Chapter 6
Lexical Semantics
Exercise 6.2Basic Semantic Concepts
For the following words, list as many synonyms as you can think of and discuss the connotations that these synonyms have.
frugal
thin (of a person)
Fill in the columns below with the appropriate synonym. In each case, the word in column A is of English origin and the word in column B is of French or Latin origin. Can you make a general statement about the connotations of the words in columns A and B?
| A | B |
|
feed |
____________ |
|
____________ |
conceal |
|
____________ |
people |
|
begin |
____________ |
|
____________ |
aid/assist |
|
mistake |
____________ |
|
____________ |
labor |
|
____________ |
vision |
|
middle |
____________ |
|
____________ |
altitude |
Describe the semantic relationship expressed by each of the following sentences.
I’m allergic to nuts. There are walnuts in the cookies.
Flight 2048 arrives and departs at 8:00 a.m.
George is a pig.
That is a large bat.
I appreciate your help. You helped me.
That is a well-known club.
My brother married a doctor. My male sibling joined in wedlock with a physician.
In walked the corpse.
The corpse is alive.
Professor Mulhausen went to his office. Professor Mulhausen went to the university.
He cleaned the legs of the piano.
They have a love-hate relationship.
The escaping convict accidentally assassinated the guard.
Jane ate a piece of chicken. Jane ate a piece of poultry.
My husband is living. I am a widow.
She stepped on an idea.
Edith amused the salad.
My brother is an only child.
He unintentionally committed perjury.
She wore a colorless pink dress.
He dusted the plants.
Othello killed Desdemona. Desdemona died.
He descended from the ground floor to the attic.
Determine whether the following are cases of homonymy or polysemy.
‘superior in quality’
‘a sum of money paid as a penalty’
‘an incline of land adjoining a river’
‘a financial institution’
‘a pupil who assists a teacher’
‘a device that receives video signals from a computer’
‘a permanent design on the skin’
‘a military exercise’
‘an institution for instruction’
‘a large group of fish’
‘a bloodsucking worm’
‘a physician’
‘a hanger-on, a sycophant’
‘a structure projecting from the head of an animal’
‘a musical instrument’
‘the organ for hearing’
‘the seed-bearing spike of a cereal plant’
‘to name or write the order of the letters in a word’
‘a magical formula’
‘a period of time’
‘to hit with the head’
‘a target (for jokes)’
‘the larger or thicker end of an object’
‘one who operates an aircraft or ship’
‘a television program produced as a prototype of a series’
Say what is presupposed by each of the following sentences.
Is Frank playing that loud music?
What I want for my birthday is a new computer.
Alistair didn’t go to work today.
Grace stopped playing the piano several years ago.
When did Tara go back to school?
Sally renewed her subscription to People magazine.
Which of the following are factive and which nonfactive?
John criticized Mark for not working hard enough.
John acknowledged that Mark was not working hard enough.
I was hoping that the game was cancelled.
It turns out that the game was cancelled.
The student forgot that the assignment was due today.
The student assumed that the assignment was due today.
It's nice that you could get away.
It's nice to get away.
I realized that he had stolen the money.
I suspected that he had stolen the money.
neutral to positive in connotation: careful (with one's money), prudent, thrifty, scotch
negative in connotation: stingy, penny-pinching, tight (wad), parsimonious, miserly
neutral to positive in connotation: slender, lean, slim, twiggy, delicate, lanky, slight, spare, lightweight, svelt
negative in connotation: skinny, scrawny, skeletal, puny, underweight, spindly, gangly, anorexic, wasted, emaciated
The words in Column B all have a more "elevated" or more positive connotation than the words in Column A.
| A | B |
|
feed |
nourish |
|
hide |
conceal |
|
folk |
people |
|
begin |
commence |
|
help |
aid/assist |
|
mistake |
error |
|
work |
labor |
|
sight |
vision |
|
middle |
center |
|
height |
altitude |
inclusion
contradiction
ambiguity – literal/metaphorical
ambiguity – homonymy
presupposition
ambiguity – polysemy
paraphrase
anomaly
contradiction
entailment
metaphor (the levers on a piano are not literally keys, but resemble them)
contradiction
anomaly
entailment
contradiction
anomaly
anomaly
contradiction
contradiction
contradiction
ambiguity – polysemy
entailment
contradiction
homonomy
homonomy
polysemy
homonomy
homonomy
polysemy
polysemy
homonomy
homonomy
(Actually, the first two definitions are part of the same word, though they are now so far removed from one another in meaning that they are listed as separate words in the dictionary.)
homonomy
polysemy
Someone is playing loud music.
I want something for my birthday.
Normally Alistair goes to work on this day.
Grace used to play the piano.
Tara went back to school.
Sally already had a subscription, and it had run out or was about to run out.
Factive: (b), (d), (e), (g), (i)
Nonfactive: (a), (c), (f), (h), (j)