Introduction to Linguistics - Assignment 8 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 angle brackets 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 structural 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, a lexical entailment, or a world knowledge (nonlinguistic) entailment.
   1. The cow jumped over the moon. --> The cow jumped.
   2. A pediatrician stole my homework. --> A doctor stole my homework.
4. Attempt each of the following exercises, based on the text's discussion of the stated semantic issue:
   
   • Exercise 9 (just a,c, and h, noting that for (h) you will need to review the different kinds of antonyms discussed in the text).
   • Exercise 14 (just a-f)
   • exercise 17 (just a-h)
5. Read the brief section on "presupposition" in the semantics chapter, and then, for each of the two sentence pairs below, determine which sentence has a presupposition that the other does not have? What is that presupposition?
   
   1. The captain realized that the ship was in danger.
      The captain thought that the ship was in danger.
   2. That the criminal was arrested is likely.
      That the criminal was arrested is significant.







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