Graduation Examination in Linguistics 34 – June 16, 2013 at USSH

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Graduation Examination in Linguistics 34 – June 16, 2013 at USSH 

Duration: 150 minutes 

Smile © ByLaauraa

Part 1: SEMANTICS (6 marks) 

1. State whether the following statements are true or false.

a. Semantics is concerned with contextual meaning.

→ False

b. The meaning of an utterance depends on the situation in which it is uttered.

→ True

c. An analytic sentence is one that is necessarily hales, as a result of the senses of the words in it.

→ False

d. The perlocutionary act performed through an utterance is always intended by the speaker.

→ False

2.

a. It is now time to give him the present because everyone is present.

→Present/present

→Homonyms

b. Why would anyone want to steal a truckload of steel?

→Steal/steel

→Homophones

c. How long will the live fish live without food?

→Live/live

→Homographs

d. I will be second in line if I wait one more second.

→Second/second

→Homonyms

3.

a. He attacked every weak point in my argument.

→Metaphor. 

→"Argument" is compared to a fortress or a position in one battle that can be strong or weak and can be attacked by the enemies, which means he strongly criticized every weak point in my argument.

b. There were 30 hands employed on this farm.

→Synecdoche.

→Hands stand for workers.

4. State whether the following statements are true or false.

a. She planted tulips entails someone planted flowers.

→ True

b. His words upset me entails his words deeply upset me.

→ False

c. The boy ran into the house entails the boy went into the house.

→True

d. John got a square box entails John got a rectangular box.

→True

5. What does B imply in the following dialogues? Which maxim of the Cooperative Principle is being flouted by B?

a.

A: Has the kitchen been painted?

B: Tom’s away.

B’s response violates the maxim of relevance.

(B's answer 'Tom's away' has nothing to do with A's question.)

B is cooperative that A may infer that the kitchen has been painted.

b.

A: Did you all enjoy the movie?

B: Some of us did.

B’s response violates the manner of relevance.

(B's answer is not brief, concise, clearly.)

B is cooperative that A may infer that you all enjoy the movie.

6. Situation

“The apple is rotten.”

Situation one:

A: “Why don’t’ you eat the apple?”

B: “The apple is rotten.”

B directly answer A’s question that B doesn't eat the apple because it is rotten.

This is a Representative.

Situation two:

A: “The apple is rotten.”

B: “Ok. I will take it off now.”

A indirectly suggest that B takes the apple off.

This is a Directive.

Part 2 : ESSAY WRITING (4 marks)  

Write an essay of 250-300 words on one of the following topics.

Topic 1: Describe a newspaper or magazine with which you are familiar and explain why you think it is worth reading.

Topic 2: Unemployment, especially among young people, is a serious problem in many countries today. What can be done about it?