GIÁO TRÌNH NGỮ NGHĨA HỌC TIẾNG ANH – PHẦN 4 pps

3.1 Proposition, utterance and sentence 3.1.1 “A PROPOSITION is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which describes some state of affairs.. The following

Exercise 21: Does polysemy or homonymy contribute to the lexical ambiguity in each of the two given sentences

(1) She cannot bear children

(2) The cat sat on the mat.

Exercise 22: In what way are homonyms related to lexical ambiguity?

Exercise 23: In what way is a polysemous word related to lexical ambiguity?

Exercise 24: Explain the structural ambiguity in each of the following sentences:

1 The drunkard visitor

rolled up the carpet

6 They are cooking bananas

2 Is he really that kind? 7 They are moving sidewalks

3 My fianceùe is reserved 8 John

loves Richard more than Martha

will be served first

5 I saw her duck 10 The thing that bothered Bill

was crouching under the table

1(a) The drunkard visitor

rolled up the carpet

1(b) The drunkard visitor

rolled up the carpet

2(a) Is he really that kind? 2(b) Is he really that kind?

3 (a) My fianceùe is reserved 3(b) My fianceùe is reserved

6(a) They are cooking bananas 6(b) They are cooking bananas

7(a) They are moving sidewalks 7(b) They are moving sidewalks

8(a) John loves Richard

more than Martha

8(b) John loves Richard more than Martha

9(a) Old men and women

will be served first

9(b) Old men and women

will be served first

10(a) The thing that bothered Bill

was crouching under the table

10(b)The thing that bothered Bill 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]

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

2 My brother is a spinster

3 The boy swallowed the chocolate and then chewed it

4 Babies can lift one ton

5 Puppies are human

6 My unmarried sister is married to a bachelor

7 The bigger key and John opened the door

8 James sliced the ideas

9 Jack’s courage chewed the bones

10 I hear the cloud

11 The tiger remained alive for an hour after the hunter killed it

Exercise 26: How can each of the given sentences be changed to avoid anomaly?

3.1 Proposition, utterance and sentence

3.1.1 “A PROPOSITION is that part of the meaning of the utterance of a declarative sentence which describes some state of affairs The state of affairs typically involves persons or things referred to by expressions in the sentence In uttering a declarative sentence a speaker typically asserts a proposition.” [Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 19]

Ex1 The following pair of sentences expresses the same proposition:

1(b) Harry took the garbage out

The following pair of sentences expresses different propositions: 2(a) Isobel loves Tony

2(b) Tony loves Isobel

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(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

Exercise 28: Explain why the two members of each of the following pairs of sentences35

do not share the same proposition

35 This means the two members of each pair are not paraphrases of each other

1(a) John is the parent of James

1(b) James is the parent of John

3(a) The fly was on the wall 3(b) The wall was under the fly 2(a) The hunter bit the lion

2(b) The lion bit the hunter

4(a) Jack was injured bya stone 4(b) Jack was injured with a stone 3.1.2 Distinction between a proposition and a sentence

“Propositions, unlike sentences, cannot be said to belong to any particular language Sentences in different languages can correspond to the same proposition, if the two sentences are perfect translations of each other.” [Hurford and Heasley, 1984: 21-22] For example, English I’am cold, French J’ai froid, German Mir ist kalt and Vietnamese Tôi lạnh can, to the extent to which they are perfect translations of each other, be said to correspond to the same proposition

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

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

UTTERANCE UTTERANCE UTTERANCE UTTERANCE UTTERANCE UTTERANCE

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.”

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 ‘–.’

Utterances Sentences Propositions

Can be loud or quiet

Can be grammatical or not

Can be true or false

In a particular regional accent

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

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 fromwhich 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

7 My watch is a device for telling the time 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

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

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

1(a) The house was CONCEALED by the tree

1(b) The house was HIDDEN by the tree