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Comment The important thing when formulating meaning postulates involving twoplacepredicates is to remember that in our notation the variable xconventionally stands in subject position and y stands in object position. Inthe case of three-place predicates, we use z to indicate the third position.Hyponymy, converseness, and selectional restrictions affecting the three-placepredicates can all be expressed using the meaning postulate notation.We willnow mention a couple of types of phenomena that cannot easily be handledby meaning postulates.We take these problem areas in ascending order ofseriousness.Practice The question of the time at which a predicate applies to an individual is animportant matter that we have so far neglected. Consider how it is relevant tosome sense relations.(1) Are dead and alive binary antonyms in just the same wayas open and closed? Yes / No(2) Can anything be dead without first having been alive? Yes / No(3) Does This object is dead entail This object was once alivebut is no longer alive? Yes / NoUNIT 17 Meaning postulates213(4) Have you met in the logical notation used for meaningpostulates any way of expressing the temporal notionscontained in once and no longer? Yes / NoFeedback (1) No (See next question.) (2) No (This is how we, and most Englishspeakers, understand dead.) (3) Yes (4) NoComment The factor of time is involved in a large number of other sense relationsbetween predicates. Any predicate whose meaning involves a change of state(as die, buy, and sell do) will need some mention of time in its dictionaryentry.Practice For each of the sentences below, write down a complex sentence containinga before and an after (or equivalent) that is entailed by the first sentence.Wehave done the first one for you.(1) John arrived at my house at noon entailsJohn was not at my house before noon and he was at my house after noon..........................................................................................................................(2) The Normans conquered England in 1066 (Hint: use the verb control)..........................................................................................................................(3) Harry has forgotten the combination of his safe..........................................................................................................................(4) Etienne learned to play the piano while he was in Paris..........................................................................................................................Feedback (2) The Normans did not control England before 1066 and they did control itafter 1066 (3) Harry once knew the combination of his safe and does notknow it now (4) Etienne could not play the piano before he was in Paris buthe could play it after he was in ParisComment The need to mention time in descriptions of the senses of some predicatescould be overcome by developing a more elaborate logic with the capacityto represent temporal relations and formulating meaning postulates withinthis more elaborate logical framework.We shall not investigate thispossibility here, but move on to a problem with gradable antonymy(Unit 11).The problem is that gradable predicates like tall and short do not haveabsolute meanings that can be conveniently summarized by meaningpostulates. The context in which tall is used also contributes to its meaning.Tall in one context (e.g. of jockeys) means something different from tall inanother context (e.g. of basketball players).PART FIVE Word meaning214What we can say is that in a single context, i.e. applied to the sameindividual (e.g. Basil) with implicit comparison being made to just oneset of individuals (e.g. Europeans), tall is the antonym of short.Practice (1) Have any of the meaning postulates formulated so farin this and the previous units been related to the notionof context? Yes / No(2) Once we introduce the notion of context are we talking aboututterances or sentences? ............(3) Could one speaker truthfully say ‘Maggie is tall’ and anotherspeaker simultaneously, and referring to the same Maggie,truthfully say ‘Maggie is short’? Yes / No
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