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Review, Practice, and Explore – Chapter 10
10.1 Propositions and Truth Conditions
Which of the following sentences contain propositions? Which propositions are true, and which are
false?
a. Eat your cereal! (no proposition because not declarative/assertion)
b. Did you eat your cereal? (no proposition because not declarative/assertion)
c. I ate cereal this morning. true proposition
10.2 Analytic and Synthetic Sentences
Label the following sentences as analytic (A) or synthetic (S).
The necessarily true sentences, the analytic ones, are bolded.
a. Lions are felines.
10.3 Entailment
Write down as many entailments as you can for the following sentences. A sentence may have more
than one entailment or may have no entailments.
a. Lions are animals.
b. Lions live only in certain parts of the world.
c. Lions are carnivorous.
Review, Practice, and Explore – Chapter 10 • 95
d. Lorraine is my mother’s sister.
e. Lorraine is my friend.
Do the following sentences have the same entailments? Why or why not?
f. The puppy devoured the pizza.
g. The puppy ate the pizza.
What entailments are expressed by the following ambiguous sentence?
h. The movie star met the journalist in a tux.
Paraphrase the following sentences. Remember that paraphrases have the same meaning but differ-
ent word order, and any entailments remain the same.
i. Lorraine loves going to the Bahamas in the winter.
j. The baby gave the rattle to his mother.
k. The students handed in their papers.
l. The ball rolled under the bed.
10.4 Contradictions
Make up three sentences that are contradictions because of the interplay of words that express logi-
cal relationships, such as all, every, some, and, or, but, and if.
Answers will vary, but some examples are the following:
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10.5 Presupposition
Some of the following sentences include presuppositions. Write the presupposition down for each
sentence. What propositions do we infer or assume in each sentence?
a. Do you want to go bowling again?
b. Her husband is a banker.
c. Have you stopped eating meat?
d. Do you eat meat?
e. Why did you steal the money?
f. Einstein discovered relativity.
g. I have already donated to the cause.
10.6 Thematic Roles
Assign the most appropriate thematic role to each of the underlined NPs:
a. Francine rode her bike to the party.
b. Elvis ate peanut butter with a spoon.
agent theme instrument
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Make up sentences in each of which the child is the subject but in which it has a different thematic
role in each case. You’ll have to change the verb in each sentence you make up.
Answers will vary, but some examples are given.
a. The child saw the teacher leave the building.
10.7 Direct and Indirect Speech Acts
Identify the following as a direct or an indirect speech act. Explain briefly why you identify them as
you do. Does sentence type correlate with meaning?
a. Please read the assigned reading by Monday.
b. Could you pick up the trash over there?
c. Did you see the movie last night?
d. I would like to know how many of you finished the assignment.
e. Do your chores!
f. Do you want that window open?
g. Move your car out of the way!
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h. Can you please move your car?
i. Please move your car.
j. Your car is in the way.
10.8 Performative Speech Acts
Speech acts are called performative when uttering them is an act in itself rather than reporting on an
act. For example, if someone says “I saw a cat run under the porch,” they are asserting that they saw
this event and are reporting on it. If a judge in court says “I order you to spend six days in jail,” that
statement performs an action: it legally binds you to serve your jail time. Which of the following
speech acts are performative? (Hint: You can usually insert hereby in performative speech acts but
not in nonperformative ones.) What conditions must be satisfied for these acts to be performative?
Are there conditions under which the sentence would not be performative? Explain briefly.
a. John hopes to be there on time.
b. SAFE! (yelled by the umpire in a baseball game)
c. I christen you the H.M.S. Titanic.
d. I will pay you the money I owe you.
e. I promise to pay you the money I owe you.
f. Yesterday, Joe promised to pay the money he owes Jack.
g. Did Joe promise to pay Jack the money he owes him?
h. Louise knows that pigs can fly.
i. Joachim decreed that pigs can fly.
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j. Checkmate! (spoken by a player in a chess game who has checkmated his opponent)
k. Checkmate! (spoken by a player in a chess game who has not checkmated his opponent)
l. Checkmate! (spoken in a context other than a chess game)
10.9 Grice’s Maxims of Conversation
A . Make up a (plausible) conversational exchange in which Grice’s maxims are followed.
Explain briefly how each maxim is satisfied.
B. Come up with a (plausible) conversation in which at least one of Grice’s maxims is vio-
lated. Explain why the violation might take place and what inferences the speakers and
Answers will vary.
10.10 Positive and Negative Politeness
Referring to Table 10.2, make up one conversation in which a speaker uses positive politeness and
one in which a speaker uses negative politeness, and then answer the following questions:
• How does context influence the situation?
• What is the relationship between the two speakers, and does that matter?
• In what kinds of situations are we more likely to use positive politeness, and in what situa-
tions might we use negative politeness?
• In your conversations, what are some examples of direct and indirect speech acts?
Answers will vary.
10.11 Gender Differences in Conversation
It has long been argued that men and women have different speech styles and conversational prac-
tices. More recent work in language and gender studies has shown, however, that generalizations
about men and women are impossible and that gender interacts with a number of other variables,
such as age, ethnicity, social class, and sexual orientation, in shaping our speech styles and prac-
tice. What are some current issues and arguments about gendered language? Is it possible to claim
that men and women talk differently and use different conversational and politeness strategies?
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(Some good resources include Cameron 2007, Tannen 2006, Eckert & McConnell-Ginet 2003, and
Wolfram & Schilling-Estes 1998.)
10.12 Terms of Address
One way to express status and respect in English is with terms of address. Perhaps as a reflection of
changing attitudes about such relationships, however, this system is in a state of flux, leaving many
of us unsure of how to address certain people. These days, more adults are likely to be called by
their first names by children; use of the terms Mr. and Ms. is waning. Even in elementary and sec-
Answers will vary.
10.13 Style-Shifting: Conversational Register
We shift registers often and unconsciously, depending on where we are, who we’re talking to and
why, and so on. Describe three different registers you might use and the context in which you would
use each. Describe the context, the speakers involved, and any other factors that you think contribute
Answers will vary.
10.14 Cross-Cultural Conversations
What are some of the conversational practices of a culture other than your own? Do the maxims
of conversation seem to apply as they do in your own speech community? Give examples of how
Answers will vary.
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10.15 Definiteness and Geographical Place Names
Do you say Rocky Mountains or the Rocky Mountains? Most native English speakers agree that the
Rocky Mountains sounds better than Rocky Mountains when referring to the geographical location.
Likewise, Lookout Mountain somehow sounds better than the Lookout Mountain. For the following
list of place names and your local landmarks, do they sound better with or without the definite deter–
miner the?
Great Salt Lake
Lake Whatcom
Nob Hill
Eagle Lake
Whatcom Creek
Heron Creek
What is the rule that determines whether the occurs with a proper name for a natural landmark?
Discuss why you think this might be.
This odd rule has to do with relative size – sort of. So rivers and mountain ranges
(orgroup of hills) take the, while lakes and creeks do not.
The Colorado River Nob Hill
The Mississippi River Eagle Lake
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10.16 Deixis
Explain how each of the following sentences uses deixis.
The deictic phrases are underlined; they indicate a time, location, or proximity to/from
the speaker. Pronouns we and I are also deictic, setting up speaker’s location in time
or space. Tense also contributes to interpretation of speaker’s location in time (and is
highlighted here with the difference between c and d).
a. We’re going on vacation this summer. (this summer = temporal deictic)
10.17 Language and Thought
Pullum (1991) outlines the development of the myth, based on “research” by Benjamin Whorf, that
Answers will vary.