ABSTRACT
SARI, AGUSTINA RENIE ARUM. PHRASE AMBIGUITY IN THE JAKARTA POST READER’S FORUM SECTION ON FOREST FIRE SMOG IN INDONESIA. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2016.
Language is essential for human life due to its function as a medium for people to communicate with each other. With language, people can express their feelings, ideas, and emotions. As a social creature, people use language by forming words so that they can deliver messages and information to one another in a form of spoken and written one. Even though language has a very important role in communication between people, language has its weakness in delivering message. Sometimes, people experience miscommunication by using language. Miscommunication mentioned before may happen when utterance, whether spoken or written, is ambiguous, by means that their utterance have different interpretations.
In this study, the writer identifies common phrases in Readers Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the smog caused by forest fire in Indonesia that causes ambiguity. The writer also identifies what kinds of ambiguity are observed in the phrase. The writer analyzes the dominant phrases that cause ambiguity, the kinds of ambiguity, the interpretations of the ambiguity found, and the frequency of each kinds of ambiguity found.
The data used in conducting the study were obtained from the articles in The Jakarta Post official website, www.thejakartapost.com. The writer picked two articles randomly from the 37 articles that have been gathered from 4 August 2015 when the issue was spread and became a big public attention until 2 December 2015 when the fire was eventually put off. In order to solve the problem, the writer uses semantic and syntactic approaches. Semantics, the study of meaning abstracted away from those aspects that are derived from the intentions of the speaker, is used to find a phrase which is identified as the cause of the ambiguity. The writer needs semantic approach in order to identify what types of ambiguity that occur in the phrases. The syntactic approach is used to identify structural ambiguities which occur in the phrase. Since the writer analyses the ambiguous phrases found in the Reader’s Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the smog caused by forest fire in Indonesia, these approaches can be used. Since the study is Document (Content) Analysis of Qualitative research, the writer only uses theory in analyzing the data. The writer focuses on analyzing the content of the ambiguous phrases found in the Reader’s Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the smog caused by forest fire in Indonesia.
ABSTRAK
RENIE, AGUSTINA. PHRASE AMBIGUITY ON READER’S FORUM SECTION OF THE JAKARTA POST DISCUSSING THE SMOG CAUSED BY FOREST FIRE IN INDONESIA. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2016.
Manusia membutuhkan bahasa sebagai sarana untuk berkomunikasi satu sama lain. Melalui bahasa, manusia mengekspresikan perasaan, pemikiran, dan emosi mereka. Sebagai makhluk sosial, manusia menggunakan bahasa dengan merangkai kata kata sehingga mereka dapat mengekspresikan pesan dan informasi kepada orang lain baik secara lisan maupun tertulis. Walaupun bahasa dalam hal ini sangat penting bagi manusia, bahasa memiliki kelemahan atau kekurangan dalam menyampaikan pesan dan informasi. Kadangkala, manusia mengalami kesalahpahaman ketika menggunakan bahasa sebagai sarana untuk berkomunikasi. Kesalahpahaman ini terjadi ketika kata kata yang mereka rangkai dapat diartikan berbeda atau yang biasa kita sebut ambigu.
Skripsi ini membahas frase ambigu, frase yang memungkinkan terjadinya lebih dari satu interpretasi. Frase ambigu dapat kita temui dalam kejadian sehari-hari, baik lisan maupun tertulis. Pada skripsi ini, Penulis membahas frase ambigu yang terdapat di Forum Pembaca (Reader’s Forum) dari salah satu media cetak terkemuka yang ada di Indonesia yaitu The Jakarta Post. Pada penelitian ini, Penulis menganalisa frase ambigu yang terjadi secara tertulis. Penulis mengumpulkan data dari artikel artikel pada bagian Forum Pembaca di koran The Jakarta Post yang membahas wabah asap yang disebabkan kebakaran hutan di Indonesiayang terbit dari tanggal 4 Agustus 2015 hingga tanggal 2 Desember 2015.
Dalam studi ini, penulis menggunakan teori semantic dan teori sintaks, khususnya teori ambiguity untuk menganalisis data-data yang telah didapat. Dengan teori semantik, teori yang mempelajari arti dari ungkapan, penulis menganalisis frase apa yang menjadi peyebab terjadinya ambigu dan juga tipe dr ambigu yang terjadi pada frasa. Dengan teori sintaks, penulis menguraikan struktur struktur kalimat yang dapat dibentuk dari frasa yang ambigu. Penulis mengumpulkan data dengan metode studi pustaka, melalui halaman website resmi The Jakarta Post yaitu di www.thejakartapost, dan menggunakan metode deskriptif dalam menganalisa data yang terkumpul. Metode deskriptif merupakan metode untuk membuat kesimpulan dengan cara mengumpulkan, mengklasifikasi, dan menginterpretasi data. Penulis dituntut untuk mendeskripsikan data berdasarkan formulasi masalah dan menyelesaikan masalah tersebut.
PHRASE AMBIGUITY
IN THE JAKARTA POST READER’S FORUM SECTION
ON FOREST FIRE HAZE IN INDONESIA
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
AGUSTINA RENIE ARUM SARI Student Number: 124214064
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
PHRASE AMBIGUITY
IN THE JAKARTA POST READER’S FORUM SECTION
ON FOREST FIRE HAZE IN INDONESIA
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
AGUSTINA RENIE ARUM SARI Student Number: 124214064
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
iii
A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
PHRASE AMBIGUITY
IN THE JAKARTA POST READER’S FORUM SECTION
ON FOREST FIRE HAZE IN INDONESIA
By
AGUSTINA RENIE ARUM SARI
Student Number: 124214064
Approved by
Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A. 9 February 2017 Advisor
A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
PHRASE AMBIGUITY
IN THE JAKARTA POST READER’S FORUM SECTION
ON FOREST FIRE HAZE IN INDONESIA
By
AGUSTINA RENIE ARUM SARI Student Number: 124214064
Defended before the Board of Examiners On 20 February 2017
and Declared Acceptable
BOARD OF EXAMINERS
Name Signature
Chairperson : Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A. ____________ Secretary : Arina Isti’anah, S.Pd., M.Hum ____________ Member 1 : Dr. Bernardine Ria Lestari ____________ Member 2 : Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A. ____________ Member 3 : Arina Isti’anah, S.Pd., M.Hum ____________
Yogyakarta, 28 February 2017 Faculty of Letters Sanata Dharma University
Dean
v
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
I certify that this undergraduate thesis contains no material which has been previously submitted for the award of any degree at any university, and that, to the best of my knowledge, this undergraduate thesis contain no material previously written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text of the undergraduate thesis.
Yogyakarta, 7 February 2017
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPETINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswi Universitas Sanata Dharma Nama : Agustina Renie Arum Sari
Nomor Mahasiswa : 124214064
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul
PHRASE AMBIGUITY
IN THE JAKARTA POST READER’S FORUM SECTION
ON FOREST FIRE SMOG IN INDONESIA
Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta izin kepada saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal 7 Februari 2017
Yang menyatakan,
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to give my biggest gratitude to both my parents, Fransiscus Borgias Agus Sumarta and Mathilda Susanti, for their love and full support to me in finishing this study. I thank my mother for her hard work so that their children can get good education, and my father for always be there whenever I need his help. I am so grateful to have them in my life. Finishing this thesis was not an easy task for me since during the time, I had other tasks to do as I work as an employee in a company and as a freelancer at the same time. In my hardest time, they never forgot to give me their support and attention.
I also would like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A., who patiently helped me. I thank him for all his time and advice for me in finishing this thesis.
I would like to thank my big brother, Purba, for his advice, company, and support. Although he rarely comes home, he always spares his times to accompany me to go to places that I like and discusses the problem that I have in finishing this thesis.
My gratitude also goes to my best friends Shuko, Angel, Tjia, Rissa, and the rests of my friends that cannot be mentioned one by one. I thank them for their supports and companies, for reminding me to finish my thesis as soon as I can.
Lastly, I would like to thank all the people who have helped and supported me in my study in English Letters Department, Sanata Dharma University. The years I have spent in this campus will not be as meaningful as it without them.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE………..………. ii
APPROVAL PAGE……….… iii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE ……….. iv
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH…….. v
STATEMENT OF ORIGNALITY……… vi
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE A. Review of Related Studies……..………..………. 6
B. Review of Related Theories………..…….. 8
1. Theory of Phrase
4. Semantic Meaning and Interpretation ……….…... 12
5. Semantic Theories of Ambiguity ……….…….... 13
a. Types of Ambiguity ………..…….. 13
(i) Lexical Ambiguity……….……….... 13
1) Polysemy………..………... 14
2) Homonymy……….. 14
(ii) Structural Ambiguity………. 15
1) Different ways of words grouping……… 16
C. Theoretical Framework ……….. 17
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study………..……….. 18
ix
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A. Ambiguous Phrases……… 23
1. Noun Phrases………..………... 23
2. Verb Phrases………..…... 24
3. Adjective Phrases……….... 25
B. Types of Ambiguity……….……….. 25
1. Lexical Ambiguity………...………... 26
2. Structural Ambiguity………..………... 42
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION A. Conclusion...…………..……….……….……. 47
BIBLIOGRAPHY ……… 49
APPENDICES Appendix 1: Table of Data ………... 51
Appendix 2: The Jakarta Post Article ……….... 58
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Phrase Structure Rules ……….... 11
Table 2 Percentage of Ambiguous Phrases ……… 23
Table 3 Ambiguous Phrases ………. 24
Table 4 Types of Ambiguity ………. 27
Table 5 Lexical Ambiguity ………... 28
ABSTRACT
SARI, AGUSTINA RENIE ARUM. PHRASE AMBIGUITY IN THE JAKARTA POST READER’S FORUM SECTION ON FOREST FIRE SMOG IN INDONESIA. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2016.
Language is essential for human life due to its function as a medium for people to communicate with each other. With language, people can express their feelings, ideas, and emotions. As a social creature, people use language by forming words so that they can deliver messages and information to one another in a form of spoken and written one. Even though language has a very important role in communication between people, language has its weakness in delivering message. Sometimes, people experience miscommunication by using language. Miscommunication mentioned before may happen when utterance, whether spoken or written, is ambiguous, by means that their utterance have different interpretations.
In this study, the writer identifies common phrases in Readers Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the smog caused by forest fire in Indonesia that causes ambiguity. The writer also identifies what kinds of ambiguity are observed in the phrase. The writer analyzes the dominant phrases that cause ambiguity, the kinds of ambiguity, the interpretations of the ambiguity found, and the frequency of each kinds of ambiguity found.
The data used in conducting the study were obtained from the articles in The Jakarta Post official website, www.thejakartapost.com. The writer picked two articles randomly from the 37 articles that have been gathered from 4 August 2015 when the issue was spread and became a big public attention until 2 December 2015 when the fire was eventually put off. In order to solve the problem, the writer uses semantic and syntactic approaches. Semantics, the study of meaning abstracted away from those aspects that are derived from the intentions of the speaker, is used to find a phrase which is identified as the cause of the ambiguity. The writer needs semantic approach in order to identify what types of ambiguity that occur in the phrases. The syntactic approach is used to identify structural ambiguities which occur in the phrase. Since the writer analyses the ambiguous phrases found in the Reader’s Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the smog caused by forest fire in Indonesia, these approaches can be used. Since the study is Document (Content) Analysis of Qualitative research, the writer only uses theory in analyzing the data. The writer focuses on analyzing the content of the ambiguous phrases found in the Reader’s Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the smog caused by forest fire in Indonesia.
xiii ABSTRAK
RENIE, AGUSTINA. PHRASE AMBIGUITY ON READER’S FORUM SECTION OF THE JAKARTA POST DISCUSSING THE SMOG CAUSED BY FOREST FIRE IN INDONESIA. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2016.
Manusia membutuhkan bahasa sebagai sarana untuk berkomunikasi satu sama lain. Melalui bahasa, manusia mengekspresikan perasaan, pemikiran, dan emosi mereka. Sebagai makhluk sosial, manusia menggunakan bahasa dengan merangkai kata kata sehingga mereka dapat mengekspresikan pesan dan informasi kepada orang lain baik secara lisan maupun tertulis. Walaupun bahasa dalam hal ini sangat penting bagi manusia, bahasa memiliki kelemahan atau kekurangan dalam menyampaikan pesan dan informasi. Kadangkala, manusia mengalami kesalahpahaman ketika menggunakan bahasa sebagai sarana untuk berkomunikasi. Kesalahpahaman ini terjadi ketika kata kata yang mereka rangkai dapat diartikan berbeda atau yang biasa kita sebut ambigu.
Skripsi ini membahas frase ambigu, frase yang memungkinkan terjadinya lebih dari satu interpretasi. Frase ambigu dapat kita temui dalam kejadian sehari-hari, baik lisan maupun tertulis. Pada skripsi ini, Penulis membahas frase ambigu yang terdapat di Forum Pembaca (Reader’s Forum) dari salah satu media cetak terkemuka yang ada di Indonesia yaitu The Jakarta Post. Pada penelitian ini, Penulis menganalisa frase ambigu yang terjadi secara tertulis. Penulis mengumpulkan data dari artikel artikel pada bagian Forum Pembaca di koran The Jakarta Post yang membahas wabah asap yang disebabkan kebakaran hutan di Indonesiayang terbit dari tanggal 4 Agustus 2015 hingga tanggal 2 Desember 2015.
Dalam studi ini, penulis menggunakan teori semantic dan teori sintaks, khususnya teori ambiguity untuk menganalisis data-data yang telah didapat. Dengan teori semantik, teori yang mempelajari arti dari ungkapan, penulis menganalisis frase apa yang menjadi peyebab terjadinya ambigu dan juga tipe dr ambigu yang terjadi pada frasa. Dengan teori sintaks, penulis menguraikan struktur struktur kalimat yang dapat dibentuk dari frasa yang ambigu. Penulis mengumpulkan data dengan metode studi pustaka, melalui halaman website resmi The Jakarta Post yaitu di www.thejakartapost, dan menggunakan metode deskriptif dalam menganalisa data yang terkumpul. Metode deskriptif merupakan metode untuk membuat kesimpulan dengan cara mengumpulkan, mengklasifikasi, dan menginterpretasi data. Penulis dituntut untuk mendeskripsikan data berdasarkan formulasi masalah dan menyelesaikan masalah tersebut.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the study
Language is essential for human life due to its function as a medium for people to communicate with each other. Chomsky (1979:88) states that language serves essentially for the expression of thought. In addition, Sapir (1921:8) states that language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols. With language, people can express their feelings, their ideas, and their emotions. As social creatures, people use language by forming words so that they can deliver messages and information to one another in the form of spoken and written form.
With spoken or written language, people can communicate with each other both directly and indirectly. Nowadays, with the developments of technology, people can communicate with each other through many ways. It has been easier for people to gain any information about what happens even in other parts of the world.
Today, English is still considered as an international language that plays an important role as a medium for a lot of people from different countries around the world to communicate. Crystal (2003: 2) states
“These are the kinds of statement which seem so obvious that most people would give up hardly a second thought. Of course English is a global language, they would say. You hear it on television spoken by politicians from all over the world. Wherever you travel, you see English signs and advertisements. Whenever you enter a hotel or restaurant in a foreign city, they will understand English, and there will be an English menu. “
There are a lot of media using English as the medium to communicate with people globally. Thus, a lot of people around the world learn this language and use the language so that their ideas, feeling and emotions can be shared globally through media of communication such as websites, magazines, and newspapers. In Indonesia, one of daily English newspapers published in the country is The Jakarta Post.
3
While ambiguity is a phenomenon when an expression has more than one interpretation in its context, vague expression is a word that has more than one referents, in which the referents share similar features happens because things in the world do not come in clear, distinct categories (Malmkjær, 1996:394). In addition, Jurafsky (2009:549) states that vagueness is closely related to ambiguity. Like ambiguity, vagueness can make it difficult to determine what to do with a particular input on the basis of its meaning representations. Vagueness, however does not give rise to multiple representations. An example of this is in the phrase ‘I want to eat Italian food’. A vague representation of the meaning of this phrase may be appropiate for some purposes, while a more specific phrase may be needed for other purposes.
There are two types of ambiguity: lexical ambiguity and structural ambiguity (Mihalicek and Wilson, 2011: 227). Since the data observed in this study are written data, the writer uses theory of lexical and structural ambiguity. In addition, in this study, the writer is going to focus more in ambiguity than in vague expression.
B. Problem Formulation
Based on the above, the problems are formulated as below
1. What common phrases in Readers Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the haze caused by forest fire in Indonesia cause ambiguity?
2. What kinds of ambiguity are observed in the phrases, lexical or structural?
C. Objectives of the Study
In this thesis, there are two objectives. Firstly, the writer would like to find out what common phrases in Readers Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the haze caused by forest fire in Indonesia that causes ambiguity. The data used in conducting the study have been obtained from the articles in The Jakarta Post official website, www.thejakartapost.com. The articles have been gathered from 4 August 2015 when the issue was spread and became a big public attention until 2 December 2015 when the fire was eventually put off. From the 37 articles found, the writer picked two articles randomly.
5 D. Definition of Terms
Phrase ambiguity is described as a phenomenon when an expression/phrase may be understood in two or more ways in its context. Because of the arbitrariness between the sign and its referents, multiple meanings seem to be usual (Asher, 1994:90).
Reader’s forum of The Jakarta Post is a forum provided by The Jakarta Post Newspaper for it’s reader. In this forum, The Jakarta Post Newspaper’s
readers can share what their idea or opinion related to news that are published by The Jakarta Post, or in brief the readers responses to news that are published by
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Review of Related Studies
Studies on ambiguity have been conducted by some people. One of them is the study that has been conducted by María Teresa Sánchez Roura (1995). In her study, she focuses on syntactic ambiguity resourceful applications in the creation of jokes. In the end of her study, she concludes that ambiguity may be seen as an obstacle in case it can make a misunderstanding between people, and also may be seen as something beneficial in the way it can make people laugh and can deliver more ideas in economical way (less words; usually in advertising).
Another study on ambiguity was conducted by Chiara Bucharia (2004) in her article. In this paper, she analyzes ambiguities found on the newspaper headlines and divides it into three main categories of lexical, syntactic, and phonological ambiguity. The study is based on 135 verbally ambiguous headlines found on web sites that lead the reader to interpret it as something humorous. Eventually, it is concluded that the most dominant ambiguous headlines happen in the form of syntactic ambiguity. In the case of lexical ambiguity, the main cause of it is the homonymy of the lexical items in the headlines.
7
ambiguous words, phrases, or sentences in The Jakarta Post newspaper. The second problem that she analyzes is the part of speeches that cause the ambiguity. She also tries to find whether or not tree diagram can be used to solve structural ambiguity. In the end of her study, she concludes that there are 47 words and 7 phrases considered as ambiguous, and that ambiguous words and phrases found are mostly belong to noun class. She also concludes that tree diagram can help to visualize structural ambiguity well.
Another study on ambiguity has also been conducted by G. Khamahani (2013). In his writing, he focuses on structural and lexical ambiguity in English newspaper headlines written by native and non-native journalists. He provides some guidelines for the recognition of ambiguous newspaper headlines of two specific newspapers in a certain country. He identifies the ratio between structural ambiguity and lexical ambiguity in English newspaper headlines written by native and non- native journalists. In the end of his writing, he concludes that the amount of structural ambiguity and lexical ambiguity are not the same in the two sets of headlines. Both structural and lexical ambiguities in English newspaper are found more in foreign newspaper headlines.
On the studies mentioned above, all of the data were taken from newspaper (either from the headlines or the article). In this thesis, the writer conducted a study on phrasal ambiguity in Readers Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the haze caused by forest fire in Indonesia. In the end
Indonesia were to be revealed. Although the topic is accidently similar to the study that has been conducted by Mutiara Sekar Utami in a way that the data used in this study is also taken from Readers Forum section of The Jakarta Post, the articles that the writer used in conducting the study are different. Thus, the ratio of the types of phrasal ambiguity and its analysis may be different in different articles and topic. This study is an attempt to improve the study that has been conducted by Mutiara Sekar Utami and other studies related to this topic.
B. Review of Related Theories 1. Theory of Phrase
A phrase is a word or a group of words that behaves as a single unit (Jurafsky, 2009: 385). Fromkin (2000:96), in addition, define phrase as groups of words where only members of particular lexical category may occur. Phrases combine words into a larger unit that can function as a sentence element. Phrase is an item of a particular category that may be accompanied by paraphernalia such as modifiers and other types of items (Napoli, 1993: 50)
a. Noun Phrase
9
phrase works as a noun in a sentence as in‘Harry the Horse’ (Jurafsky, 2009: 386), and father of Goneril (Fromkin, 2000:121).
b. Verb Phrase
A verb phrase in English consists of a verb followed by assorted other things; for example, one kind of verb phrase consist of a verb followed by a noun phrase. It is a combination of main verb, its auxiliaries, its complements and other modifiers. For example: ‘prefer a morning flight’, ‘leaving on Thursday’ (Jurafsky, 2009: 389).
c. Adverbial Phrase
Cambridge Dictionary for Advanced Learners (2008: 43) describes adverb
phrase (adverbial phrase) as phrase that consists of one or more words. The adverb is the head of the phrase and can appear alone or it can be modified by other words. Adverbs are one of the four major word classes, along with nouns, verbs and adjectives.
Schachter (1985) as quoted in Jurafsky’s book page 126 states that in a sentence ’Unfortunately, John walked home extremely slowly yesterday.’, all the italicized are adverbs.
d. Adjective Phrase
An adjective phrase is a group of words that functions like an adjective in
a sentence. It consists of adjectives, modifier and any word that modifies a noun or pronoun.
e. Prepositional Phrase
Jurafsky (2009:126) believes that prepositons occur before noun phrases; semantically they are relational, often indicatng spatial or temporal relations, whether literal (on it, before then, by the house) or metaphorical (on time, beside herself).
A prepositional phrase generally has a prepostion followed by a noun phrase. It is often used with times and dates. The examples of it are ‘to Seattle’, ‘on Wednesday’.
It consists of a preposition, objects of preposition (noun or pronoun) and may also consist of other modifiers. Some example of it are ‘on a table’, ‘near a wall’, ‘in the room’, ‘at the door’, and ‘under a tree’. A prepositional phrase can
function as an adjective, adverb, or even as a noun.
2. English Phrase Structure (Context Free Grammar)
The most commonly used mathematical system for modelling constituent structure in English and other natural languages is the Context Free Grammar (CFG) or also called Phrase Structure Grammar. A context-free grammar consist of a set of rules and productions, each of which expresses the ways that symbols of the language can be grouped and ordered together (Jurafsky, 2009: 387).
11
of syntactic categories. No actual linguistic forms are shown in it (Mihalicek and Wilson, 2011: 226).
Below are the table of Phrase Structure Rules stated by Mihalicek and Wilson. Table 1 Phrase Structure Rules
Rules Function
S → NP VP
Sentence can be formed by combining Noun Phrase (NP) and Verb Phrase (VP)
allows VPs to combine with their subject NP to form a sentence
NP → Det N
Noun Phrase can be formed by combining Determiner (Det) and a Noun (N)
allows determiners to combine with a noun to form an NP
N → Adj N
Noun can be formed by combining Adjective (Adj) and Noun (N)
allows attributive adjectives to be noun adjuncts(a word or phrase that provides added information)
VP → VP Adv
Verb Phrase can be formed by combining verb phrase (VP) and adverbs (Adv)
allows adverbs to be VP adjuncts
VP → TV NP
Verb phrase can be formed by combining transitive verbs (TV) and noun phrase (NP)
allows transitive verbs to combine with their object NP to form a VP
VP → DTV NP NP
Verb phrase (VP) can be formed by combining ditransitive verbs (DTV) and noun phrases (NP)
allows ditransitive verbs to combine with their object NPs to form a VP
VP → SV S
Verb phrase (VP) can be formed by combining sentential complement verbs (SV) and complement S
allows sentential complement verbs to combine with their complement S to form a VP
PP → P NP
Preposition phrase (PP) can be formed by combining prepositions and noun Phrase (NP)
allows prepositions to combine with their complement NP to form a PP
N → N PP
Noun can be formed by combining noun (N) and preposition phrase (PP)
allows PPs to be noun adjuncts
VP → VP PP
Verb Phrase can be formed by combining verb phrase (VP) and preposition phrase (PP)
3. Tree Diagram
Akmajian, Demers, Farmer, and Harnish (2001:172) state that tree diagram is encoded structural information of the linear order of words in a sentence, the categorization of words into parts of speech, and the grouping of words into structural continuents of the sentence. It is a list of structural properties that a phrase or sentence must conform to.
In addition, Akmajian, et al (2001:183) states that tree diagrams (phrase markers) can represent a certain variety of structural and relational concepts. In a theory of syntax using phrase markers to represent syntactic structure, the explanation of the phenomenon of structural ambiguity is straightforward. An unambiguous sentence is associated with just one basic phrase marker, while a structurally ambiguous sentence is associated with more than one basic phrase marker. With a tree diagram, we have simplified the structure in the diagrams by using triangles for certain phrases rather than indicating the internal structure of the phrases.
Tree diagram is a linguistic way to represent the grouping of a phrase/sentence. In the case of ambiguity, tree diagram can be used to show or describe interpretations of an ambiguous phrase/sentence.
4. Semantic Meaning and Interpretation
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I will exclude from semantic interpretation any consideration of discourse pragmatics; rather, discourse pragmatics operate upon the output of the semantic interpreter. Thus, semantic interpretation does not include the resolution in context of anaphors or definite reference, or of deictic or indexical expressions, or the recognition and comprehension of speech acts, irony and sarcasm, metaphor, or other nonliteral meanings. These exclusions should not be thought of as entirely uncontroversial; while few would advocate making speech act interpretation part of semantic interpretation, Moore argues that definite reference resolution, as well as certain "local" pragmatic matters, must be resolved during semantic interpretation.
Semantics is the study of meaning abstracted away from those aspects that are derived from the intentions of the speaker. Semantic is different with pragmatics. Semantic interpretations are excluded from the speaker/the writer intended meaning. For example, in sentence “John kissed his wife, and so did Sam”( http://cs.nyu.edu/), the speaker intended to say that John kissed John’s wife, and Sam kissed Sam’s wife. In semantic, this sentence is ambiguous. It can be interpreted as John kissed his wife, and Sam kissed her too, John kissed Sam’s wife, and Sam kissed her too, or Sam and John kissed their own wife.
5. Semantic Theories of Ambiguity
a. Types of Ambiguity i. Lexical Ambiguity
Lexical ambiguity happens when a word or phrase has more than different referents which are nevertheless clearly noticeably similar in some respect (Asher, 1994:90). If the ambiguity lies only in one single word, we call it lexical ambiguity (Quiroga-Clare, 2003). The ambiguity where a single phonological word correspond to distinct expressions that differ in meaning, syntactic properties, or both, is called lexical ambiguity (Mihalicek and Wilson, 2011:226). In a simple way, if a word has different meanings, it is lexically ambiguous. One example of it is in the sentence ‘I put a straw in my cup’. In this sentence, straw has more than one reference. It can refer to wheat and a thin tube used for sucking up a drink. Thus, the sentence contains lexical ambiguity.
The meaning of a words can vary enormously given the context (Jurafsky, 2009: 612). When a word has different meanings, it may lead to ambiguity. In written language, when a word has different senses/meaning, it may be considered as polysemy or homonymy.
1) Polysemy
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words. Get can mean ‘procecure’ (as in ‘I’ll get the drinks’), ‘become’ (she got scared), and ‘understand’ (I get it).
Below is an example of ambiguity caused by polysemy: “Call me a taxi!”
In the phrase above, call may means ‘to address’and ‘request something to come’. Because of the polysemy in the word call, the phrase can be interpreted as ‘address me a taxi!’ and ‘request a taxi to come for me!’
2) Homonymy
The senses of a word might not have any particular relation between them. It may be almost coincindental that they share an orthographic form. For example, ‘bank’ as a financial constitution and ‘bank’ as slouping mound seems relatively unrelated. The two senses are homonyms and the relations between the senses is one of homonymy (Jurafsky, 2009: 612). Homonymy in a phrase may lead into ambiguity.
Below is an example of ambiguity caused by homonymy: I’ll wait by the bank (www.literarydevices.net).
In the phrase above, bank may means ‘a building of a financial constitution’ and ‘a slouping mound’. Because of the homonymy in the word bank, the phrase can be interpreted as ‘I’ll wait beside the financial constitution building’ and ‘I’ll wait in the edge of a river.
ii. Structural ambiguity
grammatical ambiguity is particularly noticeable, where more than one structural interpretation is possible (Asher, 1994:90-91).
3) Different ways of words grouping
In specifying the structure of a sentence, we specify (1) the linear order of words and (2) the possible grouping of the words. Although a phrase or a sentence consists of a single set of unambiguous words, those words can be grouped in two different ways (Akmajian 2001:155)
In addition, in a theory of syntax using phrase markers to represent syntactic structure, the explanation of the phenomenon of structural ambiguity is straightforward. An unambiguous sentence is associated with just one basic phrase marker, while a structurally ambiguous sentence is associated with more than one basic phrase marker (Akmajian 2001:183)
An example of structural ambiguity caused by different ways of words grouping is in the phrase The cop saw the man with binoculars (Mihalicek and Wilson, 2011:227).
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binoculars. This kind of ambiguity is called structural ambiguity (Mihalicek and Wilson, 2011:227)
C. Theoretical Framework
The related theories mentioned before are going to be used to solve the problem formulation of this study. The theory of English Phrase Structure Grammar is used to identify the common phrases that cause ambiguity. The writer analyzes it with the theory of English Phrase Structure Grammar.
The theories of ambiguity and the theory of causes of ambiguity are used to identify and analyze the types of ambiguous phrases that are found in The Jakarta Post Newspaper discussing the haze caused by forest fire in Indonesia.
The writer identifies the possible interpretation of each ambiguous sentence through the theories. As an example, when the writer finds an ambiguous phrase like “John marries Teressa.” The writer identifies the types of that ambiguous sentence. Based on the theory that the writer uses, the phrase is lexically ambiguous. The sentence can be interpreted as ‘John performed a ceremony in which Teressa and her lover get married’ or ‘John became the husband of Teressa’.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A.Object of the Study
In this study, the writer analyzed the ambiguous phrases found in the Reader’s Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the haze caused by forest fire in Indonesia. The data used in conducting the study have been obtained from the articles in The Jakarta Post official website, www.thejakartapost.com. The articles have been gathered from 4 August 2015 when the issue was spread and became a big public attention until 2 December 2015 when the fire was eventually put off. From the 37 articles found, the writer picked two articles randomly to be used as the object of this study. B.Approach of the Study
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The syntactic approach is used to identify structural ambiguities occur in the phrase. Since the writer analyses the ambiguous phrases found in the Reader’s Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the haze caused by forest fire in Indonesia, these approaches can be used.
C.Method of the Study
In conducting the study, the writer used Document/Content Analysis of Qualitative research. Content analysis focuses on analyzing and interpreting recorded material such as public records, textbooks, letters, films, tapes, diaries, themes, reports, and so on within its own context. When researchers use content analysis in their study, they have to establish the authenticity of the document itself and also the validity of its contents. Qualitative researchers do their researches by focusing on the total picture, a whole picture, rather than breaking it down into variables. They try to understand a phenomenon by concerning its complete systems. The goal of their research is to get a holistic picture and depth of understanding (Ary, 2002:27)
In this study, the writer studies a linguistic phenomenon called ambiguity. The writer studies the dominant grammatical phrases that cause ambiguity, the kinds of ambiguity, the interpretations of the ambiguity found, and the frequency of each kinds of ambiguity found. Since the study is Document (Content) Analysis of Qualitative research, the writer only uses theory in analyzing the data. The writer focuses on analyzing the content of the ambiguous phrases found in the Reader’s Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the haze caused by forest fire in Indonesia.
The data used in conducting the study were obtained from the articles in The Jakarta Post official website, www.thejakartapost.com. The articles were gathered from 4 August 2015 when the issue was spread and became a big public attention until 2 December 2015 when the fire was eventually put off. From the 37 articles found, the writer picked two articles randomly to be used as the object of the study and thus from these two articles, the data be obtained.
First, in order to collect the data, the writer obtained the articles related to forest fire in Indonesia on 2015 from the official website of The Jakarta Post newspaper, www.thejakartapost.com. This website is more complete than the printed version since the printed version of this newspaper and the online version (short and brief version) are also provided in this website.
Secondly, after all the articles were collected, the writer reads the articles one by one, sentence by sentence to find ambiguous phrase. The ambiguous phrases found are used as the data.
2. Data Analysis
This study focuses on interpretations of phrases. Therefore, the writer analyzed the data by interpreting the ambiguous phrase found on the Reader’s Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the haze caused by forest fire in Indonesia.
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Thirdly, the writer decided the types of phrase that cause the ambiguity through English Phrase Structure theory. Phrase Structure Rules are used to show patterns of syntactic combination so that we can see the patterns of a phrase or a sentence.
Then, for lexical ambiguity, the writer paraphrases the phrase to show possible interpretation of the ambiguous phrases. For structural ambiguity, the writer uses tree diagram to show the possible interpretations.
Fifthly, after analyzing all the ambiguous phrases found, the writer decided their percentage of it so that in the end, the writer identified the most common grammatical phrases with ambiguity and the most common type of ambiguity.
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
In this chapter, the writer analyzes and discusses the collected data. This chapter answers the problems stated in Chapter I based on the theory mentioned in Chapter II. The writer identifies what common phrases in Readers Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the smog caused by forest fire in Indonesia that causes ambiguity. After that, based on the semantic theory of ambiguity, the writer identifies whether the ambiguities observed in the phrases are lexical or structural.
In this study, the writer uses ambiguous phrases found in Readers Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the smog caused by forest fire in Indonesia as the data. The data used in conducting the study have been obtained from the articles in The Jakarta Post official website, www.thejakartapost.com. The articles have been gathered from 4 August 2015 when the issue was spread and became a big public attention until 2 December 2015 when the fire was eventually put off. From the 37 articles found, the writer picked two articles randomly to be used as the object.
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structural ambiguity. There are 22 data of lexical ambiguity and 4 data of structural ambiguity. In other words, 84.6% of it are lexically ambiguous and 15.4% of it are structurally ambiguous.
C. Ambiguous Phrases Data
In order to answers the problem number 1 stated in Chapter I, the writer needs to find out what common phrases in Readers Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the smog caused by forest fire in Indonesia cause
ambiguity. By reading and analyzing the articles, the writer finds out that there are two kinds of phrases in Readers Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the smog caused by forest fire in Indonesia that cause ambiguity. They are noun phrases and verb phrases. As mentioned in Chapter II, phrase here refers to a word or a group of words that behaves as a single unit (Jurafsky, 2009: 385). It may appear as a head with or without its complements. The ambiguity are usually structural, but many are lexical. Below are the number and the percentage of each kind of phrases.
Table 2 Percentage of Ambiguous Phrases
There are 20 noun phrases and 6 verb phrases found in the Readers Forum’s articles of The Jakarta Post newspaper that cause ambiguities. The phrases can be seen in the table below.
NO TYPES OF PHRASE NUMBER OF
CASES
PERCENTAGE
1 Noun 20 76.9%
2 Verb 6 23.1%
Table 3 Ambiguous Phrases and Its Head
NO PHRASE PHRASE
TYPE NP VP 1 This haze problem is a perennial issue affecting
Malaysia and Singapore, and leaders of both countries have been sending letters year in year out to their Indonesian counterparts expressing
frustration over their continued inability to resolve it.
√
2 The detrimental impact of the haze on the health and economy of Malaysians and Singaporeans have also been discussed over the years at ASEAN meetings but there seems to be no concrete solution so far.
√
3 The detrimental impact of the haze on the health and economy of Malaysians and Singaporeans have also been discussed over the years at ASEAN meetings but there seems to be no concrete solution so far.
√
4 The detrimental impact of the haze on the health and economy of Malaysians and Singaporeans have also been discussed over the years at ASEAN meetings but there seems to be no concrete solution so far.
√
5 The API reading at Sri Aman, Sarawak on Monday (Aug. 24), was 129, while Kuching and Samarhan recorded 126 and 118 respectively.
√
6 The Indonesian authorities cannot be giving the same old lame excuses that the haze is caused mainly by Malaysian and Indonesian companies.
√
7 The question Malaysians want answered is what are the enforcement authorities doing to enforce stiffer penalties on those companies.
√
8 Indonesia must get cracking in making plans for cloud seeding operations to extinguish the forest and plantation fires in South Sumatra and West Kalimantan that have shrouded Sarawak in foul-smelling haze yet again.
√
9 Indonesia must get cracking in making plans for cloud seeding operations to extinguish the forest and plantation fires in South Sumatra and West Kalimantan that have shrouded Sarawak in foul-smelling haze yet again.
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NO PHRASE PHRASE
TYPE NP VP 10 Indonesia must get cracking in making plans
for cloud seeding operations to extinguish the forest and plantation fires in South Sumatra and West Kalimantan that have shrouded Sarawak in foul-smelling haze yet again.
√
11 The fires which have been raging for days need to be controlled otherwise the pollution will climb to really unhealthy levels. Besides affecting people’s health, especially those who have asthma or breathing difficulty, the haze problem is also impacting on the tourism industry.
√
12 The fires which have been raging for days need to be controlled otherwise the pollution will climb to really unhealthy levels. Besides affecting people’s health, especially those who have asthma or breathing difficulty, the haze problem is also impacting on the tourism industry.
√
13 The fires which have been raging for days need to be controlled otherwise the pollution will climb to really unhealthy levels.
√
14 The fires which have been raging for days need to be controlled otherwise the pollution will climb to really unhealthy levels
√
15 The fires which have been raging for days need to be controlled otherwise the pollution will climb to really unhealthy levels.
√
16 The fires which have been raging for days need to be controlled otherwise the pollution will climb to really unhealthy levels.
√
17 Besides affecting people’s health, especially those who have asthma or breathing difficulty, the haze problem is also impacting on the tourism industry.
√
18 Besides affecting people’s health, especially those who have asthma or breathing difficulty, the haze problem is also impacting on the tourism industry.
√
19 Besides affecting people’s health, especially those who have asthma or breathing difficulty, the haze problem is also impacting on the tourism industry.
√
20 Besides affecting people’s health, especially those who have asthma or breathing difficulty, the haze
problem is also impacting on the tourism industry.
NO PHRASE PHRASE
TYPE NP VP 21 Malaysian natural Resources and Environment
Minister Dato’ Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar must push his Indonesian counterparts to regionally minimise this annual problem with long-term solutions.
√
22 Malaysian natural Resources and Environment Minister Dato’ Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar must push his Indonesian counterparts to regionally minimise this annual problem with long-term solutions.
√
23 It could be true that the perpetrators of this month’s fires are smaller land holders
√
24 the big plantation companies are emulating the Raffles business model
√
25 Today’s business trend is “outsourcing production” (and social costs) to the natives – i.e. the small land owners, who have even less of a clue about sustainable management than the Mercedes Benz-driving city businessmen in Southeast Asian capital cities.
√
26 Hence, collective action is required by joint forces from ASEAN members, which may also consider involving international experts and resources
√
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D. Types of Ambiguity Found
There are two types of ambiguity proposed by Asher (1994) which are lexical and structural ambiguity. Based on the ambiguous phrases mentioned above, it appears that there are 22 cases of lexical ambiguities and 4 cases of structural ambiguities. Below are the number and the percentage of each type of ambiguous phrases.
Table 4 Types of Ambiguity
NO TYPES OF
There are 22 lexical ambiguity found in Readers Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the smog caused by forest fire in Indonesia that cause
Table 5 Lexical Ambiguity Table
NO PHRASE
1 This haze problem is a perennial issue affecting Malaysia and Singapore, and leaders of both countries have been sending letters year in year out to their Indonesian counterparts expressing frustration over their continued inability to resolve it.
2 The detrimental impact of the haze on the health and economy of Malaysians and Singaporeans have also been discussed over the years at ASEAN meetings but there seems to be no concrete solution so far.
3 The detrimental impact of the haze on the health and economy of Malaysians and Singaporeans have also been discussed over the years at ASEAN meetings but there seems to be no concrete solution so far.
4 The detrimental impact of the haze on the health and economy of Malaysians and Singaporeans have also been discussed over the years at ASEAN meetings but there seems to be no concrete solution so far.
5 The API reading at Sri Aman, Sarawak on Monday (Aug. 24), was 129, while Kuching and Samarhan recorded 126 and 118 respectively.
6 The Indonesian authorities cannot be giving the same old lame excuses that the haze is caused mainly by Malaysian and Indonesian companies.
7 The question Malaysians want answered is what are the enforcement authorities doing to enforce stiffer penalties on those companies.
8 Indonesia must get cracking in making plans for cloud seeding operations to extinguish the forest and plantation fires in South Sumatra and West Kalimantan that have shrouded Sarawak in foul-smelling haze yet again. 9 Indonesia must get cracking in making plans for cloud seeding operations to
extinguish the forest and plantation fires in South Sumatra and West Kalimantan that have shrouded Sarawak in foul-smelling haze yet again. 10 Indonesia must get cracking in making plans for cloud seeding operations
to extinguish the forest and plantation fires in South Sumatra and West Kalimantan that have shrouded Sarawak in foul-smelling haze yet again. 11 The fires which have been raging for days need to be controlled otherwise
the pollution will climb to really unhealthy levels. Besides affecting people’s health, especially those who have asthma or breathing difficulty, the haze problem is also impacting on the tourism industry.
12 The fires which have been raging for days need to be controlled otherwise the pollution will climb to really unhealthy levels. Besides affecting people’s health, especially those who have asthma or breathing difficulty, the haze problem is also impacting on the tourism industry.
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otherwise the pollution will climb to really unhealthy levels
15 The fires which have been raging for days need to be controlled otherwise the pollution will climb to really unhealthy levels.
16 The fires which have been raging for days need to be controlled otherwise the pollution will climb to really unhealthy levels.
17 Besides affecting people’s health, especially those who have asthma or breathing difficulty, the haze problem is also impacting on the tourism industry.
18 Besides affecting people’s health, especially those who have asthma or breathing difficulty, the haze problem is also impacting on the tourism industry.
19 Besides affecting people’s health, especially those who have asthma or breathing difficulty, the haze problem is also impacting on the tourism industry.
20 Besides affecting people’s health, especially those who have asthma or breathing difficulty, the haze problem is also impacting on the tourism industry.
21 Malaysian natural Resources and Environment Minister Dato’ Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar must push his Indonesian counterparts to regionally minimise this annual problem with long-term solutions.
22 Malaysian natural Resources and Environment Minister Dato’ Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar must push his Indonesian counterparts to regionally minimise this annual problem with long-term solutions.
In data number 1, the phrase ‘leaders’, which is a noun phrase, cause the sentence become semantically ambiguous. It happened since based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:990), the word
‘leader’ can be defined as follows
1. the person who controls a group, organization, country, etc. 2. the person that is in front of all the others in a race.
3. the best product of a company
4. the main violin player in an orchestra
5. someone who directs the playing of a musical group
The phrase ‘leaders’ has multiple meanings, but based on these meanings, the more plausible interpretation is ‘This haze problem is a perennial issue affecting Malaysia and Singapore, and persons who control both countries have been
frustration over their continued inability to resolve it’ (1) because it is in line with
the context.
In data number 2, the ambiguity arises because of the noun phrase ‘impact’. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:879), the word ‘impact’ can be defined as follows
1. the effect that an event, a situation, etc. has on someone or something. 2. the moment when one object hits another.
The phrase ‘impact’ varies in its meaning. Based on these meanings, the phrase in data number 2 can be interpreted to (1) The detrimental effect of the haze on the health and economy of Malaysians and Singaporeans have also been discussed
over the years at ASEAN meetings but there seems to be no concrete solution so
far, and (2) The detrimental hitting of the haze on the health and economy of
Malaysians and Singaporeans have also been discussed over the years at ASEAN
meetings but there seems to be no concrete solution so far. Between these 2
interpretations, the more plausible interpretation is the first one. This interpretation is in line with the context.
In data number 3, the phrase ‘haze’, which is a noun phrase, is considered as the cause of the ambiguity. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:808), the word ‘haze’ has multiple
meanings as follows
1. smoke, dust, or mist in the air which is difficult to see through 2. the feeling of being very confused and unable to think clearly
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Malaysians and Singaporeans have also been discussed over the years at ASEAN
meetings but there seems to be no concrete solution so far, and (2) The
detrimental impact of the feeling of being very confused and unable to think
clearly on the health and economy of Malaysians and Singaporeans have also
been discussed over the years at ASEAN meetings but there seems to be no
concrete solution so far. Between all these interpretations, the more plausible
interpretation is (1) ‘The detrimental impact of the tight smoke in the air on the health and economy of Malaysians and Singaporeans have also been discussed
over the years at ASEAN meetings but there seems to be no concrete solution so
far’ since it is in line with the context.
In data number 4, the phrase ‘solutions’, which is a noun phrase, cause the sentence to be semantically ambiguous. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:1675), the word ‘solution’
can be defined as follows
1. a way of solving a problem
2. the correct answer to a problem in an exercise or competition 3. a liquid in which a solid or gas has been mixed
Based on these meanings, the more plausible interpretation is (1) The detrimental impact of the haze on the health and economy of Malaysians and Singaporeans
have also been discussed over the years at ASEAN meetings but there seems to be
no concrete way of solving the problem so far since it is in line with the context.
Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:1445), the word ‘reading’
can be defined as follows
1. books or other things that you can read 2. interpretation
3. measurement
Based on these meanings, the more plausible interpretation for data number 5 is (3) The API measurement at Sri Aman, Sarawak on Monday, was 129, while Kuching and Samarhan recorded 126 and 118 respectively since it is in line with
the context.
In data number 6, the phrase ‘company’, which is a noun phrase is considered as the cause of the ambiguity. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:334), the word ‘company’
has multiple meanings as follows
1. a business organization that makes or sells goods or services 2. when you are with other people and not alone
3. people who are visiting you in your home 4. friends you spend time with
5. a group of actors, dancer, singers, who work together
Based on these meanings, the more plausible meaning is (1)’ business organization that makes or sells goods or services’ since it is in line with the context.
In data number 7, the phrase ‘penalties’, which is a noun phrase, cause the sentence to be semantically ambiguous. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:1286), the word ‘penalty’
can be defined as follows
1. a punishment for breaking a law, rule, or legal agreement
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3. a chance to keep the ball or hit the puck into the goal in a game of football
Based on these meanings, the more plausible meaning is (1) ‘punishment for breaking a law, rule, or legal agreement’ since it is in line with the context.
In data number 8, the ambiguity arises because of the phrase ‘make’, which is a verb phrase. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:1056), the word ‘make’ can be defined as follows
1. to cause something to happen 2. to produce something
3. force
4. to succeed in achieving a particular position, rate
5. to have the qualities that are necessary for a particular job, use, or purpose
Based on these meanings, the more plausible meaning is (2) ‘to produce something’ since it is in line with the context.
In data number 9, the phrase ‘plan’, which is a noun phrase is considered as the cause of the ambiguity. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:1320), the word ‘plan’ has multiple
meanings as follows
1. something you have decided to do
2. a set of actions for achieving something in the future
3. a drawing similar to a map, showing roads, towns, and buildings. 4. a technical drawing of a building, room, or machine as it would be
seen from above
Based on these meanings, the more plausible meaning is (2) ‘a set of actions for achieving something in the future’ since it is in line with the context.
for Advanced Learners (2009:1225), the word ‘operation’ can be defined as
follows
1. the process of cutting into someone’s body to repair or remove a part that is damaged
2. a business, company, or organization
3. the work or activities done by a business or organization 4. a set of planned actions or activities for a particular purpose 5. the way the parts of a machine or system work
6. a planned military or police action 7. an action done by a computer
Based on these meanings, the more plausible meaning is (4)‘a set of planned actions or activities for a particular purpose’ since it is in line with the context.
In data number 11, the phrase ‘fire’, which is a noun phrase is considered as the cause of the ambiguity. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:647), the word ‘fire’ has multiple meanings
as follows
1. flames that destroy things 2. flames for heating/cooking 3. shots fired from a gun
4. a very strong emotion that makes you want to think about nothing else Based on these meanings, the more plausible meaning is (1)’flames that destroy things’since it is in line with the context.
In data number 12, the phrase ‘raging’, which is a verb phrase, cause the sentence to be semantically ambiguous. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:1432), the word ‘rage’ can
be defined as follows
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2. if something such as a battle, disagreement, or a storm rages, it continues with great violence or strong emotion
3. if a fire or illness rages, it spreads fast and is hard to control 4. to have fun with a group of people in a wild and uncontrolled way Based on these meanings, the more plausible meaning is (3) ‘if a fire or illness rages, it spreads fast and is hard to control’ since it is in line with the context.
In data number 13, the phrase ‘controlled’, which is a verb phrase is considered as the cause of the ambiguity. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:369), the word ‘control’ can
be defined as follows
1. to have the power to make decision about how a country, place, company, etc is organized or what it does.
2. to limit the amount or growth of something, especially something that is dangerous.
3. to make someone or something do what you want, or make something happen in the way that you want
4. if you control your emotion, your voice, your expression etc., you succeed in behaving calmly and sensibly, even though you feel angry, upset, or excited
5. to make a machine, process, or a system work in particular way 6. to make sure that something is done correctly
Based on these meanings, the more plausible meaning is (2) ‘to limit the amount or growth of something, especially something that is dangerous’ since it is in line with the context.
In data number 14, the ambiguity arises because of the phrase ‘pollution’, which is a noun phrase. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:1341), the word ‘pollution’ can be defined as
follows
2. substances that make air, water, soil etc. dangerously dirty
Based on these meanings, the more plausible meaning is (2) ‘substances that make air, water, soil etc dangerously dirty’ since it is in line with the context.
In data number 15, the phrase ‘climb’, which is a verb phrase is considered as the cause of the ambiguity. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:300), the word ‘climb’ has multiple
meanings as follows
1. to move up, down, or across something using your feet and hands, especially when this is difficult to do
2. to increase in number, amount, or level
3. to move into, out of, or through something slowly and awkwardly 4. to move gradually to a higher position
5. to climb mountains or rocks as a sport 6. to grow up a wall or other structure
7. to move higher in a list of teams, records etc. as you become more popular or successful
8. to move to a better position in your social or professional life
Based on these meanings, the more plausible meaning is (2) ‘to increase in number, amount, or level’ since it is in line with the context.
In data number 16, the phrase ‘levels’, which a noun phrase, cause the sentence to be semantically ambiguous. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:1002), the word ‘level’ can
be defined as follows
1. the amount or degree of something, compared to another amount or degree
2. a particular standard of skill or ability
3. the height of something in relation to the ground or to another object 4. a floor or area of ground that it is at a particular height, especially
when you can go up or down to other floors or areas
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Based on these meanings, the more plausible meaning is (1) ‘the amount or degree of something, compared to another amount or degree’ since it is in line with the context.
In data number 17, the phrase ‘affecting’, which is a verb phrase is considered as the cause of the ambiguity. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:28), the word ‘affect’ can be
defined as follows
1. to do something that produces an effect or changes in something or in someone’s situation
2. to make someone feel strong emotions
3. to pretend to have a particular feeling, way of speaking
Based on these meanings, the more plausible meaning is (1) ‘to do something that produces an effect or changes in something or in someone’s situation’ since it is in line with the context.
In data number 18, the ambiguity arises because of the phrase ‘health’, which is a noun phrase. Based on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners (2009:812), the word ‘health’ can be defined as follows
1. the condition of your body and how healthy you are
2. the work of providing medical services to keep people healthy 3. when you have no illness or disease
4. how successful something such as business, organizations, or a country’s economy
Based on these meanings, the more plausible meaning is (1) ‘the condition of your body and how healthy you are’ since it is in line with the context.
