Meaning Properties And Meaning Relations Found In Amiri Baraka’s Essay ‘I Will Not Apologize, I Will Not Resign’

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MEANING PROPERTIES AND MEANING RELATIONS FOUND IN AMIRI BARAKA’S ESSAY “ I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE, I WILL NOT RESIGN”

A THESIS

BY

ANDI ARYANTO

REG. NO : 080705006

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to thank to Allah SWT who has given me all of

the blessing, mercy, talent and time, so that I can finish my thesis entitled

“Meaning Properties and Meaning Relations found in Amiri Baraka’s Essay ‘I

Will not Apologize, I Will not Resign’”.

I would like to thank to Dr. H. Syahron Lubis, MA, the Dean of Faculty of

Letters, also to Dr. H. Muhizar Muchtar, as the Head of English Department, and

MS and Dr. Hj. Nurlela, M.Hum as Secretary of, and to Bang Amran as the

Administration Staff of English Department, for all of opportunities and facilities

that he has done to me and all my friends.

I would like to express my best thanks to my Supervisor, Dr. Eddy Setia,

M.Ed. TESP and my Co-supervisor Drs. Umar Mono, Dip. Trans. M. Hum. for

having shared their valuable ideas, times, guidance and patience. My gratitude is

also expressed to all of my lectures in English Department who taught me much

and contributed the knowledge during the academic years.

My lovely thanks to my beloved family, my father Wagito, my mother

Wahini, my sister Desi Ariani, and my grandma the late, for giving me the good

times (and hard times too) so I can stand here as myself today, I love you and I

had been living it for you. Special thanks and welcome to the new member of this

family, brother in law, Syuhada and to my nephew, M. Aizzril.

Thank you so much to those friends who has been giving me the joy,

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Armansyah (my besties), Budi Parulian Purba, Frandy Marolop Lumbantoruan,

Herman Aditya Simbolon, Hengky Laksamana Simaibang, Johan Christian

Tobing, Muhammad Jarot, and special to Handani Hutapea, for the ideas,

discussions, and don’t forget our struggle of ‘waiting’, and for all the girls in ’08

(sorry I cannot mention your names), let’s remember all those black, white and

colorful memories we had in campus. How about our Oral English Practice

(OEP)? One more, Keep Being Pembangkang! ^_^

Also a special thank for our sister, Sinta Ayunda Widyaningrum. Thanks

for the joy, many things you’ve given us, just wait for what we’ll do for you. To

Rillatya Fajrah and Arie Listia for the supports years ago, for making me know

how this world really is, I had been admitting that you are a great lady, so great.

Also special thanks too for Hayati Putri Melati Ginting for the laugh, strength,

motivation and some other things I cannot explain here, and for all of my friends

from SMA Negeri 1 Babalan, thank you.

Thanks to my family in KOS BABA, Bang Coy, Bang Siep, Bang Lelek,

Dedi, Yasin, Andes, Asek, and Veron. Last but not least, many thanks for the

figures who had been being with me in four years my life in campus and in this

city, sorry I cannot mention your names, since I cannot forget you too. See you in

my better situation. Thank you so much.

Medan, August 2012

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AUTHORS’S DECLARATION

I, ANDI ARYANTO, DECLARE THAT I AM THE SOLE AUTHOR OF THIS

THESIS EXCEPT WHERE REFERENCE IS MADE IN THE TEXT OF THIS

THESIS. THIS THESIS CONTAINS NO MATERIAL PUBLISHED

ELSEWHERE OR EXTRACTED IN WHOLE OR IN PART FROM A THESIS

BY WHICH I HAVE QUALIFIED FOR OR AWARDED ANOTHER DEGREE.

NO OTHER PERSON’S WORK HAS BEEN USED WITHOUT DUE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IN THE MAIN TEXT OF THIS THESIS. THIS

THESIS HAS NOT BEEN SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF ANOTHER

DEGREE IN ANY TERTIARY EDUCATION.

Signed :………….

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COPYRIGHT DECLARATION

NAME : ANDI ARYANTO

THESIS TITLE : MEANING PROPERTIES AND MEANING

RELATIONS FOUND IN AMIRI BARAKA’S ESSAY

‘I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE, I WILL NOT RESIGN’

QUALIFICATION : S1/SARJANA SASTRA

DEPARTMENT : ENGLISH

THE WRITER IS WILLING THAT THE WRITER’S THESIS SHOULD BE

AVAILABLE FOR REPRODUCTION AT THE DISSERTATION OF THE

LIBRARIAN OF UNIVERSITY OF SUMATRA UTARA, FACULTY OF

LETTERS, ENGLISH LITERATURE DEPARTMENT ON THE

UNDERSTANDING THAT THE USERS ARE MADE AWARE OF THEIR

OBLIGATIONS UNDER LAW OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA.

Signed :

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ABSTRACT

Skripsi yang berjudul “Meaning Properties and Meaning Relations found in Amiri Baraka’s Essay “I Will Not Apologize, I Will Not Resign” ni mengkaji tentang keseluruhan tipe unsur makna dan hubungan makna yang digunakan oleh Amiri Baraka dalam essay yang ditulisnya yang berjudul ‘I Will Not Apologize, I Will Not Resign’. Dalam penulisan skripsi ini menerapkan kajian kepustakaan dengan menggunakan metode kualitatif deskriptif. Adapaun teori yang digunakan untuk menemukan jenis atau tipe makna yang digunakan dalam skripsi ini mengacu pada teori Leech (1981) yang menklasifikasikan unsur makna menjadi meaningfulness, anomaly, contradictory, ambiguity, dan redundancy; dan Saeed (2003) yang mengklasifikasikan hubungan makna menjadi synonymy, antonymy, polysemy, hyponymy, homonymy, meronymy, member-collection, dan portion mass. Dalam essay yang berjudul ‘I Will Not Apologize, I Will Not Resign’ ini, penulis menemukan 189 data unsur makna dengan rincian 161 data meaningfulness (85.2%), 15 data anomaly (7.9%), 1 data contradictory (0.5%), 11 data ambiguity (5.9%), dan 1 data redundancy (0.5%). Sedangkan untuk hubungan makna, penulis menemukan 38 data dengan rincian 4 data synonymy (10.5%), 1 data antonymy (2.6%), 9 data polysemy (23.7%), 3 data homonymy (7.9%), 15 data hyponymy (39.4%), 0 data Meronymy dan Member-collection (0%), dan 6 data portion mass (15.8%).

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Skripsi yang berjudul “Meaning Properties and Meaning Relations found in Amiri Baraka’s Essay “I Will Not Apologize, I Will Not Resign” ni mengkaji tentang keseluruhan tipe unsur makna dan hubungan makna yang digunakan oleh Amiri Baraka dalam essay yang ditulisnya yang berjudul ‘I Will Not Apologize, I Will Not Resign’. Dalam penulisan skripsi ini menerapkan kajian kepustakaan dengan menggunakan metode kualitatif deskriptif. Adapaun teori yang digunakan untuk menemukan jenis atau tipe makna yang digunakan dalam skripsi ini mengacu pada teori Leech (1981) yang menklasifikasikan unsur makna menjadi meaningfulness, anomaly, contradictory, ambiguity, dan redundancy; dan Saeed (2003) yang mengklasifikasikan hubungan makna menjadi synonymy, antonymy, polysemy, hyponymy, homonymy, meronymy, member-collection, dan portion mass. Dalam essay yang berjudul ‘I Will Not Apologize, I Will Not Resign’ ini, penulis menemukan 189 data unsur makna dengan rincian 161 data meaningfulness (85.2%), 15 data anomaly (7.9%), 1 data contradictory (0.5%), 11 data ambiguity (5.9%), dan 1 data redundancy (0.5%). Sedangkan untuk hubungan makna, penulis menemukan 38 data dengan rincian 4 data synonymy (10.5%), 1 data antonymy (2.6%), 9 data polysemy (23.7%), 3 data homonymy (7.9%), 15 data hyponymy (39.4%), 0 data Meronymy dan Member-collection (0%), dan 6 data portion mass (15.8%).

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1Background of the Study

I personally believe we developed language because of our deep inner need to complain. ~Jane Wagner

Language is by its very nature a communal thing; that is, it expresses never the exact thing but a compromise - that which is common to you, me, and everybody. ~Thomas Earnest Hulme, Speculations, 1923

Language can be defined as means of communication for human in life.

Language is important. When people want to communicate, to make a real social life

with the other human beings, making a friend, they use language. When people want

to say something to others, they use language. When people want to be supposed by

others, they use language. When people want to show our existence in the world,

they use language. When people want to express whatever in our mind, they use

language. But, it is not just done well when someone has uttered his language.

Though it looks, it is not that simple, language is good when someone as a speaker

can make others as listener understand what he means.

Whatever people speak, it must have meaning. Meaning is what is referred to

or indicated by sounds, words, or signals. The last three terms mentioned before can

be named language. So, language and meaning seems cannot be separated, whenever

a language is spoken, it must have meaning. Certainly there is science that studies

about language and meaning. The study about language is called Linguistics.

Linguistics has many branches; they are phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax,

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Semantics is the branch of linguistics dealing with the meaning of words and

sentences. Semantics is concerned with the study of meaning, and the relationship

between meaning and language as phenomena, or in the other words, meaning is the

main object in Semantics. As others, Semantics has also some parts in it, two of them

are meaning properties and meaning relations. In this thesis, the writer will try to

explain about both meaning properties and meaning relations.

Study about meaning properties and meaning relation will give us some

advantages, especially in understanding about words, sentences, and meaning.

Meaning properties is one of several features or components which together can be

said to make up the meaning. Meaning properties is like analyzing what the speaker

intends by his/ her utterance. It is useful when it requires us to know about the

background of the speaker’s intends in his/ her utterance, possibly the speaker’s

background of education.

Meaning relations is the relationships of meaning or sense that may be set up

between two individual and groups of lexical items. In meaning relations, we may

know that one word possibly may have two meanings or more, so we can use it in

appropriate to the condition we are within. It can be useful such in this condition,

when we are in a condition that requires us to speak politely, we can change the word

we want to speak with the other word that has similar meaning but more polite in

pronouncing, in order to not insult our listener.

Factually there are many ways to express what in mind about our

surroundings, whether it is a critic, or an argument. One of that many ways is literary

work. Literary works can be divided into poem, novel, articles, prose, play and essay.

For examples, a man makes an essay as a way to criticize the reigning government

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disagreement about the economic policy in his country. in America, Amiri Baraka

has written an essay about the September 11th 2001 tragedy, titled I will not

apologize, I will not resign.

The word essay derives from the French infinitive essayer, “to try” or “to

attempt”. In English essay first meant “a trial” or “an attempt”, and this is still an

alternative meaning. An essay is a piece of writing which is often from an author’s

personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including:

literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life,

recollections, and reflections of the author. An essay has been defined in a variety of

ways. One definition is a “prose composition with a focused subject of discussion” or

a “long, systematic discourse”. One of many authors that have ever written essay is

Amiri Baraka.

Amiri Baraka who was born in 1934, in Newark, New Jersey, United States

of America, is the author of over 40 books of essays, poems, drama, music, history,

and criticism, a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry

and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA, Africa, and the

Europe.

His writings have become controversy over the years, particularly his

advocacy of rape and violence towards white people, and Jews. Critics of his work

have alternately described such usage as ranging from being vernacular expressions

of Black oppression to outright examples of racism, sexism, homophobia, and that

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The essay titled ”I Will not Apologize, I Will not Resign” talked about; when

Amiri Baraka wrote a poem titled "Somebody Blew Up America" which is about the

September 11, 2001 attacks. The poem was controversial and full of critical for

racism in America, and includes angry depictions of public figures such as Trent

Lott, Clarence Thomas, and Condoleezza Rice. The poem also contains lines

claiming Israel's involvement in the World Trade Center attacks:

Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed

Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers

To stay home that day

Why did Sharon stay away?

...

Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion

And cracking they sides at the notion

Baraka stated that he believed that Israelis and President (George W. Bush)

were involved in the September 11th attacks, telling what he described as information

that had been reported in the American and Israeli press and on Jordanian television.

He denies that the poem is anti-Semitic, but points to its accusation which is directed

against Israelis, rather than Jews as a people. The Anti-Defamation League

denounced the poem as anti-Semitic, though Baraka and his defenders defined his

position as Anti-Zionism.

So that is why the writer is interested in analyzing meaning properties and

meaning relations in Amiri Baraka’s essay “I will not apologize, I will not resign”.

The writer wants to know what Amiri Baraka feels when he wrote this essay that

time, and to whom he wants to show his feeling and arguments; and how he wrote it,

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1.2Problems of the Study

According to background above, the problems of the analysis are formulated

as follows:

a. What types of meaning properties and meaning relations found in Amiri

Baraka’s Essay “I Will Not Apologize, I Will Not Resign”?

b. Which is the most dominant type of both meaning properties and meaning

relations used in Amiri Baraka’s Essay “I Will Not Apologize, I Will Not

Resign”?

1.3Objectives of the Study

By concerning to the problems of the analysis as mentioned above, the writer

does expect to be able to achieve the objectives below:

a. To find out each type of both meaning properties and meaning relations

found in Amiri Baraka’s Essay “I Will Not Apologize, I Will Not Resign”.

b. To find out the most dominant types of both each meaning properties and

meaning relations found in Amiri Baraka’s Essay “I Will Not Apologize, I

Will Not Resign”.

1.4Scope of the Study

In any literary works, there are so many types of both meaning properties and

meaning relations can be found out. In the process of analyzing the problems of this

thesis, it is just limited on the analysis only in the essay titled “I Will Not Apologize,

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This analysis is focused on meaning properties based on Leech (1981: 29), is

divided into meaningfulness, ambiguity, redundancy, anomaly, and contradictory.

And meaning relations based on the theory from Saeed (2003: 63) are antonymy,

synonymy, hyponymy, homonymy, meronymy, and polysemy; found in Amiri

Baraka’s Essay “I Will Not Apologize, I Will Not Resign”.

1.5Significances of the Study

Theoretically, this thesis can explore and add knowledge for students of

language in terms of semantics, especially in both terms of meaning properties and

meaning relations. The reader of this thesis can understand how to describe the

semantic component of a word or how to define the semantic field of a word. This

thesis can also improve increase the vocabulary of students by knowing about

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1What is Semantics?

Semantics is a branch of linguistics study. As general terms, it has many

agreements about the way to describe meaning of a word of a language. By studying

Semantic, we will be able not only to hear a word told by everyone, but also to know

the real meaning of the word he/ she has told us. The term Semantic is known since

1984 by American Philological Association in an article named “Reflected

Meanings: A point in Semantics”. The history of Semantic can be read in an Article

named “An Account of the Word Semantic.

These are some definitions of Semantic referred by different Linguists:

 Saeed (2003: 1) states, “Semantics is the study of meaning communicated

through language”.

 Hurford (1983: 1), “Semantic is the study of meaning in language”.

 Palmer (1976: 1), Semantics is the technical terms used to refer to the study

of meaning.

 Lyons (1977: 1), “Semantics is generally designed as the study of meaning”.

 Katz (1972: 1), “Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning”.

 Leech (1974: 9) states, “Semantics is the study of meaning which is central to

the study of communication, and as communication becomes more and more

crucial factor in social organization, the need to understand it becomes more

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 Oxford Dictionary, Semantics is the branch of linguistics dealing with the

meaning of words and sentences.

From definitions above, it could be concluded that Semantic is a study of

meaning of a word and sentence.

2.2Scope of Semantics

Based on the definitions above, everybody would agree that Semantic is a

study of meaning, and the main point of Semantic is meaning itself.

There are at least two major approaches to know how the way meaning in a

language is studied. The first is linguistic approach. The second is philosophical

approach. Philosophers have investigated the relation between linguistic expression,

such as the words of language and the persons, things and events in the world to

which these words refer.

There are three basic terms of semantics, i.e (1) meaning, (2) sense, and (3)

reference.

2.2.1 Meaning

This word ‘meaning’ is derived from the word ‘mean’. In the Advanced

English learners’ Dictionary, meaning is defined as the thing or idea that a sound,

word, sign, etc, represents.

There are many theories about meaning in semantics created by linguists.

Basically, the linguists and philosophers discuss meaning in related between

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into referential or corespondencial theory, contextual theory, mentalism theory, and

formalism theory. They will be explained below :

 Referential theory

Ogden and Richards (in Parera 1990: 16) state that meaning is the

relation between reference and referent which is uttered in language sound

symbol, words or phrase or sentence. This theory concerns with the direct

relation between reference and referent in the real life.

 Mentalism theory

This theory is contrasted to referential theory. Glucksberg and Danks

(in Parera 1990: 17) state “the set of possible meaning in any given word is

the set of possible feelings, images, ideas, concepts, thoughts, and inferences

that a person might produce when that word in heard and processed.”

Usually the proponents of this theory are the psycholinguists.

 Contextual theory

This theory is collaterally with relativism theory in semantic

inter-language comparison. The meaning of a word is related to cultural and

ecology environment the language user from. So, if the word has separated

with the context, it will be meaningless.

 ‘Meaning in use’ theory

This theory in found by Wittgenstein (1830-1858). He assumes that

word is impossibly meaningful for all context because context changes

everytime.

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“Jangan menanyakan makna sebuah kata, tanyakanlah

pemakaiannya” ( “don’t ask for the meaning of a word, ask for the

use” )

One of the lacks of this theory is how to decide the concept of “use” well, it

is like this theory is the beginning of Pragmatics theory.

2.2.2 Sense and Reference

Sense and reference are two, though related, but they are very different terms

that talks about aspects of meaning. Frank R. Palmer defines sense and reference as

following:

“Reference deals with the relationship between the linguistic elements,

words, sentences, etc, and the non-linguistic world of experience. Sense refers

to the complex system of relationship iothat holds between the linguistics

elements themselves (mostly the words); it is concerned only with the

intra-linguistic relations” (Palmer 1976:30)

(1)The woman who is my mother

(2)The woman who married my father

Phrases, like words, normally both have sense and can be used to refer. The

example (1) refers to a certain individual and has a certain sense which could be

different from example (2), although both expressions usually have the same

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2.3 Types of meaning

According to Leech in his book Semantic (1974: 23), there are seven types of

meaning, they are as followings:

2.3.1 Conceptual or Denotative meaning

Conceptual meaning is also called logical or cognitive meaning. It is the basic

propositional meaning which corresponds to the primary dictionary definition. Such

a meaning is stylistically neutral and objective as opposed to other kinds of

associative meanings. Conceptual meanings are the essential or core meaning while

other six types are the peripheral. It is peripheral in as sense that it is non-essential.

For examples:

(3)Father = (+) human (+) male (+) adult.

(4)Son = (+) human (+) male (-) adult

(5)Mother = (+) human (+) female (+) adult

(6)Daughter = (+) human (+) female (-) adult

The aim of conceptual meaning is to provide an appropriate semantic

representation to a sentence or statement. A sentence is made of abstract symbols.

Conceptual meaning helps us to distinguish one meaning from the meaning of other

sentences. Thus, conceptual meaning is an essential part of language. A language

essentially depends on conceptual meaning for communication. The conceptual

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2.3.2 Connotative Meaning

Connotative meaning is the communicative value of an expression over and

above its purely conceptual content. It is something that goes beyond mere referent

of a word and hints at its attributes in the real world. It is something more than the

dictionary meaning. Still further connotative meaning can embrace putative

properties of a referent due to viewpoint adopted by individual, group, and society as

a whole. So in the past woman was supposed to have attributes like frail, prone to

tears, emotional, irrigational, inconstant , cowardly etc. as well as more positive

qualities such gentle, sensitive, compassionate, hardworking etc. Connotations vary

age to age and society to society.

For examples:

Conceptual meaning:

(7)Woman = (+) human (+) female (+) adult

Connotative meaning:

(8)Woman = (+) human (+) female (+) adult (+) wearing Kebaya ‘in Java

society’.

(9)Woman = (+) human (+) female (+) adult (+) wearing Kebaya ‘in Western

society’.

The boundary between conceptual and connotative seems to be analogous.

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determinant, open ended, variable according to age, culture and individual, whereas

conceptual meaning is not like that . It can be codified in terms of limited symbols.

2.3.3 Social Meaning

Social meaning is the meaning conveyed by the piece of language about the

social context of its use. The decoding of a text is dependent on our knowledge of

stylistics and other variations of language. We recognize some words or

pronunciation as being dialectical i.e. as telling us something about the regional or

social origin of the speaker. Social meaning is related to the situation in which an

utterance is used.

It is concerned with the social circumstances of the use of a linguistic

expression. For example, some dialectic words inform us about the regional and

social background of the speaker. In the same way, some stylistic usages let us know

something of the social relationship between the speaker and the hearer. Through

utterances we come to know about the social facts, social situation, class, region, and

speaker-listener relations by its style and dialect used in sentences.

For examples:

(10) “I ain’t done nothing”

In sentence (10), it tells us about the speaker and that is the speaker is

probably a black American, underprivileged and uneducated.

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In sentence (11), the social meaning can be interpreted that it is uttered by

Indian young close friends.

2.3.4 Affective or Emotive Meaning

For some linguists it refers to emotive association or effects of words evoked

in the reader, listener. It is what is conveyed about the personal feelings or attitude

towards the listener. In affective meaning, language is used to express personal

feelings or attitude to the listener or to the subject matter of his discourse.

For Leech (1974: 25) affective meaning refers to what is convey about the

feeling and attitude of the speaking through use of language (attitude to listener as

well as attitude to what he is saying). Affective meaning is often conveyed through

conceptual, connotative content of the words used.

For examples:

(12) “I hate you, you idiot!”

In sentence (12), speaker seems to have a very negative attitude towards his

listener. This is called affective meaning.

(13) “I am terribly sorry but if you would be so kind as to make lower your

voice a little”

In sentence (13), speaker uses a sentence in politeness. Intonation and voice

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Richards (in Leech 1974:25) argued that emotive meaning distinguishes

literature or poetic language from factual meaning of science. Finally it must be

noted that affective meaning is largely a parasitic category. It overlaps heavily with

style, connotation and conceptual content.

2.3.5 Reflected Meaning

Reflected meaning and collocative meaning involve interconnection. At the

lexical level of language, Reflected meaning arises when a word has more than one

conceptual meaning or multiple conceptual meaning. In such cases while responding

to one sense of the word we partly respond to another sense of the word too.

Reflected meaning is also found in taboo words. Thus we can see that

reflected meaning has great importance in the study of semantics.

For examples:

(14) Daffodils by William Wordsworth

“The could not but be gay

In such jocund company”

The word ‘gay’in example (14) was frequently used in the time of William

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2.3.6 Collocative Meaning

Collocative meaning is the meaning which a word acquires in the company of

certain words. Collocative meaning refers to associations of a word because of its

usual or habitual co-occurrence with certain types of words.

For examples:

(15) Beautiful

(16) Handsome

The examples (15) and (16) indicate ‘good looking’. ‘Beautiful’

collocates with girl, woman, garden, or flower, etc. ‘handsome’ collocates

with boys and men.

2.3.7 Thematic meaning

Thematic meaning refers to what is communicated by the way in which a

speaker or a writer organizes the message in terms of ordering focus and emphasis.

Thus active is different from passive though its conceptual meaning is the same.

Thematic meaning helps us to understand the message and its implications properly.

For examples:

(17) Mr. Andi donated the car.

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In sentence (17), “who gave away the car “is more important, but in sentence

(18) “what did Mr. Andi gave is important”. Thus the change of focus changes the

meaning also.

2.4 Meaning properties and meaning relations

The definition of meaning properties and meaning relations in semantic

theory can be thought as a formal explications of our ordinary notions about semantic

concepts. For example, our ordinary notions of semantic similarity, ambiguity,

meaningfulness, and synonymy are, roughly, that semantically similar expressions

are ones whose senses share a feature, that an ambiguous expression is one that has

more one sense, that a meaningful expression is one that has a senses, and that two

expressions are synonymous in case they have a common sense.

Thus, since semantic properties and relations are aspects of the

structure of the senses formed in the compositional determination of meaning,

there is no problem in coalescing the two conceptions of semantic theory into

one coherent whole. (Katz, 1972: 34)

Since meaning properties and relations of an expression are determined by its

meaning and since its meaning is given by semantic representations, it follows that

the definitions of meaning properties and relations must be stated in terms of formal

features of semantic representations. If it is done, there will be an explanation of how

the meaning of one expression makes it synonymous with another, or analytic,

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2.4.1 Meaning Properties

Lyons (1977: 57) states “Meaning properties is one of several features or

components which together can be said to make up the meaning”. We can say that

the analysis of meaning properties is almost the same with componential analysis.

We analyze the conceptual meaning of a word or utterances. In the componential

analysis of meaning, the analyzed word is written in small letters, and the component

is written in capital letters and put in square bracket. There are five kinds of meaning

properties, they are meaningfulness, anomaly, contradictory, ambiguity, and

redundancy (Leech 1981: 29).

2.4.1.1Meaningfulness

The word ‘meaningful’ means having meaning and significances. Any

expression of language is meaningful. In order to be meaningful, an expression must

obey the Semantic rules of the language as obeying only the syntactic rule cannot

end up with meaningful expression and must represent their meaning. So, from this,

it can be said that meaningful expression is the word or expression which has

meaning and it is not strange or contradiction, and also must obey the grammatical

rules. Semantic theory must be able to distinguish and describe about both

meaningful and meaningfulness, and must be able to say which expression is

meaningful or meaningless.

For examples:

(19) This is my house.

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Sentences (19) and (20) are meaningful. The speaker and listener can

easily get the meaning of each sentence, and the meaning is not strange.

2.4.1.2Anomaly

If there is term meaningfulness, there must be term meaninglessness. Jerold

J. Katz proposes the term anomaly as substitution of term meaninglessness. A

constituent is semantically anomalous just in case it is assigned no readings (the set

of readings assigned to its null) -Katz (1972: 49)-

Katz uses term reading to represent morphemes, words, phrases, clauses, or

sentences. Anomaly happens when the selected features of one member of the

construction with it or the selected features are not familiar in the world every day.

For example:

(21) I heard trees whispering.

Sentence (21) is anomalous because tree is not kind of human, so it has

no mouth and when it has no mouth, it will not possibly do a whispering.

2.4.1.3Contradictory

A sentence is contradictory when there is a contradiction of meaning between

the constituent expressions. It is impossible for the constituent expression to be true

at the same time in the same circumstances.

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In sentence (22), there is a contradiction. Usually, we hate what we dislike.

2.4.1.4Ambiguity

Ambiguity, as ordinarily understood, is a case where there is a problem

telling one thing from another, and accordingly, a semantic ambiguity is a case where

there are (at least) the two senses required to pose this problem. According to

Hurford and Heasley (1983: 121), a word or sentence is ambiguous when it has more

than one sense.

Ullman (in Pateda 2001: 202) divides ambiguity into 3 (three) main forms,

they are:

a. Phonetical ambiguity

This ambiguity exist because of the mixing of language sound uttered. It is

because the words that are formed to be a sentence uttered quickly, so that it becomes

an ambiguity for people about the meaning of the sentence.

For examples,

(23) Love her

(24) Lover.

In both examples (23) and (24), if people say it quickly, it will be

ambiguous for which one is used.

(36)

This kind of ambiguity usually comes in unit of language named

sentence group of sentences or words. Grammatical ambiguity can be seen

from 3 (three) sides:

 First possibility, is the ambiguity which is caused by word forming

grammatically, such as prefix and suffix that can make a word have

two or more meanings, so that it can be confusing.

For example,

(25) Suffix –able In desirable, readable (adjectives), eatable, knowable,

and debatable just happens in the same form.

In English does not always the same meaning. In desirable,

readable (adjectives), eatable, knowable, and debatable just happens

in the same form.

 Second possibility, is like Ullman’s equivocal phrasing and amphiboly

(Pateda 2001: 204). Every words form a phrase, but the combination

can have more than one meaning.

For example:

(26) I met a number of old friends and acquaintance,

In sentence (26), the word old here can be related to the old

friends or acquaintance.

 Third possibility, is the ambiguity that comes in context, individual

context or situation context.

For example:

(37)

The word (27) can have more than one meaning. It can be

where do you go? Or why do you go? To avoid this kind of ambiguity,

people have to know the context of conversation.

c. Lexical ambiguity

Words in sentences have several meaning, and lexical ambiguity is

resulted from polysemous word, or word has more than one meaning. Palmer

(1976: 67) states that “polysemy is one word with several meanings”. It can be

disambiguated by giving further information.

For example,

(28) Glasses

In example (28), it can be a thing useful to see clearly, or a container

for drinking.

2.4.1.5Redundancy

In linguistics, redundancy is the construction of a phrase that presents some

idea using more information, often via multiple means, than is necessary for one to

be able to understand the idea. Often, redundancies occur in speech unintentionally,

but redundant phrases can also be deliberately constructed for emphasis, to reduce

the chance that a phrase will be misinterpreted. Redundancy typically takes the form

of tautology: phrases that repeat a meaning with different though semantically

similar words.

For example:

(38)

In sentence (29), the word variety has meant a difference in kind.

2.4.2 Meaning relations

Meaning relations is also called sense or semantics relations. It is the

relationships of meaning or sense that may be set up between two individual and

groups of lexical items. Semantic or meaning relations have eight terms (Saeed 2003:

63) and that will be discussed in this thesis. They are synonymy, antonymy,

polysemy, hyponymy, homonymy, meronymy, member-collection, and portion mass.

2.4.2.1Synonymy

The term ‘synonymy’ is derived from Greek word synonymy syn which

means with together and onoma means name. So, synonymy means name together.

Two words or more (together) name the same object, action, event or quality.

Saeed (2003: 65) states that synonyms are different phonological words

which have the same or very similar meaning. Moreover, synonymy is used to mean

‘sameness of meaning’ (Palmer 1976: 59). So, we can say that synonym is when two

or more words have similar meaning though they have different phonological and

morphological aspects.

For examples:

(30) Beautiful = Lovely

(31) Fair = Objective

(39)

The example (14), (15), and (16) are synonymy because the meaning of each

word in each example is similar, although the word is different.

2.4.2.2Antonymy

In the traditional terminology, antonyms are words which are opposites in

meaning. Palmer (1976: 78) in his book states that “Words that are opposite is called

Antonymy”.

Antonymy is often thought of as opposite of synonymy, but the status of the

two are very different. For language has no real need of true synonyms, and, as we

have seen, it is doubtful whether any true synonyms exist. But antonymy is a regular

and very natural feature of language and can be defined fairly precisely.

Saeed (2003: 66) divides antonym into two, they are:

 Simple Antonym

This is a relation between words such that the negative of one implies

the positive of the other.

For examples:

(33) Dead >< Alive

(34) Pass >< Fail

 Gradable Antonym

This is the relationship between opposites where the positive of one

term does not necessarily imply the negative of the other.

For examples:

(35) The big ant is likely smaller than the small elephant.

(40)

2.4.2.3Polysemy

Sameness of meaning is not very easy to deal with but there seems nothing

inherently difficult about difference of meaning. Not only different words have

different meanings; it is also the case that the same word may have a set of different

meanings. This is called polysemy (Palmer 1976: 65).

For examples:

(37) Crane :

a. a bird,

b. a type of construction equipment

(38) Present

a. right now, the current moment

b. a gift

c. to show or display (e.g. "Michael was next to present")

d. to be physically somewhere (e.g. "Stephen was present at the

meeting"

2.4.2.4Homonymy

According to Saeed (2003: 64), there is a traditional distinction made in

lexicology between Polysemy and homonymy. Both deal with multiple senses of the

same phonological word, but homonymy is not invoked if the senses are judged to be

related.

Homonyms are unrelated senses of the same phonological word (Saeed 2003:

63). Palmer (1976: 67) states that homonymy is when there are several words with

(41)

Homonymy can be divides into two, homophone and homograph.

Homophone is word that have the same pronunciation but different in spelling and

meaning.

For examples:

(39) Flour /flaυə(r)/ means used for making bread or cake.

(40) Flower /flaυə(r)/ means the part of plant.

2.4.2.5Hyponymy

Saeed (2003: 68), ”Hyponymy is relation of inclusion. A hyponym includes

the meaning of more general word. Palmer (1976: 76) states that “hyponym involves

us in the nation of inclusion in the sense”.

For examples:

(41) Butterfly and dragonfly are hyponyms of animal.

(42) Sister and daughter are hyponyms of woman.

The more general term is called superordinate or hypernym. It is the opposite

of hyponym. Hypernym is a linguistic term for a word whose meaning includes the

meanings of other words.

2.4.2.6Meronymy

Meronymy is a part-whole relationship between lexical items. Meronymy

reflects hierarchical classifications in the lexicon somewhat like taxonomic.

Meronymy differs from hyponym in transitivity. Hyponymy is always transitive, but

meronymy is not always transitive.

For examples:

(42)

(44) but hole is not a meronym of shirt

2.4.2.7Member-collection

This is a relationship between the word for a unit and the usual word for a

collection of the units.

For examples:

(45) ship

(46) tree

(47) fish

(48) book

2.4.2.8Portion-mass

This is a relation between a mass noun and the usual unit of measurement or

division.

For examples:

(49) drop of liquid

(50) sheet of paper

(51) strand of hair

2.5 Related studies

In doing this thesis, the writer has consulted and read some information from

some researches done before. They are some thesis which are relevant to the topic

(43)

Margaretha (2003) in her thesis entitled “An Analysis of meaning properties

and meaning relations used in Sidney Sheldon’s novel ‘Nothing Last Forever” found

and concluded that there are 5 (five) kinds of meaning properties, they are 20

meaningfulness (39.21%), 7 anomaly (13.72%), 6 contradictory (11.76%), 6

ambiguity (11.76%), and 6 redundancy (11.76%). Meaning relations found are 16

homonymy (16.32%), 39 synonymy (39.79%), and 42 antonymy that is divided into

3 (three), 21 complementary pairs (21.42%), 16 gradable pairs (16.32%), and 6

relational pairs (6.15%).

Sofyana (2008) in her thesis entitled “Meaning properties and meaning

relations in Saul Bellow’s Looking for Mr.Green” found and concluded that there are

5 (five) kinds of meaning properties, they are 112 meaningfulness (82.3%), 6

anomaly (4.4%), 4 contradictory (2.9%), 12 ambiguity (8.8%), and 2 redundancy

(1.4%). Meaning relations found are 11 homonymy (32.3%), 10 synonymy (29.4%),

and 13 antonymy (38.2%).

Gultom (2009) in her thesis “An analysis of meaning properties and lexical

relations in ‘the Rainbow’ by D.H. Lawrence”, found and concluded that there are 4

(four) kinds of meaning properties, they are 14 anomaly (19.71%), 4 contradictory

(5.63%), 10 ambiguity (14.08%), and 43 redundancy (60.56%). Meaning relations

found are 7 homonymy (5.51%), 57 synonymy (44.88%), 50 antonymy (39.37%),

and 13 hyponymy (10.23%).

Aginta, Windy (2009) in her thesis “An analysis of Lexical relations and

meaning properties in articles in The Jakarta Post Daily Newspaper”, found and

concluded that there are 3 kinds of meaning properties, they are 321 meaningfulness

(44)

redundancy. Lexical relations found are 8 antonyms (44.44%), 8 synonyms

(44.44%), 2 hyponyms (11.1%), and no homonym and meronym.\

Simbolon, Sherly Kristina (2003) in her thesis “An analysis of meaning

properties and meaning relations on Westlife’s songs”, found and concluded that

there are 5 kinds of meaning properties, they are 24 meaningfulness (47.05 %), 8

anomaly (15.6%), 4 contradictory (7.84%), 10 ambiguity which is divided into two, 7

lexical ambiguity (13.7%), 3 structural ambiguity (5.88%), and 5 redundancy (9.8%).

Meaning relations found are 13 synonymy (30.23%), 7 homonymy (16.27%), and 23

antonymy which is divided into 3, they are 8 complementary pairs (18.60%), 10

gradable pairs (23.25%), and 5 relational opposites (11.62%.)

Those thesis’s above only analyze only meaning properties and meaning

relations in Novel, Short story, Song, and Articles from newspaper, and they found

some of meaning properties and meaning relations but in this thesis, the writer

(45)

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

Azwar (1997: 1) says “Penelitian merupakan rangkaian kegiatan ilmiah

dalam rangka pemecahan suatu permasalahan. It means that research is a set of

scientific activities in order to solve a problem.

3.1Research Design

In this analysis, library research is used. Library research is applied by

consulting the relevant theories to support the analysis from text books, dictionary

and thesis. Nawawi (1991: 30) states “Penelitian kepustakaan dilakukan dengan

menghimpun data dari berbagai literatur, baik di perpustakaan maupun tempat

lain” (The library research is carried out by accumulating all the data from many

various literature, whether in the library or any other places).

3.2Source of Data

The data of this analysis is taken from Amiri Baraka’s essay titled “I will not

apologize, I will not resign”. The supporting data is taken from related books and

websites.

3.3Data Collecting Procedures

(46)

“Data penelitian dikumpulkan baik lewat instrumen pengumpulan

data, observasi, maupun lewat data dokumentasi”. Data yang dikumpulkan

mungkin berupa data primer, data sekunder, atau keduanya.”

It means that the data for research can be collected from both research

instruments, observation, and documents. Data which is collected can be primary,

secondary, or both of them. In analyzing data, written method is used. In this

analysis, the data is secondary data, they are kinds of meaning properties and

meaning relations found in the source of data, which is a document, essay by Amiri

Baraka titled “I will not apologize, I will not resign”.

3.4Data Analysis

In this analysis, qualitative descriptive research method is used. In descriptive

research, the data tabulation is based on analyzing percentage and trend analysis.

These are the procedure of analyzing the source of data :

a. Reading the text of essay from Amiri Baraka titled “I will not apologize, I

will not resign”

b. Identifying the meaning properties based on Leech theory and meaning

relations based on Saeed theory found in the source of data.

c. Collecting the data

d. Classifying the data

e. Analyzing the data by the rules of analyzing itself.

f. Calculating the data to find the dominant kind of meaning properties and

(47)

=

∑ X 100%

n = number of each kind of both meaning properties/

relations

∑n = number of all both meaning properties/ relations found

(48)

CHAPTER IV

DESCRIPTION AND FINDING

4.1Data description

4.1.1 Meaning Properties 4.1.1.1Meaningfulness

In order to be meaningful, an expression must obey the Semantic rules

of the language as obeying only the syntactic rule cannot end up with

meaningful expression and must represent their meaning.

1. The recent dishonest, consciously distorted and insulting non- interpretation of my poem, "Som ebody Blew Up Am erica" by the "Anti-Defamation" League, is fundamentally an attempt to defame me. (Sentence 1)

The sentence above is meaningfulness because the main idea of this

sentence can be easily recognized, and it does not reflect another meaning. It

has no characteristics of anomaly and ambiguity. The existence of this

expression is to state that there is an effort to defame Amiri by using his

poem. The type of sentence is compound sentence.

2. This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ from or are in contradiction to theirs. (Sentence 3)

(49)

expression is to state that there is a propaganda to people who are different in

philosophies with them. The type of sentence is compound complex sentence.

3. First, the poem underlying theme focuses on how Black Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery, e.g., by Slave Owners, US & State Laws, Klan, Skin Heads, Domestic Nazis, Lynching, denial of rights, national oppression, racism, character assassination, historically, and at this very minute throughout the US. (Sentence 4)

expression is to state that Bush that time has legalized the Confederate Flag in

Mississippi. The type of sentence is simple sentence.

5. So we cannot, in good conscience, celebrate what seems to us an

(50)

expression is to state that US cannot set up a military dictatorship over the

world. The type of sentence is compound complex sentence.

6. For all the frantic condemnations of Terror by Bush etc., as the single International Super Power, they are the most dangerous terrorists in the world! (sentence 10)

expression is to state that there is a terror by Bush which is the most

dangerous in the world. The type of sentence is simple sentence.

7. Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention the poem's listing of some of the Jews across the world, oppressed, imprisoned, murdered by actual Anti- Semitic forces, open or disguised. (sentence 12)

expression is to state that there is information that Jews are murdered by

Anti-Semitic Forces. The type of sentence is compound complex sentence.

8. The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs, nor the assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like Liebnecht, Luxembourg. (sentence 14)

The sentence above is meaningfulness because the main idea of the

(51)

assassination of German Communist leaders. The type of sentence is simple

sentence.

9. Happily the Star Ledger published the entire poem, though including in a box, supposedly identifying the offending phrases, my question, "Who Blew Up The Reichstag?" as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring that Jews did it. (sentence 16)

expression is to state about the offending phrases in Amiri’s poem. The type

of sentence is compound complex sentence.

10. When it was Hitler's destruction of the Reichstag, that provided the pretext for the general imprisonment of Jews, after incarcerating Communists, Social Democrats and Trade Unionists. (sentence 17)

expression is to state that Hitler destructed Reichstag by providing the general

imprisonment of Jews. The type of sentence is complex sentence.

11. Why this was done one can only speculate, but this is the kind of sloppy or intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find in the media. (sentence 18)

expression is to state that the destruction can be found in slanderous

(52)

12. It also reflects the kind of unprincipled attack that characterizes ADL press release. (sentence 19)

expression is to state that the destruction reflects the unprincipled attack of

ADL press release. The type of sentence is complex sentence.

13. Of course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror were never found, though most scholars are certain it was the Nazis themselves. (sentence 21)

expression is to state that the arsonists of the reichstag were never found, but

Amiri believe that they were Nazis themselves. The type of sentence is

compound sentence.

14. Of the other lines of the poem, which the ADL termed an example of the Hitlerian "Big Lie", and the poet's "spewing Anti-Semitic venom". (sentence 22)

expression is to state about the lines of Amiri’s poem. The type of sentence is

complex sentence.

(53)

expression is a question . The type of sentence is simple sentence.

16. Well now, certainly, even the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush Administration knew. (sentence 24)

expression is to state that the Democratic Party has affirmed that Bush knew

about the WTC tragedy. The type of sentence is simple sentence.

17. I agree with this, and it is everywhere on the Internet that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany, France, Russia, England but also Israel. (sentence 25)

expression is to state that Amiri agrees in his poem, and it is in internet that

US and Israel were warned by other countries. The type of sentence is

compound sentence.

18. Michael Ruppert of the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly, "Israeli security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale terror attacks. (sentence 26)

(54)

expression is to state that Michael Ruppert has issued a video about Israel’s

warning to CIA. The type of sentence is complex sentence.

19. And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the attacks were going to take place they knew that the World Trade Center were the targets. (sentence 27)

expression is to state that Mossad knew the attacks would be to WTC. The

type of sentence is compound sentence.

20. This is from British newspaper the "Telegraph". (sentence 28)

expression is to state that the news were from British newspaper, the

Telegraph. The type of sentence is simple sentence.

21. In addition there are articles in all forms of media and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting that the entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US CIA in advance, but no action was taken. (sentence 29)

expression is to state that there are many articles found confirming and

warning CIA, though no action was taken. The type of sentence is compound

(55)

22. WHY. (sentence 30)

expression is a question. The type of sentence is simple sentence.

23. They say they "couldn't connect the dots". (sentence 31)

The sentence above it meaningfulness because the main idea of the

expression is to state that CIA could not connect to the warning. The type of

sentence is simple sentence.

24. The FBI agents in Minnesota and Arizona who said that FBI received a report in 1998 that a terrorist organization planned to bring people to the US to enroll in flight schools. (sentence 32)

expression is to state that a FBI agent received a report about a terrorist

organization and planned a flight schools to US people. The type of sentence

is complex sentence.

(56)

expression is to state that FBI headquarter blamed a legal restriction and more

aggressive investigation to the man. The type of sentence is simple sentence.

26. As for the other agent's attempt to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks, he was rebuffed when he made the report, but now FBI HQ says it has not record of such warning. (sentence 35)

expression is to state that the other agent had warned FBI of these attacks, but

he was rebuffed. The type of sentence is complex sentence.

27. There are other incredible dots on the media, for instance the stockholders of American Airlines and United, which were the carriers high-jacked to commit the terror began withdrawing stock from these companies in August before the attacks. (sentence 36)

expression is to state that there are another information about the attacks in

the media. The type of sentence is complex sentence.

28. The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers is, "Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers / to stay home that day/ Why did Sharon stay away?" (sentence 37)

Meaning Properties And Meaning Relations Found In Amiri Baraka’s Essay ‘I Will Not Apologize, I Will Not Resign’

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