Final: Due 10:00 A.M. May 13, 2013
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~gawron/semantics
Semantics
Jean Mark Gawron
San Diego State University, Department of Linguistics
2012-04-28
Jean Mark Gawron
( SDSU )
Gawron: Final
2012-04-28
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Overview
1
Lexical semantics
2
Reichenbach
3
Scope
4
Tense and discourse
Jean Mark Gawron
( SDSU )
Gawron: Final
2012-04-28
2 / 11
Outline
1
Lexical semantics
2
Reichenbach
3
Scope
4
Tense and discourse
Jean Mark Gawron
( SDSU )
Gawron: Final
2012-04-28
3 / 11
Lexical semantics
1
John lingered in the doorway.
2
The ball broke the window.
3
The window broke.
4
John reached Boston.
5
The ball rolled to the wall.
6
The wind blew the plane off course.
7
Cleanth is lazy.
8
Reggie left his sweater on the couch.
Jean Mark Gawron
( SDSU )
Gawron: Final
2012-04-28
4 / 11
Lexical semantics questions
Give the lexical semantic representation for the verbs (not the entire
sentences) in the grammatical examples and answer the questions. Use the
verb meanings that are used in the given examples.
1
John lingered in the doorway.
How does your verb meaning explain the ungrammaticality of the
following sentence?
1’. * John lingered from the couch.
2
Reggie left his sweater on the couch. How does your verb meaning
explain the ungrammaticality of the following sentence?
2’. * Reggie left his sweater 5 miles.
3
The wind blew the plane off course.
Which is a better treatment of this example: A put-type (cause
[be-at ..]) treatment or a cause motion (cause [go ...])
treatment? Why?
Jean Mark Gawron
( SDSU )
Gawron: Final
2012-04-28
5 / 11
Outline
1
Lexical semantics
2
Reichenbach
3
Scope
4
Tense and discourse
Jean Mark Gawron
( SDSU )
Gawron: Final
2012-04-28
6 / 11
Past/present perfect
1
Discuss the following claim:
Reichenbach’s analysis of the past perfect is perfectly
compositional. It is the meaning of the past combined with
the meaning of the perfect.
You can answer this question by explaining what the meaning of the
past is acccording to Reichenbach, what the meaning of the perfect is
according to Reichenbach, and showing how the meaning of the past
perfect then follows.
2
Describe Reichenbach’s analysis of the present perfect and discuss
some properties of the present perfect that it can’t account for.
3
How does Reichenbach’s analysis of the present perfect rule the
following sentence out?
* John has left yesterday.
Jean Mark Gawron
( SDSU )
Gawron: Final
2012-04-28
7 / 11
Outline
1
Lexical semantics
2
Reichenbach
3
Scope
4
Tense and discourse
Jean Mark Gawron
( SDSU )
Gawron: Final
2012-04-28
8 / 11
Scope
The following sentences have scope ambiguities. Give logical
representations, and give a paraphrase of each reading. Answer the
questions.
a. The president was once a republican.
Which reading or readings are true in the U.S.
now? Which are false? Explain why, naming the
president or presidents involved.
b. The president has never resigned.
Treat has... never as [No t : t < t ∗ ] and DONT
use a tense operator. Which reading is true?
Jean Mark Gawron
( SDSU )
Gawron: Final
2012-04-28
9 / 11
Outline
1
Lexical semantics
2
Reichenbach
3
Scope
4
Tense and discourse
Jean Mark Gawron
( SDSU )
Gawron: Final
2012-04-28
10 / 11
A story
Usiing example (76) from Chapter 9 as a guide, construct an analysis of
the temporal interpretation for the passage below. Use principles A
through K as written on p. 204 and 205. There should be a temporal
specification for each verb group.
John peered over the windowsill. There was a man in purple
shorts rifling through the contents of the desk in John’s office.
John pulled himself up, trying to get a better look at the man’s
face. Something cracked, loud as a shot. The windowsill had
given way under his weight and John began to fall. Alerted by
the sound, the intruder made a dash for the door of the study.
THe door slammed. John hit the ground hard. All hell broke
loose.
Jean Mark Gawron
( SDSU )
Gawron: Final
2012-04-28
11 / 11