Truth Assumptions, Idioms and Ambiguity!

Today in class we did a few exercises on Truth assumptions, stating if some statements were factive or not. The use of certain verbs can imply the actual or probable status of events in a statement. In the sentence “I know the dog died”, the verb “know” is FACTIVE as it assigns the death of the dog as true. In “I believe the dog died”, the verb “believe” is NON-FACTIVE as the clausal object (the dog died) may not be a true fact.

 Are the following statements factive or non-factive? 

I thought that today was your birthday. NON-FACTIVE
I forgot that today was your birthday. FACTIVE
The teacher scolded me for not studying hard enough. FACTIVE
The teacher acknowledged that I hadn’t really studied. NON-FACTIVE
The teacher realized the student had cheated. FACTIVE
The teacher assumed that the student had cheated. NON-FACTIVE

 As well we analysed some sentences which had some ambiguities and rhetorical devices. Meaning can often be complicated through the use of metaphors, idioms, or simply through ambiguous relationships between words. What are the actual meanings of the first two idioms below? What are the possible meanings of the next ambiguous sentences?

Bite your tongue - Metaphor: Stop talking.
Pull my leg - Metaphor: Are you joking on me?
He is my English teacher - Ambiguity: Is he your English teacher or just a teacher from England?
I saw the person with a telescope - Ambiguity: Were you watching him with a telescope? or was he the one looking through it?
She doesn’t like short men or women - Ambiguity: Not clear of wether she has a problem with short men or woman, or short people in general.