An analysis of semantic shange in euphemistic terms in the script Jennifer's body' movie
AN ANALYSIS OF SEMANTIC CHANGE IN EUPHEMISTIC TERMS IN THE SCRIPTS “JENNIFER’S BODY”
MOVIE
A Thesis
Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for
The Degree of Letters Scholar
RESMITA SISKA 106026000969
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT ADAB AND HUMANITIES FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA
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ABSTRACT
Resmita Siska, An Analysis of Semantic Change in Euphemistic Terms in the Script ‘Jennifer’s Body’ movie. Thesis. Jakarta : English Letters Department. Letters and Humanities Faculty, State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2010.
The aim of this research is to describe the meaning relation and semantic change that happened in euphemistic terms that found in the script “Jennifer’s Body” movie. This meaning relation falls under: synonymy, antonym, hyponymy, and meronymy. While semantic change divided into: semantic broadening, semantic narrowing, amelioration, pejorative, sinestesia, and association.
The writer applies descriptive- qualitative method to describe the types of meaning relation and semantic change that happened in euphemistic terms. In the collecting data the writer applies the documentation method in which the “Jennifer’s Body” film scripts are download from the website http://www.imsdb.com/search.php. The writer analyzed 10 types of euphemism that found in the scripts. Data analysis continued by using descriptive method.
From all the data analysis taken from film “Jennifer’s Body” the writer found the types of euphemism like circumlocution, clipping, abbreviation, quasi-omission, metonymy, hyperbole, understatement, abstraction, but is not found the rhyming slang, remodeling, acronyms, synecdoche, borrowing, indirectness, mispronunciation, plays on abbreviation, and phonetic alphabet. The euphemistic terms can replace the words assumed by taboo because there is semantic change.
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APPROVEMENT
AN ANALYSIS OF SEMANTIC CHANGE IN EUPHEMISTICS TERM IN THE SCRIPT “JENNIFER’S BODY”
MOVIE
A Thesis
Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Letters Scholar
Resmita Siska 106026000969
Approved by:
Dr. Frans Sayogie, M.Pd NIP: 19700310 200003 1002
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTEMENT LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA
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LEGALIZATION
Name : Resmita Siska NIM : 106026000969
Title : An Analysis of Semantic Change in Euphemistic Terms in the Script “Jennifer’s Body” Movie.
The thesis has been defended before the Letters and Humanities Faculty’s Examination Committee on November 15, 2010. The thesis already been accepted as a partial fulfillment of requirement for Strata One Degree (S1).
Jakarta, November 15, 2010
The Examining Committee
Name Signature Date
1. Dr. H. M. Farkhan, M.Pd (Chair Person) ________ _______ NIP.196509192000031002
2. Drs. Asep Saefudin, M. Pd (Secretary) ________ _______ NIP.1640701993031006
3. Dr. Frans Sayogie, M.Pd (Advisor) ________ _______ NIP. 19700310 200003 1002
4. Drs. Agus Irianto, M.Hum (Examiner I) ________ _______ NIP.195708101994121001
5. Drs.H. Ramdani, M.Pd (Examiner II) ________ _______ NIP.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim…..
In the name of Allah, the most Merciful and the most Beneficent.
Praise is only for Allah SWT, Lord of the world. First, the writer is deeply grateful to Him who gives her His blessing and opportunity to accomplish this thesis.
The writer would like to thank to her beloved parents Asril and Wasnidar (alm.) who always give the support, love, attention, pray, and finance for the writer. The writer is heartily thankful to her beloved sister Elmira Siska who give motivation and also finance during her study and the process of finishing this thesis. The writer also wish to thank her brother Ory Syahputra, Devit Rahman Putra , M. Halim Syahputra and especially for Deni Effendy who never tired to give her motivation.
The writer owes her deepest gratitude to all lecturers who have been their knowledge and experiences during her study in English Letter Department, State Islamic University syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.
The writer would like to express her deep and sincere gratitude to her advisor, Dr. Frans Sayogie, M.Pd who had guided and supported the writer accomplish this paper until finishing it.
The writer wish to express her warm and sincere thanks to these following amazing persons who helped her in finishing this thesis Drs. Abdul Wahid Hasyim, M.Ag the dean of Letters & Humanities faculty, Dr. Muhammad Farkhan.M.Pd the
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head of English Letters Department, Drs. Asep Saefuin, M.Pd, the secretary of English Letters Department.
Finnaly, The writer would like to thank to her best friends Elvina Sanjaya, Dian rahmawati, Puspa Mega, Eka Hastianta, Nandang, Nanang Septiawan, Reza Hafids and entire classmates class B and class A linguistics of English Letters Department.
And many others relations are too numerous to name, but the writer thanks all of them for sharing their ideas with her. For any mistakes that have not been weeded out of this thesis, the writer of course remains fully responsible.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER ... i
ABSTRACT ... ii
APPROVEMENT ... iii
LEGALIZATION ... iv
DECLARATION ... v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... vii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ... 1
A. Background of the study ... 1
B. Focus the Study ... 4
C. The Research Question ... 5
D. Objective of the Study ... 5
E. Significance of the Study ... 6
F. Research Methodology... 6
1. Method of Research ... 6
2. The Instrument ... 6
3. Collecting Data ... 7
4. Technique of Data Analysis ... 7
5. Unit Analysis ... 8
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 9
A. Euphemism 1. Definition of Euphemism ... 9
2. Types of Euphemism ... 11
3. Taboo Word ... 15
B. Semantics ... 17
1. Definition of Semantics ... 17
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3. Types of Meaning ... 20
4. The Role of Context Situation in the Meaning of Language ... 24
C. Semantic Field ... 25
D. Componential Analysis ... 26
E. Cultural Meaning ... 30
F. Meaning Relation ... 31
G. Semantic Change ... 34
CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDING ... 37
A. Data Description... 37
B. Data Analysis ... 41
1. Metaphor ... 41
2. Circumlocution ... 45
3. Clippings ... 48
4. Abbreviation ... 51
5. Quasi Omission ... 55
6. Full Omission ... 58
7. Metonymy ... 60
8. Hyperbole ... 63
9. Understatement ... 66
10. Abstraction ... 69
CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION and SUGGESTION ... 72 BIBLIO GRAPHY
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
As social human being, people couldn’t be separated from the influences of the others, and almost all of their activities connected to another people. The accepted from for aspects of behavior through which people influence and react to each other is Social Interaction.1 Its one way which could be brought into reality is verbal communication form. The one of purposes of verbally communication according to Purwo as cited by Gunarwan is deliver information to another people. Besides that, the important one of communication purpose also to keep social relationship and this is universal communication necessity.2
To keep the social relationship, in human life there are rules and norms which be obeyed by them. If someone wants to speak or say something, he must consider all of factors which related to the rules and norms that be found in society. Commonly, the speaker doesn’t speak directly without paying attention to the factors that influence their speech such as how the situation is going on, who are the interlocutor, where the place is, and what the subject or topic which is being talked. In this case, the speaker must speak and deliver his idea in “good way” in order to make the social relationship getting better.
1
Hudson, R. A. 1980. Sociolinguistic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p.108
2 Ibid.
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One of way to keep the good social relationship in verbally communication is the speaker must avoid the term or the word which can insulting the listener, embarrassing the interlocutor, attaching the listener’s self esteem or in another word make the listener loss his face. The term is known as “dangerous word” or the “Taboo word” or “dysphemism”. Taboo word is a word known to speakers but avoided in some, most, or all, forms or contexts of speech, for reason of religion decorum politeness, etc.3It is clear that when we use the taboo word its mean we attack the listener or make the listener undergoes loss his face.
According to Allan & Burridge the subject of taboo can vary widely like in sex area, bodily effluvia, bodily function, death, religious matter, dangerous animal, political issue even, diseases etc. For example, peoples feel difficult to mention the specific organ for reproduction because the name of specific organ is taboo to be mentioned and they choose to change the name of specific organ with another term. We also can find in our life there are many words that used by people to deliver their condolence without using the word “die”, because ‘die’ is considered as taboo word.
Because the “taboo word” is forbidden to mention and give the bed effect, so people create the new word or rename and repackage that word to getting “better sound” but still have a meaning that related to it. That’s a reason why they apply “Euphemism”. According to Allan & Burriage, Euphemism is used as an alternative to a dispreferred expression, in order to avoid possible loss of face: either one’s own face or, through giving offense, that of the audience, or of some third party.4
3
Pieter, Mathews, The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. p.371
4
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Rawson said that euphemism are powerful linguistics tools that “are embedded so deeply in our language that few of us, even those who pride, themselves on being plainspoken, ever get through a day without using them”. The need for euphemism is both social and emotional, as it allows discussion of “touchy” or taboo subject ( such as sex, reproductive processes, personal appearances or religion, etc) without enraging, outraging, or upsetting other people, and acts as a pressure valve whilst maintaining the appearance of civility. For example we can take these euphemism word from “Jennifer’s Body” scripts, the word “womb” for “cunt”, “hot one” for “sexy woman”, “PMS” for premenstrual syndrome, “J.C” for “Jesus Christ”, “going somewhere or gone” for “died”, “butt” for ass or arse and so on,
All these euphemism appeared naturally in the process of everyday usage. People instinctively try to avoid the word not offend or to hurt one’s feelings. So euphemism is synonym that aims to at producing a deliberately mild effect. When people use them in proper situations, it means that they care about other people.
Similarly, euphemisms are used to express taboo, as we feel, on some instinctual level, that the euphemism keeps us at safe distance from the taboo itself. Another use of euphemism is to elevate the status of something (e.g. using “sanitation engineer” sound more exalted then does “garbage collector”, “underprivileged” sound much better than “poor and needy”, as does “senior citizens” rather than “old people” ); but in general, euphemism are used to express what is socially difficult to express in direct terms.
These euphemisms surely give rise to language change trough the emergence or loss of some sense of lexemes, or suitable replacement in the higher style. Many
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euphemisms are figurative; many have been or are being the cause of “semantic change”.5 These semantic changes lead the new meaning to be broader, narrower, more favorable, or less favorable. Besides that, the other meaning may change because of the exchange of perception or the similarity of characters.6
Although each lexeme undergoes semantics change, it is still tied by meaning relation. Hence, together with the above explanation, the writer has in mind to bring about the research An Analysis of Semantic Change in Euphemistic Terms in the script “Jennifer’s Body” movie. In this thesis, the writer intends to describe in detail what kind of euphemistic its self, how do meaning relation and semantic change undergone by euphemism terms that used in that movie based on the theory cited in theoretical framework.
B. Focus of the Study
In doing the research, the writer would like to limit the discussion on semantic issue such as meaning relation and semantic change of euphemism taken from “Jennifer’s Body” script can be found http://www.imsdb.com/search.php written by Diablo Cody. In analyzing the data, the writer applies semantic theory proposed by Leech, Lyons, Jackson, Ogden and Richard, and soon.
The writer applies those theories in order to get all data of euphemism in that story can be used to analyze completely. The writer also chooses the data from “Jennifer’s Body” script after considering that these might be the best data for the
5
Keith Allan & Kate Burridge, Euphemism and Dysphemism language Used as Sheild and Weapon. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. p.14
6
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analysis. It is because the story of this movie goes a lot of area of friendship, love and horror.
C. The Research Question
To make more convenient and simply in this research, the writer formulates her research through the following question:
1. What types of euphemism are found from “Jennifer’s Body” scripts? 2. How do the semantic change of euphemistic terms in “Jennifer’s Body”
scripts?
D. Objective of the Study
The objectives of this study are:
1. Describing and classifying the euphemism terms into types of euphemism taken from “Jennifer’s body” scripts and giving explanation what kind of meaning relation give to euphemism terms on each type of euphemism by applying componential analysis. 2. Giving explanation what kind of semantic changes involved in the
use of euphemism term by applying componential analysis.
E. Significance of the Study
Basically, the significance of this research is to increase the study about linguistics especially about euphemism that related to semantic change in order to know what kind of words in English terms called “Taboo and Euphemism”.
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This study hopefully has some benefits for all students, especially at UIN English Letter Department student. Moreover, in this study, the student can apply their knowledge and comprehension in the appropriate daily conversation, especially in formal occasion.
F. Research Methodology 1. Method of Research
In this research the writer uses a qualitative-descriptive method; the writer describes the main data which are taken from “Jennifer’s body” scripts through http://www.imsdb.com/search.php, then the writer analyzed the data from semantic theory, and also correlating some of theories that are relevant with the research.
2. The Instrument
The instrument in this research is the writer herself by collecting and noting the word related to the euphemism. The word will be analyzed carefully by giving the explanation. Besides analyzing the data, the writer also puts it as the evidence in this research.
3. Collecting Data
The data of the study are the scripts “Jennifer’s Body”. The data are also found from http://www.imsdb.com/search.php. That is movie website where the writer browsed and got the transcripts of the movie “Jennifer’s Body” written by Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusuma.
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a. Watching the movie “Jennifer’s Body”.
b. Reading the movie scripts of “Jennifer’s Body”
c. Searching euphemistic terms from the movie that guided by the movie scripts.
d. Giving a mark on euphemistic terms which are going to be observed.
e. Using note technique to make a list of euphemism and then classify into types of speech.
f. Analyzing the euphemistic term and giving explanation what kind of semantic changes involved in the use of euphemistic term by applying componential analysis.
4. Technique of Data Analysis
In this study, the main data will be analyzed by some ways. The writer use method to analyze the data in this study should be outlined in order to the writer doesn’t find confusion and go out of this study.
Here, the writer applies also descriptive method that is a method used in order to make a description, an illustration, or a picture systematically, factually and accurately about the fact. Technique used to verify the semantics properties is binary semantic features.7 Next the data will be analyzed by using core meaning analysis. It is used to find the meaning of word, even through the data is not in a sentence.
In order to succeed in this research, the writer benefited the qualitative analysis data by implementing the following procedures:
7
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a. Collecting the books that are relevant to semantics change, the euphemism and dysphemism (taboo word or dispreferred expression).
b. Reading and understanding some theories of semantic theory, semantic change, euphemism and dysphemism.
c. Describing taboo and euphemistic term.
d. Substituting the euphemistic term with taboo term.
e. Analyzing the data by using the set of components to compare and identify the meaning relation and semantic change.
f. Analyzing the data by using core meaning analysis that is a technique to find out the meaning of the word even though the word is not in sentence.
5. Unit of Analysis
The analysis unit of the research is the scripts of “Jennifer’s Body”, where the scripts take from http://www.imsdb.com/search.php, a website that full of movie’s scripts.
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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A.Euphemism
1. Definition of Euphemism
The word euphemism comes from the Greek word euphemos, meaning "auspicious/good/fortunate speech/kind" which in turn is derived from the Greek root-words eu "good/well" + pheme "speech/speaking". The eupheme was originally a word or phrase used in place of a religious word or phrase that should not be spoken aloud; etymologically, the eupheme is the opposite of the blaspheme (evil-speaking). From the word’s root of euphemism we can conclude that euphemism is speak in good way. Concise Oxford Dictionary as quoted by Enright explain that euphemism is a substitution of mild, vague or indirect expression for rude or direct one8, Keith Allan & Kate Burridge mention that:
A euphemism is used as an alternative to dispreferred expression, in order to avoid possible los face: either one’s face or trough giving offense, that of the audience or of some third party.9
The statement above give a comprehension to us that people use the euphemism term is as an alternative expression to avoid mention the taboo word that will make the listener loss his face. It is done absolutely to keep the relationship between speaker and listener.
8
D.J Enright, Fair of Speech: The use of Euphemism. New York: oxford University Press, 1985. p.13.
9
Keith Allan & Kate Burridge, Euphemism and Dysphemism language Used as Sheildand Weapon. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. p.11
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Whereas, Matthews stated that euphemism is word, etc used in place of one avoided as e.g. offensive, indecent, or alarming.10 We can conclude that euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the receiver or listener, or to make it less troublesome for the speaker.
If the “pleasant/polite word” is well known as euphemism, so the contrast words or the bad one is called dysphemism. People used it to downgrade and show disapproval of things, as Allan (1991) stated “dysphemism” is an expression with connotation that are offensive either about the denotatum or to audience, or both.11. It is clear that taboo word absolutely can hurt the listener or make loss his face, because of that people try to reduce of the using of dysphemism and change to apply euphemism.
The purposes of euphemism are to present words of good omen, to avoid unlucky words with metaphysical harm may befall either speaker or hearer, and to prevent hearer from losing face by offending his sensibilities. Besides that it may also substitute a description of something or someone to avoid revealing secret, holy, or sacred names to the uninitiated, or to obscure the identity of the subject of a conversation from potential eavesdroppers. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse.
For examples, euphemism words to cited freedom fighter for “terrorist”, firm for “pig-headed”, life insurance replacing “insurance when you are dead”, toddler for “idiot”. In short, euphemism is an alternative to unpleasant expression, and is used in order to avoid possible loss of face.
10
Petter Matthews, The consise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. New York: oxford University Press, 1997. p.119.
11
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2. Types of Euphemism
According to Allan and Burridge in “Euphemism and Dysphemism” mentioned that many euphemisms that are figurative can be formed through several ways, such as:
a. Metaphor used as means of comparing things that are essentially unlike,in metaphor the comparison is implied-that is, the figurative term is substituted for or identified with the literal term, for example: miraculous pitcher for “vagina”, the cavalry’s come replaces “I have got period”, kick the bucker for “die”. b. Rhyming slang is a way of talking in which tou use words or phrases that rhyme
with the word you mean, instead of using that word, for example whistle (and flute) for “suit”, groan and grunt for “cunt”, jimmy-riddle fo “piss”
c. Remodelling is the way of replacing part of the word like sugar, shoot, and shucks for “shit”, tarnation for “damnation” darn, dang, and draft for “Damn”, tidbits for “titbits”, basket for “bastard”, cripes or crumb for “Christ”, usually end up as one-for-one substitutions in which either the onset or rhyme of the dispreferred term is matched with that of a semantically word.
d. Circumlocution is a roundabout way of thinking (often includes in metaphor or metonymy). It is common in the form of listen (compound or idiom) like little girl’s room for “toilet” and categorical inaccuracy or Terminology inexactitude for “lie”, rape become criminal sexual assault or a serious offense against a woman, feces become solid human waste, etc.
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e. Clippings is the euphemisms starting off with a modifying word then the modifier is dropped as the phrase ceases to be euphemistic. For instance: Jeeze for “ Jesus”, bra for “brassiere” (both end-clipped)
f. Acronyms are written and pronounced as the words in their own right like or acronym are proper word created from the initial letter or two of the words in phrase, and they are pronounced like others word, for instance snafu for “situation formal, all fucked up” or commfu “complete monumental military fuck up”, etc.
g. Abbreviations are written and pronounced as strings of letters like TS for “tough shit” etc.
h. Omission fall into:
1. Quasi-omission substitutes some no-lexical expression for the dispreferred term into dashes and asterisk like mmmm, er-mm, and soon.
2. Full-omission seems less common than quasi-omissions found/ need to go by omitting “to the lavatory”.
i. One-for-one substitution is almost synonym and consists of two:
1. Metonymy (general-for-specific): one name of change for another like the legal term person for “pennies” and region for “genitals”. 2. Synecdoche (part-for-whole euphemism) means to take with
something else demonstrated in spend a penny for “go to the lavatory” and I’ve got a cough may occasionally ignore the accompanying “”stuffed up nose, postnasal drip, and running nose”.
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j. Hyperbole is simply exaggeration, but exaggeration in the service of truth, for example, flight to glory for “death”.
k. Understatement is saying less than one means, like sleep for “die”, deed for “act of murder”. It is used to emphasis and to negate the opposite of what we wish to convey.
l. Euphemism through borrowing
The use of foreign language (Latin, France, etc) is considered to counteract taboo terms such as bodily effluvia, sex, and the associated acts and bodily organs. The used of perspire instead of “sweat” expectorate instead of “spit” defecate and feces instead of “shit”, genitals instead of “sex organs”, vagina instead of “cunt”
Then, Enrich (1985)12 classified types of euphemism into: substitution, rhyming slang, abbreviation, acronyms, circumlocution, litotes (understatement), indirectness, lightly imaginative language, and synonym.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#See_also many euphemisms fall into:
a. Term of foreign and technical origin such as: copulation, perspire, urinate. b. Abbreviation such as: BS for “bullshit”, TS for “tough shit”.
c. Abstractions such as: it, the situation, go left the company, do it.
d. Indirectness such as: behind, unmentionable, privates, live together, go to the bath room, sleep together.
e. Mispronunciation such as: freakin, goldarnit.
12 D.J Enright, Fair of Speech: The use of Euphemism. New York: oxford University Press,
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f. Plays on abbreviation such as: barbecue sauce for “bullshit”, Maryland farmer for “motherfucker, sugar honey ice tea for “shit”.
g. Phonetic alphabet such as: foxtrot for “fuck”, bravo, sierra for “bullshit”. From all the explanation above, the writer can describe types of euphemism as follows:
Metaphor Rhyming slang Remodeling Abbreviation Acronyms
Omission quasi – omission
Full omission
Substitution metonymy synecdoche Hyperbole
Understatement Borrowing Abstraction Indirectness Mispronunciation Plays on abbreviation Phonetic alphabet
3. Taboo Word
Taboo word is a word known to speakers but avoid in some, most, or all forms or context of speech, for reason of religion, decorum, politeness, etc.13 The word taboo derives from the Tongan, an Austronesian language14 was prohibited behavior. It was prohibited because it was believed to do be dangerous to certain individuals, or to society as a whole. The dangerous of the taboo word are can insult the listener, its
13
Petter Matthews, The consise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. New York: oxford University Press, 1997. p.371
14
Keith Allan & Kate Burridge, Euphemism and Dysphemism language Used as Sheildand Weapon. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. p.12
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means the taboo word will break the good relationship between speaker and hearer, and if we mention the taboo word some people will consider that we are impious or impolite.
Akmajian mentioned that what counts as taboo language is something defined by culture, and not by anything inherent in the language.15 Taboo or not taboo a language is depending on their culture. For instance, in Indonesian people especially in Javanese people to mention the name of the people who passed away is consider as taboo, so the people use word “almarhum or almarhumah before the name”, and it is not happen in the other culture or country.
Keith Allan and Kate Burridge, Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language said in contemporary western society, taboo and euphemism are closely related to the concepts of politeness and face (basically, a person's self-image). Generally, social interaction is oriented toward behavior that is gracious and respectful, or at least inoffensive. Participants have to consider whether what they are saying will maintain, enhance, or damage their own face, as well as to be considerate of, and care for, the face needs of others.
Common swear words such as “fuck! Include taboo words. Hence to avoid words seen as offensive, obscene, or somehow disturbing to listeners or readers, the taboo words will be euphemized. It is like what Allan stated in Natural Semantics Language as follows:
A taboo term, a strong dysphemism, is often replaced by more positively euphemistic words or phrase whose original meaning has been semantically
15
Adrian Akmajian, Richard Demers, Ann Farmer, and Robert Harnish, Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication. MIT Press, 2001
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extended to create a new sense for it. For instance, instead of saying “my
father died” someone may said “my father passed away”16.
Thus taboo words including swear words such as “fuck!” and “hell” have euphemistic term : “ freak!” and “heck”.
Taboo word comprise three kinds, they are: 1. Taboo of fear
For example: name of the dead are taboo in some societies, taboos on the name of God, Names of dangerous animals, etc.
2. Taboo of delicacy
For examples military –pacify means “be killing”, neutralize means “kill selected targets”.
3. Taboo of propriety
This typical taboo goes to sexual acts, bodily effluvia, body-parts function and curse. For instance: shit, sperm, urine, etc.17
B. Semantics
1. Definition of semantics
Semantic is the study of the meaning of words, phrases, and sentence.18 Lehrer in his book “Semantic Field and Lexical Structure” cited that semantic, the study of
16
Keith Allan. Natural Semantics New York: Blackwell Publisher, 2001. p.134
17
Keith Allan & Kate Burridge, Euphemism and Dysphemism language Used as Sheild and Weapon. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. p.140
18
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meaning is a vast field touching on most of the structure and function of language as well as problem in psychology, philosophy, and anthropology19.
R. Bauerle cited in his book which titled “Semantic from Different Points of View” that the word “semantic” refers to a quite peculiar theory of meaning. This theory assumes that language consists of special (structured) objects, which become meaningful by their being related to certain other objects to speak “in the world”. Among these other objects we have to imagine such abstract objects as function, especially truth function.
We can conclude that semantics is commonly is considered to be the study of meaning (and related nations) in language or the study of linguistics reference and truth conditions in language.
2. Definition of meaning
The word ‘meaning’ is quite ambiguous.20 It is commonly used to show equivalence between expression within a language, such as mother means ‘female parents’, or between language, such as mere means mother in French.
Besides that, Arrnoff and Janie Ross in ‘The Handbook of Linguistics” cited that when people talk, they generally talk about things, events, and situations in the world. They are able to do this because they represent connections between the expression of their language and extra-linguistic phenomena in a fully systematic way. The meaning of a sentence is to a large extend, dependent on the ways in which the words and
19
Lehrer, Adrianne. Semantic Field and lexical Srtucture. Amsterdam: north Holland Publishing. 1974. p.1
20 Lehrer, Adrianne. Semantic Field and lexical Srtucture. Amsterdam: north Holland
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phrases from which it is constructed can be related to situation in the world. Speakers of a language can speak effectively with each other, because they have internalized the same rules for pairing the lexical items, and they used the same procedures for computing the meaning of a syntactically complex phrase from the meanings of its parts.
Ruth M. Kempson cited there are 3 main ways in which linguists and philosophers have attempted to construct explanation of meaning in natural language: (a) by defining nature of word meaning (b) by defining the nature of sentence meaning (c) by explaining the process of communication. In the first way, word meaning is taken as the construct in terms of which sentence meaning and communication can be explained: in the second, it is sentence meaning which is taken a basic, with words characterized in terms of the systematic contribution they make to sentence meaning; and the third, both sentence and word meaning are explained in terms of the way in which sentences and words are used in the act of communication.
According to Saeed meaning must be something that exits in the mind rather than the word so that it must be more abstract than picture of features.21 When people say something to another person, they have to make the same what the object which intended, the object not must be concrete, but the object is abstract. For example when Indonesian people talk about mystic around in Merapi Mountain, all of the meaning of the mystic will not be understood by the foreign listener because the concept about Mystic is not same, otherwise the Eskimos people know more than 9 name of snow or ice that each term have different meaning.
21
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Even Leech in Semantics supported this statement by dividing meaning into: a. Meaning as reference
It is said that the meaning of linguistics sign is what that sign refer to, what it stand for in the real word.
b. Meaning as mental concept
It is considered that the meaning of linguistics sign is the mental concept it stand for, that the meaning of a word is the idea it conveys or arouses in the mind of the speaker or hearer.
c. Meaning as usage
It is the meaning of a word as the ability to use that word in ways other people will understand, and to understand it when uttered by other people.22
3. Types of Meaning
According to Geoffrey Leech in his ‘Semantics a Study of meaning’ (1974) breaks down meaning into seven types or ingredients giving primacy to conceptual meaning.
The Seven types of meaning according to Leech are as follows. 1. Conceptual or Denotative Meaning:
Conceptual meaning is also called logical or cognitive meaning. It is an inextricable and essential part of what language is such that one can scarcely define language without referring to it. Such a meaning is stylistically neutral and objective as opposed to other kinds of associative meanings. Conceptual meanings are the
22
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essential or core meaning while other six types are the peripheral. It is peripheral in as sense that it is non-essential. They are stylistically marked and subjective kind of meanings. Leech gives primacy to conceptual meaning because it has sophisticated organization based on the principle of contrastiveness and hierarchical structure. Contrastive features underline the classification of sound in phonology, for example, in that any label we apply to a sound defines it positively, by what features it possesses and also by implication negatively, by what features it does not possess.
2. Connotative Meaning
Connotative meaning is the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content. It is something that goes beyond mere referent of a word and hints at its attributes in the real world. It is something more than the dictionary meaning. For example the conceptual content of ‘woman’ is +human + female+ adult but the psychosocial connotations could be ‘gregarious’ or easy to break the ice with the new people, ‘having maternal instinct’ attributes of womanhood like ‘babbling’,’ experienced in cookery’, instinct for develop the child.
3. Social Meaning (Stylistic Meaning)
Stylistic meaning is that which a piece of language conveys about the social circumstances of its use. The decoding of a text is dependent on our knowledge of stylistics and other variations of language. We recognize some words or pronunciation as being dialectical i.e. as telling us something about the regional or social origin of the speaker. Social meaning is related to the situation in which an utterance is used.
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It is concerned with the social circumstances of the use of a linguistic expression. For example, some dialectic words inform us about the regional and social background of the speaker. When we listen the Javanese speak we can quest directly that the speaker is a Javanese. We know that through the stylist which used the Javanese generally. The sound is more lower than other language and there are so much word choice that have to be used in proper situation and proper hearer.
4. Affective or Emotive Meaning
Affective meaning is refers to emotive association or effects of words evoked in the reader, listener. It is what is carried about the personal feelings or attitude to the listener.
For Leech affective meaning refers to what is convey about the feeling and attitude of the speaker through use of language (attitude to listener as well as attitude to what he is saying). For example (A) ‘you are a vicious tyrant and a villainous reprobate, and I hate you for it! It is show the feeling of the speaker that hate the speaker very much. Sentence (B) I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but I wonder if you would be so kind as to lower your voices a little. The speaker shows his attitude by scaling remarks according to politeness.
5. Reflected Meaning
Reflected meaning is the meaning which arises in cases of multiple conceptual meaning, when one sense of a word forms part of our response to another sense. Leech says that in church service ‘the Holy Ghost and the comforter’ refer to the third in Trinity. The comfort sounds warm and ‘comforting although in the religious context, it means ‘the strengthener or supporter, while The Holy Ghost sounds awesome or
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wonderful. Although they are similar but unconsciously there is a response to their non-religious meanings too. Therefore the ‘comforter’ sounds warm and comforting while the ‘Ghost’ sounds ‘awesome/ wonderful’ or even ‘dreadful’.
6. Collocative Meaning
Collocative meaning consist of the associations a word acquires on account of the meanings of words which tend to occur in its environment. Words collocate or co-occur with certain words only for example pretty and handsome share common ground in the meaning ‘good looking’, but may be distinguished by the range of nouns with which they are likely to co-occur. However, they little differrent from each other because of collocation or co-occurrence. The word ‘pretty’ collocates with girls, woman, village, gardens, flowers, etc, and handsome collocates with boy, man, car, vessel, overcoat, etc.
7. Thematic Meaning
Thematic meaning refers to what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or a writer organizes the message in terms of ordering focus and emphasis. We can see in the active and passive sentence, though its conceptual meaning is the same. For example (A) Mr. Adam donated the first prize to the church and (B) the first prize was donated by Mr. Adam. Various parts of the sentence also can be used as subject, object or complement to show prominence. It is done through focus, theme (topic) or emotive emphasis. Thematic meaning helps us to understand the message and its implications properly.
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4. The Role of Context Situation in the Meaning of Language
The term of context situation is revealed by the two anthropologists, they are Malinowski and Firth. Both experts agreed that the meaning of language is influenced by the context situation of language using.23 Malinowski, see that language is a form of community action that depends on the situation of language use in society. Because of that language is inseparable from the larger context of language, that is culture. That's why he suggested that the study of language meaning refers to the functional analysis of language in cultural context that the language user.
To explain the dependence of meaning in the context situation, Malinowski did not give details of how studying it. Therefore, the following categories proposed by Firth as quoted by Malmkjaer (1991) were quite helpful in order to explain the meaning of language study in relation to the context situation as follows:
(1) The Participants in the situation. (2) The Action of the participants
(3) Other Relevant Features of the situation (4) The Effects of the verbal action
Base on formulas above, it shows that it is more likely to examine the theory of meaning with related between element outside of languages and language elements, they are (a) speakers, (b) place, (c) the object which is talking (d) and influence from what is uttered by the speakers. This specific analysis is refer towards the study of meaning is called pragmatics.
23
Sundayana, Wahyu and Aziz.E Aminudin. Semantik. Penerbit: Universitas Terbuka.2007.p.2.13
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C. Semantic Field
If we examine something of the nature of the relations words may enter into with other words of the same language that is sense relation: here we are concerned with so called semantic field.24
Lehrer cited that theories of semantic fields that the vocabulary of a language is structured, just as the grammar and phonology of language are structured – the words of language can be classified into sets which are related to conceptual field and divide up the semantic space or the semantic domain in certain ways. Nida explained that a semantic domain consist essentially of a group of meanings (by no means restricted to those reflected in single words) which share certain semantic components. For example when talking about a house, we can refer to the building and all of component itself such as window, door, floor, wall, root and ect. All of the component/ features of a house, we call as semantic field or semantic domain of house.
Lehrer as quoted by Akmajian et noted that words belonging to the same semantic field undergo similar semantic change.25 Semantic field analysis uses feature to show the relationship of lexical items within a field or domain26. For example, if we studied the word iron, we would also look at toaster, vacuum cleaner, and the other items in the household tools domain. The features or components help us index the meaning of words, separate the various meanings of individual words, and analyze relationship between similar words.
24
Simpson, J.M.Y. A First Course in Linguistics. Edinburg: Edinburg University Press. 1962.p188
25
Akmajian, et al, Linguistics : An Introduction to Language nad Communacation. London: the MIT Press, 1988. pp.238-252
26
Hatch, Evelyn and Cherly Brown. Vocabulary, Semantics and Language Education. London: Cambridge University Press. p.33
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Matthews stated that semantics field is a distinct part of the lexicon defied by some general term or concept. E.g in English the semantics field of color included words such as black, and red that distinguished colors, or are *hyponyms of the more general term color.27
Semantics field plays a role in semantic change. The words hot and cold are antonym describing physical temperature. With pair of antonyms, if one number undergoes a metaphorical extension, the other tends to change in a parallel position. In colloquial styles, we can speak of a hot car (stolen car), hence we would refer the phrase cold car to one that is not stolen, on the ground that semantic field in a parallel position, and not just single members of the field28
D. Componential Analysis
The assumption of systematic relationships of meaning between words is however independent of the problem of explaining the basis of these relationships: and considerable amount of detailed work on the structure of the vocabulary has been done in recent years. Many linguists have turned to what has been called componential analysis to give an explicit representation of the semantics relations between words.29
Kempson added that in this theory words are analyzed not as unitary concepts but as complexes made up of components of meaning which are themselves semantic primitives. In this vein, spinster might be analyzed as a semantic complex made up of the features (equivalently called components or marker) [FEMALE], [NEVER
27
Petter Matthews, The consise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. New York: oxford University Press, 1997. p.334
28
Akmajian, et.al op cit. 1989.p.367
29
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MARRIED], [ADULT], [HUMAN]. This form of analysis was used in particular by anthropologist seeking to give an account of kinship terminology in various cultures.
Lehrer mentioned that semantic components (or features) are theoretical constructs lexical item will be defined in terms of components. In a sense, a dictionary definition is an informal componential analysis, in which each part of the definition is a component.
O’Grady cited another approach to meaning to represent a word’s intention it down into smaller semantic components known as componential analysis or semantics decomposition. Many linguists have turned to componential analysis to give an explicit representation of the semantic relations between words.30 Then Lyon31 looked upon componential analysis is the broadening of the semantic field theory.
Componential analysis is a technique for describing interrelation of meaning by breaking concept down into minimal components, or features, which are distinctive in terms of a semantic opposition or dimension of contrast.32 Meanwhile Allan et al in Euphemism and Dysphemism: language used as Shield and Weapon (1991:16) did support the usage the componential analysis to analyze euphemistic term by revealing that “the process involved here is a kind of componential analysis, the sense of the taboo terms are unpacked and each of the meaning components are listed… using this method, a new euphemism can easily be created”.
30
Wlliam O’Grady, Contemporary Linguistics. London: Longman Pearson Education.1996. p.78
31
John, Lyon. Semantics. Melbourne- Cambridge University Press, 1977. p.326
32
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There are there kind of component of meaning:
1. Generic / Common component is one or more of components which are judged to be most significant factor. This component describes to which these lexem belong to as to differentiate it from other semantic domain. For instance: the lexemes man, woman, boy, and girl have the common component [HUMAN]. 2. Diagnostic component is components that are important and sufficient to
distinguish the sense of one lexeme from the sense of another lexeme. This diagnostic component is a core part that dictionary makers incorporate into their definition of words. For example” [ADULT] and [MALE] are the diagnostic components for man, woman, boy and girl.
3. Supplementary or incidental component is non-diagnostics components to identify the sense of the word. For instance: [MARRIED] is the incidental or supplementary components for spinster, bachelor and wife.
Meanwhile, Jackson in Word in Their Meaning cited that are only 2 broad types of component. Those serve to identify a semantic domain, and to distinguish lexemes from each other within semantic domain. They are also shared by all the lexemes in the domain. Therefore, in this research, the writer is going to discuss only 2 types of components, common and diagnostic component.33
Such as componential analysis can be applied many areas of the vocabularies. For example, the distinction between murder and kill can be stated explicitly and economically, if murder is analyzed as having a meaning which are components representing intention, causation, and death. Whereas kill as having the components
33
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that representing only causation and death. Using the method of componential analysis, we can then formally define synonymy, hyponymy, incompatibility etc. On the basis, a set of features follows that spinster is a hyponymy of woman because it contains all the features of woman as part of its specification, and that spinster is incompatible with bachelor by virtue of the contrast of sex specification and with wife by virtue of the material specification.
Another interpretation of lexical item of semantic components using a binary feature is conventionally written in capital letters and placed in square brackets, which is able to take only three values, either it is present [+], or it is absent [-], or it may be present or absent [+/-] and also could be marked [0]. Accordingly spinster might be characterized as having for its meaning.
- [MALE] + [HUMAN] + [ADULT] - [MARRIED] bachelor, an item incompatible with spinster, as having + [MALE] + [HUMAN] + [ADULT] - [MARRIED] Wife, another incompatible item, as having
- [MALE] + [HUMAN] + [ADULT] +[MARRIED]
-E. Cultural Meaning
The exact nature of the relationship between language and culture has fascinated, and continues to fascinate, people from a wide variety of background. That there should be some kind of relationship between the sounds, words, and syntax of language and the ways in which speakers of that language experience the world and behave in seems so obvious as to be a truism.
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Culture of societies consist of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in manner acceptable to its member, and to do so in any role that they accept for any one of themselves34. Cultures involve the way of the society daily living, music, literature, customs, language, values, and arts.
Linguist mentioned that culture of a people finds reflection in the language they employ, because the value certain things and do them in certain way, its means they come to use their language in way that reflect what the value and what the do.
A cultural meaning is the typical (frequently requiring and widely shared aspect of the) interpretation of some type of object or event evoked in people as a result of their similar life experiences (Spiro 1987a:163). To call it a cultural meaning is to imply that a different interpretation would be evoked in people with different characteristic life experiences. For example, “the cultural of X” contains or cause the meaning of the X people. It is because cultures are sets of beliefs or values that give meaning to ways of life and produce and are reproduced through material and symbolic forms.
F. Meaning Relation
Meaning relation is thus the most significant factor in semantic field and the componential analysis is a device to identify the meaning relation. When a word contains various relation of the meaning to one another, they may be related semantically. Words are connected by virtue of meaning from subgroups within the lexicon of the language. Words have a multiple sense, namely the primary and secondary meaning. The meaning relation is possibly derived by a variety of processes
34
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of semantic change. Semantic relations comprise synonymy, antonym or incompatible, hyponymy and meronymy defined by semantic field.
Lyon and Geckeler are of the opinion that there is a close relationship among semantic field, component analysis, and meaning relation.35 We should know that componential analysis is the broadening of semantic field theory. The subset from all lexemes may create and blend the meaning relation of one element to the other.
Leech looked upon meaning relation under36:
1. Synonymy is a relation in which words have same meaning. Yule added that we should keep in mind that the idea of ‘sameness’ of meaning in used in discussing synonymy is not necessarily ‘total sameness’. There are many occasions when one word is appropriate in a sentence but its synonymy would be odd. For example, whereas the word answer fits in the sentence Sandy had only one answer correct on the test, the word replay would sound odd. Hatch and Brown (1995:19) revealed that synonym refers to the similar entity so that the words might be interchangeable if all features are the same. Then Akmajian (1988:284) added that “synonym is relation that structures the lexicon of a language into sets of words of sharing a meaning. For instance automobile is synonymous with car.
Nevertheless synonyms do not always share their entire feature. It is called looser synonym when X is synonym for Y but not vise versa. A typical example is murder is synonym for kill but kill not a synonym for murder.37
35
John Lyons. Semantics.Melbourne:Cambridge University Press.1997.p.45
36
Geoffrey Leech, Semantics. New Zealand: Penguin Press Ltd. 1997. p.99-102
37
Evelyn Hatch and Cheryl Brown. Vocabulary, Samantics and Language Education. London: Cambridge University Press
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2. Antonym is relation where words have opposite meaning. Akmajian added that “words can share an aspect of meaning but be ‘opposite’ in some other aspect of meaning called antonym”.38 Whereas Parera added there 2 kinds of antonym:
a. Contradiction or true antonym: the opposite meanings of 2 items or lexemes are absolute. It consists of only 2 terms; the one is the opposite of the other.
For example: Alive X dead that were visualized by Leech (1978:106) in diagram below:
‘alive' (+live) ‘dead’ (-live)
b. Gradable antonym ‘kontrer’: the meaning relation of items / words may consist of a number of dimensions at once.
For instance: hot and cold share the notion of temperature dimension. Here they are defined as follows:
II
Cold cool lukewarm warm hot
Whereas, Leech proposed incompatible instead of antonym. It is because antonym contrasts only on a single dimension. In fact, the word may contrast on a number of dimensions at once. It is supported by Leech’s theory that two
38
Akmajian,et al. An Introduction to Language and Communication. London: The MIT Press, 1988.p.294
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componential formulae may be incompatible if the one has at least one feature contrasting with a feature in the other.39
3. Hyponym is a relation which is termed meaning inclusion of one meaning in another. Cruse reported that “the lexical relation corresponding to the inclusion of one class in another is hyponym”. 40For instance: in the sense of crow, hawk, and duck are included in bird. These typical terms mentioned that super ordinates as the upper term and hyponym as the lower term. Again a diagram will help:
bird
crow hawk duck etc
4. Meronymy is relation which has hierarchical concept. Saeed pointed out meronymy is a concept used to explain a part – whole relationship between lexical items. To differentiate it from another hierarchical concept, meronymy can be identified by using “part of relationship. For instance: B is part of A, and A has B.41 this concept might be as follows:
car
wheel seat engine door window etc
39
Geoffrey Leech, Semantics. New Zealand: Penguin Press Ltd. 1997.p.100
40
D.A Cruse. Lexical Semantics. New York: Blackwell Publisher. 2001.p.88
41
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F. Semantic Change
Semantic change happens along with the time and the development of its society. According to Allan euphemism and dysphemism motivate language change. They do it by promoting new expression or new meanings for old expression and causing existing vocabulary to be abounded.42
Fromkin and Rodman stated that “there are three ways in which a lexical item may change semantically, its meaning may become broader, meaning may its meaning may become narrower, its meaning become shift”.43
O’Grady et al stated that the changes involve one of the phenomena:
1. Semantic broadening is the process in which the meaning of a word turns into more general or more inclusive than the earlier form, such as: the word aunt used to mean “father’s sister” become father or mother’s sister”.
2. Semantic narrowing is process in which the meaning of a word turns into less general or less inclusive than the earlier meaning. Such as: the term fowl used to mean “any bird” becomes “a domestical bird”
3. Amelioration is the change of meaning in which the new meaning becomes more positive or favorable, such as: pretty used to mean “tricky, sly, cunning” has a better meaning “attractive”.
4. Pejorative is the change of meaning in which the new meaning becomes more negative or unfavorable, such as: Wench means “girl”, but it is regarded worse with meaning” wanton woman, prostitute”.
42
Keith Allan, Natural Language Semantic. New York: Blackwell Publisher. 2001. pp.164-165
43
Victoria Fromkin & Robert Rodman. An Introduction to Language, sixth Edition. New York: Blackwell Publisher,1997.p.26
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5. Semantic shift is a process in which a word loses some aspect of its former meaning, taking on a partially new, but related meaning. Such as: immoral used to mean “not customary” becomes “unethical”.44
While Djajasudarma divides the semantic change into generalization, amelioration, pejorative, sinestesia, and association.45 The meanings of generalization, specialization, amelioration, and pejorative in Djajasudarma’s theory are similar to those of O’Grady theory. Djajasudarma adds two more, i.e. sinestesia (the change of meaning because of the similarity of character).
44
William O’Grady. Contemporary Linguistic. London: Longman Person Education. 1996.p.334
45
T.Fatimah Djajasudarma. Semantic 2: Pemahaman Ilmu Makna. Bandung: PT Eresco.1993. p.63
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CHAPTER III
RESEARCH FINDING
A. Data Description
In this chapter, the writer analyzes the data is taken from movie scripts which titled Jennifer’s Body. The writer chose the movie because they related to teenager’s life and there is a friendship relation so that the actors / actresses try to use the euphemistic term in order to keep someone’s sensibility or avoid losing somebody’s face. The euphemistic terms then categorized into types of euphemism which classified into the euphemistic application. After that, the writer goes to the next steps by analyzing the meaning relation and the semantic change the euphemistic terms undergo.
Base on the types of euphemism, the writer found that there are no euphemistic terms in classification of rhyming slang, remodeling, acronyms, synecdoche, borrowing, indirectness, mispronunciation, plays on abbreviation, and phonetic alphabet as described at the following table:
Table 1
The Table of the Types of Euphemism that Found in Scripts of Jennifer’s Body movie
No Utterances Types of
Euphemism Situation of utterance: Needy wiggles her jeans a
bit lower, exposing her childishly round tummy. She walks out of the bathroom into her bedroom, a frilly pink hell complete with canopy bed. Neddy’s boy friend Chip is sitting on the bed, looking lost in all that pink. He raises an eyebrow at Needy's abdomen.
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Data
1 The participant: Needy.
Speaker » Chip : I can see, like, your womb. ( Needy sighs and hoists up her pants )
Metaphor
Data 2
Situation of utterance: Needy enters to Jennifer’s bad room in way plunge through the window of Jennifer’s bad room. Before the utterance is uttered by Needy, there is quarrel between Needy and Jennifer. Needy is very angry because Jennifer have killed her boy friend. Needy came to Jennifer’s bedroom to revenge for her death boyfriend. Needy pull a box cutter out of her waistband and flick it open like a switchblade to Jennifer.
Participant : Jennifer
(Needy pulls a box cutter out of her waistband and flicks it open like a switchblade)
Speaker » Needy: know what this is for? Cutting boxes
Circumlocution
Data 3
Situation of Utterance: Needy stands in front of a full-length mirror, wearing a big `80s-style magenta prom dress. It sags on her flat chest and looks ridiculous. Her mother (Tony) was curling her hear and making up her face. It all was done by her mother because she wanted to see Needy as a beautiful and fashionable girl to go to the party. Needy who is as simple girl or not as modish girl felt shocked when her mother made her hair like Hooker Helmet. Although her mother said that she looked beautiful but Needy said she looked like pork stupid.
Participant : Toni ( Needy’s mother)
(Tony takes a section of Needy's hair and wraps it around the curling iron. Smoke rises.)
Needy: What are you doing to my hair? Tony : Hooker helmet.
Speaker » Needy: Aw, jeez Mom!
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Data 4
Situation of Utterance: Mr. Wroblewski stands solemnly in front of the class, his mechanical hand tensing and releasing nervously. Mr. Wrolewski wants to give an announcement to his students. Needy and the rest of the class fidget. There was Jenifer sat beside Needy and Jennifer looked haggard, thin, and cranky.
Participant: Jennifer
(Needy smooth her own hair self-consciously.) Speaker » Needy: Are you PMS-ing or something?
Abbreviations
Data 5
Situation of Utterance: Needy is seated at the kitchen table. She accidentally dropps the remains of her sandwich on the floor, where the ferret quickly pillaged it. Needy's Mom, Antonia "Toni" Lesnicki, has quietly enters the kitchen in her pajamas. She is pale and sweaty, as if she's been spooked. Then Tony told to her daughter that she (Toni) got nightmare last night. In Toni’s night mare, there were some bad people tried to kill and nail Tony to a tree and they also wanted to kill Needy. But in the conversation between Tony and Needy, Tony didn’t said the word “kill” directly because she worried that Needy would be hurt or felt something like frightened.
Participant : Needy
Speaker » Tony: They were trying to get to you too, but I wouldn’t let ‘em..
Quasi- Omission
Data 6
Situation of utterance: It's a busy night and the bar is teeming with locals. A bartender sells a case of beer to a customer and passes it over the bar. Needy and Jennifer enter the bar. Every guy in the joint stares at Jennifer, who snaps her "minor" wristband distastefully. Roman Duda saunters up to Jennifer, swigging a bottle of beer. He snatches the pack of cigarettes away from her. There was some conversation between Roman and Jennifer, and finally Jennifer paws Roman's crotch discreetly, then Roman said the utterance to Jennifer as a respond.
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Participant : Jennifer
(Jennifer paws Roman's crotch discreetly) Speaker » Roman : Not here, babe
Data 7
Situation of Utterance: Needy wiggled her jeans a bit lower, exposing her childishly round tummy. She walked out of the bathroom into her bedroom, a frilly pink hell complete with canopy bed. Chip Dove was sitting on the bed, looking lost in all that pink. He raised an eyebrow at Needy's abdomen. Chip was Needy’s boy friend.
Participant: Needy
Speaker » Chip: Those jeans are hella low. I can almost see your front butt
Metonymy
Data 8
Situation of utterance: It's a busy night and the bar is teeming with locals. A bartender sells a case of beer to a customer and passes it over the bar. Needy and Jennifer enter the bar. Every guy in the joint stares at Jennifer, who snaps her "minor" wristband distastefully. Roman Duda saunters up to Jennifer, swigging a bottle of beer. He snatches the pack of cigarettes away from her. There was some conversation between Roman and Jennifer, and finally Jennifer paws Roman's crotch discreetly, then Roman said the utterance to Jennifer as a respond.
Participant : Jennifer
(Jennifer paws Roman's crotch discreetly) Speaker » Roman : Not here, babe
Hyperbole
Data 9
Situation of utterance: It was gray, overcast day and the wind whistles through the trees. Jonas was standing in the football’s field, it is a good distance from the school. Jonas was very sad because his best friends Craig was pass away. Then, Jennifer come to Jonas and tried to entertain him.
The participant: Jennifer
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(Jonas's lip trembles as he unsuccessfully fights back tears. Jennifer cuddles closer to him.)
Speaker » Jonas: I just can’t believe he’s gone.
Data 10
Situation of utterance: A hysterical scream pierced the twilight. The sun has begun to set. An ambulance and four police cars have pulled up near the woods, which were cordoned off with yellow police tape. Near the woods, Jonas’s Parent was crying because they didn’t suppose that their son was died. Jonas’s mother screamed and begun beating the ground with her fists. A stretcher was being loaded into the ambulance. Officer Warzak exits one of the police cruisers. She rushed to comfort Jonas's bereaved mother.
The Participant: Jonas’ parent.
Speaker » Officer Warzak: We will get the man that did this to your son.
Abstraction
B. Data Analysis 1. Metaphor.
Data example:
(a) Chip: I can see like your womb
This sentence was uttered by Chip to Neddy. Chip is Needy’s boy friend. The utterance above happened in Needy’s bed room when Chip saw Needy wiggled her jeans a bit lower. Chip also saw Needy exposing her round tummy with her jeans, then she said that above utterance as a respond form.
The word ‘womb’ is euphemism for ‘cunt’. Cunt is considered as taboo in the connection of bodily effluvia. It is because in several reasons such as:
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1. Cunt as sexual object and it disgraceful if it is mentioned directly. 2. Cunt locates at the lower abdomen that is so private.
3. Cunt connotes a sexually attractive of woman. 4. Cunt principally means unpleasant and shameful.
Base on the several reasons above, the speaker tends not to mention the taboo word ‘cunt’ but change it to euphemistic term ‘womb’. It is done to keep the listener’s sensibility, preventing people or partner from losing face.
The exchange of taboo term ‘cunt’ to ‘euphemistic term ‘womb’, it is applies a kind of euphemistic metaphor. It is because metaphor is a figure of speech concisely expressed by comparing two things, saying that one is the other or an implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in common. The lexical meaning of ‘womb’ is the organ in woman and female animal in which babies develop before they are born. Meanwhile, the literal meaning goes to ‘cunt or vagina’ because ‘womb’ may not be able to be seen directly although the woman used a bit lower jeans. Hence, ‘womb’ become the figurative form for ‘cunt or vagina’.
To support that utterance: I can see like your womb includes euphemism, the writer break down the term ‘womb’ as follow:
Womb: [BODY’S ORGAN] [IN ABDOMEN] [FEMALE] [UTERUS] [ORGAN USED TO DEVELOP BABY].
Here, the word ‘womb’ has no sensitive feature, the components of ‘womb’ will be different, if ‘womb’ is replaced with the intended term.
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(b) Chip: I can see like your cunt.
Sentence (b) is acceptable, but the sentence does not euphemism expression. It is because the meaning of the utterance is shown explicitly. We can catch the reference directly. Hence, the word ‘cunt’ be changed to euphemistic term ‘womb’ because the word ‘womb’ sounds more polite, pleasant, and prudent by blurring the real intention referring to somebody else’s private part. While the word ‘cunt’ has semantic components like:
Cunt: [BODY ORGAN] [PRIVATE PLACE] [FEMALE] [OUTER SEXUAL ORGANS] [EXCREMENT] [CONTEMPTOUS].
For further information, the writer will identify the meaning relation by using the semantic components of both words:
Womb Cunt
+ Body’s Organ +
+ Female +
- Private Part +
+ Uterus -
+ In Abdomen -
- Outer sexual organ +
- Excrement +
- Contemptuous +
In description of above semantic component, the writer finds out some components in common such as [BODY’S ORGAN] and [FEMALE]. These similar components surely allow them replace each other (‘cunt’ can be replace by ‘womb’) especially in the sentence: I can see like your womb
The proofs also appear in the semantic components. The word ‘womb’ that is judged nicer because it has no sensitive feature, while the word ‘cunt’ comprises sensitive feature, they are [OUTER SEXUAL ORGANS] [EXCREMENT] and
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[CONTEMPTOUS]. Hence, people used term ‘womb’ to avoid a vulgar one and to keep somebody’s sensibility.
Then, the writer goes to analyze the meaning relation of both word ‘womb’ and ‘cunt’. According the semantic components, the writer supposes that these words apply meronymy relation. It is relation which has hierarchical concept. The word ‘womb’ and ‘cunt’ are included female body’s organ in which they share with it the semantic component [BODY’S ORGAN] and [FEMALE]. ‘Womb’ is body’s organ located in abdomen woman or female animals. It has also [FEMALE] feature because ‘womb’ is just available in female and it is impossible available in male. Cunt is also body’s organ but it located in above abdomen. Cunt has [FEMALE] features because the reason is same with womb, cunt just exists in female and it may not available in male.
Hence, the term ‘womb’ and ‘cunt’ have meronymy relation. It is describe as follow: Body’s Organ
Cunt Womb
It support by Saeed theory that pointed out meronymy is a concept used to explain a part – whole relationship between lexical items. To differentiate it from another hierarchical concept, meronymy can be identified by using “part of relationship. For instance: B is part of A, and A has B. in this study, cunt and womb is part of body’s organ, and body’s organ has womb and cunt.
The word ‘womb’ as euphemism used to mean body’s organ in which babies develop before they are born. It is available in abdomen of female. While, in the
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sentence I can see like your womb, ‘womb’ refers to cunt because in literally cunt can be seen from outside. As a private part, people change it to the polite term, that is womb.
The word ‘womb’ here undergoes semantic broadening in which the new meaning gets broader than the previous one. The proof is shown in the number of semantic component of both words. Womb jus has 4 [+] features, while ‘cunt’ has 6 [+] features.
Secondly, ‘womb’ applies semantic change in pejorative process in which the new meaning is regarded more negative than the previous one. The word ‘womb’ is only used to mean the organ in woman and female animal in which babies develop before they are born. Meanwhile, ‘cunt’ is outer sexual organ referring to genitals having function to copulate. In this sentence, the new meaning ‘womb’ is cunt as outer sexual organ and genitals of human. It is then clear that the new meaning ‘womb’ gets worse than earlier one.
2. Circumlocution Data example:
(a). Needy : know what this is for? Cutting boxes.
This utterance came from Needy to Jennifer. The conversation happened in Jennifer’s bad room. Needy entered to Jennifer’s bad room in way plunged through the window of Jennifer’s bad room. Before the utterance is uttered by Needy, there was quarrel between Needy and Jennifer. Needy was very angry because Jennifer have killed her boy friend. Needy came to Jennifer’s bad room to revenge for her death
(1)
Nikolai gulps nervously and elbows Dirk.
Needy points to her eyes with two fingers, then points at Nikolai, as if to say, Gotcha. She looks completely
possessed.
NIKOLAI (to Dirk)
We gotta get out of here. DIRK
Why?
NIKOLAI
I think this girl's flipping out.
DIRK
What could she do to us?
NIKOLAI Look at her.
Dirk takes one look at Needy's face and takes off his guitar. Nikolai motions for the rest of the band to leave the stage. The music stops abruptly. The kids in the gym murmur and complain, confused.
(CONTINUED)
109. CONTINUED:
Needy tries to follow them. She limps blindly toward the stage and climbs up. Everyone watches, gasping in horror. By now the band is disappearing out the side door of the gym.
NEEDY (into the mic)
You didn't play your hit yet. But they're gone.
Needy looks out at her classmates. They stare back. She PASSES OUT COLD.
INT. CHIP'S STREET - MORNING (TO ESTABLISH) NEEDY V.O.
They found Chip the following morning. The police couldn't find an explanation for the "substance" in the pool, so they chose not to mention it to the press. In fact, they treated the whole incident like a bad dream.
INT. CHIP'S HOUSE (LIVING ROOM) - MORNING
We see the POLICE (including newly minted officer ROMAN DUDA) informing Chip's mother that his body has been found. She collapses onto the floor, curling up into the fetal position.
(2)
NEEDY
Trouble was, some of us would never wake up.
INT. NEEDY'S BEDROOM - DAY
Needy is lying in bed, shaking, her arm in a cast. Her mother tries to rouse her.
NEEDY V.O.
I never went back to school after that. Didn't talk much either. My mom bought some books so she could teach me at home like crazy
Christians with 14 kids do. But I wasn't a very cooperative student.
Needy pulls the covers over her head.
(CONTINUED)
110. CONTINUED:
Toni shrugs, resigned, and tosses the book on the floor.
EXT. JENNIFER'S HOUSE - NIGHT
Needy is crouched outside Jennifer's window, hiding in the shrubbery. She looks almost feral, with wide eyes and a hungry expression.
Through the window, we see Jennifer sitting at a vanity and combing her hair, oblivious to the intruder in her yard.
NEEDY V.O.
What nobody realized was that I was doing a different kind of homework. I was watching her every night. Waiting.
We see Jennifer putting the comb down and examining her hair with a appraising eye.
NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) Waiting for her to get weak and dull. Waiting for her to burn through the life-force she'd stolen from Chip.
Needy creeps away from the window.
NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) It took weeks, but I finally made my move. Remember?
EXT. JENNIFER'S HOUSE - NIGHT
(3)
Jennifer.
Needy plunging through the window. Jennifer thrashing. The blood. The struggle. The levitation. The arrival of the police.
NEEDY V.O.
Even in her last moments of life, she somehow managed to be cooler than me.
We see, for a moment, Jennifer's sly, challenging smile as Needy raises the boxcutter to slash her. That
signature look of mastery and control.
(CONTINUED)
111. CONTINUED:
NEEDY
She left an insanely hot corpse.
We see Jennifer's mother holding her again, screaming, though all we hear is SILENCE and STATIC. Sure enough, Jennifer's bleeding body seems to be artfully, sensually draped in her mother's arms. She almost seems to be SMIRKING at us.
INT. "THE HOLE" - NIGHT
We're back in solitary confinement, where Needy has been narrating the whole sordid tale. She hasn't moved a muscle since beginning her story. Only a single shaft of moonlight illuminates the room.
An orderly shoves DINNER through a slot in the door. It's a pile of mystery meat. Needy wrinkes her nose.
NEEDY V.O. I don't even know who Needy Lesnicki is anymore. I'm a
different person now. A person who uses curse words and kicks
orderlies and and sees things that aren't there. A very bad, very damaged person.
Needy reaches up and distractedly pulls back the neckline of her shirt...
NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) But sometimes, change can be good. For instance, most occult scholars don't know this, but if you're bitten by a demon--and you live-- you just might absorb some of the
(4)
demon's abilities.
In the moonlight, we see Needy still has a infected- looking BITEMARK near her shoulder. She scratches it, wincing.
NEEDY V.O. (CONT'D) You just might get lucky for once in your miserable life.
PULL BACK to reveal that Needy, still cross-legged is HOVERING five feet off the floor. Effortlessly.
With visible concentration, she slowly flies up toward a narrow WINDOW positioned up near the ceiling. To anyone with normal abilities, it would be impossible to access. (CONTINUED)
112. CONTINUED:
Needy reaches the window, gazes at it for a moment, then SMASHES it with surprising strength.
EXT. LEECH LAKE HOSPITAL - FIVE MINUTES LATER
Needy strolls across the grounds in her bunny slippers. She heads confidently toward the SECURITY FENCE and passes through it after casually mangling the bars. Only a Needy-shaped hole remains.
EXT. COUNTY ROAD 9 - TEN MINUTES LATER
Needy is striding purposefully down a dark country road. The hospital recedes in the background.
A few RACCOONS gather by the side of the road, watching Needy as she walks past.
A PICKUP TRUCK whizzes by with its windows rolled down. "Through the Trees" blasts from the radio.
Needy begins to sing, a lopsided grin on her face.
NEEDY (SINGING)
"Through the trees, I will find you. Heal the ruins left inside you..."
EXT. MURPHY POOL - NIGHT
Devil's Kettle citizens are gathered around Murphy Pool, crying. It's a CANDLELIGHT MEMORIAL for Chip. Their faces are weary and sorrowful. Photos of Chip have been
arranged around the edge of the fence. We see a picture of CHIP AND NEEDY on the end.
Someone has brought a CD player, and the mourners sing along, their voices soaring.
VIGIL ATTENDEES (SINGING)
(5)
we'll meet again..."
EXT. COUNTY ROAD 9 - CONTINUOUS
Needy holds her thumb aloft as she walks down the remote country highway.
(CONTINUED)
113. CONTINUED:
NEEDY (SINGING)
"...We'll meet again."
A small creek emptying into a stream runs parallel to the road. Needy seems something glinting at the mouth of the creek and stoops to pick it up. It's Nikolai's BOWIE KNIFE, the one he threw into Devil's Kettle, never to be seen again.
Needy picks it up and tucks it into her waistband.
A STATION WAGON comes rattling up the road. Needy sticks her thumb out again.
The wagon pulls over to the side of the road. The driver, a grizzled older man, rolls down the window. He eyes Needy lasciviously.
OLD MAN
Where you looking to go, young lady?
NEEDY East, toward Madison. OLD MAN
East, huh? Guess I'm headed that way. But I'm gonna need you to pay me in ass, gas or grass. Got that? No free rides in this wagon.
NEEDY
I don't have any money or drugs, so you'll have to settle for ass.
OLD MAN
Fair enough. Hop in my chariot. Needy gratefully hurries into the driver's seat. OLD MAN (CONT'D) So why you headed East?
NEEDY
I'm following this rock band. OLD MAN
Huh. Must be a hell of a group. NEEDY
Tonight's gonna be their last show.
(CONTINUED)
(6)
114. CONTINUED: (2)
Needy smiles blithely and pops the clear Lifesaver into her mouth.
The station wagon pulls off. As it sputters off into the distance, we see a road sign that reads, ironically, SOFT SHOULDER.
We hear the song on the radio end, segueing into the DJ's bumper.
RADIO DJ
What a song. Thought we'd play that one in honor of Soft Shoulder. They're playing in Madison tonight. Should be a night to remember...
The DJ's voice fades out as the car vanishes into the horizon.
THE END