Introduction to Linguistics - Fall 2016

Introduction to Linguistics - Assignment 8

James Madison University

Examine the following lexical entries for the verbs "float" and "drop" and then answer the questions below (note that, simply for formatting reasons, semi-colons are replacing the angle brackets used in our textbook):
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
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.
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. 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.
Attempt each of the following exercises, based on the text's discussion of the stated semantic issue:
- Exercise 9 (just a-h).
- Exercise 11
- exercise 14 (just a-f)
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.