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Group 3-Unit 3-Class - Wed - 345

This document discusses key concepts in semantics including sense, reference, referent, context, dialect, and proposition. It provides examples to illustrate the differences between sense and reference. Sense is the internal relationship between a word and others in a language, while reference is the relationship between a word and the object it refers to. Not all expressions have a referent, but all meaningful expressions have sense. The document asks questions to test understanding of these concepts.

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Cao Trâm Anh
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114 views4 pages

Group 3-Unit 3-Class - Wed - 345

This document discusses key concepts in semantics including sense, reference, referent, context, dialect, and proposition. It provides examples to illustrate the differences between sense and reference. Sense is the internal relationship between a word and others in a language, while reference is the relationship between a word and the object it refers to. Not all expressions have a referent, but all meaningful expressions have sense. The document asks questions to test understanding of these concepts.

Uploaded by

Cao Trâm Anh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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SEMENTICS EXERCISE

UNIT 3: REFERENCE AND SENSE


1. You should understand these terms and concepts from this unit:

- Sense: The sense of a word or a linguistic expression shows the internal relationship
between that the word expression and others in the vocabulary of a language.

Ex. Teacher and student have the relationship of the former is the one who gives a lesson
and the latter is the one who has the lesson given by the former.

- Reference: Reference is the relationship between a word or an expression and the object
it is used to refer to.

Ex. The reference of Peter’s house is the relationship between this English noun phrase
and the house that belongs to Peter.

- Referent: Referent of a referring expression is the thing, person picked out by the use of
that expression on a particular occasion of utterance.

Several words, especially the so-called function words, have no obivious referents: the,
could, in, since, and, etc.

- Context: Context is the text or a speech that comes immediately before and after a
particular pharse or a piece of text and that influence how it is used and what it means.

- Dialect: a form of a language that people speak in a particular part of a country or some
local regions, containing some different words and grammar.

- Proposition: a statement or a problem that must be solved or a proved to be true or not


true. A proposition is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence
which describes some state of affairs.

2.Can different expressions have the same referent? Give an example not
found in this unit.

-Yes, different expression can have the same referent.

Example: In a context where Caesar has one pet dog and its name is Adam, "Adam" and
"Caesar's pet" have the same referent.

3. Can the same expression have different referents? Give an example not
found in this unit.
-Yes, the same expression can have different referents.

Ex: I am studying at the library. “ Study” and “library” has the same expression.

4. Give an example of an expression not found in this unit that has an


invariable referent and of one that has no referent.

- Invariable referent (refer to different type of that object)

Example: The word book has a real object or appearance in the world ( book can have so
many type of book such as syntax book, semantics book…

- No referent (refer to the same thing)

Example: America has a real appearance and also can be other words or expression.

5. Explain this sentence from this unit in your own words: 'Every expression
that has meaning has sense, but not every expression has reference'.

-Every meaningful expression has sense, but not every meaningful expression has
reference. Means we can have information, meaning of expression by sense (smell, taste,
hearing,...) but not every expression has object in the real world. Every expression that
has meaning has sense because sense is a relation to the language system. However, there
are some words that make sense but have no reference to something in real life.

-Example: The words almost, if, and, probable do not refer to things in the world, but
they have meanings; thus, they have some sense.

6.Characterize a typical dictionary definition of a word.?

-The word "bank"

+ Bank (1): a land alongside of the river

+ Bank (2): a financial establish that uses money deposited by customers for
investment

Does the definition include everything a typical native speaker knows about the
word's meaning?
-The definition doesn't include everything a typical native speaker knows about the word's
meaning.

Explain: It is depended on the context of the conversation and we find it convenient to


treat anything spelled with the same sequence of letters and pronounced with the same
sequence of phonemes in a standard dialect as being the same word.

It is possible to write such an entry which is complete?

-It is possible to write.

Explain: Some semanticists, including almost all compliers of dictionaries, would regard
as several different word. In a ordinary dictionary there are several different entries for
the word "bank", sometimes distinguished by a subscript (Bank(1), Bank(2))

7. the Evening Star/ the Morning Star

-These are 2 expressions with the same reference: refer to the planet Venus

8. the President of the United States / the Commander-in-Chief / the Leader of


the Republican Party

-The referent in the present context is Joe Biden.

9. Visiting relatives can be boring

-Relatives is real so this sentence has sense and reference.

10.the planet Mars

It’s reference because the planet Mars is a real planet in world


11.Smoking grass can be dangerous
-This sentences both sense and reference. In this expression the reference “grass”
indicates a plant which exist in the world.

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