1998 II

E 257 Semantics and PragmaticsAnswer THREE questions in all; Part I, ONE question from Part II and ONE question from Part III.

Part I (20%)

1. Discuss briefly ANY THREE of the following topics. Give English examples.

 

a cloze procedureb registerc connotationd rules vs. principles (in pragmatics)e flouts vs. violations of conversational maximsf performative utterance

Part II (40%)

EITHER

2. Discuss the concept of ‘literariness’ in language with particular reference to the lexical aspects that have been used as criteria for ‘literariness’. Identify ‘literary’ features in the following two poems.

Meeting at Night

 

The grey sea and the long black land;And the yellow half-moon large and low;And the startled little waves that leapIn fiery ringlets from their sleep,As I gain the cove with pushing prow,And quench its speed i’ the slushy sand.

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;Three fields to cross till a farm appears; A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratchAnd blue spurt of a lighted match,And a voice less loud, thro’Than the two hearts beating each to each!

 

Robert Browning

 

This is Just to Say

 

I have eaten the plumsthat were in the iceboxand whichyou were probablysavingfor breakfast

 

Forgive methey were deliciousso sweetand so cold

 

William Carlos Williams

OR

3. What elements of lexical knowledge does one have to possess to be able to claim that one really knows a word in a foreign language? Discuss and illustrate with English examples.

Part III (40%)

4. Apply the distinction that Jenny Thomas makes between literal meaning (both lexical and structural) and speaker meaning (utterance meaning and force), in order to account for the possible meanings of the italicized material below.

  a The team gathered around their coach.b He likes sailing more than his wife.c Steel plans to increase sales to China.d I’ll meet you next Friday.e What do you think of our new painting?

It’s very interesting.f What’s your name?

Betty Skirmitch.Spell it, please.B-E-T-T-Y

g How are things, Scott?h When is dinner ready?

It’s only four o’clock.

OR

5. Write an essay in which you place pragmatics within the wider field of linguistics.

1999 I

E 257 Semantics and PragmaticsAnswer Part I, ONE question from Part II, and ONE question from Part III.

Part I (20%)

1. Discuss briefly ANY THREE of the following topics. Give English examples.

       a. antonymy  b. word frequency  c. concordance  d. face (in pragmatics)  e. on-record politeness strategy  f. processing effort

Part II (40 %)

EITHER

2. ‘Words do not have meaning on their own. They get their meaning from the context.’ Write an essay to support or reject this statement of extreme contextualism. Would the statement apply equally to all sorts of words and texts? Provide examples to support your own view and try to make use of what you have learnt about lexical semantics.

OR

3. Discuss in detail the sense of the italicized forms in the following sentences. In your discussion you should consider such concepts as polysemy, synonymy, homonymy, idioms and feature analysis. Can pragmatics give you a clue?

     a. ‘You’re very good at taking care of people,’ said Jay.

  b. It looked really good and I was delighted.  c. God was so good and taught me so much.  d. Draw up a list of good and bad points in each display.  e. He is a good enough man, a nice man to talk to.

  f. That’s the best suggestion you’ve made all day.  g. I have done the shopping. - Good.   h. I think we’ll stick to the good old British steak and kidney.  i. He has stopped drinking. - Good for him.  j. I am in a position to save you a good deal of time.

Part III (40 %)

EITHER

4. ‘Speech act theory is basically concerned with what people ‘do’ with language - with the functions of language. Typically, the functions focused upon are those akin to communicative intentions that can be labelled and realized in a single sentence. Even indirect speech acts fall into this group.’ Taking this quotation as your point of departure, discuss the theory of speech act analysis, including indirect speech acts, as a source of insight into utterance meaning and spoken discourse. You are expected to deal with such concepts as performatives, felicity conditions, and illocutionary force.

OR

5. Give an account of Grice’s notion of conversational implicature. How can you distinguish between implicature and inference? Then apply Grice’s maxims to account for the implicatures in B’s responses in the following question-answer sequences:

         (a) A: When is dinner ready?    B: It’s only four o’clock.         (b) A: Have you seen John lately?    B: Yes, lately.         (c) A: You can manage to put us up, eh, Mrs Boles?    B: Well, it would have been easier last week.         (d) A: Did you phone Harry about the fridge?     B: Yes, I phoned Harry about the fridge.         (e) A: What kind of job have you got?    B: A nice one.         (f) [situation: A sees a paper near B on the train]     A: Is that your paper?    B: Yes, but you can have it. or: No, you can have it.

1999 II

E 257 Semantics and PragmaticsAnswer Part I, ONE question from Part II, and ONE question from Part III.

Part I (20%)

1. Discuss briefly ANY THREE of the following topics. Give English examples.

a. lexiconb. lexical cohesionc. literarinessd. face (in pragmatics)e. on-record politeness strategyf. processing effort

Part II (40%)

EITHER

2. Give an overview of the main principles and methods of structural semantics. Illustrate with examples of your own.

OR

3. English contains a variety of multi-word expressions or ready-made chunks, such as

need urgently / urgently neededutterly hopeless (contrast ?utterly interesting)I thinkto sum uphigh / tall building (contrast *high boy / tall boy)Sorry to interrupt, but can I just say …throw in the towelethnic cleansing

Taking these and possibly other examples as your starting point, discuss methods and problems in doing research on such word combinations. What subcategories of word combinations can you distinguish and what criteria do you need to pin down such categories? Which of the listed chunks would you label as lexemes?

Part III (40%)

4. Using examples of your own, discuss the contribution that pragmatic theory can make to the study of word and utterance meaning.

OR

5. Give an account of how pragmaticists can deal with indirectness in human communication. Provide your own examples.

2000 I

E 257 Semantics and PragmaticsAnswer Part I, ONE question from Part II, and ONE question from Part III.

Part I (20%)

1. Discuss briefly ANY THREE of the following topics. Give English examples.

       a. lexical density  b. entailment  c. gradable antonym  d. formal vs functional components of sense  e. abstract/literal meaning vs contextual meaning  f. face-threatening act  g. inference vs implicature

Part II (40 %)

EITHER

2. Discuss components of sense that can be used to distinguish uniquely the meaning of any one of the verbs of speaking below from all the others in the set. In your discussion you should make clear which component(s) is/are common to all the verbs and which are distinctive. In the latter category state whether you draw on e.g. manner components, collocationally based components or features related to formality.You may wish to sum up your discussion in a tabular form at the end.

  talk, converse, waffle, address, discuss, gabble, shout, gossip, ramble, talk through, chat up, harp on

OR

3. Give a general presentation of the sense of blue(s) on the basis of the italicised occurrences below. In your discussion you should bring in notions such as polysemy, homonymy, fixed expressions, idiom, and pragmatic inference. What criteria do we use when we establish these notions?

     a. His blue shirt had faded slightly.

  b. Once in a blue moon things like this happen.

  c. The Blues have it.  d. This film is a bit too blue for my taste.  e. That song always makes me feel blue.  f. The tapestry had lovely greens and blues shading into

each other.  g. He was the kind of blue-eyed all-American boy that

everybody likes.  h. This is like Monday morning blues for me.   i. There is probably a lot of blue blood in him.  j. She used to be a famous blues singer.  k. One day, completely out of the blue, this girl rings me up.

Part III (40 %)

EITHER

4. Discuss the concept of pragmatic implicature, both conventional and conversational, drawing on the material below. To what extent can Grice’s Cooperative Principle and his four maxims account for the implicatures of the italicised expressions in the material below?

         a The new Minister of Transport is married, but has no children.  b A: What do you think of my new hair style?  B: It’s supposed to be modern, isn’t it?  c [Speaker A has never been to Como; speaker B has been

there many times]  A: We’re going to Como this summer. Anything to see

there?     B: Well, it is a city.  d A: How is Chelsea doing this season?    B: They’re doing all right.  e A: What do you think of our new neighbours?    B: I haven’t even met them.    A: Have you seen the curtains they’ve put up?    B: I’m so tired. I’ve got to go.  f [Speaker A has just been bawled out by a complaining

customer; speaker B is the next to be served]  A: I need a cup of tea after that, but what can I do for you?    B: You’ll need a cup of coffee after me.  g A: Do you think we should go for Smith as our candidate?    B: Do I think we should go for Smith as our candidate?  h We’re not going past the university after all.  i [Speaker B’s car breaks down on his way to an important

meeting]    A: What’s wrong?    B: Engine failure, probably. This is exactly what I need now.

OR

 5.

 

We must distinguish between the literal meaning of the linguistic expression produced by S and what S meant by producing this expression. ... The first notion is the one to be explained by a theory of language. The second has nothing particular to do with language; I can just as well ask, in the same sense of ’meaning’, what S meant by slamming the door.

(N. Chomsky, 1976)

Against the background of this quotation, write an essay in which you present the defining characteristics of pragmatics as a scholarly discipline, and explain whether you think it belongs inside or outside linguistics.

2000 II

E 257 Semantics and PragmaticsAnswer three questions in all: Part I, ONE question from Part II and ONE question from Part III

Part 1 (20%)

1. Discuss briefly ANY THREE of the following topics. Give English examples.

       a polysemy  b fixed expression  c ideology in language  d performative verb  e size of imposition (as a reason for being indirect)  f face-threatening act (FTA)

Part II (40%)

EITHER

2. Discuss components of sense that can be used to distinguish uniquely the meaning of any one of the verbs below from all the others in the set. In your discussion you should make clear which component(s) is/are common to all the verbs and which are distinctive. In the latter case state whether you draw on e.g. manner/intensity components, components based on collocations (grammatical and/or lexical combinations), or features related to formality. You may wish to sum up

your discussion in a tabular form at the end. How does this type of componential analysis differ from those presented in the textbooks by R. Carter and H. Jackson? worry, bother, tease, get on at, nag, pester, plague, harass and trouble.

OR

3. Give an interpretation of the following poem by e.e. cummings. Your interpretation should be based on a detailed analysis of the form and sense of its lexis. You should focus on foregrounded lexical features, both of individual lexemes and of lexical combinations, which give coherence to the poem and support your interpretation. What is the significance of the deviance in graphology?

         O sweet spontaneous 

 

O sweet spontaneousearth how often havethedoting

      fingers of 

 

prurient philosophers pinchedandpoked

thee, has the naughty thumbof science proddedthy

      beauty .how 

 

often have religions taken thee upon their scraggy kneessqueezing andbuffeting thee that thou mightest conceivegods

      (but 

 

true

to the incomparablecouch of death thyrhythmic lover

    thou answerest    them only with

spring)

Part III (40%)

EITHER

4. Give a critical analysis of H.P. Grice's Cooperative Principle and its four conversational maxims. Use English examples.

OR

5. Grammar is, we like to believe, governed by rules; spoken interaction by principles. Discuss the fundamental differences between grammatical rules and pragmatic principles. Illustrate with examples from English.

2001 I

E 257 Semantics and PragmaticsAnswer three questions in all: Part I, ONE question from Part II and ONE question from Part III

Part 1 (20%)

1. Discuss briefly ANY THREE of the following topics. Give English examples.

       a hyponymy   b componential analysis  c semantic grid  d speech act   e pragmatic principle (as opposed to grammatical rule)  f conventional implicature

Part II (40%)

EITHER

2. All the unitary combinations below consist of the lexical verb look followed by one or more particles/prepositions. Suggest a set of components that can be used to distinguish uniquely the meaning of any one of the verbs from all the others. Discuss the nature of the components you choose, whether manner components, components based on collocations, components having to do with the end result of the process, etc. You should also consider to what extent the verb and the preposition/particle have lost their literal meaning.You may wish to sum up your discussion in a tabular form at the end.look after, look at, look back, look down on, look for, look into, look out for, look to, look up

OR

3. Discuss in detail the sense of the lexis in this poem by Philip Larkin. You should focus on word sequences at phrase and clause level that are deviant as compared with ordinary prose usage and try to explain how these combinations are significant for a full interpretation of the poem.

 

 

Beyond all this, the wish to be alone:However the sky grows dark with invitation-cardsHowever we follow the printed direction of sexHowever the family is photographed under the flagstaff -Beyond all this, the wish to be alone.

Beneath it all, desire of oblivion runs:Despite the artful tension of the calendar,The life insurance, the tabled fertility rites,The costly aversion of the eyes from death -Beneath it all, desire of oblivion runs.

Philip Larkin, 'Wants'

Part III (40%)

EITHER

4. Discuss the notion of indirectness in interaction, contrasting it with its opposite, directness. Then give a detailed account of the factors that govern indirectness. Give ample illustrations from English.

OR

5. What is meant by implicature? Discuss the difference between conventional implicatures and conversational implicatures and apply this distinction to the italicised material below. Relate the instances of conversational implicatures to types of non-observance of the maxims of the cooperative principle.

     a. Hassan is from Egypt, but his English is excellent   b. A: What do you do?    B: I'm a nurse, but my husband won't let me work.    A: How old are you?     B: I'm thirty-nine.         c. A: It's my birthday today.    B: Many happy returns. How old are you?     A: Actually, I'm ten.          d. A: Are you coming to the party tonight?     B: My parents are visiting.

         e. A: What are you reading?    B: A book.         f. A: What are you reading?     B: A novel by some obscure unmarried author who lived and

died in Devon in England in the 18th century and who only wrote two books.

    A: Thank you, that was useful information.

2001 II

E 257 Semantics and PragmaticsAnswer THREE questions from Part I, ONE question from Part II and ONE question from Part III.

Part I (20%)

1. Discuss briefly ANY THREE of the following topics. Give English examples.

       a sense relation   b hyponymy   c flouting a conversational maxim  d implicature  e anaphoric noun  f metaphor

Part II (40%)

EITHER

2. The adjective cool is used in a number of different senses as illustrated in sentences (1)-(10). Describe the referential and connotative meaning of cool with reference to the examples below, and possibly other examples that you can think of. You are expected to make use of and explain concepts such as 'semantic feature (component)', 'core vocabulary', 'antonymy', 'figurative meaning', and 'idiom'. To what extent is a semantic feature analysis feasible in this case? Does cool have any synonyms that could be used instead in some of these sentences?

       1. It was a hot day and I was looking forward to a nice cool lager.  2. I don't know how you manage to keep such a cool head in such a

hectic, stressful office!

  3. I got a rather cool reception this evening. What do you think I've done wrong?

  4. Now I know it won't look very cool, but this hat will keep the sun out of your eyes.

  5. "How was the party?" "It was cool!"  6. It's ridiculous to play it cool if someone you're mad about is mad

about you.  7. She looks as cool as a cucumber.  8. The day was delightfully cool after the blazing heat of the past

week.  9. We were sitting in the cool shade of the veranda.  10. Assassins are pretty cool, and often misunderstood.

OR

3. The lexicon includes not only single words but also many other more or less fixed units such as idioms, phrases, fixed expressions, and collocations. Write an essay on word combinations in which you refer to such basic concepts and give examples.

     On the basis of the concordance lines below, comment on what kind of

information can be derived from this particular set of data. Are there any explicit collocations in it?

Part III (40%)

EITHER

4. Give a brief outline of speech act theory and show how it may help you to understand and explain what is being communicated in the cartoon strip below.

OR

5. According to Jenny Thomas, "Grammar is governed by rules, pragmatics is constrained by maxims or principles." Give an account of the main "principles" ("maxims") used in pragmatics and then explain some differences between "rules" and "principles".

2002 I

E 257 Semantics and PragmaticsAnswer three questions in all: Part I, ONE question from Part II and ONE question from Part III

Part 1 (20%)

1. Discuss briefly ANY THREE of the following topics. Give English examples.

       a gradable antonyms   b lexeme   c monosemy vs. polysemy   d face-threatening act (FTA)   e conversational implicature   f deliberate ambivalence in speech acts

Part II (40%)

EITHER

2. What is meant by the componential analysis of word meaning? Suggest a set of components that can be used to distinguish uniquely the meaning of any of the verbs below from all the others in the set. In your discussion you should show which components are common to all the verbs and which are distinctive. Make clear what type of components you draw on, e.g. manner/intensity components, components based on collocations, features related to formality, etc. Also, discuss possible cases of polysemy. You may wish to sum up your discussion in a table at the end.shout, low, roar, squall, screech, moan, rumble, boo, groan, whimper, neigh, mumble

OR

3. Discuss the term 'collocation' as presented in your reading. You should include an overview of various types of collocation, of how to discover collocational patterns, of how to distinguish, if possible, between combinations of words that qualify as collocations from those that might be called idioms, fixed expressions, clichés etc. Give illustrations from English. Assess the significance of collocational patterns in foreign language learning.

Part III (40%)

EITHER

4. Discuss the notion of indirectness in conversational interaction. Your essay should deal with the opposition between indirectness and directness, conversational implicature, reasons for exploiting indirectness, degrees of indirectness, and risks involved in using indirectness. For illustrations you should draw on the examples below, some of which have been provided with contexts, but you are free to provide your own examples.

     a. Be a good girl and take this to the Health Centre.       b. I wonder if I could possibly borrow your car for a quick trip to the

post office?       c. Take my car!       d. Speaker A has just stopped next to speaker B's car, which has

broken down in the middle of nowhere at 3 in the morning.  A: Is everything OK?    B: Yes fine, thank you. I'm looking forward to walking the 20

miles to the next guest house.         e. A: Is there a computer in the house?    B: Yes  A: Is anybody using it at the moment?    B: No    A: I wonder if I could just check my e-mail?       f. Somebody has just helped himself to a huge portion of pork from

a buffet.  A: I didn't know Obelix had been invited.       g. A and B are good neighbours but B has a tendency to do minor

repair work on his car just outside the entrance to A's front garden, which irritates him quite a lot.

  A: Do you think the rain will wash away that oil?    B: I guess it will, eventually.       h. Do you know what time it is?       

OR

   5. An utterance like Is that your car? is indeterminate when taken out of

context. Discuss all the aspects of indeterminacy that have to be resolved for a hearer to be able to work out its full meaning, i.e. what Jenny Thomas calls its contextual sense, its utterance meaning and its force.

2002 II

E 257 Semantics and Pragmatics

Answer three questions in all: Part I, ONE question from Part II and ONE question from Part III.

Part 1 (20%)

1. Discuss briefly any THREE of the following topics. Give English examples.

       a core vocabulary  b connotative meaning  c metaphor as a conceptual phenomenon  d hyponymy  e intentional indirectness  f pragmatic ambivalence

Part II (40%)

EITHER

2. Linguists and lexicographers have had great difficulty in coming up with an acceptable definition of what a ‘word’ is. Compare these definitions and discuss their implications:

  

A single unit of language which has meaning and can be spoken or written.(Cambridge International Dictionary of English = CIDE)

  

A word is a single unit of language that can be represented in writing or speech. In English, a word has a space on either side of it when it is written. (Cobuild)

  Consider any other problems that might arise when referring to the concept of a ‘word’. How is it, then, that we can still talk about words in spite of such terminological problems?

OR

3. Give an account of synonymy as a sense relation. Explain why full synonymy is so rare. Does synonymy, in your opinion, vary depending on word class, and if so, why? What are the main factors that account for near-synonymy?

  In order to show how synonyms and near-synonyms can be distinguished, analyse hide and conceal by means of componential analysis. Also consider syntactic factors. Use the concordance data (available on request) and the following information on collocates. In the complete BNC the word form hide collocates regularly with the following items, all of which have a high mutual information value: smokescreen, blushes, embarrassment, astonishment, disappointment, bushes, nowhere and somewhere, seek, behind, feelings, trying and tried. A similar list for the word form conceal includes reveal, identity, attempt, feelings, surprise, excitement, managed, attempted, trying, true, fact,

behind and real.

Part III (40%)

EITHER

4. Describe briefly Grice’s four conversational maxims. Then explain what violating a maxim involves and why this is considered an important aspect of communicative behaviour. Use the text below to show how Willy violates maxims. With reference to specific linguistic features discuss how this affects Linda, his wife. In conclusion, discuss some of the problems with Grice’s theory of maxims.

     Linda [hearing Willy outside the bedroom, calls with some trepidation]:

Willy!  Willy It’s all right. I came back.  Linda Why? What happened? [Slight pause] Did something happen,

Willy?  Willy No, nothing happened.  Linda You didn’t smash the car, did you?  Willy [with casual irritation] I said nothing happened. Didn’t you hear

me?  Linda Didn’t you feel well?  Willy I’m tired to death? [The flute has faded away. He sits on the bed

beside her, a littlenumb] I couldn’t make it. I just couldn’t make it, Linda.

  Linda [very carefully, delicately] Where were you all day? You look terrible.

  Willy I got as far as a little above Yonkers. I stopped for a cup of coffee. Maybe it was the coffee.

  Linda What?  Willy [after a pause] I suddenly couldn’t drive any more. The car kept

going off on to the shoulder, y’know?   Linda Linda [helpfully] Oh. Maybe it was the steering again. I don’t

think Angelo knows the Studebaker.  Willy No, it’s me, it’s me. Suddenly I realise I’m goin’ sixty miles an

hour and I don’tremember the last five minutes. I’m – I can’t seem to – keep my mind to it.

  Linda Maybe it’s your glasses. You never went for your new glasses.  Willy No, I see everything. I came back ten miles an hour. It took me

nearly four hours from Yonkers.  Linda [resigned] Well, you’ll just have to take a rest, Willy, you can’t

continue this way.    (Text: The beginning of Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller)     

OR

   5. Give an account of ‘the construction of meaning’ as described by

Jenny Thomas. What are its main characteristics and how does this view of pragmatics differ from the view of ‘utterance meaning’ that she presents at the beginning of her book?