Study questions

Genetti Chapter 7
1. Crafting definitions with prototypes and entailments
The contradiction test allows us to figure out which, if any, parts of an
expression’s sense are strictly entailed and which, if any, are associated
with the category without being strictly necessary. Consider at least two
words from each of the following lists (i.e., two nouns, two verbs, and two
adjectives), and for each try to determine the roles that prototypes, and
entailments have in their meanings. Base your reasoning on a few
constructed (or found) example sentences illustrating what you take to be
anormal use of the word in one of its basic senses. Be sure to consider for
each word both its precise entailments (if any), and just what sorts of
information one should include about it in a dictionary.
N horse hammer prize bedroom sausage
V stampede steal admire wrestle memorize
Adj bright happy ancient slippery spoiled

2. Finding exemplars: window

The American Heritage College Dictionary (3rd edn., 1993) offers the following
five senses and subsenses for the noun window.
a. (i) An opening constructed in a wall or roof that admits light or air to an
enclosure and is often framed and spanned with glass mounted to permit
opening and closing.
(ii) A framework enclosing a pane of glass for such an opening; a sash.
(iii) A pane of glass or similar material in such a framework.
b. (i) An opening that resembles a window in function or appearance.
(ii) The transparent panel on a window envelope.
c. The area or space behind a window, especially at the front of a shop.
d. A means of access or observation.
e. An interval of time during which an activity can or must take place.
Use an online corpus – either the BNC (www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/), or the
COCA (http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/) – to search for the word window. Find
fifteen to twenty examples of uses of the Word window and try to sort your
data according to which sense or sub-sense is being used. Can you find
cases where a single instance of the word window is compatible with more
than one of these senses? Can you find uses that these definitions do not
seem to cover? And finally, can you think of anything that clearly is not a
window that one of these definitions might include?

3. Lexical semantic relations

Match the lexical pairs below with the appropriate semantic relations, (a–f).
Give evidence for your claims, and briefly discuss one or more examples if they
pose any difficulties for analysis.
Semantic relations:
 a. Synonyms
b. Hyponyms/hypernyms
c. Complementary antonyms
d. Contrary antonyms
e. Reversive antonyms
f. Converse antonyms
Lexical pairs:

Husband and wife rich and poor long and short

real and genuine car and sedan say and deny
begin and end brother and sister animal and mineral
cruel and kind bird and penguin bread and butter
hard and soft hammer and tool pure and sullied
couch and sofa sad and grim girl and boy
true and false

4. Vagueness and polysemy: the case of school

Consider the likely referents of the word school in each of the following
sentences: for example, in (a) the word schools refer to physical buildings or
campuses, but in (b–f) it refers to various kinds of social constructions. Use the
substitution test to identify and describe the range of referents covered by the
word school in these sentences. What sorts of semantic and pragmatic
relationships (propositional, metaphoric, metonymic, etc.) can you observe
among the uses of the word school here? How can we best explain the wide
range of referents this word allows? Are there multiple senses of the word
involved, or one very vague sense, or are there other ways to explain this data?
a. Several schools were damaged by the tornado.
b. Sally and Joey went to the game to root for their school.
c. After the game, the whole school gathered to celebrate the victory.
d. The school is considering changes in the code on academic honesty.
e. I can’t make it for lunch. I have school from 10 to 4 on Wednesday.
f. School sucks

5. Frames and profiles

For each of the following lexical items, try to determine (a) what each item
designates (its profile) and (b) what sorts of background knowledge it
presupposes (its frame). Discuss any problems you may find in drawing these
distinct ions.
denial departure apology gallop tip
dent pedal fish mountain bicycle
hammer