yule_9_questions_semantics

Using semantic features, how would you explain the oddness of these sentences? (a) The television drank my water.

(a) The verb drink requires a subject with the feature [+animate] and the noun television has the feature [-animate].

What is the basic lexical relation between each pair of words listed here? (a) assemble / disassemble (b) damp / moist (c) deep / shallow (d) dog / schnauzer (e) furniture / table (f) married / single (g) move /run (h) peace / piece (i) pen / pen

(a) antonymy (reversives) (b) synonymy (c) antonymy (gradable) (d) hyponymy (e) hyponymy (f) antonymy (non-gradable) (g) hyponymy (h) homophony (or homophones) (i) homonymy (or homonyms)

Are these underlined words best described as examples of polysemy or metonymy? (a) The pen is mightier than the sword. (b) I had to park on the shoulder of the road. (c) Yes, I love those. I ate a whole box on Sunday! (d) The bookstore has some new titles in linguistics. (e) Computer chips created an important new technology (f) I'm going to sue your ass! (g) I think that kind of music was called new wave.

(a) metonymy (b) polysemy (c) metonymy (d) metonymy (e) polysemy (f) metonymy (g) polysemy

Which of the following opposites are gradable, non-gradable or reversive? (a) absent / Present (b) appear / disappear (c) fail / pass (d) fair / unfair (e) fill it / empty it (f) high / low

(a) non-gradable (b) reversive (c) non-gradable (d) gradable (e) reversive (f) gradable

Using semantic features, how would you explain the oddness of these sentences? (b) His dog writes poetry.

(b) The verb write requires a subject with the feature [+human] and the noun dog has the feature [-human].

Identify the semantic roles of the seven noun phrases in this sentence. With her new golf club, Anne Marshall whacked the ball from the woods to the grassy area near the hole and she suddenly felt invincible.

Instrument (her new golf club), Agent (Anne Marshall), Theme (the ball), Source (the woods), Goal (the grassy area), Location (the hole), Experiencer (she)

How is the term "prototype" used in semantics?

The prototype is the characteristic instance of a category, as in the case of "robin" being the clearest example, or prototype, of the category "bird" for many American English speakers.