L103, Spring 2003: Examination 3

General instructions

Save your answers in a text file, putting two carriage returns after each answer so that we have a place for annotations. Then upload the file using Annotate. You have until midnight tonight (Monday) to finish; the answers will be posted then, and no more submissions will be accepted. Start early.

You may use any resources you want except other people. Consultation of any sort about this exam with anyone other than instructors of this course will be treated as cheating and will result in an "F" in the course. Do not contact the class e-mail list. If you have questions about what a question means, send email to Mike, but don't wait till the last minute to do this. Do not ask where you can find the answer to a question or whether your answer is right or on the right track.

Level-1 question: Topic 6

For each of the following words or phrases, you're given a piece of information that a native speaker of English would be expected to know or guess about the expression. Say on what basis the native speaker would be able to do this. Possibilities are:

1. from the grammatical rule for the phrase (either adjective + noun or noun + noun), that is, on the basis of composition
2. from the lexical entry for one or the other word, that is, on the basis of what the word means
3. from world knowledge, that is, by reasoning in terms of what the person knows about the world rather than about English
4. by analogy with other similar phrases, that is, phrases that share one word or another with the given phrase
5. from the lexical entry for the whole expression, that is, simply by having memorized the meaning of the expression, which is idiomatic

Examples

• seahorse   This designates a kind of fish.
  This expression is an idiom; the fact that it designates a kind of fish (rather than a horse) is in the lexical entry for the whole expression.
• symbol chart   This designates a kind of chart.
  This is derivable from the grammatical rule for noun + noun phrases.
• dessert fork   The relation between the meanings of the two nouns is use for; it's a kind of fork used for dessert.
  This is derivable using world knowledge. Given what we know about the categories fork and dessert, the most likely relation for the phrase is use for. Another possibility is that it is interpreted by analogy with other similar expressions with the same conceptual relation: dinner fork, salad fork, dessert spoon.
• mushy pear  The phrase designates something whose shape can easily be changed through pressure.
  This is derivable from the lexical entry for mushy.

1. bone doctor  The meaning of bone narrows down the meaning of doctor to give the meaning of the phrase.
   This is derivable from the grammatical rule for noun + noun phrases.
2. cold cuts  This designates a kind of sliced meat.
   This is in the lexical entry for the whole phrase, which is an idiom.
3. chick candle  The meaning of the phrase relies on the conceptual relation resemble: 'a candle that resembles (is in the shape of) a chick'. (An actual example I heard yesterday -- MG)
   This is derivable from world knowledge; it's the relation that makes the most sense given what we know about candles and chicks.

Level-2 questions

1. Adjective meaning (1 point)

   Using what you learned about adjectves in Chapter 5, explain how the meaning of the adjective soft differs in these two phrases and how a Hearer would be able to interpret it.

   • soft cheese
   • soft metal

   Soft is a scalar (relative) adjective. Its meaning is relative to a standard which comes from the context or the noun meaning. Without any context, we have to interpret the adjectives in these phrases relative to the prototypical (usual, normal, default) softness for the category that is the noun's meaning. For cheese the default softness is quite high, so "soft cheese" is a very soft thing. For metal, on the other hand, the default softness is quite low (though it of course varies with the kind of metal; tin vs. steel, for example), so "soft metal" is not very soft at all, certainly less soft than "soft cheese".

2. Semantic roles (2 points)

   Give the semantic role (or roles) for the participants referred to by each of the noun phrases in bold. Only give more than one role if you believe the participant plays multiple roles; do not make us choose among your answers. Choose from this list: AGENT, PATIENT, EXPERIENCER, THEME, RECIPIENT, SOURCE, GOAL, PATH, INSTRUMENT, LOCATION, TIME, CAUSER, BENEFICIARY.

   1. Bob didn't realize that Ellen was doing it all for him. (3 roles)
      Bob: EXP, Ellen: AGT, him: BEN
   2. Max fell from the roof. (2 roles)
      Max: PAT, the roof: SRC
   3. She sold me her car. (3 roles)
      she: AGT and/or SRC; me: REC, her car: PAT
   4. The building was destroyed by looters. (2 roles)
      the building: PAT, looters: AGT
3. Situation schemas and semantic roles (1 point)

   One type of situation that we did not discuss is weather events, the kind of event we describe in English with sentences like the following.

   • It's snowing.
   • It's thundering.
   • It cleared up.

   Say how you think we can handle this type of event in terms of semantic roles. Remember: describing an event does not mean describing an English sentence; this is about events in the world, not about words (though the words may guide us). (Note: there isn't one "right" answer.)

   One possibility is to treat these kinds of events as having no participants, as being simply events. That is, we can see the it in the English sentences as just an empty place holder. Another possibility is to see them as having a single participant which is the aspect of the weather that is changing or affected by the event, a PATIENT, in other words. In the first sentence this would be the snow, in the second sentence the thunder, in the third sentence the clouds (or the sky).