Assignments

For 9 April

  • Read chapter 9 (pp.155–172) in the textbook. There will be a quiz on this reading at the start of class.
  • Complete Writing Assignment #3:

Imagine a Thanksgiving dinner. One guest, (A), brings up a controversial topic, making other guests uncomfortable. How might another guest, (B), make use of Grice’s maxims of conversation to indirectly get the message across to (A) that their contribution is not welcome?

Give an example of what (B) might say, and explain which of Grice’s maxims they are flouting.

This should be handwritten and turned in at the start of class.

For 26 March

This week is the midterm, so study! We will begin class with a midterm review. Study for that, too.

Due at the start of class is Writing Assignment #2. Please write this assignment out by hand.

Identify the meaning relations for the below pairs of words, and provide
linguistic evidence that supports your identification. Possible relations include:

  • synonyms
  • simple antonyms
  • gradable antonyms
  • reverses
  • converses
  • taxonomic sisters
  • hyponym–hyperonym
  • meronym
  • homonyms

For example, if given the pair tall and short, you would say that they were gradable antonyms, and the evidence might be providing two sentences, “John is tall,” and “John is short,” and saying that, since these two sentences are contrary, that supports tall and short being gradable antonyms.

The pairs of words for you to analyze in this way are:
a. sharp and dull
b. two and too
c. arm and leg
d. silver and metal
e. insert and extract

For 5 March


Read chapter 3 in the textbook.

Submit Writing Assignment 1:

Find a word in a language other than English that has a purely expressive meaning, like oops and ouch. Mention what language it comes from and explain how it is used. Make it clear that you understand what it means for something to have only expressive meaning.

Email this to me as a .pdf or .docx by 11:59pm on March 5th.