Units 4 & 5 - PDF | Quizgecko

2 From reference... UNIT 4 REFERRING EXPRESSIONS Entry requirements REFERENCE and SENSE (Unit 3). If you feel you understand these notions, take the entry test below. If not, review Unit 3 before continuing. Entry test Answer the following questions: (1) Give an example of an expression that might be used to refer to the President of the United States in 2007........................................................................................................................... (2) Give an example of an expression that could have variable reference........................................................................................................................... (3) Give an example of an expression that always (in normal everyday conversation) has constant reference........................................................................................................................... (4) Give an example of diﬀerent expressions having one referent........................................................................................................................... (5) Give an example of an expression that has no reference........................................................................................................................... (6) Which of the following is a correct description of ‘reference’? Circle your choice. (a) a relationship between expressions and other expressions which have the same meaning (b) the set of all objects which can potentially be referred to by an expression (c) a relationship between a particular object in the world and an expression used in an utterance to pick that object out Feedback (1) George W. Bush, the former Governor of Texas, etc. (2) my car, this page, etc. (3) England, the sun, etc. (4) the Morning Star and the Evening Star, etc. (5) and, if, etc. (6)(c) If you got at least 5 out of 6 correct, continue to the introduction. Otherwise, review Unit 3 before proceeding. 36 UNIT 4 Referring expressions Introduction In this unit we develop the notion of reference (introduced in Unit 3), and consider more closely the range of expressions that speakers may use to refer to some object or person in the world. We will see that some expressions can only be used as referring expressions, some never can, and some expressions can be used to refer or not, depending on the kind of sentence they occur in. We introduce a notion (equative sentence) that is closely bound up with the idea of referring expressions. Definition A REFERRING EXPRESSION is any expression used in an utterance to refer to something or someone (or a clearly delimited collection of things or people), i.e. used with a particular referent in mind. Example The name Fred in an utterance such as ‘Fred hit me’, where the speaker has a particular person in mind when he says ‘Fred’, is a referring expression. Fred in ‘There’s no Fred at this address’ is not a referring expression, because in this case a speaker would not have a particular person in mind in uttering the word. Practice Could the following possibly be used as referring expressions? Circle the answer of your choice. (1) John Yes / No (2) My uncle Yes / No (3) and Yes / No (4) the girl sitting on the wall by the bus stop Yes / No (5) a man Yes / No (6) my parents Yes / No (7) send Yes / No (8) under Yes / No Feedback (1) Yes (2) Yes (3) No (4) Yes (5) Yes, as in ‘A man was in here looking for you’. (6) Yes (My parents refers to a pair of things. For convenience at this point we use the idea of reference to include clearly delimited collections of things.) (7) No (8) No Comment The same expression can be a referring expression or not (or, as some would put it, may or may not have a ‘referring interpretation’), depending on the context. This is true of indeﬁnite noun phrases. Practice (1) When a speaker says, ‘A man was in here looking for you last night’ is a man being used to refer to a particular man? Yes / No (2) So, in the above example, is a man a referring expression? Yes / No 37 PART TWO From reference... (3) When a speaker says, ‘The ﬁrst sign of the monsoon is a cloud on the horizon no bigger than a man’s hand’, is a man being used to refer to a particular man? Yes / No (4) Is a man in this example a referring expression? Yes / No (5) Is forty buses, used in ‘Forty buses have been withdrawn from service by the Liverpool Corporation’, a referring expression? Yes / No (6) Is forty buses, used in ‘This engine has the power of forty buses’, a referring expression? Yes / No Feedback (1) Yes (2) Yes (3) No (4) No (5) Yes, assuming that the speaker has 40 speciﬁc buses in mind (6) No Comment In the above examples the linguistic context often gave a vital clue as to whether the indeﬁnite noun phrase was a referring expression or not. But it does not always give a clear indication. Practice Are the following referring expressions? (Imagine normal circumstances for the utterance.) (1) a Norwegian, used in ‘Nancy married a Norwegian’ Yes / No (2) a Norwegian, used in ‘Nancy wants to marry a Norwegian’ Yes / No (3) a car, used in ‘John is looking for a car’ Yes / No (4) a man with a limp, used in ‘Dick believes that a man with a limp killed Bo Peep’ Yes / No (5) a man with a limp, used in ‘A man with a limp killed Bo Peep’ Yes / No (6) a swan, used in ‘Every evening at sunset a swan ﬂew over the house’ Yes / No Feedback (1) Yes (2) Yes and No: the sentence is ambiguous. It depends on whether the speaker has in mind a particular person whom Nancy wants to marry. (3) Yes and No: the sentence is ambiguous. It depends on whether the speaker has a particular car in mind. (4) Yes and No (5) Yes, it can be. (6) Yes and No Comment All of the ambiguities in the above examples could in fact be resolved by the use of the word certain immediately following the indeﬁnite article a, as in, for example: ‘Nancy wants to marry a certain Norwegian’ or ‘John is looking for a certain car’. All of the above examples involve indeﬁnite noun phrases. It is clear that, given our deﬁnitions, which allude to what is in the mind of the speaker on a particular occasion of utterance, indeﬁnite noun phrases can be referring expressions. Other deﬁnitions could yield diﬀerent results. What the above 38 UNIT 4 Referring expressions examples show is that, in our terms, whether an expression is a referring expression is heavily dependent on linguistic context and on circumstances of utterance. We turn now to the case of deﬁnite noun phrases. Practice Are the following referring expressions? (Imagine normal circumstances for the utterances.) (1) John in ‘John is my best friend’ Yes / No (2) he in ‘He’s a very polite man’, said by a husband to his wife in a conversation about their bank manager Yes / No (3) it in ‘It’s sinking!’ used in a conversation about a battleship which has just been attacked Yes / No (4) the man who shot Abraham Lincoln in ‘The man who shot Abraham Lincoln was an unemployed actor’ Yes / No Feedback (1) Yes (2) Yes (3) Yes (4) Yes Comment These straightforward examples show how deﬁnite noun phrases of various kinds, proper names (e.g. John), personal pronouns (e.g. he, it), and longer descriptive expressions (as in question (4)) can all be used as referring expressions. Indeed, deﬁnite noun phrases such as these most frequently are used as referring expressions. But, even with deﬁnite noun phrases, there are examples in which they are not (or not clearly) referring expressions. Practice Are the following expressions referring expressions? (1) he in ‘If anyone ever marries Nancy, he’s in for a bad time’ (meaning that whoever marries Nancy is in for a bad time) Yes / No (2) it in ‘Every man who owns a donkey beats it’ Yes / No (3) the person who did this in ‘The person who did this must be insane’, spoken by someone on discovering a brutally mutilated corpse, where the speaker has no idea who committed the crime Yes / No (4) Smith’s murderer in ‘Smith’s murderer must be insane’, uttered in circumstances like the above, where the corpse is Smith’s Yes / No Feedback (1) No, the speaker has no particular individual in mind as Nancy’s possible future husband. (2) No, it doesn’t refer to any particular donkey here. (3) Not such a clear case, but it could be argued that the person who did this is not a referring expression in this example. (4) Similarly, an unclear case, but again it could be argued that Smith’s murderer is not a referring expression here. 39 PART TWO From reference... Comment Such examples show that the notion ‘referring expression’ is not always easy to apply. Part of the diﬃculty encountered in the last two examples stems from the fact that it is not clear what we mean when we say that a speaker must have a particular individual in mind in order to refer. We shall not try to resolve this issue here. But note that in the case of deﬁnite noun phrases also, the question of whether they are used as referring expressions is very much dependent on the context and circumstances of use. We now move to a diﬀerent topic, starting with consideration of deﬁnite noun phrases, but linking eventually with some of the previous examples involving indeﬁnite noun phrases. Practice (1) Would the phrase the President of the United States used in a conversation about American politics in 2007 have the same referent as the expression the Leader of the Republican Party in the same conversation? Yes / No (2) Take the schematic utterance ‘X hasn’t a hope of winning the next election’. If we replace X by either ‘the President’ or ‘the Leader of the Republican Party’, will the two resultant utterances be equivalent in meaning, i.e. both describe exactly the same state of aﬀairs? (Assume still the context of a conversation about American politics in 2007.) Yes / No (3) Assume a situation in which John is standing alone in the corner. Would John and the person in the corner refer to the same individual in a conversation about this situation? Yes / No (4) In the conversation about the situation in which John is alone in the corner, would the following two utterances make exactly the same claim? ‘John looks as if he’s about to faint’ ‘The person in the corner looks as if he’s about to faint’ Yes / No Feedback (1) Yes (2) Yes (3) Yes (4) Yes Comment Normally, one expects that utterances which diﬀer only in that they use diﬀerent expressions referring to the same thing (or person) will have the same meaning, as in the above examples. Indeed, this normally is the case. But there is a class of exceptions to this generalization. This is the class of examples involving opaque contexts. Definition An OPAQUE CONTEXT is a part of a sentence which could be made into a complete sentence by the addition of a referring expression, but where the addition of diﬀerent referring expressions, even though they refer to the same thing or person, in a given situation, will yield sentences with DIFFERENT meanings when uttered in a given situation. 40 UNIT 4 Referring expressions Example The incomplete sentence Laura Bush thinks that... is a genius constitutes an opaque context, because, even in a conversation about American politics in 2007, the following two utterances would make diﬀerent claims: A: ‘Laura Bush thinks that the President is a genius’ B: ‘Laura Bush thinks that the Leader of the Republican Party is a genius’ If, for example, Laura Bush believes erroneously that the President is not the Leader of the Republican Party, then A and B will mean diﬀerent things. Practice (1) In a conversation about a situation where John is standing alone in the corner, do ‘John’ and ‘the person in the corner’ have the same referent? Yes / No (2) Consider the following two utterances: ‘Dick believes that John killed Smith’ ‘Dick believes that the person in the corner killed Smith’ Assume that Dick does not know that John is the person in the corner; could one of these two utterances be true and the other false? Yes / No (3) Is Dick believes that... killed Smith an opaque context? Yes / No (4) The Morning Star is the Evening Star: they are both in fact the planet Venus. Assuming that Nancy does not know this, do the following make the same claim about Nancy’s wishes? ‘Nancy wants to get married when the Morning Star is in the sky’ ‘Nancy wants to get married when the Evening Star is in the sky’ Yes / No (5) Is Nancy wants to get married when... is in the sky an opaque context? Yes / No (6) Imagine a situation in which the last banana on the table is the prize in a game of charades, but that Gary, who came late to the party, is not aware of this. Do the following make the same claim in this situation? ‘Gary took the last banana’ ‘Gary took the prize’ Yes / No (7) Is Gary took... an opaque context? Yes / No Feedback (1) Yes (2) Yes (3) Yes (4) No (5) Yes (6) Yes (7) No Comment The term ‘opaque’ is especially appropriate because these contexts seem to ‘block our view’ through them to the referential interpretations of referring expressions. Notice that opaque contexts typically involve a certain kind of verb, like want, believe, think, and wonder about. Note that it was often in the context of 41 PART TWO From reference... such opacity-creating verbs that indeﬁnite noun phrases could be ambiguous between a referring and a non-referring interpretation, as in ‘Nancy wants to marry a Norwegian’. Turning away now from the question of opacity, and back to the more basic notion of referring expressions, we deﬁne a further notion, that of equative sentence. Definition An EQUATIVE SENTENCE is one which is used to assert the identity of the referents of two referring expressions, i.e. to assert that two referring expressions have the same referent. Example The following are equative sentences: Tony Blair is the Prime Minister That woman over there is my daughter’s teacher Practice Are the following equative sentences? (1) John is the person in the corner Yes / No (2) Henry the Eighth is the current President of the USA Yes / No (3) Cairo is not the largest city in Africa Yes / No (4) Cairo is a large city Yes / No (5) Dr Jekyll is Mr Hyde Yes / No (6) Ted is an idiot Yes / No Feedback (1) Yes (2) Yes, equative sentences can be false. (3) No (4) No, this sentence does not state identity of reference. (5) Yes (6) No Comment A feature of many equative sentences is that the order of the two referring expressions can be reversed without loss of acceptability. Example The largest city in Africa is Cairo Cairo is the largest city in Africa Comment The ‘reversal test’ applied here is not a perfect diagnostic for equative sentences, however. In What I need is a pint of Guinness, a pint of Guinness is not a referring expression, because a user of this sentence would not have any particular pint of Guinness in mind, but the sentence is nevertheless reversible, as in A pint of Guinness is what I need. And the sentence That is the man who kidnapped my boss deﬁnitely is equative, but it is not reversible, as The man who kidnapped my boss is that is unacceptable. Summary At ﬁrst sight the notion of reference as a relation between expressions used in utterances and people and objects in the world seems straightforward enough. But stating simple generalizations about when an expression is actually a referring expression and when it is not, is, to say the least, 42 UNIT 4 Referring expressions diﬃcult. Both indeﬁnite and deﬁnite noun phrases can be ambiguous between referring and non-referring interpretations, with the appropriate interpretation being highly dependent on linguistic context (i.e. the surrounding words) and the circumstances of the utterance. The existence of opaque contexts also provides interesting complications to the contribution of referring expressions to meaning. Unit 4 Study Guide and Exercises Directions After you have read Unit 4 you should be able to tackle the following questions to test your understanding of the main ideas raised in the unit. 1 You should understand these terms and concepts from this unit: referring expression opaque context indeﬁnite noun phrase equative sentence deﬁnite noun phrase 2 Which of the following could be used as referring expressions? Be able to explain why or why not. a my table e or b a unicorn f Mary c no love g a book d travel h Abraham Lincoln For sentences 3–6 below decide whether the italicized noun phrases are referring expressions or not, and explain why (or why not). If the sentence is ambiguous explain why it is ambiguous. 3 His father married a dancer 4 John wants to marry a dancer 5 The whale is the largest mammal 6 The man who shot Kennedy was Lee Harvey Oswald 7 Explain the ambiguity in: I am looking for a pencil 8 Create a set of circumstances under which the sentence Dan believes that... signed the bill is an opaque context. Use the referring expressions George W. Bush and the President of the United States in your answer. 9 Which of the following are equative sentences? Explain why. a Fred is the man with the gun b William the Conqueror is the current King of England c Detroit is a nearby city d Mary is a genius e A box of cookies is what I would like f Detroit is not the largest city in the USA 43 UNIT 5 PREDICATES Entry requirements REFERENCE and SENSE (Unit 3) and REFERRING EXPRESSIONS (Unit 4). If you feel you understand these notions, take the entry test below. If not, review Units 3 and 4. Entry test (1) Which of the following is the phrase a tall tree? Circle your answer. (a) a referring expression (b) not a referring expression (c) sometimes a referring expression and sometimes not, depending on context and circumstances of use (2) Is the following statement correct (Yes) or incorrect (No)? Whether a sentence contains any referring expressions or not depends on the time and place at which the sentence occurs. Yes / No (3) Which of the following sentences is equative? Circle your answer. (a) Mahmoud is an Egyptian (b) I was telling you about Mahmoud the Egyptian (c) Mahmoud is the Egyptian I was telling you about (d) Mahmoud is a genius (4) Does if have sense in the same way that dog has sense? Yes / No (5) Do the expressions big and large have essentially the same sense in the following sentences? I live in a big house I live in a large house Yes / No (6) Circle those of the following words which can be referring expressions (in normal everyday English). John, below, Venus, swims, round, beautiful, under, went. Feedback (1)(c) (2) No: replace ‘sentence’ by ‘utterance’ to get a correct statement. (3) (c) (4) No (5) Yes (6) John, Venus If you have scored less than 5 correct out of 6, you should review the relevant unit. If you have scored at least 5 correct out of 6, continue to the introduction. Introduction We start by examining the semantic structure of simple declarative sentences, such as My dog bit the postman or Mrs Wraith is waiting for the downtown 45 PART TWO From reference... bus. Typically such sentences contain one or more referring expressions, plus some other words that do not form part of any of the referring expressions. It is on these other words that we shall now concentrate. Practice In the following sentences, delete the referring expressions and write down the remainder to the right of the example. We have done the ﬁrst one for you. (1) My dog bit the postman bit (2) Mrs Wraith is writing the Mayor’s speech (3) Cairo is in Africa (4) Edinburgh is between Aberdeen and York (5) This place stinks (6) John’s car is red (7) Einstein was a genius Feedback (2) Mrs Wraith is writing the Mayor’s speech is writing (3) Cairo is in Africa is in (4) Edinburgh is between Aberdeen and York is between, and (5) This place stinks stinks (6) John’s car is red is red (7) Einstein was a genius was a genius Comment The ‘remainders’ written in the right-hand column are quite a varied set. But in each case it is possible to discern one word (or part of a word) which ‘carries more meaning’ than the others. For instance, write in example (2) carries more speciﬁc information than is and the suﬃx -ing. If one strips away such less meaningful elements, one is left with a sequence of words, which, though ungrammatical and inelegant, can still be understood as expressing a proposition. The result is a kind of ‘Tarzan jungle talk’, e.g. Boy bad for The boy is bad, or Woman write speech for The woman is writing the speech. Practice Listed below are the remainders from the above examples. In each case, write down the single word (or part of a word) which carries the most speciﬁc information. We have done the ﬁrst one for you. (1) is writing write (2) is in (3) is between, and (4) stinks (5) is red (6) was a genius 46 UNIT 5 Predicates Feedback (2) in (3) between (4) stink (5) red (6) genius Comment The words we have just isolated from their original sentences we call the predicators of those sentences. Definition The PREDICATOR of a simple declarative sentence is the word (sometimes a (partial) group of words) which does not belong to any of the referring expressions and which, of the remainder, makes the most speciﬁc contribution to the meaning of the sentence. Intuitively speaking, the predicator describes the state or process in which the referring expressions are involved. Example asleep is the predicator in Mummy is asleep and describes the state Mummy is in. love is the predicator in The white man loved the Indian maiden and describes the process in which the two referring expressions the white man and the Indian maiden are involved. wait for is the predicator in Jimmy was waiting for the downtown bus and describes the process involving Jimmy and the downtown bus. Comment Note that some of the elements that we have stripped away in isolating the predicator of a sentence do carry a certain amount of meaning. Thus the indicators of past and present tense are clearly meaningful. The semantics of tense is interesting, but its contribution to the meaning of a sentence is of a diﬀerent type from the contribution made by the predicator, and will not be pursued here. Notice also that the verb be in its various forms (is, was, are, were, am) is not the predicator in any example sentence that we have seen so far. Practice Strip away referring expressions and the verb be (and possibly other elements) to identify the predicators in the following sentences: (1) I am hungry (2) Joe is in San Francisco (3) The Mayor is a crook (4) The man who lives at number 10 Lee Crescent is whimsical (5) The Royal Scottish Museum is behind Old College Feedback (1) hungry (2) in (3) crook (4) whimsical (5) behind Comment The predicators in sentences can be of various parts of speech: adjectives (red, asleep, hungry, whimsical), verbs (write, stink, place), prepositions (in, between, behind), and nouns (crook, genius). Despite the obvious syntactic diﬀerences between these diﬀerent types of words, semantically they all share the property of being able to function as the predicators of sentences. Words of other parts of speech, such as conjunctions (and, but, or) and articles (the, a), cannot serve as predicators in sentences. 47 PART TWO From reference... The semantic analysis of simple declarative sentences reveals two major semantic roles played by diﬀerent subparts of the sentence. These are the role of predicator, illustrated above, and the role(s) of argument(s), played by the referring expression(s). Example Juan is Argentinian predicator: Argentinian, argument: Juan Juan arrested Pablo predicator: arrest, arguments: Juan, Pablo Juan took Pablo to Rio predicator: take, arguments: Juan, Pablo, Rio Practice In the following sentences, indicate the predicators and arguments as in the above examples: (1) Dennis is a menace predicator:...................................... argument(s):.............................. (2) Fred showed Jane his BMW Predicator:...................................... argument(s):.............................. (3) Donald is proud of his family predicator:...................................... argument(s):.............................. (4) The hospital is outside the city predicator:...................................... argument(s):.............................. Feedback (1) pred: menace, arg: Dennis (2) pred: show, args: Fred, Jane, his BMW (3) pred: proud, args: Donald, his family (4) pred: outside, args: the hospital, the city Comment The semantic analysis of a sentence into predicator and argument(s) does not correspond in most cases to the traditional grammatical analysis of a sentence into subject and predicate, although there is some overlap between the semantic and the grammatical analyses, as can be seen from the examples above. We shall be concerned almost exclusively in this book with the semantic analysis of sentences, and so will not make use of the notion ‘grammatical predicate (phrase)’. But we will use the term ‘predicate’ in a semantic sense, to be deﬁned below, developed within Logic. Definition A PREDICATE is any word (or sequence of words) which (in a given single sense) can function as the predicator of a sentence. Example hungry, in, crook, asleep, hit, show, bottle, are all predicates; and, or, but, not, are not predicates. Practice Are the following predicates? (1) dusty Yes / No (2) drink Yes / No 48 UNIT 5 Predicates (3) woman Yes / No (4) you Yes / No (5) Fred Yes / No (6) about Yes / No Feedback (1) Yes (2) Yes (3) Yes (4) No (5) No (6) Yes Comment The deﬁnition of ‘predicate’ above contained two parenthesized conditions. The ﬁrst, ‘(or sequence of words)’, is intended to take care of examples like wait for, in front of, which are longer than one word, but which it seems sensible to analyse as single predicates. The second parenthesized condition, ‘(in a given single sense)’, is more important, and illustrates a degree of abstractness in the notion of a predicate. A ‘word’, as we use the term, can be ambiguous, i.e. can have more than one sense, but we use ‘predicate’ in a way which does not allow a predicate to be ambiguous. A predicate can have only one sense. Normally, the context in which we use a word will make clear what sense (what predicate) we have in mind, but occasionally, we shall resort to the use of subscripts on words to distinguish between diﬀerent predicates. (We do this especially in Unit 16 ‘About dictionaries’.) Example The word bank has (at least) two senses. Accordingly, we might speak of the predicates bank1 and bank2. Similarly, we might distinguish between the predicates man1 (noun) human being, man2 (noun) male adult human being, and man3 (transitive verb) as in The crew manned the lifeboats. Comment Notice that ‘predicate’ and ‘predicator’ are terms of quite diﬀerent sorts. The term ‘predicate’ identiﬁes elements in the language system, independently of particular example sentences. Thus, it would make sense to envisage a list of the predicates of English, as included, say, in a dictionary. The term ‘predicator’ identiﬁes the semantic role played by a particular word (or group of words) in a particular sentence. In this way, it is similar to the grammatical term ‘subject’: one can talk of the subject of a particular sentence, but it makes no sense to talk of a list of ‘the subjects of English’: similarly, one can talk of the ‘predicator’ in a particular sentence, but not list ‘the predicators of English’. A simple sentence only has one predicator, although it may well contain more than one instance of a predicate. Example A tall, handsome stranger entered the saloon This sentence has just one predicator, enter, but the sentence also contains the words tall, handsome, stranger, and saloon, all of which are 49 PART TWO From reference... predicates, and can function as predicators in other sentences, e.g. John is tall, He is handsome, He is a stranger, and That ramshackle building is a saloon. Practice (1) In which of the following sentences does the predicate male function as a predicator? Circle your choice. (a) The male gorilla at the zoo had a nasty accident yesterday (b) The gorilla at the zoo is a male (c) The gorilla at the zoo is male (2) In which of the following sentences does the predicate human function as predicator? (a) All humans are mortal (b) Socrates was human (c) These bones are human Feedback (1) (b), (c) (2) (b), (c) Comment We turn now to the matter of the degree of predicates. Definition The DEGREE of a predicate is a number indicating the number of arguments it is normally understood to have in simple sentences. Example Asleep is a predicate of degree one (often called a one-place predicate) Love (verb) is a predicate of degree two (a two-place predicate) Practice (1) Are the following sentences acceptable? (a) Thornbury sneezed Yes / No (b) Thornbury sneezed a handful of pepper Yes / No (c) Thornbury sneezed his wife a handful of pepper Yes / No (2) So is sneeze a one-place predicate? Yes / No (3) Are the following sentences acceptable in normal usage? (a) Martha hit Yes / No (b) Martha hit the sideboard Yes / No (c) Martha hit George the sideboard Yes / No (4) So is hit a one-place predicate? Yes / No (5) Is die a one-place predicate? Yes / No (6) Is come a one-place predicate? Yes / No (7) Is murder (verb) a one-place predicate? Yes / No Feedback (1)(a) Yes (b) No (c) No (2) Yes (3) (a) No (b) Yes (c) No (4) No (5) Yes (6) Yes (7) No 50 UNIT 5 Predicates Comment A verb that is understood most naturally with just two arguments, one as its subject, and one as its object, is a two-place predicate. Example In Martha hit the parrot, hit is a two-place predicate: it has an argument, Martha, as subject and an argument, the parrot, as direct object. Practice (1) Are the following sentences acceptable? (a) Keith made Yes / No (b) Keith made this toy guillotine Yes / No (c) Keith made this toy guillotine his mother-in-law Yes / No (2) So is make a two-place predicate? Yes / No (3) Is murder a two-place predicate? Yes / No (4) Is see a two-place predicate? Yes / No Feedback (1) (a) No (b) Yes (c) No (2) Yes (3) Yes (4) Yes Comment There are a few three-place predicates; the verb give is the best example. Practice For each of the following sentences, say whether it seems somewhat elliptical (i.e. seems to omit something that one would normally expect to be mentioned). Some of these sentences are more acceptable than others. (1) Herod gave Yes / No (2) Herod gave Salome Yes / No (3) Herod gave a nice present Yes / No (4) Herod gave Salome a nice present Yes / No (5) How many referring expressions are there in Sentence (4)............. Feedback (1) Yes (2) Yes (3) Yes: one would normally mention the receiver of a present. (4) No (5) three Comment We have concentrated so far on predicates that happen to be verbs. Recall examples such as Cairo is in Africa, Cairo is dusty, Cairo is a large city. In these examples in (a preposition), dusty (an adjective), and city (a noun) are predicates. In the case of prepositions, nouns, and adjectives, we can also talk of one-, two-, or three-place predicates. Practice (1) How many referring expressions are there in Your marble is under my chair?............. (2) Is Your marble is under acceptable in normal usage? Yes / No (3) Is Your marble is under my chair the carpet acceptable in normal usage? Yes / No 51 PART TWO From reference... (4) So, of what degree is the predicate under (i.e. a how-many- place-predicate is under)?............. (5) Of what degree is the predicate near?............. (6) Is Dundee is between Aberdeen acceptable? Yes / No (7) Is Dundee is between Aberdeen and Edinburgh acceptable? Yes / No (8) Of what degree is the predicate between?............. Feedback (1) two (2) No (3) No (4) two (5) two (6) No (7) Yes (8) three Comment We will now turn our attention to adjectives. Practice (1) How many referring expressions are there in Philip is handsome?............. (2) Is Philip is handsome John (not used when addressing John) acceptable? Yes / No (3) Of what degree is the predicate handsome?............. (4) Of what degree is the predicate rotten?............. (5) Of what degree is the predicate smelly?............. Feedback (1) one (2) No (3) one (4) one (5) one Comment In fact, the majority of adjectives are one-place predicates. Practice (1) Is John is afraid of Fido acceptable? Yes / No (2) Does John is afraid seem elliptical (i.e. does it seem to leave something unmentioned)? Yes / No (3) Could afraid be called a two-place predicate? Yes / No (4) Is Your house is diﬀerent from mine acceptable? Yes / No (5) Does Your house is diﬀerent seem elliptical? Yes / No (6) Of what degree is the predicate diﬀerent?............. (7) Of what degree is the predicate identical?............. (8) Of what degree is the predicate similar?............. Feedback (1) Yes (2) Yes (3) Yes (4) Yes (5) Yes (6) two (7) two (8) two Comment You may have wondered about the role of the prepositions such as of and from in afraid of and diﬀerent from. These prepositions are not themselves predicates. Some adjectives in English just require (grammatically) to be joined to a following argument by a preposition. Such prepositions are relatively meaningless linking particles. You might want to think of the combination of adjective plus linking particle in these cases as a kind of 52 UNIT 5 Predicates complex or multi-word predicate with basically one uniﬁed meaning. Notice that one can often use diﬀerent linking prepositions with no change of meaning, e.g. (in some dialects) diﬀerent to, or even diﬀerent than. We now turn to predicates which are nouns. Practice (1) How many referring expressions are there in John is a corporal?............. (2) Is John is a corporal the army acceptable? Yes / No (3) Of what degree is corporal?............. (4) Of what degree is hero?............. (5) Of what degree is crook?............. (6) How many referring expressions are there in This object is a pitchfork?............. (7) Of what degree is pitchfork?............. Feedback (1) one (2) No (3) one (4) one (5) one (6) one (7) one Comment Most nouns are one-place predicates. But a few nouns could be said to be ‘inherently relational’. These are nouns such as father, son, brother, mother, daughter, neighbour. Practice (1) Does John is a brother seem somewhat odd? Yes / No (2) Is John is a brother of the Mayor of Miami acceptable? Yes / No (3) Could brother be called a two-place predicate? Yes / No (4) Could sister be called a two-place predicate? Yes / No Feedback (1) Yes, it would be completely acceptable only in a somewhat unusual context. (2) Yes (3) Yes (4) Yes Comment Sometimes two predicates can have nearly, if not exactly, the same sense, but be of diﬀerent grammatical parts of speech. Typically in these cases the corresponding predicates have the same degree, as in the following examples. See if you can determine the degree of the predicates in these sentences. Example Ronald is foolish, Ronald is a fool Timothy is afraid of cats, Timothy fears cats My parrot is a talker, My parrot talks Comment We conclude this unit by discussing one special relation, the identity relation. This is the relation found in equative sentences (Unit 4, p. 42). In English, the identity of the referents of two diﬀerent referring expressions is expressed by a form of the verb be. 53 PART TWO From reference... Example George W. Bush is the 43rd President of the United States The 43rd President of the United States is George W. Bush Practice All of the following sentences contain a variant of the verb be. In which sentences does a form of be express the identity relation? Circle your choices. (1) This is a spider (2) This is my father (3) This is the person I was telling you about at dinner last night (4) The person I was telling you about at dinner last night is in the next room (5) The person I was telling you about at dinner last night is the man talking to Harry (6) The whale is a mammal Feedback The identity relation is expressed by a form of be in sentences (2), (3), and (5). Comment The identity relation is special because of its very basic role in the communication of information. In English, one must analyse some instances of the verb be (e.g. those in sentences (2), (3), (5) above) as instances of the identity predicate. Other instances of the verb be, as we have seen, are simply a grammatical device for linking a predicate that is not a verb (i.e. an adjective, preposition, or noun) to its ﬁrst argument, as in John is a fool or John is foolish. The verb be is also a device for ‘carrying’ the tense (present or past) of a sentence. Summary The predicates of a language have a completely diﬀerent function from the referring expressions. The roles of these two kinds of meaning-bearing element cannot be exchanged. Thus John is a bachelor makes good sense, but Bachelor is a John makes no sense at all. Predicates include words from various parts of speech, e.g. common nouns, adjectives, prepositions, and verbs. We have distinguished between predicates of diﬀerent degrees (one- place, two-place, etc.). The relationship between referring expressions and predicates will be explored further in the next unit. Unit 5 Study Guide and Exercises Directions After you have read Unit 5 you should be able to tackle the following questions to test your understanding of the main ideas raised in the unit. 1 You should understand these terms and concepts from this unit: predicator degree of a predicate predicate ellipsis (elliptical) argument identity relation 54

Units 4 & 5 - PDF

Document Details

Tags

Related

Summary

Full Transcript

Upgrade to continue