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Practice 1.1 Truth Conditions

This document discusses key concepts in semantics and introduces technical terms used in the study of meaning in language. It provides examples of semantic concepts like paraphrase, entailment, contradiction, and presupposition. It also includes a practice problem asking the reader to identify relationships between sentences based on these concepts. Finally, it recommends introductory books on semantics for students at different levels to pursue further reading on the topic.

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Waad Majid
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423 views

Practice 1.1 Truth Conditions

This document discusses key concepts in semantics and introduces technical terms used in the study of meaning in language. It provides examples of semantic concepts like paraphrase, entailment, contradiction, and presupposition. It also includes a practice problem asking the reader to identify relationships between sentences based on these concepts. Finally, it recommends introductory books on semantics for students at different levels to pursue further reading on the topic.

Uploaded by

Waad Majid
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The study of meaning 9

language that allows that speaker to communicate facts, feelings, intentions,


and products of the imagination to other speakers and to understand what
they communicate to him or her. Language differs from the communication
systems of other animals in being stimulus-free and creative. Early in life
every human acquires the essentials of a language – a vocabulary and the
pronunciation, use, and meaning of every item in it. The speaker’s knowledge
is largely implicit. The linguist attempts to construct a grammar, an explicit
description of the language, the categories of the language, and the rules by
which they interact. Semantics is one part of the grammar; phonology,
syntax, and morphology are other parts.
Speakers of a language have an implicit knowledge about what is
meaningful in their language, and it is easy to show this. In our account of
what that knowledge is we introduced ten technical terms: anomaly;
paraphrase; synonymy; semantic feature; antonymy; contradiction;
ambiguity; adjacency pairs; entailment; and presupposition.

Practice 1.1 Truth conditions


Below are ten pairs of sentences. In each pair assume that the first sentence
is true. Then decide what we know about the second sentence, which has
the same topic(s). If the first is true, must the second also be true (T)? Or
if the first is true, must the second be false (F)? Or does the truth of the
first tell us nothing about the truth of the second (X)?

1. Paraphrase 1a Rose is married to Tom. (T)


1b Rose is Tom’s wife. (T)
2a David is an unmarried adult male. (T)
2. Entailment
2b David is a bachelor. (T)
3a This knife is too dull to cut the rope. (T)
3. Entailment 3b This knife isn’t sharp enough to cut the rope. (T)
4a Victoria likes to sing. (T)
4. Contradiction
4b Victoria doesn’t sing. (F)
5a Max has been here for an hour. (T)
5. Presupposition
5b Max is tired of waiting. (T)
6. Entailment/ 6a Mr. Bond has quit smoking. (T)
Presupposition 6b Mr. Bond used to smoke. (T)
7a Mr. Bond still smokes. (T)
7. Contradiction 7b Mr. Bond used to smoke. (F)
8a Oil paintings are more expensive than watercolors. (T)
8. Contradiction
8b Watercolors cost more than oil paintings. (F)
10 Introducing English Semantics

9a The Carlson Hotel is more than a century old. (T)


9. Paraphrase 9b The Carlson Hotel has operated for more than a
century. (T)
10. Entailment/ 10a Mai invited some friends to lunch. (T)
Presupposition 10b Mai has friends. (T)
FR

Suggested reading
The following can be recommended for the beginning student who wants
collateral or supplemental reading in the subject.

Allan, Keith (1986). Linguistic Meaning (2 vols).


Dillon, George (1977). Introduction to Contemporary Linguistics Semantics.
Griffiths, Patrick (2006). An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics.
Hofmann, Theodore R. (1993). Realms of Meaning: An Introduction to Semantics.
Hurford, J. R. and Brendan Heasley (1983). Semantics: A Coursebook.
Leech, Geoffrey N. (1981) Semantics. 2nd edn.
Lobner, Sebastian (2002). Understanding Semantics.
Lyons, John (1995). Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction.
Nilsen, Don L. F. and Aileen P. Nilsen (1975). Semantic Theory: A Linguistic
Perspective.
Palmer, Frank (1981). Semantics. 2nd edn.
Riemer, Nick (2010). Introducing Semantics.
Saeed, John I. (1997). Semantics.

The more advanced students will want to be familiar with:

Chierchia, Gennaro and Sally McConnell-Ginet (1990). Meaning and Grammar:


An Introduction to Semantics.
Frawley, William (1992). Linguistic Semantics.
Kempson, Ruth M. (1997). Semantic Theory.
Lyons, John (1977). Semantics (2 vols).+

The logical formulation of semantic statements is well explicated in:

Cann, Ronnie (1993). Formal Semantics: An Introduction.

A very readable discussion of (non-human) animal communication and of


the biological basis for humans’ language capacity is Wardhaugh (1993),
Chapters 2 and 3.
Full details of these and all other books cited in ‘Suggested reading’ lists
can be found in the Bibliography at the end of the book.

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