1
CHANGE
A Thesis
Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for
the Degree of Letters Scholar
Yohana Sari
203026002111
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTEMENT
LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY “SYARIEF HIDAYATULLAH”
JAKARTA
ABSTRACT
Yohana Sari. Euphemism Analysis on “American Pie 5 Scripts: An Approach of Meaning Relation and Semantic Change. A Thesis. English Letters Department. Letters and Humanities Faculty, State Islamic University (UIN) Syarief Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2008.
The aim of this research is to describe the meaning relation and semantic change that happened in euphemistic expression that found on film American Pie5. This meaning relation falls under : synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy , and meronymy. While semantic change divided into :semantic broadening, semantic narrowing, amelioration, pejorative,sinestesia, andassociation.
The writer applies descriptive–qualitative method to describe the types of meaning relation and semantic change that happened in euphemistic expression. In collecting data the writer applies the documentation method in which the “ American Pie 5” film scripts are downloaded from the website http.//www.American scripts.com. The writer only uses 53 expressions from 101 data obtained, because the are several same euphemistic expression used more than one in different utterance. Data analysis continued by using descriptive method, and the theory of Jackson with binary semantic feature.
APPROVEMENT
EUPHEMISM ANALYSIS ON “AMERICAN PIE5”SCRIPT: AN
APPROACH OF MEANING RELATION AND SEMANTIC CHANGE
A Thesis
Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for
the Degree of Letters Scholar
Yohana Sari
203026002111
Approved by:
Dr. Muhammad Farhan. M. Pd
NIP:150 299 480
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTEMENT
LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY “SYARIEF HIDAYATULLAH”
JAKARTA
LEGALIZATION
The thesis entitled “Euphemism Analysis on “American Pie 5 Script” has been
examining before the Examining Committee held by the English Letters Deparment, the Faculty of Adab and Humanities, Syarief Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta on March 27, 2008. this paper has been accepted as a partial fulfilment required for Strata One Degree in English Letters Department.
Examining Comitee
Chair Person Secretary
Dr. Muhammad Farhan, M. Pd
Drs.A. Saefuddin, M.Pd
NIP. 150 299 480 NIP. 150 261 902
Member
Examiner I Examiner II
Drs. A. Saefuddin, M.Pd
Supardi. SS
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institution of higher learning. Except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text.
Jakarta, March 27, 2008
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Alhamdulillah, my greatest praise will all be onto Allah SWT, the Almighty and the All Merciful. His guidance completely helped the writer through it all to accamplish this thesis. The writer would also like to deliver her deepest gratefulness to all parties who have given the constant supports, meaningful suggestions, constructive criticism, time and the like. They are:
1. Prof. Dr. Abdul Chaer, MA., as the Dean of the Letters and Humanities Faculty, The State Islamic University Syarief Hidayatulah, Jakarta.
2. Dr. Muhammad Farhan, M.Pd., as the Head of English Departement and as the guidance counselor for this thesis.
3. Drs. Asep Saefuddin, M.Pd., as the Secretary of English Letters Department. 4. All lecturers in the English Letters Department, and all the staffs of the Letters
and humanities Faculty.
5. The witer’s Father and Mother. You are always there for me every step of the
way…I can never thank for you endless feeling of affection.
6. The witer’s brother and sisters. Hopefully, God gives you all thr glorious ways
to reach your dreams. Amin.
7. My beloved engagement Mas Zahril Anasy. You are my everything….I love you so much.
8. The writer’s close friends: Esa, Retil, and Ikmal ( I’m so greatful to have you
all and I’ll be missing all the lough, tears and joke we have shared).
Finally, the writer hopes this thesis will be useful especially for the writer herself and those who are interested in this field of the thesis. She realized the this thesis is not perfect, that is why the writer welcomes critic and suggestion for this thesis to be better.
Jakarta, March, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
C. Statement of the Research Problem ... 4
D. Objectives of the Study ... 4
E. Significance of the Study ... 5
F. Research Methodology... 5
1. Definitions and Types of Euphemism ... 10
E. Meaning Relation... 23
F. Semantic Change ... 26
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH FINDING 29 A. Data Description ……….. 29
B. Data Analysis……… 31
1. Metaphor ……….. 31
2.Rhyming Slang ……….. 35
3.Remodeling ……… 38
4.Circumlocution……… 41
5.Clippings………. 44
6.Abbreviation………47
7.Quasi-omission……… 50
8.Full Omission ………. 53
9.Metonym………. 55
10. Hyperbole……… 58
11.Understatement………. 61
12. Euphemism through Borrowing……….. 64
13.Abstraction……… 67
CHAPTER IV:CONCLUSION and SUGGESTION………71
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Talking is one of the most significant social activities. It is used to deliver and express the idea, information, feeling and so on. People can do this activity if the interlocutor may recognize the certain conversation governing their own action, use of language, and also the interpretation of the action and utterance of others. The speakers do not randomly choose the forms and style to use in the conversation, they will bear in mind several aspects, namely how close to one another interlocutors, when and where the conversation take place, and whom the interlocutor are.
Evey single time we speak, we tend to speak in good way in order to avoid insulting the listener, embarrassing the interlocutors, attacting the listener’s self-esteem, and judging people in the negative way. To overcome
the bed effect, the speaker may conceal the truth by avoiding the “dengerous”
words. The dangerous word is well known as “taboo” or “dysphemism”.
Taboo word is a word known to speakers but avoided in some, most, or all forms or contexts of speech, for reasons of religen, decorum, politeness,etc.1 It is like a way in which people show the disapproval believed to be harmful to other, either for supernatural reasons or for violating a moral code.
1
These taboo subjects can vary widely: sex, bodily effluvia, bogily function, death, religious matters, dangerous animal, political issue even diseasses. People may find these taboo words in every single corner in life such as: in the street, in the movie, in the bars, in the parties, in the office, at school and so forth.
For those certain words that can not be said, people are going not to talk about these words, or, if these words are talked about, people shall talk about in roundabout way to rename and repackage them in getting ‘better’
sound. They may apply “Euphemism” so as to avoid mentioning to certain
matters directly as mentioned above. According to Matthews Euphemism is word, etc. used in place of one avoided as e.g. offensive, indecent, or alarming.2
Morever, euphemism is a polite substitute for taboo words, which fall under many types of euphemism. The Use of euphemism word is in order not to hurt anybody else by telling less than the truth or concealing the truth. For instance, we can take these euphemism words from the “American Pie 5’
scripts, the word “fuck” may be represented byfreakon television, the words “death” is neutralized by passed Away, passed on,the word ‘penis’ for ‘tits’,
the word ‘ladies room’ for ‘toilet’, the phrase “in bed” for “sexual
intercourse” and so on. In addition, the word which relates to ‘God’ are
strictly avoided to mention in vain for Chrsitian religious teaching. To
2
overcome this problem, jeeze, gee, gosh, holy, lord, gracious, laudy, and so forth are the euphemism for God.
This euphemism term occurs in order to refine the taboo words. These eephemisms surely give rise to language change through the emergence or loss of some sense of lexems, or suitable replacement in the higher style. A euphemistic term usually arises “semantic change”, these semantic changes
lead the new meaning to be broader, narrower, more favorable or less favorable. Besides, the other meaning may change because of the exchange of perception or the similarity of chracters.3
Although each lexem undergoes semantic change, it is still tied by meaning relation. Hence, together with the above explanation, the writer has in mind to bring about the research“ Euphemism Analysis on American Pie
5 Scripts: An Approach of Meaning Relation and Semantic Change”.
Here, the writer intends to describe in detail what kind of meaning relatioan and semantic change undergone by euphemism term based on the theory cited in chapter II.
B. Focus of the study
This study focuses on semantic issue such as Meaning relation and Semantic Change involved or not involved in the implication of euphemism taken from American Pie 5 Scripts. In analyzing the data, the writer applies semantic theory proposed by Leech, Saeed, Cruse, Jackson, and so on. The
3
writer also uses theory of componential analysis in order to get the real meaning relation and semantic change of the euphemism.
The writer applies these theories so as to cover up all the data, which are going to be analyzed. The writer also makes up her mind to collect data fromAmerican Pie 5 scriptafter considering that these might be the best data for the analysis. It is because the story of this movie goes a lot to the area of friendship, love, sex and the like.
C. Statement of the Research Problem
Based on the focus of study above, the writer formulates the following questions:
1. What types of euphemisms are found from “American Pie 5” script? 2. How do the meaning relation of the euphemistic terms in “American Pie
5” script influence to the semantic change?
D. The Objectives of the study
The principle aims of this study are:
1. Describing and classifying the euphemism terms into types of euphemism taken fromAmerican Pie 5script.
2. Giving explanation what kind of meaning relations give to euphemism terms on each type of euphemism by applying componential analysis. 3. Giving explanation what kind of the semantic changes involved in the use
E. Siqnificance of the Study
The writer hopes the result of this research will be advantageous to her especially and the reader generally, in order to know what kind of words in English terms called “Taboo and Euphemism”.
The writer also hopes that this research can give contribution for linguistics study Especially in the study of semantics and sociolinguistics.
Finally , the result of this research can motivate other reseachers to do the same study but different object.
F. Research Methodology
1. Method of Research
In this study, the writer intends to describe in detail the phenomena of the use of euphemism she found on American Pie 5script. Morever, this research includes qualitative methodology. That is a research procedure that bears descriptive data either written and oral expression of people or their behavior. Therefore, the data collected are in words, sentences or pictures with no figure at all (Oppenheim,1992).4
2. Data Analysis
Euphemistic terms as the primary and main data, will be analyzed in some ways. Method of analyzing data applied in this study should be outlined so that the writer find no confusion and go out of this study.
4
A.N. Oppenheim, Questionnaire Design, Interviewing and Attitude Measurement
Here, the writer applies descriptive method that is a method used in order to make a description, an illustration, or a picture systematically, factually and accurately about facts, characteristic and relation between existing phenomena in observing a group of people, an object, a set of events at present .5 The writer also applies distinctive feature analysis taken from semantic properties, which is belonging to those own words. Technique used to verify the semantic properties is binary semantic features (Jackson, 1985)6. Next the data will be analyzed by using core meaning analysis. It is used to find out the meaning of the word, even through the data is not in a sentence.
Hence, the writer gets through some steps as fallows: a. Describing taboo and euphemistic terms .
b. Substituting the euphemistic term with taboo term
c. Analyzing the data by using the set of components to compare and identify the meaning relation and semantic change.
d. Analyzing the data by using core meaning analysis that is a technique to find out the meaning of the word even though the word is not in sentence.
3. Collecting Data
The data of the study are the scripts of American Pie 5. Hence, it includes documentation method since the data is obtained from documentation. The data are also obtained from http.//www.sript-o-rama.com, a website that is full of movie’s information. That is movie
5 ibid 6
website where the writer browsed and attained the transcript of the movie American Pie 5 written by Adam Hers but directed by Paul Wreitz. Therefore, the writer applies recording technique as well by downloading the data from the website.
Thus in detail she got through some steps, there are: a. Watching the movie entitledAmerican Pie 5. b. Reading the movie script ofAmerican Pie 5.
c. Searching euphemistic terms from the movie that guided by the movie scripts.
d. Giving a mark on euphemistic terms which are going to be observed. e. Using note technique as the last step to make a list of euphemism and
then classify into types of speech.
4. Unit of Analysis
The analysis unit of this research is the scripts of American Pie 5 movie, where the scripts obtained from http//www.dailysripts.com, a website that is full of movie’s information.
a. Population
In this study , population selected by the writer is all utterances in connection with euphemism taken from thescripts ofAmerican Pie 5 movie.
full of activities, love, sex, and etc. Therefore, this movie might be appropriate data to analyze euphemistic term. All euphemistic expression the writer found number 101 data.
b. Sample
Arikunto7 suggested that the sample should be 10% - 25% minimally or between 50% - 100% maximally of the population. Furthermore Suryabrata supported this statement by asserting the more sample taken, the more representative it will be.8Due to that, the writer takes 23% of the population as the sample. 13 euphemistic terms from total 53 data. Here, the writer only uses 53 data out of 101 data because there are several same euphemistic expression used more than one in different utterance. This study applies purposive sampling technique in which the sample are taken from the population according to particular criteria based on the purpose of the research.
7
Ibid. p.72
8
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Euphemism
1. Definitions of euphemism
The word euphemism comes from the Greek word euphemos, meaning "auspicious or fortune speech" which in turn derive from the Greek root-words eu "good or well" + pheme "speech or speaking". The euphemewas originally a word or phrase used in place of a religious word or phrase that should not be spoken loudly.
A euphemism is used as an alternative to dispreferred expression, in order to avoid possible loss of face: either one's own face or, through giving offense, that of the audience or of some third party .9
Concise Oxford Dictionary as quoted by Enright10 explains that euphemism is a substitution of mild, vague or indirect expression for rude or direct one. Whereas, Matthews11stated that euphemism is word, etc. used in place of one avoided as e.g. offensive,indecent, or alarming.
If the nice word is well known as euphemism, so the contrast words, the bad one is called dysphemism. People use it to downgrade and
9
Keith Alan & Kate Burridge,Euphemism and Dysphemism: Language Used as Sheild and Weapon(New York: Oxford University Press, 1991) p.11.
10
D.J. Enright, Fair of Speech: The Use of Euphemism (New York: Oxford University Press,1985) p.13.
11
show disapproval of things, as Allan (1991)12stated that "dysphemism is an expression with connotations that are offensive either about the denotatum or to audience, or both, and it is substituted for neutral or euphemistic expression for just that reason".
The purposes of euphemism are to present words of good omen, to avoid unlucky words in which metaphysical harm may befall either speaker or hearer, and to prevent hearer from losing face by offending his sensibilities.
For Examples, Euphemism words to cite intimacy for "sexual intercourse", pass away for "die",rest room for "toilet room",pre-owned vehicle for "used car", the big C for "cancer", custodian for "janitor". Other euphemisms used to avoid mildly distasteful words are-we 'II have to let you go replacing "you're fired", take industrial action instead of 'strike',life insurancereplacing "insurance for when you are dead",do you drink? goes to a policeman to know whether he will take a bribe and so forth. In short, euphemism is an alternative to unpleasant expression, and is used in order to avoid possible loss efface.
2. Types of Euphemism
Many euphemisms that are figurative can be formed through several ways, such as:13
12
Keith Allan & kate Burridge(1991).op. cit. 13
13
a. Metaphor is speaker's utterance meaning which is in commonly implicit and replaces the literal meaning, for example.: the cavalry's comereplaces " I'v got my period",go to the hunting ground for"die" b. Rhyming slang exists inwhistle (and flute)for "suit",groan and grunt
for "cunt"
c. Remodelling is the way of replacing part of the word likesugar, shoot, Andshucks for "shit",tarnation for "damnation"darn, dang,anddrat for "Dam"
d. Circumlocution is a roundabout way of talking (often includes in metaphor or metonymy). It is common in the form of listeme (compound or idiom) Like little girl’s room for “toilet" and categorical inaccuracy or Terminology inexactitudefor "lie",
e. Clippings is the euphemisms starting off with a modifying word then the modifier is dropped as the phrase ceases to be euphemistic, consider: mentally deranged > deranged and lunatic asylum > asylum, Jeezefor "Jesus",brafor "brassiere",
f. Abbreviations are written and pronounced as strings of letters like S.O.Bfor "Son of a Bitch"or peefor "piss" also/... instead of printing "fuck",
h. Omissions fall into:
1) Quasi- omission substitutes some non-lexical expression for the dispreferred term into dashes and asteriks like mmm, er-mm, and soon.
2) Full-omission seems less common than quasi-omissions found / need to goby omitting "to the lavatory".
i. One-for-one substitution is almost synonym and consists of two: 1) Metonymy (general-for-specific): one name exchange for another
like the legal term person for "pennies" and region for "genitals", 2) Synecdoche (part-for-whole euphemism) means to take
with something else demonstrated in spend a penny for "go to the lavatory" and I've got a cough may occasionally ignore the accompanying "stuffed up nose, postnasal drip, and running nose" j. Hyperbole: overstatement, exaggeration are found in euphemism like
homemeaning "house",flight to gloryfor "death"
k. Understatement (litotes) likesleepfor "die",deedfor "act of murder". It is used to emphasis and to negate the opposite of what we wish to convey .
l. Euphemism through borrowing
According to http//www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#see_also many euphemisms fall into these categories:14
a. Terms of foreign and technical origin such as.: copulation, perspire, Urinate
b. Abbreviation such as.: BS for "Bullshit", TS for "Tough Shit" c. Abstraction such as.:it, the situation, go left the company, do it
d. Indirectness such as: behind, unmentionable, privates, live together, go to the bathroom, sleep together.
e. mispronunciation such as:freakin, goldarnit
f. Plays on abbreviation such as.: barbecue sauce for "bullshit", Maryland farmer for "motherfucker", sugar honey ice teafor "shit"
g. Phonetic alphabet such as: Foxtrot for "fuck", bravo, sierra for "bullshit"
Then, Enright (1985:)15 classified types of euphemism into: substitution, rhyming slang, abbreviation, acronyms, circumlocution, litotes (understatement), indirectness, lightly imaginative language, and synonym. All these types are similar to above types, for lightly imaginative language is the same as metaphor in which they screen the unlucky words in imaginative way. And synonym can be classified into metonymy and synecdoche since both of them are actually almost synonym.
14
August.2007. http//www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#see_also. P.114
15
From all the explanation above, the writer can describe types of actions, or persons16. Meanwhile, Akmajian inLinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication proposed that "taboo words are those that are
16
to be avoided entirely, or at least avoided in 'mixed company' or 'polite company'17
Common swear words such as "Damn!" Or "shit!" include taboo words. Hence to avoid words seen as offensive, obscene, or somehow disturbing to listeners or readers, the taboo words will be euphemized. It is like what Allan stated inNatural Semantic Languageas follows:
A taboo term, a strong dysphemism, is often replaced by more positively viewed euphemistic word or phrase whose original meaning has been semantically extended to create a new sense for it. For instance, instead of saying "my father died' someone may say my father passed away.18
Thus taboo words including swear words such as "Damn!" and "hell" have euphemistic terms:Darn!andheck
Taboo words comprise three kinds, they are:19 1. taboo of fear
a. Personal name is tabooed on any island. The inhabitants supposed uttering a taboo name in to assault the owner of the name,
b. Names of the dead are tabooed in some societies. If they uttered the name, they would call the deads from their resting place. Violation of such taboo is thus believed to cause misfortune, sickness, death and even offense to living descendants,
c. Taboos on the name of Gods are to avoid metaphysical malevolence and blasphemy.
17
Akmajian, et al., Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication
(London: The MIT Press,1988) P.112.
18
Keith Alan,Natural SemanticsInew York:Blackwell Publishers, 2001) p.134.
19
d. Names of dangerous animals are regarded taboo because there is a fear that animals may know where the speaker is and respond to the call. Based on the research, there are 24 animals tabooed throughout the world.
2. taboo of delicacy
In general, people tend to prevent uttering critical and unpleasant preference or events. Typical examples are physical and mental disorders -Cancer, Aids- crime and law -barristers instead of "counsel" military -pacify means "be killing", neutralize means "kill selected targets or conquer".
3. taboo of propriety
This typical taboo goes to sexual acts, bodily effluvia, body -parts function and curse. For instance: shit, sperm, urine, belched breath, nail parings, snot, fart even menstruation are regarded as synonymous for the curse. It is because men viewed menstrual blood as far more horror than women did.
B. Semantics
1. Definitions of Semantics
Semantics is commonly considered to be the study of meaning (and related notions) in language or the study of linguistic reference and truth conditions in language.20Semantics applies to the expression that made up of words, phrases, and sentences.
20
Jackson cited there are 3 main ways in which linguists and philosophers have attempted to construct explanations of meaning in natural language: (a) by defining the nature of word meaning (b) by defining the nature of sentence meaning (c) by explaining the process of communication.21
2. Definition of meaning
According to Saeed meaning must be something that exists in the mind rather than the word so that it must be more abstract than picture or features.22 Even Leech inSemantics supported this statement by dividing meaning into: a. Meaning as reference:
It is said that the meaning of linguistic sign is what that sign refer to, what it stands for in the real word,
b. Meaning as mental concept:
It is considered that the meaning of the linguistic sign is the mental concept it stands for, that the meaning of a word is the idea it conveys or arouses in the mind of the speaker or hearer,
c. Meaning as usage:
It is the meaning of a word as the ability to use that word in ways other people will understand, and to understand it when uttered by other people.23
21
Howard Jackson. Words and Their Meaning (New York: Longman, 1975), p.12
22
John Saeed, Semantics (London:Blackwell Publishing, 2004) p.23.
23
C. Semantic Field
Lehrer as quoted by Akmajianet al noted that words belonging to the same semantic field undergo similar semantic changes.24 Semantic field analysis uses feature to show the relationship of lexical items within a field or domain. The features or components help us index the meaning of words, separate the various meanings of individual words, and analyze relationship between similar words. defided by some general term or concept. E,g. in English the semantic field of colour included words such as blackandredthat distinguished colours, or are *hyponyms of the more general termcolour.26
Semantic field plays a role in semantic change. For instance: the words from the semantic field of bird name:goose, cuckoo, pigeon, cool, turkeyhave literal meaning and metaphorical meaning which refers to "foolishness". The words hotandcold are antonyms describing physical temperature. With pair of antonyms, if one member undergoes a metaphorical extension, the other
24
Akmajian, et al,Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication.
(London: The MIT Press, 1998) p.238-252.
25
John Lyons,Semantics(Melbourne:Cambridge University Press, 1977) p.24
26
tends to change in a parallel position. In colloquial styles, we can speak of a hot car (stolen car), hence we would refer the phrase cold carto one that is not stolen, on the ground that semantic change tends to affect entire semantic field in a parallel position, and not just single members of the field.27
D. Componential Analysis
O'Grady cited another approach to meaning to represent a word's intention by breaking it down into smaller semantic components known as componential analysis or semantic decomposition. Many linguists have turned to componential analysis to give an explicit representation of the semantic relations between words28. Then Lyons29looked upon componential analysis is the broadening of the semantic field theory.
Componential analysis is a technique for describing interrelation of meaning by breaking concept down into minimal components, or features, which are distinctive in terms of a semantic opposition or dimension of contrast30
Meanwhile Allan et al in Euphemism and Dysphemism: Language used as Shield and Weapon (1991:16) did support the usage of componential analysis to analyze euphemistic terms by revealing that "the process involved here is a kind of componential analysis, the sense of taboo terms are unpacked and each of the meaning components are listed... using this method, a new euphemism can easily be created".
There are three kinds of components of meaning: 27
Akmajian.,et.al, (1989).op cit.P.367.
28
William O’Grady,Contemporary Linguistics(London: Longman Pearson Education, 1996) p.78
29
John Lyons,Semantics(Melbourne:Cambridge University Press,1977)P.326.
30
1. Generic / common component is one or more of components which are judged to be the most significant factor. This component describes to which these lexemes belong to so as to differentiate it from other semantic domains. For instance: the lexemes man, woman, boy and girl have the common component [HUMAN]
2. Diagnostic component is components that are important and sufficient to distinguish the sense of one lexeme from the sense of the other lexeme. This diagnostic component is a core part that dictionary makers incorporate into their definitions of words. For instance: [ADULT] and [MALE] are the diagnostic components for man,woman, boy,andgirl. 3. Supplementary or incidental component is non-diagnostic component to
identify the sense of the words.
Meanwhile, Jackson inWords and Their Meaningcited that there are only 2 broad types of component namely common and diagnostic component. Those serve to identify a semantic domain, and to distinguish lexemes from each other within semantic domain. They are also shared by all the lexemes in the domain. Therefore, in this research, the writer is going to discuss only 2 types of components, common and diagnostic component.31
Such a componential analysis can be applied in many areas of the vocabularies. For example, the distinction between murder and kill can be stated explicitly and economically,if murderis analyzed as having a meaning which are components representing intention, causation, and death. Whereas,
31
kill as having the components representing only causation and death. Using the method of componential analysis, we can then formally define synonymy, hyponymy, incompatibility etc. On this basis, a set of features follows that spinsteris a hyponym ofwomanbecause it contains all the features of woman as part of its specification, and that spinsteris incompatible withbachelor by virtue of the contrast of sex specification and withwifeby virtue of the marital specification.
Another interpretation of lexical items of semantic components using a binary feature is conventionally written in capital letters and placed in square brackets, which is able to take only three values, either it is present [+], or it is absent [-], or it may be present or absent [+/-] and also could be marked with [0]. Accordinglyspinstermight be characterized as having for its meaning
- [ MALE ] + [ HUMAN ] + [ ADULT ] - [ MARRIED ] bachelor,an item incompatible with spinster, as having
+ [ MALE ] + [ HUMAN ] + [ ADULT ] - [ MARRIED ] wife,another incompatible item, as having
E. Meaning Relation
Lyon and Geckeler are of the opinion that there is a close relationship among semantic field, componential analysis, and meaning relation.32 We should know that componential analysis is the broadening of semantic field theory. The subset from all lexemes may create and blend the meaning relation of one element to the other.
Meaning relation is thus the most significant factor in semantic field and the componential analysis is a device to identify the meaning relation.
When a word bears various relation of the meaning to one another, they may be related semantically. Words are connected by virtue of meaning from subgroups within the lexicon of the language. Words have a multiple sense, namely the primary and secondary meaning. The meaning relation is possibly derived by a variety of processes of semantic change. Semantic relations comprise synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy or incompatible and meronymy defined by semantic field. Semantic field serves to link certain words with other words, indicating that the overall lexicon of a language has a complex internal structure consisting of subgroups sharing significant properties.
Leech33looked upon meaning relation under:
1. Synonym is a relation in which words have same meaning. Hatch and Brown (1995:19) revealed that synonym refers to the similar entity so that
32
John Lyons (1977), op cit. p.45
33
the words might be interchangeable if all features are the same. Then Akmajian (1988:248) added that "synonym is a relation that structures the lexicon of a language into sets of words sharing a meaning". For instance: automobileis synonymous withcar
Nevertheless synonyms do not always share their entire feature. It is called looser synonym when X is synonym for Y but not vise versa. A typical example ismurderis synonym forkillbutkillis not a synonym for murder .34
2. Antonym is a relation where words have opposite meaning. Akmajian added that "words can share an aspect of meaning but be 'opposite' in some other aspect of meaning called antonym".35Whereas Parera (2004) added that there are 2 kinds of antonym:
a. Contradiction or true antonym: The opposite meanings of 2 items or lexemes are absolute. It consists of only 2 terms; the one is the opposite to the other.
For example: Alive X dead that were visualized by Leech (1978:106) in diagram below:
34
Evelyn Hatch and Cheryl Brown, Vocabulary, Semantics and language Education. (London: Cambridge University Press,1995) P.19.
35
Akmajian,.at al. An Introduction to Language and Communication. (London: The MIT Press,1988) p.249.
‘alive (+live)
b. Gradable antonym'kontrer':the meaning relation of items / words may consist on a number of dimension at once
For instance: hot and cold share the notion of a temperature dimension. Here they are defined as follows:
II
cold cool lukewarm warm hot
Whereas, Leech proposed incompatible instead of antonym. It is because antonym contrasts only on a single dimension. In fact, the word may contrast on a number of dimensions at once. It is supported by Leech's theory36that two componential formulae may be incompatible if the one has at least one feature contrasting with a feature in the other. 3. Hyponym is a relation which is termed meaning inclusion of one meaning
in another. Cruse reported that "the lexical relation corresponding to the inclusion of one class in another is hyponym".37For instance: in the sense of tulip, orchid and rose are included in flower. These typical terms mentioned that super ordinates as the upper term and hyponym as the lower term. Again a diagram will help:
Flower
Tulip orchid rose
36
Geoffrey Leech,Semantics(New Zealand:Penguin Press Ltd, 1997).P.100.
37
4. Meronymy is a relation which has hierarchical branching concept. Saeed pointed out meronymy is a concept used to explain a part - whole relationship between lexical items. To differentiate it from another hierarchical concept, meronymy can be identified by using "part of relationship. For instance: B is part of A, and A has B.38 This concept might be as follows:
Human
Head hand foot chest
F. Semantic Change
Semantic change happens along with the time and the development of its society. According to Allan euphemism and dysphemism motivate language change. They do it by promoting new expression or new meanings for old expression and causing some existing vocabulary to be abounded.39 Fromklin and Rodman stated that "there are three ways in which a lexical item may change semantically, its meaning may become broader, its meaning may become narrower, its meaning become shift".40
O'Gradyet al stated that the changes involve one of the phenomena: 1. Semantic broadening is the process in which the meaning of a word turns
into more general or more inclusive than the earlier form, such as: the wordauntused to mean "father's sister" become "father or mother's sister".
38
John Saeed, Semantics (London: Blackwell Publishers, 2004) p.70.
39
Keith Allan, Natural Language Semantics (New York: Blackweel Publishers,2001) p.164-5.
40
2. Semantic narrowing is the process in which the meaning of a word turns into less general or less inclusive than the earlier meaning. Such as: The term fowlused to mean "any bird" becomes "a domestical bird"
3. Amelioration is the change of meaning in which the new meaning becomes more positive or favorable, such as:Pretty used to mean "tricky, sly, cunning" has a better meaning "attractive"
4. Pejorative is the change of meaning in which the new meaning becomes more negative or unfavorable, such as: Wench means "girl", but it is regarded worse with meaning " wanton woman, prostitute "
5. Semantic shift is a process in which a word loses some aspect of its former meaning, taking on a partially new, but related, meaning. Such as: Immoralused to mean "not customary" becomes "unethical".41
Djajasudarma divides the semantic change into generalization, amelioration, pejorative, sinestesia, and association.42The meanings of generalization, specialization, amelioration, and pejorative in Djajasudarma's theory are similar to those of O'Grady's theory. Djajasudarma adds two more, i.e.
Sinestesia (the change of meaning because of the exchange of our perception). And the other one is Association (the change of meaning because of the similarity of character).
Based on those theories we can conclude that the semantic change can be classified as follows:
The Semantic Chang Semantic broadening = Generalization Semantic narrowing = Specialization
William O’Grady,Contemporary Linguistics(London: Longman Person Education,1996) p.334.
42
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH FINDING A. Data Description
In this chapter, the writer analyzes the data collected from movie titled American Pie 5. The writer chooses this movie 'because they relate to teenager’s life and sex education which are still regarded taboo. All available data contain euphemistic terms are then categorized into types of euphemism which classified into the euphemistic application. After that, the writer goes to the next steps by analyzing the meaning relation and the semantic change the euphemistic terms undergo.
Based on the types of euphemism, the writer found out that there are no euphemistic terms in classification of acronym, synecdoche, indirectness, mispronunciation, plays on abbreviation, and phonetic alphabet as shown at the following table:
4 Circum locution
6 Abbreviation - MILF! - Mom I'd Like to
Fuck! AP 5
15 Abstraction - To do it
(a) Tracy: Slow starter, then turns out to be a geniusin bed.(p. 60)
That utterance is taken from American pie 5 movie. It is uttered by Tracy.
She is Erick's girl friend in the movie. Tracy says so after making love with Erick. Yet, this expression only crosses her mind. She does not express it to Erick.
The word 'bed' is categorized as euphemism since it is a figurative word that means to 'sexual intercourse'. 'Sexual intercourse' is vulgar to say. It refers to sex activity between couple. The uses of euphemisms are in order to avoid hurting somebody's feeling, losing somebody's face, blurring and upgrading the dispreferred words.
Many people conceal the word 'sexual intercoure' in consideration that it is taboo as the part of bodily function. It is because:
b) It involves sensitive organs of human being connecting to their sensitive feeling.
c) Many couples supposed that sexual intercourse is private matters so that it should be for the record of only both parties.
One way to blur 'sexual intercourse' is by concealing it with the euphemistic term. Here, 'bed' is euphemism for 'sexual intercourse'. It is a kind ofeuphemistic metaphor. It is because metaphor is a figure of speech in which an expression literally denoting one thing, event, or attributive is quoted to an expression for another dissimilar things or event to imply sameness between them. The lexical meaning of 'bed' is sort of furniture whose main function is to sleep. Meanwhile, the literal meaning goes to sexual activity conducted by lovers to express their feeling. It involves male and female genitals and happens in bed. Hence, ‘bed’ might be the figurative form for sexual
intercourse.
To support that the utterance :slow starter, then turns out to be genius in bedincludes euphemism, the writer unpack the term 'bed' as follow:
Bed: [PHYSICAL] [IN ROOM] [HUMANITY] [THING] [FURNITURE USED TO SLEEP] [FURNITRE USED TO HAVE SEX]
Here, the word 'bed' has no sensitive feature. the components of 'bed' will be different, if 'bed' is replaced with the intended term.
(b) Tracy: Slow starter, Ihen turns out to be genius insexual intercourse.
catch the reference directly. In addition, 'sexual intercourse' has semantic components like:
Sexual intercourse: [PHYSICAL] [IN ROOM] [HUMANITY] [ACTIVITY] [MAKE LOVE]
For further information, the writer will identify the meaning relation by using the semantic components of both words:
Bed Sexual intercourse
+ Physical +
+ In Room +
+ Humanity +
+ Thing
-- Activity +
+ Furniture used to sleep
-+ Furniture used to have sex _
- Make love +
In consideration of above semantic component, the writer finds out some components in common such as [PHYSICAL] [HUMANITY] [ROOM]. These similar components surely let them replace each other especially in the sentence :slow starter then turns out to be genius in bed.
The proofs also occur in theSemantic component. The word 'bed' that is regarded nicer has no sensitive feature, while the word 'sexual intercourse' comprises one sensitive feature that is [MAKE LOVE]. Hence, people tend to say 'bed' rather than 'sexual intercourse' in order not to mention a vulgar one and to lose somebody's face as well.
relation. It is a kind of meaning inclusion. The word 'bed' and 'sexual
intercourse' are included in meaning of physical, humanity, and room in which they share with it the semantic component [PHYSICAL] [HUMANITY] [IN ROOM]. 'Bed' is physical object located in room or bed room. It has [HUMANITY] feature because 'bed' is specifically used by people not others. Hence, [HUMANITY] includes the character of 'bed'. Whereas, 'sexual intercourse' is physical activity taking place in room or private place. The feature [HUMANITY] belongs to 'sexual intercourse' because all human beings have sex. Yet they share no component [FURNITURE USED TO HAVE SEX] [FURNITURE USED TO SLEEP] [HAVE SEX]. The feature of 'bed' refers to object used to activities like sleeping and having sex. while, the features of 'sexual intercourse' refers to physical activity. So, the meanings of 'sexual intercourse' are included in the meaning of ’bed’. ’Sexual
intercourse’is then hyponym of ’bed’ that may describe as follow:
Bed
Sleep Sexual intercourse
The word 'bed' as euphemism used to mean home furniture on which to take asleep. It is normally inside bedroom furnished with all accessories like bed sheets, pillow, bolster and so forth. While, in sentence slow starter, then turns out to be genius in bed, 'bed' refers to sexual activity committied by
number of semantic component of both words. If 'bed' has 6 [+] features, while 'sexual intercourse' has 5 [+] features.
Secondly, 'bed’ applies Semantic change in pejorative process in which the new meaning is regarded worse than the previous one. Based on the above explanation, the previous meaning has neutral feature like [FURNITURE USED TO SLEEP] and [FURNITURE USED TO HAVE SEX], yet the new meaning has sensitive feature like [HAVE SEX]. So, the new meaning 'bed' is regarded less favorable by referring to the sex area.
2. Rhyming Slang
Data example: (2)
(a)Lola: ... like shaft! I could just ride thepuppy!( p. 11)
This utterance is said by Lola. Lola is a doorwoman at Night club . It happens in the night when Erick is going to go to the bar, Erick and Lola meet at the door. She then opens the door and offers him a drink. Lola is so impressed on Erick. He is handsome guy and a widower as well. But she only says her idea about Erick on her thought .
In that sentence, 'puppy' is a euphemism for 'the buttocks' or 'ass'. 'The buttocks' should be replaced because it is profane. It relates to body part that is vulgar to utter. It is vulgar for some following reasons:
a) The buttock locates on the lower trunk
b) It contains orifices and passages that expel excrement from the body such as defecate and the like
c) It is also used to have sex, especially anal sex.
real intention referring to somebody else's private part. The hearer then just catches the nice sense of the word.
The use of 'puppy' as a euphemism for buttock get throughRhyming slang process. We know that 'puppy' is a young dog. People take care and love the
puppy as best they could. Meanwhile, ‘buttock’ is back partof our body on which people sit, put in an injection, process excrement or even have copulation. Many people prefer to take care of another body part rather than take care of the buttock, while it has significant of excretion process.
To prove that sentence ... like shaft! I could just ride the puppy! is a euphemism expression by the existence of the word 'puppy'. It is shown from the components of 'puppy'
Puppy: [CONCRETE] [ANIMAL] [ANIMATE] [HAS BODY]
Here, 'puppy' has no sensitive feature, its refer to animal that shall move, eat, and so on. If the writer replaces the word 'puppy' in sentence (a) with the intended reference, the sentence will be:
(b) Lola: ... like shaft! I couldjllst ride the buttock
sentence (b) is acceptable, but it does not include euphemism. It is because the meaning is shown clearly. Besides, 'buttock' consists of components like: Buttock: [CONCRETE] [ANIMATE] [BODY PART] [GENITALS]
To get the Meaning relation of the words, the components will be identified as follow:
Puppy Buttock
+ Concrete +
+ Animate +
+ Animal
-- Body part +
- Genitals +
Based on the semantic component, the word ’puppy’ and ’buttock’ share
several components such as [CONCRETE] [ANIMATE]. ’Puppy’ has those
components referring to animal that shall move, eat, do copulation to
reproduce, and so on. The identical fatures let ’puppy’ substitute for ’buttock’.
They are concrete or real. The [ANIMATE] feature of ’puppy’ refers to
something in connection to human creator as the characteritic of animal. While, the {ANIMATE] feature of ’buttock’ goes to body part of creature.
These similar components induce 'puppy' replace and refine ’buttock’ as well.
The word ’puppy’ is regarded more polite because it is used to refer to a
young dog, while ’buttock’is a body part specifically, genitals.
Next the writer is going to analyze the meaning relation between ’puppy’
and ’buttock’. They have meronymy relationin which it is a relation used to describe part - whole relation. The meaning of ’buttock’ like [BODY PART] and [GENITALS] are part of the meaning of ’puppy’. Thus, the ’buttock’ is a
part of ’puppy’. To avoid confusion with hyponym relation, the writer then
identifies this relation by using the frame X as a part of Y and Y has X. This term is shown in the relation between 'puppy' and 'buttock' in which 'buttock is a part of ’puppy’ and ’puppy’ has ’buttock’ like below:
Puppy
The word ’puppy’ undergoes pejorative in which the new meaning is regarded
more negative than the previous one. The word ’puppy’ is only used to mean a young dog. It is a kind of pet loved so much by the owner. It is because ’puppy’ is a funny and loyal animal. Meanwhile, 'buttock' is back part of
human being referring to genitals having function to copulate and excrete as well. In this sentence, the new meaning ’puppy’ is buttock as back part and
genitals of human. It is then clear that the new meaning 'puppy' gets worse than earlier one.
3. Remodeling
Data example:( 3)
(a) Girl: ohgosh, I forgot - you uh, you look okay ... I mean you can't even tell.(p.68).
This utterance is taken from American Pie movie 5. It is uttered by girl whose name is not mentioned in this movie. The conversation involves three people namely: girl, Finch and Stifler. That girl holds out for Finch when she refuses
Stifler’s offer to go out with him. Being refused, Stifler gets mad and express his anger in the word “shitbreak?!!“
then the girl responds his anger like the above utterance.
The euphemistic term mentioned above is the word ‘gosh’. ‘Gosh’ is a euphemism for ‘God’. God becomes taboo since it relates to metaphysical
subject or object so that it evokes not to mention the names of God explicitly. ‘God’ is categorized as high taboo in considerationof:
a) God is the creator over this world
b) God is the only one worshiped by all human being around the world c) God is the most powerful ruler
of God in euphemistic terms. They are afraid of the terrible wrath when they say the names of God in oath.
Hence, the word ‘gosh’ stands for ‘God’ that has been avoided in euphemistic expletive. ‘Gosh’ is a euphemism in addressing and naming of
God. In typical case, the word ‘gosh’ turns into euphemism gained through
remodeling. It is a kind of euphemism ending up substitution in which either
the onset or rhyme of the unpleasant expression is suitable for that of a semantically unrelated word. Thus, the lexical meaning of ‘gosh’ is an
expression of surprise, shock and anger in the form of expletive or exclamation. Meanwhile, ‘God’ is the creator or ruler of the universe worshipped as having power so that it becomes a nightmare to say the names of God in oath.
Supporting the above idea, the writer would like to break down the word ‘gosh’ in ohgosh, I forgot - you uh, youlook okay ... I mean you can’t even
tell ... into smaller features:
Gosh: [EXCLAMATION] [SURPRISE] [SHOCK]
Those features show that ‘gosh’ has netral and common feature, it is thus
regarded euphemism. The writer then replace 'gosh' with the hidden meaning to get any difference:
(b) Girl: ohGod, I forgot - you uh, you look okay ... I mean you can't even tell
...Sentence (b) is acceptable, but it does not include euphemism, it is because the word ‘God’comprises components like:
This expression together with the components refers God to the only creator over the universe.
Based on those components, the writer then describes the Meaning relationbetween 'gosh and 'God' by comparing the semantic component.
Gosh God
+ Exclamation
-+ Surprise
-+ Shock
-- Soul +
- Creator +
- Powerful +
- Ruler +
- Being worshipped +
From the above component, the writer tinds out that ‘gosh’ and ‘God’
share no semantic components. Those opposite components do not let ‘gosh’ and
’God’ have a meaning relation. Here, ‘gosh’ only refers to an exclamation of
irritation without specific meaning. Meanwhile, ‘God’ is the powerful creator over
the world that is worshipped by all human creators. ‘Gosh’ can stand for 'God' because it sounds almost similar to the dispreferred word. It is motivated by euphemistic remodeling the word ‘gosh’ applies. This type puts the euphemistic
terms matched either the onset or rhyme of impropriety one, no matter semantically related or unrelated the words are. The writer can summarize that there is no meaning relation of both words.
shock as well. It has 3 [+] features falling under [EXCLAMATION] [SURPRISE] [ANGER]. Meanwhile, ‘God’ has 5 [+] features comprising
[CREATOR] [RULER] [POWERFUL] [SOUL] [BEING WORSHIPPED]. The meaning of ‘gosh’ turns into broader because the previous meaning has
no exact meaning but the new meaning refers to the creator over the world. In consideration of all the power, He is the ruler worshipped by all human creatures.
4. Circumlocution
Data example: ( 4)
(a) Ryan: I haven’t had this much funmaking outsince ...(p.14)
The sentence is uttered by Ryan. The conversation takes place between Ryan and his colleague, Darcy. One night, Darcy called him up and they planed a date in a club. After sharing their personal live, they get closed, begin kissing and so on. Therefore, Ryan says so to Darcy.
The euphemism for that context is the word ‘making out’. This word
doesn’t refer to the activity of completing a list, managing to see a thing, or
understanding what is being said. Its different from all above references, the word ‘making out’ is a roundabout way to mention ‘flirtation’. ‘Flirtation’ is
absolutely taboo because of the reasons as follow:
a) Flirtation is sexual activity evoking somebody to have great pleasure. b) Flirtation is an act to show affection in getting amusement
d) Flirtation stimulates partner’s genitals
According to those reasons, people avoid saying ‘flirtation’ explicitly. They then conceal the truth in consideration of guarding against unpleasant term in public, keeping the sex partner’s sensibility, preventing people or
involved partner from losing face.
‘Making out’ is a kind of sexual euphemism since it deals with all about
sex. The euphemistic term obscures the real intention so that it is surely more polite and pleasant to mention.
The word ‘making out’ also gets through euphemistic Circumlocution. It
is an indirect way of talking used commonly in the form of compound or idiom. Thus, the term ‘making out’ is an idiom for ‘flirtation’.
Supporting the above explanation, the writer shall show the semantic components of ‘making out’ like below: Making out: [PHYSICAL]
[ACTIVITY] [DONE BY PEOPLE] [COMMON] This term has no sensitive feature. It is therefore regarded as euphemism in which the lexical meaning is dropped. To make clear, the writer will replace ‘making out’ with the intended
meaning:
(b) Ryan: I haven’t had this much funflirtationsince ...
The sentence (b) is acceptable, yet it is not euphemism expression. It is because ‘flirtation’ is vulgar to say and comprise the components like:
Flirtation: [PHYSICAL] [ACTIVITY] [DONE BY PEOLPLE] [SEX] The feature [SEX] Jets ‘making out’ differentiate from ‘flirtation’. The feature also
To get more information about the meaning relation and semantic change, the writer then identifies the component of these words:
Making out Flirtation
+ Physical +
+ Activity +
+ Done by people +
+ Common
-- Sex +
From those semantic components, ‘making out’ and ‘flirtation’ share
several components. These are [PHYSICAL] [ACTIVITY] [DONE BY PEOPLE].
Therefore, they may make up for each other especially in sentence: I haven’t had this much fun making out since ....‘Making out’ not only replaces
but also refines the taboo term ‘flirtation’. The euphemistic term does so to obscure the dispreferred term. It is even supported by the component itself. As mentioned above, ‘making out’ has general and neutral feature, while
'flirtation' comprises one sensitive feature such as [SEX].
In the area of meaning relation, the word ‘making out’ are incompatible because they share semantic components but has one feature contrasting with a feature in the other. Based on semantic components, ‘making out’ and
‘flirtation’ have similar features like [PHYSICAL] [ACTIVITY] [DONE BY
PEOPLE]. Yet, they also clash in the feature [± SEX]. ‘Making out’ refers to physical activity done by people in general area and ‘flirtation’ means
‘Making out’ involves many people and contains general issues. It is
evoked by the existence of [PEOPLE] and [COMMON] features. Meanwhile, ‘flirtation’ with [SEX] feature usually involves only 2 people usually a couple
and lover. They surely do something specifically in sex area. These words therefore have Semantic change in Semantic narrowing processin which the new meaning is considered less general than the earlier one.
5. Clippings
Data Example: ( 5)
(a) Jessica: all right, where's my wonderbra?(p.21)
The utterance is stated by Jessica. The situation is he has to toss his idea about women's products.
The implication of euphemism in this sentence occurs in the word ‘bra’.
‘Bra’ is able to counteract ‘brassiere’. ‘Brassiere’ is considered as a distasteful
word for below reasons:
a) Brassiere is a kind of women’s underwear.
b) Brassiere connects directly to female sex organ, breast
c) The shape of brassiere consist of two concavities that looks like breasts it self.
d) We feel disgusted with stranger's underwear.
conversation is in the opposite sex gender. Man and woman are different so they will consider brassier in the different way.
‘Bra’ is a modifying fonn of ‘brassiere’. It could be said that 'bra' is the
abbreviation of ‘brassiere’ that end - clipped. Both of them refer to female's cloth supporting and covering for the breasts. It usually starts using by girl in the age around teens in which their sex organ especially breasts are getting grown. To avoid hurting girl's sensibilities, the word ‘brassiere’ should be
euphemized with the implicit one, which is ‘bra’.
To support that explanation, the writer then unpacks the word ‘bra’ in
sentence all right, where’s my wonder bra? as follow: Bra: [BREAST] [FEMALE] [CLOTH] [OBJECT] [PHYSICAL]
In sentence (a), ‘bra’ is categorized as euphemism. The writer replaces the word ‘bra’ with the real meaning to differentiate the euphemism and taboo
term.
(b) Tracy: all right, where's my wonderbrassiere?
Sentence (b) is acceptable, yet it is not a kind of euphemism. The word ‘brassiere’ is vulgar that falls under components like: Brassier: [BREAST]
[FEMALE] [CLOTH] [OBJECT] [PHYSICAL] From that features, the writer finds out that ‘bra’ and ‘brassier’ have similar components, but ‘bra’ has more
implicit sense than ‘brassiere’.
To get the meaning relation between bra and brassiere, the writer will identify semantic components as follow:
+ Breast +
+ Female +
+ Cloth +
+ Object +
+ Physical +
+ Private +
These words are able to replace each other even though having different sense. ‘Bra’ may stand for 'brassiere' and vice versa. It is because they have
identical components such as [BREAST] [FEMALE] [CLOTH] [PHYSICAL] [OBJECT] [PRIVATE]. ‘Bra'’ and ‘brassiere’ share the similar entities so that
‘bra’ is synonymous for ’brassiere’ and ‘brassiere’ is synonymous for ‘bra’.
Nevertheless 'bra' is categorized as a euphemism with the consideration that it is more pleasant, implicit and tactful than ‘brassiere’.
For thesemantic change, the word ‘bra’ undergoes no semantic change. It is that there is no change in meaning occurring to these words. It is because ‘bra’ is the short form of ‘brassiere’ and still refers to the female cloth whose
function is to cover the female breasts. The other proof is ‘bra’ or ‘brassiere’
share semantic components that are similar in number and lexeme. Those 6 components comprise [CLOTH] [PHYICAL] [BREAST] [OBJECT] [FEMALE] [PRIVATE]. The proof is clearly shown by the componential analysis in which ‘bra’ and ‘brassiere’ fall under the all components in
common. In this typical case, to get the better, polite, pleasant term, and blur the true meaning, the word 'brassiere' is being short.
6. Abbreviation
(a) Guest: Dude! That chick ... is aMILF!( p.22)
The utterance derives from American Pie movie. It happens at Stifler’s home. There is a picture of Stifler’s mom on the wall. She is late
30’s but she is still so attractive and beautiful. The guests like Jim and
other guys just feel so impressed on her and naughtily give an opinion like that.
'MILF' is a euphemism term in above utterance. 'MILF' is an abbreviation for 'Mom I'd Like to Fuck'. 'Mom I'd Like to Fuck' turns into taboo because the existence of the vulgar term 'fuck'. 'Fuck' is forbidden to say because of these below reasons:
a. Fuck may refer to have sexual intercourse in which it is completely taboo in connection to sex organ of human being
b. Fuck is also an expression of anger and swearing
c. Fuck associates with the way of treating somebody else unfairly. The function of using the euphemism word replacing 'Mom I'd Like to Fuck' are that to avoid mentioning vulgar and profane expression, to prevent the listener or the interlocutor from getting hurt, to keep away from attracting other people self-esteem and also to keep the word 'fuck' vague.
The word 'MILF' is a euphemism getting through Abbreviation process. It is a way created from the initial letter of the words in phrase, and
To back up the above description, the writer will break down the word 'MILF' in utterance (a) as follow:
Guest: Dude! That chick ... is aMILF!
MILF: [EXCLAMATION]
In utterance (a), the abbreviation 'MILF' is only an exclamation. It is like the way to express something with no specific meaning. Thus, if the term 'MILF' in sentence (a) is replaced with the intended reference, it will be: (b) Guest:Dude! That chick ... is a MomI'd Like to Fuck!
Sentence ( b) is acceptable, yet it is not euphemism expression because the meaning is shown clearly. In addition, 'Mom I'd Like to Fuck' falls under components like:
Mom I'd Like to Fuck: [EXCLAMATION] [SEX] [FUN] [FEMALE] [WONDER]
Having those features, 'Mom I'd Like to Fuck' is regarded taboo and vulgar. The writer then identi fies the semantic component of these words in the hope to get further information.
MILF Mom I'd Like to Fuck
+ Exclamation +
- Sex +
- Fun +
- Female +
- wonder +
interjection. In spite of that, the abbreviation 'MILF' is regarded a euphemism due to the success of concealing the truth. It is also shown by the feature 'MILF' has. There is no bad and sensitive component like [SEX] [WONDER] [FUN] [FEELING] [WOMAN]. Meanwhile, 'Mom I'd Like to Fuck' seems taboo because of the existence of the word 'fuck'. Having above description, 'fuck' goes to sexual activity, copulation or the expression of irritation. In consideration of that, the word 'fuck' is restricted to mention.
For those Meaning relation, these two words actually has no exact meaning relation. It is supported by the reference of the semantic component. The abbreviation 'MILF' is a kind of exclamation referring to no real meaning but the expression of anger or surprise like uuuuhhh!!, wow! and so forth.
In sentence 'Dude! That chick ... is MILF!', 'MILF' undergoes Semantic broadening. It is because the new meaning of 'MILF' refers to broader field
than the previous one. The proof is the semantic components of both terms. 'MILF' consists of only one feature [EXCLAMATION], while 'MILF' occurs in above utterance referring to women that like having sex. It is supported by the existence of the features like [FUN] [SEX] [FEELING] [WOMEN] and by the increasing number of the components of 'MILF' by 5 [+] features. Hence, in this typical case, the new meaning has semantic broadening process.
7. Quasi- omission
(a) Jim’s Dad: You're a young man now and you may be flirting with the ideaof
.. of ..(p.35)
It is said by Jim’s dad. As a father he knows that his son has girlfriend. He is
just so worried about a thing. He intends to give any suggestion but afraid of hurting his son's feeling.
The euphemism of the above utterance does not occur in word but in the form of silence. The proof is seen in the dashes at the end of the utterance. The word 'of.. .of...' is the euphemism for the omitting word, 'having sex'. The speaker would like to hide the truth because 'having sex' is still categorized as taboo for next reasons:
a) Having sex deals with sex organ
b) Having sex refers to sexual activity in which male genital will enter female genital
c) Having sex is such private activity influenced by sex desire of human d) Having sex is sacred and it is not for public consumption
e) Having sex actually is done by couple in wedlock.
