FACULDADE DE CIÊNCIAS DA LINGUAGEM COMUNICAÇÃO E ARTES

Departamento de Inglês

Curso de Licenciatura em Ensino de Inglês

Language Description Test 9 October, 2014

Branch: Semantics

1. Given below is a sample conversation. (a) In which string(s) is/ are proposition(s) asserted by
the speaker? Substantiate your answers. (2.0)

Hostess: Peter! Would you like tea or coffee? (1)

Guest: Coffee please (2)
Hostess: Anything to eat? (3)
Guest: I would like a tuna sandwich, please. (4)

A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which
describes some state of affairs, i.e. the circumstances in which people or things are
involved at a particular time. If we take into account this definition we can say that the
speaker asserts a proposition in string (4) because it is a declarative sentence that
expresses meaning and describes a state of affairs which is a request for a tuna sandwich
made by the speaker to his interlocutor.

Teacher: Do you fancy sports, Peter? (1)

Student: Yes, football. (2) I play it and watch it at weekend, (3) on my little box. (4)

2. In what language is the sense of the underlined word in the dialogue above?
Substantiate your answer. (2.0)
The sense of an expression - be it in English, Tsonga or Chinese - is an abstraction that
can be entertained in or understood by the mind of a language user. Thus, the sense of an
expression cannot be said to belong to language X nor Y.

3. Discuss the concept of reference and referent. Use the strings my little box in the dialogue
above to illustrate your discussion. (2.0)

Reference is a relationship between language, the expression my little box, and things or people
in the world. In the case of our example, the thing identified by the expression my little box, which
is the speaker’s television. As for referent, the speaker’s television is the referent of the
expression my little box because it is the thing in the world that it identifies, when the speaker
utters it.

4. Discuss the concept of variable reference. Use the expression the President of the Republic to
illustrate your discussion. (2.0)
An expression is said to have variable reference when an expression can refer to different things
or people. The expression ‘the President of the republic’ has variable reference because if John
says it while he is talking about South African policy, the referent of that expression will be Mr.
Raposa. If Mr. Sitoe utters the same expression while talking about Mozambican politics, its
referent will be Mr. Nyussi.

5. Are the underlined expressions referring expressions or not? Substantiate your answer.
(3.0)

a. She turned into a millionaire.

It is not because when a speaker utters it he does not identify a particular person in the world.
A millionaire is used as a predicating expression because it asserts or says something about
the referring expression, thus helping the hearer to identify the referent of the referring
expression.

b. Dogs bark.

It is not a referring expression because the speaker does not use it to identify a restricted or
specific group of dogs. In other words, he does not have a restricted group of dogs in mind. He
uses it to refer to all the dogs in the universe.

c. Dad when I grow up I will build a castle.

It is not a referring expression because when the speaker utters it he does not have a
particular castle in mind. In other words, there isn’t a referent for the word castle in the world.
All he wants is to build a castle when he grows up.

6. What is the difference between a predicate and a predicator? Give your own
examples to illustrate your answer. (2.0)

A predicate is any word (or sequence of words) which (in a given single sense) can function
as the predicator of a sentence. Predicates are independent of particular sentences and
can be viewed as a list words included in a dictionary. Example: hungry, between,
asleep, hit, etc.

The Predicator of a simple declarative sentence is the word (sometimes a group of

words) which does not belong to any of the referring expressions and which, of the
remainder, makes the most specific contribution to the meaning of the sentence.

In the sentence the mole is between the butchery and barbershop, if we remove the
referring expression the mole, the butchery and barbershop we are left with is between.
Of the two words between is the one that gives the most specific contribution to the
meaning of the sentence and therefore it is the predicator.

7. Discuss the concepts of argument and predicator. Use the sentence Tom is a teacher to
 illustrate your discussion. (2.0)

The concept of predicator has been discussed above. Argument is a role played by referring
expressions in sentences. Tom being a referring expression plays the role of argument in the
sentence. Having removed it, we are left with is a teacher. Of the remainder teacher is the
predicator because it gives the most specific contribution to the meaning of the sentence.

8. Of what degree is the predicate cook? Why? (2.0)

The degree of a predicate is a number indicating the number of arguments it is normally

understood to have in simple sentences. Cook is a predicate of degree two, as the
sentence Peter cooked matapa illustrates, because it requires two arguments namely
Peter and matapa.

9. Define the concept of deictic word and then say in what way the underlined words in
the utterances below are deictic. (3.0)

A: ‘Have you been to Games for the dishwasher?’

B: ‘Yes, I have. There, I bought tree dishwashers.’

A Deictic word is one which takes some element of its meaning from the situation (i.e. the
speaker, the addressee, the time and the place) of utterance in which it is used. I is deictic
because it takes its meaning from the address. In other word, It refers to the addressee.
Last week takes its meaning from the time it was uttered. Thus, if it was uttered in the
second week of the month then last week would refer to the first week of the month. Went
is deictic in the sense that the action of going to games happened before the moment of
utterance. Hence the use of ‘went’ which is the past tense of go. Past, present, and future
time must be regarded as deictic, because present, past, and future times are defined by
reference to the time of utterance.