Theme 2

Analyzing a Semantic Phenomenon in the text

“New Story of the Hare and Tortoise”

Group 3: BBE – K46

Le Thi Thanh Thuy – A1

Nguyen Thi Thu Ha – A2

Bui Thi Hue – A2

Nguyen Duy Khanh – A2

Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh B – A2

HÀ NỘI, 4 – 2010

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CONTENTS

Introduction............................................................................................................2

A. Context: New Story of the Hare and Tortoise.................................................2

B. Semantics Phenomena in the story: Metaphor, Synonymy, Antonym, the

Truth of sentences, Grammaticality, Acceptability, and Meaningfulness of the

sentence....................................................................................................................7

I. Metaphor..............................................................................................................7

1. Definition.....................................................................................................7

2. Metaphor used in the text is "climb the organizational ladders"..........7

II. Synonymy and Antonymy.................................................................................7

1. Synonymy....................................................................................................7

a. Definition..................................................................................................7

b. Synonymy in “A new story of the Hare and the Tortoise”..................8

2. Antonymy....................................................................................................9

a. Definition..................................................................................................9

b. Antonymy in “A new story of the Hare and the Tortoise”..................9

III. Polysemy.........................................................................................................10

1. Definition...................................................................................................10

2. Polysemy in “A new story of the Hare and the Tortoise”.....................10

IV. The truth of the sentence...............................................................................12

1. Definition...................................................................................................12

2. Contingently true sentences in “A new story of the Hare and the

Tortoise”..................................................................................................12

V. Grammaticality, Acceptability, and Meaningfulness of the sentences.......13

1. Grammaticality.........................................................................................14

2. Acceptability.............................................................................................14

3. Meaningfulness.........................................................................................14

Introduction

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Semantics is the study of meaning, usually in language. The word

"semantics" itself denotes a range of ideas, from the popular to the highly

technical. It is often used in ordinary language to denote a problem of

understanding that comes down to word selection or connotation. This problem of

understanding has been the subject of many formal inquiries, over a long period of

time, most notably in the field of formal semantics. In linguistics, it is the study of

interpretation of signs or symbols as used by agents or communities within

particular circumstances and contexts. Within this view, sounds, facial

expressions, body language, proxemics has a semantic (meaningful) content, and

each has several branches of study. In written language, such things as paragraph

structure and punctuation have semantic content; in other forms of language, there

is other semantic content. And focusing on a context named: “A New story of The

Hare and Tortoise”, we will be looking at the Metaphor, Synonymy, Antonym,

The truth of sentences, Grammaticality, Acceptability, and Meaningfulness of

the sentences which are denoted in this context.

A. Context: New Story of the Hare and Tortoise

Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster.

They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and

started off the race.

The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was

far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax

before continuing the race.

He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise plodding on

overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ.

The hare woke up and realized that he'd lost the race. The moral of the story

is that: Slow and steady wins the race.

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This is the version of the story that we've all grown up with.

But then recently, someone told me a more interesting version of this story.

It continues.

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some Defect

Prevention (Root Cause Analysis). He realized that he'd lost the race only because

he had been overconfident, careless and lax.

If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have

beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed.

This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to

finish. He won by several miles.

What is the moral of the story? It is: Fast and consistent will always beat

the slow and steady.

If you have two people in your organization, one slow, methodical and

reliable, and the other fast and still reliable at what he does, the fast and reliable

chap will consistently climb the organizational ladder faster than the slow,

methodical chap.

It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable.

But the story doesn't end here. The tortoise did some thinking this time, and

realized that there's no way he can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently

formatted.

He thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on

a slightly different route.

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The hare agreed. They started off. In keeping with his self-made

commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he

came to a broad river.

The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river.

The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundled

along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and

finished the race.

What is the moral of the story? It is: First identify your core competency

and then change the playing field to suit your core competency.

In an organization, if you are a good speaker, make sure you create

opportunities to give presentations that enable the senior management to notice

you.

If your strength is analysis, make sure you do some sort of research, make a

report and send it upstairs. Working to your strengths will not only get you noticed

but also create opportunities for growth and advancement.

The story still hasn't ended.

The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and

they did some thinking together. Both realized that the last race could have been

run much better.

So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.

They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank.

There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back.

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On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached

the finishing line together. They both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they'd

felt earlier.

What is the moral of the story? It is: It's good to be individually brilliant

and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team

and harness each other's core competencies, you'll always perform below par

because there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else

does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the

relevant core competency for a situation take leadership.

There are more lessons to be learnt from this story.

Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare

decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure.

The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard

as he could. In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to work

harder and put in more effort.

Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different.

And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.

The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we stop

competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we

perform far better.

When Roberto Goizueta took over as CEO of Coca-Cola in the 1980s, he

was faced with intense competition from Pepsi that was eating into Coke's growth.

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His executives were Pepsi-focused and intent on increasing market share

0.1 per cent a time.

Goizueta decided to stop competing against Pepsi and instead compete

against the situation of 0.1 per cent growth.

He asked his executives what was the average fluid intake of an American

per day? The answer was 14 ounces. What was Coke's share of that? It is two

ounces. Goizueta said Coke needed a larger share of that market.

The competition wasn't Pepsi. It was the water, tea, coffee, milk and fruit

juices that went into the remaining 12 ounces. The public should reach for a Coke

whenever they felt like drinking something.

To this end, Coke put up vending machines at every street corner. Sales

took a quantum jump and Pepsi has never quite caught up since.

To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise teaches us many things.

Important lessons are:

Fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady

Work to your competencies;

Pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual

performers;

Never give up when faced with failure;

Competing against the situation. Not against a rival.

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B. Semantics Phenomena in the story: Metaphor, Synonymy,

Antonym, the Truth of sentences, Grammaticality, Acceptability,

and Meaningfulness of the sentence

I. Metaphor

1. Definition   Metaphor is the transference of meaning from one object to another based

on similarity between these two objects.

2. Metaphor used in the text is "climb the organizational ladders" This is a common metaphor used in everyday life. The author used the

shape of a ladder with different steps from bottom to the top to express the same

thing in life.

The idea of climbing the ladder of life gives a great metaphor for the efforts

and struggles you have to make to be successful in anything you achieve. The

success quote makes a strong point that you need to make sure that all the effort

you are making is getting you to where you want to go. If you want to achieve

something big in your life, you are going to have to work hard and make many

sacrifices; you need to be sure that what you ultimately get is what you really

want.

II. Synonymy and Antonymy

1. Synonymy

a. Definition

Synonyms are different words with identical or very similar meanings.

Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a

synonym is called synonymy.

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b. Synonymy in “A new story of the Hare and the Tortoise”

• Consistent – Steady – Reliable

- “Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady”.

- “It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable”.

- “Consistent”- continuing to happen or develop in the same way

- “Steady” – continuing or developing gradually or without stopping, and not

likely to change

- “Reliable” – able to be trusted

•• Bank – Side

“The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river.

The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise

trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking

and finished the race”.

- “Bank” – land along side of the river or lake

- “Side” – (part of an area) one of the two areas that are on the left or on the

right

••• Win – Beat

- “Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady”.

- “Beat” – to get the most points / votes in a game or race or competition (=

win)

•••• People – Chap

“If you have two people in your organization, one slow, methodical and

reliable, and the other fast and still reliable at what he does, the fast and reliable

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chap will consistently climb the organizational ladder faster than the slow,

methodical chap”.

- “Chap” – a man /guy

- “People” – the plural of person to refer to men, women and children.

2. Antonymy

a. Definition

Antonymy is the words that are opposite in meanings and have the same

part of speech. The basic property of two words that are antonyms is that they

share all but one semantic property. The property which they do not share is one

present in one but absent in the other. Because of characteristic of antonymy and

polysemy, polysemantic words may have many antonyms for different meanings.

b. Antonymy in “A new story of the Hare and the Tortoise”

* Fast – slow

“Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady.”

“Fast” - moving or capable of moving at high speed but “slow”- moving at only

low speed (not quick or fast)

** Lose – win

“He realized that he'd lost the race only because he had been overconfident,

careless and lax.” The word “lose” (lost) is to be failed in the race.

But, “He won by several miles.” The word “win” (won) is successful or victorious

in the race.

*** End – continue

“But the story doesn't end here” – the word “end” means a final part of something

(the story). (This sentence means the story is continued)

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“Someone told me a more interesting version of this story. It continues” – persist

this story, don’t stop.

**** Start – finish

“This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish.”

- “Start” – begin the race from a particular point in time or space

- “Finish” – reach the end of the race.

***** Working as a team – individual performers

“Important lessons is pooling resources and working as a team will always beat

individual performers”

- “Working as a team” – come together as a group to achieve a common goal.

- “Individual performers”– separate or single work.

III. Polysemy

1. Definition

Polysemy is a linguistic phenomenon in which one word has different

related meanings, polysemantic word. If different meanings associated with one

form are perceived as related, they constitute a polysemantic word. Polysemy is a

property of single word. Polysemy is characteristic of most words in English.

2. Polysemy in “A new story of the Hare and the Tortoise” a. BEAT

In the sentence “Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady”,

the word “beat” is a polysemantic word. Let’s compare it with the sentences:

“They beat me” or “They beat at the door”. In original meaning, the word “beat”

means strike someone or something like two sentences above. But the word

“beat” in the essay doesn’t mean that the hare who fast and consistent strike the

tortoise who slow and steady. It expresses that the hare win the tortoise, the person

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who fast and consistent will always win the one who slow and steady. This case is

similar to the sentence:” The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that

there's no way he can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted.”

b. PLAY

“First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to

suit your core competency.” “Play” in this sentence means put on or take part in a

recent field (career, life) which you are good at and can develop your strength. It’s

related from its first meaning – engage in a game or activity for enjoyment like in

the sentence: “The children were playing outside.”

c. POOR

Having the same source with the word “poor” in “Mark Twain is a poor

man” – lacking sufficient money to live at a standard considered comfortable or

normal in a society but the word “poor” in the sentence “It's good to be

individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able

to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you'll always

perform below par because there will always be situations at which you'll do

poorly and someone else does well” refers to meaning: worse than usual, expected,

or desirable of a low or inferior standard or quality. You lack skills, knowledge or

experiences and do worse than someone.

d. EAT

This word is used to show the action of putting food into the mouth and

chew and swallow it like “He was eating a hotdog”. From the same origins, the

word “eat” in this text “When Roberto Goizueta took over as CEO of Coca-Cola in

the 1980s, he was faced with intense competition from Pepsi that was eating into

Coke's growth” has related meaning. In this case, it means Pepsi bothers or

dominates Coke’s growth in market at that time.

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IV. The truth of the sentence

1. Definition

There are two types of the truth of sentences: necessarily true and

contingently true.

Necessarily true sentence: is one that is true in all possible circumstances or by

virtue of linguistic alone.

Contingently true sentence: is one whose truth – value might have been, or

might be different in other circumstances.

2. Contingently true sentences in “A new story of the Hare and the

Tortoise”

a. Slow and steady wins the race.

This sentence means that even if someone or something is slow but steady,

they still can beat their rivals and become a winner. It should especially be noted

that slow and steady will only win the race if someone’s opponent acts like a

retard in the story. In any other case, slow and steady won’t win any race at all.

For example, in the story, when the Hare fail, he did some soul - searching, he

realized that he had lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless

and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could

have beaten him, so he decided to be fast but still reliable.

b. Fast and consistent will beat the slow and steady.

In this situation, “Slow and steady” does not win the race anymore. And the

Hare is the winner who is fast but still reliable. Because the circumstance changes,

the old strategy is not suitable at all, so that the Hare beat the Tortoise.

c. Work to your competences.

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When the tortoise realized that he can never beat the Hare unless he doesn’t

change into a different route. Therefore, he identifies his core competency again

and then changes the playing field to suit his core competency: the finishing line

was a couple of kilometers on the other side of the river. The Hare, in keeping

with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at

top speed until he came to this broad river. The Hare now can not finish the race

because he cannot swim, even if he was still fast and reliable, he was the loser in

the race in which the Tortoise chose the route. In this situation, “work to your

competences” is completely right.

d. Pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual

performers.

After competing in a different route, the Hare and the Tortoise, by this time,

had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together. Both realized

that the last race could have been run much better. So they decided to do the last

race again, but to run as a team this time. At this time, the Tortoise doesn’t need to

change his competences anymore, because, in the first part of the race, the hare

carried the tortoise till the second part of the race, riverbank. After that, the

tortoise took over and swam across the river with the hare on his back. Both the

Hare and the Tortoise are winners now. The moral “Pooling resources and

working as a team will always beat individual performers” becomes true at this

moment.

V. Grammaticality, Acceptability, and Meaningfulness of the sentences

When mentioning the meaning of the sentence, we talk about three aspects:

the grammaticality, acceptability, and meaningfulness of it. This is another

semantic phenomenon that we consider in the text given.

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First, grammaticality means a phrase, a clause, or a sentence which follow

the grammatical rules. Second, acceptability can be understood as appropriateness,

but a linguistic item such as word, phrase, clause or sentence which can be

acceptable to one group of people is not acceptable to another. Third,

meaningfulness considers how well-formed that sentence is semantically. These

three concepts are interrelated to one another.

In the text given, we want to clarify these three aspects in the two

sentences:

“Slow and steady wins the race”, and

“Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady.”

1. Grammaticality

Firstly, in fact, these sentences don’t follow grammatical rules, and are both

considered ungrammatical. The adjectives “slow”, “steady”, “fast”, “consistent”

should be turned into nouns and the verb “win” should be used in its bare

infinitive form to make the sentences grammatical.

2. Acceptability

Secondly, in term of “acceptability”, the two sentences are unacceptable

because the verbs “beat” and “win” don’t go with either “slow and steady” or “fast

and consistent”. These verbs should be used for people only.

3. Meaningfulness

About “meaningfulness”, it is said that sometimes grammatical sentences

are not necessarily meaningful or acceptable. Even some sentences though fully

grammatical and perhaps also meaningful are, for various reasons, unacceptable.

In this case, although the two sentences are ungrammatical and unacceptable, they

are both meaningful. “Slow and steady wins the race” means that consistency,

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although progress may be slow, will eventually be more beneficial than being

hasty or careless just to get something done. “Fast and consistent will always beat

the slow and steady” implies the person who goes fast and carefully will surely

reach the goal earlier than the other who works slowly even though they are the

same consistent.

In short, the two sentences “Slow and steady wins the race”, and “Fast and

consistent will always beat the slow and steady” are examples of ungrammatical

and unacceptable but meaningful sentences. This is a normal semantic

phenomenon that we can see in language.

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