Introduction to Linguistics - Assignment 9 James Madison University

[This assignment will be marked only as an acceptable or unacceptable effort.]

1. Examine the following lexical entries for the verbs "float" and "smash" and then answer the questions below (note that semi-colons are replacing new lines for formatting reasons):
   FLOAT: {boat; raft; bubble; cloud; leaf}
   DROP: { Charlie, pumpkin; Bernice, watermelon; Buddy, bone; Vic, package; Margo, pumpkin}
   
   1. Based on semantic rules 1 and 2, what is the meaning of each of the following:
      
      1. A cloud floats.
      2. An angel floats.
      3. Buddy drops the pumpkin.
      4. Francois drops the pumpkin.
      5. Vic drops the package.
   2. Based on just semantic rule 2, what is the meaning of each of the following:
      
      1. drops a watermelon
      2. drops a pumpkin
      3. drops a key
2. Write down at least one entailment for each of the following sentences.
   1. Lucille wants a career in television.
   2. Ten trains pass through Harrisonburg each day.
   3. Our goldfish died.
   4. The painting that we saw in The Louvre was a little better than my painting.
3. For both pairs of sentences below, explain why the first entails the second and state whether you think it is an example of a structural entailment or a lexical entailment, or more general world knowledge entailment.
   1. John voted for Barack Obama. --> John voted for a democrat.
   2. The cow jumped over the moon. --> The cow jumped.
   3. A pediatrician stole my homework. --> A doctor stole my homework.
4. Gathering data on lexical relations --
   1. Ask people (separately, so they don't hear each other's responses) to give one example of each of the following:
      1. The opposite of ...

         cat
         old
         shoe
         (to) staple

      2. A synonym for ...

         friend
         (to) laugh
         cool
         artichoke

   2. Write down their answers. Then study your data and answer the following questions: Were all your responses the same? If so, discuss why you think this happened. If not, discuss all the factors that you think may have affected particular responses.







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