(123doc) - Giao-Trinh-Ngu-Nghia-Hoc-Tieng-Anh-Phan-4-Pps
(123doc) - Giao-Trinh-Ngu-Nghia-Hoc-Tieng-Anh-Phan-4-Pps
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4(a) I saw her slip. 4(b) I saw her slip.
6(a) They are cooking bananas. 6(b) They are cooking bananas.
7(a) They are moving sidewalks. 7(b) They are moving sidewalks.
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9(a) Old men and women 9(b) Old men and women
will be served first. will be served first.
10(a) The thing that bothered Bill 10(b)The thing that bothered Bill
was crouching under the table. was crouching under the table.
2.15 Anomaly
2.15.1 Definition
Anomaly is “a violation of semantic rules to create
nonsense.” [Finegan, 1993: 148]
Ex1. That bachelor is pregnant is semantically anomalous because
bachelor is [+male] whereas pregnant is [+female].
Ex2. My brother is the only child in the family is an English
sentence that is grammatically correct and syntactically
perfect; however, it is semantically anomalous because it
represents a contradiction. The meaning of brother includes
the semantic feature [+having at least one sibling] whereas
the only child in the family is [+having no other sibling].
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2.15.2 Anomaly and contradiction
Anomaly involves us in the notion contradiction in the sense that
semantically anomalous sentences constitute a type of
contradictory sentences. For example, John killed Bill, who
remained alive for many years after is semantically anomalous
because the so-called sentence represents a contradiction: no living
organism can remain alive after being killed. In fact, Bill died right at
the moment John killed him.
Exercise 25: Explain the anomaly of each of the following
sentences.
1. Christopher is killing phonemes.
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2. My brother is a spinster.
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5. Puppies are human.
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11. The tiger remained alive for an hour after the hunter killed it.
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2. ____________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________
4. ____________________________________________________
5. ____________________________________________________
6. ____________________________________________________
7. ____________________________________________________
8. ____________________________________________________
9. ____________________________________________________
10. ___________________________________________________
11. __________________________________________________
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Section
SENTENCE MEANING
3
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Ex2. The following pair of sentences expresses the same
proposition:
3(a) John gave Mary a book.
3(b) Mary was given a book by John.
The following pair of sentences expresses different propositions:
4(a) George danced with Ethel.
4(b) George didn’t dance with Ethel.
Exercise 27: Do the two following sentences have the same
proposition?
(1) Mr Dindlay killed Janet.
(2) Mr Dindlay caused Janet to die.
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This means the two members of each pair are not paraphrases of each other.
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1(a) John is the parent of James. 3(a) The fly was on the wall.
1(b) James is the parent of John. 3(b) The wall was under the fly.
2(a) The hunter bit the lion. 4(a) Jack was injured by a stone.
2(b) The lion bit the hunter. 4(b) Jack was injured with a stone.
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3.1.3 Distinction between an utterance and a sentence
“An UTTERANCE is the USE by a particular speaker, on a
particular occasion, for a particular purpose, of a piece of
language, such as a sequence of sentences, or a single phrase,
or even a single word.” [Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 15]
“A SENTENCE is neither a physical event nor a physical
object. It is conceived abstractly, a string of words put
together by the grammatical rules of a language. A sentence
can be thought of as the IDEAL string of words behind various
realizations in utterances and inscriptions.” [Hurford and Heasley,
1984: 16]
Jane: ‘Coffee?’ ← Would you like some coffee?
Steve: ‘Sure!’ ← I’m sure to love it.
Jane: ‘White?’ ← Would you like (black coffee or) white coffee?
Steve: ‘Black.’ ← I’d like black coffee, please.
(One-word utterances) (Well-formed sentences)
“The distinction between sentence and utterance is of
fundamental importance to both semantics and pragmatics.
Essentially, we want to say that a sentence is an abstract
theoretical entity defined within a theory of grammar, while
utterance is the issuance of a sentence.” [Levinson, 1983: 18]
“Utterances of non-sentences, e.g. short phrases or
single words, are used by people in communication all the time.
People do not converse wholly in (tokens of) well-formed
sentences. But the abstract idea of a sentence is the basis for
understanding even those expressions, which are not
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sentences. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the meaning of
non-sentences can be best analysed by considering them to be
abbreviations, or incomplete versions, of whole sentences.”
[Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 18]
“The term ‘utterance’ can be used to refer either to the
process (or activity) of uttering or to the product of that
process (or activity). Utterances in the first of these two senses
are commonly referred to nowadays as speech acts; utterances in
the second sense may be referred to — in a specialized sense of
the term — as inscriptions36.” [Lyons, 1995: 235]
3.1.3 Distinction between a proposition, a sentence and an
utterance
3.1.3.1 “It is useful to envisage the kind of family tree
relationship between the three notions shown in the diagram. For
example, a single proposition could be expressed by using
several sentences (say The Monday Club deposed Mrs Thatcher, or
Mrs Thatcher was deposed by The Monday Club) and each of these
sentences could be uttered an indefinite number of times.”
[Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 23]
PROPOSITION
36
The term ‘inscriptions’ is “not widely used by linguists. It must be interpreted
as being more appropriate to the written than it is to the spoken language.”
[Lyons, 1995: 235]
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3.1.3.2 Also, it is interesting to note that the same
proposition can be expressed by different sentences and that
the same sentence can be realised by different utterances on
particular occasions.
Exercise 29: Fill in the following chart given by Hurford and
Heasley [1984: 23] with ‘+’ or ‘–’ as appropriate. Thus, for
example, if it makes sense to think of a proposition being a
particular regional accent, put a ‘+’ in the appropriate box; if
not put a ‘–.’
In a particular language
37
“You can understand well-formed sentences of your language without knowing
their truth value. Knowing the truth conditions is not the same as knowing the
actual facts. Rather, the truth conditions, the meaning, permit you to examine
the world and learn the actual facts … Knowing a language includes knowing
the semantic rules for combining meanings and the conditions under which
sentences are true or false.” [Fromkin and Rodman, 1993: 146]
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3.2.1 “An ANALYTIC sentence is one that is necessarily
TRUE, as a result of the senses of the words in it.” [Hurford and
Heasley, 1984: 91-92]
Ex1. All elephants are animals.
The truth of this sentence follows from the senses of
elephants and animals.
Ex2. Sam’s wife is married.
The truth of this sentence follows from the senses of wife and
married.
3.2.2 A contradictory sentence, which is also called “A
CONTRADICTION38, is a sentence that is necessarily FALSE, as a
result of the senses of the words in it. Thus a contradiction is in a
way the opposite of an analytic sentence.” [Hurford and Heasley,
1984: 93]
Ex1. This animal is a vegetable is a contradictory sentence; it
must be false because of the senses of animal and vegetable.
Ex2. Sam is older than himself 39 is a contradictory sentence; it
must be false because of the senses of older than and
himself. In fact, Sam can be older (or younger) than somebody
else, but not than himself.
[1999: 9] and Hurford and Heasley [1984: 93]. Goddard [1998: 17] uses the term
contradiction to refer to a somewhat different notion: “Contradiction is where a
sentence must be false because of the meanings involved.”
39
Notice that Sam looks older than he is proves to be a synthetic sentence.
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3.2.3 “A SYNTHETIC sentence is one which is NOT analytic,
but may be either true or false, depending on the way the world
is.” [Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 92]
Ex1. John is from Ireland.
There is nothing in the senses of John, Ireland or from
which makes the sentence necessarily true or false.
Ex2. Sam’s wife is German.
There is nothing in the senses of Sam’s, wife or German
which makes the sentence necessarily true or false.
Exercise 30: Circle the following sentences A for analytic, S for
synthetic or C for contradiction, as appropriate.
1. John’s nine-year-old brother is a boy. A/S/C
2. John’s brother is nine years old. A/S/C
3. Cats are not vegetables. A/S/C
4. No cats like to bathe. A/S/C
5. Cats never live more than 20 years. A/S/C
6. My watch is slow. A/S/C
7. My watch is a device for telling the time. A/S/C
8. That girl is her own mother’s mother. A/S/C
9. That boy is his own father’s son. A/S/C
10. Alice is Ken’s sister. A/S/C
11. Some typewriters are dusty. A/S/C
12. If it breaks, it breaks. A/S/C
13. John killed Bill, who remained alive for many years after. A / S / C
14. Bachelors cannot form lasting relationships. A/S/C
15. Bachelors are lonely. A/S/C
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3.3 Paraphrase
3.3.1 Definition
3.3.1.1 PARAPHRASE is “the relationship between a word
and a combination of other words with the same meaning. For
instance, many people would agree that loud means something like
can be heard from far away. Ultimately, the whole project of
describing or explaining word-meanings depends on paraphrase
because we must use words — or other equivalent symbols —
to explain other words.” [Goddard, 1998: 18]
3.3.1.2 “When asked what a sentence means, people usually
provide another sentence that has virtually the same
meaning, a paraphrase.” [Peccei, 1999: 3]
3.3.1.3 “A sentence which expresses the same proposition
as another sentence is a paraphrase of that sentence.”
[Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 104]
3.3.1.4 “Sentences are paraphrases if they have the same
meaning (except possibly for minor differences in
emphases).” [Fromkin and Rodman, 1993: 132]
Consider the two following sentences:
(1) The girl kissed the boy.
(2) The boy was kissed by the girl.
Although there may be a difference in the emphasis in these two
sentences — in the second the emphasis is on what happened to the
boy, whereas in the first the emphasis is on what the girl did — the
meaning relations between the verb kiss and the two noun
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phrases the girl and the boy are the same in both cases, and on
this basis the two sentences are paraphrases of each other.
3.3.2 Possible ways to paraphrase a sentence
There are a variety of ways that we could paraphrase a sentence:
(1) Change individual words:
1(a) using synonyms:
Cats DRINK cream. ⇔ Domestic felines CONSUME
the liquid fat of milk.
1(b) using relational antonyms (also called converses):
I LENT that book to Jim. ⇔ Jim BORROWED that book from me.
(2) Change sentence structure:
Cats DRINK cream. ⇔ Cream IS DRUNK by cats.
(3) Change both individual words and sentence structure:
Cats DRINK cream. ⇔ The liquid fat of milk IS DRUNK
by domestic felines.
To provide a paraphrase we use our knowledge of both the
meanings of individual words and of the English grammar.
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2(a) The needle is too short.
2(b) The needle is not long enough.
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12(a) We HAD hardly BEGUN our work when it rained.
12(b) Hardly HAD we BEGUN our work when it rained.
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20(a) Considering your condition, we won’t press charges.
20(b) Under the circumstances, we won’t press charges.
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3.4 Entailment
3.4.1 Definition
3.4.1.1 “Entailment is a relationship that applies between two
sentences40, where the truth of one implies the truth of the
other because of the meanings of the words involved.” [Goddard,
1998: 17]
For example, John was killed entails John died. Obviously,
John died could not be true any time before it was true that John was
killed.
3.4.1.2 “An entailment is something that logically follows
from what is asserted in the utterance.” [Yule, 1996: 25]
Shirley: ‘It’s so sad. George regrets getting Mary pregnant.’
Jean: ‘But he didn’t get her pregnant. We know that now.’
In the above conversation, Jean’s utterance of ‘he didn’t get
her pregnant’ actually entails ‘George didn’t get Mary pregnant’
as a logical consequence. “The entailment (a necessary
consequence of what is said) is simply more powerful than the
presupposition (an earlier assumption41).” [Yule, 1996: 32]
3.4.1.3 “Entailments are inferences that can be drawn
solely from our knowledge about the semantic relationships
40
For brevity here, as elsewhere in the little textbook, we speak of entailment
between sentences, rather than, more strictly, between the propositions
underlying sentences.
41
Quite contrary to the entailment ‘George didn’t get Mary pregnant’ is the
earlier assumption that ‘George got Mary pregnant’.
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in a language. This knowledge allows us to communicate much
more than we actually ‘say’.” [Peccei, 1999: 14]
3.4.2 Characteristics
3.4.2.1 “Entailment applies cumulatively. Thus if X entails Y
and Y entails Z, then X entails Z.” [Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 108]
Take the following as an example:
X, Some boys ran down the street entails Y, Some kids ran
down the street.
Y, Some kids ran down the street entails Z, Some kids went
down the street.
Therefore
X, Some boys ran down the street entails Z, Some kids went
down the street.
3.4.2.2 “Hyponymy involves entailment. To say This is a
tulip entails This is a flower, and This is scarlet entails This is
red.” [Palmer, 1981: 87] The relation between tulip and flower
and between scarlet and red brings out the HIERARCHICAL
CLASSIFICATION involved in hyponymy.
3(a) Mary owns three houses. 13(a) All dogs have fleas.
3(b) Mary owns a house. 13(b) My dog has fleas./Some dogs have fleas.
4(a) Alvin is Mary’s husband. 14(a) My uncle teaches at the community college.
4(b) Mary is married. 14(b) My uncle is a teacher.
5(a) The wolf killed the bear. 15(a) My pet cobra likes the taste of chocolate.
5(b) The bear is dead. 15(b) My pet cobra finds chocolate tasty.
6(a) My father owns this car. 16(a) The Jones sold their house to the Cruses.
6(b) This car belongs to my father. 16(b) The Cruses bought the house from the Jones.
7(a) I gave Erin the summons. 17(a) Some countries have no coastline.
7(b) I gave the summons to Erin. 17(b) Not all countries have a coastline.
8(a) John is the parent of James. 18(a) I saw Ted at the party.
8(b) James is the child of John. 18(b) It was Ted that I saw at the party.
9(a) Jenny and Kevin are twins. 19(a) It is 50 miles to the nearest service station.
9(b) Kevin and Jenny are twins. 19(b) The nearest service station is 50 miles away.
10(a) The bear killed the wolf. 20(a) Bachelors prefer red-haired girls.
10(b) The wolf was killed 20(b) Girls with red hair are preferred
by the bear by unmarried men.
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Exercise 33: What sense relation holds between the two
sentences in each of the following pairs:
1(a) Tom is married to Mary. 6(a) Jim is fatter than Ed
1(b) Mary is married to Tom. and Ed is fatter than Bob.
6(b) Jim is fatter than Bob.
2(a) John is the father of Neil. 7(a) Some of the students came to my party.
2(b) Neil is the father of John. 7(b) Not all of the students came to my party.
3(a) Dick is a bachelor. 8(a) The fly was over the wall.
3(b) Dick is a man. 8(b) The wall was under the fly.
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Section
UTTERANCE MEANING
4
4.1 Presupposition43
4.1.1 Definition and characteristics
4.1.1.1 Presupposition is “what a speaker or writer
assumes that the receiver of the message already knows.”
[Richards et al, 1987: 228] Thus, ‘John doesn’t write poems
anymore’ presupposes that John once wrote poetry. And
‘Would you like another beer?’ presupposes that the person called
you here has already had at least one beer.
4.1.1.2 “Presuppositions are inferences about what is
assumed to be true in the utterance rather than directly
asserted to be true:
‘Faye has looked for the keys’ directly asserts Faye has
looked for the keys
43
“It is proved very difficult for authors in the area to agree on a definition for it. This
definition problem is partly a reflection of the fuzzy boundary between pragmatics
and semantics.” [Peccei, 1999: 19]
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‘Where has Faye looked for the keys? ’ presupposes Faye
has looked for the keys
‘Annie has a sofa’ directly asserts Annie has a sofa
‘Don’t sit on Annie’s sofa’ presupposes Annie has a sofa.”
[Peccei, 1999: 19]
4.1.1.3 “Speakers often make implicit assumptions about
the real world, and the sense of an utterance may depend on
those assumptions, which some linguists term
presuppositions. ” [Fromkin and Rodman, 1993: 161]
44
44
“Other linguists describe the same phenomenon as implication. Presupposition
is used here because it seems to be more widely accepted usage.” [Fromkin
et al, 1990: 193]
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