20 Questions
What is the main motivation for the idea of extension?
To explain the ability of speakers to group entities with similar characteristics into distinct mental categories
What does 'fuzziness of extensions' refer to?
The ambiguity and difficulty in defining the boundaries around the extensions
How are prototypes of predicates early learned in the life of a child?
Through pointing out to them in ostensive definitions
What might arise due to cultural differences between different dialectal communities of the same language?
A problem with prototypes
How are concrete predicates or their prototypes taught to children according to the text?
By pointing to them in ostensive definitions
What is the extension of a one-place predicate?
The potential referents at all times
How does extension contrast with sense?
Extension is a timeless concept, while sense is related to a particular occasion of utterance
What does the term 'ostensive definition' introduce?
The method of defining by pointing
In an utterance of 'my cat' or 'the window of my house', what becomes the actual referent?
'Cat' and 'window' both become the actual referent
What does an extension of a one-place predicate represent?
The set or group of all things to which the predicate can truthfully be applied at all times
What is the relationship between paraphrase and synonymy?
Paraphrase is to sentences (on individual interpretations) as synonymy is to predicates.
Define hyponymy and provide an example.
Hyponymy is a sense relation between predicates such that the meaning of one predicate is included in the meaning of the other. Example: Cow is a hyponym of animal.
What is entailment between sentences?
A sentence expressing proposition X entails a sentence expressing proposition Y if the truth of Y follows necessarily from the truth of X.
Explain the relationship between paraphrase and entailment.
Paraphrase is symmetric (i.e. two-way) entailment, where two sentences are paraphrases of each other if they have exactly the same set of entailments.
How does the notion of hyponymy relate to entailment?
The notion of hyponymy, which involves meaning inclusion between individual predicates, can be extended to a particular kind of meaning inclusion between sentences called entailment.
What is synonymy in the context of sense relations?
Synonymy is the relationship between two predicates that have the same sense.
How does the text distinguish between different senses of a word?
Each distinct sense of a word is considered a predicate, and when necessary, they are distinguished by giving them subscript numbers.
Provide an example of synonymy from the text.
The thief tried to conceal/hide the evidence.
What is the purpose of abstracting from stylistic, social, or dialectal associations when considering the sense of a word?
To concentrate on the cognitive or conceptual meaning of a word.
Explain the distinction between synonymy and hyponymy.
Synonymy is the relationship between two predicates that have the same sense, while hyponymy denotes a broader/narrower relationship between predicates.
Test your understanding of extensions, prototypes, and ostensive definitions with this quiz. Explore the concepts of extension, reference, and fuzziness within the context of one-place predicates.
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