers misunderstood each other because they had
different ways of interpreting the same utterance. “Communication clearly
depends on not only recognizing the meanings of words in an utterance, but
recognizing what speakers mean by their utterances. The study of what speakers
mean, or “speaker meaning”, is called pragmatics.” (Yule, 2006)
* Context:
- Linguistic context (co-text): The co-text of a word is the set of other words used
in the same phrase or sentence
Ex: I go to the bank to withdraw some cash.
In this example, to withdraw and some cash are the co-text of the word bank
which helps deciding which type of bank is meant.
-Physical context is the location of a given word, the situation in which it is used,
as well as timing, all of which aid proper understating of the words.
Ex: An employee often goes to the bank every Monday. When she talked to
another employee, “I’ll go to the bank.” this Monday morning, the co-worker
would immediately interpret that she would go to the financial institute.
* Deixis: Deictic expressions are those which we can only understand in terms of
the speaker’s intended meaning. Deictic expressions originate from the Greek
word deixis which means “pointing” via language.
- Person deixis pointing to things (it, this, that, the chair) and people: (him,
them, these women)
- Spatial deixis pointing to a location (here, there, near that)
- Temporal deixis pointing to a time ( now, then, last year)
* Reference: “an act by which a speaker (or writer) uses language to enable a
listener (or reader) to identify something.” (Yule, 2006)
Ex: H
ọa mi tóc nâu
singer M
ỹ Tâm

Lady Yellow the neighbor always wears yellow.
* Inference: An inference is additional information used by the listener to create a
connection between what is said and what must be meant. For example, we can
use names associated with things to refer to people and uses names of people to
refer to things.
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Ex: A waiter to another: Where is the chicken soup sitting?
She never wears Bitis.
In these examples, the name of a dish is used to refer to the customer who ordered
it and the brand name to its product.
* Anaphora: Using a pronoun or similar word instead of repeating a word use
earlier.
Ex1: Yesterday, I met my friend. She was very beautiful.
antecedent anaphoric expression
 Ex2: Linda has just bought a book and read it.
antecedent anaphoric expression
The connection between an antecedent and an anaphoric expression is created by
one of the following ways
- Use of a pronoun (him, her, it, etc.)
Ex: Mary had to go to school, so she got up early.
- Repetition of the noun with the
Ex: I saw a dog in the garden. The dog was very small.
- Use of other nouns that are related to the antecedent by inference
Ex: We bought a new house, but the fence was damaged.
* Presupposition: What a speaker (or writer) assumes is true or known by a
listener (or reader).
According to Fromkin, Rodman, Collins and Blair (1999), presuppositions are the
speaker’s “implicit assumptions about the real world”.
Ex: Her brother takes her to school every day.
-> She has a brother.

There are various types of presuppositions
- Existential presupposition
- Factive presupposition
- Non-factive presupposition
- Lexical presupposition
- Structural presupposition
- Counter-factual presupposition
* Speech act is the action performed by a speaker with an utterance.
Speech act is used for describing actions:
 Requesting
 Commanding
 Questioning
 Informing
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 Promising
 Etc.
We usually use certain syntactic structures with the functions listed beside them as
in this table.
Structures
Functions
Interrogative
Question
Imperative
Command (Request)
Declarative
Statement
When we use a certain syntactic structure with its normal function, it is described
as a direct speech act.
Ex:
◦ You want to ask if John feels cold, you make a question:

 Do you think the weather is cold?
◦ You want to your child to keep the room tidy, you request:
 Pick up your clothes, please.
When we use a syntactic structure with a different function, the result is an
indirect speech act.
Ex:
◦ You want to remind someone that the room is dark and he should
turn on the lights. However, you do not give command but the
following question or exclamation:
 Do you want to ruin your eye?
 The room is too dark!
* Performative sentence is a sentence whose main verb is both performative and
in the first person singular, simple present indicative active.
Performative verb is a verb which explicitly conveys the kind of speech act being
performed (eg. assume, warn, accept, suggest, hope,…).
* Politeness: According Yule (1999), politeness can be defined as showing
awareness of and consideration for another person’s face.
If you say something that represents a threat to another person’s self-image, that is
called a face-threatening act. When you say something that lessens the possible
threat to another’s face, that is called a face-saving act.
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We have both a negative face and a positive face. Negative face is the need to be
independent and free from imposition. Positive face is the need to be connected, to
belong, to be a member of the group.