CHAPTER II
REVIEW RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Semantic Theory
One of the insight of modern linguistics is that speakers of a language have different types of linguistics knowledge, including how to pronounce words, how to construct sentences, and about the meaning of individual words and sentences. To reflect this, linguistics description has different level of analysis. One of them is in giving the meaning of linguistics expressions we should establish definitions of the meanings of words. Semantics is commonly defined as the study of meaning communicated through language. The word semantics comes from the Greek word,
Semantikos mean “significant”, Semainein mean “to show”, “signify” or “indicated by a sign”; from Sema means “sign”.
The concept of semantics has been used until the 20th century as can be evident from ‘The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English’, published in 1972, which defines semantics ‘branch of philosophy concerned with (changes in) the meaning of words’. It is also interesting to know that their dictionary has classified semantics into plural nouns, so has linguistics
The study of semantics includes the study of how meaning is constructed, interpreted, clarified, obscured, illustrated, and paraphrased.
Regarding the term semantics, let us see some definitions of semantics by some linguists below:
1. Semantics is the study of meaning communicated through language Semantics is a mayor branch linguistics devoted to the study of meaning in language
(Crystal, 1980:315)
3. Semantics is the study of meaning. It concerned with what the sentence and other linguistics objects express, not with the arrangements of their syntactic parts of their pronunciation (J.J Katz, 1972:1)
Leech (1974:ix) says, “Semantics is central to the study of communication; and as communication becomes more and more a crucial factor in social organization, the need to understand it becomes more and more pressing. Semantics is also at the centre of the study of human mind-thought process, cognition and conceptualization”. In conveying the meaning within communication, there are usually different perceptions and views from the listeners. We have to know the speaker’s intent and the context of utterance in order to avoid misunderstanding. It means that semantic analysis become more complicated than attaching definitions to linguistic expressions.
Modern linguistics assumes that when a speaker combines words to form sentences according to the grammatical rules of his language, the word definitions are combined to form phrase and then sentence definitions, giving us the meanings of sentences. In attaching the definitions of words, we will be faced with 3 problems. The first is the problem of circularity. If the definitions of word meaning are given in words, the process might never end. How can we state the meaning of a word, except
2.2 Scope of Semantics
There is no very general agreement either about the nature of meaning or about the way in which it should be described. Semantics is the study of the linguistics meaning. It is not concerned with what sentences and other linguistics object expressed. It is not concerned with the arrangements of syntactic parts, or with their pronunciation. Semantic could cover more extensive areas, from structure and function of language as well as the interrelationship with other discipline.
There are two way major approaches to the way in which meaning in language is studied. The first is linguistics approach. The students of language or linguists have been long interested in the way in which meaning in a language structured. There have been studies of meanings of words and the semantic structure of sentences. Some of them also have distinguished between types of meanings in the language. The second is philosophical approach. Philosophers have investigated the relation between linguistics expression, such as the words of language and person, things and events in the world to which these words refer.
Although there may be different approaches to semantics, these three basic terms seem to be widely mentioned in each of these approaches, i.e. meaning, varieties of meaning, and sense and reference.
2.2.1 Meaning
(1) What is the meaning of ‘philosophy’ ?
The word meaning as a noun in this sentence. According to the circumstances in which this question is asked, the kind of word philosophy is and the context in which it is being employed. We should expect the answer to this question to differ, not only in detail, but even in general type.
(2) Dark clouds mean rain
Certain of the meanings can be distinguished by the technique of substituting other words in the same context and enquiring whether the resulting sentences are equivalent. The verb mean in sentence above can be substituted with sign without changing the total meaning of the sentence.
(3) He means well, but rather clumsy
(4) My father rarely means what he says
The notion of intention seems to be relevant also to our understanding of both sentences above, though each use of verb mean here appears to be somewhat different from the others and the substitution of intend for mean might be held to effect some change in the meaning of the sentences. If the sentence (3) implies that he is well-intentioned, that he intends no harm but just a little bit nervous, the sentence (4) implies that the father has no intends to say something clearly.
From examples above we can see the variations meaning of meaning. C.K.Ogden and I.A.Richards in their book “The Meanings of Meaning” which is quoted by Crystal (1987:100) introduces some meanings of meaning. They are constructed in some sentences :
(5) Maya means to go now. Means: intends
(6) A red light means stop. Means: indicates
(7) You mean everything to me. Means: has important
(9) What is the meaning of being your wife ? Meaning: point, purpose
2.2.2The Varieties of Meaning
Language is used for various activities and purposes in social life. The function of language is not solely to provide information to hearers and readers. Studying a language without the reference of meaning is like studying a road sign from the point of view of the physical properties (how much the weight, what is the color, how big the sign is, and so on), not studying the implicit meaning of the sign.
Geoffrey Leech (1981) notes seven varieties of meaning. They are as
follow:
1. Conceptual meaning is logical, cognitive, or denotative content. For example the word MAN has the following denotative, cognitive, or logical content as HUMAN, MALE, ADULT
2. Connotative meaning is what is communicated by virtue of what language refers to. For example, the word BOY has the connotation ‘STRONG’ and LION the connotation ‘CRUEL’.
3. Social meaning, is what is communicated of the social circumstances of language use. For example, HOME, RESIDENCE, ABODE, and DOMICILE can have the same conceptual meaning, but they convey the different social circumstances of their use.
4. Affective meaning is what is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the speaker or writer. For example, if you are getting someone to go from your room, you might say “I’m terrible sorry to interrupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to leave me alone in this room”.
konichiwa, and sushi without conjuring up their Japanese associations.
6. Collocative meaning is what is communicated through association with words which tend to occur in the environment of another word. For example, BEAUTIFUL collocates WOMAN while HANDSOME collocates MAN.
7. Thematic meaning is what is communicated by the way in which the message is organized in terms of order, focus, and emphasis. For example,
a. The MNC Group donated insurance to Oktavianus Maniani as
the best player of the year.
b. Oktavianus Maniani was donated insurance by The MNC Group as the best player of the year.
In this thesis, the writer used theory of meaning in general based on Siregar (1922) said. There are two kinds of meaning in semantics; they are Linguistic
meaning and Speaker meaning. Linguistic meaning is meaning of expression in some form of the language. The linguistics meaning is determined by the meaning of its constituents and their grammatical relations.
For example :
a. Be careful of a sharp bend in the road
b. Please don’t bend this paper
c. He try to bend every effort to be a champion
Speaker meaning is what a speaker means in producing an utterance. It consists of literal meaning and non-literal meaning. When we speak clearly without any interpretation from the hearer, it is called literal meaning. By using literal meaning, it is not difficult to understand what the speaker means by saying the words. To make it clear, they constructed as follows:
a. We are English Literature Student
b. Would you help me, please ?
c. I am finishing my thesis now
d. How are you ?
All the sentences above are clear to understand. We do not need to think a lot to understand what the speaker meaning. Those sentences are very common to us. Sometimes we mean something different from what our words mean. In other words, we sometimes speak non-literally. If we are speaking non-literally it is called non-literal meaning. There are several ways of speaking non-literally. First is using idiom. Idiom is a group of words with set meaning that cannot be calculated by adding up the separate meaning of the parts. The meaning of an idiomatic expression
cannot be predicted either lexically or grammatically. Another way of speaking non-literally is by using the figure of speech. They are described by a large set rhetorical terms, such as facetious , exaggerated, and figurative ways.
2.2.3 Sense and Reference
Words other than proper names both have a meaning and can be used to refer to things or objects. The reference of a word is the object designated, while the sense of a word is the additional meaning. On the other hand Palmer (1976:30) defines reference and sense as follows:
the complex system of relationships that hold between linguistics elements themselves (mostly the words); it is concerned only with intra-linguistics relaions.”
Reference is the relation between words and entities which is being talked about in the world of experience. For example, the word ‘sunglasses’ has a certain meaning, an outer covering eye from the sunshine, typically made of plastic. In addition, the word ‘sunglasses’ also posseses a characteristic which is known as “reference”, that is the ability of the word ‘sunglasses’ to refer to a certain kind of protective item for eye.
Sense relationships also form an important part of the study of a language. A word or lexeme does not merely ‘have’ meaning; it contributes to the meaning of the larger until, a phrase, clause or sentence. For example, the sense of the word ‘library’ in these two following examples is different:
a. VJ. Daniel always checks his wardrobe. (wardrobe means a collection of dresses)
b. The wardrobe is at the corner of the mall. (wardrobe means a room where dresses are organized and sold )
The difference between sense and reference can be described from what Hurford (1980) states :
“Every expression that has meaning has sense, but not every expression has reference”
The explanation from statement above is by these examples; ‘I love rose ’ and ‘I love Rose’. From the examples above, both examples refer to a certain thing. Although they have the same sentence, but actually the sense is different. The phrase ‘I love rose’ describes ‘rose is one kind of flower’ and ‘I love Rose’ describes ‘Rose as a name of certain girl’.
abstraction, but it is helpful to note that it is an abstraction that can be entertained in the mind of language user.
2.3 Goals of Semantic Theory
There are two questions which must be answered concerning with the goals of semantics theory; what should a semantics theory do and how should it do it?
A semantics theory should attribute to each expression in the language which the semantics properties and relations. The answer to the second question is that a semantics theory should have at least two kinds of constraints:
a. A semantics theory of naural language should be finite; people are capable of storing only a finite amount of information but they nevertheless learn the semantics of natural language
b. A semantics theory of natural language should reflect the fact, except for idioms, expressions are compositional. This means that their meaning is determined by the meaning of its constituents and their grammatical relations.
2.4 Figurative Expressions
2.4.1 Definition of Figurative Expressions
As had described above, there are two kinds of meaning in speaker point of view. They are literal meaning and non-literal meaning. In this thesis, the writer just took the non-literal aspect as the main object. One way of speaking non-literally is figure of speech or figurative expressions. 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”.
assure, persuade, motivate, encourage and fascinate the audience. It is a powerful rhetoric tool to clarify meaning, to provide vivid examples, to emphasize ideas, to stimulate associations and emotions, to ornament sentences and to amuse audience.
Figurative language serves to make ideas and meanings more vivid and alive. For example,
a. My hair ‘stood on end’. It conveys the meaning of great fear.
b. Her feelings were all ‘bottled up’. It means that they were kept under control.
c. At the end of the year, the fabric gives the ‘fruits’ of labor to all the employees. The ‘fruit’ refers to the profit, reward, or result of hard work.
d. Looking at his man have dinner with another girl, she becomes ‘green with envy’. It means that she is so jealous.
2.4.3 Kinds of Figurative Expressions
There are more than 10 kinds of figurative expressions but the types that are going to be explained are metaphor, personification, hyperbole, metonymy, synecdoche, simile, and irony.
2.4.2.1Metaphor
Metaphor is a figure of speech in which a name or quality is attributed to something to which it is not literally applicable. (New Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus:628).
The word metaphor was derived from Greek word; metaphora meaning ‘transfer, carry over’. It is a derivation from meta meaning ‘over, across’ and
phereinmeaning ‘to carry’. From those definitions above, the writer come to theconclusion that metaphor the use of words as comparison between two unlike objects by substitute or identified one for another with omitted using ‘like’ or ‘as’ Let us see some examples of metaphor to explain the definition above:
The boy weighed a ton.
This sentence does not mean that the boy has the weight 1 ton. It is impossible for a boy, or even for human being has a weight upper to 1000 kilograms. The sentence means that the boy is so fat. It’s so heavy to pick him up.
They are withered yellow flowers
The metaphorical meaning of phrase withered yellow flowers is an analogy to its literal meaning ‘flowers that can not grow well because they are almost dead’. So, the metaphorical meaning of this sentence is that they can not develop their career or life because it is so difficult.
2.4.2.2 Personification
As Shaw (1972:283) says, “Personification is a figure of speech in whish abstraction, animals, ideas, and inanimate objects are having human form, character, traits or sensibilities.” It means that personification is the treating of an abstract quality of thing as if it had human qualities. It is a representation of a thing or abstraction in the format of person.
For example, “The leaves danced when the wind blew”. Literally, the sentence means that the leaves move up and doing human activities. Figuratively, the sentence means that the leaves sway when the wind blew.
Here, the dish and the spoon as the inanimate object are depicted as human. Literally, it implies that the dish and the spoon run away or doing human activity. Figuratively, the sentence is an idiom means that the supper or eating activity runs well and all the menus are eaten.
2.4.2.3Hyperbole
Hyperbole is a figure of speech which greatly exaggerates the truth. (New Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus: 476).
The word hyperbole is derived from Greek language, that is hyper means ‘over’ and ballien means ‘to throw’. In other words means that hyperbole wants to emphasize a point with a statement which containing overstatements. The speaker usually speaks exaggerative because he wants to emphasize something. For example, “Her crying is heard until to the seventh sky”, it seems impossible for someone’s crying sound is heard until the seventh sky. At last, to be heard by all around this world, is quite impossible. We called it exaggeration. The emphasis is very strong so the language is out of the truth, It means the speaker does not mean what the words mean.
Another example of hyperbole, “I have not seen him for centuries.” Literally, the sentence means that the person has a long life until his age 100 years old. The sentence exaggerates the feeling of a person toward his friends. Figuratively, it means that the person really lose his friend for a long time
2.4.2.4Metonymy
Metonymy is a figure of speech in which the name of one object or idea is substituted by another closely associated with it. Metonymy uses a feature closely associated with the main idea rather than being physically part of it. It described from what Eco (1982:91) said, “Metonymy is the substitution of two terms for each other according to a relation of contiguity”. For example, ‘white house’ may refer to America; ‘cendana family’ may remind us to Soeharto.
The following examples will explain the definitions above, here they are: a. Most of the people in Indonesia tried to put away the red
b. Let’s call 911
The phrase red shirt in the first sentence has a speaker meaning. Red shirt refers to PDI party. PDI party is identical with red. The right interpretation for this sentence is to put away the PDI party. The phrase 911 refers to the publicservice call for American people. If we need a help or if we are in emergency wecan call this number.
2.4.2.5Synecdoche
According to Eco (1982:90), “Synecdoche is a substitution of two terms for each other according to a relation of greater or lesser extension (part of the whole, whole for the part, and so on)”. Synecdoche creates a special kind of metaphor by allowing some part to stand for the whole. Synecdoche is derived from Greek word
synekdechestai, where syn means ‘with’; the word ex means ‘to get out’; and the word dechestai means ‘to take’ or ‘ to receive’. For example, ‘Indonesia won Thomas Cup’. The sentence does not mean all the people of Indonesia but what the speaker means here is only the Badminton team of Indonesia, especially for the men’s team. Thomas Cup is addressed to badminton competition and special for men. It is whole for the part. Whole for Indonesia and part for Badminton team of
Indonesia and men.
2.5.2.6Simile
Simile is a word or phrase that compares something to something other,
using the word like or as (Oxford English Learner’s :1199). In simile, a comparison is made between two different objects which have at least one similar characteristics. The word simile comes from the same Latin word simile, which means ‘like’.
What we have to remember that simile compares two unlike objects like metaphor but with the presence of like or as, unlike metaphor, there is no word like or as. To make it clear, here are the examples:
a. He runs like a leopard
b. Cat’s eyes are like marbles
The first sentence ‘runs like a leopard’ is our focus. As we know, when a leopard runs, it is very fast. Therefore, it is well-known as the fastest animal in the world in running. So the speaker means that he runs so fast. The next sentence does not means that ‘cat’s eyes’ and ‘marbles’ are really alike, but the glassy shine of cat’s
eyes reminds of the glassy shine of the marbles.
2.4.2.7Irony
Irony is a figurative expression which expresses something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning. Gray (1984:108) state, “Irony is a manner of speaking or writing that is dispread through all kinds of literature. Irony consists of saying one thing while it means another.” Irony is a way of speaking or writing in which what is meant is contrary to what the words appear to say.
