Module 4: Pragmatics · Section exam
Pragmatics exam
A 9-question review of all 5 lessons in Module 4: Pragmatics. Answer every question, then check your answers: each one comes with an explanation, and you can retake the exam as often as you like.
Pragmatics exam Module 4: Pragmatics review
9 questions · self-graded
1 Which of these are non-truth-conditional (pragmatic) aspects of meaning? Select all that apply The meaning of some as 'two or more' The contrast contributed by but instead of and An entailment of the sentence The inference from stress in There's one piece of pizza left that other food is available The 'not all' inference from Some of the kids went to the park
The contrast from but (a conventional implicature), the stress inference, and the scalar 'not all' inference leave truth conditions unchanged. The meaning of some and entailments are truth-conditional, so they count as semantic.
2 Which property sets presuppositions apart from entailments? They are always cancelable by context They arise only from word order They survive negation They depend on the maxim of manner
Negation normally cancels entailments, but presuppositions project past it. Susie doesn't know that her husband is returning today still conveys that he is returning.
3 Most of the kids went to the park implies that not all went. What kind of inference is this?A conventional implicature An entailment A presupposition A scalar (conversational) implicature
Most semantically means only more than half. The 'not all' reading is a cancelable scalar implicature based on the maxim of quantity.
4 In the right context, a declarative like I want pizza can be intended as a request. True or false True False
Its form is a statement about the speaker's desires, but context can make the intended illocutionary act a request meaning 'give me a piece of pizza.'
5 Which statements about information structure are correct? Select all that apply Frame setting and topic proper are the same notion and need no distinction Topic is the thing the proposition expressed by the sentence is about Focusing an element negates the alternatives that could fill the same slot Focus can be marked only by stress Frame setting limits the main predication to a restricted domain
Topic is about aboutness, focus negates alternatives, and frame setting restricts the domain. Focus can also be marked by fronting, and frame setting must be kept distinct from topic proper.
6 Holmstedt holds that a VS clause with no syntactic or semantic trigger must contain a topic or focus operator. Why is a pragmatic reading of Ruth 4:17 open to question? Ruth 4:17 is actually subject-verb in order The clause is passive, and a framework treating passive as a syntactic trigger needs no pragmatic explanation Topic and focus never affect word order in Hebrew Holmstedt argued that VS is the pragmatically neutral order
What counts as a trigger depends on one's theory. Passive voice does many special things to word order, so a framework that lacks that category is pushed toward topic or focus.
7 Some infer from Mary Magdalene went to the tomb that no one else went. Which maxim is this inference based on? Quality Relation Manner Quantity
It is a scalar implicature that assumes the speaker is being as informative as necessary, which is the maxim of quantity. The bare statement does not semantically exclude others.
8 Since mood is marked on the verb in Hebrew and Greek, identifying a verb's mood settles which illocutionary act the author intended. True or false True False
Mood identifies the sentence type and its prototypical act, but the intended illocutionary act can differ from it. Reconstructing that act is the difficult part of interpretation.
9 Why would a speaker likely say I have a pet gorilla before mentioning taking it to the vet? To flout the maxim of quality for rhetorical effect Because the presupposition is hard to accommodate, so it must first be asserted into the common ground Because my gorilla is a conventional implicature that cannot be canceled To mark gorilla as the focus of the sentence
Unlike the easily accommodated cat, owning a gorilla is not something a hearer will quietly accept. Presupposition therefore shapes how information is organized across a discourse.
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