Assignment 1:
Writing about the Meaning of Words and Sentences

The goal of this assignment is to get you to carefully introspect about the meaning of words and sentences and to practice expressing your semantic observations clearly in writing. Consider each example carefully and critically. Go beyond your first reactions to the example given and consider similar cases.

1. Introduction

Please write a paragraph or two introducing yourself to us. We are particularly interested in your language background and academic goals. What led you to enroll in this class?

2. Disambiguating Sentences

The following sentences are ambiguous; out of context,each can be understood in more than one way. Describe the different meanings (readings) that you see by giving an unambiguous paraphrase for each reading.

For each sentence, say what you think the source of the ambiguity is. Does it arise from a particular word that has multiple meanings or does it come from the fact that the words and phrases can be related to each other in different ways (or both)?

Which reading seems like the most likely way to understand the sentence?

Note: Take each sentence as a declarative sentence with a "neutral" intonation contour. There would be many ways to alter the sense of these words in speaking by changing emphasis or by giving different punctuation.

Make your answer to each a coherent paragraph that provides the paraphrases and proposed source of the ambiguity.

1. The clowns all sat on Jumbo’s trunk.

2. Maria talked to Sandra about her aunt.

3. The chancellor told the proctor to stop drinking in the dorms.

4. I didn’t take Semantics 1 because it met at 9:30 am.

3. Discovering distinctive semantic contrasts

Below are pairs of sentences that share many of the same words, though their meanings clearly contrast. The goal in this exercise is to locate and express as well as you can how their meanings differ and the source of the contrast.

After each pair, some specific questions are posed to get you started in your thinking. Your answer should no be limited to simply responding to those questions.

Your answers should come from considering your own semantic intuitions. Do not base them on dictionary definitions. If you'd like to compare your intuitions to those of the dictionary writers, feel free to look them up after you have written out your answer.

1.a Kim deprived Robin of eating the brussels sprouts

.b Kim spared Robin from eating the brussels sprouts

Did Robin eat the brussels sprouts?
How does the speaker feel about brussels sprouts?
Can you say for sure how Kim or Robin feel about it?

2.a Kim lied to Sandy

.b Kim told Sandy something which was not true

If (a) is true, must (b) be true? Describe a situation in which (b) is true but you would not want to say that (a) was true.

3.a This book is illegible

.b This book is unreadable

Are there things which might be illegible but not unreadable?
Are there things which might be unreadable but not illegible?

4.a He was murdered

.b He was assassinated

What do you assume about the referent of the pronoun he in the case of (b)? Was Martin Luther King Jr. murdered? Was he assassinated?

A note to people who are not native speakers of English: The exercises in this class usually call for you to examine your semantic intuitions about sentences of English. It is not always easy for people who are not native speakers of English (i.e. speakers who acquire the language naturally, from a young age). If you have difficulty in seeing the ambiguity in a sentence or in figuring out what the subtle difference between two words is, please feel free to do “field work” by asking a native speaker questions that will help you figure it out. Many of the phenomena that we examine on these exercises are present in other languages; but others are peculiar to English. If you have any concerns in this regard, please discuss them with the instructor.