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Semantic Presentation
Semantic Presentation
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-means depends on
paraphrase because we must use words – or other equivalent symbols – to explain other words”
3.3.1.2 When asked what a sentence means, people usually provide another sentence that has virtually
the same meaning, a paraphrase
3.3.1.3 A sentence which expresses the same proposition as another sentence is a paraphrase of that
sentence
3.3.1.4 Sentences are paraphrases if they have the same meaning (except possibly for minor differences
in emphases
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.
+ using synonyms
Eg The older citizens were honored with a parade for those once in the military.
Hoang is slender
Hoang is skinny
Eg: Pat can run fast and Chris can run fast, too.
To provide a paraphrase we use our knowledge of both the meanings of individual words and the
English grammar.
II. Entailment
3.4.1 Definition
• Entailment is a relationship that applies between two sentences, where the truth of one implies
the truth of the other because of the meanings of the words involved. Goddard
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
• An entailment is something that logically follows from what is asserted in the utterance
For instant: Shirley: “It’s so sad. George regrets getting Mary pregnant”
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 assumption)
• Entailments are inferences that can be drawn solely from our knowledge about the semantic
relationships in a language. This knowledge allows to communicate much more than we actually
“say”
3.4.2 Characteristics
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.
b) Hyponymy involves entailment. To say This is a tulip entails This is a flower, and This is scarlet entails
This is red. The relation between tulip and flower and between scarlet and red brings out the
HIERARCHICAL CLASSIFICATION involved in hyponymy.
3) Type of Entailment
If Alfred saw a bear then he necessarily saw an animal, but if Afred saw an animal, he could have seen a
bear but not necessarily. It could be a big bad wolf, for example
Ex2: Max ate the pizza asymmetrically entails Max did something to the pizza.
Since the meaning do something to is found in eat, the sentence Max ate the pizza asymmetrically
entails Max did something to the pizza; but if Max did something to the pizza, he could have eaten it but
not necessarily, he could have baked it or bought it
Ex1: Paul borrowed a car from Sue symmetrically entails Sue lent a car to Paul.
Ex2: The police chased the burglar symmetrically entails the burglar was chased by the police.
It is interesting to notice that hyponymic relations between words result in a great number of one-way
entailments; paraphrases are two-way entailments; and relational pairs of antonyms such as sell-buy,
lend-borrow, own-belong to, etc do contribute to two-way entailments.