AMBIGUITY AND TREE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES IN HOME MOVIE A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education By Yohana Christanty Golu Ritan Student Number: 12 12 14 093 ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNVIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2018 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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AMBIGUITY AND TREE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES
IN HOME MOVIE
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Yohana Christanty Golu Ritan
Student Number: 12 12 14 093
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNVIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2018
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AMBIGUITY AND TREE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES
IN HOME MOVIE
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Yohana Christanty Golu Ritan
Student Number: 12 12 14 093
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNVIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2018
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I was stupid and uncomprehending, a clumsy animal in your presence.
Even so, I stayed in your presence, you grasped me by the right hand;
you will guide with advice, and will draw me in the wake of your glory.
Psalm 73: 22-24
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ABSTRACT
Ritan, Yohana Christanty Golu. (2018). Ambiguity and Tree Structure of
Sentences in Home Movie. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Ambiguity and structure tree may be completely different phenomena, but
they relate to each other by their umbrella topics; semantic and syntax. Through
this research, it is expected that English language users are aware of their mistakes
which could lead to misunderstanding and grammatical errors. The movie chosen
to be analyzed in this research is Home movie. It was chosen because the alien
characters frequently produced ambiguous sentences. Therefore, the research
questions of this research are formulated as (1) “What ambiguous sentences are
identified in Home movie?” and (2) “What are the tree structure of the ambiguous
sentences in Home movie?”.
This research is a discourse analysis. The data was taken from Home
movie transcript. The ambiguous sentences were listed, and then got analyzed one
by one. The tree structure for each sentence was also provided and the diagram
may vary one with another.
To answer the first research question, the researcher found that ambiguous
sentences occur because a sentence has nonsensical meaning, or multiple
meanings from a single sentence, and sentences with contradictory facts. In
addition, lexical ambiguity is the most common mistake. To answer the second
research question, the researcher figured out that more than half of the sentences
are grammatically correct and obtain the complete tree diagram, despite of being
semantically ambiguous or having multiple meanings. The rest of the sentences
are grammatically incorrect and have diagrams with unoccupied node where the
sentence has one or more missing labels.
Keywords: ambiguity, structure tree, Home movie
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ABSTRAK
Ritan, Yohana Christanty Golu. (2018). Ambiguity and Tree Structure of
Sentences in Home Movie. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Ambiguitas (kedwiartian) dan pohon struktur adalah fenomena yang sama
sekali berbeda, tetapi mereka saling berhubungan berkat topik utama yang
memayungi mereka, yaitu semantik dan sintaksis. Melalui penelitian ini,
pengguna bahasa Inggris diharapkan sadar akan kesalahan mereka yang dapat
mengakibatkan kesalahpahaman dan kesalahan tata bahasa. Film yang akan
dianalisis adalah film Home. Film ini dipilih karena karakter aliennya yang
sering mengucapkan kalimat-kalimat ambigu. Oleh sebab itu, pertanyaan
penelitian ini dirumuskan menjadi (1) “Apa saja kalimat-kalimat ambigu yang
ditemukan dalam film Home?” dan (2) “Apa saja pohon struktur dari kalimat-
kalimat ambigu dalam film Home?”
Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan discourse analysis. Data
penelitian diambil dari transkrip film Home. Kalimat-kalimat ambigu kemudian
didaftarkan dan dianalisis satu per satu. Pohon struktur untuk masing-masing
kalimat juga disediakan dan diagramnya dapat berbeda antara satu kalimat
dengan yang lain.
Untuk menjawab pertanyaan pertama, peneliti menemukan bahwa kalimat
ambigu muncul karena sebuah kalimat memiliki arti yang tidak masuk akal, atau
memiliki lebih dari satu arti, dan kalimat yang kontradiktif. Selain itu, ambiguitas
leksikal adalah kesalahan yang paling umum. Untuk menjawab rumusan masalah
yang ke-2, peneliti menemukan bahwa sebagian besar kalimat yang dianalisis
sudah mengikuti aturan tata bahasa yang benar dan memiliki pohon kalimat yang
lengkap, tanpa memperhatikan apakah kalimat-kalimat tersebut benar atau tidak
menurut sudut pandang semantik. Kalimat-kalimat yang salah memiliki diagram
dengan cabang yang tidak berlabel.
Kata kunci: ambiguity, tree structure, Home movie
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Jesus Christ
for His endless blessing upon me; for the good health and wellbeing, so I am able
to complete this thesis. I wish to express my sincere gratefulness to my advisor
Bapak Drs. Barli Bram, M.Ed., Ph.D. for his valuable guidance, immense
knowledge, and all written suggestions that are very helpful for my thesis
completion. My earnest gratefulness also addressed to Ibu Yohana Veniranda,
S.Pd., M.Hum., M.A., Ph.D. for giving me chances to finish my thesis.
I would like to express my genuine grateful feeling towards my beloved
parents, Bapa Aloysius Deka Harut Ritan and Ema Raimunda Rusmala
Sigalingging, my precious brother Dede Bie, my dearest best friends Mega
Mukin and Maris Wuwur for their countless affection, prayer, sacrifice, and
support for me. Thank you for always reminding me where home is and the place
I belong to. Likewise, I would like to thank Opung Boru and Opung Doli, Nene
Golu, Tulang Syeba and Nangtulang Syeba, Tua Eva, all of my Tante and
Uda, and all of my cousins especially Kak Eva, Bang Abet, Dek Agus, Dek
Lisa, Dek Dani, Dek Ulan, Dek Shella, and Dek Mitha for always checking my
condition and talking about graduation all the time that trigger me to work like
crazy to finish my thesis. Additionally, I am also grateful to have Opin Royal
Metrock, Mita Sitanggang, Vani Ritan, Fensi Daton, Tata Indy, and Tata
Metil for giving me the necessary direct support.
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I will never forget my college experience with the most awesome and silly
classmates, Pinguin Kejim for helping this Larantuka girl curing her homesick
and getting used to the humble Yogyakarta. I also would like to express my very
special thanks to Octa for lending me a hand since EWD until the very end and
becoming a great partner in crime, to Rere for completing the duo me and Octa
into a more colorful trio, and to Eda Tami for being the shoulder-to-cry during
the hard time. Then, I also want to express my thankfulness to Dwi, Tiara,
Shinta, and Dara for welcoming me warmly when I got nowhere to go.
Besides all people I mentioned above, I would like to give my
wholehearted thankfulness to all people whom I could not mention for their
contributions during this thesis writing process. Hopefully this thesis will be
beneficial for many people.
Last but not least, I would like to give myself a round big applause for
being persevere till the end and finishing this thesis, for winning the long
bloodless battle against the bad me. It feels so good to win a battle, but there will
always another battle to fight. Even then, hopefully the battles can be won over.
Fighting!
Yohana Christanty Golu Ritan
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE………………………………………………………………………i
APPROVAL PAGE....…………………………………………………………….ii
MOTTO…………………………………………………………………………..iii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY……………………………….…..iv
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI……………………………….……v
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………....vi
ABSTRAK…………………………………………………………………….…..vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………..viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………….………x
LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………...……..xii
LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………..…xiv
LIST OF APPENDIX…………………………………………………………..xvii
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………….1
A. Research Background………………………………………………………......1
B. Research Questions…………………………………………………………….5
C. Problem Limitation……………………………………………………………..5
D. Research Objectives……………………………………………………………6
E. Research Benefits………………………………………………………………6
F. Definition of Terms…………………………………………………………….7
CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE………………………..9
A. Theoretical Description………………………………………………………...9
1. Concept of Meaning………………………………………………………..9
2. Concept of Semantic………………………………………………………11
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3. Kinds of Ambiguity……………………………………………………….15
4. Grammar…………………………………………………………………..16
5. Syntactic Categories and Rules…………………………………………...18
B. Theoretical Framework……………………………………………………….30
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY………………………………33
A. Research Method……………………………………………………………...33
B. Data Source…………………………………………………………………...34
C. Research Instruments And Data Gathering Technique……………………….35
D. Data Analysis Technique……………………………………………………...38
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION………………..39
A. The Analysis of Ambiguity Occurs in Home Movie………………………….39
B. The Structure Tree of the Ambiguous Sentences……………………………..53
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND
RECOMMEDATIONS…………………………………………………………..68
A. Conclusions…………………………………………………………………...68
B. Implications…………………………………………………………………...69
C. Recommendations…………………………………………………………….70
REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………..72
APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………...….73
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LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
2.1 Tense differences between English Language
and Indonesian Language………...…...…………………………….....…16
3.1 The List of Some Ambiguous Sentences
Found in Home Movie………………..……………….………………….35
3.2 Without It, He was Alonely and Would
Someday be Extinctly…………………………………………………….36
3.3 I am Overheated with Shame…..………………………………………...36
4.1 Lexical Ambiguity Found in Sentence 1…………………………………40
4.2 Structural Ambiguity Found in Sentence 2………………………………40
4.3 Lexical Ambiguity Found in Sentence 3…………………………………41
4.4 Lexical Ambiguity Found in Sentence 4…………………………………42
4.5 Contradiction Found in Sentence 5………………………………………43
4.6 Structural Ambiguity Found in Sentence 6………………………………44
4.7 Structural Ambiguity Found in Sentence 7………………………………44
4.8 Lexical Ambiguity Found in Sentence 8…………………………………45
4.9 Lexical Ambiguity Found in Sentence 9…………………………………46
4.10 Lexical Ambiguity Found in Sentence 10………………………………..47
4.11 Lexical Ambiguity Found in Sentence 11………………………………..48
4.12 Lexical Ambiguity Found in Sentence 12………………………………..48
4.13 Structural Ambiguity Found in Sentence 13……………………………..49
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4.14 Structural Ambiguity Found in Sentence 14……………………………..50
4.15 Lexical Ambiguity Found in Sentence 15………………………………..50
4.16 Structural Ambiguity Found in Sentence 16……………………………..51
4.17 Lexical Ambiguity Found in Sentence 17………………………………..51
4.18 Lexical Ambiguity Found in Sentence 18………………………………..52
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
2.1 The Tree Structure of Rule S NP VP…………………………………25
2.2 The Tree Structure of Sentence I put the soap in the bathroom................25
2.3 Pattern 1………………………………………………………………….26
2.4 Pattern 2………………………………………………………………….26
2.5 Pattern 3………………………………………………………………….26
2.6 The Tree Structure of Verb Phrase cook the cake in the kitchen
dilligently…………………………………………………………………27
2.7 The Tree Structure of Prepositional Phrase from a senior in the
university…………………………………………………………………27
2.8 The Tree Structure of Sentence The runner will wear the shoes………...28
2.9 The Tree Structure of Sentence Alice and Bob will come………………..28
2.10 The Tree Structure of a Sentence without a VP………………………….29
2.11 The Tree Structure of a Sentence without a NP………………………….29
2.12 The Tree Structure of a Sentence with Incorrect NP and VP
order………………………………………………………………..……..29
2.13 The Tree Structure of a Noun Phrase with Incorrect N and DET
order………………………………………………………………………30
3.1 I am Overheated with Shame…..………………………………………...37
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3.2 Without It, He was Alonely and Would Someday be
Extinctly………………………………………………………………….37
4.1 The Structure Tree for Sentence 1……………………………………….54
4.2a The Structure Tree for the 1st Possible Meaning from Sentence 2………55
4.2b The Structure Tree for the 2nd
Possible Meaning from Sentence 2………55
4.3 The Structure Tree for Sentence 3……………………………………….56
4.4 The Structure Tree for Sentence 4……………………………………….57
4.5 The Structure Tree for Sentence 5……………………………………….58
4.6 The Structure Tree for Sentence 6……………………………………….58
4.7 The Structure Tree for Sentence 7……………………………………….59
4.8 The Structure Tree for Sentence 8……………………………………….60
4.9 The Structure Tree for Sentence 9……………………………………….61
4.10 The Structure Tree for Sentence 10……………………………………...61
4.11 The Structure Tree for Sentence 11……………………………………...62
4.12a The Structure Tree for the 1st Possible Meaning from Sentence 2………63
4.12b The Structure Tree for the 2nd
Possible Meaning from Sentence 2………63
4.13 The Structure Tree for Sentence 13……………………………………...64
4.14 The Structure Tree for Sentence 14……………………………………...64
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4.15 The Structure Tree for Sentence 15……………………………………...65
4.16 The Structure Tree for Sentence 16……………………………………...66
4.17 The Structure Tree for Sentence 17……………………………………...66
4.18 The Structure Tree for Sentence 18……………………………………...67
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LIST OF APPENDIX
Page
Appendix Types of Ambiguity and Grammar Correctness Uttered by
the Alien Characters in Home Movie…………………………………………….73
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter covers six sections, namely the research background, research
problem, problem limitation, research objective, research benefit, and the
definition of the terms. Each section is presented as follows.
A. Research Background
Language is an essential aspect needed in order to avoid misunderstanding.
Human social life requires each of them to have interaction and communication,
and language is the one that make it successful. Fromkin, Blair and Collins (1991)
support that “when you know a language, you can speak and be understood by
others who know that language” (p. 3). Your knowledge of a language helps you
to understand how to interrelate a word, a phrase, or a sentence with its meaning.
Your knowledge of a language also guides you to determine whether or not a
sentence makes sense, “although you probably have not heard or read it before”
(Fromkin, Blair and Collins, 1991, p. 7).
Language is usually associated with linguistic because it deals with nature
of language use and communication among human beings. Linguists examine and
analyze the structural components of a language, then manage to reveal it into a
more understandable explanation. Your knowledge of linguistic is called as your
linguistic competence. It means you know the theory about producing sentences,
including the rules to forming them and making judgments whether or not the
sentences are appropriate and making sense. On the other hand, your ability to use
the knowledge in the actual production and comprehension is considered as your
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linguistic performance (Fromkin et al., 1991, p. 9). There are some branches in
linguistics study such as phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics,
and pragmatics. This research focuses on semantic, which concerns about
sentence meaning, and syntax, which deals with sentence grammar.
When we speak we usually have a certain message to convey (Fromkin et
al., 1991, p. 10). However, the message is sometimes being misunderstood by the
listener due to different knowledge range and interpretation between the speaker
and the listener. In addition, a word or a term might represent different definition
or meaning. The phenomenon when a word, phrase, or a sentence is having more
than one meaning is called ambiguity. Widdowson (2007) states that an
ambiguous sentence is “grammatically well-formed”, but it produces “two
completely different but equally valid” meanings (p. 14). For example, the
sentence “The boy saw a man with a telescope” is ambiguous. It can both carry
out two different but make sense meanings. Hearer might catch different meaning
that the speaker intended to. The first option is that the telescope belongs to the
boy and he saw a man with it. While the other meaning option is that the telescope
belongs to the man and a boy saw the man having or using the telescope. This
kind of situation is discussed in semantic. Frawley (1992) defines linguistic
semantics as “the study of grammatical meaning – literal, decontextualized
meaning that is reflected in the syntactic structure of language” (p.15). It means
that meaning is settled by the set of fact a sentence comes with. It is determined
without considering the context or the hearer point of view. This research is
rooting on this definition. The researcher chose to have a discussion related to
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semantic theory because there are not so many researches about it. The researcher
wanted to provide more information and understanding about semantic.
Another interesting linguistic branch to be analyzed is syntax. According
to Culicover (1982), syntax is a description of the various ways in which words of
the language may be strung together to form sentences. Therefore, a sentence can
be nonsensical, but still grammatically correct. It is possible to create various
kinds and numbers of sentences as long as you follow the correct syntactic rule.
“The grammatically does not depend on the truth of the sentence, or on whether
real objects are being discussed, or on whether something is possible. Untrue
sentence can be grammatical” (Fromkin et al., 1991, p. 103). Ambiguous sentence
can be explicitly presented by applying a tree structure because tree structure
reveals the syntactic categories of a sentence. By presenting the syntactic
categories using a tree structure and analyzing the sentence with the guidance
from the structure rules, one would be able to point out the incompatible lexical or
phrase that causes the structural ambiguity.
The researcher aimed to present the analysis with an entertaining media.
Therefore, the chosen research source is a movie. Donaghy (2014) explains that
movie is an excellent teaching and learning tool because learning from movie is
motivating and enjoyable, provides authentic and varied language, gives visual
context, and brings variety and flexibility to the language class room. The
researcher selected movie as the research source because nowadays students
prefer to learn English through fun and enjoyable media. Indeed there are many
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enjoyable teaching media that a teacher can use, but movie is the best choice since
it has a storyline and, sometimes, some moral values to learn about.
The movie chosen to be analyzed was Home movie because the characters
in the movie, specifically the alien characters, speak in many illogical and
ambiguous sentences. The errors are the interesting focus which the researcher
wants to analyze from semantic and syntax viewpoints. Furthermore, the
ambiguous sentences produced by the alien characters somehow seem acceptable
and correct. The researcher means to figure out whether or not the sentences are
ambiguous both semantically and syntactically.
Home is a sci-fi animation movie which conveys a deep meaning about
family and friendship packed with comedy. The movie tells about a friendship
between a misfit alien named Oh and Tip, a nerd girl from Barbados. The movie is
suitable for people in all ages. It is interesting and fun for children, while adults
can learn and take the moral value from the movie.
Ambiguity can cause a communicational misunderstanding; therefore it
needs to be observed carefully. Related to English education, a good
understanding about ambiguity will be helpful for both parties; teachers and
students. A conducive and optimal English classroom requires teacher to be able
to deliver the learning materials to the students. On the other hand, English
learners are required to, at least, be able to express their opinions. In order to have
a well-delivered materials and opinions, both teachers and students must avoid
ambiguity, which means they would avoid misunderstanding as well.
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Analyzing semantic and syntax simultaneously would be challenging
because of their contrast focus, but the contrast also becomes their charm. The
researcher will try to analyze the logical form of a sentence from semantic point
of view, and then study its structure with syntax theory; despite from the semantic
result whether or not the sentence makes sense. The sentence or phrase structure
will be analyzed by parsing a tree structure. Fromkin et al. (1991) regarded phrase
structure rules as “tests that tree must pass to be grammatical”. The researcher
chose ambiguity and sentence tree as the research topics because researches
related to those matters are still lack as well as the ELESP students’ understanding
about them.
B. Research Questions
The research aims to analyze the ambiguous sentences used by the alien
characters from Home movie with logical approach and syntactic rules. Based on
the research background, the researcher formulates the following research
questions.
1. What ambiguous sentences are identified in Home movie?
2. What are the tree structures of the ambiguous sentences in Home
movie?
C. Problem Limitation
The research aims to answer the research questions stated in the research
problems. Then the answers will be discussed from linguistic point of view. The
research focuses on the semantic and syntax analysis of Home movie. Firstly, the
researcher analyzes the ambiguous sentences occurred in the movie. The
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researcher sees meaning as logical form, so the researcher will provide the more
logical sentence choice. Besides that, the researcher also presents the tree structure
of the sentences. The semantic analysis shows the kinds of ambiguity a sentence
has, the word or phrase which makes the sentence ambiguous, and the logical
sentence form. After that, all ambiguous sentences are parsed to prove whether or
not the sentences fulfill the grammatical rules.
The subjects discussed in the research are sentences produced in the movie
by the alien characters; Oh and Captain Smek. Then, as the research objectives,
the research exposes the ambiguous sentences and presents the further explanation
of the ambiguous sentences through the logical explanation and tree structure. The
research is done by analyzing the transcription of the movie and using document
analysis method.
D. Research Objectives
The objectives of this research are:
1. To analyze the ambiguous sentences in Home movie.
2. To present the tree structure of the ambiguous sentences in Home movie.
E. Research Benefits
The research is hopefully beneficial for English Language Education
Study Program (ELESP) students and future researchers.
1. ELESP Students
The researcher hopes this research will give contributions to Sanata
Dharma University, especially the ELESP students. The researcher hopes the
examples given in this research can help the ELESP students a better
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understanding about ambiguity phenomenon and the syntactic rules in linguistics.
Besides that, as a future English teacher, ELESP students’ are required to be able
to teach English in such a good way. It would be better if they can avoid
ambiguity when teaching English to their future students.
2. Future Researchers
Future researcher who wants to do research in the linguistics field, in
particular ambiguity in semantics and syntax analysis, can use the result of this
research as additional source. Hopefully, the result provides sufficient information
that can be useful and supportive for the future research.
F. Definition of Terms
To clarify concept and avoid misunderstanding, the researcher defines
some terms which occur in this research.
1. Ambiguity
Ambiguity is a linguistic phenomenon when a word, phrase, or sentence
can create different meanings or interpretations. Widdowson (2007) states that an
ambiguous sentence is “grammatically well-formed”, but it produces “two
completely different but equally valid” meanings. Ambiguity is possible to occur
because ambiguity mostly related to sense or interpretation rather than reference.
In this research, ambiguity refers not only to a sentence with multiple meanings
(sentential ambiguity), but also the sentences which violate the semantic rules and
reject a sentence truth such as lexical ambiguity, anomaly words, and
contradiction.
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2. Tree structure
Crystal (2008) defines tree structure of a sentence as a diagram used to
“display the internal hierarchical structure of sentences as generated by a set of
rules” (as cite in Wang, 2010). Simply said, a tree structure parses a sentence into
more detailed syntactic categories. Each syntactic category is represented by a
node. Node functions as a mark whether or not a category can substitute each
other.
3. Home Movie
Home is a comedy animation movie released in 2015. It was adapted from
a children book written by Adam Rex. Its original title was “The True Meaning of
Smekday”. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation which mostly produces
children movies. Home tells about an adventure between Tip, who is looking for
her mom, and Oh, who is helping Tip and preventing Earth from extinction. The
movie delivered a deep meaning about family and friendship with sense of
comedy.
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter includes two sections. The first section is the theoretical
description which exposes the theories in relevance with the research being
discussed. The theories are about meaning, semantic, ambiguity, grammar,
syntactic rules, and tree structure. The second section is theoretical framework
which summarizes all major relevant theories which will help the researcher to
conduct the research to solve the research problems.
A. Theoretical Description
In this section, the researcher describes the definitions, kinds, and some
important points of meaning, semantic, ambiguity, grammar, syntactic rules, and
tree structure. Understanding the concept of meaning and grammar is basically
necessary because it is the core of the research. Besides, ambiguity is the main
reason why this research is conducted; hence understanding the theory about
ambiguity is also necessary. Semantics, syntactic rules, and tree structure are
reviewed in this section as well because they are the means to answer the research
problems.
1. Concept of Meaning
Meaning is not something magically appears when a sentence is made. It is
also not “simply – and merely – the things that it identifies” (Goddard, 2011, p.
4). Fromkin, et al. (1991) note that “meanings build on meanings”. It means as a
sentence is built from words and phrases, a sentence meaning is also built from
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the combination of words and phrases meanings (p. 166). There are seven types of
meaning according to Leech (1981).
The first type is conceptual meaning, which is the “inextricable and
essential” part of a language. Conceptual meaning comes with a set of fact that
will definitely be referred to when someone is defining the language. The second
type of meaning is connotative meaning, which is the opposite of conceptual
meaning. Conceptual meaning is uncertain because it is “vary considerably”
according to culture, historical period, or individual experience. The third type of
meaning is social meaning which “conveys the social circumstances of language
use”.
The fourth type of meaning is affective meaning. Affective meaning is
how the language affects “the personal feelings and attitudes of the
speaker/writer”. Affective meaning can be delivered explicitly through conceptual
word use, and implicitly by using polite expression and friendly tone voice. The
fifth type is reflected meaning. Reflected meaning arises when one expression is
“associated with” multiple senses. Meanwhile, collocative meaning is
“communicated through association with words which tend to occur in the
environment of another word”. Collocative meaning is the sixth type of meaning.
Connotative meaning, social meaning, affective meaning, reflected
meaning, and collocative meaning are included into associated meaning because
they all are “open-ended” and varied. They do not have the characteristic to be
“discrete either-this-or-that terms”. The last type of meaning is thematic meaning.
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Thematic meaning is communicated by “the way in which a speaker/writer
organizes the message in terms of ordering, focus, and emphasis”.
2. Concept of Semantic
Semantic is a branch of linguistics which deals with meaning. Frawley
(1992) defines linguistic semantic is the study of grammatical meaning – literal,
decontextualized meaning that is reflected in the syntactic structure of language
(p. 15). The semantic subfield which is concerned with words meanings and their
relationship is called lexical semantics, whereas the other semantic subfield is
sentential semantics which is concerned with the meaning of phrases and
sentences (Fromkin, et al., 1991).
Lexical semantics is familiar with componential analysis. When someone
tries to look at the meaning of words specifically, he will do the componential
analysis by dividing the meaning of a word into semantic components based on
the real world concepts, such as human/live/dead/animal/plant/thing. The
researcher is going to give the componential analysis of the words father, mother,
son, and daughter. The word father consists of the components male/parents, as
opposed with mother which consists of female/parents. The word son consists of
male/child; meanwhile daughter consists of female/child. However, Aitchison
(2004) argues that nowadays people tend to talk of words having semantic
properties, instead of component or componential analysis. Moreover, this kind of
analysis would be problematic and complicated to be done because the complexity
of semantic analysis for each word.
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The second range of semantics analysis is sentential meaning. The
capability to understand lexical meaning can be very helpful to understand
sentential meaning since sentence is some words grouped together by following
the correct grammatical order to create meaning. Someone can reject the truth of a
sentence by understanding the word meaning and make the logical thinking. For
example, the sentence my mother is a bachelor is false. Because if the sentence is
changed into with it semantic properties, it will be my married female parents is
an unmarried male. The analysis shows that the sentence is ambiguous because
the words built the sentence do not agree with each other.
Each word, phrase, and sentence has their own sense and reference. Sense,
is the same with the truth condition of the sentence, is the declarative sentence that
helps people to know under what circumstances that the sentence is true.
However, sense is not the same with actual facts; although you can learn the
actual facts by knowing the truth condition. Furthermore, by knowing the sense of
a sentence, people can determine its reference as well. The reference points the
truth value either the declarative sentence is true or false in the real world. When
two sentences have the same truth condition, they can be paraphrase for each
other. Sometimes, the truth of a sentence entails the truth of another sentence. In
contrast, if the entailment implies negative sense or falseness of another sentence,
the relationship is called contradiction.
There are also some cases when the semantic rules are violated. The first
case is when a sentence is not making any sense. A sentence like my brother is the
only child does not make sense, although it obeys the syntactic rules. Sentences
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like the example above are called anomalous sentences. Anomalous occurs when
words with contradiction value exist in one sentence. The other semantic rules
breaking case is metaphor. Poets and people who work in literature must be
familiar with metaphor. Sometimes, metaphor is ambiguous and quite similar with
anomalous sentence.
Nonetheless, metaphor actually has meaning – nonliteral meaning. Unlike
anomalous sentence, metaphor can be interpreted. For instance, there is a proverb
saying time is money which means that someone should not waste his time
because he could be using it to earn money (“Time is money”). To understand this
metaphor, people need to “understand both literal meaning and facts about the
world” (Fromkin, et al., 1991, p. 180). There is a similar case with metaphor
which breaks the semantic rules, yet it creates meaning in unusual way. It is called
idiom. In this case, “the usual semantic rules for combining meanings do not
apply” (Fromkin, et al., 1991, p. 180). Idiom sometimes has peculiar word
combination which creates completely different meaning. For example, the idiom
break a leg does not literary mean to break someone’s leg. Its meaning is to wish
you a good luck and to have a successful result.
Fromkin, et al. (1991) outlines some semantic relationships as follow.
a. Homonyms: words with same pronunciation, but their meanings
are unlike. There are two kinds of homonym namely homophone
and homograph. Homophones are different words with same
pronunciation like the words bye, buy, and by. On the other hand,
homographs are different words with same spelling and
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pronunciation like the word bank, which might mean a riverside or
a financial institution. Homonyms often create ambiguity.
b. Polysemous: a word with multiple meanings. For example, the
word man has few meanings. It may be an adult human male, or a
male member of a workforce, team, etc., or a husband or lover, or a
person, or human beings in general, or the human race (“Man”).
c. Synonyms: words with same or nearly same meaning. The words
sofa and couch is one example of synonym. Synonyms often used
for paraphrasing a sentence.
d. Antonyms: the oppositeness of words. Fast is the opposite of Slow.
Some kinds of antonym are complementary pairs (e.g.:
awake/asleep), gradable pairs (e.g.: big/small), and relational
opposites (e.g.: give/receive). Some antonyms can be formed by
adding the prefix un- (fortunate/unfortunate), or non-
(academic/nonacademic), or in- (tolerant/intolerant).
e. Hyponyms: set membership of words. Couch, wardrobe, table,
bed, and washstand are the hyponym of furniture.
f. Metonyms: words that is used to substitute another word to express
the same meaning. The pen is mightier than the sword is one well-
known example of metonymy. The use of the pen refers to the
written words; meanwhile the sword refers to the military force).
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3. Kinds of Ambiguity
A word, phrase, or sentence is ambiguous if it has more than one meaning.
Chierchia and McConnell (1990) explain that “ambiguity arises when a single
word or string of words is associated in the language system with more than one
meaning”. It creates confusion about what is conveyed, since the current context
may lead to different interpretations of meaning. Ambiguous sentence is
grammatically entirely well-formed. Nevertheless, it is possible to be decoded in
two completely different but equally valid ways (Widdowson, 2007).
Here are some types of ambiguity according to Hurford and Heasley
(1983) as cited from Nordquist (2016).
a. Lexical ambiguity
This type of ambiguity, in written text, results from multiple
meanings of a word, and in spoken language, results from different word
forms of the same sounds. Ignoring the context of the sentence, lexical
ambiguity can arise from homograph, in written text, and homophone, in
spoken language. For example, the word bank can refer to riverside or a
financial institution.
b. Structural ambiguity
Structural ambiguity occurs because a sentence is form by similar
phrases. The sentence actually carries out a clear meaning, but the
combination can be interpreted more than one meaning. For example, in
the sentence the burglar threatened the student with a knife. The phrase
with a knife in this sentence is ambiguous, because it can be related to the
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burglar and the student. The reader or listener may interpret that the
burglar who has the knife and threatens the student without a knife. They
can also think that it is the student who holds the knife, and the burglar
threatens him. Structural ambiguity happens if there is a sentence which is
ambiguous because its words relate each other in different ways, even
though none words are ambiguous.
Ambiguity also occurs because a word in a sentence is not compatible with
other words in the sentence. This situation is called anomaly. Anomaly is contrast
with lexical ambiguity. Lexical ambiguity occurs because a word has more than
one meaning that makes the sentence is interpreted differently. On the other hand,
anomaly occurs because a word “conforms to all the grammatical rules of the
language, but it is strange because it represents contradiction” (Fromkin, et al.,
2004).
4. Grammar
For each human language, the linguists try to discover the precise
description of its property. The description is called grammar. Grammar does not
refer to the property which a language should have. It refers to the language
property it does have (Culicover, 1982, p.2). Consider the example in table 2.1:
Table 2.1. Tenses Differences between English Language and Indonesian Language
Period of time No. English language Indonesian language
Present a. I eat meat (every day). Saya makan daging setiap hari.
Past b. I ate meat (yesterday). Saya makan daging kemarin.
English language has tenses as one of its properties. Tenses usage specifies
when the action takes place. Besides the tenses usage, the use of adverb of time in
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the sentence is helpful; however, its usage is optional. In English sentence (a.),
people can still understand that the action of eating takes place in the present time
although the adverb of time, every day, is omitted. Also, people can still know
that the action of eating in English sentence (b.) happens at the past, even without
the use of adverb of time. Tenses affect the verb of the sentence in such way, so
people can understand a sentence even if the sentence does not an adverb of time.
As a comparison, Indonesian language does not have tenses. There is no
difference between the verbs in the two sentences even though the action of eating
happens at two different times. The verb of the sentences does not undergo an
extreme change. Therefore, the only property which can specify the time when the
action takes place is the adverb of time.
This comparison is only one tiny problem among the problems which the
linguists faced when they try to discover the precise grammar of a language.
Because of the debate among the linguists related to the precise grammar of all
languages possess, they achieve a considerable agreement that the correct theory
of grammar must have a lexicon, phonology, syntax, and semantics as its
components. When a native speaker of a language learned his first language, he
did not establish the language rule by himself. The other native speakers implicitly
taught him the rules. However, it is not possible to ask the native speakers to
explain the rules. Therefore, it becomes the job of linguists to define the rule by
considering the judgment of the native speakers about the sentence grammar.
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Intuitively, a sentence in any languages is considered grammatically
correct when the sentence sounds good to the native speaker. Formally, they are
the strings of words that can be formed by the rules of the syntactic components.
For example, consider the following sentences:
(1.1) a. My younger brother married a nun.
b. Married my younger brother a nun.
Sentence (1.1a) is grammatically correct, although it is not possible to marry a nun
because nuns have made a vow of celibacy. Nevertheless, English speakers still
can recognize that sentence (1.1a) is an English sentence and sentence (1.1b) is
not. Common English speakers have the knowledge of sentence structure, while
linguists aim to discover the syntactic component of a language. So, learning a
language can be more convenient and easy. Syntactic component of a language is
a set of rule by which words and groups of words may be strung together to form
grammatical sentences of the language (Culicover, 1982 p. 4). This means that the
sentence must be true, logical, and make sense.
5. Syntactic Categories and Rules
English sentence is unlimited. Anyone can make a sentence a long as they
want. For example, Mega thinks that Maris knows that Tino thinks that Elva
believes that aliens are real. Even one can make the sentence longer. The linguists
made various possible hypotheses to figure out the acceptable sentence structure
by interchanging the position of any words in a sentence. They found out that a
word category affected the interchanging process and grammar. They finally
concluded that categories are groups of words of a language that can substitute for
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one another without affecting grammatically. The category is called syntactic
category. The grouping system is involving sentence, noun, noun phrase, verb,