FOURTH CLASS - AUG 25

SUGGESTED ANSWERS

PRACTICE – GROUP ACTIVITY IN CLASS


QUESTION 1

Consider the following utterance, and answer the questions:

If anyone makes too much noise, you have my permission to strangle him.

a) Could the hearer be expected to identify the referent of him?
b) Is him semantically definite?

ANSWER:

a) No, as it has a generic value (anyone).
b) No. This pronoun agrees with “anyone”, but one could use “him/her” or “them”

QUESTION 2

Consider the following situation, and answer the questions:

I am working in the garden, and accidentally stick a fork through my foot. I tell my wife, who knows I have been gardening and knows the fork I have been working with.

a) Which would be the more appropriate utterance (to my wife) in this situation? Justify your answer.

(i) “I´ve just stuck the fork through my foot”
(ii) “I´ve just stuck a fork through my foot”

b) Find a context for the answer you did not choose in (a).

ANSWER:

a) I´ve just stuck the fork through my foot.
The definite article “the” is appropriate, as the wife most certainly knew which fork her husband referred to.

b) If we consider the utterance “b” (“a fork”) produced when consulting a doctor, after the accident.

QUESTION 3

The cat I had as a child is long since dead and cremated, so that that particular cat now no longer exists.

a) Is it possible to refer in conversation to the cat I had as a child? YES

b) Does it follow that the extension of the predicate cat includes the cat I had as a child, which now no longer exists? YES. Although the cat is dead, when it was alive, it belonged to the class of cats.


QUESTION 4

Consider the following excerpt, from John Fowle´s novel The Collector and answer the questions:

When she was home from her boarding-school I used to see her almost every day sometimes, because their house was right opposite the Town Hall Annexe. She and her younger sister used to go in and out a lot, often with young men, which of course I didn´t like.

a) Could the hearer be expected to identify the referent of she?

ANSWER: YES, ALTHOUGH HER NAME IS NOT MENTIONED.

b) What effect is probably produced on the reader by the mentioning of their house?

ANSWER

A TECHINIQUE USED IN NARRATIVES TO CREATE AN EFFECT OF INFORMATION ALREADY GIVEN, TO ATTRACT THE READER QUICKLY INTO THE PLOT.


QUESTION 5

Consider the following utterances. Find context for each one of them:

a) Do you remember when we met at the university, five years ago?
b) Do you remember when we met at a university, five years ago?
c) Shall we go into the house now?
d) Shall we go into a house now?

ANSWER

A) The interlocutors entered the same university five years ago, where they were students.
B) The interlocutors met at a university building, not necessarily as students at the mentioned institution.
C) The interlocutors intend to enter a particular house, belonging to either or both of them.
D) The interlocutors are about to enter a place which does not belong to them, so as to do something (depending on the context you choose!).


QUESTION 6

Consider an anecdote by Mark Twain and explain how the speaker (narrator) reaches his conclusion:

I married a widow who had an adult daughter. My father then married this daughter. Later on, we all had children. By looking at the babies, I got crazy, because I realized I was my own grandfather.

QUESTION ANSWERED IN CLASS. THE SPEAKER IS HIS OWN GRANDFATHER ONLY IF WE CONSIDER LEGAL CONNECTIONS (“IN LAW” RELATIONSHIPS).


QUESTION 7

Consider the following utterance and explain what it means:

Paul turned over the field.

ANSWER:

a) The speaker changed direction or the field (off the road, for example).
b) The speaker is a pilot turning an airplane.
c) The speaker is a ploughman.
d) Other possibilities taking into account the meaning of the verb “turn over”.

QUESTION 8

Consider the following pairs of sentences. In each case, say whether there are any circumstances of which one member of the pair could be true and other false (assuming in each case that the same name refers to the same person).

a) John gave Mary a book.
b) Mary was given a book by John.
c) Bob took out the garbage.
d) Bo b took the garbage out.
e) Tessa loves Tony.
f) Tony loves Tessa.

ANSWER: Sentences “a” and “b” are paraphrases of each other.
Sentences “c” and “d” are paraphrases of each other.
Sentences “e” and “f”: both could be true or false; “e” could be true and “f” false; “e” could be false and “f” could be true.


QUESTION 9

Do the words pavement (British English) and sidewalk (American English) have the same sense?

ANSWER: YES, THEY ARE USED TO REFER TO THE SAME ENTITY IN THE WORLD, IN TWO DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF ENGLISH.

QUESTION 10

Is the following statement correct or incorrect?

Whether a sentence contains any referring expressions or not depends on the time and place at which the sentence occurs.

ANSWER:

THE STATEMENT IS INCORRECT. IN ORDER TO MAKE IT CORRECT, WE SHOULD REPLACE THE WORD “SENTENCE” BY THE WORD “UTTERANCE”.

QUESTION 11

Have you ever been involved in a conversation with someone over an apparently factual matter, only to discover that some particularly crucial word in the conversation had a different meaning for the other person? Give an example.

IN THIS CASE, EACH ONE WOULD HAVE THEIR OWN EXAMPLES, CONSIDERING THEIR LIFE EXPERIENCE…

QUESTION 12

How could the following dialogue be interpreted?

A: My neighbor´s child is an adult.
B: You mean he was a child and is now grown up?
A: No. He is still a child, even though he´s an adult.

How are the words “child” and “adult” related in terms of meaning in this particular situation ?

ANSWER:

Speaker “A” probably means that the neighbor´s child behaves like an adult. The expression “even though” is a hint in this case.



QUESTION 13

Analyse the words “mean” and “meant” in the following utterance. Do they indicate sense or reference?

“I´m sorry to have disturbed you – when I say “Will you move your chair?”, I didn´t mean you, I meant Patrick here.”

ANSWER:

THEY INDICATE “REFERENCE”, SPECIFIC PEOPLE IN THE WORLD IN THE PARTICULAR CONTEXT.

QUESTION 14

Consider the following sentence and classify it according to what it means:


John is simultaneously a man and not a human being.

ANSWER:

THIS IS A CASE OF CONTRADICTION. A MAN CANNOT BE AT THE SAME TIME A MAN AND NOT A MAN, IF WE CONSIDER THAT “A MAN” IS INCLUDED IN THE CONCEPT OF “HUMAN BEING”.
FIGURATIVELY, THE SENTENCE CAN ALSO HAVE RELEVANT MEANING.

QUESTION 15

Is the phrase old men and women ambiguous? if yes, explain why.

ANSWER : YES, IT IS AMBIGUOUS : IT COULD MEAN “OLD MEN AND OLD WOMEN’; “WOMEN AND OLD MEN”

QUESTION 16

Say whether the sentences below are cases of ANOMALY. If yes, explain why.


1. Jack´s courage chewed the bone.
2. James sliced the idea.

ANSWER :

IN TERMS OF SENSE IN THE LANGUAGE, IF THE SENTENCES ARE TAKEN TO THE LETTER (LITERALLY), THEY ARE ANOMALOUS. HOWEVER, IF CONSIDERED IN A FIGURATIVE SENSE, THEY CAN BE PART OF COMMUNICATIVE CONTEXTS. (1) MEANS THAT JACK IS A BRAVE PERSON, READY TO FACE CHALLENGES. (2) JAMES IS PROBABLY FOCUSING ON SPECIF ASPECTS OF AN IDEA.
QUESTION 17

Consider the following utterance:

I am as old as myself.

What do “I” and “myself” refer to in this case?

ANSWER: THESE WORDS REFER TO THE SAME SPEAKER (THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE UTTERANCE), PROBABLY UTTERED IN A CONTEXT IN WHICH THE PERSON DOES NOT WISH TO REVEAL HIS/HER AGE.


QUESTION 18

What are the referring expressions in the sentences:


Bob opened the door with a key.
Seymour sliced the salami with a knife.

ANSWER:

“BOB”; “THE DOOR”, “A KEY”
“SEYMOUR”, “THE SALAMI”; “A KNIFE”