Graduation Examination in Linguistics 4 - August 1, 2010 at USSH

Xin tôn trọng bản quyền tác giả © Ms.Nguyen Thu Ngan và © http://englishsemanticsofficial.blogspot.com/
Graduation Examination in Linguistics 4 - August 1, 2010 at USSH
Duration: 150 minutes 

Promises © Michela Riva

Part 1: SEMANTICS (6 marks)

1. What is a hyponym? Provide two hyponyms for each of the following words.
a) take                                                                b) walk
→A hyponym is a word whose referent is totally included in the referent of another word. (Một hyponym là một từ mà sở chỉ của nó được bào gồm hoàn toàn trong sở chỉ của từ khác.)
→take: steal, borrow
→walk: tiptoe, plod.

2. How is a performative utterance different from a constative one. Decide whether the following utterances are performative or constative.

a) I promise people things from time to time.
→Constative
b) I can't promise that I'll be home early tonight.
→Constative.
c) I promise I will be home early tonight.
→Performative
d) I promised I would be home early tonight.
→Constative 

3. Interpret the sentences and identify the figures of speech used.
a) America is a melting pot.
→Metaphor. America is compared to a melting pot, which means America is a place where different peoples, styles and cultures are mixed together.
b) You'll never get the university to agree to that.
→Metonymy. The university stands for the authority of the university.

4. Identify two presuppositions in the following sentence.
It is regrettable that the police were not informed of the murder earlier.
→The police were not informed of the murder earlier.
→There is a murder.

5. What does the second speaker's response implicate in each of the following dialogues?
a) Jenny: Mrs. X is an old bag.
Ann: The weather has been quite delightful this summer, hasn't it?
→ Ann may implicature that she is not interested in the topic raised by Jenny.
(or)
→ Ann may implicature that Ann doesn't want to focus on the utterance "Mrs. X is an old bag." and want start a new  conversation.

b) Husband: How much longer will you be?
Wife: Make yourself a drink.
→ The wife may implicature that she will be long enough for him to have a drink.
(or)
→ Wife may implicature that she will not be ready soon.

6. What is the sense relation between each of the following pairs of words? When the words are antonyms, specify whether they are binary, gradable or relational.

a) accidental/intentional (vô tình/cố ý)
→ Binary antonymy
b)figure ('the sales figures')/ figure ('a political figure')
→ Homonymy
c) cat/dog
→ Incompatibility
d) flour/flower
→ Homophony

7. Make two situations for the following utterance, interpret its meanings and then classify it according to two different types of speech act. Is each of the speech act direct or indirect?

The battery is dead.

Situation one:

A: What's wrong with the laptop?

B: The battery is dead.

B directly answer A's question by telling him the reason why the laptop does not work.

This is a representative.

Situation two:

A: The battery is dead.

B: I'll buy another one.
A indirectly requests B to buy another battery.
This is a directive.