UNIVERSIDAD GERARDO BARRIOS

SCHOOL OF ART AND SCIENCES

FOREING LANGUAGE DEPARMENT

Teacher: Licdo. William Remberto Amaya

Subject: Introduction to Linguistics

Homework:  CHAPTER 9 (Semantics)

Student´s name: Dalila Vidaí Elena Ruíz

Estefani Aracely López Tobar
Josselyn Idalia Quintanilla Granados

DATE: 26th/ September, 2021.

STUDY QUESTION
1 What semantic feature must a noun have in order to be used in this sentence? The
___________ were discussing what to do.

+human

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

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

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

3 What phrase is used more often instead of “thematic roles” and what other term is
used instead of “theme” in the semantic analysis of noun phrases?

 Instead of "thematic rules,"  the phrase "semantic rules" is used more often.
 Instead of "theme,"  the word "patient" is used in the semantic analysis.

4 What kind of opposites can be identified via the “negative test”?

Non-gradable opposites are identified by the negative test.

5 How is the term “prototype” used in semantics?

A prototype is the characteristic instance of a category. For example, the shirt is a
prototype of clothes, or the cat is a prototype of felines.

6 Identify the 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.

New golf club  instrument

Anne Marshall  agent
Ball  topic
The woods  source
Grassy area  goal
The hole  location
She  experiencer
 7 Which of the following words are co-hyponyms? ant, cabbage, insect, plant, turnip,
vegetable.

Only turnip and cabbage are co-hyponyms.

8 What is the basic lexical relation between each pair of words listed here?

LEXICAL LEXICAL
LEXICAL
WORDS RELATIO WORDS RELATIO WORDS
RELATION
N N

Assemble/disassemble Reversives Dog/schnauzer Hyponyms Move/run Hyponyms

Damp/moist Synonyms Furniture/table Hyponyms Peace/piece Homophones

Non-
Gradable
Deep/shallow Married/single gradable Pen/pen Homonyms
antonyms
antonyms

9 Which of the following opposites are gradable, non-gradable, or reversive?

Are Gradable, Non-Gradable, or

WORDS
Reversive

Absent/Present Non-Gradable
Appear/Disappear Reversive
Fail/Pass Non-Gradable
Fair/Unfair Gradable
Fill It/Empty It Reversive
High/Low Gradable
10 Are the underlined words in these sentences best described as examples of
polysemy or metonymy?

SENTENCES TYPE

The pen is mightier than the

a METONYMY
sword.

I had to park on the shoulder of

b POLYSEMY
the road.

Yes, I love those. I ate a whole

c METONYMY
box on Sunday!

The bookstore has some new

d METONYMY
titles in linguistics.

Computer chips created an

e POLYSEMY
important new technology

f I’m going to sue your ass! METONYMY

I think that kind of music was

g POLYSEMY
called new wave.

TASKS
 A) What is the connection between an English doctor called Peter Mark Roget and
the study of lexical relations?

Peter Mark Rogert is an English doctor who wrote the ‘Rogert’s Thesaurus’. Thesaurus
contains words that have the same or similar meanings are grouped together. While the study
of lexical relations is a study of the meanings of the words to other words, so the connection
between them is Peter Mark Roger make a thesaurus that contains same contents with the
study of lexical relations.

B) In this chapter, we discussed metonymy, but not metaphor. What is the

difference between these two ways of using words?

Metonymy is a figure of speech that substitute an object, but with a term/label that closely
associated with it.

Metaphor is also a figure of speech that substitute the object by comparison that is not shows
the real meaning.

C) The adjective pairs listed here are antonyms with a “marked” and “unmarked”
member in each pair. Can you list the unmarked members and explain your
choices?

big/small

happy/unhappy

possible/impossible

empty/full

strong/weak The unmarked members:

heavy/lights  Big
 Full
hort/tall
 Fast
fast/slow  Happy
 Heavy

old/young  Old
 Possible
 Short
 Strong
Explanation: All those words are unmarked members as people use those words to speak in
everyday conversation rather than in the marketplace, it´s mean, those are non-technical
words for formal conversation.

D) Which of these pairs of words are converses (also known as reciprocal

antonymy)?

above/below  doctor/patient follow/precede

asleep/awake dry/wet husband/wife 

brother/sister enter/exit older/younger

buy/sell  expensive/inexpensive true/false

E) Another less common relation between word meanings is known as transferred

epithet or hypallage. Why do we need to talk about this special type of meaning
relation in the analysis of the meaning of the phrases listed here? Can you think
of any other similar examples?

a quiet cup of coffee a nude photo a sleepless night one of my clever days

Explanation: We need to talk about the special of meaning relation since we need to know that the
transferred epithet does not contain the actual meaning in the sentence but is used to explain more to
express what the speaker says.

a nice day
a bright Ideas
a cool kid

(i) Can you identify the five affixes representing instruments in these examples and
describe the type of instrument associated with each affix?

(ii) Having identified the instrumental affixes, can you add the most appropriate affix
to each of these verbs?

Náchi “raise or lift up” (unraise)

óna “push something onto something else” (pushies)
xúgnaga “to speak evil of” (unspeak)
kchá “loosen by pulling” (unloosen)
bláza “tear something open with the teeth” (untear)
ghápa “kick the skin off something” (unkick)
blécha “break with a knife” (unbreak)
bláya “spread out, like dough” (spreades)

I) We can pour water into a glass, and we can fill a glass with water, but we can’t fill
water into a glass or pour a glass with water. Why not?

(i) By focusing on the meaning of the verbs and their themes (“the affected objects”),
try to find a semantic reason why some of the following sentences are ungrammatical.

(1) a.We loaded furniture into the van. a) We  loaded furniture into the van.
   agent                 theme      goal
b. We loaded the van with furniture.  
(2) a.They sprayed paint onto the wall. a) They sprayed paint onto the wall. (o)
agent                 theme     location
b.They sprayed the wall with paint.

(3) a. I poured coffee into the cup. a)  I poured coffee into the cup. 

agent              theme        location
b. I poured the cup with coffee.

(4) a. She filled tissues into her pocket. a) She filled tissues into her pocket.
Agent theme        instrument 

b.She filled her pocket with tissues.

(ii) Which of the following verbs can be used in both of the (a) and (b)
structuresillustrated in examples (1)–(4): attach, cram, glue, ladle, pack, paste, splash,
spread?

We  paked furniture into the van.

They splashed paint onto the wall.

 I ladled coffee into the cup. 

She attached tissues into her pocket.

Week 9 - Semantic Relationships: Exercises

I. What is the semantic relationship between (or among) the following words? If it is
antonymy, specify the type of antonymy.

a) couch : sofa sinonymy i) vehicle : car, truck, SUV, bicycle

hyponymy
b) awake : asleep antonomy:contradictory i) take : grasp, carry, go (a specific
way)polysemy
c) stop : go
antonymy: contradictory_ k) I’ll stand (be on my feet) : (resist) here.
homonomy
d) strong : weak anotnomy: gradabe l) do: undo antonymy:
contradictory
e) (He took the) lead /led/ : lead /li…d/.homonymy m) fast : slow antonymy:
gradable
 f) mammal : dog, cat, pig, cow hiponymy n) alive : dead antonymy:
contradictory
g) get : obtain, become, buy. polysemy o) beginning : debut synonymy
h) crown : king or queen hyponymy p) I saw the spring (season) : (metal coil)
homonymy

II. Say whether the words and expressions below are slang, idioms or metaphors.
Additionally, try to guess their meaning(s).
1. My heart began to glow. metaphor 5. Stop beating around the bush. idiom
2. That car is a lemon. slang 6. I dig Elton John’s music. slang
3. She walked out on me. idiom 7. The echoes of my mind metaphor
4. They’re stoned. slang 8. This is not etched in stone. idiom

III. Examine the words underlined and numbered in the text below. Then answer
the questions that follow.

The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed (1)
each morning by eight (2) o'clock, with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup
perfectly (3) applied, even though she is legally (4) blind, moved to a nursing home
today. Her husband of 70 years recently (5) passed (6) away, making the move
necessary (7).
After (8) many (9) hours of waiting patiently (10) in the lobby of the nursing
home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready (11).
As she maneuvered her walker to (12) the elevator (13), I provided a visual
description of her tiny (14) room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on
her window.
"I love (15) it," she stated (16) with the enthusiasm (17) of an eight-year-old
having just (18) been presented with a new puppy (19).

1. Give an antonym of this word. naked / undressed

2. Give a homophone of this word. ate
3. Give an antonym of this word. imperfectly
4. Give an antonym of this word. _illegally
5. Give an antonym of this word. not recently / a long time ago
6. Give a homophone of this word. past
7. Give an antonym of this word. unnecessary
8. Give an antonym of this word. before
9. Give an antonym of this word. A few
10. Give an antonym of this word. impatiently / anxiously
11. Give an antonym of this word. not ready
12. Give a homophone of this word. two / too
13. What semantic relationship is there between this word and the word lift? synonymy
14. What semantic relationship is there between this word and the expression huge?
antonymy
15. Give an antonym of this word. hate_/ hatred
16. Give a synonym of this word. expressed
17. Give a synonym of this word. excitement
18. What semantic relationship is there between this word and the word just in the
following sentence? John is a just person. homonymy
19. What semantic relationship is there between this word and the word dog? hyponymy