FTU-SEM-03-Midterm-Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong [PDF]

Citation preview

FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY Faculty of Business English



Writing Test Subject: Semantics Full name: Nguyễn Thị Thu Phương Date of birth 29/06/2001 Student code 1917710127 /ca 3 __________________________________________________________________ ______ Question Critically discuss the referring expressions in your own words. Provide and explain your own examples for illustration. Language can create unreal worlds. Explain and give an illustration different from those discussed in the subject textbooks, subject handouts or other person’s message. I . Disscusion about referring expression 1. Definition: - A referring expression is a piece of language, a noun phrase whose function in discourse is to refer to a specific object in mind. It is used in an utterance and is connected to something outside language, some living or dead or imaginary entity or concept. - Example: “I’m watching TV with Lisa” “I” and “Lisa” are refer to two people in the real world, so “I” and “Lisa” are referring expression. 2. Types of referring expression a. Definite NP: - A NP that refer to a person, amount, or things in particular, so it is usually used in contexts where the hearer is able to identify a unique referent.  - Definite noun phrases consist of proper names, personal pronouns, and longer descriptive expressions.  Proper names: 1



They are labels for people, places, etc.and seem to have little other meaning. Names are definite in that they carry the speaker‘s assumption that the audience can identify the referent with the right description.  o Eg: Mrs. Jane assigned us an essay that's due next week. (Mrs. Jane is refer to particular person) We're going to play football in Thong Nhat Park. ( Thong Nhat Park is refer to a particular place)  Personal pronouns (Eg: he, she, I,…) and Demonstrative pronouns (eg: That, these,…) o Occurrences of pronouns are dependent on their interpretation of some feature of the context. Demonstrative pronouns like “that” typically depend upon an act of demonstration, for example, pointing. Indexical like “he” depend on the reference upon who was pointing at.   Longer descriptive expressions or noun phrases o A noun phrase has a noun head, a determiner, and perhaps a complement and/or modifier. The determiner determines the way of referring that a particular referring expression has. “The” is referred to as “ the definite article”/determiner, so a noun phrase begins with “the” is a definite Noun phrase. o For example: The dog that bite me ran away. Definite noun phrases are usually referring expressions. But definite noun phrase can also be used generically, without referring to any specific individual.  o



-



b. Indefinite NP: - A noun phrase that does not refer to any person, amount, or thing in particular.  - Markers for Indefinite noun phrases:  The indefinite article a or an, for instance: “ A bird is playing in the sky”  the word “certain” eg: “Certain animals are dangerous”.    The word “some”, and the numbers  also do the same thing: “Some people are bad” or “Five boys are dancing.”   Even the word “this” eg:  “That man in my class is very handsome”. I'm using “this”  only to emphasize that there is a man in my class and he is very smart,so “ very handsome”  is the most important part. Even if I'm using “this'' which you might think is very definite it is actually in this case used in a different type of indefinite noun phrase. 2



Let’s take an example scenario when you go to the door, and you have to say something to get the door opened so “To open the door you have to say a word“, what word here should I say?   Maybe you might say any word for example if I say house or ball or any other words will do  Or there is a specific word that you want me to say but the identity of this word doesn't matter. This case here leads to two different types of indefinite noun phrases: the first type is called non-specific noun phrase and Specific noun phrase. II. Language can create unreal worlds. - Language is used for talking about things in the real world, like houses,  children, cats, etc. All of these things exist. And the that do not like superheroes, aliens, talking  animals,...  - Our basic, and very safe definition of reference was as a relationship  between part of an utterance and a thing in the world.  - A classic case is that of the word “God”.  Do god exist in the real world? The answer is no but it is still most frequently appear in science fiction  movies - And we can see that it is possible to imagine worlds different in certain  ways from the world we know actually to exist.   Therefore, we can see that in the majority of fairy tales and science fiction  stories, the fictional characters discourse with each other according to the same  principles that apply in real life.   I am really enjoyed the quote: “ To learn language is to have one more window from which to look at the world”



3