Which of the following best illustrates the distinction between a word's sense and its reference?
A'Dog' and 'canine' have the same reference and the same sense.
BThe expressions 'the morning star' and 'the evening star' have the same reference (Venus) but different senses.
CSense is the physical object a word points to; reference is the mental concept.
DOnly proper names have reference; common nouns have only sense.
Frege's classic example: 'the morning star' and 'the evening star' both refer to Venus, but they express different senses (modes of presentation). This shows that reference alone cannot capture meaning — two expressions can pick out the same thing in the world while conveying different information. Sense is the cognitive content; reference is the worldly entity.
Question 2 True / False
Prototype theory proposes that category membership is most-or-hardly anything: an entity either fully belongs to a category (e.g., 'bird') or does not belong at most.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: False
This describes the classical, necessary-and-sufficient-conditions view of categories. Prototype theory, developed by Eleanor Rosch, proposes graded membership: categories are organized around central, typical examples (prototypes), and members vary in how well they represent the category. A robin is a more prototypical bird than a penguin, even though both are birds. This is why people rate category members as better or worse examples.
Question 3 Short Answer
What is the difference between hyponymy and meronymy? Give an example of each.
Think about your answer, then reveal below.
Model answer: Hyponymy is an 'is a' (subset/superset) relation: 'rose' is a hyponym of 'flower' because a rose IS A flower. Meronymy is a 'part of' relation: 'petal' is a meronym of 'flower' because a petal IS PART OF a flower.
The distinction matters because hyponymy organizes taxonomic hierarchies (biological classifications, for example), while meronymy organizes part-whole structures (anatomy, machine components). Conflating them is a common error when building semantic networks or ontologies.