10
2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Semantics
Semantics is a branch of linguistics which study about meaning of words and sentence. Semantics deal with all aspects that related with language. In this case, the problem of semantics is meaning. In semantics we can learn all aspect of meaning. Definition of meaning, figure of meaning, types of meaning, changed of meaning, and all of characteristics of meaning. In the other hand, object of semantics is meaning. Semantics is a wide knowledge because touch aspects of structure and function of language with the result that it can be related with some sciences.
There are some definitions of semantics given by some linguist for get clearer understanding on semantics:
1. John I. Saeed (2009). Semantics is the study of meaning communicated through language.
2. Bauerle (1979:195). Semantics conclude that language including of structure which is presented meaning if it is connected with an object in experience of human’s life.
3. Lyons (1977:1) Semantics is generally defined as the study of meaning. 4. Verhaar (1981: 9) Semantics is the theory of meaning or significance, i.e.
Systematic language branch which investigates the meaning or significance.
11
and function of language that can be connected with psychology, philosophy and anthropology.
6. Encyclopedia Britannica, vol.20 (1996: 313) Semantics is the study of relationship between a linguistics distinction with the relationship of mental and symbols in speech activities.
Semantics was introduced by M. Breal in 1883. Term of semantics was adapted from French language term Semantique, which was absorbed from Greek language. Semantics was introduced in 19thcentury as subfield of linguistics. Although semantics had known in 17th century, it was introduced in 1894 by American Philological Association.
Verhaar (1983: 124) describe level of semantics in linguistics in a scheme:
Context
Syntactic
Morphology
Morphophonology
Phonology
……… Semantics
Context meaning
Grammatical meaning
Lexical meaning
Influence changed of meaning
Its unit distinguishes of meaning
12
From the scheme we can see the position of semantics in linguistics as a systematic language branch which investigates the meaning or significance and Object of semantic is meaning. In the scheme, visible the points between semantic and another unit, that means there is no connection between reference, symbol, and meaning.
We have known, semantics is study of language and the object is meaning and the meaning can studied from any theories, especially in linguistics. From theory about semantic, there are some types of semantics:
1. Behaviorist Semantics 2. Descriptive Semantics 3. Generative Semantics 4. Grammatical Semantics 5. Historical Semantics 6. Lexical Semantics 7. Logical Semantic 8. Structural Semantic
13 2.2Meaning
Language is close with meaning. It is dynamic and always developed; it means meaning is developed, too. Meaning is a thing that can understand. When someone understands and coherence about something is called meaning. In language, when speaker talking to the hearer, thing which is received by hearer is meaning of words or language what speaker say. Hearer receives and understands what the speaker talking about, that is thing which is called meaning. If someone mention word “horse”, certainly we can imagine figure of a horse.
Kottler, Barnet and Light, Martin. 1967. On their book The world of Words. Say, Fundamental to an understanding of language is recognition of change. Language must constantly renew itself. Because the educated man must know the tradition of his civilization, he should review the history of words and their changes.
Thomas W. Stewart,Jr. and Nathan Vaillete (2001) on their book Language Files; Materials for an Introduction to Language and Linguistics. Say, In order to understand what meaning in language is, it is important to realize that it is a multifaceted phenomenon; different aspects of meaning need to be explained in different ways, so they are studied differently and are governed by different theories.
14
Describe sentence scientifically. (iii) Explain the meaning in communication process (Kempson, 1977:11)
In Kempson opinion, he explains three aspects that can find in meaning: 1. Word
2. Sentence
3. What the speaker need to communicate.
People can open dictionary to get the meaning of a word; however, it is not possible to forever if people always open the dictionary to get meaning of word that they can understand. And it is not a must someone has to open the dictionary to communicate. In daily life of human, it is difficult for people to apply meaning that is in dictionary, because meaning of a word in a sentence often moves. In the other word, sometimes a word has wide meaning. This thing can be find if someone be faced with idiom, figure of language, metaphor, and trope.
2.3Figurative Language
15
illuminating comparisons and resemblances. Figurative language contains a hidden meaning to express a word and used to special effect feeling. For example, the uses of word ‘face’ in sentence Mrs. Lana can face her problem by herself refers to ability solve something. Figuratively, this sentence means Mrs. Lana can solve her problem by herself. This is an unusual way of coding experience. Literally, the uses of word face can find in sentence she has beautiful face refers to a part of human's body. Using figurative language to describe or convey the idea of writer is more effective and unique, the writer use symbol or reveal the meaning indirectly. It also creates poetic nuance in writing which make it more beautiful. We are not only finding figurative language in poem, song, or novel but also in conversation of our day life. Indirectly, figurative language also increases varieties of words, which is increase creativity of writer in writing.
There are some definitions of figurative language according to the experts: 1. Bekson and Ganz (1957:80)state, “Figurative language is language which
makes use of certain devices called ‘figure of speech’, most of which are techniques for comparing dissimilar objects, to achieve effects beyond the range of literal language.
2. Shaw (1985: 251) states figurative language often vivid and imaginative can add color and clarity, vigor and effectiveness to writing.
16
4. John F. Genung (1893) described figurative language as an international deviation from the plain and ordinary mode of speaking, for the sake of greater effect.
All the definitions of figurative language above are different in the way of explanation but have the same meaning. The term figurative language has traditionally referred to language which differs from everyday, nonliterary usage. Figures were seen as stylistic ornaments with which writers dressed up their language to make it more entertaining, and to classify the meaning they wanted to convey.
Figurative language contains images, and writer use it to describe something through unusual comparison, for effect, interest, and make it reader or listener interested to find the real meaning and force the reader or listener to think and imagine the meaning. There are more than 10 kinds of figurative language. The types of figurative expressions which are going to be explained are simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, metonymy, synecdoche, personification, hyperbole, apostrophe, allegory, parable, paradox, and irony. Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia Of Literature says that figurative language can be classified in five
categories: resemblance or relationship, emphasis or understatement, figures of sound, verbal games, and errors.
2.4Metaphor
17
and from meta + pherein, meaning “to bear” in english. Over the years, the theory of metaphor has developed and deepened. In the early 1980s, Lakoff and Kovecses showed that the system of metaphors for anger arose, across languages and cultures, from the physiology of anger itself (Lakoff 1987; Kovecses 1986, 1990). By the early 1990s, a whole new level of metaphor analysis was discovered that called deep analysis.
Metaphor is a type of figures of speech that analog two things directly. It is comparison between two things or objects that are poles apart from each other but have some characteristics common between them. On the other hand, a common definition of a metaphor can be described as a comparison that shows
how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in another important
way.
Keraf ( 1998:19 ) says metaphor is a kind of analogy that compares two things directly, metaphor as a direct compression which does not use the word : like, as, if so that the first thing is directly to relieve to the second.
Barnhart (1995:118) says, “A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is taken out of its usual setting and placed with another word to suggest a likeness.”
lakoff and johnson (1980), lakoff (1987, 1993), and johnson (1987) say that, metaphor is an essential element in our categorization of the world and our thinking processes.
18
that it involves the identification of resemblances, but that metaphor goes further by causing a transference, where properties are transferred from one concept to another.
Conceptually, metaphor is development of our language in our daily life. It is closely related with experience. Actually, indirectly we often create something strange word in our communication of our life. When a boy rescue a girl, that girl says to that boy "you are my hero". We like to compare something to something else that has equals characteristic.
George Lakoff and Mark Johnsen (2003) (in their book Metaphors we live by) described, "Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in
thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature." They explain how a metaphor simply understands and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. And they call this concept as conduit metaphor.
2.4.1 The Creation of Similarity of Metaphor
Saeed (2009) on his book semantic, 3rd ed. Say, Metaphor has traditionally been viewed as the most important from of figurative language use, and is usually seen as reaching its most sophisticated forms in literary or poetic language.
Up to George Lakoff and Mark Johnsen (2003) (in their book Metaphors we live by) we can summarize the ways in which metaphors create similarities as
follows:
19
an industrial culture such as ours there is a correlation between the amount of time a task takes and the amount of labor it takes to accomplish the task. This correlation is part of what allows us to view time and labor metaphorically as resources and hence to see a similarity between them. It is important to remember that correlations are not similarities. Metaphors that are based on correlations in our experience define concepts in terms of which we perceive similarities.
2. Conventional metaphors of the structural variety (e.g., ideas are food) may be based on similarities that arise out of orientation and ontological metaphors. As we saw, for example, IDEAS ARE FOOD is based on IDEAS ARE OBJECTS (ontological) and THE MIND IS A CONTAINER (ontological and orientational). A structural similarity between IDEAS and FOOD is induced by the metaphor and gives rise to metaphorical similarities (ideas and food can be swallowed, digested, and devoured, can provide nourishment, etc.).
3. New metaphors are mostly structural. They can create similarities in the same way as conventional metaphors that are structural. That is, they can be based on similarities that arise from ontological and orientation metaphors.
20
and defines a structural similarity between the entire range of highlighted experiences and the range of experiences involved in producing collaborative works of art. There may be isolated similarities between love and art experiences that are independent of the metaphor, but the metaphor allows us to find coherence in these isolated similarities in terms of the overall structural similarities induced by the metaphor.
5. Similarities may be similarities with respect to a metaphor. As we saw, the love is a collaborative work of art metaphor defines a unique kind of similarity. For example, a frustrating love experience may be understood as being similar to a frustrating art experience not merely by virtue of being frustrating but as involving the kind of frus-tration peculiar to jointly producing works of art.
2.4.2 Classification of Metaphor
According to Goatly (1997:126), there are eight classification of metaphor as in following:
21 (2) Inactive metaphor (dead Metaphor)
Inactive metaphor is referred to directly through a conventional and fixed meaning of v-term and vehicle is available, but ill wired in parallel under normal processing, otherwise the topic concept so predictable. E.g. Red substitutes the bravery and strength. Here, the bravery and strength modifies the main subject red. The topic red refers to conventional meaning of the vehicle the bravery and strength.
(3) Subjective Metaphor
Subjective metaphor is the description of metaphor because the speaker has the different ideological or physical view of the word from the hearer or some which involve the presentation of another speaker‟s thought or representation. e.g. you are child to me. Here, child modifies the main subject „you‟
(4) Mimetic Metaphor
This metaphor extends to non verbal expression straying beyond linguistic text into visual aid plastic art. It demands the reader to imagine a word in which the assertions or descriptions are literally true. e.g. The stars had a smile on the sky. Here, a smile modifies the main subject the stars.
(5) Phenomenalistic Metaphor
22 (6) Precision Metaphor
It is the process or quality that is made more precise by being related through modification, to a specific first order identity. e.g. my cry for help was the cry of the rat when a terrier shakes it. Here, the cry of the rat modifies the main subject, my cry for help.
(7) Symbolism Metaphor
It is a particular kind of substitution of the interpretation. e.g. Do not count your chicken before they are hatched. Here, chicken is the substitution to interpret the meaning of the metaphor.
(8) Approximate Metaphor
