AN INVESTIGATION OF STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY IN
PHRASES FOUND IN
INDONESIAN AUTHORS’
FAN-FICTION PRODUCTS
ASARJANA PENDIDIKANTHESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain theSarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Rosa Wuri Amurti
Student Number: 081214049
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
i
AN INVESTIGATION OF STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY IN
PHRASES FOUND IN
INDONESIAN AUTHORS’
FAN-FICTION PRODUCTS
ASARJANA PENDIDIKANTHESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain theSarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Rosa Wuri Amurti
Student Number: 081214049
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
vi ABSTRACT
Amurti, Rosa Wuri. 2012. An investigation of structural ambiguity in the phrases found in Indonesian authors’ fan-fiction products. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Indonesian authors who write fan-fictions in English should be able to deliver their writing products well. However, in their fan-fictions, there are some structural ambiguities which make some phrases found in the fan-fictions have more than one meaning and the messages that the authors intend to deliver in the fan-fictions remain unclear. Therefore, the writer conducts this study to investigate how frequent the structural ambiguity in phrases found in Indonesian authors’fan-fiction products and how those structural ambiguities can be resolved by English learners.
Conducting this study, the writer uses content analysis since this study analyzed type of error in writing products which in this study are fan-fictions. During July-August 2012, the writer randomly selects and reads 27 the GazettE fan-fictions from six Indonesian authors’ before listing the structural ambiguity and analyzing it using tree diagrams individually, not related to the context of the text.
As a result, the writer finds 20 ambiguous phrases from noun phrases, verb phrases and adjective phrases. Ambiguous noun phrases occur 16 times or 80% from the percentage. Meanwhile, both ambiguous verb phrases and adjective phrases occur twice or 10% of the percentage. To resolve the ambiguities, the English learners should reconstruct the phrase structure. The ambiguous phrases should be analyzed to understand the meaning which is intended to be delivered before deciding which resolution is suitable to resolve the ambiguity.
The writer then addresses some recommendations for teachers who can use this study to help them in the teaching and learning process to give example and resolutions of structural ambiguity. This study also may improve the students’
skill in writing by helping them to understand and avoid some ambiguity which may occur in their writing products and to give some resolution to resolve the occurring ambiguity. Meanwhile, for future researchers, this study may be a reference for the future researchers who are going to conduct similar study in investigating structural ambiguity.
vii
ABSTRAK
Amurti, Rosa Wuri. 2012. An investigation of structural ambiguity in the phrases found in Indonesian authors’ fan-fiction products. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Para penulis Indonesia yang menulis fanfic dalam Bahasa Inggris harus mampu menyampaikan pesan fanfic dengan baik. Namun, masih banyak makna struktural yang mereka buat sehingga menyebabkan beberapa frasa dalam fanfic
tersebut mempunyai lebih dari satu arti sehingga pesan yang disampaikan menjadi kurang jelas. Oleh karena itu, penulis melakukan penelitian untuk menginvestigasi frekuensi munculnya kedwiartian makna struktural dalam frasa di fanfic-fanfic yang ditulis oleh para penulis Indonesia dan bagaimana kedwiartian makna struktural tersebut dipecahkan.
Dalam melakukan penelitian ini, penulis menggunakan metode analisa konten karena penelitian ini menganalisa jenis kesalahan dalam karya tulis yang dalam penelitian ini adalah fanfic. Selama bulan Juli hingga Agustus, penulis secara acak memilih dan membaca 27 fanfic the GazettE dari enam penulis Indonesia sebelum mendaftar kedwiartian makna struktural yang ada dan menganalisanya menggunakan diagram pohon secara individual, di luar konteks bacaan.
Penulis menemukan 20 kedwiartian makna struktural dari frasa kata benda, frasa kata kerja dan frasa kata sifat. Frasa kata sifat yang ambigu muncul 16 kali atau 80% dari presentase keseluruhan. Baik frasa kata kerja maupun frasa kata sifat yang ambigu muncul dua kali atau 10% dari total presentase. Untuk menyelesaikan masalah kedwiartian makna tersebut, para pembelajar bahasa Inggris harus merekonstruksi struktur frasa. Frasa yang memiliki kedwiartian makna struktural tersebut harus dipahami dan dianalisa terlebih dahulu sebelum menentukan resolusi manakah yang tepat untuk menyelesaikannya
Penulis kemudian menyarankan beberapa rekomendasi untuk para guru yang bisa menggunakan penelitian ini untuk memberikan contoh tentang kedwiartian makna struktural dan bagaimana cara penyelesaiannya yang diaplikasikan dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar. Penelitian ini juga berguna untuk meningkatkan kemampuan para murid dalam menulis dengan cara membantu mereka untuk mengerti dan menghindari kedwiartian makna yang bisa muncul dalam karya tulis mereka dan memberi beberapa cara untuk menyelesaikannya. Sementara itu, untuk para peneliti di masa yang akan datang, penelitian ini dapat menjadi referensi jika hendak melakukan penelitian yang sama yaitu meneliti tentang kedwiartian makna struktural.
viii viii viii viii 無限大名夢のあとの何もないよ野中じゃ
そうさいとしい思いもめけ疎な二なるけど
STAYし勝ちイメエジだらけの頼りない翼でも
きっと飛べるさON MY LOVE
After an endless dream In this world of nothingness
It seems as if our beloved dreams will lose Even with these unreliable wings
Covered in images that tend to STAY I'm sure we can fly ON MY LOVE
Wada Kouji–Butterfly
This thesis is dedicated to my beloved father, my mother and my late grandmother.
I am very happy to see their smiles of relief when they knew that I have finished
ix ix
ACKNOWLEDEGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my deepest feeling of gratitude to Jesus
Christ for all blessing that He has given to me. Without His blessing and guidance,
I will never be able to accomplish my thesis and my study in Pendidikan Bahasa
Inggrisof Sanata Dharma University.
My greatest thank and appreciation are extended to Drs. Barli Bram,
M.Ed., Ph.D., my major sponsor, who has willingly devoted his time guiding me,
giving corrections, comments and suggestions to my thesis. Because of his
guidance, I am finally able to finish my thesis.
Deeply, I give thank to my beloved father, who calmly supports and prays
in Eucharist Adoration for me every day so I can struggle on my thesis, and my
mother, who has driven me crazy by reminding me every day to finish my thesis
as soon as possible. You rock, Mom, Dad!
Thank to all Indonesian fan-fiction authors’: Aki, Kei, Nyo, Fen, Cinta,
and Eiga who have allowed me using their fan-fictions as the object of my thesis
so I can get the data needed for my thesis.
To my beloved classmate in PBI 2008 class A, I would like to thank for
good and bad times that we have been through for this whole four years,
especially: Yosi, Detta, Pauline, and Anggi. Thank to my partner in crime and
also my proof-reader Mila, whom I always have thesis consultation together with,
without her, I would have not knew when I would finish my thesis. Not forgetting
x
teasing me after my long-way-working thesis, so, I have the spirit to speed my
work with this thesis as fast as I could. See, now, I make it, dude!
Last but not least, thanks to all my friends and people whose name I
cannot mention one by one for their help and support for me in writing this thesis.
x i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ... i
APPROVAL PAGES... ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY... iv
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI... v
1.6 Definition of Terms ... 6
CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 Theoretical Description... 8
2.1.1 English Phrases ... 8
2.1.2 Theory of Syntax ... 9
2.1.3 Semantics and Word’s Meaning ... 13
2.1.4 Ambiguity ... 15
2.1.4.1 Lexical Ambiguity ... 17
xii
2.2 Theoretical Framework... 19
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research Method ... 21
3.2 Research Setting ... 21
3.3 Research Subjects ... 22
3.4 Instruments and Data Gathering Technique ... 23
3.5 Data Analysis Technique ... 24
3.6 Research Procedure... 27
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Structural Ambiguity Occurrence in Indonesian Authors’ Fan-fictions ... 28
4.2 Ambiguous Phrases Found in the Fan-fictions and Its Resolution ... 30
4.2.1 Ambiguous Noun Phrases... 32
4.2.2 Ambiguous Verb Phrases... 59
4.2.3 Ambiguous Adjective Phrase... 63
4.3 Resolution to Various Ambiguities... 66
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Conclusions... 68
5.2 Recommendations... 70
REFERENCES ... 73
xiii xiii xiii xiii
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
2.1 Syntactic Categories... 10
3.1 Field Notes of Ambiguity Found in the Fan-fictions ... 23
4.1 Occurrence of Structural Ambiguity in Indonesian Authors’Fan-fiction
Products... 29
xiv xiv xiv
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
2.1O’Grady, Dobrovolsky, and Katamba’s Flat Structure Tree Diagrams... 11
2.2 Comparison between Flat Structure and Aarts’X-bar Theory Tree Diagram
... 12
3.1 First Flat Structure Tree Diagram of‘old men and women’... 26
xv xv
LIST OF APPENDIX
Appendix Page
1:Table Notes of Ambiguity Found in the Fan-fictions
1
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
There are six sections addressed in this chapter. They are the research background,
research problems, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and
finally definition of terms.
1.1 Research Background
People nowadays are getting more and more creative in spending time for
their hobbies. A few years ago, the fans of certain forms of media, literature and
popular culture such as movies, comic books, musicians, etc. were very passive.
Most of them just collected some stuffs related to their favourites that other
people may have seen them wasting money and time for a non-productive thing.
However, as the time goes by, those fans become more creative and productive by
making on-line fan-made stories called fan-fictions.
As people type the words fanfic in Google or other internet searching
engines, they will find thousand titles of fan-fictions. Black (2007, p. 385) defines
fan-fictions as fan-made or “fan-produced texts that derive from forms of media,
literature, and popular culture”. For example, as it is found in Fanfiction.net,
fan-fictions may have various fandoms or the fans of a sport or famous person,
various genres and ratings. Another example, in Live Journal blog-site, there is a
fans community called gazette_yaoiwhich members can post, read and comment
characters of text are constrained to the members of the GazettE, a famous
Japanese rock band.
Million of authors around the world write their fan-fictions in English.
They gather in these sites posting their fan-fictions not only to gain popularity but
also to gain feedback and comments from the readers for the improvement of their
fan-fiction products. On the other side, writing fan-fictions is just the same as
writing another type of text.
Based on Gie, as cited by Syenny (2000, p.1) in her thesis, writing is “an
activity of expressing an idea through a written form to read and to be understood
in the medium of written language, a silent communication which uses symbols to
read”, meaning that it is very important to the author to develop and communicate
their ideas clearly so the readers would understand the messages they intend to
deliver through the fan-fictions. This requires the authors to be well
communicated in a written form of English.
In this case, the fact that most of the authors are not English native
speakers is seen to be very interesting. As seen ingazette_yaoicommunity, almost
three quarter of the authors are non-native Englsh speakers and some of them are
Indonesians who do not study English particularly as their major or in certain
English language institution. Since they mostly learn English only from school,
most of Indonesian authors write their fan-fictions with limited knowledge of
English sentence constructions. In the end, they ask their betas or proof-readers
from English native speaker to proofread their fan-fiction products before they
authors have proofreaders. They have to work very hard to produce a good writing
product by themselves. As a result, grammatical errors occur in their writing
products, for example, some sentences or phrases in the fan-fictions are
constructed in ambiguous sentence structures.
Kirkland and Dilworth (1994, p. 5) state that a writing product is
considered as a good one if it fulfils three criteria of a good writing product:
invention, style and management. Invention is related to the writer’sidea; style is
related to how the words work together in the sentences and management is
related to the organization of the compositions. The style of writing or how the
words work together in the sentences is very important in writing. Structurally,
each word should relate each other without creating an ambiguity or it will cause a
misunderstanding in the information that the writer intends to deliver. For
example, the sentence: I saw the man with the telescope. This sentence is
ambiguous because it has two meanings: using the telescope I saw the man or I
saw the man who brought a telescope. This phenomenon, called structural
ambiguity in which both words and sentences can have more than one meaning
(Kempson, 1977, p. 123), can be a very serious mistake if the writers is not aware
of this.
Using the Indonesian authors’ English fan-fiction products which are
posted in Live Journal as the object of the study, the writer is interested to conduct
an investigation of structural ambiguity in phrases found in the fan-fictions since
the authors have limited knowledge of English sentence constructions. This study
with meaning, and syntax, in which the phrase structure is the cause of the
ambiguity. Through content analysis research, this study will seek the structural
ambiguities which occur in the fan-fiction products and suggest some ways to
resolve the ambiguities.
1.2 Research Problems
The research problems under this study are listed as the following:
1. What are the frequency of the structural ambiguity occur based on the kind
of ambiguous phrases found in the fan-fictions?
2. How can English learners resolve the ambiguity found in the fan-fictions?
1.3 Problem Limitation
The writer limits the study in a certain area in order to make this study
become feasible for the writer to develop and for the reader to get the point that
the writer intends to deliver.
First, the environment of this study is limited in Live Journal blog site
among the other blog sites where authors can post their fan-fictions. Second, the
subjects of the study are six Indonesian fan-fiction authors who do not study
English as their major in university or particularly in an English language
institution. The writer uses their fan-fiction products as the object analyzed in this
study. Third, shortening the scope of this study, as the objects of the study, the
phrases. Moreover, analyzing structural ambiguity is more challenging than
analyzing lexical ambiguity which is quite predictable.
From the fan-fictions, the researcher will identify and list the structurally
ambiguous phrases. After listing the structural ambiguities, the writer will analyze
how frequent the structural ambiguity occurs and how the structural ambiguity is
resolved by suggesting some possible ways to clarify the sentence meaning.
1.4 Research Objectives
Based on the problem stated above, the writer formulates the objectives of
the study in the following list:
1. To find out the frequency of the structural ambiguity occurs in the
phrases found in the fan-fictions.
2. To find out the possible resolutions of how English learners can
resolve the ambiguity found in the fan-fiction.
1.5 Research Benefits
Hopefully, this study will help not only the other researchers who will
conduct a similar study in the future as a reference but also the readers, non-native
English speakers, who are learning English, and Indonesian fan-fiction authors in
order to improve their ability in writing in English. Knowing the ambiguity which
may occur in their writing products will make the readers and fan-fiction authors
become more aware in constructing a sentence or phrase so the readers and
product with clearly delivered message. Moreover, the resolutions which later are
proposed by the writer might help resolving the ambiguity occurring while writing.
As for teachers, this study can be a reference in improving their
knowledge in teaching writing by paying more attention to the ambiguity of
phrase meanings. This study will also help them assess their students writing
products so that they can make improvement in their students writing skill.
1.6 Definition of Terms
There are several terms used in this study. To avoid misunderstanding, the
writer provides a list of the terms below.
1. Fan-fictions
“Fan-fiction is fan-produced texts that derive from forms of media,
literature, and popular culture”. Fan-fictions are the same as narrative
writings that feature characters from a certain media, literature and popular
culture (Black, 2007, p. 385). For example, the authors who like
Spiderman make own fictional stories in which Spiderman, Mary Jane,
Green Goblin, etc. role as the characters of the fictions.
2. Meanings
Meanings are “things that are grasped, stored and assembled in the mind
of the speakers and hearers who use language”(Bergmann, 2007, p. 233).
Meaning of each expression also enables it to play a distinctive role in
3. Structural ambiguity
Structural ambiguity is a clear-cut phenomenon when both words and
sentences can have more than one meaning (Kempson, 1977, p. 123). As
supported by Ullman (1977, p.156), the sentences in question can be given
two distinct syntactic trees. It is caused by grammatical factor such as the
existence of many ambiguous grammatical forms and the equivocal
phrasing.
4. Phrase
Phrase is a group of words forming a meaning, but it does not have any
subject or predicate (Mas’ud, 2005, p. 171). There are five types of
phrases, namely: noun phrase which head is noun (Leech, 1994, p. 315),
verb phrase which head is verb and it typically consists of just the main
verb (Leech, 1994, p. 396), adjective phrase, prepositional phrase, and
8 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter discusses two major sections. The first is the theoretical description
of the study outlined in Chapter 1. The second is the presentation of theoretical
framework.
2.1. Theoretical Description 2.1.1 English Phrases
Traditionally, phrase is a term used in grammatical analysis which refers
to a single element of linguistic structure containing more than one word, lacking
of subject and predicate (Crystal, 1950, p. 170). Mas’ud (2005, p. 171) also
mentions a similar statement that a phrase is a group of words forming a meaning,
but it does not have any subject or predicate.
Based on Delahunty and Garvey (2010, p. 274), the definitions above
entail three characteristics as follows.
(1) it specifies that only a group of words can constitute a phrase, implying that a single word cannot; (2) it distinguishes phrases from clauses; and (3) it requires that the groups of words believed to be a phrase constitute a single grammatical unit.
However, they reject the first characteristic that single words cannot constitute
phrases. A word and a phrase may play identical grammatical roles in a clause,
meaning that “a single word may be a phrase when it is the head of that phrase”
of a phrase is the phrase’s central element; any other words (or phrases) in the
phrase orient to it, either by modifying it or complementing it”(2010, p. 275).
As it has been classified by some experts, there are five major types of
phrase. Those are: noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, prepositional
phrase and adverbial phrase. As the head of the phrase determines the phrase’s
category (Delahunty & Garvey, 2010, p. 275), it is clear that a phrase which head
is a noun is categorized as noun phrase (Leech, 1994, p. 315) which is considered
as the most frequently occurring phrase. A group of words which its head is
typically verb and it can consist of just the main verb is called verb phrase (Leech,
1994, p. 396). Meanwhile, a group of words which head is adjective and it is used
to modify a noun or pronoun is called adjective phrase (Mas’ud, 2005, p. 171). At
last, it is obvious that adverbial phrase is a phrase which head is adverb and
prepositional phrase is a phrase which head is a preposition (Delahunty & Garvey,
2010, p. 275).
2.1.2 Theory of Syntax
Syntax is a study of the structure of sentences,“uncovering the underlying principles or rules, for constructing well-formed sentences if a particularlanguage”
(McManis, Stollenwerk and Zheng Seng, 1987, p. 153). As a subdivision of the
study of grammar, not only concerning with the ways in which words can be
combined together to form and sentences, syntax is also concerned with the
interpretation of phrases and sentences (Radford, 1997, p. 1). There are two types
constituent structure rules and (2) transformational rules. Those rules present the
knowledge of how constituents of phrases or sentences are put together and
categorized in a language (McManis, Stollenwerk and Zheng Seng, 1987, p. 171).
However this study is not going to discuss further about this rules since it is not
the focus of this study.
Leaving the rules above, words in all human language can be grouped into a
relatively small number of classes called syntactic categories, in which
constituents belong to, reflecting a variety of factors including the type of
meaning the words express, the type of affixes that they take, and the type of
sentence structures in which they can occur (O’Grady, Dobrovolsky, & Katamba,
1997, p. 182). The table 2.1 below will provides the example of how O’Grady, Dobrovolsky, and Katamba classify words in syntactic categories.
Table 2.1 Syntactic Categories
Harry, boy, wheat, policy, moisture, bravery arrive, discuss, melt, hear, remain, dislike good, tall, old, intelligent, beautiful, fond to, in, on, near, at, by will, can, may, must, should, could and, or, but
However, the fact that some items can belong to more than one category may be a
using DP matters for pedagogical purpose. Using NP structure in this scope is
preferred (A. Radford, PC, October 17, 2012).
Over those three arguments of structuring a phrase or sentence, a phrase or
sentence can be built by more than one tree diagram. This phenomenon will lead
to the existence of structural ambiguity that will be discussed later.
2.1.3. Semantics and Word’s Meaning
Semantics is a term which is in inseparable from meaning. Semantics is
roughly defined as the study of meaning in language. Based on Language Files
compiled by McManis, Stollenwerk and Zheng-Sheng (1987, pp. 185-186), a
word’s meaning is not simply based on dictionary. A word’s meaning also includes its mental image. As an example, while reading the words Mona Lisa, an
image of the Mona Lisa will appear in our mind. As many words seem to stand
for or refer to actual objects or relations in the real world, a referent also is
considered as one aspect of the word’s meaning.
It is also believed that “anyone who does understand the sentences knows
what the world would be like in order for the sentence to be true.” (McManis,
Stollenwerk and Zheng-Sheng, 1987, p. 185) , meaning that the truth conditions
rule as the other aspect of a word’s meaning as it is also determined by the
conditions under which sentence may be used. Those aspects of meanings are
combined to give meanings of larger linguistic expressions such as phrases and
sentences.”(McManis, Stollenwerk and Zheng-Sheng, 1987, p. 186).
Meanwhile, semantically, ‘meaning’ is described by various definitions.
Among three definitions that Leech (1981, p. 23) proposes, it is clear that meaning
is something which is performed rather than something which exists in statics way.
It involves action, interaction and speakers’ intention in conveying a certain
meaning. Consequently, the interpretation of meaning depends on the context of
the action, interaction and speakers intention. This definition is supported by
Kempson’s similar statement which relates meaning and reference, as she states
that “the meaning or sense of a symbol could be defined as a statement of the
condition necessary and sufficient to hold in some state of affairs”(1975, p. 32).
Meaning is a multifaceted phenomenon. It is also defined as “things that
are grasped, stored and assembled in the mind of the speakers and hearers who
use language”, having two complementary aspects which cannot be separated
(Bergmann, 2007, p. 233).
Bergmann (2007, p. 233) explains that a language is“a system of symbols
used to represent object and states of affairs in the world”, while one of the
aspects of linguistic meaning is the information content of language: “what
language tells us about the real world”. In the other words, one aspect of meaning
is the relationship between the symbols that we used to refer to things and the
actual states of affairs that we use these symbols to describe.
On the other hand, linguistic meaning also does not exist independently
psychological phenomenon, the second aspect of meaning is its mental
representation, “having of what a word or phrase means its sense of how the
meanings of various words in our mental lexicon are related to each other”
(Bergmann, 2007, p. 233).
Another similar concept of meaning is proposed by Alston, relating the
concept of meaning to linguistic expression. Alston (2000, p. 148) stated that “a
linguistic expression is a constituent of a language; hence it is something of an
abstract order, something that can have many “realization” of different sorts.”
meaning that each of linguistic expression has a meaning which is distinguishable.
The meaning of each expression enables it to play a distinctive role in
communication (Alston, 2000. p. 154). However, an expression, later on, may
have two or more meanings (Alston, 2000, p.151). This fact later will lead to the
existence of ambiguity.
2.1.4 Ambiguity
Some experts have defined ambiguity in various ways. As an example,
Lew (1996, p. 3) defines ambiguity as “linguistic ambiguity is that property of a
fragment of text which allows for two or more significantly different semantic
interpretations to be arrived at by a substantial proportion of typical text
recipients.” Meanwhile, Kempson (1977, p. 123) defines ambiguity as a clear-cut
phenomenon when both words and sentences can have more than one meaning.
Looking up this definition, the ambiguity can occur both on spoken or written
text which are words or sentences has more than one meaning, it is considered
ambiguous.
According to Djajasudarma, meaning ambiguity is caused by four reasons.
First, the ambiguity occurs because of the characteristic of general word or
sentences which has multiple meaning, for example the word ‘buku’ in Bahasa
Indonesia means‘book’or‘joint’(Djajasudarma, 1996, p. 56). Second, an unclear
context of the words or sentences makes the words or sentences itself become
unclear (Djajasudarma, 1996, p. 56). The unclear limitation of words or sentences
meaning become the third reason of the occurrence of the ambiguity and the last
one, the ambiguity is caused by the chosen words or sentence which is not
familiar with the reference (Djajasudarma, 1996, p. 56).
Based on how long a sentence, a phrase or a word is considered
ambiguous; ambiguity is divided in two categories namely permanent ambiguity
and temporary ambiguity. Permanent ambiguity occurs when the sentence, phrase
or word still remains ambiguous even though it has been related to its context.
Meanwhile, temporary ambiguity occurs when the sentence, phrase or word
becomes unambiguous after it has been related to its context (Lavel, 2011). On the
other hand, from the various types of ambiguity proposed by previous researchers,
Ullman classifies three main types of ambiguity; those are phonetic ambiguity,
lexical ambiguity, and grammatical ambiguity (1977, p. 156). Related to this
study, the writer will explore only on the grammatical or commonly known as
2.1.4.1 Lexical Ambiguity
As cited by Pateda (1989), each lexeme can contain multiple meanings. It
depends on the information content of the lexeme undergone. Supported by
Ullman (1977, p. 158), the main cause of lexical ambiguity is due to the
occurrence of situation as polysemy and homonymy. In relation to polysemy,
individual word or phrase that can be used (in different contexts) to express two or
more different meanings, for instance, the words ‘head’ may undergo a meaning
as ‘the upper part of the human body or the front part of the body in animals; contains the face and brains’ and ‘person who is in charge’(Ullman, 1977, p. 158).
Meanwhile, in relation to homonymy, words that are spelled the same way
but differ in meaning or the relation between two words that are pronounced the
same way but differ in meaning, the words ‘bank’ can have two meaning. The
first meaning is sloping land (especially the slope beside a body of water) and the
second is a financial institution that accepts deposits and channels the money into
lending activities (Ullman, 1977, p. 158).
If readers or listeners do not know the context of the words, polysemy and
homonymy may cause ambiguity which later may lead the readers or listeners to
different interpretation and information. However, this research does not study the
lexical ambiguity; so, this type of ambiguity will not be explored further.
2.1.4.2 Structural Ambiguity
Pateda (1989) proposes that structural ambiguity usually occurs in a group
different points of view. The first point of view which is proposed by Ullman
(1977, p. 156) is ambiguity which is caused by grammatical formation. For
example, affix can create multiple meaning which somewhat confusing. The
suffix –able does not always have the same meaning in every word like in
desirable and eatable. The word desirable is only categorized as adjective,
meanwhile the wordeatableis categorized as adjective and noun as well.
The second point of view Ullman proposed (1977, p. 156) is ambiguity
which is caused by equivocal phrasing or amphibology. In this case, the
individual lexemes are not ambiguous, but their combination in forming a phrase
or sentence may have two or more interpretations. For example, the sentence ‘I
meet a number of old friends and acquaintance’, the adjective ‘old’ may refer to
both the friends and acquaintance or the friends only. This ambiguity may be
clarified by looking up the context or the supra-segmental element within.
Similar studies of analyzing structural ambiguity have been conducted
before by several researchers. This ambiguity can be resolve by “adding the
hyphen (-) or the preposition (of) between the head and modifier, adding the word
(which is) or (which are), and (who is) or (who are) to show about something that
is being talked about, and placing the preposition phrase at the beginning of the
sentence in terms to explain where the action took place”, as it has been suggested
by Andarini (2012) in her study. However, the explanation about how the
2.2. Theoretical Framework
Semantics and syntax are studies which cannot be separated. As cited by
Tambunan (2005, p. 6), Hurford and Heasley state that“semantic theory is a part
of a larger enterprise, linguistic theory, which includes the study of syntax
(grammar) and phonetics (pronunciation), besides the study of meaning. The
different grammar and pronunciation in language may differ the meaning of that
language.” Moreover, linguistic semantics, as defined by Frawley (1992, p. 1), is
the study of literal meanings that are grammaticalized or encoded. By, this
definition, how the grammar of a language structures its sentences, is reflected on
semantics.
Every literal meaning, which is studied in semantics, is bound up with the
mechanism that language has for grammatical expression, which is what syntax
studies. These two definitions show how semantics and syntax are related to each
other in linguistics. Ambiguity, in relation to syntax and semantic, means that a
phrase or sentence has more than one meaning and more than one structure
building, which later can alter the actual meaning which is intended to be
delivered into other meanings.
As Indonesian authors who have to write the fan-fictions in English,
Indonesian fan-fiction authors should have good ability in writing. Their not
studying English language specifically may be seen to be interesting since they
can produce fan-fictions products in English. As being stated by Thusnet (1997)
that writing fan-fictions is not a professional writing, the Indonesian fan-fiction
errors that they make. Not merely on their grammatical construction, the lack of
ability in writing may lead in constructing the sentences with ambiguous meaning,
either lexically or structurally. The ambiguity in sentence construction may be
found in the Indonesian authors’ fan-fiction products resulting in the different
interpretation of each reader. This phenomenon explains how the ambiguity in
semantic and syntax occurs in real-life writing which is going to be discussed in
this study.
As Aartz (1997) states that tree diagram shows how the constituents in
sentence structure can be marked off. Tree diagram is useful to identify the
structural ambiguity, especially the structural ambiguity which is caused by
equivocal phrasing or amphibology in which the individual lexemes are not
ambiguous, but their combination in forming a phrase or sentence may have two
or more interpretations (Ullman, 1977, p. 156). Meanwhile, there are several
suggestions proposed by Andarini (2012) to resolve the ambiguity adding the
hyphen (-) or the preposition (of) between the head and modifier, such as what has
been stated in the previous section.
Hopefully, by identifying the structural ambiguity of Indonesian
fan-fiction authors’ writing products, it can prevent not only the authors of the fan-fictions, but also also PBI students of Sanata Dharma University, from making the
structural ambiguity and can challenge them to write better if there were structural
ambiguity found in their writing product by applying the resolution that later will
21
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the writer discusses (1) the research method of this study, (2) the
research setting, (3) the research subjects, (4) the instruments and data gathering
technique used in this study, (5) the data analysis technique, and (6) the research
procedure.
3.1 Research Method
To resolve the problem of this research, the writer used content analysis
research method which may also be called document analysis. Numan (1994, p.
27) describes content analysis as a research which is “focused on analyzing and
interpreting recorded materials within its own context”. The analyzed materials
can be textbooks, newspapers, speeches, television programs, or any other types
of documents. One of the purposes is to analyze types of errors in students’
writing (Numan, 1994, p. 442). This research method was chosen to answer the
research problems because the writer examined a certain type of documents,
which are fan-fictions, and analyzed the types of errors in the writing.
3.2 Research Setting
This study was conducted by selecting several Indonesian authors’ fan
and analyzing the structural ambiguity that occurred in the phrases during the
uneven semester holiday in June-August 2012.
3.1 Research Subjects
The subjects of this research were Indonesian fan-fiction authors in Live
Journal blog site. Most of them do not study English as their major in university
or particularly in an English institution but they can produce good fan-fiction
products. Moreover, their living in Indonesia would make the writer find it easier
to build communication with them in getting some additional information related
to their fan-fictions if later necessary.
Since it would be difficult to study all of the population (all fan-fiction
authors who live in Indonesia), the writer selected some samples which were
sufficient to investigate the structural ambiguity in phrases found in Indonesian
authors’ fan-fiction products. The writer then used the random sampling technique
to select the representative sample. The samples are Indonesian authors who are
the members of gazette_yaoicommunity in Live Journal, which has 3204 authors
as its members all over the world who post fan-fictions in this community. In this
community, the authors use a pen name which the writer has confirmed that they
are Indonesian. They have written the GazettE, a famous Japanese Rock band
which has million fans world-wide, fan-fictions in English for three years at least,
so, they have already produced a lot of English fan-fictions.
Numan (1994, p.165) describes random sampling technique as the best
population have equal and independent chances of being included in the research.
However, not all the members of the population will be chosen to be the sample of
the research. In this research, the writer randomly selected six fan-fiction authors
who live in Indonesia and do not study the English language specifically before
selecting their fan-fictions to be the objects of this study. In the end, there were 27
fan-fictions to be analyzed in this study.
3.2 Instruments and Data Gathering Technique
The instrument employed in this study was table notes of structural
ambiguity which was found in the fan-fictions. The writer made brief notes during
the data gathering, listing each ambiguous phrase found while reading the
fan-selected fictions. The table notes consisted of four columns. The first column was
for numbering. The second column would be for the title of the fan-fictions,
including the authors’ name and the posting date. The third column was for the
sentences found containing structural ambiguitiy and the last column was
provided for the ambiguity itself. The table notes are presented in the table 3.1
below:
Table 3.1 Table Notes of Ambiguity Found in the Fan-fictions
No. Title/Author/Posting and imperfections, proof that they were crafted by the honest and simple hard working and
diligent people of… wherever.
the tiny bubbles and imperfections
To gather the data, in the uneven semester of academic year 2012/2013,
the writer selected 27 fan-fictions randomly from six Indonesian authors from
Live Journal. The chosen fan-fictions were both one-shot and multi-chaptered
ones from various genres. After having the fan-fictions collected, the writer then
read the fan-fictions to find the structural ambiguity occurring in the fan-fictions
before listing the structural ambiguity in the table notes which presented the data
that later would be analyzed.
3.3 Data Analysis Technique
For the analysis, the writer used the data obtained from the previous table
notes. Answering the first research question, the writer would have all the data
listed in the table notes. The writer then calculated the result of the structural
ambiguities found in the fan-fiction based on which type of phrase the ambiguities
which occurred. The formula below will show how the data were calculated based
on Bungin’s formulaas cited by Tambunan (2009, p. 19) in her thesis:
= f
n x 100 %
where:
N = Percentage of the ambiguity category
f = Individual frequency of ambiguity category
n = Total number of all data
Having all the results of the percentage of the structural ambiguity, the writer then
Schlenker (2006, p. 8) states that a sentence or phrase which corresponds
to two distinct syntactic tree diagrams is structurally ambiguous. Since the data
are structural ambiguities which are caused by equivocal phrasing or
amphibology, to answer the second problem of the research, the writer first drew
two tree diagrams of each ambiguity to explain why the phrase was considered
ambiguous. Therefore, in order to know whether the phrases found were
structurally ambiguous or not the writer had to check the phrases using the simple
syntactic tree diagram or flat structure by O’Grady, Dobrovolsky and Katamba (1997, p. 185). The writer did not use the X-bar theory since the writer is not very
familiar with the theory. Moreover, the purpose of drawing syntactic tree in this
study is only to see the ambiguity aspect found in the phrases. So, it does not
really matter to use the flat structure instead of the X-bar theory.
Using a computer program called Syntax Tree Editor; the writer generated
each tree diagram from each meaning derived from the ambiguous phrase. Among
the other similar programs, Syntax Tree Editor is the easy-operating-program to
draw the tree diagram, even though there will be a repetition of drawing the same
syntactic category symbol, so, in the end, the writer had to edit the tree diagram
manually.
As an example, the phrase‘old men and women’is structurally ambiguous
because there are two different meanings derived from two different tree diagrams
from this phrase. The figure 3.1 and 3.2 below shows whether this sentence is
3.1 Research Procedure
Since the writer had account in Live Journal, the writer had already had
free access to the fan-fictions posted by the authors which sometimes were
restricted to Live Journal user only. The writer first chose the sample or six
targeted fan-fictions authors who live in Indonesia and do not study English as
their major in their college or specifically in a certain English language institution.
After choosing the sample, the writer chose the fan-fictions whether those
are one-shot or multi-chaptered one later to be analyzed. The writer then read the
fan-fictions and listed the structural ambiguities occurring in the fan-fictions on
the table notes. Having the data listed, as the next step, the writer drew two tree
diagrams of each data found and explained how the phrases were structurally
ambiguous by interpreting the meanings that were drawn from the tree diagrams.
As the last step of this research procedure, the writer later gave some ways of how
28 CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter the writer presents the research results and discussion, which are
not labelled explicitly in this thesis. There are three sections of this chapter. The
first section of this chapter presents the data collected from the content analysis,
answering the first problem in the problem formulation. The second section of this
chapter deals with describing the data using syntactic trees and answering the
second problem of this research. The third section will be the outline of the
suggested resolutions.
4.1Structural Ambiguity Occurrence in Indonesian Authors’ Fan-fictions
The data in this study was obtained by reading the Indonesian authors’
fan-fiction products posted in Live Journal. A total of 27the GazettE fan-fictions
from six Indonesian authors were selected in this study. As it is explained in
Chapter 3, the writer read all the fan-fictions and listed the structural ambiguities
which appeared in the fan-fictions using some related theories as a guidance to
decide whether the sentences contained structural ambiguity or not.
As a result, the writer found 17 of 27 fan-fictions containing structural
ambiguities. Some of them had more than one ambiguity occurring in the body of
one the fan-fiction. From the 17 fan-fictions, the writer found a total of 20
Using the calculation that has been explained in Chapter 3, table 4.1 below
shows the percentage of the number of structurally ambiguous phrases found in
the fan-fictions.
Table 4.1Occurrence of Structural Ambiguity in Indonesian Authors’ Fan-fiction Products
No. Phrases Occurrences Frequency
1. Noun phrase 16 80%
2. Verb phrase 2 10%
3. Adjective phrase 2 10%
Total 20 100%
Table 4.1 shows that there are three types of phrases which are found ambiguous.
Those are: noun phrase, verb phrase, and adjective phrase.
From the first statement of Table 4.1, noun phrase set on the first place
with 80% or 16 occurrences as structurally ambiguous phrase in the fan-fictions.
A total of nine ambiguous noun phrases had conjunction ‘and’ in its body. As it
had the highest occurrence, in three noun phrases with conjunction ‘and’, the
phrases became ambiguous because they had adjective as pre-modifiers before the
first noun. Three other ambiguous noun phrases had adverbs as pre-modifiers and
two of the others had degrees as pre-modifier. One of the ambiguous noun phrases,
at last, was a noun which was modified by two other nouns.Four noun phrases
were found ambiguous because of having possessive meaning. In two other noun
phrases found, double prepositional phrases, which acted as adverb of place, also
became the cause of structural ambiguity and one noun phrase was ambiguous
manner. From the table above, it has been proved that as a productive phrase
which becomes the most likely appear phrase in writing, noun phrase has the
biggest chance to cause the structural ambiguity in a sentence.
As seen in the second statement, verb phrase occurred twice or 10% as
structural ambiguity found in the fan-fiction. The first verb phrase had two verbs
connected by conjunction ‘and’ and had an adverb as a pre-modifier before the first verb. The second verb phrase became ambiguous because of the preposition
‘with’ which acted as adverb of manner in a complex sentence. The writer also
found two adjective phrases or 10% of the percentage of ambiguous phrases found
in fan-fictions. The phrase was structurally ambiguous because it had two
adjectives connected by preposition ‘and’ but it had degree as pre-modifier. On
the other hand, the writer did not found any ambiguities caused by adverbial
phrase or prepositional phrase. The prepositional phrases may occur in the
ambiguity, but, those were under the noun phrase as its parents on syntactic tree.
So, the writer did not consider the prepositional phrase as individual ambiguous
phrase.
4.2 Ambiguous Phrases Found in the Fan-fictions and Its Resolutions
This section will list the structural ambiguity found in the fan-fictions.
There will be 20 structural ambiguities. Being separated from the context of the
sentences, the writer will provide the explanation of why the phrases are
Chapter 3 and also the explanation of the double meanings occurring in the phrase.
Later, the writer will give some resolutions how the English learners can resolve
the structural ambiguity so it will have clearer meaning.
There will be two different meanings of each ambiguity presented by the
writer. As it is stated before that the data are structural ambiguities which are
caused by equivocal phrasing or amphibology in which individual lexemes are
not ambiguous, but their combination in forming a phrase or sentence may have
two or more interpretations (Ullman, 1977, p. 156), in each number of the
ambiguity that will be listed below, the English learners may have two ways to
resolve the ambiguity based on the possible meaning that the fan-fiction authors
intended to deliver to the readers by reconstructing the ambiguous forms of each
phrase found.
As additional information, some of the phrases found in the fan-fictions
remain ambiguous even though the phrases have been observed inseparably from
the context of the text. This phenomenon is what is called permanent ambiguity as
it has been mention in Chapter 2. Meanwhile some of the other phrase is
temporary ambiguous since when the phrases are being related to the context, the
ambiguity will be resolve by itself. However, this phenomenon will not be
discussed any further in this study since it is beyond the scope of this study.
The section below is the structurally ambiguous phrases found in the
In diagram (1a) the adjective ‘tiny’ only modifies the noun ‘bubbles’ which forms noun phrase ‘tiny bubbles’. The word ‘tiny’ does not modify
the noun ‘imperfections’. In the other words, the one which is tiny is the
bubbles not the imperfections. To get clearer meaning of this phrase
structure, the English learners shouldchange the placeof the second noun
‘imperfections’ by putting it in front to be the first noun in the phrase so
the whole sentence will be: Even the glass dishes with the imperfections
and tiny bubbles proof that they were crafted by the honest and simple
hard working and diligent people of… wherever.
Meanwhile, in diagram (1b) the adjective ‘tiny’ modifies both of the noun
‘bubbles’ and ‘imperfection’, meaning that the bubbles and the
imperfections are both tiny. The English learners should give the same
pre-modifier ‘tiny’ to the second noun ‘imperfections’ to clarify the
meaning of this phrase, so later the whole sentence will be:Even the glass
dishes with the tiny bubbles and tiny imperfections, proof that they were
crafted by the honest and simple hard working and diligent people of…
wherever.
2. “The room used to be white, white bed, white walls, white curtains and
you installed a dreamlike chandelier that sparkled with tiny, glittering
crystals, and you’ve once danced with me underneath it, making me feel
like I’m gliding amongst white clouds and stars.” (Five Sentences
Drabble: 18 – Sentimental Journey by Akichuu, posted on 02 January
The adjective ‘simple’ in diagram (3a) only modifies the noun ‘t-shirt’,
forming a noun phrase ‘simple t-shirt’. The adjective ‘simple’ does not
modify the noun ‘pants’. The one which is simple in this phrase is the
t-shirt, not the pants. To get clearer meaning of this diagram, the English
learners shouldchange the placeof the second noun ‘pants’ to the front of
the phrase, and the sentence will be: He ran quickly to his bedroom,
searched the pants and simple t-shirt in his wardrobe and he hoped his
clothes would fit Yuu.
Meanwhile, in diagram (3b) the adjective ‘simple’ modifies both of the
noun ‘t-shirt’ and ‘pants’. To clarify the meaning that both of the t-shirt
and pants are simple, the English learners should give the same
pre-modifier to the second noun ‘pants’, so the sentence will be: He ran
quickly to his bedroom searched the simple t-shirt and simple pants in his
wardrobe and he hoped his clothes would fit Yuu.
4. “And probably a little pink and purple wouldn’t hurt.” (A Little Bit of
Pink Will Do You Goodby Akichuu, posted on 14 March 2010)
The phrase a little pink and purple in the sentence above has two different
forms which produce two different meanings at a time as it is drawn in the
In diagram (7a) the degree ‘really’ does not modify the adjective
‘unfamiliar’. It only modifies the adjective ‘weird’ which forms adjective
phrase ‘really weird’. Clarifying the actual meaning of this phrase
structure, the English learners should change the place of the second
adverb ‘unfamiliar’ and putting it in front so the whole sentence will be:
There were some unfamiliar and really weird things he learned while
talking to some of the female staff, like, why they became dangerously
cranky when they were having their period, and why it was very important
to never ask a woman how old they really were.
The degree ‘really’, in diagram (7b), modifies both of the adjective ‘weird’
and ‘unfamiliar’. The English learners should give the same pre-modifier
‘really’ to the second adjective ‘unfamiliar’ of this phrase to get the clear
meaning from this form, so the whole sentence will be: There were some
really weird and really unfamiliar things he learned while talking to some
of the female staff, like, why they became dangerously cranky when they
were having their period, and why it was very important to never ask a
woman how old they really were.
8. “The city that we called Lumivia is such a very gothic and dark city where
all the descendants of the darkness lives and searches for fresh blood but
not like a vampire film that killing their prey after drinking their blood.”
(Crimson Heartby Black Fenrir, posted on 25 September 2009)
putting it in front. The sentence meaning will be clearer as it becomes:The
city that we called Lumivia is such a dark and very gothic city where all
the descendants of the darkness lives and searches for fresh blood but not
like a vampire film that killing their prey after drinking their blood.
Meanwhile, the degree ‘very’ in diagram (8b) modifies both of the adjective ‘gothic’ and ‘dark’. Understanding the meaning of this second
structure, the English learners shouldgive the same pre-modifier‘very’ to
the second adjective ‘dark’, so the sentence will be:The city that we called
Lumivia is such a very gothic and very dark city where all the descendants
of the darkness lives and searches for fresh blood but not like a vampire
film that killing their prey after drinking their blood.
9. “The fire sprite’s presence seemed to boost up all his mood and energy
level, and as a result, all the guests were whispering about how pleasant
their lunch with the crowned prince was.” (The Birthday by Eiga Risti,
posted on 11 June 2012)
The noun phrase all his mood and energy level in the sentence above is
structurally ambiguous. This phrase has two different forms which alter
On the other hand, in diagram (9b) the noun ‘level’ is modified by both noun ‘mood’ and ‘energy’, which both act as an adjective. Resolving the
ambiguity caused by this structure, the English learners should add the
same post-modifier to the noun ‘mood’ and the sentence will be: The fire
sprite’s presence seemed to boost up all his mood level and energy level,
and as a result, all the guests were whispering about how pleasant their
lunch with the crowned prince was.
Numbers 1-9 above explain the ambiguities in noun phrase which is
caused by the existence of conjunction ‘and’ in the phrase which has been already
modified by some syntactic categories which in this study are adjective, adverb,
degree, and noun itself. To resolve the ambiguities, the English learners should
changing the place of the non-directly modified word, e.g.white clouds and stars
becomes stars and white clouds; or giving the same modifier to the non-directly
modified word, e.g.white clouds and starsbecomeswhite clouds and white stars.
10.“You were leaning down on top our small vocalist’s body.” (Lock the
Doorby Akichuu, posted on 26 June 2010)
In the sentence above, the noun phrasesmall vocalist’s bodyis structurally
ambiguous because this phrase has two different forms which may cause
two different interpretations. The diagrams below will explain the
The adjective ‘insolent’ in diagram (11a) modifies the noun ‘man’,
forming noun phrase which means the man has insolent attitude. In order
to avoid ambiguity, the English learners should change the phrase structure by adding preposition ‘of’ in the new formed noun phrase, so
the sentence will be: Unfortunately this action of insolent man caused the
crowd to startle and shift too suddenly, and no warning was given to the
unseeing blonde before he was accidentally being shoved backward.
Meanwhile, if the readers interpreted the noun phrase in diagram (11b),
the adjective ‘insolent’ modifies the phrase ‘man’s action’. It means the
one which is insolent is the action itself, not the man. To get direct
meaning from this diagram, the English learners should add the pronoun
‘which’ after the modified noun ‘action’ so the sentence will be:
Unfortunately this man’s action which is insolent caused the crowd to
startle and shift too suddenly and no warning was given to the unseeing
blonde before he was accidentally being shoved backward.
12.“The guitarist couldn’t deny Kai’s fans’ anxiety who always asked “Where
did that precious Leader-sama’s dimples go?”” (Nothing in this World by
Kei Kyuuketsuki, posted on 30 January 2011)
The sentence above is structurally ambiguous because of the noun phrase
precious Leader-sama’s dimplessince this phrase has two different forms
which produce two different meanings. The difference is shown in these
The adjective ‘big’ in diagram (13a) modifies the noun ‘bike’s’ which
forms noun phrase ‘big bike’s’. So, the noun which is big is the bike, not
the handlebars. To resolve the ambiguity form this diagram, the English
learners shouldform a new phrase structure which preposition ‘of’which
forms a new sentence like: Both of his hands are still holding the
handlebars of his big bike steadily.
On the other hand, diagram (13b) pictures the adjective ‘big’ which
modifies the noun ‘handlebars’ meaning that the noun which is big is the
‘handlebars’ not the ‘bike’ just like the diagram (a). The English learners
then should add pronoun ‘which’to relate the adjective ‘big’ to the noun
‘handlebars’ so the ambiguity from this structure is resolved and the
sentence will be: Both of his hands are still holdinghis bike’s handlebars
which are big steadily.
The ambiguities in numbers 10-13 above occur in noun phrase as well.
However, those occur because the phrases have possessive meaning from the
apostrophe‘s’’. Suggested by the writer, the ambiguities can be resolved by
changing the phrase into new phrase structure using preposition ‘of’, e.g. his big
bike’s handlebarsbecomeshandlebars of his big bike;or adding pronoun ‘which’
in the modified noun in the phrase, e.g. his big bike’s handlebars becomes his
bike’s handlebars which are big.
14.“I exhale deeply and reach for my bag on the table in front of me.”
In diagram (14a) the phrase ‘in front of me’ modifies the noun ‘bag’. It
does not modify preceding phrase: ‘the table’. In this diagram, the author
emphasizes that the bag is the one which is located in front of ‘my’. To get
clearer meaning from this structure, the English learners should put the
second prepositional phrase in a new sentence, so the sentence will be:I
exhale deeply and reach for my bag on the table. The bag is in front of me.
Meanwhile, in diagram (14b) the phrase ‘in front of me’ modifies thenoun
‘table’, not the noun phrase ‘my bag’. Different from diagram (14a), the
author emphasizes that the table is the one which is located in front ‘me’.
By this diagram, the English learners then should add pronoun ‘which’ to
relate the prepositional phrase ‘in front of me’ to the noun ‘table’. As the
ambiguity in this diagram is resolved, the sentence will be: I exhale deeply
and reach for my bag on the table which is in front of me.
15. I remember dragging my feet on the sand along the coast line. (Can We
Walk Hand in Hand?by Bagarahnyo, posted on 1 December 2010)
The sentence above is structurally ambiguous because of the noun phrase
dragging my feet on the sand along the coast line. This phrase has two
different forms which alter the meaning of the phrase, explained in the
be: I remember dragging my feet on the sand; I drag my feet along the
coast line.
In diagram (15b) the phrase ‘along the coast line’ only modifies the noun ‘sand’. To avoid the other meaning like in diagram (15a), so, the English
learners should add pronoun ‘which’ after the noun of the first
prepositional phrase to relate‘sand’with the phrase‘along the coast line’.
By this addition, the sentence will be:I remember dragging my feet on the
sand which is along the coast line.
Noun phrase number 14 and 15 are ambiguous because of the
occurrence of double prepositional phrases which act as adverb of place in
the phrases. The double prepositional phrases cause confusion whether
both of phrases modify the head word of the phrase or the second
prepositional phrase modifies the noun in the preceding prepositional
phrase. To resolve the ambiguities, the English learners should putting one
of prepositional phrase in a new sentence, e.g. dragging my feet on the
sand along the coast linebecomes…dragging my feet on the sand; I drag
my feet along the coast line;or adding pronoun ‘which’ after the noun of
the first prepositional phrase to relate the noun with the second
prepositional phrase, e.g.dragging my feet on the sand along the coast line
