178  CHAPTER 4  The Meaning of Language

Lyons, J. 1995. Linguistic semantics: An introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Uni-

versity Press.
Saeed, J. 2009. Semantics, 3rd ed. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Searle, J. R. 1969. Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press.

Exercises

1. (This exercise requires knowledge of elementary set theory.)

A. Suppose that the reference (meaning) of swims points out the set of
individuals consisting of Anna, Lu, Paul, and Benjamin. For which of
the following sentences are the truth conditions produced by Seman-
tic Rule I met?
i. Anna swims.
ii. Jack swims.
iii. Benjamin swims.
B. Suppose the reference (meaning) of loves points out the set consisting
of the following pairs of individuals: <Anna, Paul>, <Paul, Benja-
min>, <Benjamin, Benjamin>, <Paul, Anna>. According to Seman-
tic Rule II, what is the meaning of the verb phrase?
i. loves Paul
ii. loves Benjamin
iii. loves Jack
C. Given the information in (B), for which of the following sentences are
the truth conditions produced by Semantic Rule I met?
i. Paul loves Anna.
ii. Benjamin loves Paul.
iii. Benjamin loves himself.
iv. Anna loves Jack.
D. Challenge exercise: Consider the sentence Jack kissed Laura. How
would the actions of Semantic Rules (I) and (II) determine that the
sentence is false if it were true that:
i. Nobody kissed Laura.
How about if it were true that:
ii. Jack did not kiss Laura, although other men did.
2. The following sentences are either tautologies (analytic), contradictions,
or situationally true or false. Write T by the tautologies, C by the contra-
dictions, and S by the other sentences.
a. Queens are monarchs.
b. Kings are female.
c. Kings are poor.
d. Queens are ugly.

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
 Exercises  179

e. Queens are mothers.

f. Kings are mothers.
g. Dogs are four-legged.
h. Cats are felines.
i. Cats are stupid.
j. Dogs are carnivores.
k. George Washington is George Washington.
l. George Washington is the first president.
m. George Washington is male.
n. Uncles are male.
o. My aunt is a man.
p. Witches are wicked.
q. My brother is a witch.
r. My sister is an only child.
s. The evening star isn’t the evening star.
t. The evening star isn’t Venus.
u. Babies are adults.
v. Babies can lift one ton.
w. Puppies are human.
x. My bachelor friends are all married.
y. My bachelor friends are all lonely.
z. Colorless ideas are green.
3. Here is a passage from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland:
“How is bread made?”
“I know that!” Alice cried eagerly.
“You take some flour—”
“Where do you pick the flower?” the White Queen asked. “In a garden,
or in the hedges?”
“Well, it isn’t picked at all,” Alice explained; “it’s ground—”
“How many acres of ground?” said the White Queen.
On what kinds of pairs of words is the humor of this passage based?
Identify each pair.

4. Should the semantic component of the grammar account for whatever a

speaker means when uttering any meaningful expression? Defend your
viewpoint.

5. Part One
The following sentences may be lexically or structurally ambiguous, or
both. Provide paraphrases showing that you comprehend all the meanings.

Example: I saw him walking by the bank.

Meaning 1: I saw him and he was walking by the bank of the river.
Meaning 2: I saw him and he was walking by the financial institution.
Meaning 3: I was walking by the bank of the river when I saw him.

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
 180  CHAPTER 4  The Meaning of Language

Meaning 4: I was walking by the financial institution when I saw him.

a. We laughed at the colorful ball.
b. He was knocked over by the punch.
c. The police were urged to stop drinking by the fifth.
d. I said I would file it on Thursday.
e. I cannot recommend visiting professors too highly.
f. The license fee for pets owned by senior citizens who have not been
altered is $1.50. (Actual notice)
g. What looks better on a handsome man than a tux? Nothing! (Attrib-
uted to Mae West)
h. Wanted: Man to take care of cow that does not smoke or drink. (Ac-
tual notice)
i. For Sale: Several old dresses from grandmother in beautiful condi-
tion. (Actual notice)
j. Time flies like an arrow. (Hint: There are at least four paraphrases,
but some of them require imagination.)
Part Two
Do the same thing for the following newspaper headlines:
a. POLICE BEGIN CAMPAIGN TO RUN DOWN JAYWALKERS
b. DRUNK GETS NINE MONTHS IN VIOLIN CASE
c. FARMER BILL DIES IN HOUSE
d. STUD TIRES OUT
e. SQUAD HELPS DOG BITE VICTIM
f. LACK OF BRAINS HINDERS RESEARCH
g. MINERS REFUSE TO WORK AFTER DEATH
h. EYE DROPS OFF SHELF
i. JUVENILE COURT TO TRY SHOOTING DEFENDANT
j. QUEEN MARY HAVING BOTTOM SCRAPED
6. Explain the semantic ambiguity of the following sentences by providing
two or more sentences for each that paraphrase the multiple meanings.
Example: “She can’t bear children” can mean either ‘She can’t give birth
to children’ or ‘She can’t tolerate children.’
a. He waited by the bank.
b. Is he really that kind?
c. The proprietor of the fish store was the sole owner.
d. The long drill was boring.
e. When he got the clear title to the land, it was a good deed.
f. It takes a good ruler to make a straight line.
g. He saw that gasoline can explode.
h. You should see her shop.
i. Every man loves a woman.
j. You get half off the cost of your hotel room if you make your own bed.
k. “It’s his job to lose” (said the coach about his new player).
l. “We will change your oil in 10 minutes” (sign in front of a garage).
m. Challenge exercise: Bill wants to marry a Norwegian woman.

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
 Exercises  181

7. Go on an idiom hunt. In the course of some hours in which you converse or

overhear conversations, write down all the idioms that are used. If you pre-
fer, watch soap operas or something similar for an hour or two and write
down the idioms. Show your parents (or whomever) this book when they
find you watching TV and you can claim you’re doing your homework.
8. Take a half dozen or so idioms from exercise 7, or elsewhere, and try to
find their sources; if you cannot, speculate imaginatively on the source.
For example, sell down the river meaning ‘betray’ arose from American
slave traders selling slaves from more northern states along the Missis-
sippi River to the harsher southern states. For snap out of it, meaning
‘pay attention’ or ‘get in a better mood,’ we (truly) speculate that ill-
behaving persons were once confined in straitjackets secured by snaps,
and to snap out of it meant the person was behaving better.
9. For each group of words given as follows, state what semantic property
or properties distinguish between the classes of (a) words and (b) words.
If asked, also indicate a semantic property that the (a) words and the (b)
words share.
Example: (a) widow, mother, sister, aunt, maid
(b) widower, father, brother, uncle, valet
The (a) and (b) words are “human.”
The (a) words are “female” and the (b) words are “male.”
a. (a) bachelor, man, son, paperboy, pope, chief
(b) bull, rooster, drake, ram
The (a) and (b) words are:
The (a) words are:
The (b) words are:
b. (a) table, stone, pencil, cup, house, ship, car
(b) milk, alcohol, rice, soup, mud
The (a) words are:
The (b) words are:
c. (a) book, temple, mountain, road, tractor
(b) idea, love, charity, sincerity, bravery, fear
The (a) words are:
The (b) words are:
d. (a) pine, elm, ash, weeping willow, sycamore
(b) rose, dandelion, aster, tulip, daisy
The (a) and (b) words are:
The (a) words are:
The (b) words are:
e. (a) book, letter, encyclopedia, novel, notebook, dictionary
(b) typewriter, pencil, pen, crayon, quill, charcoal, chalk
The (a) words are:
The (b) words are:

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
 182  CHAPTER 4  The Meaning of Language

f. (a) walk, run, skip, jump, hop, swim

(b) fly, skate, ski, ride, cycle, canoe, hang glide
The (a) and (b) words are:
The (a) words are:
The (b) words are:
g. (a) ask, tell, say, talk, converse
(b) shout, whisper, mutter, drawl, holler
The (a) and (b) words are:
The (a) words are:
The (b) words are:
h. (a) absent/present, alive/dead, asleep/awake, married/single
(b) big/small, cold/hot, sad/happy, slow/fast
The (a) and (b) word pairs are:
The (a) words are:
The (b) words are:
i. (a) alleged, counterfeit, false, putative, accused
(b) red, large, cheerful, pretty, stupid
(Hint: Is an alleged murderer always a murderer? Is a pretty girl al-
ways a girl?)
The (a) words are:
The (b) words are:
10. Research project: There are many -nym/-onym words that describe
classes of words with particular semantic properties. We mentioned a
few in this chapter such as synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, and hypo-
nyms. What is the etymology of -onym? What common English word is
it related to? How many more -nym words and their meanings can you
come up with? Try for five or ten on your own. With help from the In-
ternet, dozens are possible. (Hint: One such -nym word was the winning
word in the 1997 Scripps National Spelling Bee.)
11. There are several kinds of antonymy. By writing a c, g, or r in column C,
indicate whether the pairs in columns A and B are complementary, grad-
able, or relational opposites.
A B C
good bad
expensive cheap
parent offspring
beautiful ugly
false true
lessor lessee
pass fail
hot cold
legal illegal
larger smaller
poor rich
fast slow
asleep awake
husband wife
rude polite
Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
 Exercises  183

12. For each definition, write in the first blank the word that has that mean-
ing and in the second (and third if present) a differently spelled hom-
onym that has a different meaning. The first letter of each of the words
is provided.
Example: “a pair”: t(wo) t(oo) t(o)
a. “naked”: b b
b. “base metal”: l l
c. “worships”: p p p
d. “eight bits”: b b b
e. “one of five senses”: s s c
f. “several couples”: p p p
g. “not pretty”: p p
h. “purity of gold unit”: k c
i. “a horse’s coiffure”: m m m
j. “sets loose”: f f f

13. Here are some proper names of U.S. restaurants. Can you figure out the
basis for each name? (This is for fun—don’t let yourself be graded.)
a. Mustard’s Last Stand
b. Aunt Chilada’s
c. Tony’s Toe-Main Café (Hint: silent ‘p’)
d. Lion on the Beach
e. Wiener Take All
f. Pizza Paul and Mary
g. Franks for the Memories
h. Dressed to Grill
i. Deli Beloved
j. Gone with the Wings
k. Aunt Chovy’s Pizza
l. Polly Esther’s
m. Crepevine
n. Thai Me Up (truly—it’s in Edinburgh)
o. Romancing the Cone
p. Brew Ha Ha
q. C U Latte
r. Fish-cotheque
s. Franks a lot
t. Nincomsoup
u. Via Agra (Indian take-away restaurant in London)
14. The following sentences consist of a verb, its noun phrase subject, and
various noun phrases and prepositional phrases. Identify the thematic
role of each NP by writing the letter a, t, i, s, g, or e above the noun,
standing for agent, theme, instrument, source, goal, and experiencer.

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
 184  CHAPTER 4  The Meaning of Language

a t s i
Example: The boy took the books from the cupboard with a handcart.
a. Mary found a ball.
b. The children ran from the playground to the wading pool.
c. One of the men unlocked all the doors with a paper clip.
d. John melted the ice with a blowtorch.
e. Helen looked for a cockroach.
f. Helen saw a cockroach.
g. Helen screamed.
h. The ice melted.
i. With a telescope, the boy saw the man.
j. The farmer loaded hay onto the truck.
k. The farmer loaded the hay with a pitchfork.
l. The hay was loaded on the truck by the farmer.
m. Helen heard music coming out of the speaker.
15. Find a complete version of “The Jabberwocky” from Through the Look-
ing-Glass by Lewis Carroll. There are some on the Internet. Look up all
the nonsense words in a good dictionary (also to be found online) and
see how many of them are lexical items in English. Note their meanings.
16. In sports and games, many expressions are “performative.” By shouting
You’re out, the first-base umpire performs an act. Think up half a dozen
or so similar examples and explain their use.
17. A criterion of a performative utterance is whether you can begin it with
“I hereby.” Notice that if you say sentence (i) aloud, it sounds like a gen-
uine apology, but to say sentence (ii) aloud sounds funny because you
cannot willfully perform an act of noticing:
i. I hereby apologize to you.
ii. ?I hereby notice you.
Determine which of the following are performative sentences by insert-
ing “hereby” and seeing whether they sound right.
a. I testify that she met the agent.
b. I know that she met the agent.
c. I suppose the Yankees will win.
d. He bet her $2,500 that Romney would win.
e. I dismiss the class.
f. I teach the class.
g. We promise to leave early.
h. I owe the IRS $1 million.
i. I bequeath $1 million to the IRS.
j. I swore I didn’t do it.
k. I swear I didn’t do it.
18. A. Explain, in terms of Grice’s Maxims, the humor or strangeness of the
following exchange between mother and child. The child has just fin-
ished eating a cookie when the mother comes into the room.

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
 Exercises  185

mother: What are these cookie crumbs doing in your bed?

child: Nothing, they’re just lying there.
B. Do the same for this “exchange” between an owner and her cat:
owner: If cats ruled the world, everyone would sleep on a pile of
fresh laundry.
cat: Cats don’t rule the world??
19. A. Spend an hour or two observing conversations between people, includ-
ing yourself if you wish.  Record five (or more if you’re having fun)
utterances where the intended meaning is mediated by Grice’s Maxims
and cite the maxim or maxims involved.  For example someone says
“I didn’t quite catch that,” with the possible meaning of “Please say
it again,” or “Please speak a little louder.” In the above example, we
would cite the maxims of relevance and quantity.
B. Here is a dialog excerpt from the 1945 motion picture The Thin
Man Goes Home. The scene is in a shop that sells paintings and Nick
Charles is leaving the shop.
Nick Charles: Well, thank you very much. Goodbye now.
Shopkeeper: I beg your pardon?
Nick Charles: I said, goodbye now.
Shopkeeper: “Goodbye now?” There’s no sense to that! Obvi-
ously it’s now! I mean, you wouldn’t say “goodbye
tomorrow” or “goodbye two hours ago!”
Nick Charles: You got hold of somethin’ there, brother.
Shopkeeper: I’ve got hold of some . . . I haven’t got hold of
­anything . . . And I’m not your brother!
Analyze this dialogue, intended to be humorous (one assumes),
in light of Grice’s maxims.
20. Consider the following “facts” and then answer the questions.
Part A illustrates your ability to interpret meanings when syntactic rules
have deleted parts of the sentence; Part B illustrates your knowledge of
semantic features and entailment.
A. Roses are red and bralkions are too.
Booth shot Lincoln and Czolgosz, McKinley.
Casca stabbed Caesar and so did Cinna.
Frodo was exhausted, as was Sam.
a. What color are bralkions?
b. What did Czolgosz do to McKinley?
c. What did Cinna do to Caesar?
d. What did Sam feel?
B. Now consider these facts and answer the questions:
Black Beauty was a stallion.
Mary is a widow.

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
 186  CHAPTER 4  The Meaning of Language

John pretended to send Martha a birthday card.

Jane didn’t remember to send Tom a birthday card.
Tina taught her daughter to swim.
My boss managed to give me a raise last year.
Flipper is walking.
(T = true; F = false)
a. Black Beauty was male. T F
b. Mary was never married. T F
c. John sent Martha a card. T F
d. Jane sent Tom a card. T F
e. Tina’s daughter can swim. T F
f. I didn’t get a raise last year. T F
g. Flipper has legs. T F

21. The following sentences have certain presuppositions that ensure their
appropriateness. What are they?

Example: The minors promised the police to stop drinking.

Presupposition: The minors were drinking.
a. We went to the ballpark again.
b. Valerie regretted not receiving a new T-bird for Labor Day.
c. That her pet turtle ran away made Emily very sad.
d. The administration forgot that the professors support the students.
e. It is an atrocity that the World Trade Center was attacked on
­September 11, 2001.
f. It isn’t tolerable that the World Trade Center was attacked on
­September 11, 2001.
g. Disa wants more popcorn.
h. Mary drank one more beer before leaving.
i. Jack knows who discovered Pluto in 1930.
j. Mary was horrified to find a cockroach in her bed.
22. Pronouns are so-called because they are nouns; they refer to individu-
als, just as nouns do. The word ‘proform’ describes words like ‘she’ in a
way that isn’t category-specific. There are words that function as pro-
verbs, pro-adjectives, and pro-adverbs, too. Can you come up with an
example of each in English (or another language)?
23. Imagine that Alex and Bruce have a plan to throw Colleen a surprise
party at work. It is Alex’s job meet her for lunch at a local restaurant
to get her out of the office, and Bruce’s job to decorate as soon as she
leaves. Alex phones Bruce and says, “The eagle has landed.” What
Maxim is Alex flouting? What does his utterance implicate?
24. Each of the following single statements has at least one implicature in
the situation described. What is it?
a. Statement: You make a better door than a window.
Situation: Someone is blocking your view.

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
 Exercises  187

b. Statement: It’s getting late.

Situation: You’re at a party and it’s 4 a.m.
c. Statement: The restaurants are open until midnight.
Situation: It’s 10 o’clock and you haven’t eaten dinner.
d. Statement: If you’d diet, this wouldn’t hurt so badly.
Situation: Someone is standing on your toe.
e. Statement: I thought I saw a fan in the closet.
Situation: It’s sweltering in the room.
f. Statement: Mr. Smith dresses neatly, is well groomed, and is always
on time to class.
Situation: The summary statement in a letter of recommendation to
graduate school.
g. Statement: Most of the food is gone.
Situation: You arrived late at a cocktail party.
h. Statement: John or Mary made a mistake.
Situation: You’re looking over some work done by John and Mary.
25. In each of the following dialogues between Jack and Laura, there is a
conversational implicature. What is it?
a. Jack: Did you make a doctor’s appointment?
Laura: Their line was busy.
b. Jack: Do you have the play tickets?
Laura: Didn’t I give them to you?
c. Jack: Does your grandmother have a live-in boyfriend?
Laura: She’s very traditional.
d. Jack: How did you like the string quartet?
Laura: I thought the violist was swell.
e. Laura: What are Boston’s chances of winning the World Series?
Jack: Do bowling balls float?
f. Laura: Do you own a cat?
Jack: I’m allergic to everything.
g. Laura: Did you mow the grass and wash the car like I told you to?
Jack: I mowed the grass.
h. Laura: Do you want dessert?
Jack: Is the Pope Catholic?
26. A. Think of ten negative polarity items such as give a hoot or have a red cent.
B. Challenge exercise: Can you think of other contexts without overt
negation that “license” their use? (Hint: One answer is discussed in
the text, but there are others.)
27. Challenge exercise: Suppose that, contrary to what was argued in the
text, the noun phrase no baby does refer to some individual just like
the baby does. It needn’t be an actual baby but some abstract “empty”
object that we’ll call Ø. Show that this approach to the semantics of no
baby, when applying Semantic Rule I and taking the restricting nature of
adverbs into account (everyone who swims beautifully also swims), pre-
dicts that No baby sleeps soundly entails No baby sleeps, and explain why
this is wrong.

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
 188  CHAPTER 4  The Meaning of Language

28. Consider: “The meaning of words lies not in the words themselves, but
in our attitude toward them,” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (the author
of The Little Prince). Do you think this is true, partially true, or false?
Defend your point of view, providing examples if needed.
29. The Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States states:
A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the
right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
It has long been argued that the citizens of the United States have an
absolute right to own guns, based on this amendment. Apply Grice’s
Maxims to the Second Amendment and agree or disagree.

30. Challenge exercise: Research Project. We observed that ordinarily the

antecedent of a reflexive pronoun may not have an intervening NP. Our
example was the ungrammatical *Jane said the boy bit herself. But there
appear to be “funny” exceptions and many speakers of English find the
following sentences acceptable: ?Yvette said Marcel really loved that sketch
of herself that Renoir drew, or ?Clyde realized that Bonnie had seen a photo
of himself on the wall in the post office. Investigate what’s going on here.

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.