Ex. 3 – Reference and sense
(REFERRING EXPRESSIONS)
PRACTICE A
Could the following possibly be used as referring expressions?
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
John [yes]
My uncle [yes]
And [no]
The girl sitting on the wall by the bus stop [yes]
A man [yes]
My parents [yes]
Send [ no]
Under [no]
PRACTICE B
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes (assuming the speaker has 40 specific buses in mind) or No (if the speaker is
replacing “strong” when using “forty buses”. Eg. This engine is very powerful)
PRACTICE C
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
PRACTICE D
(1) Yes
(2) Yes (assuming that “John” and “the person in the corner” are the same)
PRACTICE E
(1) Yes
(2) Yes
(3) No (she may think both are different stars: “the morning star” and “the evening star”
are two expressions with different senses referring to the same object in the world).