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
ii
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
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
iv
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
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
vi
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,
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.
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE………..………. ii
APPROVAL PAGE……….… iii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE ……….. iv
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH…….. v
STATEMENT OF ORIGNALITY……… vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS……… viii
LIST OF TABLES……….. x
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
B. Approach of the Study……… 18
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
x
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.
The results of this study shows that in Readers Forum section of The
Jakarta Post newspaper discussing the smog caused by forest fire in Indonesia
xii
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.
xiv
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.
Written language is important for people since people cannot always talk
to others directly. It happens because of distance, time, and a lot more reasons.
There are a lot of types of written language, some of which are business letters,
2
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.
Even though language has a very important role in communication
between people, language has its weakness in delivering message. Sometimes,
people experience miscommunication in using language to communicate.
Miscommunication mentioned before may happen when utterance, whether
spoken or written, is vague or ambiguous by means that their utterance may not be
delivered clearly or may have different interpretations. Ambiguity describes a
linguistic phenomenon whereby expressions are potentially understood in two or
more ways, an ambiguous expression has more than one interpretation in its
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.
Based on the phenomenon mentioned before, the writer was interested in
conducting a research related to ambiguity. Thus, in this study, the writer
analyzed phrasal ambiguity found in Readers Forum section of The Jakarta Post
newspaper discussing the haze caused by forest fire in Indonesia. The writer
chooses to discuss the haze caused by forest fire in Indonesia because when the
writer started writing the thesis, this issue was happening and was the hottest topic
4 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.
After that, the writer would like to identify whether the ambiguities
observed in the phrases are lexical or structural. This study is limited to lexical
and structural ambiguity found in Readers Forum section of The Jakarta Post.
The writer focuses on lexical and structural ambiguity using semantic and
syntactic approaches. The writer interprets the ambiguity found with Semantic
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.
Another one was conducted by Mutiara Sekar Utami (2013). Mutiara
Sekar Utami conducted a study of lexical and structural ambiguity in the Reader’s
Forum of The Jakarta Post. The data were taken from the Reader’s Forum of The
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
of this thesis, the most dominant types of phrasal ambiguity in Readers Forum
8
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
A noun phrase is a sequence of words surrounding at least one noun
(Jurafsky, 2009: 386). It is the sequence of a noun and its complement (Fromkin,
2000:121). A noun phrase consists of a noun as the head word and other words
(usually modifiers and determiners) which come after or before the noun and
modify the noun. A noun phrase may include single words like ‘she’ or ‘Michael’
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
Adjectives can also be grouped into a phrase calles an adjective phrase. It
can has an adverb before the adjective. Example: the ‘least expensive’ fare
10
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).
Phrase Structure Rules are used to show patterns of syntactic combination
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)
12 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
A language is often defined as a conventional system for conveying
messages. Moreover, communication can be accomplished only because words
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
Ambiguity is described as a phenomenon when an expression may be
understood in two or more ways in its context because of the arbitrariness
between the sign and its referents multiple meanings seems to be usual (Asher,
1994:90). In a simple way, if we can have two or more interpretations from an
expression (usually lead to confusion), We can say that that expression is
14 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
Jurafsky (2009: 612) states that when a word has two senses and the two
senses related semantically, it can be called polysemy. In many cases of
polysemy, the semantic relation between the senses is systematic and structured. It
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
The theory of structural ambiguity claims that the ambiguity may happens
16
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).
This form corresponds to two distinct sentences. The first sentence means
that the man whom the cop saw had the binoculars. The second sentence means
that the cop used the binoculars to see the man. In this case, the ambiguity arises
because the prepositional phrase with the binocular can be either a VP adjunct or
a noun adjunct. The sentence in which the prepositional phrase is a VP adjunct
means that the cop was the one with binoculars. The sentence in which the PP is a
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’.
The explanation is different when the writer finds a structurally ambiguous
sentence. When a sentence is identified as a structurally ambiguous sentence, the
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
In conducting the study, the writer uses semantic and syntactic approaches.
Semantics is the study of the meaning of linguistic expressions. It is the study of
meaning abstracted away from those aspects that are derived from the intentions
of the speaker. A language is often defined as a conventional system for
conveying messages. Moreover, communication can be accomplished only
because words have certain meanings (Akmajian, et al, 2001:228). It 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
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
20
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.
Secondly, using theory of ambiguity, the writers decides what kind of
ambiguity happens in the sentence. The writer classifies it into the two types of
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.
In analyzing the meaning of the phrases further, the writer uses the fifth
edition of Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners
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.
Based on the study, there are 26 phrases that cause ambiguity found. They
are 20 noun phrases and 6 verb phrases. Based on the data, the most frequent kind
of phrase that causes ambiguity is noun phrase. From 26 ambiguous phrases
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%
24
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.
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.
√
26
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
√
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
AMBIGUITY
TYPES OF PHRASES
NUMBER
OF CASE PERCENTAGE 1 Lexical Ambiguity
Adverbial Phrase - Verb Phrase 6 Adjective Phrase Prepositional
Adjective Phrase
SUBTOTAL 4 15.4%
TOTAL 26 100%
1. Lexical Ambiguity
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
ambiguity. As mentioned before in Chapter II, lexical ambiguity may occur
because a word (that may function as a head of a phrase) may have multiple
28
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.
13 The fires which have been raging for days need to be controlled otherwise the pollution will climb to really unhealthy levels.
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
30
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
Based on these meanings, the phrase in data number 3 can be interpreted to (1)
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.
In data number 5, the phrase ‘reading’, which is a noun phrase is
32
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
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.
In data number 10, the ambiguity arises because of the phrase ‘operation’
34
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
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
