THE STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY FOUND IN
THE LAUGH A DAY BOOK OF BLOOPERS QUOTES AND
GOOD CLEAN JOKES
BY JIM KRAUS
THESIS
Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Sarjana Degree of English Department Faculty of Arts and Humanities
State Islamic University (UIN) Sunan Ampel Surabaya
By: Chumairoh
Reg. Number: A03212035
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERISTY (UIN) SUNAN AMPEL
SURABAYA
THE LAUGH A DAY BOOK OF BLOOPERS QUOTES
AND GOOD CLEAN JOKES
BY JIM KRAUS
THESIS
Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Sarjana Degree of English Department Faculty of Arts and Humanities
State Islamic University (UIN) Sunan Ampel Surabaya
By:
Chumairoh
Reg. Number: A03212035
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY (UIN) SUNAN AMPEL
SURABAYA
ABSTRACT
Chumairoh. 2016. The Structural Ambiguity Found In The Laugh A Day
Book Of Bloopers Quotes And Good Clean Jokes By Jim Kraus. Thesis. English Department. Faculty of Arts and Humanities. State Islamic University (UIN) Sunan Ampel Surabaya.
Thesis Advisor: Prof. Dr. Hj. Zuliati Rohmah, M. Pd
Keywords: Syntax, Ambiguity, and Structural Ambiguity
The thesis is done due to a consideration that the user of language is supposed to know how their speech can be received and understood by audience than the listener without any missing message. Therefore, this
thesis attempts to analyze Structural Ambiguity which is found in The
INTISARI
Chumairoh. 2016. The Structural Ambiguity Found In The Laugh A Day
Book Of Bloopers Quotes And Good Clean Jokes By Jim Kraus. Skripsi. Sastra Inggris. Fakultas Adab dan Humaniora.
Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Ampel Surabaya.
Pembimbing: Prof. Dr. Hj. Zuliati Rohmah, M. Pd
Kata Kunci: Sintaks, Ambiguitas, dan Ambiguitas Struktural.
Skripsi ini dilakukan atas sebuah anggapan bahwa pengguna bahasa diharapkan mengetahui bagaimana perkataannya bisa diterima dan dimengerti oleh audien daripada pendengar tanpa adanya pesan yang tidak sesuai. Oleh karena itu,
skripsi ini mencoba untuk menganalisa tulisan humor dari Clean Jokes yang
dituliskan oleh Jim Kraus yang berjudul The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers
Quotes and Good Clean Jokes. The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean Jokes adalah sebuah buku yakni kumpulan beberapa humor dalam setiap harinya dan berjumlah 365 hari. Skripsi ini bertitik fokus pada tipe dari struktur ambiguitas yang ditemukan dalam objek, dan bagaimana struktur ambiguitas terlihat pada objek. Di sisi lain, skripsi ini menentukan frase dan kalimat yang mengalami ambiguitas struktural menggnakan teori Hurford dan Heasley dan bagaimana analisa pada ambiguitas struktural
pada objek The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean
Jokes menggunakan metode deskriptive. Sebagai cara yang digunakan untuk analisa dan mengidentifikasi ambiguitas struktural pada objek, analisa dalam skripsi ini menggunakan diagram pohon oleh Noam Chomsky. Untuk keseluruhan analisis, skripsi ini menerapkan teori semantik, teori sintaks dan teori ambiguitas. Hasil penelitian dalam skripsi ini ditemukan 1 frase dan 11 kalimat yang struktur kalimatnya ambigu.
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ... 1
1.1 Background of The Study ... 1
1.2 Statement of Problem ... 11
1.3 Objectives of The Study ... 11
1.4 Significances of The Study ... 11
1.5 Scope and Limitation ... 12
1.6 Definition of Key Terms ... 13
CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ... 14
2.1 Review of Underlying Theories ... 14
2.1.1 Theory of Syntax ... 15
2.1.2 Theory of Semantic ... 15
2.1.3 Theory of Ambiguity... 16
2.1.3.1 Structural Ambiguity ... 17
2.1.3.2 Lexical Ambiguity ... 20
2.1.4 Surface and Deep Structure ... 21
2.1.5 Tree Diagram ... 21
2.2Review of Related Studies ... 24
CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH ... 29
3.1 Research Design ... 29
3.2 Data ... 30
3.2.1 Data and Data Source ... 30
3.3 Instrument ... 30
3.4 Technique of Data Collection ... 31
3.5 Technique of Data Analysis ... 32
CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ... 38
4.1 Findings ... 38
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ... 66
5.1 Conclusion ... 66
5.2 Suggestion ... 67 REFERENCE
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, this research aims to present some subs of chapter
include background of the study, statement of problems, objectives of the
study, significance of the study, scope and limitation and definition of the
key terms. It is expected to be useful as the first step of understanding and
comprehending of what is discussed in this research.
1.1Background of The Study
Basically, language has many functions includes to get
understanding by expressing thoughts, feelings, ideas and messages. As
May (1999:135) says that language is a natural means to enable
communication among people. Language is also known as a living entity
that has its own peculiar laws by means of which it can develop a system of
contracts whose foundation is laid in unknown times, and a social institution
which is interwoven with sounds. Besides, we must make a language is
social rather than biological aspect of life. Thus, it brings to the discourse of
language as social behavior.
Chomsky (1957: 13) says that language is a set of a finite number of
sentence, and each of finite is in length and it is constructed out of a finite
2
2009: 102). Indeed, we may think of a language as a set of sentences, in
which each of sentence is along with an ideal phonetic form and associated
with an intrinsic semantic interpretation. Referring to the idea of Chomsky
on the goal of descriptive study of language, it can be legibly understood
that the grammar of language is the system of rules that specifies sound
meaning correspondence (Postal, 2004: 188).
Furthermore, Bloch and Trager through Darwing’s book argue that
a language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social
group cooperates (Darwing, 1973: 30). Besides, in Islamic view, Allah says
in the holy Quran, “O ye who believe! Fear Allah, and make your utterance
straight forward” (Al-Ahzab: 70).
Language is one unit form in which whole of pieces in language are
later analyzed one by one, and it is called as language unit. The smallest unit
is called as the phoneme. Jones (2016:31) through Ball’s book defines
phoneme as a family of sounds in a given language which are related in
character and are used in such a way that no one member ever occurs in a
word in the same phonetic context as any other member. The language unit
which is above the phoneme is called as morpheme. Morpheme is the
smallest unit of meaning in a language (Ottenheimer, 2013: 85). Then, the
language unit which is above morpheme is called as word. The language
unit which is above word is said as phrase. Phrase is a group of two or more
words that express a single idea, but it does not usually form as a complete
3
above phrase is called as clause. Clause is a grammatical unit which operates
at a lower level than a sentence, but higher than a phrase (Chalker and
Weiner, 1998: 63). Besides, the language unit which is above clause is
called as a sentence. Sentence is a group of words which has a clear meaning
(Harrison, Jakeman and Peterson, 2012: 4). Finally, the language unit which
is the largest and exists above sentence is called as discourse, in which it is
generally associated with a form of language use and a type of social action
(Tracy, LLie and Sandel, 2015: 1205).
In the case of language, when expressing or saying something, the
user of language is supposed to know how their speech can be received and
understood by audience as the listener without any missing message about.
Absoluttely, we can think that it includes many parts of understanding, such
as meaning, ways, and grammatical as well. That is the way the writer of
this thesis says that it is absolutely important to refer to that, because it
studies about structural ambiguity of sentences in order to get the specific
understanding.
According to Hurford’s statement in Rayhan’s journal as written on
a thesis by Sevida entitled Structural Ambiguity of News Headlines “Yahoo
New” (The Study of X-bar Theory), says that:
4
Furthermore, ambiguity becomes one of fundamental language
abilities of speakers, in which it can be particularly and structurally
ambiguous phrase or sentence. It includes the criteria for the assessment of
grammatical theory. In the study of syntax, the sentence pattern can make a
grammatical ambiguity which is caused by having more than one tree
diagram. On the other hand, it has two different deep structures although it
has the same surface structure for each. Fromkin (2003) emphasizes that the
syntactic categories in constituent structure have relationship between the
head of its phrase and the others, such as verb phrase, in which the head is
verb of verb phrase.
According to Leech (1981: 30), an expression is said to be
ambiguous when it is more than one interpretation which can be assigned to
it. In the case of ambiguity, ambiguity can happen in a word, phrase, clause
and sentence by understanding the structural aspect. Chaer (1990:54)
divides ambiguity and polysemy into a difference, that polysemy happens
in word, but ambiguity happens in phrase and sentence. Although we
usually know which meaning of grammar is intended in a given context,
there are obviously potential ambiguities that make all are desirable to avoid
using the word in both senses as though when we are trying to be clear and
exact. Accordingly, we shall restrict our using of it to contexts where we
intend to talk about. When we are talking about the subject matter with
5
In the case of ambiguity, an ambiguity occurs when a word, a phrase,
or a sentence can be understood or interpreted in more than one meaning
(Andoline, 2002: 132). It means that an ambiguity occurs because a word, a
phrase, or a sentence has an unclear meaning. In addition, Djajasudarma
(1999:56) states that a meaning may be unclear because of some reasons,
namely: (a) the word or sentence is common (general); for example, the
word ‘book’ has multiple meaning. (b) The word or sentence which is
interpreted is not the same as the speaker’s and the writer’s intention; the
interpretation should depend on the context as though the context is unclear.
(c) The meaning limit which is connected to language and non-language is
not clear; for example, there is no limit to say that someone is clever at
something. (d) The use of the word or sentence is not familiar to us.
(Bustam, The Analysis of Ambiguous Structures Through The Structural
Ambiguity Concept).
Besides the reasons above, there are three factors that can cause an
ambiguity, and the factors are: lexical factor, structural factor, and phonetic
structure factor. Moreover, Hurford, et al. (1983:128) state:
“Any ambiguity resulted from the ambiguity of a word is a lexical ambiguity, and a sentence which is ambiguous because its word relates to each other in different way even though none of the individual word are ambiguous is structurally (or grammatically) ambiguous.”
Furthermore, Ulmann (1972:156) also states that in spoken
language, ambiguity can be caused by phonetic structure of sentence. From
6
ambiguity based on the factors which cause it, namely: lexical ambiguity,
structural ambiguity, and phonetic structure ambiguity.
Therefore, in the case of ambiguity factors, each unit of the language
will be identified according to the structure, category, function, and
meaning. So, by the complexity of structure, category, function and
meaning of each language unit, a sub division of analysis will be brought
into a discussion. “At present, appellation landscape analysis on language
namely phonology, morphology, syntactic, and discourse analysis.”
- The professor said on Monday he would give an exam.
- I shot an elephant in my pajamas - I eat a noodle on the table
A situation where a sentence may be interpreted in more than one
way due to ambiguous sentence structure is called syntactic ambiguity.
Syntactic ambiguity arises not from the range of meanings of single words,
but from the relationship between the words and clauses of a sentence, and
the sentence structure which underlies the word order. In other words, a
sentence is syntactically ambiguous when a reader or listener can reasonably
interpret one sentence as having more than one possible structure (Bivins:
2015).
The case of ambiguity can happen in every writing occasion, such
as novel, magazine, newspaper, jokes letter and so on. Some researchers
have discussed ambiguity in most of their written work. Sometimes, some
7
its meaning. In this study, the writer focuses on jokes book. Because by
understanding jokes meaning, the writer is sure that there are some
ambiguous sentences, particularly in structural form which will be found in
later identification to the object.
As a proof of numerous analysis on ambiguity, some previous
studies are proposed in this research. Therefore, there are some previous
studies which have already discussed ambiguity. Such as ambiguity and the
concept of structural ambiguity which is evidently taken from Yahoo News,
newspaper, and Jakarta Post. Those previous studies have been done by
applying X-bar as the way of identifying ambiguity.
The research with the title The Analysis of Ambiguous Structure
through the Structural Ambiguity Concept by Muhammad Rayhan Bustam,
asserts that structural ambiguity emerges due to a structure which has two
or more different interpretations. The writer then emphasizes that the
structural ambiguity often occurs in a written text. Thus, the result of this
research shows that the structural ambiguity can emerge in some structures
which can be identified as Noun Phrase, Prepositional Phrase, Relative
Clause, Noun Clause, and the combination of those with conjunction
(coordinating).
The next research comes from Sarah Lizara Sevida, a student of
English Letters Department State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah
Jakarta with her thesis entitled Structural Ambiguity of News Headlines
8
Bar theory of syntax. The X Bar theory is used, because every phrasal
category has a head of its same syntactic structure. The primary of X Bar
theory of phrase structure is applied on how to generate the correct
constituent of English sentence. The result of this research is the headline
of Yahoo News are vulnerable having structural ambiguity that makes the
readers have approximately more than one interpretation of meaning in their
mind.
Further research is made by two students of State University of
Malang, Silvia Randika Puspita and Mirjam Anugerahwati. The research
entitled Structural Ambiguity in the Jakarta Post Newspaper’s Headline
News purposes to investigate the structurally ambiguous phrases in The
Jakarta Post Newspaper’s Headline news. This research intends to apply for
qualitative descriptive. The research finds 19 phrases of 16 articles in the
Jakarta Post newspaper’s headline news which evidently make sentences
become potentially ambiguous structure. Besides, the writer discover two
types of structurally ambiguous phrases that emerge in the headline news of
The Jakarta Post newspaper.
As the media of analysis, tree diagram is the final way of analyzing
the data in this research. There are some theories that are used in some
previous studies. In a thesis by Sevida entitled Structural Ambiguity of News
Headlines “Yahoo New” (The Study of X-bar Theory), uses X-Bar theory
by analyzing the sentence, and base the analysis on the theory of syntax.
9
Lexical Ambiguity found in Cleo Magazine Advertisements, uses the IC or Chines Box and tree diagram for analyzing the structural ambiguity. But, in
this research, the writer attempts to focus by using tree diagram as the way
or media of analyzing.
Based on the previous researches above, the writer applies a new
topic unlike the previous researches above. This study has a focus on data
source: Jokes book (Clean Jokes), which the writer claims containing. Thus,
the analysis is conducted by applying Tree Diagram for making a detail
branch of class word of structure.
According to the research problem that was discussed in the next
part of this chapter, by using the syntactic theory in tree diagram, this study
will focus on the structural ambiguity in the term of phrase and sentence,
and identify the kind of sentence and phrase. The object of this study does
not involve newspaper, novel, short story, movie, Jakarta Post, etc. But, the
writer takes an interesting jokes book by Jim Kraus entitled The Laugh a
Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean Jokes.
The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean Jokes
is one of the interesting object to analyze the phrase and sentence ambiguity
which focuses on the structural form. By reading this book, the writer argues
an opinion that readers do not only get a story, but also an enjoyment and
an entertainment in reading the story. As the statement has written by Jim
Kraus “whose laughter is the most perfect medicine” There are so many
10
not only enjoy of the story and content of the book, but also being through
of grammatical aspect of the text. In this study, the writer finds some phrase
and sentences that have ambiguous structure according to the theory of
syntax that will be analyzed by Tree diagram to make easier of the analysis.
The writer uses the diagram tree by Noam Chomsky than other diagrams,
because this type is more effective to analyze clearly about how sentences
are put together as combinations of phrase which in turn are combinations
of work.
Thus, by the simple description of ambiguity that is deliberated
through the number of different researches, the writer of this research would
like to bring the discussion into the discourse of structural ambiguity which
is formulated into a title entitled Structural Ambiguity Found in The Laugh
a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean Jokes by Jim Kraus. The discussion is constructed under the discourse of ambiguity. But, this
research focuses only on structural ambiguity. By the help of the theory of
Syntax and the application of tree diagram in the analysis towards the object,
this research would taste beneficial for further comprehension of ambiguity
11
1.1Problems of The Study
This study is conducted to answer the problems that are formulated
in the following below:
1.2.1 In what case does structural ambiguity happen as found in
The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Global Clean
Jokes by Jim Kraus?
1.2.2 How is the structural ambiguity found in The Laugh a Day
Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean Jokes by Jim Kraus?
1.3Objectives of The Study
Based on the problems above, this study is aimed to:
1.3.1 To identify structural ambiguity in sentence and phrase as
found in The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and
Good Clean Jokes by Jim Kraus.
1.3.2 To explain and analyze structural ambiguity in The Laugh a
Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean Jokes by Jim Kraus by the application of Diagram Tree.
1.4 Significances of The Study
Based on the background of the study, this study will give some
contributions theoretically and practically. Theoretically, this study will
give the finding to the field of syntactic study specifically on ambiguous
12
Furthermore, this study will use Noam Chomsky’s Diagram Tree to
make the writer easier to analyze the structural ambiguity by identifying
class word of the concept of structural ambiguity diagram in The Laugh a
Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean Jokes by Jim Kraus.
Practically, the writer expects that it will give a new knowledge and
understanding about English linguistic especially on structural ambiguity
which is found in The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good
Clean Jokes by Jim Kraus.
1.5 Scope and Limitation
The scope of this research is concerning with the case of structural
ambiguity in The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean
Jokes by Jim Kraus. The identification of the structural ambiguity is done by applying Noam Chomsky’s Diagram Tree. The diagram tree is used to
analyze the structural ambiguity. Therefore, the data of this research are
extremely and obviously taken from The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers
Quotes and Good Clean Jokes by Jim Kraus. The limitation of this study is about structural ambiguity which exists in mere ambiguity phrase and
sentence in the e-book edition created 2011 The Laugh a Day Book of
13
1.6 Definition of Key Terms
In order to avoid misinterpretation, it is necessary to define and give
some explanations about some key terms related to language terms based on
the tittle about. The definition of the key terms is stated as follows:
1.6.1 Syntax is a part of linguistics study. Consisting of the
principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in
particular languages (Chomsky, 2002:1).
1.6.2 Ambiguity is a word, phrase, or sentence which has more than
one meaning depend on the grammatical structure Chaer
(1994:297).
1.6.3 Structural Ambiguity is the sentence which has more than one
interpretation or structure.
1.6.4 Tree Diagram is a way of analyzing structural ambiguity to
identify the word class and structure in a phrase or sentence.
1.6.5 Phrase is a term used in grammatical analysis to refer to a single
element of structure containing more than one word, and lacking the
subject-predicate structure typical of clauses. Crystal (1980; 170).
1.6.6 Sentence is the largest structural unit in terms of which the grammar
of a language is organized Crystal (1980: 319).
1.6.7 The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean
14 CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Theoretical Framework is a great conceptual model of a theory or
something (logical sense) of relations among factors that identify an
importance on the issue of research. “The framework of the theory is to flow
logically from research documentation proceeding in the field of research
related”. Theoretical framework (the framework in general discuss
interrelationships) among the variables in theory (prevailing theory,
previous research, logical) things, to help researchers in composing the
hypothesis and tests carried out. To research which is testing (confirmation)
theory, the theory in use to build a hypothesis, to the case of this hypothesis
built based on the theory of a logical explanation and the results of research
before her and will be tested with the facts. According to Kinney (1986) is
the state or events that can be observed in the real world.
2.1 Review of Underlying Theories
To support the analysis, this part reviews on several theories related
to this research, those are syntax, structural ambiguity, phrase, sentence,
diagram tree and The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good
15
2.1.1 Theory of Syntax
The study of the structure of phrase or sentences and the rules which
govern how words are combined to form phrase or sentence. Syntactic
ambiguity arises not from the range of meanings of single words, but from
the relationship between the words and clauses of a sentence, and the
sentence structure implied there.When a reader can reasonably interpret the
same sentence as having more than one possible structure, the text meets the
definition of syntactic ambiguity. Syntax is the rules of grammar for the
arrangement of words into phrases and of phrases into sentence (Oxford
dictionary: 1212).
In Syntactic Ambiguity, the same sequence of words is interpreted
as having different syntactic structures; in contrast, semantic ambiguity is
where the structure remains the same, but the individual words are
interpreted differently (Layman, 1962:120). It is significantly enough that
structural ambiguities may be created by design when one understands the
kinds of syntactic structures that will lead to ambiguity, though for the
respective interpretations to work, they must be compatible with semantic
and pragmatic contextual factors.
2.1.2 Theory of Semantic
Semantic is the study of meaning in language (Hurford and Heasley,
1984:1). A semantic theory should attribute to each expression in the
constituents will ultimately be the meanings of words.
Although people are sometimes said to be ambiguous in how they
use language, ambiguity is strictly speaking about a property of linguistic
expressions. A word, phrase, clause or sentence is ambiguous if it has more
than one meaning. Obviously, this definition does not say what meanings
are or what it is for an expression to have one or more than one. This
definition can also be referred to the word or sentence that has the different
meaning. The sentence that are ambiguous are representing two different
sentences. (Bach, 2000) for a particular language, this information is
provided by a grammar, which systematically pairs forms with meanings,
ambiguous forms with more than one meaning
(http://online.sfs.edu/~kbach/ambguity.html).
2.1.3 Theory of Ambiguity
Ambiguous is unclear, confusing, or not certain, especially because
it can be understood in more than one way. A sentence that employs
17
the ambiguous word in a sentence and most likely people who read a
sentence may not understand what is written about. It makes other readers
are confused, because the word used is not clear. Many English words can
have ambiguous meanings in isolation.
Ambiguity can arise in variety of spoken and written language. If we
listen to the speaker’s utterance or reading a book, we are sometimes
difficult to understand what the speaker or the writer means. Brown and
Miller (1988) divide structural ambiguity into two types. First, ambiguity of
bracketing which occurs when a component has more than one bracketing
system, but the same labeling. For example, “The dog bit the man in the
bath room” (Brown and Miller, 1988: 82). Another is ambiguity of labeling.
It occurs when a component has more than one labeling. For example, “She
looked hard” (Brown and Miller, 1988: 82).
Hurford and Heasley (1984:128) divide the semantic ambiguity into
two kinds, lexical and structural ambiguity:
2.1.3.1Structural ambiguity
Ambiguous sentence have more than one phrase structure tree, each
corresponding to different meaning. The sentence the boy saw the man with
the telescope is ambiguous. Its two meaning correspond to the following two
phrase structure trees. The meaning of this sentence is “The boy used a
telescope to see the man.” The first phrase structure tree represent this
meaning. The key element is the position of the PP directly under the VP.
18
selected by the verb. The verb see select an NP only. In this sentence, the
PP has an adverbial function and modifies the verb. In its other meaning
“The boy saw the man who had a telescope” the PP with the telescope occur
under the direct object NP, where modifies the noun man. In this second
meaning, the complement of the verb see is the entire NP –the man with the
telescope. In both case, the PP act as an adjunct
The PP in the first structure is generated by the rule
VP- V NP PP
The second structure the PP is generated by the rule:
NP- Det N PP
Two interpretations are possible because the rule of syntax permit different
structures for the same linear order of word.
Hurford and Heasley (1998: 128) say that structural ambiguity or
grammatical ambiguity arises because of the structure in a phrase or
sentence. The ambiguity usually appears on a linguistic unit that landscape
phrase and sentence. Moreover, Hurford, et al. (1983:128) states “Any
ambiguity resulted from the ambiguity of a word is a lexical ambiguity, and
a sentence which is ambiguous because its word relates to each other in
different way even though none of the individual word are ambiguous is
structurally (or grammatically) ambiguous”.
2.1.3.1.1 Ambiguous in Phrase
Every word forms phrases actually apparent, but the
19
a phrase “old and men woman”, “old” in phrase can be refer to only
men or both of them (man and women).
2.1.3.1.2 Ambiguous in Sentence
The readers or listeners often deal with confusion of meaning
in a sentence, although the meaning of every word in a sentence is
obvious. Pateda (2001: 2003) divide grammatical ambiguity to be 3
category:
- Ambiguity which caused by structural/ grammatical
- Ambiguity in similar phrases
- Ambiguity appear in context
Meanwhile, grammatical ambiguities emerge in the unit of
linguistics is called sentence or phrase. So, grammatical ambiguity
can be seen in three sides. First possibility is ambiguity that is caused
by the process of the words in the grammatical formulation. In
English, there are prefix and suffix that evidently can make
ambiguity, even sometimes confusing.
Second possibilities, ambiguity in phrase is the same as
equivocal phrasing. Every word that forms phrase actually is clear,
but the combination can be interpreted more than one meaning. For
example, “He killed a number of old friends and acquaintances” the
word “old” can be mean long time or not young. In this sentence, it
20
above, the question will be what is meant by old, what are friends or
acquaintances.
To avoid ambiguity like the preceding examples, we need
context or element of supra segmental that follow and seem to be
beneficial. Third possibilities, ambiguity that emerges in context
question whether it is individual context or structural context. For
example, in a minor sentence “close the door!” People can ask,
“Close the door please?” “Will you close the door?” “Why do you
close the door?”. To avoid ambiguity in context, we have to know in
what context people say (44 Stephen Ullman, Op. Cit., pg.
157-15812).
2.1.3.2Lexical Ambiguity
It happens when a word has more than one meaning. For
examples:
(1) He found a bat. (Bat: baseball bat; flying rodent)
(2) She couldn’t bear children (bear: give birth to; put up with).
In some possibilities in language area, every word would
have one and only one meaning. But, as well known, this is not the
case of ambiguity. When a word has more than one meaning, it is
said to be lexically ambiguous. When a phrase or sentence can have
more than one structure it is said to be structurally ambiguous.
21
2.1.4 Surface and Deep Structure
According to An Introductory English Grammar book, each
sentence has deep structure. Deep structure is an abstract grammatical
structure that relates to its meaning. Meanwhile, surface structure relates to
the pronunciation of a sentence. For example “The shooting of Oswald was
terrible”. Its sentence is able to have two different interpretation or
meanings. It means that, the sentence “the Shooting of Oswald was terrible”
has different deep structure, but having same surface structure.
The shooting of Oswald was terrible (Surface structure)
Possible meanings:
- Someone (not specified) shot Oswald (deep structure)
- Oswald shot someone (not specified) (Deep structure)
2.1.5 Tree Diagram
Tree diagram is an illustration in the form of an upside-down
tree shape that shows the constituents of an utterance, with the most
general at the top and more specific constituents at the bottom of the
tree. (Levine, 2016:122).
According to Akmajian, (1995), we have now cited two kinds of
evidences in the favor of the hypothesis that sentences are structured. First,
if we do not assume that sentences are structured that words are grouped
into constituent. Then we cannot account for how a sentence consist of a set
of unambiguous words which can nevertheless be ambiguous. Second, it is
22
constituent structure. We cannot only say that sentences are indeed
structure, but we can also indicate how they must be structured. That is, we
have found at least three important aspects of sentence structure:
a. The linear order of words in a sentence
b. The categorization of words into parts of speech
c. The grouping of words into structural constituents of the sentence
These three types of structural information can be encoded into what
is called a tree diagram. The tree diagram here is used for structural
ambiguity, especially in a sentence. The example of ambiguity sentence that
is applied into tree diagram will in the following illustration.
My younger brother sees the beautiful girl with the telescope It has two structural interpretations and structural forms.
23
b. Diagram 2
Old man and woman.
This phrase has two interpretations of meaning:
- Old modifies man
Diagram I
24
Diagram II
2.1.6 Review of Related Studies
In this part of chapter related studies functions to clarify some
previous researches which still have the same theory and obviously the
different object and discussion. Besides, it also stands to emphasize the
popularity of the object by describing the frequent analysis on the object
done by some researchers. This following previous researches as follows.
The research with the title The Analysis of Ambiguous Structure
through The Structural Ambiguity Concept by Muhammad Rayhan Bustam, asserts that structural ambiguity emerges due to a structure which has two
or more different interpretations. The writer then emphasizes that the
structural ambiguity quite often occurs in written text. Finally, the result of
this research shows that the structural ambiguity can emerge in some
structures which are Noun Phrase, Prepositional Phrase, Relative Clause,
Noun Clause, and the combination of those with conjunction (coordinating).
By reading his research exactly this thesis, the writer finds some
25
used is the same or by using theory of syntax, but in Bustam’s research,
there are some structures which commonly become the trigger of the
ambiguity which focus in clause, phrase and sentence. Meanwhile, in this
study, the writer tries to focus on phrase and sentence. To apply some clause,
phrase and sentence, Bustam’s has similarity by using tree diagram to
analyze a class word.
The next research comes from Sarah Lizara Sevida, a student of
English Letters Department State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah
Jakarta with her thesis title Structural Ambiguity of News Headlines “Yahoo
News” (The Study of X Bar Theory). This thesis applies for the X Bar theory
of syntax. The X Bar theory is used because every phrasal category has a
head of its same syntactic structure. The primary of X Bar theory of phrase
structure is how to generate the correct constituent of English sentence.
Finally, the result of this research is the headline of Yahoo News are
vulnerable having ambiguous structures that make the readers have
approximately more than one interpretation of meaning in their mind.
By knowing Savida’s research to analyze structural ambiguity in
News Headlines Yahoo News and by using the X-Bar theory, the writer
actually does this study with a little bit of similarity, because there are some
similarities in identifying some ambiguous sentences and phrases that
ambiguous in type of phrase. But in this study the writer used tree diagram
to apply and identify the structural ambiguity found in the data: intended the
26
Further research is made by two students of State University of
Malang, Silvia Randika Puspita and Mirjam Anugerahwati. The research
entitled Structural Ambiguity in The Jakarta Post Newspaper’s Headline
News purposes to investigate the structurally ambiguous phrases in The
Jakarta Post Newspaper’s Headline news. This research intends to apply for
qualitative descriptive. Thus, the research finds 19 phrases of 16 articles in
the Jakarta Post newspaper’s headline news which evidently make sentences
become potentially structurally ambiguous. Besides, the writer discovers
that there are two types of structurally ambiguous phrases that emerge in the
headline news of The Jakarta Post newspaper.
The next study is by Henny Andriani Tambunan as the student of
University of Sumatera Utara and the tittle of her thesis is “The Analysis of
Lexical and Structural Ambiguity in Your Letters of The Jakarta Post”. She
discuss about lexical and structural of ambiguous theory, she focuses on
phrase and sentence in Your Letters of Jakarta Post that include of
ambiguous. She uses the Stephen Ullmann (1977). Then, George Yule
(1985) for analyzing the structural ambiguity. She finds the dominant data
is happen in phrase as the structural ambiguity then in Lexical ambiguity
case of the study. Descriptive qualitative is uses by the researcher to find
out the data of the study according to in Your Letters of The Jakarta Post.
The next previous researcher is from Susan Kristanty as the student
of Petra University and the tittle of her thesis is “The Structural and Lexical
27
sentences or phrases which are structurally ambiguous and kinds of words
that are lexically ambiguous. She wants to know what advertisements are
ambiguous. Therefore, she applies the theory of structural and lexical
ambiguity from Hurford and Heasley’s theory (1984). She also used the
theory of syntactic structures by Adrian Akmajian (1995) and Nelson
Francis (1954). In her research, the writer makes a relation between
semantic theory and syntax theory.
Based on the relevant previous researches above, the position of this
study from the first previous research by The Analysis of Ambiguous
Structure through The Structural Ambiguity Concept by Muhammad Rayhan Bustam. Then, Henny Andriani Tambunan as the student of
University of Sumatera Utara and the tittle of her thesis is “The Analysis of
Lexical and Structural Ambiguity in Your Letters of The Jakarta Post”.
Meanwhile in the next research by Sevida’s by using electronic media;
Yahoo News (the study of X-Bar theory). Then, Silvia Randika Puspita and
Mirjam Anugerahwati with the research entitled Structural Ambiguity in
The Jakarta Post Newspaper’s Headline News, and Susan Kristianty in her
thesis “The Structural and Lexical Ambiguity Found in Cleo Magazine
Advertisements”. Over all previous research, this study will explain more
about syntactic ambiguity that found in the object of study, exactly in the
term of phrase and sentence form in each tree diagram. Then, the writer is
not only giving the meanings of each ambiguous sentences or phrases for
28
structural that happened in the data source: The Laugh a Day Book of
Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean Jokes by Jim Kraus.
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH
In this section, the research will be brought into the discussion about
the way of processing and analyzing the object in this research. This chapter
will be done to explain and describe the progress of research by means of
systematic, academic, and scientific way of research. There are some points
of the chapter such as research design, data collection includes data and data
sources, instrument and technical of data collection, data analysis and
research time frame.
3.1 Research Design
The method that is used by the writer in this study is descriptive
approach. Descriptive approach is used to analyze the data that is related to
structural ambiguity in the text of The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers,
Quotes And Good Clean Jokes By Jim Kraus. Alision and Bloomer,
(2006:97) state that descriptive approach can be defined as description and
analysis rather than counting of feature. Descriptive qualitative research is
interested in understanding the meaning in which people have constructed
in the term of how people make sense of their world and the experiences
they have in the world (Merriam, 2009:13).
As the need of research’s activities, this research does not take any
30
on the object with some helps of library research. Thus, the writer would
like to apply for descriptive research method based on library research.
3.2Data
3.2.1 Data and Data Source
The data of this study is from phrases and sentences that have
ambiguous structure in the book The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers, Quotes
and Good Clean Jokes by Jim Kraus. There are 365 days of 820 pages that
can be analyzed which sentences or phrases is ambiguous. The data of this
research, then will help the writer to analyze the problems according to the
problem of the study in this research. Therefore, the data source will be from
library resource including books journal, thesis, and other supporting library
resource related to the problems arisen.
3.3Instrument
According to Merriam (2009:15), since understanding the goal of
this research, the human instrument, which is able to be immediately
responsive and adaptive, would seem to be the ideal means of collecting and
analyzing data. The key instrument of this research is the researcher herself,
because it is impossible to investigate the data without the interpretation
from the researcher herself. The researcher herself collected, interpreted,
analyzed and draw a conclusion. However, the research also needs some
supporting instruments such as laptop, internet, and Corel draw to help the
31
3.4Technique of Data Collection
The data will be collected through some phrases and sentences in
book The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers, Quotes and Good Clean Jokes by
Jim Kraus. The writer decides to do several teqniques to get any data to
make an accurate data analysis. The first is downloading data from the
internet and text of book The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers, Quotes and
Good Clean Jokes by Jim Kraus into PDF file format. The writer
compresses the data to Microsoft Office 2013 and print it out to make it easy
to find the data related to structural ambiguity to ease the analysis. By
analyzing this study, the writer steps in collecting the data according to the
problem of the object. The writer uses some following procedures to collect
the data:
3.4.1 Searching the Data on Google.
The writer searches the data on Google book. It is purposed to get
PDF book format about CleanJokes. The writer decides to use CleanJokes
(Humorist story) entitled The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and
Good Clean Jokes by Jim Kraus. Besides, the content of the book is a
collection of humorous writing in the format of E-book edition created in
2011.
3.4.2 Downloading the Object
The writer than downloads The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers
32
downloading, the writer could be easily to read the book in PDF then
printing out.
3.4.3 Reading the text of The Laugh a Day Book Of Bloopers Quotes and
Good Clean Jokes By Jim Kraus.
3.5Technique of Data Analysis
In analyzing the data, the writer takes some techniques as identifying
the data according the problem of the study, and those techniques will be
clarified as in the following:
3.5.1 Identifying the phrase and sentence which are possibly ambiguous.
The researcher will identify the book The Laugh a Day Book of
Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean Jokes by Jim Kraus that contains of ambiguous phrase and sentence. In identifying ambiguous phrase and
sentence. The writer applies some identities, those are identifying phrase and
sentence that ambiguous, identifying phrase and sentence that are uttered by
both structural forms.
3.5.2 Coding
The writer codes the utterance during transcribing process by giving
a mark.
3.5.2.1Coloring
The coding is marked by coloring the data.
Yellow : Sentence
33
3.5.2.2Data
The data is marked by D. Example: D01 its mean the
1st data.
3.5.2.3Day
There are 365 day of the object of study, so the writer
marked it by Dy. Example: Dy1 its mean the data was found
in the 1st day.
3.5.2.4Page
There are 802 pages of the object of this research, so
the writer marked it by Pg. example: Pg100 (100th pages)
3.5.2.5Volume
3.5.2.2Table of Volume
In this part there are 802 pages 365 days of the book.
The writer gives a mark to ease the reading and finding by
deciding 4 volumes.
3.5.2.3Naming
The writer codes the utterances during transcribing
process by giving a mark (SS) for simple sentence, (CS) for
Volume Day
1 1-100
2 101-200
3 201-300
34
for noun phrase, (VP) for verb phrase, and (AP) for adjective
phrase.
3.5.2.6Table of Naming Kind of Structural Ambiguity
3.5.3 Quoting and underlining the structural ambiguity in the book The
Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean Jokes by Jim Kraus
dealing with statement of problem.
See the example below to make it clear:
Sentence Phrase
35
3.5.3.1. Quoting and Identifying the Ambiguous Sentence and Phrase.
3.5.4 Classifying each kind of ambiguity
The researcher will classify each kind of structural ambiguity into a
table.
3.5.4.1Classifying Table of Ambiguity
3.5.5 Analyzing the structural ambiguity by using tree diagram to find
the meaning.
NO.
Kind of Sentence Kind of Phrase
36
Analyzing the structural ambiguity by identifying the class word
by applying the diagram tree. In this part, the writer applies tree diagram
on structural ambiguity in two interpretation of each phrase or sentence.
Old man and woman
[Old man] and woman] (only the man)
The diagram will be:
Diagram I
[Old [man and woman]
Old modifies both of “man and woman” and the diagram will be:
Diagram II
3.5.6 Determining the ambiguous structure
The research determines the total number of structural ambiguity
37
Percentage of each kind: ௫
௬ X 100 %
x: The frequency of each kind of ambiguity
y: The total number of frequency
3.5.6.1 Table Determining of Data Percentage.
No. Structural Ambiguity Data Total Percentage A Sentence
- Simple sentence
- Compound
sentence
- Complex
sentence B Phrase
- Noun phrase
- Verb phrase
- Adjective
38 CHAPTER 4
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter, this researcher aims to present some subs of chapter
include findings and discussion. It is expected to be useful as the fourth step of
understanding and comprehending of what is discussed in this research.
4.1 Findings
In this chapter, the writer would like to show the results of data analysis
of structural ambiguity that occurs in a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good
Clean Jokes. After analyzing phrases and sentences by focusing the case of
structural ambiguity, the writer would like to apply Tree diagram that has been
explained in the chapter II to identify the structure of sentence and phrase that
are claimed as having ambiguous meaning. There are 12 data contain the types
of structural ambiguity. The 12 data are from sentence and phrase. In sentence,
the structural ambiguity happens in three kinds of phrase: Noun Phrase, Verb
Phrase, and Adjective Phrase. Meanwhile, in sentence, the structural ambiguity
happens in three kinds of sentence according to its form: Simple Sentence,
Compound Sentence, and Complex Sentence. But, in the result of writer’s
exploration of identifying tree diagram in the object, there are three kinds of
case which indicate an ambiguous structure: Simple Sentence, Compound
Sentence, and Noun Phrase. Thus, the findings will contain the data, context
39
The following chart shows the types of structural ambiguity found
in phrase and sentence on a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean
Jokes.
4.1.1 Sentence
Sentence as one of the type of case which does happen in structural
ambiguity is divided into three kinds of category: Simple Sentence,
Compound Sentence, and Complex Sentence. However, as the need of the
research, there are two kind of sentences found in the research on the object
The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean Jokes by Jim Kraus. The sentences that are found in the preceding object are Simple
Sentence and Compound Sentence.
4.1.1.1 Simple Sentence
Simple sentence intrinsically contains of only one clause. Besides,
simple sentence is one of the types of structural ambiguity found in the
57% 36%
7%
Diagram of structural ambiguity
Simple sentence
Compound sentence
40
longer correct according to its meaning and its structure, but it contains of
myriad problems of its structural ambiguity. It is also due to a reason that
ambiguity can occur when something is opened to more than one
interpretation. The following description will include the case of structural
ambiguity in simple sentence as it is available in the object The Laugh a Day
Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean Jokes by Jim Kraus.
1. (D01/Dy9/Pg30/V1)
The first sentence of simple sentence is “He told the farmer his
story”. It has two underlying meaning or interpretations and two structural
form. It means that the sentence has two deep structure and one surface
structure. The surface structure of this sentence is “He told the farmer his
story”. Then, the deep structure of this sentence (possible meaning); on the
application of diagram (a) He told the farmer about his (farmer) story. Then,
on diagram (b) He told the farmer about his (he) story. The branching shows
the “He told the farmer his story” has a structural ambiguity which is
centralized to NP “his story” depending on the position of this Noun phrase,
and two valid readings can be proven in the following diagrams.
41
Diagram I
Based on the diagram above, the branching shows that the NP his
story is NP headed by noun farmer. It can mean “the farmer was told his
story to someone” or “He told the farmer about his (farmer) story”. This
diagram shows that the NP He is as the specifier of the S, then it has two
complements and two adjuncts. Adjunct is something that is joined or added
to another thing, but it is not an essential part of it. They are begun by the
VP told farmer his story which take a position as the complement of the
head of the S. Afterwards, the V told that actually can be transitive and
intransitive verb, but in this diagram, the V is as transitive verb because it
has the object, which is as complement namely the NP his story.
Furthermore, in the NP the farmer his story has two adjuncts and two
complements, in which the NP are the farmer and his story. Farmer and
story as complement, then his as the NP. Then, the V told is followed by
42
the tense marker of the V told; past tense and the meaning of this diagram
is “He told the farmer about his (farmer) story”.
b. [He told [the farmer] his story]
Diagram II
Based on to diagram above, the branching shows that the NP his
story is NP headed by determiner He. This shows the “He” (man) was told his story to the farmer or He told the farmer about his (he) story. Then, it
can be drawn that the specifier of the S is the NP He. There is one
complement and one adjunct. They are begun by the VP told farmer his
story which act as the complement of the head of the S. Afterwards, the V
told that actually can be transitive and intransitive verb, but in this diagram,
the V is as transitive verb because it has the object, which is as complement,
namely the NP his story. Furthermore, in the NP the farmer his story has
one adjunct and one complement, which is the NP his story. Story as
complement and his as an adjunct in each NP. Then, the V told is followed
43
the tense marker of the V told; past tense and the meaning of this diagram
is “He told the farmer about his (he) story”.
Based on both diagrams, the head is the tense marker of the V told;
past tense. In this case, the NP hisstory is an adjunct in both diagrams, but
it has different phrasal category that preceded it. In diagram (a), the NP his
story as an adjunct of NP he, whereas in (b) the NP hisstory as an adjunct
of the NP the farmer. So, the NP his story becomes the trigger of structural
ambiguity in this sentence. In addition, the NP his story is said as adjunct,
because it can be optional in this sentence and it also contrasts to
complement, that the common characteristic of adjuncts are is seeing the
Noun Phrase. While, the aimed meaning of the headline actually is diagram
(a). (The Laugh a Day Book of Bloopers Quotes and Good Clean Jokes,
2011)
2. (D11/Dy332/Pg713/V4)
The sentence “You chased the cab away with my luggage in the
trunk”. It has two underlying meanings or interpretations and two structural
forms. It means that the sentence has two deep structure and one surface
structure. The surface structure of this sentence is “you chased the cab away
with my luggage in the trunk”. Then, the deep structure of sentence (a) you
chased the cab away with my luggage (location of luggage) is in the trunk,
(b) you chased the cab away with my luggage in the trunk (location of the
cab away). The branching shows the “you chased the cab away with my
44
depending on the position of this PP prepositional phrase, and two valid
readings can be seen as the following diagrams.
a. [You chased [the cab away with my luggage] in the trunk]
Diagram I
Based on the diagram above, the branching shows that the NP with
my luggage is NP headed by noun you. “You chased the cab away with my
luggage (location of luggage) is in the trunk”. This diagram shows that the
NP you as the subject of sentence becomes the spesifier of the S and there
are two adjuncts and three complements, such as the PP with my luggage
modifies the transitive verb chased. It means that the PP with my luggage in
the trunk becomes adjunct of the transitive verb chased. After that, the VP chased the cab away with my luggage in the trunk acts as complement of
the head of the S. Furthermore, the NP my luggage in the PP with my
luggagein the trunk becomes complement of the preposition with, because
45
chased can actually be transitive and intransitive verb, but in this diagram, the V as transitive verb, because it has the object, which is as complement,
namely the NP the cab away. Furthermore, in the NP the cab away has one
complement, which is the NP the cab away. Cab away as complement.
Then, the V told is followed by two adjunct and three complements.
Moreover, the head of this diagram is the tense marker of the V chased; past
tense and the meaning of this diagram is “you chased the cab away with my
luggage in the trunk”
b. [You chased [the cab away with my luggage in the trunk]
Diagram II
Based on the diagram above, the branching shows that the PP in the
trunk is NP headed my luggage. This shows “you chased the cab away with
my luggage (location of luggage) is in the trunk”. This diagram shows that
that the NP you which is as the subject of sentence becomes the spesifier of
46
sentence, because it can be optional to the V chased. In addition, the verb
chased can be transitive or intransitive verb. However, the V chased in this
diagram is as transitive verb. Furthermore, the NP the cab away is object of
transitive verb chased. So, the complement of the V chased is the NP in the
trunk. Meanwhile, the NP the trunk in the PP in the trunk becomes
complement of the preposition in, because the NP the trunk is object of its
preposition in. The VP chased the cab away with my luggage in the trunk
follows the head of the S, and it is known as the complement of the head of
the S. Moreover, the head of this diagram is the tense marker of the V
chased; past tense and the meaning of this diagram is “you chased the cab
away with my luggage in the trunk (location of the cab away)”.
As a whole, the head of both diagrams is the tense marker of the V
chased; past tense. In this case, the PP in the trunk is adjunct in both diagrams, but it has different phrasal category that preceded. In diagram (a)
the PP in the trunk is as adjunct of V chased, whereas diagram (b) the PP in
the trunk is as adjunct of NP the cab away. So, the PP in the trunk becomes
the trigger of structural ambiguity in this sentence. In addition, the PP in the
trunk is said as adjunct that it can be optional in this sentence, and also contrast to complement, that the common of adjunct are by seeing the
preposition taken such as from, at, with, on, in, etc. Then, the aimed meaning
of this sentence is actually in diagram (a) (The Laugh a Day Book of
47
3. (D05/Dy113/Pg274/V2)
The sentence “a flight attendant was getting very annoyed by tree
children on the plane”. It has two underlying meanings or interpretations
and two structural forms. It means that the sentence has two deep structure
and one surface structure. The surface structure of this sentence is 2a flight
attendant was getting very annoyed by tree children on the plane”. Then, the
deep structure of sentence (a) a flight attendant was getting very annoyed by
tree children who stay on the plane (b) a flight attendant was getting very
annoyed by tree children on the plane. The branching shows the “a flight
attendant was getting very annoyed by tree children on the plane” has a
structural ambiguity with PP “on the plane” depending on the position of
this PP. The two valid readings can be easily understood as follows.
a. [a flight attendant was getting very annoyed [by tree children] on the
plane]
48
Based on the diagram above, the branching shows that the PP on the
plane is NP headed by a flight, and it can mean that “A flight attendant was
getting very annoyed by tree children who stay on the plane”. This diagram
shows that the NP a flight which is as the subject of sentence becomes the
spesifier of the S and there are two adjuncts and three complements, such as
the PP on the plane which modifies the transitive verb was getting. It means
that the PP by three children on the plane becomes adjunct of the transitive
verb was getting. After that, the VP was getting very annoyed by three
children on the plane acts as complement of the head of the S. Furthermore,
the NP in the PP by three children on the plane becomes complement of the
preposition by, because the NP three children is object of its preposition by.
Afterwards, the V was getting that actually can be transitive and intransitive
verb, but in this diagram, the V is as transitive verb, because it has the object,
which is as complement, namely the NP very annoyed. Furthermore, in the
NP very annoyed has one complement, which is very annoyed. Cab away as
complement. Then, the V was getting is followed by two adjunct and three
complements. Moreover, the head of this diagram is the tense marker of the
V was getting; past continuous and the meaning of this diagram is “a flight
attendant was getting very annoyed by tree children who stay on the plane”.
b. [a flight attendant was getting very annoyed by tree children [on the
49
Diagram II
Based on the diagram above, the branching shows that the PP on
the plane is NP headed three children, and the sentence will be “A flight
attendant was getting very annoyed by tree children on the plane”. This
diagram shows that that the NP a flight which is as the subject of sentence
becomes the spesifier of the S. The PP on the plane becomes adjunct of the
V was getting in this sentence, because it can be optional to the V was getting. In addition, the verb was getting can be transitive or intransitive
verb. However, the V was getting in this diagram is as transitive verb.
Furthermore, the NP very annoyed is object of transitive verb was getting.
So, the complement of the V was getting is the NP the plane. Meanwhile,
the NP the plane in the PP on the plane becomes complement of the
preposition on, because the NP the plane is the object of its preposition on.
The VP was getting very annoyed by three children follows the head of the
