SEMANTICS, Fall 2021/2022 Dr.

Najib Ismail Jarad

1st Quiz Questions & Answers

1. The relation between a language expression and whatever the expression pertains to in a
particular situation of language use, including what a speaker may imagine is called _______
[reference].

2. The semantic relation between an utterance and one or more implicit assumptions triggered by
the utterance is called __________ [presupposition].

3. The semantic relation between two sentences such that if the first is true, the second must also
be true is called __________ [entailment].

4. The sentences "Maria's husband never does the washing up" and "Maria's husband always does
the washing up" are examples of __________ [contradiction].

5. The process of producing alternative versions of a sentence or text without changing the
meaning is called __________ [paraphrase].

6. The adjectives skinny, thin, and slender mean the same thing', but they differ in _______, the
values that people give to them. [connotation]

7. The linguistic science that deals with the type of meaning that isn't found in dictionaries and
which may vary from context to context is called __________ [pragmatics].

8. The expressions the sun, the Nile, Abu Dhabi, Mount Everest, etc., are examples of
__________ reference. [unique/constant]

9. A semantically _________ linguistic expression is one that has an abnormal meaning or fails to
make sense, despite being grammatically well-formed. [anomalous]

10. The study of literal meaning of words and sentences independent of context is
called__________ [semantics].
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 SEMANTICS, Fall 2021/2022 Dr. Najib Ismail Jarad

11. The sentences [David is a married adult male] and [David is a bachelor] are examples of
_______.
one-way entailment
two-way entailment
contradiction.

12. The sentences [The bottle is half empty] and [The bottle is half full] are examples of _______ .

one-way entailment
two-way entailment
Presupposition

13. The sentences [Rose is married to Tom] and [Rose is not Tom's wife] are examples of
________.

one-way entailment
two-way entailment
contradiction

14. The sentences [The professor gave deep comments] and [The professor gave profound
comments) are examples of _________.

one-way entailment
two-way entailment
presupposition

15. The sentences [The girl picked up a tulip] and [The girl picked up a flower] are examples of
________.
one-way entailment
two-way entailment
contradiction

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 SEMANTICS, Fall 2021/2022 Dr. Najib Ismail Jarad

16. Which of the following is an example of contradiction?

Bachelors are male.

Bachelors are lonely.
Bachelors are not human being.

17. Which of the following is an example lexical ambiguity?

Flying planes can be dangerous.

You're so kind too me.
You're that kind!
They fed her dog food

18. The expression [William Shakespeare] in the sentence [William Shakespeare is one of the
greatest playwrights in English Literature] has the constant reference because

it is not a referring expression

it can be used to refer to different potential referents.
it never refers to a different person.

19. The sentences [My socks are both scarlet] and [My socks are both red] are examples of
________ .

one-way entailment
two-way entailment
contradiction

20. The sentences [Ken almost shot his foot] and [Ken nearly shot his foot] are examples of
________.

one-way entailment
two-way entailment
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 SEMANTICS, Fall 2021/2022 Dr. Najib Ismail Jarad

contradiction

21. The lexeme [childlike] in "She has a childlike innocence about her that is rather surprising" has
negative connotation.

True
False

22. The lexeme [scrawny] in "The stray cat was so scrawny, the shelter volunteer could see its ribs"
has negative connotation.

True
False

23. The lexeme "sea" denotes a large body of water, but its connotative meaning includes the sense
of overwhelming space, danger, instability.

True
False

24. The lexeme "earth" denotes the land surface on which we live and move about, but it connotes
safety, fertility and stability.

True
False

25. An utterance is an instance of the production of a sentence or a fragment of a sentence.

True
False

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 SEMANTICS, Fall 2021/2022 Dr. Najib Ismail Jarad

26. The sentence "Marjorie doesn't care for her parakeet" is an example of grammatical ambiguity.

True
False

27. The lexeme [strong-willed] in “John is a very determined and strong-willed person” has
positive connotation.

True
False

28. The lexemes [house, home, shanty] all denote a building that people live in. However, "house'
has positive connotation.

True
False

29. The lexemes [lady and woman] are synonyms in English but the difference between them is
that "lady' has overtones of respect.

True
False

30. "Henry's bank manager is dead" entails that "Henry murdered his bank manager".

True
False