Semantics Take-Home Exam

Note

Before you start working on the practice take-home exam, there are some details that Dr. Hala covered in class but we did not. Don't worry, we will go through these points next week ISA. These details are related to the following points:

Referent, Extension, Prototype [Read UNIT 8 CAREFULLY and particularly focus on definitions and comments on pages 78 to 88]

The Format of the Exam

The exam is out of 20 points, one hour long. It will be divided into three parts:

1. Define and give examples on only five out of 7 terms (5 points).

2. Explain or justify why, where you are given 8 statements. You explain and give examples on only 6 out of these statements (12 points).

3. True and False, where you are given 6 statements and you write True or False next to each statement (3 points).

Practice Test

Time: One Hour

Points: 20

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Part One: Define ONLY five of the following and give examples [5 points].

[1] Stereotype [2] Synonymy [3] Entailment [4] Paraphrase [5] Deictic expressions [6] Homonymy [7] Structural ambiguity

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Part Two: Justify/Explain ONLY six of the following and give examples [12 points].

[1] Deictic expressions do not have fixed referents.

[2] The statement "This animal is a vegetable" is a contradiction.

[3] A stereotype is related to a prototype but they are not the same things.

[4] 'Bank' is an example of homonymous whereas 'Heart' is polysemous.

[5] Semantic classification of words is essential for language processing.

[6] "Kill, Murder, and Assassinate" are not perfect synonyms.

[7] Referents are different from extensions.

[8] The words 'mountain - hill' and 'poor - rich' are referentially vague.

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Part Three: True or False [3 points]

[1] _______ Referentially versatile expressions are always ambiguous.

[2]_______ Sense is the same as Meaning .

[3]_______ A prototype of a predicate is a typical member of its extension.

[4]_______ Synonymy is the relationship between two predicates that have the same sense.

[5]_______ Any ambiguity resulting from the ambiguity of a word is a LEXICAL AMBIGUITY.

[6]_______ 'Animal' is a HYPONYM of 'Dog'.

GOOD LUCK