ABSTRACT
Utami, Mutiara Sekar. (2013). Investigating Lexical and Structural Ambiguity in the Reader’s Forum Section of The Jakarta Post Newspaper. Yogyakarta: English Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University.
Language is one aspect that differentiates human and other creatures. Through language, people communicate. When communicating, people transfer ideas, thoughts, and meanings. However, sometimes what is meant is not the same as what is received. Misunderstanding and misinterpretation could be the reasons why it happens, and ambiguity is one of the many factors of misunderstanding and misinterpretation.
The researcher conducted the study to find out ambiguities in mass media. The researcher used The Jakarta Post newspaper as the subject of the study. This study aimed to answer three research questions. The first and second research question aimed to find out words and phrases are lexically and structurally ambiguous in the Reader’s Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper, while the third research question was how the tree diagrams enable the researcher to resolve structural ambiguities.
The study was a qualitative study. Therefore, the researcher more focused on the words, phrases, and sentence rather than numerical data. Using content analysis as her method, the researcher took the data from one week’s edition of The Jakarta Post newspaper from July 1st, 2013 to July 6th, 2013. To be precise, the researcher took the data from the Reader’s Forumsection.
From one week data, the researcher found 54 ambiguities, consisting of 47 ambiguous words and 7 ambiguous phrases. From the lexically ambiguous words, the researcher found that 21 words belonged to nouns, 9 of them belonged to verbs, and the rest, 17 words, belonged to adjectives. While in structural ambiguity, all of the structurally ambiguous phrases belong to noun phrases. It was also proved that tree diagrams could be used to resolve the structural ambiguity. Tree diagrams could also reveal the pattern of structurally ambiguous phrases.
ABSTRAK
Utami, Mutiara Sekar. (2013). Investigating Lexical and Structural Ambiguity in the Reader’s Forum Section of The Jakarta Post Newspaper. Yogyakarta: Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Bahasa merupakan salah satu karakter yang membedakan manusia dengan makhluk hidup lainnya. Manusia berkomunikasi menggunakan bahasa untuk menyalurkan ide, pemikiran, dan arti. Namun, terkadang apa yang dimaksud tidak sama dengan apa yang diterima oleh lawan bicara. Kesalahpahaman dan salah interpretasi menjadi salah satu penyebab hal tersebut terjadi, dan ambiguitas menjadi factor penyebab kesalahpahaman dan salah interpretasi tersebut.
Penulis melakukan penelitian untuk menemukan ambiguitas di media massa. Dalam penelitian ini, penulis menggunakan artikel yang diambil dari harian The Jakarta Post sebagai subjeknya. Penelitian ini dimaksudkan untuk menjawab 3 (tiga) rumusan masalah. Pertanyaan pertama dan kedua bertujuan untuk menemukan kata dan phrasa yang mana saja yang tergolong ambigu secara leksikal dan struktural. Sedangkan pertanyaan ketiga bertujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana pohon sintaktis dapat memecahkan permasalahan ambiguitas struktural?
Penelitian ini merupakan studi kulitatif. Makadari itu, penulis lebih menaruh perhatian pada kata, phrasa, dan kalimat daripada data numerik. Dengan menggunakan metode analisis isi, peneliti mengambil data dari harian The Jakarta Post selama satu minggu dimulai dari edisi 1 Juli 2013 sampai 6 Juli 2013. Lebih rinci, penulis mengambil data dari kolom Reader’s Forum.
Dari data selama satu minggu, penulis menemukan 54 ambiguitas yang terdiri dari 47 kata dan 7 phrasa. Pada kata yang ambigu, penulis menemukan bahwa 21 kata merupakan nomina, 9 kata kerja, dan 17 merupakan adjektiva. Sedangkan untuk semua phrasa yang ambigu merupakan phrasa nomina. Dalam penelitian ini, juga terbukti bahwa pohon sintaksis juga dapat digunakan untuk membantu memahami ambiguitas struktural secara lebih baik. Dengan menggunakan pohon sintaktis, penulis juga dapat melihat pola dari phrasa yang ambigu.
INVESTIGATING LEXICAL AND STRUCTURAL
AMBIGUITY IN THE
READER’S FORUM
SECTION
OF
THE JAKARTA POST
NEWSPAPER
A SARJANA PENDIDIKANTHESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain theSarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Mutiara Sekar Utami Student Number: 091214114
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
i
INVESTIGATING LEXICAL AND STRUCTURAL
AMBIGUITY IN THE
READER’S FORUM
SECTION
OF
THE JAKARTA POST
NEWSPAPER
A SARJANA PENDIDIKANTHESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain theSarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Mutiara Sekar Utami Student Number: 091214114
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
iv
I dedicate this thesis to:
Jesus
,
for the unpredictable yet incredible planBapak & Mamah,
for the love, care, and prayerMas Ebi & Mas Ei,
for being the best bodyguard in the worldRaihan, Pia, Tata,
for giving me happiness, free hugs and kissesOm Yeri,
for the support and the wake-up callMas Ape,
for being the onevii ABSTRACT
Utami, Mutiara Sekar. (2013). Investigating Lexical and Structural Ambiguity in the Reader’s Forum Section of The Jakarta Post Newspaper.Yogyakarta: English Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University.
Language is one aspect that differentiates human and other creatures. Through language, people communicate. When communicating, people transfer ideas, thoughts, and meanings. However, sometimes what is meant is not the same as what is received. Misunderstanding and misinterpretation could be the reasons why it happens, and ambiguity is one of the many factors of misunderstanding and misinterpretation.
The researcher conducted the study to find out ambiguities in mass media. The researcher used The Jakarta Post newspaper as the subject of the study. This study aimed to answer three research questions. The first and second research question aimed to find out words and phrases are lexically and structurally ambiguous in the Reader’s Forum section ofThe Jakarta Post newspaper, while the third research question was how the tree diagrams enable the researcher to resolve structural ambiguities.
The study was a qualitative study. Therefore, the researcher more focused on the words, phrases, and sentence rather than numerical data. Using content analysis as her method, the researcher took the data from one week’s edition of The Jakarta Post newspaper from July 1st, 2013 to July 6th, 2013. To be precise, the researcher took the data from theReader’s Forumsection.
From one week data, the researcher found 54 ambiguities, consisting of 47 ambiguous words and 7 ambiguous phrases. From the lexically ambiguous words, the researcher found that 21 words belonged to nouns, 9 of them belonged to verbs, and the rest, 17 words, belonged to adjectives. While in structural ambiguity, all of the structurally ambiguous phrases belong to noun phrases. It was also proved that tree diagrams could be used to resolve the structural ambiguity. Tree diagrams could also reveal the pattern of structurally ambiguous phrases.
viii ABSTRAK
Utami, Mutiara Sekar. (2013). Investigating Lexical and Structural Ambiguity in the Reader’s Forum Section of The Jakarta Post Newspaper. Yogyakarta: Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Bahasa merupakan salah satu karakter yang membedakan manusia dengan makhluk hidup lainnya. Manusia berkomunikasi menggunakan bahasa untuk menyalurkan ide, pemikiran, dan arti. Namun, terkadang apa yang dimaksud tidak sama dengan apa yang diterima oleh lawan bicara. Kesalahpahaman dan salah interpretasi menjadi salah satu penyebab hal tersebut terjadi, dan ambiguitas menjadi factor penyebab kesalahpahaman dan salah interpretasi tersebut.
Penulis melakukan penelitian untuk menemukan ambiguitas di media massa. Dalam penelitian ini, penulis menggunakan artikel yang diambil dari harian The Jakarta Post sebagai subjeknya. Penelitian ini dimaksudkan untuk menjawab 3 (tiga) rumusan masalah. Pertanyaan pertama dan kedua bertujuan untuk menemukan kata dan phrasa yang mana saja yang tergolong ambigu secara leksikal dan struktural. Sedangkan pertanyaan ketiga bertujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana pohon sintaktis dapat memecahkan permasalahan ambiguitas struktural?
Penelitian ini merupakan studi kulitatif. Makadari itu, penulis lebih menaruh perhatian pada kata, phrasa, dan kalimat daripada data numerik. Dengan menggunakan metode analisis isi, peneliti mengambil data dari harian The Jakarta Post selama satu minggu dimulai dari edisi 1 Juli 2013 sampai 6 Juli 2013. Lebih rinci, penulis mengambil data dari kolom Reader’s Forum.
Dari data selama satu minggu, penulis menemukan 54 ambiguitas yang terdiri dari 47 kata dan 7 phrasa. Pada kata yang ambigu, penulis menemukan bahwa 21 kata merupakan nomina, 9 kata kerja, dan 17 merupakan adjektiva. Sedangkan untuk semua phrasa yang ambigu merupakan phrasa nomina. Dalam penelitian ini, juga terbukti bahwa pohon sintaksis juga dapat digunakan untuk membantu memahami ambiguitas struktural secara lebih baik. Dengan menggunakan pohon sintaktis, penulis juga dapat melihat pola dari phrasa yang ambigu.
ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I could not give more thanks toJesusfor His plans which work way much
better than mine. Without Him, I would not be able to finish this thesis – I would
not start, actually. I’m so glad that on that Sunday, I pushed myself to go to
church. I’m so grateful that He spoke to me through the priest that day. I’m sure
that it was one of His amazing scenarios. Therefore, I believe in every step I took
while writing this thesis, He kept His eyes upon me – as He always does.
I would like to thank my parents for their love and care. I thank my
mother so much for her silent prayer every morning where she mentions my
name. I also feel grateful for love and care shown in my father eyes with no need
to say it. I love you both, so much. I would not be able to finish my study without
my brothersandmy uncles. I owe them life.
I also want to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my
sponsor, Barli Bram, Ph.D.,who has willingly and patiently helped me. I thank
him for his care, patience, advice, critical questions, and supports.
I would like to thank all my ELESP lecturers especially Caecilia
Tutyandari, S.Pd, M.Pd, Christina Kristiyani, S.Pd., M.Pd., and Drs. Y. B.
Gunawan, M.A. I also would like to thank Mbak Dhaniek andMbak Tari for
the guidance and assistance they gave to me during my years in Sanata Dharma
University ELESP.
My gratitude also goes to those who have supported me so much in this
bittersweet process. My better half, Rizky Aditya Purnomo Putra, who always
reminds me to work on my thesis and keep writing every time we have phone
calls. I thank him for the love, care, support, and understanding. I thank God that
we found each other. I would like to express my greatest gratitude to the member
of Kontrakan Ceria, Engkit, Karnia and Linna for being the best comedian
ever. I thank them for keeping me smiling when the world seems so cruel.
I also would like to thank my besties, Nana, Wella, Tia, Pita, Ika, Linda
for the laughter, discussion, love, jokes, and happy moments we shared. Our
x
and beautiful journey that we had together. I also feel blessed to be in SPACE,
the best teaching team ever. I thank them so much for the process that we went
through together.
I would not able to finish this thesis without the masterpiece of Metallica,
Michael Bolton, Bread, Michael Learns to Rock, Guns ‘n Roses, Firehouse,
The All American Rejects, and Kings of Leon and also all of the god and
goddess of 70’s, 80’s, 90’s rock ballads.
Lastly, I also thank all the people who have helped and supported me,
especially during the process of pursuing my dreams. I am so glad to have them in
my life and I am so blessed to know them all.
xi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE... i
APPROVAL PAGE... ii
DEDICATION PAGE... iv
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY... v
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI... vi
ABSTRACT... vii
ABSTRAK... viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS... xi
LIST OF TABLES... xiv
LIST OF FIGURES... xv
LIST OF APPENDICES... xvi
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION A. Research Background ... 1
B. Research Problems... 5
C. Problem Limitation ... 5
D. Research Objectives ... 6
E. Research Benefits ... 7
xii
4. Theories of Parts of Speech... 29
xiii
D. Research Instrument and Data Gathering Technique ... 42
E. Data Analysis Technique ... 43
F. Research Procedure ... 46
CHAPTER IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A. Ambiguous Words and Phrases ... 49
1. Ambiguous Words... 50
2. Ambiguous Phrases... 84
B. Tree Diagram Analysis... 88
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS A. Conclusion... 100
B. Recommendations ... 101
REFERENCES ... 103
xiv
LIST OF TABLES
Table
3.1. Data Organizational Table... 44
3.2. Lexical Ambiguity Table... 44
xv
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure
2.1. Tree Diagram... 15
2.2. Tree Diagram of a Sentence ... 34
2.3. Tree Diagram of a Phrase... 35
3.1.The Jakarta PostOfficial Website ... 43
3.2. Tree Form 1.0.3... 45
4.1. Ambiguity Ratio... 50
4.2. The Occurrence of Lexical Ambiguity... 84
4.3. First Tree Diagram of Structural Ambiguity Point 1... 89
4.4. Second Tree Diagram of Structural Ambiguity Point 1... 90
4.5. First Tree Diagram of Structural Ambiguity Point 2... 90
4.6. Second Tree Diagram of Structural Ambiguity Point 2... 91
4.7. First Tree Diagram of Structural Ambiguity Point 3... 92
4.8. Second Tree Diagram of Structural Ambiguity Point 3... 92
4.9. First Tree Diagram of Structural Ambiguity Point 4... 93
4.10. Second Tree Diagram of Structural Ambiguity Point 4... 94
4.11. First Tree Diagram of Structural Ambiguity Point 5... 94
4.12. Second Tree Diagram of Structural Ambiguity Point 5... 95
4.13. First Tree Diagram of Structural Ambiguity Point 6... 96
4.14. Second Tree Diagram of Structural Ambiguity Point 6... 96
4.15. First Tree Diagram of Structural Ambiguity Point 7... 97
xvi
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1 Data Organizational Table... 106
Appendix 2 Lexical Ambiguity Table... 114
Appendix 3The Jakarta PostArticles on July 1st, 2013... 116
Appendix 4The Jakarta PostArticles on July 2nd, 2013... 120
Appendix 5The Jakarta PostArticles on July 3rd, 2013... 125
Appendix 6The Jakarta PostArticles on July 4th, 2013... 135
Appendix 7The Jakarta PostArticles on July 5th, 2013... 140
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This research aims to investigate lexical and grammatical ambiguity found
in the Reader’s Forum section in The Jakarta Post newspaper. This chapter discusses the research background, research problems, problem formulation,
research objectives, problem limitation, research benefits, and definition of terms.
A. Research Background
Language is one characteristic that differentiates human with any other
living creature. It is used by people around the world to express their feeling,
thought, ideas, etc. People use language to convey information about entities, and
their attributes, actions, and relations. It is not easy to describe what language is
since linguists have their own ideas in describing what language is. However,
Fasold and Linton (eds.) (2006) state in their book that language can be defined as
“a finite system of elements and principles that make it possible for speakers to
construct sentences to do particular communicative jobs.” (p. 9). So, it can be
concluded that the language itself is seen as a finite unit of elements and rules that
work together in order to communicate speakers and the interlocutors.
As it is stated, language is used to communicate with each other. However,
when communicating with others, some problems may arise because of
miscommunication. The miscommunication will occur if there is misinterpretation
but also in written. While reading, sometimes the readers would find a sentence
that makes them think twice. They may find it confusing because it has more than
one meaning. That kind of problem is the characteristic of an ambiguous sentence.
Akmajian, Demers, Farmer, and Harnish (2001) state that an expression is said to
be ambiguous when more than one interpretation can be assigned to it (p. 154).
The double meanings will force the readers or interpreters to think twice to get the
exact meaning while reading or listening to ambiguous sentences or utterances.
Normally, the readers will directly interpret the sentence well, and get the
content right after reading it. However, the ambiguous sentence will make the
reader think twice or even get the wrong interpretation about the sentence. It is
important for the readers to know the intended meaning of a sentence. As stated
by Sobur (2006), the problem related to meaning of an utterance or sentence is the
core problem in a language study. It can be said so because something could be
labelled as a language when it has meaning. Moreover, West and Turner (2010)
state that understanding meaning is very crucial in our lives (p. 75). We cannot get
too far in our conversations unless we understand others and can make ourselves
understood.
In the study of language, semantics is the branch which focuses more on
the study of meaning. Other than semantics, there is pragmatics which studies
meanings based on its situations of the utterances (Leech, 1983, p. 5). The study
of those two cannot be separated. The difference of those two can be seen on the
scope of the observer absorb the meaning itself. When it comes to semantics, the
words. Fasold and Linton (eds.) (2006) state that semantics deals with literal
meaning of words, phrases, and sentences (p. 137). For example, the sentence I want to go home now means that the speaker wishes to do a particular action which is going home at the moment of speaking. While if we see it from the
pragmatics point of view, there are a lot of possible meanings that can be derived
from that sentence since pragmatics focuses more on the utterance and context
than the sentence and words literal meaning. The first meaning maybe the speaker
is in the middle of the class and he/she feels bored and wish that he/she could go
home while in fact he/she could not. The second meaning maybe the speaker does
not want to go to somewhere else and decided to go home. And there are a lot of
interpretations that can be derived from the situation which is the sentenceI want to go home nowuttered.
One interesting topic in semantics study is ambiguity. Ambiguity can be
found in the written or oral discourses. However, the researcher would only focus
on the written discourses. One of the famous written discourses that can be found
around us is the printed media. What the researcher meant by media here is
newspapers, magazines, and other publication that are aimed to give information
to public. Media plays a big role in the society. Galtung (1999), the Norwegian
scientist and peace research pioneer, puts the media floating between 3 pillars (p.
4). Those pillars are the State, which representing the government, the Market,
which represent the economical phenomena, and the Civil Society, which
represent the society which pay attention to the development of the sphere. It
government, economical phenomena, and also society. McKee (2005) stated in his
book that public sphere is the metaphor used to describe about the way that
information and ideas circulate in the society (p. 4). In brief, it can be said that
media affects people’s lives so much. Media can build people’s perceptions about
an issue. Therefore, it is important for us to get the true and clear information and
news from the media.
In this study, the researcher is going to investigate the lexical and
structural ambiguity in Reader’s Forum section in The Jakarta Post newspaper. The researcher is conducting the study because the researcher is curious about
finding lexical and structural ambiguity in the mass media. The Jakarta Post is chosen because it is known as the leading English language newspaper in
Indonesia. Moreover, it also has its own website that can be easily reached at
www.thejakartapost.com. In the website, the content of the printed edition can
also be found easily. TheReader’s Forumsection is chosen because of the varied of the writer. The writer of the content or comment is not only professional writer
but also layman who wants to speak their mind and thought.
In the discussion, the researcher is going to analyze the lexical and
structural ambiguity. After analyzing the ambiguity found in the newspaper
section, the researcher is going to classify the lexical items which are ambiguous
according to their part of speech. Next, the researcher will analyze the structural
ambiguity by investigating its possible interpretation. The researcher would also
analyze the structural ambiguity using tree diagram. Tree diagram is used in this
meaning of ambiguous phrase or sentence. The researcher hopes this study would
make the readers aware of the ambiguity. The awareness of ambiguity may trigger
the reader to avoid ambiguity itself so that the misunderstanding will not occur.
B. Problem Formulation
This research is conducted to answer three questions.
1. What words are lexically ambiguous in theReader’s Forumsection ofThe Jakarta Postnewspaper?
2. What phrases are structurally ambiguous in theReader’s Forumsection of The Jakarta Postnewspaper?
3. How do the tree diagrams enable the researcher to resolve structural
ambiguities?
C. Problem Limitation
In this study, the limitation is needed in order to discuss the particular
topic thoroughly. This study is limited to the lexical and structural ambiguity
found inThe Jakarta Postnewspaper. The researcher also limits the study only in theReader’s Forumsection. The data are taken from the officialThe Jakarta Post website, www.thejakartapost.com. The interesting thing about the website is that
it provides the printed edition ofThe Jakarta Postnewspaper.
Some words, which are considered lexically ambiguous, would appear
more than once. Unless the word has different meaning in the interpretation, the
researcher would only discuss one sample. Moreover, the researcher will only
ambiguities that are caused by different types of ambiguity such as scope and
referential ambiguity will not be taken into account in the study. The researcher
will not consider any possibilities caused by the utterance as it is seen in
pragmatics. However, in order to decide the intended meaning of the writer, the
researcher would depend on the passage or topic discussed. The researcher is
going to use the tree diagram in order to investigate the possible interpretations of
each sentence or phrase.
D. Research Objectives
The researcher conducts this study in order to meet two main objectives.
Firstly, the researcher wants to know if there are any ambiguous words, phrases,
or sentences that can be found in the well-known mass media, especially in The Jakarta Postnewspaper. It is so because the researcher is aware of the effects of the misinterpretation that may be derived from a public sphere. Moreover, the
researcher will also find out which part of speech is ambiguous based on the data
found in The Jakarta Post newspaper. From the data, the researcher could see which part of speech occurs the most and be aware of it. Secondly, the researcher
wants to prove whether tree diagram can be used to solve the structurally
E. Research Benefits
By conducting this research, the researcher hopes that English Language
Education Study Program (ELESP) students, teachers and lecturers, and also
readers can take the benefits. The benefits of the research can be stated as follows.
1. English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) students
The researcher hopes that the research can give the students of English
Language Education Study Program (ELESP) some benefits. The first benefits is
that it can add information about ambiguity, especially lexical and structural
ambiguity. That information may raise their awareness of ambiguity. The
researcher also hopes that this research can be the reference for the study of
semantics and syntax in teaching and learning activity. It may help them to do
their assignments or maybe get the deeper knowledge to complete their task.
2. Teachers and lecturers
This research may also bring benefits for the educator, teachers and
lecturers, especially for English language teachers and lectures. Having conducted
the research, the researcher hopes that the research can be reference for the
teachers and lecturers in conducting teaching and learning process. The researcher
also hopes that it can trigger the teachers’ and lecturers’ awareness in using
language, especially English language. Later on, this awareness can be spread to
their students.
3. Future researchers
The researcher hopes that the paper will be useful for the future
especially lexical and grammatical ambiguity in the newspaper. If they are
interested in conducting the same research, they can refer to this research and
conduct the same research to get some confirmation and also to test the theory.
4. Readers
The researcher also hopes that the thesis can also give its significances to
the readers. The researcher hopes that the paper can increase people’s awareness
in avoiding ambiguity, so that the interlocutor can understand the intended
meaning said by the speakers well, and the misinterpretation will not occur.
F. Definition of Terms
Definition of terms is needed in order to give clear definition about the
terms used in this paper. In this section, the writer is going to define some terms
which are used in this paper.
1. Meaning
The researcher see it is important to describe meaning in order to get the
clear understanding about it. However, there is no exact definition of what it
really is. Linguists have their own understanding about it. Cruse (2000) describe it
by giving figure in which there are 4 elements. Those are speaker, transmitted
signal, received signal, and receiver. Having a message to communicate, the
sender processes the message and encoding it, and finally produced the
transmitted signal. The transmitted signal then travels through channels which
receiver only get the received signal which has been modified by the noise and not
precisely the same as the speaker’s intended message. The message here is the
metaphor of meaning which is transferred and modified from the speaker to the
hearer. He also says that there are three aspects of meaning, those are speakers’
meaning, hearers’ meaning and sign meaning.
2. Ambiguity
Since the paper mainly discusses about ambiguity, it is necessary to define
the term ambiguity first. Ambiguity can be interpreted to a word, sentence, or
expressions that are having multiple meaning (Fasold and Linton, 2006). There
will be 2 types of ambiguity that are discussed in the study. The first one is lexical
ambiguity. Lexical ambiguity is referred to a word which has more than one
meaning (Akmajian, Demers, Farmer, and Harnish, 2001, p. 237). Lexical
ambiguity has strong connection with polysemy and homonymy. The second
ambiguity is structural ambiguity. Structural ambiguity happens because of the
relation of one word to other word or words (Akmajian, Demers, Farmer, and
Harnish, 2001, p. 155). In the structural ambiguity, the phrase or the sentences
have more than one interpretation because of its relation to another word. For
example the phrasenice man and womancan be interpreted in two ways. The first one explain the man and woman who are nice, and the second one explain the man who is nice and a woman(which might be neutral or not nice).
3. Tree Diagram
Structural ambiguity, however, can be solved and analyzed using tree
researcher would name it tree diagram. Radford (2001) describes tree diagram as
“a way of representing the syntactic structure of a phrase or sentence.” (p. 273).
Tree diagram can be used to analyze clause, phrase, or sentence. In the tree
11 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, the researcher divides the chapter into two parts namely
theoretical description and theoretical framework. The first part, which is
theoretical description, consists of two sections. It talks about the review of
related studies and also literature. The other part, which is theoretical framework,
explains the correlation of the theories with the study, and how the theories help
the researcher to solve the problem formulations.
A. Theoretical Description
This part consist of two sections. Those sections are Review of Related
Studies and Review of Related Literature. From those two sections, the researcher
would review other researchers’ works and also linguists’ literature related to the
study conducted.
1. Related Studies
Ambiguity is one phenomenon in English and other languages that might
attract linguists to study more about it. Studies on ambiguity had been conducted
by Bucaria (2004), Grenat and Taher (2008), and Tambunan (2009). Studies on
disambiguation, corpora, and semantic interpreter programs have also conducted
by Hirst (1983, 1988) and Hansen and Sargen (2012). Bucaria (2004) conducted
interesting study about lexical and syntactic ambiguity that causes humor on the
headlines. In the study, she found that the lexical ambiguity owned more spaces
than syntactical and phonological ambiguity. 52.9% of the data belonged to
lexical ambiguity, 46.66% of the data belonged to syntactical ambiguity, while
only one sample (0.74%) was in form of phonological ambiguity. From the study,
she also found the new configurations for the order of the phrases in the
newspaper headlines.
Grenat and Taher (2008) conducted a study related to translation and
ambiguity. In the study, they examined structural ambiguity and how the
interpreter or translator handled ambiguous structures. Translator and interpreter
are responsible to render the same structural meaning in source language into the
target language. However, not all ambiguous structures in the source language
have the equivalent ambiguous structures in the target language. Most of the
ambiguous structures presented in the paper could be rendered into equivalent
target language used in the research, which was Arabic. However, there were
some sentences which could not be rendered due to the differences of
morphological and syntactic factors that English and Arabic have.
Previous study had also been conducted by Tambunan (2009). She
conducted the study to complete her bachelor degree in English Letter Department
in North Sumatera University. She wrote The Analysis of Lexical and Structural Ambiguity in Your Letters of The Jakarta Post. That study pointed out that there
were 50 ambiguous words and phrases found during the study, 51.1% of them was
out that most of the ambiguous words were verbs, while all of the structural
ambiguity caused by noun phrases.
In this study, the researcher is going to conduct the study on ambiguity in
the newspaper. The purpose of the study is to confirm the previous study that has
been done by Tambunan (2009). The researcher is going to analyze the ambiguity
in The Jakarta Post newspaper. However, the researcher is going to conduct the research wider than the previous study. The previous study took the data from the
section Your Letters, while in this study the data are taken from the section Reader’s Forum. In the forum, there are a lot of sub-sections. There are Your Letters, Comment, Text Your Say,andIssues of the Day. The researcher decides to
widen the scope because the researcher is curious about the way people
communicate through written discourse in the mass media. The researcher also
finds it interesting in the way people state their ideas through short message
service (SMS) which is used in theTest Your Saysection.
The researcher would also apply tree diagram in the research which was
not applied in the previous research. The researcher uses tree diagram because the
researcher believes that tree diagram can be used to enable the reader to interpret
the meaning of the ambiguous phrase or sentence.
2. Theories of Meaning
Linguists describe the term meaning in their own words and opinions. O’Grady, Archibald, Aronoff, Rees-Miller (eds.) (2010) mention that meaning is
communication, they transfer the message to their interlocutors. This message
contains meaning that is speakers intended meaning. Finegan (2004) suggests
three types of meaning; linguistics meaning, social meaning, and affective
meaning (p. 182). However, Leech (1981) divides types of meaning in wider
sense into seven categories (p. 9).
a. Conceptual Meaning
This meaning sometimes known as denotative meaning or cognitive
meaning. There are two structural principles that underlie the linguistics
patterning. Those are the principle of contractiveness and the principle of
structure. In conceptual meaning, those two principles also play their role in
revealing the conceptual, denotative, or cognitive meaning of a sentence or
expression.
Phonology also uses the contractiveness principle to describe the
classification of sounds. Symbol (+) and (-) are used to represent the presence of
the attribute. According to the contractiveness principle, componential analysis
can determine meaning. Based on the certain attribute, meaning can be derived by
giving label positive (+) or negative (-) which refer to the presence of the
attribute. The examples are as follows.
i. man : [+human] [+male] [+adult]
ii. girl : [+human] [-male] [-adult]
By seeing the example i and ii, people can conclude that the meaning ofmanisan adult male human, while girl is a young female human. To describe the meaning
certain word. People can also infer the antonym of the unpossessed attribute as
seen on the example.
Another principle used in the approach to conceptual meaning is the
structure principle. It is the belief that larger linguistics units such as sentences
and phrases are formed from the smaller units such as words, or vice versa. This
principle can be easily understood by seeing the tree diagram in Figure 2.1.
Figure 2.1 Tree diagram
From Figure 2.1, people can see the smaller unit of the sentence which build a
sentence and also vice versa. Besides the tree diagram, bracketing can also be
used to analyze the linguistics units:
iii. {(The)(boy)}{[(is)][(a)(student)]}.
The bracket shows the connection of words, and also the order of the connection.
The different types of brackets {[()]} shows the order of the connection. However,
some might find difficulties in reading bracket and prefer reading tree diagram
(Napoli, 1997, p. 307)
b. Connotative Meaning
Different with conceptual meaning, connotative meaning focuses more on
understand the meaning, people need to understand the history, culture, and
individuals experiences. The example of connotative meaning is idioms. Idioms
carry connotative meaning, since it has meanings that can be seen as in conceptual
meaning. The idiom break a leg means to wish someone a good luck. To understand the idiom, people need to understand the background of the idiom.
Long time ago, it is believed that the Sprites would do something bad to people.
Therefore, whenever a person was facing unfortunate events, people would blame
the Sprites. The Sprites were known for their mischievousness. If a person pray a
good thing they would do the opposite. Therefore, the idiom break a leg was believed to deceive the Sprites to do the opposite.
c. Social Meaning
Social meaning related to the situation in which an utterance takes place. It
considers the social circumstances in use. From some words and pronunciation,
people can see the social origin of the speaker. People often recognize the relation
between the speaker and the hearer through conversation; the status and social
relation between the speaker and the hearer can be seen through the style of
language.
d. Affective Meaning
As it is named, affective meaning has something to do with feeling and
attitudes. To interpret an affective meaning of a sentence, people should consider
the personal feelings of the speaker, speaker’s attitudes towards the hearer, and his
requests that is provided by Leech (1981, p. 15) might help to understand the
explanation better:
iv. I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind
as to lower your voices a little’
v. Will you belt up?
By using different scale of politeness, people can see the speaker’s feeling toward
the hearer or the situation she/he is facing. In this case, the tone of the speaker will
also affect the meaning.
e. Reflected Meaning
Reflected meaning deals with multiple conceptual meaning. The example
of sentences or words that use this type of meaning can be easily found in the
poetry. In order to say death, a poet prefers to use ring of the bells of quittance,
journey to the immortal¸ and sleep in eternal peace. Albeit conveying the same meaning, those three poetic synonym ofdeathhave different senses.
f. Collocative Meaning
Collocative meaning considers the connection of a word acquires on
account of the meanings of words which occurs in its environment. The word
prettyand handsomehave the same meaning of the term good-looking. However, they share different interpretation if some nouns are attached:
girl boy
boy man
woman car
flower vessel
vi. pretty garden vii. handsome overcoat
color airliner
village typewriter
g. Thematic Meaning
In thematic meaning, the writer or the speaker organizes the message by
ordering, focusing and emphasizing so that it can fulfil the writer or speaker’s
intention. In doing so, the writer often use active or passive sentence to
emphasizing the focus. Here are the examples:
viii. My brother owns the largest retail shop in Solo.
ix. The largest retail shop in Solo is owned by my brother.
Although the two sentence have the same meaning, they attract different attention.
The first example vii emphasizes the subject or the doermy brother. On the other
hand, the second example viii emphasizes the objectthe largest retail shop. On the other hand, Frawley (1992) also divides meaning into several parts
or categories. First, he compares between two types of meaning. They are literal
and implicational meaning. He says that literal meaning has something to do with
the state of affairs the expression represents. Therefore, he also calls literal
meaning as representational meaning. He continues that literal meaning can be
inferred without knowing the context of the statement, sentence, or utterance. On
the contrary, implicational meaning concerns the background, history,
circumstances, and so forth (p. 2). Another way, it can be said that in contrast with
the literal meaning, implicational meaning is contextualized. By seeing that
explanation from Frawley (1992), what is studied by semantics is the literal
meaning. While implication meaning which pay more attention to the context of
Frawley (1992) continues with categorizing meaning into two categories;
encoding and grammatical meaning. Encoding and grammatical meaning are
placed below the term decontextualized meaning. Analyzing the example ix is necessary in order to understand encoding and grammatical meaning easier:
x. Tom bought some rice.
The example x gives meaning to certain event buying and participants Tom and rice by putting them together grammatically. The description of the event and its
participants can be seen because they have grammatical relevance. The example
gives the information about Tomcarried out the event and acted on rice.It can be inferred so because the sentence is in English which usually correlates the doer of
the action, which generally continues with the verb, which usually precedes with
object, which frequently but not always act as receiver. The other languages may
have difference order and forms.
However, the example x does not encode the knowledge of the social
status of speaker and participants. Other languages such as Javanese and Japanese
have honorifics markers of the social position of the speakers, hearers, and
participants.
3. Theories of Ambiguity
In the study of semantics, the ambiguity is described as the condition of
having more than one linguistics meanings (Akmajian et.al, 2001, p. 572). It
linguistics meaning or interpretation that can be categorized as an ambiguous
word or sentence.
a. Vagueness
Some experts relate ambiguity with vagueness. Frawley (1992) mentions
that when an expression has two meanings, it can be either ambiguous or vague
(p.58). The difference between two, as Frawley (1992) has mentioned, is clearly
identifiable (p.59). It is ambiguous if there are at least two distinct semantic
specifications underlying a single overt form. An expression is vague if it is
unspecified for particular meanings and takes them from context. It also can be said that vague sentence lacks of precise meaning, while ambiguous sentence has
two or more precise meanings. The example given by Frawley (1992) is as
follows.
xi. I punched the paper.
The example x can be interpreted in two meanings, either like (1) I hit the paper with my fist or (2) I pierced a hole in the paper using hole-punching machine.
When it is said to be ambiguous, there are two different sets of properties. If it is
vague, then it is only one unspecified word which inherits the rest of definitions.
Cruse (2000) also defines the test of discreteness which the researcher
believe can be used to test vagueness suggested by Frawley (1992). In order to
understand discreteness, Cruse (2000) considers four criteria in which three of
them were previously known as ambiguity tests (p.106). From the test, an
1) The Identity Test
The first test is named identity test. Consider the example:
xii. Mary is wearing a light dress; so is Jane.
Literally, the word light has two different meanings; light in color or light in weight, not heavy. Knowing those two meanings, there are four interpretations
which can be assigned to the situation in example xii: (1) they are both
lightweight, (2) they are light colored, (3) Mary’s dress is lightweight, and Jane’s
dress is light colored, (4) Mary’s dress is light colored, and Jane’s dress is
lightweight. However, there are only two conditions which are acceptable, they
are (1) and (2). It is because once one has decided the meaning of light, one has to
stick with it (Cruse, 2000, p. 106). This is called identity constraint. The identity
constraint discussed in xii should be contrasted with the absence in xiii:
xiii. Mary has adopted a child; so has Jane.
This child must be a girl or a boy. However, there are no constraints on the
possible readings: Mary’s adopted child should be of the same sex with Jane’s.
2) Independent Truth Condition
Yes/No questions can help the reader to check the second criterion for the
discreteness. The second criterion is that they have independent truth conditional
properties. Consider the example xii, when someone asks MaryWere you wearing light dress?, Mary can answer it with negative or the negative Yes, I was wearing
child?, there are no conceivable situations which she could answer either Yes or No.
3) Independent Sense Relation
When two readings have the independent sets of sense relation, it can be
said that those two readings are distinct. For example, the two readings of light
have their own opposites, darkand heavy. Moreover, those two opposites do not have relation in meaning.
4) Autonomy
The last indicator of discreteness is autonomy. Autonomy is the use of the
word in one of the senses when the other is explicitly denied by the reason of
anomaly of some such. The worddogcan refer to both senses canine speciesand male canine species. When a person says I prefer dogs to bitches, the sentence is
acceptable and fully normal. However, when a person says I prefer children to girls, the sex specific interpretation ofchildis not autonomous.
b. Types of Ambiguity
Experts divides ambiguity in several types. However, they have their own
opinion about it. Akmajian et.al (2001) only mention two kinds of ambiguity.
They are lexical and structural ambiguity. On the other hand, Grenat and Taher
(2008) argue that there are four types of ambiguity. Those are lexical, structural,
scope, and referential ambiguity.
1) Lexical Ambiguity
Akmajian et.al (2001) state that lexical ambiguity is referred to a word
lexically ambiguous, the sentence contains either homonyms or polysemes. Some
researchers point out that only homonyms causes ambiguity. On the other hand,
some others argue that both polysemes and homonyms will cause ambiguity
(Teodorescu, 2012, p. 3). Akmajian et.al (2001) mention that polysemy causes
ambiguity for it has more than one related meaning (p. 237). The polysemous
words, which have more than one meaning, will cause more than one
interpretation. The example of polysemy is the wordposition:
xiv. Her sleeppositionmight be the cause of her backache. xv. She has to take herpositionon that case.
In the example xiv and xv, the wordpositiondoes exist. However, they have their
own meaning. The first position meaning is a way which someone is placed or arrange: a posture. On the other hand, the second meaning is a view or opinion.
Although they have different meaning, they are placed under the same entries in
the dictionary. Moreover, they have connection between the senses.
Besides polysemy, homonym can also trigger ambiguity. Homonym is
divined as two or more different words which have the same phonological or
spelling properties (Cruse, 2000, p. 109). To be precise, Akmajian et.al (2001)
also describe homophonous. Homophonous are words that have the same
pronunciation but different spelling (p. 239). Mary, merry, and marry are the example of homophonous words. The often-cited word bank is an example of
homonym. The word bank can represent two entities. The first one is a part of riverside, and the second one isa place to save money. In order to differentiate the
Polysemy is known having single lexeme, while homonymy has two different
lexeme. When a word has polysemy meanings, it is usually grouped together
under one dictionary entry. On the other hand, homonyms will have different
entries. In the example, the word position, which is polysemous, has only one entry in the dictionary. On the other hand, the word bank is given two main
entries, bank1and bank2. The example of lexical ambiguity can be found in the example xvi and xvii:
xvi. She couldn’tbearchildren.
The wordbearis homonymy; it has more than one meaning. In Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, it has 7 verb meanings and 2 noun meanings. However, in
the context, there are only 2 meanings which are the most suitable meaning which
can be interpreted from the sentence. The first one is to give birthand the second
isto put up with. Therefore, the sentence is either abouta woman who is not able to give birth to childrenora woman who is not able to put up with children.
xvii. He went to thebankyesterday.
As stated previously, the word bank is homonymous. In the dictionary, it has different entries with different meaning. Considering the sentence, the meaning of
the wordbankis eithera part of riversideora place to save money.
2) Structural Ambiguity
Structural ambiguity is closely related to syntax. Syntax is “the way words
are arranged together” (Jurafsky and Martin, 2008, p. 385). Talking about
structural ambiguity will always lead the discussion into syntax because as it has
order and syntax is the study of the word order. Hurford and Heasley (1983) states
“structural ambiguity happens because its words relate to each other, even though
none of the individual words are ambiguous.” (p. 128). In brief, it can be said that
word order and word combination are the cause of the structural ambiguity. The
examples of the structural ambiguity are the sentences below:
xviii. Josh saw the man with the telescope.
The sentence is ambiguous. It can be said so because the sentence has
more than one meaning. The first meaning isJosh saw a person (the man) using a telescope as his tool, he might be looking at the man from a distance and needed telescope to see the man clearly, while the second meaning is Josh saw the man
who was bringing a telescope. From this example we can see that the problem caused because of the relation of words which construct the noun phrase the man
with telescope.
xix. Jenny likes the book on the table that she bought yesterday.
The sentence looks fine. However, with deeper analysis, it will bring
confusion to the reader. This example also has the same problem with noun
phrase. The modifier that she bought yesterday makes the sentence become
ambiguous. The clause that she bought yesterday can be attached to both nouns bookand table. So, if we see the meaning of the first interpretation is Jenny likes the book that she bought yesterday, and the book is now on the table. The second
interpretation is Jenny likes the book which is now on the new table that she bought yesterday.
As it is seen, the sentence is ambiguous because there is more than one
meaning which can be assigned to it. The ambiguity is related to the order of the
words in the subject. The noun phrasethe mother of the boy and the girlcan refers to the boy’s and the girl’s mother. On the other hand, the noun phrase the mother of the boy and the girlcan indicate two or plural subject. For better understanding,
please take a look at the example:
xxi. The mother of the boy and the girl is a happy.
xxii. The mother of the boy and the girl are happy.
Comparing to the two examples xvi and xvii, the ambiguous sentence presented in
xvi can be understood easily. In xvi and xvii, the subjectthe mother of the boy and
the girlcan be easily differentiated, since we can easily refer to the verbisorare. However, in xv, when modalwillis used, the grouping of the words the mother of
the boy and the girlbecomes ambiguous.
Mihalicek and Wilson (2011) discuss three types of structural ambiguity in
sentence processing. They are temporary ambiguity, the garden path effect and
global ambiguity.
a) Temporary Ambiguity
The word recognition process start after people hear the first word and so
does the syntactic structure building process (Mihalicek & Wilson, 2011, p. 387).
The example of the temporary ambiguity can be seen in xxiii:
xxiii. The rich woman went away.
As soon as we saw or hear the word the which is a determiner, people
ambiguity since the word rich has two meaning. Moreover, the compound noun the rich has its own meaning as a noun, while the word rich could also be noun.
Therefore, people would expect two possibilities whether the word rich will be followed with noun or verb. The ambiguity is resolved when people hear the word
woman. It means that the word rich acts as an adjective. Therefore, it can be
concluded that the sentenceThe rich woman went awayis ambiguous temporarily; until people hear the wordwoman.
b) Garden Path Effect
In sentence processing, when people are facing temporary ambiguity
sentences, they at the beginning get a meaning that was not intended by the
speaker. Those kind of mistakes in syntactic parsing are known as garden path
effect. It is called garden path because the syntax of the sentence makes the reader
or listener “down the garden path” (p. 388.) The example is given in xxiv:
xxiv. While Mary was mending the sock fell off her lap.
When people read the sock in xxiv, people would consider it as the direct
object of the verb mending. However, after finding out the word fell, people would need to reanalyze the sentence again. Then people would conclude thatthe
sock is not the direct object of the verb mending, but the subject of the sentence the sock fell off her lap.
c) Global Ambiguity
Some structural ambiguous sentences are not temporary, they are not
resolved at the end of the utterance. In that case, the sentences are globally
preceding or following sentences, it is impossible to understand the intended
meaning of the speaker or the writer. The examples of global ambiguity are
provided in xviii, xix, and xx.
3) Scope Ambiguity
When there are two or more constituent in a sentence, and one of them is
determined by the others, it can be said that the constituent is in the scope of the
others that affect its reference (Grenat & Taher, 2008, p. 10). Poesio (1995)
mentions scope ambiguity as scopal ambiguity. He explains that scopal ambiguity
happens when a sentence has more than one meaning because of the relation
between operators. Radford, Atkinson, Britain, Clahsen, and Spencer (1999) also
mention scope ambiguity in their work. The example of scope ambiguity can be
seen in example xxv:
xxv. Some students voted for every candidate.
The sentence in the example xxv has two interpretations. The first one is there is
some particular student that voted for all candidate, while the second is for each
candidate, it is possible to find a student who voted for that candidate.
4) Referential Ambiguity
This kind of ambiguity arise because of the different reference of a
referring expression that the speaker and addressee have in mind. The easiest
example is the sentence Callista is a good girl. The addressee might have the
reference of someone named Callistawho is not the speaker intended to mention. Teodorescu (2012) mentions that unclear reference of anaphoric and cataphoric
xxvi. John told Jack that Mary was waiting for him.
In the example xxvi, the pronoun him might refer to John or Jack. Therefore, the
sentence becomes referential ambiguous.
4. Theories of Parts of Speech
The term parts of speech is also known as word classes. They refer to a
system of word classification (Aarts, 1997, p. 24). Finch (2000) states that in the
language acquisition, parts of speech are important since they enable the language
user to construct sentences with maximum economy (p. 133). For example, people
who learn English would understand that the incomplete sentence I _____ dogs can only be completed by a verb. Aarts (1997) suggests the classification of words
as follows.
a. Noun
Traditional grammar defines nouns as words that represent people,
animals, things, or places. Based on the traditional grammar definition, the word
baby, chair, dog, hospital, and soon are nouns. However, in modern linguistics,
such definition is regarded as too weak since there are a lot of unaccounted words.
Such words as death and advices that show the abstract idea, love and happiness
that denote feelings, and others are not taken into account. Therefore, in order to
label a word based on its parts of speech, people need to understand the word
behaviour (Finch, 2000, p. 109). Crystal (1988, p. 92) lists three criteria to
recognize a noun. The first criteria is that the words meaning and use are decided
the head of the noun phrase. The last factor is that the word changes form to
express singular and plural, or the genitive case.
b. Determiner
Previously, it is stated that determiner could be an indication of nouns.
Determiners such asthe, a, that, those,and soon precedes nouns. Its function is to
specify more precisely the meaning of the noun they precede.
xxvii. I saw a dog on my way home. I felt pity so I brought that dog
home.
From the example xxvii, the changes of determiner that precedes the noundogcan be seen. In the first sentence, the speaker uses determinerato show that there was
one dog. In the second sentence, the speaker uses determiner that in order to specify more precisely the particular dog the speaker refers to.
c. Adjective
Adjectives are used to specify the attributes of nouns, such as a beautiful dress, some naughty kids, and soon. The words beautiful and naughty are the
examples of adjectives. Some adjectives can be identified by the occurrence of
adjectival affixes such as –full, -less, -ive, and un-. Most of adjectives are
gradable, and can be preceded by very, more, extremely, and soon. However, the adjectives that denote material and nationality are the exceptions. Some adjectives
can also have comparative and superlative endings, such as long-longer-longest.
Adjectives occupy two positions in English: the attributive and the predicative
which means that adjective precedes nouns. The example of adjectives in
predicative position can be seen in a sentence which uses linking verb or copula.
d. Verb
Verb is a grammatical classification of words to show an action, process,
or state of being. Inflection such as –edand–sare sometimes attached to verbs to
show the grammatical properties. The –edending shows that the action or process happened in past event, hence the – ed ending is known as past tense inflection.
On the other hand, the –sending encode the present action or process, hence it is
known as present tense inflection. The –sending can also indicate the subject of a
sentence. It is also called the third person singular ending of the present tense. It
means that the –s ending occurs when the subject of the sentence is the third
person and the situation in the sentence happens in the present time.
e. Preposition
Preposition is used to relate two parts of a sentence together and shows the
relationship of the parts. The relationship meant is about time, place, or logic. The
example of preposition is the word on. In the sentenceThe book is on the table, preposition on denote the relationship between the book and its location.
Preposition can be simple and consist of one word such as on, in, by or it can be complex and consists of more than one word such as by means of, in front of,and so on.
f. Adverb
Adverbs used to modify verb by giving information about time, place, and
also modify adjectives and other adverbs (Aarts, 1997, p. 42). The example of an
adverb that is used to modify adjectives isextremely. The sentenceI am extremely
happy today is acceptable. In the example, the word extremely modifies the adjectives happy. The word very is the example of an adverb that can modify other adverbs. Considering the example She works very hard, the word very
modifies the other adverbhard.
g. Conjunction
Conjunction is class of words that is functioning to link two sentences,
phrases, or words. There are two types of conjunctions, they are subordinating
conjunction and coordinating conjunctions. The examples of conjunctions are
and, or, that, if, for,etc.
h. Interjection
Interjections refers to words that express emotion, physical state,
agreement, disagreement and so on. The example of interjections are the
expressions such asoh, erh, hmm, ah, nah, yuck, euw,etc.
5. Theories of Tree Diagram
Napoli (1996) states that every part of grammar, morphology and syntax,
makes use of tree diagram (p. 307). In morphology, the use of tree diagram can
show the building of some words. For example the construction of the word
reconstruction. Tree diagram is also known as phrase makers. It shows the visual representation of hierarchical linguistics system or structure (Aarts, 1997, p. 60).
graphically illustrate the structure of a sentence.” (p. 23). Other than tree diagram,
people can also use bracketing. However, the same information that people get
from bracketing is often more easily seen using tree diagram (Napoli, 1997, p.
307). Aarts (1997) also mentions that the system of labelled bracketing is almost
impossible to read due to the wealth of details. For example, the sentence The
people in the room will move the desk into the hall would have the sentence bracketed as follows.
[S [NP [art The] [n people] [PP [prep in [NP [art the] [n room]]]]
[aux will] [VP[v move][NP[art the][n desk] [PP [prep into [NP
[art the] [n hall]]]]]]]
The confusing pattern of bracketing makes the experts (Napoli (1997) and Aarts
(1997)) recommend tree diagrams to see the sentence structure. Moreover, tree
diagram will show the three important aspects of sentence (Akmajian et.al, 2001,
p. 207). The three important aspects of a sentence are:
a) The linear order of words in the sentence
b) The categorization of words into parts of speech
c) The grouping of words into structural constituents of the sentence
Figure 2.2 will show the linear order, categorization, and grouping of words
Figure 2.2. Tree Diagram of a Sentence Symbol used in the diagram:
S – sentence NP – noun phrase Aux – auxiliary verb VP – verb phrase
PP – prepositional phrase
Art – article N – noun V – verb Prep – preposition
Studying Figure 2.2, every part of the sentence The people in the room will move the desk into the hall is connected to particular symbol according to its lexical
categories. Therefore, the word the is connected to symbol Art which means article. It indicates that the word thebelongs to article. The words and also lexical
categories are all served in linear order. Figure 2.2 also shows the grouping of
words into structural constituents of the sentence. The subject phrase, the people in the room, is the combination of several lexical categories. Figure 2.2 shows the
connection of word by word in the making of single constituent. Figure 2.3 would
