1.

Vũ Thị Mỹ Duyên – 21DH710862

2. Bùi Thị Thúy Ngân – 21DH712648
3. Lê Thị Mỹ Thuận – 21DH718744
4. Vũ Thị Thu Hương – 21DH718122
ENGLISH SEMANTICS
ASSIGNMENT 2

1. Can synonymous words be substituted for each other in all contexts? Why (not)
 No, synonyms are not always interchangeable because words carry connotations, or
emotional meanings, that can completely change the meaning or effect of a word. For
instance, both “notorious” and “renown” mean famous or well-known, but “notorious”
is famous for doing something BAD, while “renown” means famous for being an expert
—the connotation is positive. Sometimes a connotation has nothing to do with the
meaning of a word: “niggardly” means “stingy,” but few people use that word because it
resembles another n-word that people find highly offensive in nearly all situations.
2. In what way are homonyms related to lexical ambiguity?
- When homonyms are used in the same position in a sentence, it can create confusion
about which meaning is intended.
- When people don't have enough contextual information about what speakers are saying
(in spoken language) or what they read (in written language)
- Example for lexical ambiguity which a word has much more than one meaning:
Meaning 1: He must pay for that! Tom said:
(In case of school, “he must be punished.” Tom said.
Meaning 2: “He must pay for this meal; she is his wife.” Lisa said.
(In the case of paying amount of money for the meal)
3. In what way do you think learning sense relations is beneficial?
 Yes, when dealing with sense relations, they stick clear cases; abstract away from any
stylistic, social, dialectal associations the word may have and concentrate on what has
been called the cognitive or conceptual meaning of a word.
4. Is the entailment in each of the following pairs of sentences one-way (asymmetric) or
two-way (symmetric)?
A B Type
Example 1: Max stole the car. Max took the car one-way

1
 a. Paul borrowed a car from Sue. Sue lent a car to Paul. one-way
b I'm wearing black boots. I'm wearing black footwear. one-way
c. My father owns this car. This car belongs to my father. two-way
d. Jenny and Kevin are twins. Kevin and Jenny are twins. two-way
e. The bear killed the wolf. The wolf was killed by the bear. two-way
f. I saw Ted at the party. It was Ted that I saw at the two-way
party.

5. Write entailed sentences.

Example: John was killed. John died.
a. Some boys ran down the street. Some boys went down the street.
b. All dogs have fleas. All dogs have insects.
c. My uncle teaches at the community My uncle is a teacher.
college.
d. Eliza plays the flute. Eliza plays a musical instrment.

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