Semantics and Pragmatics

2019\2020
Second Semester
Lecture 5

Hurford et al. (chapter 10)

Sense relations: similarity of sense

 Synonymy
• SYNONYMY is the relationship between two predicates that have the same
sense.
• In most dialects of English, stubborn and obstinate are synonyms.
• In many dialects, brigand and bandit are synonyms.
• In many dialects, mercury and quicksilver are synonyms.
• Examples of perfect synonymy are hard to find, perhaps because there is
little point in a dialect having two predicates with exactly the same sense.
• Note that our definition of synonymy requires identity of sense. This is a
stricter definition than is sometimes given: sometimes synonymy is
defined as similarity of meaning, a definition which is vaguer than ours.
The price we pay for our rather strict definition is that very few examples
of synonymy, so defined, can be found. But the strict definition is useful as
an ideal and we will still use it and assume that relatively good instances
of synonymy are possible for the purpose of furthering our investigation
into how to describe sense relations.
 Synonymy
• In the following sentences, do the capitalized
pairs of words have the same (or very nearly the
same) sense in the ways they are used here?
• (1) The thief tried to CONCEAL/HIDE the evidence
• (2) I’m going to PURCHASE/BUY a new coat
• (3) These tomatoes are LARGE/RIPE
• (4) This is a very LOOSE/SHORT definition
• (5) You have my PROFOUND/DEEP sympathy
• (6) It is a very WIDE/BROAD street
• synonymy and sense are interdependent. We concentrate on what
has been called the cognitive or conceptual meaning of a word.
They may differ in dialect, style or formality.

Do the pairs of words in capitals have the same sense?

• How many KIDS/ CHILDREN have you got?
• He comes to see us every FALL/AUTUMN
• (2) Nothing is more precious to us than our FREEDOM/LIBERTY
• (3) The body was found in the BOOT/TRUNK of the car
• (4) We’ve just bought a new HOUSE/APARTMENT
• (5) John got a bullet wound in his HEAD/GUTS
• (6) A GUY/FELLOW I know has pickled onions for breakfast
 synonymy
• Synonymy is a relation between predicates, and not between words
(i.e. word-forms). Recall that a word may have many different
senses; each distinct sense of a word (of the kind we are dealing
with) is a predicate. When necessary, we distinguish between
predicates by giving them subscript numbers. For example, hide1
could be the intransitive verb, as in Let’s hide from Mummy; hide2
could be the transitive verb, as in Hide your sweeties under the
pillow; hide3 could be the noun, as in We watched the birds from a
hide; and hide4 could be the noun, as in The hide of an ox weighs
200 lbs. The first three senses here (the first three predicates) are
clearly related to each other in meaning, whereas the fourth is
unrelated. It is because of the ambiguity of most words that we
have had to formulate practice questions about synonymy in terms
of sentences. The sentence The thief tried to hide the evidence, for
example, makes it clear that one is dealing with the predicate hide2
(the transitive verb). Hide2 is a synonym of conceal.
 Partial synonymy
• The following pairs of words share at least one sense in common, but do
not share all their senses (i.e. they are like hide and conceal). For each
pair:
• (a) give a sentence in which the two words could be used interchangeably
without altering the sense of the sentence – use a slash notation, as we
have done in practice above; (b) give another sentence using one of the
words where a different sense is involved. As a guide, we have done the
first one for you.
• (1) deep/profound
• (a) You have my deep/profound sympathy
• (b) This river is very deep (This river is very profound is unacceptable.)
• (2) ripe/mature
• (3) broad/wide
• (4) earth/soil
• (5) side/edge
 Sameness of meaning – parts of speech
• The definition of synonymy as a relationship between the senses of words requires
a clear separation of all the different senses of a word, even though some of these
senses may be quite closely related, as with hide1, hide2, and hide3, mentioned in
the last comment.
• All the examples so far have been of synonymy between predicates realized
grammatically by a word of the same part of speech, for example between
adjective and adjective, as with deep and profound. But the notion of synonymy
can be extended to hold between words of different parts of speech, for example
between the verb sleeping and the adjective asleep. Examples like these are not
the kind usually given of synonymy, but they help to make the point that the sense
of a word does not depend entirely on its part of speech. Grammar and meaning
are separate though closely related aspects of language.
• Let us now investigate how the notion of ‘sameness’ of meaning, which we
• referred to as synonymy in the case of individual predicates, can be extended
• to entire sentences in a language.
 Paraphrase
• A sentence which expresses the same proposition as another sentence is a
PARAPHRASE of that sentence (assuming the same referents for any
referring expressions involved). Paraphrase is to SENTENCES (on individual
interpretations) as SYNONYMY is to PREDICATES (though some
semanticists talk loosely of synonymy in the case of sentences as well).
• Example Bachelors prefer redhaired girls is a paraphrase of Girls with red
hair are
• preferred by unmarried men
• Look at the following pair of sentences, which are paraphrases of each
other.
• (A) John sold the book to a grandson of W.B. Yeats
• (B) A grandson of W.B. Yeats bought the book from John
• It is not possible for (A) to be true while (B) is not (assuming that we are
dealing with the same John and the same grandson of W.B. Yeats). Thus
(A) has the same truth value as (B), so that if (A) is true, (B) is true, and
vice versa; also, if (A) is false, then (B) is false, and vice versa.
 Paraphrase
• Are the following pairs paraphrases of each other (assuming that the referents of
the names and other referring expressions remain the same)?
• (1) John is the parent of James
• James is the child of John P / NP
• (2) John is the parent of James
• James is the parent of John P / NP
• (3) My father owns this car
• This car belongs to my father P / NP
• (4) The fly was on the wall
• The wall was under the fly P / NP
• (5) Some countries have no coastline
• Not all countries have a coastline P / NP
• (6) Fred sent Mary a new book
• Fred sent a new book to Mary P / NP
• (7) Jerry took out the garbage
• Jerry took the garbage out P /
 Hyponymy
• HYPONYMY is a sense relation between predicates (or
sometimes longer phrases) such that the meaning of
one predicate (or phrase) is included in the meaning of
the other.
• Example The meaning of red is included in the meaning
of scarlet.
• Red is the superordinate term; scarlet or crimson is a
hyponym of red (scarlet is a kind of red).
• Note that the superordinate term, red, is more general
or inclusive in meaning than its hyponym scarlet, which
is much more specific in the kind of colour it describes.
• Look at the following, and fill in some missing
hyponyms.
• 1) Pig (sow, ---- , ----)
• 2) tree (beech, ---- , ----)
• 3) Virtue (honesty, ---- , ----)
• 4) Emotion (fear, ---- , ----)
• 5) strike (v.) (----, ---- , ----)
• 6) pleasant (----, ---- , ----)
 Hyponymy
• Hyponymy is a sense relation. Another term for sense, preferred by
logicians, is intension, a term deliberately chosen for its implicit
contrast with extension. Hyponymy is defined in terms of the
inclusion of the sense of one item in the sense of another. We say,
for example, that the sense of animal is included in the sense of
cow.
• (1) Which of the following descriptions is the more specific?
• (a) A man, 5ft 8in tall, with black hair, moustache, no beard,
wearing a beige duffle coat, blue jeans, and lace-up shoes
• (b A man in a duffle coat
• (2) Which of the above descriptions gives more information?
• (3) Which of the above descriptions describes more men?
• (4) In general, does giving more information increase or reduce the
range of things described?
 SYMMETRICAL HYPONYMY
• We define HYPONYMY in such a way that SYNONYMY counts as a special
case of hyponymy. For example, given two synonyms, such as mercury and
quicksilver, we say for convenience that these also illustrate the hyponymy
relationship, and that mercury and quicksilver are hyponyms of each other.
Thus synonymy can be seen as a special case of hyponymy, i.e.
SYMMETRICAL HYPONYMY.
• Rule
• If X is a hyponym of Y and if Y is also a hyponym of X, then X and Y are
synonymous.
 Entailment
• Earlier we saw that it is possible to extend the notion of
‘sameness’ of meaning between predicates (synonymy) to
sameness of meaning between propositions that are
expressed by sentences (paraphrases). Similarly, the notion
of hyponymy, which involves meaning inclusion between
individual predicates, can be extended to a particular kind
of meaning inclusion between propositions in a language
involving truth conditions called ‘entailment’. We
investigate this below.
• A proposition X ENTAILS a proposition Y if the truth of Y
follows necessarily from the truth of X.We extend this basic
definition in terms of propositions. A sentence expressing
proposition X entails a sentence expressing proposition Y if
the truth of Y follows necessarily from the truth of X.
 Entailment
• The truth of sentences (and of propositions) is
relative to particular sets of circumstances, or
states of affairs. Thus when we say, for example,
that John killed Bill entails Bill died, we are in fact
envisaging these sentences being uttered in
circumstances where both instances of Bill have
the same referent and the time indicated by the
use of the past tense (in killed and died) is related
to the same hypothetical time of utterance.
Obviously Bill died could not be true any time
before it was true that John killed Bill.
 Entailment
• Look at the following and circle the statements of
entailment as correct (C) or incorrect (I ).
• (1) John cooked an egg entails John boiled an egg. C / I
• (2) John boiled an egg entails John cooked an egg. C / I
• (3) I saw a boy entails I saw a person. C / I
• (4) John stole a car entails John took a car. C / I
• (5) His speech disturbed me entails His speech deeply
disturbed me. C / I
Entailment applies cumulatively. Thus if X entails Y and Y
entails Z, then X entails Z.
 Paraphrases or two-way entailments
• Two sentences may be said to be PARAPHRASES of each
other if and only if they have exactly the same set of
ENTAILMENTS; or, which comes to the same thing, if and
only if they mutually entail each other so that whenever
one is true the other must also be true.
• Note how this relationship between propositions neatly
parallels the one we described earlier between individual
predicates with respect to synonymy and hyponymy.
• John and Mary are twins entails Mary and John are twins;
• Mary and John are twins entails John and Mary are twins.
• Therefore,
• John and Mary are twins is a paraphrase of Mary and John
are twins.
 Set of entailments = paraphrases
• Look at the following pairs of sentences and see if they have the same set of
entailments (Yes) or not (No) (i.e. see if they are paraphrases of each other).
• (1) No one has led a perfect life
• Someone has led a perfect life
• (2) We’ve just bought a dog
• We’ve just bought something
• (3) The house was concealed by the trees
• The house was hidden by the trees
• (4) I ran to the house
• I went to the house
• (5) It is hard to lasso elephants
• Elephants are hard to lasso
The relationship between entailment and paraphrase is parallel to the relationship
between hyponymy and synonymy, as you will have noticed. Just as synonymy is
symmetric (i.e. two-way) hyponymy, paraphrase is symmetric (i.e. two-way)
entailment.
• Fill in the chart with the
words entailment,
paraphrase, hyponymy,
and synonymy in the
appropriate boxes, thus
summarizing their
relationship.
 Hyponymy and entailment
• (1) In terms of the concepts you have now learned, what can you say about the relationships
between the words in column A below and those in column B?
A B
• Tulip flower
• Sheep animal
• Steal take
• Square rectangular
• (2) What can you say about the relationship between the A sentences and
• the B sentences below?
A B
• Henry was chewing a tulip Henry was chewing a flower
• Denis got savaged by a sheep Denis got savaged by an animal
• David stole a pound of beef David took a pound of beef
• Mary climbed through a square Mary climbed through a rectangular
• hole in the roof hole in the roof

• The Basic Rule of Sense Inclusion:

• Given two sentences A and B, identical in every way except that A contains a word X where B
contains a different word Y, and X is a hyponym of Y, then sentence A entails sentence B.
 Exceptions: not / all
• The Basic Rule of Sense Inclusion:
• Given two sentences A and B, identical in every way except that A contains a word
X where B contains a different word Y, and X is a hyponym of Y, then sentence A
entails sentence B.
• E
• What is the relationship between the A sentences and the B sentences
• below?
• AB
• Henry was not chewing a tulip Henry was not chewing a flower
• Denis didn’t get savaged by a sheep Denis didn’t get savaged by an
• animal
• David didn’t steal a pound of beef David didn’t take a pound of beef
• Mary didn’t climb through a square Mary didn’t climb through a
• hole in the roof rectangular hole in the roof

• In that case, sentence B entails sentence A.

 Exceptions: not / all
• Now we look at sentences involving the word all. What is the relationship between
the A sentences and the B sentences below?
• A B
• Henry chewed up all my tulips Henry chewed up all my flowers
• All Denis’s sheep have foot-rot All Denis’s animals have foot-rot
• Mary coloured all the square Mary coloured all the rectangular
• shapes purple shapes purple

• Part of the answer is: the B sentences entail the A sentences. But there is an
important qualification that must be added to this. Can you think what it is?
• .................................................................................................................................
• The B sentences entail the A sentences. However, the entailment from B to A only
holds when the set of things referred to by the phrase including all actually exists.
For example, All Denis’s animals have foot-rot entails All Denis’s sheep have foot-
rot only if Denis actually has some sheep, i.e. if some of his animals are in fact
sheep.
• B entails A
 Exceptions : gradable adjectives
• Rules stating the relationship between hyponymy and entailment are somewhat
complex
• The meaning of gradable words, like big, tall, small, expensive, etc. is not invariably
fixed with respect to some absolute scale, but vary depending upon the kind of
noun they modify.
• What are the entailment relations between the following sentences?
• A B
• John saw a big mouse John saw a big animal
• A tall pygmy came in A tall person came in
• We went in a small bus We went in a small vehicle
• That was an expensive sandwich That was an expensive meal

• There are no entailment relations between these sentences. Thus although a

mouse is an animal, a big mouse is not a big animal. The presence of gradable
• words upsets the normal relationship between hyponymy and entailment.
 Summary
• Hyponymy and synonymy are sense relations
between predicates. The latter is a special,
symmetric, case of the former. Entailment and
paraphrase are sense relations between
sentences, the latter being a special, symmetric
case of the former. The sense relations between
predicates and those between sentences are
systematically connected by ru les such as the
basic rule of sense
• inclusion.
 Discussion
Identify in the following sentences the pairs of words in
upper-case letters which appear to share the same (or
nearly the same) sense. In some (or all) cases it may be
difficult to decide, so be ready to explain the difficulty.
• a Fred always sleeps on the SOFA/COUCH
• b The neighbours have a BIG/LARGE family
• c The winning horse TROTTED/RAN to the finish line
• d This table is very SMOOTH/FLAT
• e That is a very HIGH/TALL building
• f That is a very FLAT/SLIPPERY road
 Discussion
Synonyms usually share some but not all senses. This
becomes evident in certain of their uses. For each
apparent synonym pair below supply sentences in which
the two words can be used interchangeably without
altering the sense of the sentence, and then give another
sentence using one of the words in a different sense
(where no interchange is possible with the same
meaning).
• a small/little e cheap/inexpensive
• b hard/difficult f bright/well-lit
• c long/extended g sad/dejected
• d lady/woman h rob/steal
 Euphemism
• A special kind of synonymy falls under the heading of
euphemism, whereby a culturally or socially
disagreeable word is replaced by a more agreeable one
with essentially (though not exactly) the same
meaning. For each term below try to find several
euphemisms which are less harsh, offensive, or explicit.
For item (j) try to think of several additional examples.
• a war f toilet
• b crazy g poor
• c damn h crippled
• d fired from a job i stupid
• e blind j ......................
• Sometimes synonyms can have either positive or negative connotations,
as shown by the first set below. Try to complete the other examples. A
thesaurus may be helpful.
• NEUTRAL TERM POSITIVE NEGATIVE
• careful scrupulous keep a sharp eye on
• save money ...................... ......................
• reserved ...................... ......................
• levelheaded ...................... ......................
• ...................... Inquisitive ......................
• ...................... ...................... lagging
• laugh ...................... ......................
• talk ...................... ......................
• old ...................... ......................
• ...................... ...................... immature
 Revision
Supply as many paraphrases as you can for each of the
following sentences.
• Remember that each paraphrase must have the same
set of entailments as
• the original sentence.
• a I gave the book to my friend
• b Your child took out the garbage
• c It is likely that Fred will win the race
• d John is easy to please
• e The sales clerk received the money from me
• f Some students have a job
In each of the following groups of words identify which
terms are superordinate and which are hyponyms (and
which are co-hyponyms). Identify any problems you
might have in organizing them.
• a hammer, screwdriver, wrench, awl, tool, pliers
• b carpenter, electrician, craftsman, plumber
• c mammal, human, animal, amphibian, reptile, frog,
snake
• d shatter, crack, break, smash, fracture
• e man, woman, husband, bachelor, wife, human,
widow
• For each sentence below give another
sentence which the first one entails, and then
give one which the first does NOT entail.
• a John is a bachelor
• b John is a widower
• c Mary is divorced
• d This is a tulip