English Semantics

Questions for review

PART 1
1. What is meant by SEMANTIC FEATURES? Describe the semantic features of each of the
following words: house, home, class, school, die, kill, thicken, bachelor.
*Semantics features are “the smallest units of meaning in a word”
*House: [+thing], [+place for human habitation], [+closely related to a family or life].
*Home: [+thing], [+place for human habitation], [+closely related to a family or life].
*Class: [+thing], [ +place for students studying], [+closely related to a school]
* school: thing, place for students studying, place for teachers teaching, having
Classes, having a principal
*die: + physical state, + stop living or existing, + sudden, +slow
*kill: +action, + closely related to the dead, +causing for sth or someone to die, stopping/destroying a
relationship, activity, or experience
*thicken +action, + become thicker, +make something thicker
*bachelor [+human], [+mature], [+male], [+stay single].
2. Provide the semantic features associated with each of these words: dog, puppy, cat, kitten.
*dog: [+_male], [+fully grown].
*puppy:[+- male], [- fully grown].
*cat: [+_ male]. [+fully grown].
*kitten: [+_male], [-fully grown].
3. Indicate the semantic features of the words stallion and girl.
*Stallion: [+animate], [+horse], [+fully grown], [+male], [+ for breeding].
*Girl: [+human], [+-mature], [+female]
4. State the semantic properties of the following words and then classify them into groups of words which
share the same semantic properties/features:
a. child, actress, doe, oak, make, plod, imagine, elm, build, charity, ewe, tiptoe, stalk
*child: [+human], [-mature], [+_ male], [+innocent].
*actress: [+human], [+female], [+professionally artistic], [+perform a role].

*doe: [+animate], [+deer, reindeer, rabbit or hare], [+fully grown], [+female]

*ewe: [+animate], [+sheep], [+fully grown], [+female], [+producing wool and meat].

*oak: [+plant], [+deciduous tree], [+tough hard wood]

*elm: [+plant], [+deciduous tree], [+large rough-edged leaves], [+tough hard wood]

*make: +action, +to create to create or prepare something by combining materials or putting parts
together
*build: +acton,+  to make a building, + putting parts together, create, or develop
*stalk: +action, +follow someone illegally

*plod: [+motion], [+walk], [+slowly and laboriously]

*tiptoe: [+motion], [+walk], [+on toes], [+silently]
 *imagine: [+mental state], [+form a concept or an image], [+thoughtfulness]
*charity:+organization, +help people, +give food, money
5. (dư câu này) Give some examples to illustrate the same semantic property which can be shared
by words of different categories.
Ex1: Doctor, engineer, teacher, physicist, chemist, tailor and hairdresser. All share the same semantic
feature [+professional]
Ex2: Mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, grandfather, aunt, uncle are all [+kinship]
6. What is the semantic property shared by each of the following word groups? (p.14)w
a. mother, breast-feed, pregnant:
[+female] is part of the meaning of the noun mother, the verb breast-feed and the adjective pregnant.
b. darken, kill, beautify
“Cause” is the verbal property of darken, kill, and beautify
 Darken: cause to become dark
 Kill: cause to die
 Beautify: cause to become beautiful
7. Apply the MEANING POSTULATE for the sentence “If X gives Y to Z, then Z receives Y from X,”
and vice versa.
(X) teacher (Y)  (Y) pupil (X)
if X is Y’s teacher, then Y is X’s pupil.
if Y is X’s pupil, then X is Y’s teacher.
8. Justify that the following sentences contain phrases that have SENSE but no REFERENCE:
a. The present king of France is bald (has no reference because France now has no king) (Ex3, p.27 Tô
Minh Thanh Book)
Its sense is constructed by its individual lexical components and its syntactic structure.
This sentence has no reference: it does not refer to any real person because the King of France does not
exist nowadays.
b. By the year 3000, our descendants will have left earth (không make sure, our descendants of a
millennium from now do not exist)

9. What are REFERENCE, REFERENT, & SENSE? Give examples for each.
(p.26,27 Tô Minh Thanh Book
- A referent is an object or an entity in the real world or in the world of your imagination
Ex: your school, your classmates, your teacher…
- The reference of a word is the relationship between that word and the thing(book), the action
(read), the event (graduate from university), the quality (sincerity),…
Ex: Peter’s house ↔ the house that belongs to Peter
(in the Eng. Language) REFERENCE (in the real world)
- The sense of a world shows the internal relationship between that word in the vocabulary of a
language.
Ex: A dog is chasing a cat has some sense. However, a dog is human has no sense

10. Mean
a. To have something as a purpose or intention
b. To have something as a result or a likely result
 c. To have something as a meaning
d. To intend to say something on a particular occasion
11.
DENOTATION CONNOTATION
What a lexical item means Emotions and/or attitudes towards what a lexical
item refers to
Core, central Peripheral
Referential Social. Affective

11. Thrifty: means careful about spending money and not wasting things
Tight: means difficult to manage with money because there is not enough
Stingy: means not given or giving willingly; not generous, especially with money
The differences in connotation:
Thrifty has positive meanings
Stingy, tight have negative meanings
12. Connotation is the additional meaning that the word has beyond its denotative meaning. It shows
people’s emotions and/or attitudes towards what the word refers to.
Police:
Positive: [+ honest], [+obey the rule], [+kind]
Negative: [+ breaking the rule], [- free time]
13. The important factors for interpreting connotative meanings of words: culture, family and/or
educational background, social and/or political class, speech community and/or ethnic group.
Tet holiday:
Positive: [+ gathering family], [+ lucky money], [+ eating traditional food], [+ decorating home], [+
visiting relatives]
Negative: [+ traffic jam], [+ wasting money]
14. Winter:
Positive: [+ the season], [+ beautiful place], [+ many activities]
Negative: [+ cold], [+ traffic jam], [+ rain], [+ illness]
Child:
Positive: [+ affectionate], [+ innocent]
Negative: [+ noisy], [ +irritating]
15. – Hyponymy: is a relation which the referent of a words toally included in the referent of another word
-Hypernym:: is a word whose referent covers all the referents of its hyponyms
-Hyponym: is a word whose referent is totally included in the referent of another word
16. Vocalize
Speak. Read aloud. Sing. Articulate

Croon. Yodel. Hum.

17. The semantic relationship between

a. Violin – fiddle : synonymy
b. Elbow – arm: meronymy, hyponymy
c. Big – small: antonym
18. Hymonymy is a relation in which various words ave the same ( sound and written) form but have
different meanings.
Two types of hymonymy
- Absoute homonomy
- Partial homonymy
Ex: Bank:
- A financial institution
- The shore of a river
Lay:
- Put something down, especially on the floor
- To arrange.

18. What is HOMONYMY? What are 2 types of HOMONYMY? Give ex for each.
 HOMONYMY is a relation in which various words have the same (sound & written) form but
have different meanings.
 Two types of homonymy are homophony and homography.
 E.g. (lay vd hai cai tren xuong)
 E.g.
Homographs.: These are words with the same spelling but different meanings:
pike (the fish) and pike (the weapon)
Homophones. These are words with the same sound but with different spellings and meanings:
place (location) and plaice (the fish)
bear (the animal) and bare (meaning naked)
19. What is the HOMOPHONY? HOMOGRAPHY? Gives ex.
 HOMOPHONY is a relation in which various words have the same sound form but have
different meanings and written forms.
e.g. Classified as 2 homophones are the noun hour, which means a twenty-fourth part of a day and night,
and the possessive adjective our, which means belongs to us; both being pronounced /ˈaʊə(r)/ in RP.
 HOMOGRAPHY is a relation in which various words have the same written form but have
different meanings and sound forms.
e.g. Classified as 2 homographys are the bare infinitive form read /ri:d/ and the past tense form read /red/.

20. What are the meanings which can be associated with the polysemous words break, delete, chip, wing.
 Chip:
The noun “chip” has the 3 following meanings:
- A small piece of some hard substance which has been broken off from sth large: a chip of
wood/glass
- A small cut piece of potato which is fried for eating: Can I try one of your chips?
- A small but vital piece of a computer: This computer has got faster chip than the old one.
 The 3 meanings are closely related bc they all contain the semantic festure [+small piece]
 Break:
The verb “break” has the 2 following meanings:
- Separate into 2 or more parts as a result of force or strain (but not cutting): He broke the cup.
- Become unusable by being damaged; make (sth) unusable by damaged: My watch is broken.
- Tách thành 2 hoặc nhiều phần do lực hoặc lực căng (nhưng không cắt): Anh ta làm vỡ cốc.
- Trở nên không sử dụng được do bị hư hỏng; làm cho (sth) không thể sử dụng được do bị hỏng:
Đồng hồ của tôi bị hỏng
 The 2 meanings are closely related bc both contain the semantic feature [+can no longer be used].
21. Give an example to illustrates the difference between in meaning between homonymy and polysemy.
 Homonym refers to a word having multiple meanings which may not be related. For example
the meaning of the word ‘Bank’
e.g: Bank. Notice, the word bank has one spelling, whatsoever, two meanings. Here are some examples:-
- He caught a fish at the bank. (river bank)
- He left the bank half an hour ago. (financial place)
 Whereas a Polysemy refers to a word having multiple meanings that are usually related to each
other.
Now an example of polysemous word:
Wood
- a piece of a tree
- a geographical area with many trees
22. What are the related meanings of the word “mouth”? What is this type of interrelatedness called?
 The word “mouth” has realated meanings:
- part of face used for speaking, eating, etc : don't talk with your mouth full (= when eating)
- person needing food : Now there would be another mouth to feed.
- the entrance or opening of something: the mouth of a cave
* This type of interrelatedness is called polysemy.

24. Which words in the following two sentences show the relation between them? Explain this
relation.
a. I gave Mary a rose.
b. I gave Mary a flower.
- The reason for the close connection between (a) and (b) lies in the relation between the
words rose and flower. In particular, the notion of being a “flower” is included in the
definition of “rose”.
- Hyponymy , The meaning of the word rose includes the meaning of the word flower.
Consequently, if something is a rose, it’s also a flower. Moreover, the set of things that
we call roses is included in the set of things that we call flowers. The word referring to
the subset (e.g., rose) in hyponomy is called a hyponym. The broader term (e.g., flower)
is called the superordinate or hypernym. superordinate hypernym.

23. The following words are POLYSEMOUS: chimney, guard. Give at least two possible closely related
meanings of each word and tell what common concept is contained in the meanings.
The word “chimmey” has following meanings:
- smoke or steam is carried up away from a fire, through the roof of a building: He threw a bit of
paper onto the fire and it flew up the chimney.
- a narrow opening in an area of rock that a person can climb up
 The 2 meanings are closely related bc both contain the semantic feature [+ thing, part of the
house,]
The word “guard” has following meanings:
- pp or a group of people who protects a place or people, or prevents prisoners from escaping: a
security guard, border guards,
- the act or duty of protecting: they do guard duty.\
- to protect property, places or people from attack or danger: The dog was guarding its owner's
luggage.
- to prevent prisoners from escaping: The prisoners were guarded by soldiers.
 The 4 meanings are closely related bc both contain the semantic feature [+protecting
somebody/sth, preventing from attack, danger]
27. What type of ambiguity does the phrase “French history teacher” belong to? Give the meanings
which can make it ambiguous.
This type of ambiguity is structural ambiguity.
Here are two possible constituencies for the first compound, leading to ambiguity.
We consider the compound "French history teacher", which can refer either to a history teacher who is
French or to a teacher of French history.
N

N N
|
A N |
| | teacher
French history
24. Explain the possible meanings of each of the following AMBIGUOUS utterances. How
can you disambiguate the following sentences?
a. This suit is lighter.
 The suit does not weigh as much as another
 Or the color of the suit is not as dark as another
b. She can’t bear children.
 Can’t give birth
 Can’t stand her children anymore
c. Dr. Jekyll is a butcher.
 Harmful
 A job
d. I know a man with a dog who has fleas.
 I know a man whose dog has fleas
 I know a man who has fleas
e. The chicken is ready to eat.
 Somebody is ready to eat chicken
 The chicken is ready to feed

26. Explain the AMBIGUITY in the following and provide two sentences that paraphrase the two
possible meanings:

a. They are moving chairs.

Meaning one: they are moving seats.
Meaning two: they are moving leaders.

b. Jill left directions for Jack to follow.

 Phương hướng (instruction) Jill left instruction for Jack to use
prescription
 (noun) Jill left directions for Jack to get to Ben Thanh market

c. I’ll meet you at the bank.

 Meaning one: I’ll meet you at the financial institution.
Meaning two: I’ll meet you at the shore of river.
d. It takes a good ruler to make a straight line.
-> It takes a good leader to make a straight line.
-> It takes a good measurement tool is make a straight line.

28. Figure of speech is a word or phrase which is used for special effect, and which does not have its
usual or literal meaning.
1. Simile ( So sánh ) The use of direct comparison of one thing with another by using function
word such as like or as.
 Eg. As brave as a lion
 This pizza is as cold as ice
2. Metaphor ( ẩn dụ ) The use of a word or phrase to indicate something different from the literal
meaning (nghĩa đen). It’s an indirect comparison.
 Eg. She has a heart of stone.
 The claim lake was a mirror.
 He is a shining star.
3. Personification ( nhân cách hóa) is a special kind of metaphor in which some human
characteristic is attributed to an inanimate object or abstract notion.

 Eg. Cruel heat, a sullen sky, the laughing harvest,...

 The trees in the garden played with the wind
4. Metonymy ( hoán dụ ) is the substitution of the name of one thing for that of another to which it
is related/ with which it is associated.
 Eg. A container substitutes for the thing contained:
 The kettle ( = the water in the kettle ) is boiling
 He drank the cup ( = the coffee, the tea, the chocolate, etc. In the cup).
5. Irony ( mỉa mai, châm biềm ) is the expression of one’s meaning by saying the direct opposite
of one’s thoughts in order to emphatic, amusing, sarcastic, etc.
 Eg. He is lucky to have such an ugly wife.
 His hand was as soft as a rock.
6. Euphemism ( Uyển ngữ ) is the use of pleasant, mild or indirect word or phrase in place of
more accurate or direct ones
 Eg. He is a special child (disabled or learning challenged).
(còn nói giảm nói tránh, nói quá, synecdoche)
29. Give two sentences in which METAPHORS are used.
He was a lion in the fight. ( He fought bravely an successfully just like a lion in the fight for food.)
I’ll make him eat his word. ( make him admit that what he’s said is wrong )

30. What are the METAPHORICAL MEANINGS of these sentences?

Walls have ears.
Dr. Jekyll is a butcher.
My new car is a lemon.
John is a snake in the grass.
 You came in thirty-seven minutes after the fifty-minute class started. You were
a bit late.
If you are not happy with the service, go talk to the City Hall.

a. Something you say to warn someone that it is not safe to speak at that particular time b/c other people
might be listening. ( not saying much)
b. may be He has tricks of the trade like a butcher or a murderer kills a lot of people in a cruel way.
c. A lemon is a vehicle that doesn’t work well. It means that the car is a bad one, it’s defecive and brings
you troubles.
d. he’s an unpleasant who cannot be trusted.
e. This means you came very late.
f. City hall means the government of a city, including people working for a city government. This means if
you aren’t happy with the service, meet and talk to government officers.

31. (Big nose) It means they are excessively interested in everyone else’s business.

32. “Let your hair down” means to allow yourself to behave much more freely than usual working days,
and relax and enjoy yourself at the weekend. (to relax and enjoy yourself, especially in a lively way)
33. “I’ll eat my hat” (đi đầu xuống đất) used to say that you are sure something will not happen. In this
sentence, you ensure that your brother did not steal it.
Part 2
34. Because “slide” and “edge” are polysemous words, their relation is partial synonymy. Therefore, one
just shares one of its meanings with the other, and in some cases, they can not be substituted for each
other.For example, one meaning of “side” is synonymous with “edge” that can be used interchangeably:
This house is at the side/ edge of the forest.
However, in this sentence, only “side” can be used:
I will be on your side.
35. Synonymy is a relation in which words have different forms ( written and sound ) but have the same or
nearly same meaning. In this case, height and depth have seperate meanings in proper fields. Depth is
always measured in the downward direction, where as the height is always measured in the upward
direction. Moreover, depth is mostly used in fields such as engineering, geology and hydrodynamics, while
height is used in fields such as aviation,military, and space exploration.
36. Deep – Profound: The following sentence can use “deep”, but in which “profound” cannot be used.
The river is very deep at this point.
Ripe – mature: This is a context in which only “ripe” can be used but “mature” cannot.
We cannot eat this fruit because it isn’t ripe yet.
Emotions and/or attitudes towards what a lexical item refers to
Peripheral