English Linguistics - Assignment 6 James Madison University

[This assignment will be marked only as an acceptable or unacceptable effort, but you must do all parts of the assignment.]

1. Gathering data on lexical relations --
   1. Ask at least 3 people (separately, so they don't hear one another's responses) to give one example of each of the following:
      1. The best example of a sterotypic...

         bird
         toy
         college class
         jump
         song

      2. The opposite of ...

         cat
         old
         shoe
         (to) staple

      3. A synonym for ...

         friend
         (to) laugh
         cool
         artichoke

   2. Present your results in a table, replacing the names of respondents with numbers or some other private code.

   3. Now, study your data carefully 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. Be thorough. (The type of question, the type of word, and differences between individual respondents are just some of the factors you might consider.)

2. Write down one example, other than those in the textbook, for each of the three types of antonyms.
3. Re-read the discussion of hyponyms and metonyms in your textbook and then write a brief description of the difference between the two.
4. Our textbook explains that proper nouns (names) have specific referential meaning. Based on your own experience with names, do they also ever have a sense meaning? Explain your answer.