EXERCISES ON SEMANTICS

Mr. Anh
 Exercise 1: Reproduced below is a well-known
passage from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking
Glass. Pick out all the instances of the word mean
(or means, or meant), noting which lines they occur
in. (Some line numbers are given in the margin for
convenience.) After the passage there are some
questions for you to answer.
1 “. . . that shows that there are three hundred and
sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday
presents.” “Certainly,” said Alice. “And only one for
birthday presents, you know. There’s glory for
5 you!” “I don’t know what you mean by “glory,” ’
Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled
contemptuously. “Of course you don’t – till I tell
you. I meant “there’s a nice knockdown
argument for you.” ‘But “glory” doesn’t mean ‘a
nice knockdown argument,’ Alice 10 objected.
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in
rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I
choose it to mean – neither more nor less.’ ‘The
question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make
words mean so many different things.’ 15 ‘The
question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be
master – that’s all.’
(1) What word is the subject of the verb mean in line 5?
(2) What is the subject of the verb mean in line 9?
(3) What is understood as the subject of the verb mean
in line 12?
(4) List all the instances (by line number) where mean,
means, or meant has a personal subject, e.g. I or you.
(Include instances already listed in the questions
above.)
(5) List all the instances (by line number) in which mean,
or means, or meant is understood as having as
subject something linguistic, e.g. a word, or words.
(Include instances mentioned in questions above.)
Answer: (1) you (2) the word glory (3) it, or a word
(4) lines 6, 8 (5) lines 9, 12, 12, 13
Exercise 2:
(1) Do the following two English sentences mean
(approximately)
the same thing? Yes / No
I’ll be back later and I will return after some time
(2)Is the answer to the previous question obvious to a
normal speaker of English?

Yes / No
(3) In the light of your reply to (2), if I ask ‘What did
John mean when he said he’d be back later?’, would
you be giving the helpful kind of answer that I
probably want if you said ‘He meant that he would
return after some time’? Yes / No
(4) In asking ‘What did John mean when he said he’d
be back later?’ is the questioner primarily asking
• (a) what the SENTENCE I’ll be back later means, or
• (b) what JOHN meant in saying it?
(a) / (b)
(5)A dictionary can be thought of as a list of the
meanings of words, of what words mean. Could one
make a list of what speakers (e.g. John, you, or I)
mean? Yes / No
(6) Do you understand this question?
Yes / No
 Answer: (1) Yes (2) Yes (3) No, this would be a
statement of the obvious, and therefore unhelpful.
(4) asking what JOHN meant in saying it, most
usually. (5) No, speakers may mean different things
on different occasions, even when using the same
words. (6) Assuming you are a competent English
speaker, yes, you do understand the literal meaning
of the interrogative sentence in question (6); but at
the same time you may not clearly understand what
we, the authors, mean in asking you this question.
We mean to point out that understanding, like
meaning, can be taken in (at least) two different
ways.
 Exercise 3: Read the following conversation between
two people, A and B, at a bus stop one morning. (The
lines are numbered for reference.) Then answer the
questions (1)–(8).
1 A: ‘Nice day’
2 B: ‘Yes, a bit warmer than yesterday, isn’t it?’
3 A: ‘That’s right – one day fine, the next cooler’
4 B: ‘I expect it might get cooler again tomorrow’
5 A: ‘Maybe – you never know what to expect, do you?’
6 B: ‘No. Have you been away on holiday?’
7 A: ‘Yes, we went to Spain’
8 B: ‘Did you? We’re going to France next month’
9 A: ‘Oh. Are you? That’ll be nice for the family. Do
they speak French?’
10 B: ‘Sheila’s quite good at it, and we’re hoping
Martin will improve’
11 A: ‘I expect he will. I do hope you have a good time’
12 B: ‘Thank you. By the way, has the 42 bus gone by
yet? It seems to be late’
13 A: ‘No. I’ve been here since eight o’clock and I
haven’t seen it’
14 B: ‘Good. I don’t want to be late for work. What
time is it now?’
15 A: ‘Twenty-five past eight’
(1) Does speaker A tell speaker B anything he
doesn’t already know in lines 1, 3, and 5?

Yes / No
(2) Does A’s statement in line 7 give B any new
information? Yes / No
(3) When B says ‘Did you?’ in line 8, is he really
asking A to tell him whether he (A) went to
Spain? Yes / No
(4) Is there any indication that A needs to know
the information that B gives him about
travelling to France? Yes / No
(5) Does A’s ‘That’ll be nice for the family’ in line 9
give B any information? Yes / No
(6) Do A’s statements in lines 13 and 15 give B any
information that he (B) needs?

Yes / No
(7)At what point does this conversation switch
from an exchange of uninformative statements
to an exchange of informative statements?
(8) At what point does the information exchanged
begin to be of a sort that one of the speakers
actually needs for some purpose in going about
his everyday business?
Answer: (1) probably not (2) Yes, probably (3) No
(4) No (5) probably not (6) Yes (7) with B’s
enquiry in line 6 (8) with B’s question in line 12
 Exercise 4: Consider the following strained exchange
between husband and wife. Then answer the
questions (1)–(8).
Husband: ‘When I go away next week, I’m taking the
car’
Wife: ‘Oh. Are you? I need the car here to take the
kids to school’
Husband: ‘I’m sorry, but I must have it. You’ll have to
send them on the bus’
Wife: ‘That’ll be nice for the family. Up at the crack of
dawn, (ironically) and not home till mid-evening!
Sometimes you’re very inconsiderate’
Husband: ‘Nice day’
(1) This conversation includes three utterances which
were also used in the polite bus stop conversation
between A and B. Identify these three utterances.
(2) When the wife in the above exchange says ‘Are
you?’ is she thereby in some sense taking up a
position opposed to that of her husband?
Yes / No
(3) In the bus stop conversation, when A says ‘Are
you?’ (line 9), is he in any sense taking up a
position opposed to B’s position? Yes / No
(4) When the wife, above, says ‘That’ll be nice for the
family’, is she expressing the belief that her
husband’s absence with the car will be nice for the
family? Yes / No
(5) When A says to B at the bus stop ‘That’ll be
nice for the family’, is he expressing the belief
that going to France will be nice for the family?
Yes /
No
(6)Is A’s remark at the bus stop ‘Nice day’ a
pointed change of subject for the purpose of
ending a conversation? Yes / No
(7)What is the function of this remark of A’s?
(8) When the husband uses these same words
about the weather, above, what does he mean
by it?
Answer: (1) ‘Are you?’, ‘That’ll be nice for the
family’, and ‘Nice day’ (2) Yes (3) No (4) No, she
is probably being sarcastic (5) Yes (6) No (7) part
of a polite prelude to more interesting
conversation (8) In the husband’s case, the
remark is used to end a conversation, rather
than initiate one.
Exercise 5: Look at the following utterances and state
whether they are intended to be taken literally (Yes)
or not (No).
(1)Tired traveller: ‘This suitcase is killing me’
Yes / No
(2)Assistant in a shop: ‘We regularly do the impossible;
miracles take a little longer’
Yes / No
(3)During a business meeting: ‘It’s a dog-eat-dog
situation’ Yes / No
(4)During a heated argument: ‘Don’t bite my head off!’
Yes / No
(5) Hungry person at the dinner table: ‘I could eat a
horse!’ Yes / No
Answer:
1) No (2) No (3) No (4) No (5) No
Exercise 6:
(1)Can two people hold an ordinary conversation without
knowing the meanings of the words they are using?
Yes / No
(2) Is it reasonable to say, if I use such English words as
table and chair in the normal way in my conversation,
communicating the usual messages that one does with
these and other words, that I know the meanings of the
words table and chair? Yes / No
(3)If one knows the meaning of a word, is one therefore
necessarily able to produce a clear and precise definition
of its meaning? Yes / No
(4) Conversely, if several speakers can agree on the correct
definition of a word, do they know its meaning?
Yes / No
(5) Do you happen to know the meaning of the word ndoho
in the Sar language of Chad, Central Africa?
Yes / No
(6) Would a sensible way to find out the meaning of ndoho
be to ask a speaker of Sar (assuming you could find one)?
Yes / No
(7) The word ndoho in Sar means nine, so it is not a
particularly rare or technical word. Would any normal
adult speaker of Sar be an appropriate person to
approach to ask the meaning of the word? Yes / No
(8) If a native speaker of Sar insists that ndoho means nine
(or the number of digits on two hands, less one, or
however he expresses it), while a distinguished European
professor of semantics who does not speak Sar insists
that ndoho means ten (or dix, or zehn, however he
translates it), who do you believe, the Sar-speaker or the
professor?
Answer:
(1) No (2) Yes (3) No, being able to give the
definition of the meaning of a word is not a skill
that everyone possesses. (Studying semantics
should considerably sharpen this skill.) (4) Yes, it
would seem reasonable to say so. (5) Probably
you don’t. (6) Yes (7) Yes, although some
speakers, possibly through shyness or
embarrassment, might not be able to give you a
perfectly clear answer. (8) the Sar-speaker
Exercise 7: Mark each of the following statements
true (T) or false (F).
(1) Alive means the opposite of dead. T / F
(2) Buy has an opposite meaning from sell. T / F
(3) “Caesar is and” is not a meaningful English
sentence. T / F
(4) “Caesar is a prime number” is nonsensical. T / F
(5) “Caesar is a man” is nonsensical. T / F
(6) Both of John’s parents are married to aunts of
mine is in a sense contradictory, describing an
impossible situation. T/F
(7)If the sentence John killed Bill is true of any
situation, then so is the sentence Bill is alive.
T/F
(8)If someone says, ‘Can you pass the salt?’, he is
normally not asking about his hearer’s ability to pass
the salt, but requesting the hearer to pass the salt.
T/F
(9) If someone says, ‘I tried to buy some rice’, his
hearer would normally infer that he had actually
failed to buy rice. T/F
Answer:
(1)T (2)T (3)T (4)T (5)F (6)T (7)F (8)T (9)T
Exercise 8: Think carefully about each of the following general
statements, and try to say whether it is true (T) or false (F).
(1)Proper names (like English John or German Hans or French
Jean) have a different kind of meaning from common nouns
(like English man, or German Mann or French homme). T / F
(2) Prepositions (like English under, or German unter, or French
sous) have a different kind of meaning from both proper
names and common nouns. T/F
(3) Conjunctions (like English and or German und, or French et)
have yet a further kind of meaning from both proper names
and common nouns, and prepositions. T/F
(4) Articles (e.g. English the, German der, or French le) have a
different kind of meaning from proper names, common nouns,
prepositions, and conjunctions. T/F
Answer:
(1)T (2)T (3)T (4)T
Exercise 9: This practice assumes a knowledge of
French and German: do as much as you can.
Mark each of the following statements true (T )
or false (F).
(1)In German, lebendig means the opposite of tot.
T/F
(2)In French, acheter has an opposite meaning
from vendre. T/F
(3)César est et is not a meaningful French
sentence. T/F
(4) In German, Caesar ist Primzahl is nonsensical.
T/F
(5) In French, Et la mère et le père de Jean sont mariés
à mes tantes is in a sense contradictory, describing
an impossible situation. T/F
(6) In German, if the sentence Hans hat Willi getötet
is true of any situation, then so is the sentence Willi
ist tot. T/F
(7) If a German speaker says, ‘Können Sie mir das Salz
reichen?’, he is normally not asking about his
hearer’s ability to pass the salt, but requesting the
hearer to pass the salt. T/F
(8) If a French speaker says, ‘J’ai essayé d’acheter du
riz’, his hearer would normally infer that he had
failed to buy rice. T/F
Answer:
(1)–(8) T
Exercise 10:
(1) Is there an exact equivalent in French for the
English word parent ? Yes / No
(2)Can the English phrase aunts of mine (as in
married to aunts of mine) be straightforwardly
translated into French? Yes / No
(3)Explain the difference between the two German
sentences Können Sie mir das Salz reichen? and
Kannst Du mir das Salz reichen?
(4) Can a similar nuance of meaning be
straightforwardly conveyed in English?

Yes / No
Answer:
(1) No, French parent means something broader,
translatable by English relative or kinsman. (2)
No, mes tantes and plusieurs de mes tantes do
not quite translate the English aunts of mine
exactly. (3) A speaker of the first sentence would
be on less intimate terms with his hearer than a
speaker of the second sentence. (4) No
Exercise 11: Look at Hecataeus’ map of the world
below (after Grosser historischer Weltatlas, ed.
H. Bengston, 1972), originally drawn about 520
B.C.; then answer the questions.
(1) Is there enough similarity between this map
and a modern map to conclude that they are
both attempts to represent the same thing?
Yes / No
(2)In what areas would a modern map coincide
most closely with this?
(3)In what areas would a modern map diverge
most from this?
(4) Does it seem reasonable to assume that a
modern map is generally a better representation
of the actual geographical facts?
Yes / No
(5) Is it conceivable that a modern map could be
wrong in some respects? Yes / No
(6) How must the correctness of a map ultimately be
checked?
(7) Are climatic conditions or geological facts
represented on a typical modern map? Yes / No
(8) Are there new techniques, invented outside the
immediate domain of the map-maker, available to
the modern mapmaker, but unavailable to the
ancient mapmaker? Yes / No
(9) Have the actual geographical facts changed in any
way since 520 B.C.? Yes / No
Answer:
(1) Yes (2) in the central areas, around the shores of
the Eastern Mediterranean (3) in the peripheral
areas, West Africa, Africa south of the Sahara,
Northern Europe, the Far East, and the New World
(4) We have no alternative but to assume that our
modern account of the facts is more likely to be
correct than the ancient one. (5) Yes (6) by
comparing it with factual data gathered from the
site of the map itself (7) No, these dimensions are
usually absent, so even a modern map is far from
representing ‘all the facts’. (8) Yes, for instance,
aerial photography, photographs from satellites, etc.
(9) Very slightly – the odd river might have changed
its course, and man-made objects, e.g. cities and
canals, have appeared and disappeared.
Good luck!