Faculty of Education

Honour’s Degree in English Language Teaching

Name: Jaime Sousa
Test 2 Subject: Semantics & Discourse Analysis 2nd Semester / 2024

I. Transcription: 10 points)

1. In the full video, several questions have been asked and answered. Transcribe the
answer given by CHICHANGO to the two questions of this short video.

PS: Italicise the extract and place it between inverted commas.

“Thank you for the question. we are going to times where the teachers will enter the
classroom, and pretend they are teaching. for the way we look at the things from last
year specifically from the last year until now, so we will end up having a stage where the
teacher will enter the classroom and pretend they are teaching while they are cheating.
it is not difficult it is just for you to change some letters to to find someone who is
cheating instead of teaching. unless good measures are taken by the government in
order to fulfil the teacher’s needs’”. “Talking about recruitment I would start by the
entrance exams. I am starting from there because I do not agree by the way the
entrance exams are are administrated. For example, one who needs to be a teacher
must be someone who is highly okay skilled in reading, speaking, writing and then what
do we expect from someone who will paint options? then we say that this one must be
trained to be a teacher probably or they take out this way of multiple choice entrance
exams for ones who wish to be a teacher, or after that process, high and tough oral and
written exams should be given to this one’’.

II. In the light of Hurford et al in the book “SEMANTICS: a coursebook” (40 points)

Find (if applicable) an example from the extract and discuss about. You must not
discuss or bring the example before defining the entry. When based on Hurford et al,
you do not need to cite the definitions. Do it in the numbers that other sources were
suggested.
PS1: Some examples will be applied for more than one discussion.
PS2: The entries have already been bolded. Underline whatever is an answer and
italicize any copy from the extract.
PS3: In the cases where you will not find a clear instance of the concept to be
discussed, you will produce own related example in the context of the speech.

1. Contradictory proposition – A proposition is a CONTRADICTORY of another proposition if it is

impossible for them both to be true at the same time and of the same circumstances. Example: “The
teachers will enter the classroom pretending they are teaching while they are cheating’’. In this example
is possible to see the second preposition contradicts the first one.

2. Word ambiguity – are words which has two or more synonymies that are not
synonymies of each other. Example: “Someone who will paint options’’. We may think
the person will paint the options instead of circling it.
3. Hyponymy – According to CAO Hyponymy refers to the sense relation between a more
general, more inclusive word and a more specific words. Example: ‘’The word Government has as
hyponymy words such as citizen and in the citizen we find teachers, students’’. ‘’Or the superordinate
Recruitment has as hyponymy entrance exam, interview’’.
4. Hypernymy or superordinate – According to CAO (2023, pag 97) it is a word which is
bigger, broader or more general in meaning is called the superordinate or hypernym. Example:
‘’Government, citizen, teachers. Here the superordinate is the word Government’’
5. Adjacency pairs – According to PALTRIDGE Adjacency pairs are utterances produced by
two successive speakers in a way that the second utterance is identified as related to the first one as an
expected follow-up to that utterance. Example: ‘’ When the lecturer Chichango was asked the question
about what future is expected in the field of education if the teachers tend not to be motivated he
listened firstly, after the interviewer stopped speaking he answered the question without running away
from the content. It is noticeable that there is turn taking, therefore when the speaker was asked he had
kept in silence so there is adjacency pairs “
6. Agent of a sentence – It is when the person deliberately carries out the action
described. Example: ‘’The teachers will enter the classroom. Here the teacher is our
agent of a sentence’’.
7. Affected participant – It is when the person or thing suffers from the action.
Example: ‘’The teachers will enter the classroom. Here our affected participant is the
classroom’’
8. Instrument – it is the thing hardly ever a person by means of which the action is
carried out. Example:’’ Good measures are taken by the government in order to fulfil the
teacher’s needs. Here our instrument is good measures, because good measures are
means that are going to be used to sort out the problem’’

III. Spoken discourse (25 points)

Not needing to rely on a source, in approximately FIFTEEN lines, discuss the features
of a spoken discourse, looking at some of the following aspects: grammatical intricacy,
lexical density, explicitness, spontaneity, repetitions, hesitations and redundancy.
PS: find from the extract at least an example of one feature.
Grammatical intricacy in spoken discourse is way too different with written discourse
simply because when we speak we tend to make short and simple sentences, .
Example
Lexical density in spoken discourse is less lexically dense than written discourse. It
means that when we are speaking, there is a less use of lexicons, we hardly use new
vocabularies but we use those that we use frequently than when we are writing.
Example:
Explicitness in spoken discourse the sentences
IV. Analysing Discourse (25 points)

In approximately TEN lines, analyse the answer given by the speaker regarding the
question about the recruitment process.

In the first four lines, summarise what the speaker said and in the remaining ones, bring
your point of view (whether you totally or partially agree or disagree with him), including
the reasons of your position.

Concerning the recruitment, he pointed out that it should start by the entrance exam
due to the fact that the speaker does not go along with the way the entrance exam
elaborated, being so, the speaker suggests that one who needs to be a teacher must
be evaluated from his writing, reading, speaking and not through multiple choice exams.

I do go along with the speaker’s point, due to the fact that it can be ease for one who
does not have skills in reading, writing, and speaking to be admitted to enter the
university to be a teacher then we will end up having teachers that are not well
qualified, skilled and trained. I am of a point that this multiple choice method of entrance
exam should be eliminated simply because nowadays is possible to find a teacher
trainee that does not know how to speak at least basic English very well, with help he
succeeds.
PS: Your writing must not exceed FOUR pages.

The lecturer: Chichango