English semantics pragmatics NGỮ NGHĨA NGỮ DỤNG học TIẾNG ANH

The same semantic feature may be found in the meaning of different words.. Ex: This page the page I am reading itself, page 15 The cassette play.er the object on the table • Sense nghĩa

ENGLISH SEMANTICS & PRAGMATICS

GIÁO TRÌNH NGỮ NGHĨA - NGỮ DỤNG HỌC TIẾNG ANH ENGLISH SEMANTICS & PRAGMATICS

Compiled by: NGUYEN THUY NGA NGUYEN QUOC BAO

Part 1: SEMANTICS

I DEFINITION

Semantics is the study of meaning in language (Hurford & Heasley, 1983: 1) Semantics is the study of the relationships between linguistic forms and entities in the world; that is, how words literally connect to things Semantic analysis also attempts to establish the relationship between verbal descriptions and states of affairs in the world as accurate (true) or not, regardless of who produces that description (Yule, 1996:4)

II SENTENCES, UTTERANCES AND PROPOSITIONS

1 A sentence is a string of words put together by the grammatical rules of

a language (Hurford & Heasley, 1983: 16)

Ex:

- A house was struck by lightening last night

- Money doesn’t make happiness

2 An utterance is a piece of language (a sequence of sentences, a single phrase, or a single word) used by a particular speaker on a particular occasion (Hurford & Heasley, 1983: 15)

Ex:

- Paul turned on the TV.

- I met him at the cinema last night

Rule: The notion of truth can be used to decide whether two sentences express the same or different propositions When one sentence is true and the other is also true, they express die same proposition If one sentence is true while the other may be false, they express different propositions

True propositions correspond to reality; False propositions do not correspond to reality

Ex:

(1) Harry took out the garbage

Hairy took the garbage out (2 sentences; same proposition)

(2) John gave Mary a book

Mary was given a book by John (2 sentences; same proposition)

(3) Isobel loves Tony

Tony loves Isobel (2 sentences; 2 different propositions) (It is not necessary that Tony loves Isobel)

(4) Dr Findlay caused Janet to die

Dr Findlay killed Janet (2 sentences; 2 different propositions) (In the case

Dr Findlay had caused Janet to die, but not intentionally)

Exercise 1 Answer the following sentences, choosing Yes or No.

1 Does it make sense to talk of the time and place of a sentence? Yes/No

2 Does it make sense to talk of the time and place of an utterance? Yes/No

3 Can one talk of a loud sentence? Yes/No

4 Can one talk of a loud utterance? Yes/No

5 Does it make sense to ask what language a sentence belong to? Yes/No

6 Does it make sense to ask what language an utterance belong to? Yes/No

Exercise 2.

1 Fill in the chart with V or as appropriate

Utterances Sentences PropositionsCan be loud or quiet

Can be grammatical or not

Can be true or false

In a particular regional accent

In a particular language

2 Can the same proposition be expressed by different sentences? Yes/No

3 Can the same sentence be realized by different utterances? Yes /No

Exercise 3 Answer the following:

1 Are the followings a sentence or an utterance?

a John sang wonderfully last night S/U

b “John sang wonderfully last night.” S/U

2 Can a sentence be true or false? Yes/No

3 Can an utterance be true or false? Yes/No

4 Is an utterance tied to a particular time and place? Yes/No

5 Is a sentence tied to a particular time and place? Yes/No

III SEMANTIC PROPERTY/FEATURE

- human

- adult

- killer

- kill a VIPBachelor:

- human

- male

- adult

- unmarriedTeacher:

Ex: human, male, animal, color etc

b The same semantic feature may be found in the meaning of different words

Ex: Father, mother, son, daughter, teacher baby all share the same semantic feature [+ human]

Mother, daughter, hen, bitch, swine all share the same semantic feature [+female]

c The same semantic feature may be found in words of different parts of speech Ex: [+female] is part of the noun mother, the adjective pregnant, the verb breast-feed

[+educational] is a semantic feature of the noun teacher, the adjective educated, the verb teach

IV LEXICAL/ SEMANTIC FIELD (trường từ vựng)

A semantic, field or a lexical field is the organization of related words and expressions into a system which show their relationship to one another

(Richards Platt & Weber 1987:53) In other words, it is a group of words sharing the same Semantic property.

Ex 1:

Human - (B) Hypernym

Bachelor - Father - Mother - Baby - Uncle

Hyponym (hạ danh) is a word ‘whose referent is totally included in the referent of another term, (hypo- means below) (Finegan 1994:165)

Hypernym (thượng danh) is a word whose referent covers all the referents

of its hyponyms (hyper- means above)

Hyponymy is one-way relation between hyponyms and hypemym so that A (hyponym) is a kind of B (hypemym) We can say:

A bachelor is a kind of human

Not: A human is a kind of bachelor

A boy is a kind of human

Not: A human is a kind of boy

1 Items related by topics

a Fruit: apples, oranges, grapes, bananas etc

b Clothing: shirts, pants, shorts, hats etc

c Color: green, red, blue, purple, pink etc.

2 Items which are similar in meaning

a Ways of cooking: stew, boil, fry, steam, roast etc

b Ways of walking: limp, tiptoe, stalk etc

c Ways of looking: stare, peer, glance, squint etc

3 Items grouped as an activity or a process

a Do housework: clean the room, do washing, iron clothes prepare the meal etc

b Do research: make hypotheses, collect data, analyze data, get results, come to a conclusion

Exercise 4

For each group of words given below, state what semantic property or properties are shared by the words in group (i) and those in group (ii), and what semantic property or properties distinguish between the classes of (i) and (ii)

Ex:

i/ widow, mother, sister, aunt, seamstress

ii/ widower, father, brother, uncle, tailor the shared semantic property is human

=> the different is: (i) => female', (ii) => male

1 i bachelor, man, son, paperboy, pope, uncle,

ii bull, rooster, drake, ram, boar

2 i bitch, hen, doe, mare, ewe, vixen

ii actress, maiden, widow, woman, girl

3 i doctor, dean, professor, bachelor, parent

ii teenager, child, boy, baby, infant.

4 i table, stone, pencil, cup, house, ship, car

ii milk, alcohol, rice, soup, mud

5 i book, temple, mountain, road, tractor

ii idea, love, charity, sincerity, bravery, fear

6 i pine, elm, ash, wiping, willow, sycamore,

ii rose, dandelion, carnation, tulip, daisy

7 i book, letter, encyclopedia, novel, notebook, dictionary

ii typewriter, pencil, ballpoint, crayon, quill, charcoal, chalk

8 i walk, run, skip, jump, hope, swim

ii fly, skate, ski, ride, cycle, canoe, hang-glide

Exercise 5 Put the following words into different lexical fields Give each

group a hypernym

Cup - hammer - glass - nails - red - jug - wineglass - blue - purple - boxing

- scissors - football - knife - plastic cup - yellow - badminton - pink - file - weightlifting - green - run - motor-racing - crawl - walk - black - swim - vermilion - karate

Exercise 6 Give a hypernym to the following strings of words Cross out

the item(s) that does / do not belong to die same lexical field as the others

1 acquire, buy, collect, win, sell, steal, rob

2 whisper, talk, narrate, report, tell, instruct, brief

3 road, path, way, street, method, freeway, avenue

4 easy-going, sociable, well-mannered, friendly, sad, elegant, courteous, strong

5 smell, aroma, bouquet, perfume, fragrance, scent, odor, reek.

6 toast, boil, fry, fresh, grill, medium, bake, roast, steam

7 cow, dog, cat, tiger, lion, ape, human, bird, whale, chicken

8 sing, talk, dance, speak, shout, whisper, mutter, babble

9 at, of, in, on, under, below, near

10 square, circular, triangular, rectangular, spherical, hexagonal, polygonal

V REFERENCE - REFERENT - SENSE

1 Definition

• Reference (sở chỉ) is the relationship between language and the world In other words, that is the relationship between words and the things, actions, events, and qualities they stand for (Hurford & Heasley, 1983: 25)

Ex: My son: refers to a person; a dog: refers to an animal, (the speaker establishes a relation between an expression and an object)

• Referent (vật sở chỉ) is the thing the speaker is talking about, the object refereed to. 

Ex: This page (the page I am reading itself, page 15)

The cassette play.er (the object on the table)

• Sense (nghĩa) is the relationships between words in the language to express the meaning

Ex: The word ‘bachelor’ and ‘unmarried man’ have the same sense

To express the content / meaning of a word to a leaner, we may say the word and show him an object to make him understand what the word means In this case we establish a relation between a word and an object (between language and the world: reference) On the other hand, we can also combine

words together to express the meaning in the form of a definition We are establishing die relationship between words in the language to express the sense.

Example: The word ‘desk’

Some clues of Variable Reference

• Possessive adjectives: my sister, your brother, the government’s decision Exception: John’s hat (not a referring expression because it refers to the hat of John only regardless the speaker)

• Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns: this, that, these, those, (this page, that book that car is mine )

• Personal pronouns: I, You, He, Me, Him

• Adverbs of place/ time: here, there, then, today, yesterday, now, at the station,

• Articles: the boy in the comer; I want to buy a car

2) Same Reference: different expressions refer to the same object

Examples:

• Uncle Ho - Ho Chi Minh - Nguyen Ai Quoc - Nguyen Sinh Cung - Nguyen Tat Thanh: all refer to the same person. 

• HCM City and Saigon: both refer to the same city

• My father is a teacher: both underlined groups of words refer.to the same person

• We chose John leader John and leader refer to the same person

• The Morning Star and The Evening Star Both refer to the same star.3) Constant Reference: one expression always refers to the same object, (regardless who is the speaker)

• Proper names, especially geographical names: John, Smith, David, Vietnam, Laos

• Unique things: the sun, the moon, the earth, the east, the west, Hailey’s Comet,

4) No reference: an expression which is meaningful but does not refer to anything

• Function words: and, but, if, almost,

• Imaginary characters: Batman, Dragon, Superman, Snow White, Tấm Cám,

• The objects that do not exist now

Ex: The king of France is bald (France does not have any king nowadays)The Queen of Vietnam nowadays is a Cambodian, (no VN queen now)

Exercise 7 Answer the following questions.

1 Does the moon normally have constant reference? Yes/No

2 Does The People’s Republic of China normally have constant reference? Yes/No

3 Does Angola normally have constant reference? Yes/No

4 Does Haley’s Comet normally constant reference? Yes/No

5 If we are talking about a situation in which John is standing alone in the corner, can John have the same referent as the person in the corner? Yes/No

Exercise 8

What is intended by the word mean, meaning, meant in the following examples, reference (R) or sense (S)?

1 When Helen mentioned “the fruit cake”, she meant that rock-hard object

in the middle of the table R/S

2 When Albert talks about “his former friend” he means me R/S

3 Daddy, what does unique mean? R/S

4 Purchase has the same meaning as buy R/S

5 Look up the meaning of apoplexy in your dictionary R/S

6 If you look out of the window now, you’ll see who I mean R/S

7 “I’m sorry to have disturbed you — when I said ‘Will you move your chair?”, I didn’t mean you, I meant Patrick here.” R/S

8 If you look up ochlocracy, you’ll find it means government by the mob R/S

Exercise 9

1 Give an example of an expression that could have variable reference

2 Give an example of an expression that always has constant reference

3 Give an example of different expressions that having one referent

4 Give an example of an expression that has no reference.

Exercise 10 Which of the following is a correct description of ‘reference’?

(a) a relationship between expressions and other expressions which have the same meaning

(b) the set of all objects which can potentially be referred to by an expression

(c) a relationship between a particular object in the world and an expression used in an utterance to pick that object out

Exercise 11 Which of the following is a correct statement about ‘sense’?

(a) All words in a language may be used to refer, but only some words have sense

(b) If two expressions have the same referent, they always have the same sense

(c) The sense of an expression is its relationship to semantically equivalent

or semantically related expression in the same language

Exercise 12 Answer the following questions by choosing Yes or No

1 Imagine that you and I are in a room with a man and a woman, and, making no visual signal of any sort, I say to you, “The man stole my wallet” In this situation, can you identify the referent of the expression the man? Yes/No

2 Can the referent of the pronoun I be uniquely identified when this pronoun is uttered? Yes/No

3 Can the referent of the pronoun you be uniquely identified when this pronoun is uttered? Yes/No

VI REFERRING EXPRESSIONS

1 Definition: A referring expression ‘is any expression used in an utterance

to refer to someone or something particular (Hurford & Heasley, 1983: 35) (on the part of the speaker)

Ex:

+ When a speaker says, “My father” he has a particular person in mind =>

my father is a referring expression

+ The name Fred in the utterance “Fred hit me”, where the speaker has a particular person in mind, is a referring expression

+ Fred in “There is no Fred at this address” is not a referring expression because in this case the speaker would not have a particular person in mind

2 Some clues of referring expression

• Possessive: my friend, Paul’s hat,

• Demonstrative: this book, that machine,

• Proper name: Smith, David, Vietnam

• Personal Pronouns (only when being uttered): I, You, He,

• Constant Reference (unique thing); the sun, the moon, the earth, the east, the west, Hailey’s Comet,

• Past tense: helps to recognize Referring Expression

Ex:

I saw a boy yesterday

I want to go fishing on the lake

My sister is a singer yesterday

I met a singer I’m looking for a car to buy

I bought a car in a showroom on Nguyen Hue Street

3 Not a referring expression,

• Something general: family, society, people,

• Representative of social classes or species: the poor, the rich, the elephant, dogs, cats,

• Profession/ Job: singer, teacher, lawyer,

Ex: The singer in “The singer I admire most is Silk Black” is a RE because

it refers to a particular person

A singer in “My sister is a singer” is not a RE because it is a job in general.Note: Whether an expression is a referring expression or not is heavily dependent linguistic context and on circumstances of Utterance

Exercise 13 Could the following possibly be used as referring

2 The first sign of the monsoon is a cloud on the horizon no bigger than a man’s hand.

3 Forty buses have been withdrawn from service by the Liverpool Corporation

4 This engine has the power of forty buses

5 Yesterday, Nancy married a Norwegian

6 My sister also wants to marry a Norwegian

7 John is looking for a car to buy

8 Dick believes that a man with a limp killed Bo Peep

9 The police officer said that a man with a limp killed Bo Peep

10 Every evening at sunset, a swan flew over my house

11 The man who shot Abraham Lincoln was an unemployed actor

12 If anyone ever marries Nancy, he’s in for a bad time

13 The poor are the ones who suffer most from the disasters all over the world

14 I saw a boy climb over the fence last night

15 Don’t come near the frontier You may be hurt by a bullet

16 You can’t get married with such a boy!

17 My hobby is to go fishing with friends when the sun appears in the East

18 It was thought for many centuries that the world was flat

19 The book you gave me on Teacher’s Day was worth reading

20 My parents expected me to send them some gift on their wedding anniversary, but I didn’t because of my forgetfulness

21 The parachute is a device to help people to land safely on the ground.

22 While the soldier was moving through the frontier, a bullet stroke him

1 Denotative / Descriptive / Referential meaning

The denotative meaning (nghĩa sở thị) of a word is the central meaning of the word found in a dictionary It is the meaning that may be described in terms

of a set of semantic features that serve to identify the particular concept associated with the word It is also called descriptive because it describes an object, an event, a state or an affair, and referential meaning as it refers us to something in the world

Ex: A pig: a domestic animal, 4 legs, hairy, usually raised for meat A father: a male adult, married, having children

2 Connotative / Social / Affective meaning

The connotative meaning (nghĩa liên tưởng) of a word is the implied, additional meaning that the word has beyond its denotative meaning It shows people’s emotions and / or attitudes towards what the word refers to This meaning may vary from individual to individual, and community to community That’s why connotative meaning is also called social or affective meaning

Ex: + The word pig in “He is a pig” may means connotatively:

B SENTENCE MEANING

1 Linguistic / literal meaning (nghĩa đen)

The linguistic meaning of à sentence depends on:

- The sum of meanings of constituent words

- The syntactic function (subject, object, )

- The semantic role Compare the following sentences:

(1) The lion bit the hunter

(2) The hunter bit the lion.;

(3) The hunter was bitten by the lion

To understand the meaning of the sentences, we must know the meanings

of the words ‘lion, bite, hunter’ However, we can use exactly the same words to form different sentences with the same or different meanings

(1) The lion bit the hunter # (2) The hunter bit the lion

The two sentences (1) & (2) have different meanings because the words have different syntactic functions

(2) The hunter bit the lion # (3) The hunter was bitten by the lion.

The sentences (2) & (3) have different meanings although the words have the same syntactic functions

(1) The lion bit the hunter = (3) The hunter was bitten by the lion

The sentences (1) & (3) have the same meaning although the words have different syntactic functions What makes the meaning of the two sentences similar or different? It is what is called semantic roles, the third factor making up the meaning of a sentence

- Agent: the one that initiates an action (person/ animal + action verb)

Ex: Paul opened the door

- Patient: the one that is affected by the action

Ex: Paul opens the door

The door opened at the first blow of wind

Paul is boiling water

Water boils at 100°c

Experiencer: the one that experiences a feeling/ sensation/ perception (person / animal + non-action verb)

Ex: Paul loves Mary

I recognize that I’m wrong

The boy wants a candy

The teacher remembers meeting me somewhere

Stimulus: the one that causes a feeling / sensation

Ex: Paul loves Mary I’m afraid of ghost

The book of the teacher makes me very happy

The film interests me a lot

Recipient (the receiver): the one that receives a physical object Ex: He gave me a book last night

Benefactive (the benefactor): the one that benefits from an action

Ex:

I do all this for YOU

I sent him a gift for his son

Instrument: the one that is used to perform an action (implying a user)

Ex:

I open the door with a hammer

Paul used a key to open the door

Cause: the one that causes an action to happen (not implying a user)

Ex:

The door opened suddenly at the blow of the wind

Paul was hurt with a knife (implying someone used a knife to hurt him)Paul was hurt by a knife (not implying a user of the knife)

Locative: the place where an action happens

Ex:

I was born in Dalat

HCM city is a good place to live

Temporal: the time when an action happens

Ex:

Yesterday I saw you at the supermarket

Coming back to the 3 previous examples, we see:

(1) The lion bit the hunter # (2) The hunter bit the lion

(2) The hunter bit the lion # (3) The hunter was bitten by the lion

The above sentences have different meanings because they have different semantic roles although they may have the same syntactic functions (2) & (3)

(1) The lion bit the hunter = (3) The hunter was bitten by the lion

The two sentences have the same meaning because they have the same semantic roles although the syntactic functions are different

Exercise 15 Identify the semantic role of the noun phrases in the following

sentences

1 The student couldn’t finish the assignment because the library was closed

2 The couple raced the horses through the meadow yesterday morning

3 The teacher was angered by the rowdy students

4 I recall hearing my brother say that

5 Tom lent me enough money to pay the rent

6 At the reunion he ran into his cousin Karl

7 The farmer went to the field before dawn

8 The building was constructed in a commercial zone

9 A big tree was rooted up by the storm last night.

10 I enjoy reading books in my free time

11 The immigrants picked strawberries in the early June

12 He never turned in his budget report on time

13 The unlucky customer had the undercooked meat sent back to the chef

14 Traffic was backed up at the intersection because of the accident

15 I’m very glad to meet you here after so many years

16 The book you gave me on Teacher’s Day was worth reading

17 An unfair attitude toward the poor will contribute to the problem of poverty

18 After the yolk is separated from the white, it must be boiled immediately

19 Nutritionists recommended that foods from each of the four basic groups be eaten regularly

20 It was thought for many centuries that the world was flat

21 His ingenuity never ceases to amaze me

22 The hurricane destroyed half of the island

23 Angela offered the job to her former rival

24 In the morning we left San Francisco for Austin

25 Zelda gets angry whenever Scott lies her

26 The remains will be shipped to Cleveland on Wednesday

27 The boy seems to be interested in the film shown at NH cinema last night

28 He hates being disturbed at table.

29 As the storm raged, the waves grew higher and higher

30 He enjoys going fishing on the lake at sunset

31 The snow melts at the morning sunshine

32 The chickens are ready for us to eat in 5 minutes

33 Do you like the book I sent you?

34 Acid can dissolve a corpse in 5 minutes

35 The man who loves her must be insane

36 Alan was sent a special gift on her birthday

37 Many TV programs today help students to improve their study a lot

38 The prisoner killed the guard then disappeared into the forest

39 The beer made from rice drinks very well

40 Putting one hand in the pocket, he walked around the front yard

41 Joining the club is a good way of meeting new people

42 She wants to know if anyone has an umbrella to lend her

43 Harold doesn’t like making speeches in front of the class

44 Trembling with fear, she opened the letter

45 Delayed by the bad weather, the plane arrived in Hanoi one hour late

46 My first job, cleaning the floor, made me exhausted

47 The door ajar made the girl worried

48 We watched the brown river swollen with rain

49 A house surrounded by a large, deep ditch provides us with a safe shelter

50 This bed sleeps comfortably.

2 Semantic meaning & pragmatic meaning (nghĩa ngữ nghĩa & nghĩa

ngữ dụng)

a Semantic meaning: the meaning of a sentence out of context /

context-free It is the linguistic meaning of a sentence

b Pragmatic meaning: the meaning of an utterance in a particular

situation Pragmatic meaning is context-dependent

Ex 1:

A: Would you like to go out with me?

B: I have a lot of homework to do

I have a lot of homework to do

=> semantic meaning: the teacher gave me a lot of assignments to do at home

=> pragmatic meaning: I’m sorry I’m very busy I’m afraid that I have to refuse your invitation

Ex 2: Oh! It’s too noisy

=> semantic meaning: there is a lot of noise here

=> pragmatic meaning: Please, keep silent!

3 Figures of speech / non-literal meaning / figurative meaning

A figure of speech is ‘a word or phrase which is used for special effect, and which doesn’t have its usual or literal meaning’ (Richards Platt & Weber 1987: 105)

Types of figures of speech

* Simile (tỉ dụ): direct / explicit comparison using comparison words (like,

as) or comparison form

Ex:

He eats like a tiger (he eats as much as a tiger does.)

He is as poor as a church mouse (he is very poor)

* Metaphor (ẩn dụ): indirect / implied comparison (no comparison words)

• Dead metaphor: a metaphor which has lost its metaphoric characteristic and become a fixed expression or idiom Ex: die eye of a needle; the head quarter; the foot of the mountain; the leg of the table; the mouth of the river; the face of the table; the back of the chair; the childhood of the earth etc

A dead metaphor is used naturally and unconsciously by a native speaker

of a language Ex: đầu giường; chân ghế; mặt trái xoan; mắt bồ câu; trăng lưỡi liềm; etc,

• Live metaphor: a metaphor used consciously, intentionally by a speaker with various figurative meanings Ex: ‘He is a pig’ may be interpreted as he is fat;

he is lazy; he is stupid; he is dirty etc depending on the situation in which it is used

Usually there is a metaphor when one:

• Puts 2 different species on the same rank

Ex:

He is an old fox (a person = an animal) (he is very wicked)

He is a rock in storm (a person- = a thing) (he is a strong-minded person)

• Applies a feature of one species for another

Ex:

+ Have you digested the lesson yet? ‘digest’ is a term usually used for food, now is used for study => the speaker compares the process of eating and digesting food with that of learning and understanding lessons (Have you carefully understood the lesson yet?)

+ He apes your betters, ‘ape’, a term used for animal is here used for a person => the speaker compares a person who usually imitates others with an ape whose characteristic is to imitate (He imitates your betters.)

+ He bottled up his feelings ‘bottle’ a term usually used for the process of making different kinds of drink or wine etc is used here for feelings (He hid / concealed his feelings.)

* Irony (mỉa mai nhẹ nhàng): Saying the opposite of one’s thought for

emphasis, for fun or mocking

Ex: + He is so kind that he let all the housework for me to do (he is not kind at all)

+ He is so intelligent that no examiner has agreed to pass him so far (he is rather stupid.)

* Sarcasm (châm biếm chua cay, bất mãn): bitter irony; sneeringly ironical

remarks to hurt somebody’s feelings

+ Vietnam won the football match (VN is used to refer to VN football team; whole for part)

+ I don’t want you to come under my roof (= my house) (part for whole)+ This work requires an intelligent brain (= person)

+ The war has robbed 2,000 souls of the village (= people)

* Metonymy (hoán dụ): substitution of related words

Ex:

The kettle is boiling (= the water)The disease has cut off his breath (= his life)

Ways to identify a metonymy:

• Container - Contained (vật chứa và vật được chứa):

Ex:

- Very thirsty, he gulped down the whole bottle (= water in the bottle)

- As the teacher entered the room, the whole class stand up (all the students in the class)

• Author - Works (tác giả và tác phẩm)

Ex:

- Have you read Khái Hưng yet? (= the novels of Khái Hưng)

- This is not a Picasso (= a painting by Picasso)

• Profession - Means (nghề nghiệp & phương tiện)

Ex:

- I live on my pen (= by writing)

- My Tyson lives on his gloves (= by boxing)

• Symbol - Reality (biểu tượng & thực tại)

Ex:

- He tries his best to win her heart (= her love)

- He succeeded to the crown (= the royal office, thừa kế ngai vàng)

- He has the tongue of king (= the talent of tasting food)

- She has an ear for music (= the talent for learning, appreciating music)

• Material - Object made of it (vật chất và vật dụng)

- All our glass is kept in the cupboard (= vessels and objects made of glass)

- You can get our gold in the upper drawer (= jewelry made of gold)

* Personification (nhân cách hóa): Endowing an inanimate object with

human qualities

Ex:

- The leaves are dancing in the morning wind (= moving)

- The waves tore the ship into pieces (= destroyed completely)

* Hyperbole (cường điệu): overstatement or exaggeration

Ex:

- I’m so hungry that I can swallow a cow (= extremely hungry)

- I’ve invited millions of people to my party (= a lot of)

- I haven’t seen you for ages (= a long time)

* Euphemism (uyển ngữ, nói tránh): the use of pleasant, mild, comforting,

or indirect expression for one that is taboo, negative, offensive or too direct

Ex:

- Could you tell me where the restroom is? (= toilet)

- His father has just passed away (= died)

- Caught by a cold, he went to the fathers (= died)

Exercise 16 Identify the type of figure of speech used in the following

sentences then give their literal meaning

1 My hands are as cold as ice

2 I’ll make him eat his words

3 He is the best pen of the day

4 She has a good head of business

5 Their Majesty died a year ago

6 She usually sheds floods of tears whenever she is upset

7 We need a force of a thousand rifles

8 You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes

9 He washed his hand out of the matter

10 He looks as though he hasn’t had a square meal for months

11 Who brought fire and sword into our country?

12 Why don’t you recognize the power of the purse?

13 I found the 52 pounds of books you let for me to carry Your kindness really moves me

14 The man is a demon for work

15 They organized a fleet of 50 sails

16 She is a girl of 20 summers

17 When you takes that course, plan to study 30 hours a day

18 The wind howled angrily around the house all night.

19 Grey hairs should be respected

20 Spare the rod, spoil the child

21 Don’t live in such a sea of doubt

22 When the White House called, die ambassador came at once

23 My dormitory room is like a cave

24 Come to the dormitory and see what a cave I live in

25 If you are not happy with the service, go and talk to the City Hall

26 The princess captures the hearts of the nation

27 He has a kind heart

28 The river ate the bank away,

29 The captain was in charge of 100 horses

30 You can depend on Paul; he is a rock when trouble comes

31 Life is a dream

32 Research says that these methods are best

33 Little Susie is a picture of loveliness in her new dress

34 There was a storm in Parliament last night

35 He worked and worked until he breathed his last

36 We are tired to death of such movies

37 His words can be trusted

38 The boss gave her a hot look

39 He could not bridle his anger

40 The organization is keeping the brake on pay rises

41 Death is laying his icy hand on the Queen.

42 The pen is mightier than the sword

43 A camel is a ship in a desert

44 Your charm and good looks exceed your wit

45 With friends like you, who needs enemies

46 You have to pay the earth for such a masterpiece!

47 Luck almost always turns back to those who dare not face difficulty

48 A dead leaf fell in my lap That was Jack Frost’s card

49 The ship plowed the sea

50 The captain exploded with rage when the soldiers disobeyed him

VIII MEANING PROPERTIES / CHARACTERISTICS

+ My brother is an only child (The same, this sentence is semantically anomalous because the word brother requires that an individual must have at least one sibling while the word only excludes this meaning)

An anomalous sentence conforms to all the grammar rules of the language It is grammatically correct and syntactically perfect, but semantically anomalous because it breaks the rules of semantics Literally it is nonsensical,

but in some context, it is understandable, of course figuratively In contrast, a sentence in which die words are joined randomly has no meaning / no sense / meaningless For example, Ceasar is and or This type of sentence is ungrammatical Here are some more examples of anomaly:

+ Colorless green ideas are sleeping furiously

+ The sorrow is chewing my bones

+ John frightened a tree

+ She sliced the ideas

+ Honesty plays golf

+ Christopher is killing phonemes

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

+ My brother is a spinster (unmarried woman)

+ The boy swallowed the chocolate and then chew it

+ Puppies are human

+ Jack’s courage chewed the bones

2 Ambiguity

a Definition A word, a phrase, or a sentence is ambiguous when it has

more than one meaning

Ex:

A ring (may mean a phone call or an object offered as a gift to a lover: engaging ring…)

At the bank (of a river or a financial institution)

He greeted the girl with a smile, (the boy was smiling or the girl was smiling)

b Types of ambiguity

* Lexical Ambiguity: containing an ambiguous word (có 1 từ dị nghĩa:

cùng loại từ nhưng khác nghĩa)

* Structural Ambiguity: caused by structure

* Grouping Ambiguity: the words in the sentence can be put into different

groups

Ex: Old men and women left

=> [old men] & [women] left

[old] [men & women] left Ex: An old girl’s bicycle

=> [old girl’s] [bicycle]

[old] [girl’s bicycle]

Ex: He greeted the girl with a smile

=> He greeted the girl with a smile

Ex: I met John going to the cinema

=> I met John going to the cinema

• Function Ambiguity: a sentence containing 1 word with different

functions

Ex: I love Laura more than you

-> S: more than you love her-> O: more than I love you Ex: Visiting relatives can be borings

-> S: the relatives who are visiting

-> O: to visit relatives

Ex: He gave her dog meat

-> her: determiner / modifier of dog

-> her: personal pro / indirect object

3 Some common forms of structural ambiguity

a Grouping Ambiguity

* Adj N & N

Ex: Old men and women

=> Repeat the Adj (AN & AN): Old men & old women

=> Change their positions (N & A N): Women and old men

* Adj N N

Ex: A small arms factory

=> A N PP: A small factory of arms

=> N PP (Prep + A + N): A factory of small arms

* Adj N’s N

Ex: A large woman’s garment

=> A N PP: A large garment for women.

=> N PP (Prep + A + N): A garment for large woman

* V N PP

Ex: I saw the boy with a telescope

=> PP as nominal modifier: Replace PP by Adj C

= I saw a boy who had a telescope

=> PP as verbal modifier: Move PP to the beginning = With a telescope I saw the boy

* V N -ing P

Ex: I met John going to the cinema

* => -ing p as nominal modifier: Replace -ing P by AC = I met John who was going to the cinema

=> -ing p as verbal modifier: Move -ing P to the beginning = Going to the cinema, I met John

* V N N AC

Ex: There’s a café in TB district which I like (the AC may modify the 1st N

or the 2nd N => change the position of AC)

=> In TB district, there’s a café which I like (which I like modifies café)

=> In TB district, which I like there’s a café (AC modifies district)

* V Adv V

Ex: Those who sold quickly made a profit

(quickly may modify sold or made => change the position of the Adverb)

=> Those who quickly sold made a profit, (quickly modifies sold)

=> Those who sold made a profit quickly, (quickly modifies made)

* N Adv V

Ex: My brother especially likes going fishing

(especially may modifies brother or likes going fishing => change die position of Adv)

=> Especially my brother likes going fishing (= many people like it especially my brother)

=> My brother likes going fishing particularly (= my brother likes different things especially going fishing)

b Function Ambiguity

* -ing Phrase

Ex: Visiting relatives can be boring

=> Visiting is a gerund => relatives is its DO and visiting relatives is a GP /

S + Replace Gerund by an infinitive: To visit relatives can be boring

=> Visiting is a present participle modifying relatives => visiting relatives is

a NP/S

+ Replace Present participle by an AC: The relatives who are visiting can

be boring

* Comparative form (than, as)

Ex: I loves Mary more than you - Subject / Object

=> Subject: add auxiliary verb => I love Mary more than you do

=> Object: repeat verb => I love Mary more than love you

* Sentence Pattern: one sentence may be of two different patterns

Ex: He found Peter a helper

- Pattern 8: He found Peter a helper => He found a helper for Peter

- Pattern 9: He found Peter a helper => He considered Peter as his helper.

* Adj Pattern: Be-Adj-to Inf

Ex: The chicken is ready to eat Subject / Object

=> S: The chicken is ready to eat food, (the chicken eats food)

=> O: The chicken is ready for us to eat (we eat the chicken)

The chicken is ready to be eaten

* One word with different parts of speech

Ex: He gave her dog meat

=> Det modifies dog => He gave meat to her dog

=> Pronoun IO => He gave dog meat to her

Ex: The detective looked hard

=> Adj (P4): hard / SC = looked severe / strict

=> Adv (P6) hard / M / Aval = looked carefully

Exercise 17 Identify the type of ambiguity and give two possible

paraphrases to make the meaning clear

1 This pen is empty

2 Are the chickens ready to eat?

3 Do you want to try on that dress in the window?

4 This old car needs new brakes and anti-freezer

5 Don’t sit on those glasses

6 I understand money matters

7 I know clever people like you

8 The dog looked at the snake longer than the cat

9 The police searched for the car with broken headlights.

10 I hate the hunter’s shooting

11 Visiting relatives can be boring

12 We need nutritious food and drink

13 We feed the pigs in clean clothes

14 I need the criminal lawyer

15 I like ice-cream more than you

16 I found a bat in the attic

17 He gave her dog meat

18 Leave the chairs on the veranda

19 I met a man with a dog that had fleas

20 Oh, that’s just a crazy lawyer’s idea

21 The FCC intends to eliminate sex and race bias in TV advertising

22 You should eat more nutritious food

23 He considered the applicant hard

24 I found her a doll

25 They watched the hunter with the binoculars

26 She spied the dog on the comer

27 Joan is easy to please

28 Molly told Angela about herself

29 She gave him a ring last night

30 The car coasted into the garage with the lights on

31 The dog bit several people in the crowd

32 Tristan left directions for Isolde to follow.

33 She can’t bear children

34 It takes a good ruler to make a straight line

35 He saw that petrol can explode

36 Is he really that kind?

37 They are cooking apples

38 This is not a Raphael’s painting

39 The policeman is talking about Mr Thompson’s murder

40 My grandfather is a small farmer

41 He is a poor student

42 The guard turned out a drunkard

43 I am getting her socks

44 The man gave the library books

45 It was a little pasty

46 He accepted Wednesday

47 Thom taught himself during his young manhood

48 The doctor made them well

49 She taught the group singing

50 Our spaniel made a good friend

51 The judges designated the girl winner

52 Mary called her mother

53 My father is a foreign language teacher

54 My friend is an old car enthusiast

55 The rabbit also enjoys our lettuce.

56 The members only are allowed to buy beer

57 I gave her an old girl’s bicycle

58 He promised to call me at 10 o’clock

59 Paula is a girl hunter

60 She is a baby sitter

61 I found a book on HN station

62 Everyday passengers enjoy a meal like this

63 I considered those errors

64 It was a plot to sell industrial secrets worth millions to the ABC company

65 He passed the hammer and saw through the window

IX MEANING RELATION

1 WORD RELATION: the relation between the meanings of two words.

* Synonymy: Two words of the same or almost the same denotative /

referential meaning

Test: A= B

Ex: broad = wide; movie = film; deep = profound; buy = purchase

However, these words differ in their connotative / social / affective meaning

For example, film is usually British, referring to classic movies or art movies; meanwhile, movie is American

Partial Synonym: a word that share one of the meanings with another.

Ex1: There are different ways / methods to do this