There’s always that one person (Guest A) who feels the need to bring up a controversial topic every year at Thanksgiving dinner. Most of the times nobody really addresses it because they either don’t want to offend the person, they don’t want to make the situation worse, they simply just don’t want to get involved, etc.  But, if another person (Guest B) wanted to interfere and attempt to indirectly change the topic, they might violate one (or some) of Grice’s maxims of conversation.  Guest B may violate the maxim of relation by saying something like, “Oh wow, this Turkey is really good- you made this yourself?!” to the chef, seeing as how the food that was served is in no way related to the topic at hand.  Guest B may also simultaneously violate the maxim’s of quality and relation by saying something like “I could really go for a dip in the pool! Would anybody care to join me?”.  Considering the time of year, most people have closed their pools because of how cold it is- so I doubt that anyone would be going for a dip in their pool after Thanksgiving dinner.  This would also violate the maxim of relation because it would have nothing to do with the topic that was brought up, comment that was made, etc.  By making statements or asking questions which violate any/all of Grice’s maxims of conversation, Guest B would be indirectly making Guest A aware that the conversation is making them uncomfortable and that it is unwanted.  This would (hopefully) lead Guest A to drop it and move on to another conversation, without having to be explicitly told.

For my final paper I would like to explore the fact that some people use the term ‘girl’, others use the term ‘woman’, and some use the term ‘female’.  I was actually just having a conversation with one of my friends last week because I noticed that he uses the word ‘female’ to refer to a woman.  I personally found this intriguing because I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone casually say “this female in my class…” as opposed to using the word “girl” or “woman”.  When I asked why he says “female” instead of a more common term, he said that he feels as though using the term “female” seems to come off as more respectful towards women that are his age or older.  I think it is incredible how unique everyone’s individual use of language is and I feel that targeting this one paradigm of terms would be fascinating because I can gain a better understanding of how frequently each of these terms are used as well as why that is.  Seeing as how I would like to understand the ‘why’ behind this idea, I think that I’m first going to create a survey with indirect questions so that the respondents are not aware of what exactly it is that I’m looking for.  Then, in order to gain an understanding of their reasoning behind using a particular term, I can create a second survey in which I state what I was researching in the first one and then ask them for a response as to why they use the terminology that they do.

1.Simple antonyms–  Correct, Incorrect. 

• Answer choice b is correct.
• Answer choice b is incorrect. 

One of these sentences must be true and the other must be false.  They can’t both be false because answer choice b has to be either true or false.  This shows that correct and incorrect are simple antonyms.

 

2. Gradable antonyms–  Easy, Difficult.  

• This exam is easy.
• This exam is difficult. 

One of these sentences may be true, or they may both be false.  A student can find an exam to be easy, difficult, or somewhere in between, making easy and difficult gradable antonyms.  

 

3. Reverses– Build, Dismantle.

• My brother built a sand castle.
• My brother dismantled a sand castle.

Build and Dismantle are a reverse pair because something is either built or dismantled.  

 

4. Converses– Buy, Sell

• X bought the car from Y = Y sold the car to X.

These words express the same relation, but with the positions reversed.  In any scenario where someone bought an item, there is someone that sold the item.  Similarly, in any scenario in which someone sold an item, there is someone that bought the item.  This means that the words buy and sell are a converse pair.  

5. Taxonomic sisters– Apple, Banana

                             Fruit

/\

Apple     Banana

Apple and Banana are taxonomic sisters because they are both types of fruit.  These two hyponyms share the same hyperonym.  

 

1. a) ‘Leo is younger than Thomas’  entails  b) ‘Thomas is older than Leo’.
2. a) ‘Brandon forgot to pay his friend back’  presupposes  b) ‘Brandon intended to pay his friend back’.    Presupposition trigger: “forgot”.
3. a) ‘Nicole stopped hanging out with Lauren’  presupposes  b) ‘Nicole used to hang out with Lauren’.    Presupposition trigger: “stopped”.

A pair of expressions that have the same denotation, but different expressive meanings would be the words “cop” and “officer”.  This is because, although they have the same meaning, they are used differently depending on the situation, location, audience, etc. in which the speaker is using the word.  These two words have the same denotation because of the simple fact that they both refer to someone on a police force.  Despite this similarity, and the fact that they can technically be used interchangeably, they do in fact have different senses and expressive meanings.  The word “cop” is used in a more relaxed or informal way.  For example, if someone is talking to a friend they would most likely say, “A cop pulled me over today because I didn’t come to a complete stop.”  Whereas, if the speaker was talking directly to the cop, they would probably say, “Hello officer“, as opposed to, “Hello cop.”  This is due to the fact that the word “officer” is seen as more formal, proper, or respectful.