Practice Test

I. Mark (√) each of the following sentences true or false.

TRUE FALSE

1 When the same linguistic expression refers to

different referents, it has variable reference.

2 Some expressions are almost always referring

expressions no matter what sentences they occur in.

3 Binary antonyms are predicates which come in pairs

and between them exhaust all the relevant
possibilities.

4 The sense relation illustrated by pig, sow, boar,

piglet is synonymy.

5 We like the ball is a grammatically ambiguous

sentence.

6 A dancer in His father married a dancer can be

either a referring expression or a non-referring
expression, depending on the context.

7 The present king of Vietnam has no referent.

8 Different expressions can have the same referent.

9 Marry in Nancy married a Norwegian is a two-place

predicate.

10 The meanings of the underlined words in I can

dance and Put it in a can are unrelated.

11 The denotative meaning shows people’s emotions

and attitudes towards what the words mean.

12 Plant is the superordinate term; tree is a hyponym of

plant.

13 That man is human has the property of analyticity.

14 Man is denotatively described as [+human], [-old],

 [+animate] and [+male].

15 Any ambiguity resulting from the ambiguity of a

word is a lexical ambiguity.

II. Circle the answer of your choice.

1. Semantics is…..
A. The study of rules governing the sounds that form words
B. The study of meaning in language
C. The study of the rule governing word formation

2. The phrase my university usually has ……….reference.

A. constant
B. variable
C. no

3. The…... of a word is the relationship between that word and the thing it refers to.
A. referent
B. reference
C. meaning

4. The sense relation between the predicates love and hate is a kind of……..
A. polysemy
B. synonymy
C. antonymy

5. Sentences that may be true or false depending on how the world is are called…..
A. analytic
B. equative
C. synthetic

6. A sentence which expresses the same proposition as another sentence is a/an……...of that
sentence.
A. paraphrase
B. entailment
C. contradiction
7. The expression my husband, uttered on different occasions with different topics of
conversation, has a number of different……....
A. meanings
B. referents
C. arguments

8. In English, the identity of the…….... of two different referring expressions is expressed

by a form of the verb be.
A. referents
B. reference
C. people

9. I in I never speak to you again refers to the speaker of the………..

A. phrase
B. sentence
C. utterance

10. The phrase a tall tree can be …....

A. a referring expression
B. a non-referring expression
C. sometimes a referring expression and sometimes a non-referring expression, depending
on context and circumstances of use

11. The predicators in sentences can be of various parts of speech:…....

A. adjectives, verbs, nouns, and pronouns
B. nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives
C. nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions

12. The sentence A tall, handsome stranger entered the saloon has two…....
A. referring expressions
B. predicators
C. predicates

13. In general, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions can be used as…....

A. predicates
B. predicators
C. arguments

14. John’s nine-year-old brother is a boy is a/an…....

A. generic sentence
B. synthetic sentence
C. analytic sentence

15. Paper tigers are not made of paper is not a/an…....

A. equative sentence
B. analytic sentence
C. contradictory sentence

16. Between in Chicago is between Los Angeles and New York is a/an…...
A. referring expression
B. argument
C. predicator

17. Semantics deals with the characterization of ………...meaning.

A. speaker
B. sentence
C. intended

18. The pronouns in I like her a lot are…...

A. anaphoric
B. cataphoric
C. deictic

19. An entailment of Climbing plants can look strange is …..

A. Plants that climb up walls can look strange.
B. People who climb plants can look strange.
C. Climbing tall plants can look strange.

20. A sentence is considered as…….....ambiguous when its structure permits more than one
interpretation.
A. lexically
B. syntactically
C. semantically

21. The degree of a predicate depends on…….

A. the number of predicates
B. the number of objects
C. the number of arguments that a predicate has
22. The relationship between the sentence I detest semantics and I am not fond of semantics
is that:
A. They are paraphrases of each other.
B. The first entails the second.
C. The second entails the first.

23. Settle in The snow didn’t settle is…..

A. a zero-place predicate
B. a two-place predicate
C. a one-place predicate
24. The sentence A pike is a kind of fish is…..
A. ambiguous
B. equative
C. unambiguous

25. Which of the following sentences is not a generic sentence?

A. My mother is a woman.
B. A dog is a wonderful house pet.
C. Roses are red.

26. In which of the following sentences did a form of the verb be express the identity
predicate?
A. Clark Kent is Superman.
B. Clark Kent is an actor.
C. Clark Kent is mild-mannered.

27. Which of the following sentences is ambiguous?

A. John passed the hammer and saw through the window.
B. John passed the saw and the hammer through the window.
C. John passed the hammer and the saw through the window.

28. Which of the following sentences is contradictory?

A. A bird lays eggs.
B. Kings are male.
C. All misers waste money.

29. Is in Hanoi is a big city is used to express....

A. the relationship between two predicates that have the same sense
B. the identity of the referents of two referring expressions
C. the relationship between an argument and a predicator
30. Mary thinks the present is nice is a lexically ambiguous sentence because the ambiguity
is caused by....
A. polysemy
B. synonymy
C. homonymy
31. Identify a pair of gradable antonyms.
A. sell-buy
B. illegal-legal
C. love-hate

32. Identify a pair of binary antonyms.

A. love-hate
B. single-married
C. thin-thick

33. Identify an example of lexical ambiguity.

A. I’m taking a course in modern English grammar.
B. Because of the cold, I had to put on a warm coat.
C. She can give more possible conclusions.

34. Identify an example of structural ambiguity.

A. They fed her dog biscuits.
B. We were late but the coach was late too.
C. They were waiting at the bank.

35. Which of the following is correct?

A. Synonymy is to entailment as hyponymy is to paraphrase.
B. Synonymy is to paraphrase as hyponymy is to entailment.
C. Synonymy is to hyponymy as entailment is to paraphrase.

THE END