You are on page 1of 5

SEMANTICS

Samples of Exam Questions


I. Give a complete definition for each of the following terms:
- Proposition
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
- Speaker meaning
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
II. Define each of the following terms. Then, explain the differences
between the terms in each pair and give examples to illustrate these
differences.
-Sense / Proposition
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
-Reference / Utterance
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
-Equative sentences / Generic sentences
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

III. In relation to the semantic notions discussed in the course, what are the
following examples of? Be very specific.
1. Calling customers can be annoying. (Ambiguous)
________________________________________________________________
2. Left / Elevator
________________________________________________________________
3. My brother / The supervisor of the Customer Service Department (assuming
that we are talking about the same person)
________________________________________________________________
4. That woman.
________________________________________________________________
IV. Give ONE clear and specific example for each of the following. Make
the necessary clarifications to represent your examples.
1. An expression which has constant reference.
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
2. An expression which has sense but has no reference.
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
3. Two words with the same sense but belonging to different languages.
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
4. The gap between sentence meaning and speaker meaning.
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
5. A predicator that is a noun.
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
6. Two predicates that have the same sense but different parts of speech.

________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
V. "Semantics is an attempt to set up a theory of meaning". Give two
characteristics of this semantic theory?
1. ______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
2. ______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
VI. Read each of the following questions. Then, circle the best answer.
1. Which sense of the following expressions is a proposition?
a). Nancy has joined an intensive English language program.
b). Nancy (not understood as an elliptical sentence
fragment)
c). An intensive English language program (not understood as an
elliptical sentence fragment)
2. In which of the following sentence pairs, can one member of the pair be
true and the other can be false?
a).
-Omar met Hisham at the coffee shop.
-Omar didn't meet Hisham at the coffee shop.
b).
-My friend bought a new laptop.
-A new laptop was bought by my friend.
c).
-The technician turned off the machines.
-The technician turned the machines off.
3. Which of the following is correct about 'reference'?
a). a relationship between expressions and other expressions which have
the same meaning.
b). the set of all referents which can potentially be referred to by an
expression.
c). a relationship between a particular referent in the world and an
expression used in an utterance to pick that referent out.
4. In which of the following utterances, is the proposition asserted by the
speaker?
a). "Fix my washing machine, please!"
b). "Have you finished your research paper?"

c). "Successful people work hard to achieve their goals."


VII. Read the following statements and circle either (T)rue or (F)alse.
Statement
T /
F

Not all utterances are actually tokens of sentences, but


sometimes only of phrases or single words.

T /
F

Propositions can be said to be true or false, whereas


sentences and utterances can not be said to be true or
false.

T /
F

Professors of semantics are the primary source of


information about meaning.

T /
F

The same proposition can be expressed by different


sentences.

T /
F

Many sentences are used by speakers not to give


information at all, but to keep the social wheels turning
smoothly.

T /
F

Sentences and utterances can be said to belong to


particular languages and dialects, but propositions can
not.

T /
F

Semantics, like other branches of linguistics, is


prescriptive, not descriptive.

T /
F

True propositions correspond to facts, but false


propositions do not correspond to facts.

VIII-Could each of the following be used as referring expressions?


-Today
yes / no
-God
yes / no
-about
yes / no
-I
yes / no
-Sarah
yes / no
-a book
yes / no
-6 o'clock
yes / no
-the dragon
yes / no
-send
yes / no
-66 kilometers
yes / no
IX-Circle the words which can be predicates ?

He school about not fat Mohammed travel


X-Circle the words which can be referring expressions?
asleep girl Suzan the whimsical Dammam but send
XII-The naughty boy is behind the tree.
a. Analyze this sentence semantically into a predicator and arguments?
-Predicator: _________________________________________________
-Arguments: ________________________________________________
b. Of what degree is the predicate which functions as a predictor
in this sentence?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

You might also like