The Homonyms In Eight Ate: A Feast Of Homonyms Riddles: A Study of Syntax and Semantics
THE HOMONYMS IN EIGHT ATE: A FEAST OF HOMONYMS RIDDLES:
A Study of Syntax and Semantics
SKRIPSI
Submitted to fulfil one of the requirements of Sarjana Sastra Degree
ACHMAD SOFYAN PERMADI
NIM 63710008
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS
INDONESIA COMPUTER UNIVERSITY
BANDUNG
2014
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research entitled “The Homonyms in Eight Ate: A Feast of
Homonyms Riddles: A Study of Syntax and Semantics” is accomplished as one of
the requirements of Sarjana Sastra Degree of Indonesia Computer University.
First of all, the writer wants to thank to Allah SWT. In addition, the writer also
wants to thank to the people in the following:
1. Dean of Faculty of Letters UNIKOM, Prof. Dr. H. Moh. Tadjuddin,
M.A.
2. Head of English Department UNIKOM, Dr. Juanda.
3. The Advisors, Dr. Juanda and Dr. Nia Kurniasih, M.Hum.
4. The Examiners, Dr. Juanda, Tatan Tawami, S.S., M.Hum and Rayhan
Bustam, S.S., M.Hum.
5. Guardianship lecturer, Nungki Heriyati, S.S., M.A.
6. All lecturers in English Department UNIKOM.
Without any help, the writer may not finish the research well. The writer is
fully aware of the mistakes in the writing, therefore the writer will be glad to get
advices to improve the writing. It is expected that this research can be useful in
understanding homonyms both theoretically and practically to the reader.
Bandung, 23 July 2014
Achmad Sofyan Permadi
viii
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
vi
ABSTRAK
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
viii
CONTENTS
ix
LIST OF TABLES
xii
LIST OF FIGURES
xiii
LIST OF APPENDICES
xiv
LIST OF ONLINE DICTIONARY
xv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS
xvi
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
1
1.2 Research Questions
2
1.3 Objectives
3
1.4 Significance to Knowledge
3
1.5 Framework of the Theory
4
CHAPTER II : THEORETICAL REVIEW
2.1 Syntax: Syntactic Categories
7
2.2 Semantics: Semantic Features
9
2.3 Homonyms
11
2.3.1 Homographs
11
2.3.2 Homophones
12
ix
2.4 Lexical Relations
13
2.4.1 Meronyms
13
2.4.2 Hyponyms
14
2.4.3 Synonyms
14
2.4.4 Antonyms
15
2.5 Associative Meanings
17
2.5.1 Connotative Meaning
17
2.5.2 Social Meaning
17
2.5.3 Affective Meaning
18
2.5.4 Collocative Meaning
19
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH OBJECT AND METHOD
3.1 Research Object
20
3.2 Research Method
20
3.2.1 Data Collection
21
3.2.2 Data Analysis
22
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISSCUSSION
4.1 Homophones of the same syntactic category:
Noun-Noun
25
4.2 Homophones of different syntactic categories
33
4.2.1 Adjective-Noun
33
4.2.2 Verb-Noun
40
4.2.3 Pronoun-Verb
48
4.2.4 Pronoun-Verb-Adverb
50
x
4.2.5 Verb-Adverb-Noun
51
4.2.6 Verb-Adverb
53
4.2.7 Article-Noun
55
CHAPTER V : CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
57
5.2 Suggestions
58
REFERENCES
60
APPENDICES
62
CURRICULUM VITAE
74
xi
REFERENCES
Ariola. 2006. Principles and Methods of Research. Manila: Rex Book Store.
Bickford, J. Albert, and John Daly. 1996. A course in basic grammatical
analysis. 3rd preliminary edition. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of
Linguistics.
Griffiths, Patrick. 2006. An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.
Kreidler, Charles W. 2002. Introducing English Semantics. London: 11 New
Fetter Lane.
Mulder, M.P. 2002. Humour Research: State of the Art. Netherlands: University
of Twente.
Murphy, M. Lynne. 2003. Semantic Relations and the Lexicon: Antonymy,
Synonymy, Other Paradigms. University Press: Cambridge.
Mwihaki, Alice. 2004. Meaning As Use: A Functional View of Semantics and
Pragmatics. Swahili Forum 11: 127-139.
Hornby, A C. 2000. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford New
York: Oxford University Press.
Palmer, F. R. 1976. Semantics, A New Outline. Great Britain: University Press,
Cambridge.
Pradana, Donna. 2012. Hyphenated Compound Adjective in The Jakarta Post.
Bandung: Indonesia University of Computer.
60
61
Radford, Andrew. 2004. Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the structure of English.
Cambridge: University Press.
Saeed, John I. 1997. Semantics. United Kingdom: 108 Cowley Road.
Terban, Marvin. 1982. Eight Ate: A Feast of Homonyms Riddles. New York: 215
Park Avenue South.
Yule, George. 2006. The Study of Language: Third Edition. Cambridge:
University Press.
CURRICULUM VITAE
1. Student’s Profile
a. Name
: Achmad Sofyan Permadi
b. Address
: Jl. Permai 6 No. 21 Komp.
Margahayu Permai 001/007, Bandung
c. Place and date of birth
: Bandung, 22nd, September 1992
d. Sex
: Male
e. Religion
: Moslem
f. Phone
: 08562004857
g. E-mail
: achmadsofyanpermadi@yahoo.com
2. Education Background
a. Formal Education
No.
Year
Institution
SDN GUNUNG SAHARI SELATAN 02 PETANG
1
1998 – 2004
2
2004 – 2007
SMPN 157 JAKARTA TIMUR
3
2007 – 2010
SMA PGRI 1 PURWAKARTA
4
2010 – Present UNIVERSITAS KOMPUTER INDONESIA
JAKARTA PUSAT
74
75
b. Informal Education
No.
Year
Event
1
2011
2
2011
3
2011
Public Speaking Seminar
Yes
4
2011
Copywriting Seminar and Workshop
Yes
5
2012
English Contest
Yes
6
2012
7
2012
8
2012
9
2012
Character Building Training
Yes
10
2013
Translation Workshop
Yes
11
2013
Copywriting Seminar “Go Viral”
Yes
12
2013
Seminar dan Training Motivasi
Yes
13
2013
14
2013
15
2013
16
2014
17
2014
18
2014
19
2014
20
2014
Feminist, Feminine and Text Seminar
Semiotics : Literature and Media Seminar and
Workshop
Talkshow “Kreatif Menulis, Rezeki Tak Akan
Habis” Bersama Raditya Dika
Hari Sastra
English Literary Internal Training of
Education
Workshop Translation “Building The
Translation Skill and Confidence”
Seminar Pengenalan Copywriting kepada
Mahasiswa Unikom
Hari Sastra
Seminar TOEFL “How To Train Your
TOEFL”
Talkshow Menulis Besama Risa Saraswati
“You Write What You Think”
Seminar „Menyambut Bulan Suci Ramadhan‟
Postcolonialism Seminar “Postcolonialism:
An Indonesian Perspective
Sertifikat Hardware
Certified
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
76
21
2014
Cepat dan Mudah Membuat Website Online
dalam 30 Menit
Yes
c. Competency
There are some competencies that the writer has. They are as follows:
a. Good at English both oral and written
b. Translation from English to Indonesia or vice versa
c. Good at operating Microsoft Office, drawing and designing
d. Organization and work experiences
No
Year
Organization
1
2008 - 2009
Member of OSIS SMA PGRI 1 Purwakarta
2
2010 - 2011
Member of FUNCO
3
2011 - 2012
Member of SADAYA UNIKOM
4
2010 - 2012
Member of HIMA SAIS UNIKOM
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background to the Study
There are many fields of research that people do on humour; one of those
fields is linguistics. As Mulder (2002:3) states, humour is a field of research that
is done by combining or involving several academic disciplines in an approach to
a topic or problem. Yet, Semantics is a part of linguistics field, as Kreidler
(2002:3) mentions that the way meanings are organized and expressed by the
language are what linguistic semantics is. In addition, Kreidler also mentions that
the humour that depends on the double meanings of words or ambiguities found in
sentences will find pleasure in jokes (2002:2).
Jokes may be said as something spoken, written, or done, which are
intentionally humorous for entertaining. There are several forms of jokes; one of
the several forms of jokes is a question-answer. The question-answer jokes are
typically posed as riddles, which have usual question and humorous effect in the
answer. The answer may attach word play to reach the humorous effect. The word
play in the answer usually utilizes the ambiguity in sentence, which may be
happened when there is one form of the same written and spoken word that has
double meanings as Kreidler stated.
As slightly introduced, what are mentioned by Kreidler as double
meanings word that unrelated but has the same written and spoken form
(2002:63), which is an approach to find pleasure in jokes may be determined as
1
2
homonyms. Relating to Mulder statement, the writer tries to combine the term of
homonyms using syntax and semantics approaches, which syntactically defines
the syntactic categories of the homonyms and semantically examines lexical
relations and associative meanings to apply to humour that is formed as riddles as
a problem of this research.
A previous research in this field is entitled Compound Adjective in The
Jakarta Post by Donna Pradana (2012), the case of the research is how the lexical
relations are indicated within the data of hyphenated compound adjectives.
Different from the previous research, this research applies the lexical relations that
are indicated on homonyms in the riddles. Thus, this research is entitled, “The
Homonyms in Eight Ate: A Feast of Homonyms Riddles: A Study of Syntax and
Semantics”
1.2
Research Questions
To specify the problem, the writer formulates them in the following
questions:
1. What syntactic categories are found in homonyms in the selected data in
Eight Ate: A Feast of Homonyms Riddles by Marvin Terban?
2. What lexical relations are found in the data?
3. What associative meanings are found in the data?
3
1.3
Objectives
Based on the research questions above, this research tries to find the
answers to those questions in the following:
1. To provide the syntactic categories that are found in homonyms in the
selected data in Eight Ate: A Feast of Homonyms Riddles.
2. To examine the lexical relations that are found in the data.
3. To examine associative meanings that are found in the data.
1.4
Significance to Knowledge
Theoretically, this research is expected to enrich the study of syntax and
semantics that can be used for further reference, especially dealing with
homonyms, syntactic categories, lexical relations and associative meanings.
Practically, the writer hopes that this research is worthwhile in
understanding homonyms, syntactic categories, lexical relations and associative
meanings for English Department students, especially for English Department
student of Indonesia Computer University, language learners and the writer
himself in improving their ability in analyzing lexical relations and associative
meanings that are applied on homonyms correctly.
4
1.5
Framework of the Theory
This research focuses on the investigation of the selected data that are
found in the homonyms riddles in Marvin Terban‟s book entitled Eight Ate: A
Feast of Homonyms Riddles (1982). In analyzing the data, the writer focuses on
the meaning relations and the associative meanings occurring in homonyms
riddle. To aid the analysis, the writer uses the grand theories of meaning relations
and associative meanings from George Yule: 2006 The Study of Language: Third
Edition and Alice Mwihaki: 2004 Meaning as Use: A Functional View of
Semantics and Pragmatics, as well as the other theories that the writer uses for
supporting the grand theories.
In understanding the term of homonyms, the writer uses the theory from
Kreidler (2002:52), which says that the term of homonyms are they pronounce
and spell identically but have unrelated meanings. From the term of homonyms,
there are other terms that are identical in pronunciation but unrelated spelling,
which are homophones. In addition, there are also the terms that are reflecting
from the terms of homophones. The terms that are identical in spelling but
unrelated pronunciation, they are called homographs.
The writer classifies the data based on the syntactic categories. To define
the syntactic categories, the writer uses the theory from Yule (2006:86) that
defines syntax as the study of structure and component order among a sentence.
In realizing the lexical relations, the writer uses the theory from Yule
(2006:104), which states that the functions of the words are not only fulfilling a
5
role. They have relationship; it may represent the sameness, the entailment, and
even the opposite meaning each other.
Additionally, the theory from Mwihaki (2004:131) is used by the writer to
comprehend the associative meaning. She states that:
“Associative meaning describes a composite of six modes
of language usage, which draw on certain mental
connections. Such connections are based on the
contiguities of real-world experience rather than the
linguistic context.”
Mwihaki has developed the theory from Leech, which composes six types of
associative meaning. Meanwhile, Mwihaki only describes four types‟ associative
meanings in her research, which are connotative, social, and affective meanings.
She mentions that associative meanings are more defining the meaning of words
based on experience than the linguistic context. The descriptions above are
illustrated in the following figure:
6
Semantics
Syntax
Homonyms
Homographs
Riddles
Homophones
Meaning
Relations
Syntactic
Category
Associative
Meanings
Synonyms
Connotative
Hyponyms
Social
Meronyms
Affective
Antonyms
Collocative
Figure 1.1 Framework of the theory
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
This chapter is a theoretical review of this research. This chapter consists
of several theories that support the research. This research is actually built and
accommodated by some theories. In particular, this chapter explains what syntax,
syntactic categories, semantics, homonyms, meaning relations and associative
meanings are.
2.1
Syntax: Syntactic Categories
The theory of syntax is used in this research as the study of structure and
component order within the homonyms. According to Yule (2006:86):
“When we concentrate on the structure and ordering of
components within a sentence, we are studying the syntax
of a language.”
Yule defines syntax as the study of structure and component order among a
sentence. In addition to that, Radford (2004:7) defines syntax as the study of how
the phrase and the sentence are organized out of the word. In this research, the
discussion about the term of syntax is limited in syntactic categories.
The data in this research are classified based on the syntactic categories
among the homonyms in the data. Bickford and Daly (1996:2) mention that the
term of syntactic categories is contract to grammatical category and grammatical
class. In addition to that, they state that the terms of grammatical category and
grammatical class are also used as synonym for part of speech.
7
8
According to Bickford and Daly statements, the writer uses the description
of part of speech from Yule (2006:74-75). He describes eight kinds of part of
speech in simple description, he divides as follow:
a. Nouns, which are the word, used referring people, objects, creatures,
places, qualities, phenomena, and abstract ideas. They all refer to „things‟.
For example: school, earthquake, love
b. Articles, which are used to form a noun phrase. Article classifies noun to
give information of „those‟ things. It can be indicated to refer the noun that
is already mentioned or known.
For example: a, an, the
c. Adjectives, which are the words to give some information. It typically
gives some information to noun.
For example: happy, large, strange
d. Verbs, which involves the action of the people or things in some events.
For example: run, talk, have
e. Adverbs, which are the word used to give more information to actions,
states, and events. Some adverbs also pair to modify adjective, to give
some information about things.
For example: slowly, yesterday, very
f. Prepositions, which are the word used with noun in phrase to indicate
some information about time, location, and other connection. Prepositions
involve actions and things.
For example: at, in, on
9
g. Pronouns, which are the word to indicate the people or things that are
already known.
For example: she, they, you
h. Conjunctions, which are the word to refer connection and relationship
between events.
For example: and, but, when
2.2
Semantics: Semantic Features
In addition to analyse the structure and component order of the homonyms
within the data, this research aims the meaning that is produced among the
homonyms and the data. As Kreidler (2002:3) states that:
“Semantics is the systematic study of meaning, and
linguistic semantics is the study of how languages
organize and express meanings.”
According to Kreidler, semantics is the meaning methodical study. To emphasize
it, he states that how meanings are organized and expressed by the language is the
discipline of linguistic semantics. In addition to that, Griffiths (2006:1) states that
semantics is the tool to learn the meaning, to add knowledge in building and
producing vocabulary as a pattern of elaborate meanings. Palmer (1976:5)
assumes that linguistics level or component such as phonetics and grammar are
equal to semantics. Additionally, Saeed (1997:3) defines semantics as the
meaning communication of language discipline.
Based on the way it is described, semantics can be determined as the study
that analyzes the meaning through language communication. In addition, it leads
10
us to focus on what words mean conventionally. In this research, the discussion
about the term of semantics is limited in semantics features.
To share the conceptual meaning of the homonyms, this research provides
the semantics features between the homonyms and the data. Yule (2006:101)
distinguishes semantic features to prevent the oddness of the sentence, semantic
features include „animate‟, „human‟, „male‟, „adult‟. In addition, he uses the signs
(+) and (-) to describe whether the word denotes to or does not denotes to. The
words boy and man have the different semantic features. It can be determined by
means applying the word to this table:
Boy
Man
Animate
+
+
Human
+
+
Male
-
-
Adult
-
+
Table 2.1 Semantic features
The table shows the differentiation of semantic feature between boy and
man. Man denotes to all semantic features, but boy does not denote to „adult‟
because boy indicates a male child or youth. To help the reader understanding the
meaning relations, this term can be used to support in defining meaning relations
and to share the basic information of each word. So that makes the reader easier to
understand the meaning relations beside from the conceptual/real meanings.
11
2.3
Homonyms
This research uses the theory of homonyms from Kreidler (2002:52),
which defines the term of homonyms as a word with the same pronunciation and
spelling. Still, the meanings of homonyms are quite separating. The examples of
homonyms are:
a. Bank „a financial institution‟, and
b. Bank „the edge of a stream‟.
Yule (2006:107) states that the same pronunciation and spelling on
homonyms are just accidentally happening.
In addition, Palmer (1976:68) defines some difficulties on defining the
same distinction in writing or speaking. It happens when there is word that only
has the same pronunciation or word that only has the same spelling. To treat the
difficulties, then the term of homographs and homophones are formed.
2.3.1
Homographs
First term that Palmer mentions to treat the difficulties is homographs.
Kreidler (2002:52) mentions the term of homographs as two words that have the
same spelling but the pronunciations are different. The examples of this term are:
a. „Bow‟ that rhymes with „go‟ and referring to an instrument for shooting
arrows, and
b. „Bow‟ that rhymes with „cow‟ and indicating a bending of the body as a
form of respectful greeting.
12
2.3.2
Homophones
Second term that Palmer mentions to treat the difficulties is homophones.
Kreidler (2002:52) mentions the term of homophones as two or more words that
have the same pronunciations but the spelling are different. The examples of this
term are:
a. Steak and
b. Stake
Both share the same pronunciation, which is /steɪk/.
From those three terms explanations, the writer tries to apply the
definitions of homonyms, homographs, and homophones using a table.
Homonyms
Identical
Different
Homophones
Pronunciation
Spelling
Homographs
Spelling
Pronunciation
Table 2.2 Homonyms
In addition, Palmer (1976:68) states that there are some homonyms and
homophones that are antonyms very nearly, for example:
a. Cleave „part asunder‟, and
b. Cleave „unite‟
c. Raise, and
d. Raze
So it can be determined that some of homonyms (a-b) and homophones (cd) have related meanings, even that are the opposite meaning.
13
2.4
Lexical Relations
The lexical relations among homonyms and the data in this research lead
to Yule (2006:104) statement that word function is not only containing and
fulfilling the roles; every single word has relationship with other words. In
addition to that, Kreidler (2002:86) mentions that we need to recognize some
semantic relationship that two or more lexemes may have to know the meanings.
In this research, the applied lexical relations are meronyms, hyponyms, synonyms,
and antonyms. They are described as follow:
2.4.1
Meronyms
First type of lexical relations that are discussed in this research is
meronyms. Saeed (1997:70) states that meronyms is a term of the part of the
whole thing. Meronyms lead to know the part of something, for example:
a. Nose as a meronym of face;
b. Others are usual but not obligatory, like collar as a meronym of shirt;
c. Still others are optional like cellar for house.
In this research, the writer applies these three types of meronyms when the
data indicates the meaning relations of meronyms. The meronyms is signed by the
„less than‟ sign (
A Study of Syntax and Semantics
SKRIPSI
Submitted to fulfil one of the requirements of Sarjana Sastra Degree
ACHMAD SOFYAN PERMADI
NIM 63710008
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS
INDONESIA COMPUTER UNIVERSITY
BANDUNG
2014
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research entitled “The Homonyms in Eight Ate: A Feast of
Homonyms Riddles: A Study of Syntax and Semantics” is accomplished as one of
the requirements of Sarjana Sastra Degree of Indonesia Computer University.
First of all, the writer wants to thank to Allah SWT. In addition, the writer also
wants to thank to the people in the following:
1. Dean of Faculty of Letters UNIKOM, Prof. Dr. H. Moh. Tadjuddin,
M.A.
2. Head of English Department UNIKOM, Dr. Juanda.
3. The Advisors, Dr. Juanda and Dr. Nia Kurniasih, M.Hum.
4. The Examiners, Dr. Juanda, Tatan Tawami, S.S., M.Hum and Rayhan
Bustam, S.S., M.Hum.
5. Guardianship lecturer, Nungki Heriyati, S.S., M.A.
6. All lecturers in English Department UNIKOM.
Without any help, the writer may not finish the research well. The writer is
fully aware of the mistakes in the writing, therefore the writer will be glad to get
advices to improve the writing. It is expected that this research can be useful in
understanding homonyms both theoretically and practically to the reader.
Bandung, 23 July 2014
Achmad Sofyan Permadi
viii
CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
vi
ABSTRAK
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
viii
CONTENTS
ix
LIST OF TABLES
xii
LIST OF FIGURES
xiii
LIST OF APPENDICES
xiv
LIST OF ONLINE DICTIONARY
xv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS
xvi
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
1
1.2 Research Questions
2
1.3 Objectives
3
1.4 Significance to Knowledge
3
1.5 Framework of the Theory
4
CHAPTER II : THEORETICAL REVIEW
2.1 Syntax: Syntactic Categories
7
2.2 Semantics: Semantic Features
9
2.3 Homonyms
11
2.3.1 Homographs
11
2.3.2 Homophones
12
ix
2.4 Lexical Relations
13
2.4.1 Meronyms
13
2.4.2 Hyponyms
14
2.4.3 Synonyms
14
2.4.4 Antonyms
15
2.5 Associative Meanings
17
2.5.1 Connotative Meaning
17
2.5.2 Social Meaning
17
2.5.3 Affective Meaning
18
2.5.4 Collocative Meaning
19
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH OBJECT AND METHOD
3.1 Research Object
20
3.2 Research Method
20
3.2.1 Data Collection
21
3.2.2 Data Analysis
22
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISSCUSSION
4.1 Homophones of the same syntactic category:
Noun-Noun
25
4.2 Homophones of different syntactic categories
33
4.2.1 Adjective-Noun
33
4.2.2 Verb-Noun
40
4.2.3 Pronoun-Verb
48
4.2.4 Pronoun-Verb-Adverb
50
x
4.2.5 Verb-Adverb-Noun
51
4.2.6 Verb-Adverb
53
4.2.7 Article-Noun
55
CHAPTER V : CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
57
5.2 Suggestions
58
REFERENCES
60
APPENDICES
62
CURRICULUM VITAE
74
xi
REFERENCES
Ariola. 2006. Principles and Methods of Research. Manila: Rex Book Store.
Bickford, J. Albert, and John Daly. 1996. A course in basic grammatical
analysis. 3rd preliminary edition. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of
Linguistics.
Griffiths, Patrick. 2006. An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.
Kreidler, Charles W. 2002. Introducing English Semantics. London: 11 New
Fetter Lane.
Mulder, M.P. 2002. Humour Research: State of the Art. Netherlands: University
of Twente.
Murphy, M. Lynne. 2003. Semantic Relations and the Lexicon: Antonymy,
Synonymy, Other Paradigms. University Press: Cambridge.
Mwihaki, Alice. 2004. Meaning As Use: A Functional View of Semantics and
Pragmatics. Swahili Forum 11: 127-139.
Hornby, A C. 2000. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford New
York: Oxford University Press.
Palmer, F. R. 1976. Semantics, A New Outline. Great Britain: University Press,
Cambridge.
Pradana, Donna. 2012. Hyphenated Compound Adjective in The Jakarta Post.
Bandung: Indonesia University of Computer.
60
61
Radford, Andrew. 2004. Minimalist Syntax: Exploring the structure of English.
Cambridge: University Press.
Saeed, John I. 1997. Semantics. United Kingdom: 108 Cowley Road.
Terban, Marvin. 1982. Eight Ate: A Feast of Homonyms Riddles. New York: 215
Park Avenue South.
Yule, George. 2006. The Study of Language: Third Edition. Cambridge:
University Press.
CURRICULUM VITAE
1. Student’s Profile
a. Name
: Achmad Sofyan Permadi
b. Address
: Jl. Permai 6 No. 21 Komp.
Margahayu Permai 001/007, Bandung
c. Place and date of birth
: Bandung, 22nd, September 1992
d. Sex
: Male
e. Religion
: Moslem
f. Phone
: 08562004857
g. E-mail
: achmadsofyanpermadi@yahoo.com
2. Education Background
a. Formal Education
No.
Year
Institution
SDN GUNUNG SAHARI SELATAN 02 PETANG
1
1998 – 2004
2
2004 – 2007
SMPN 157 JAKARTA TIMUR
3
2007 – 2010
SMA PGRI 1 PURWAKARTA
4
2010 – Present UNIVERSITAS KOMPUTER INDONESIA
JAKARTA PUSAT
74
75
b. Informal Education
No.
Year
Event
1
2011
2
2011
3
2011
Public Speaking Seminar
Yes
4
2011
Copywriting Seminar and Workshop
Yes
5
2012
English Contest
Yes
6
2012
7
2012
8
2012
9
2012
Character Building Training
Yes
10
2013
Translation Workshop
Yes
11
2013
Copywriting Seminar “Go Viral”
Yes
12
2013
Seminar dan Training Motivasi
Yes
13
2013
14
2013
15
2013
16
2014
17
2014
18
2014
19
2014
20
2014
Feminist, Feminine and Text Seminar
Semiotics : Literature and Media Seminar and
Workshop
Talkshow “Kreatif Menulis, Rezeki Tak Akan
Habis” Bersama Raditya Dika
Hari Sastra
English Literary Internal Training of
Education
Workshop Translation “Building The
Translation Skill and Confidence”
Seminar Pengenalan Copywriting kepada
Mahasiswa Unikom
Hari Sastra
Seminar TOEFL “How To Train Your
TOEFL”
Talkshow Menulis Besama Risa Saraswati
“You Write What You Think”
Seminar „Menyambut Bulan Suci Ramadhan‟
Postcolonialism Seminar “Postcolonialism:
An Indonesian Perspective
Sertifikat Hardware
Certified
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
76
21
2014
Cepat dan Mudah Membuat Website Online
dalam 30 Menit
Yes
c. Competency
There are some competencies that the writer has. They are as follows:
a. Good at English both oral and written
b. Translation from English to Indonesia or vice versa
c. Good at operating Microsoft Office, drawing and designing
d. Organization and work experiences
No
Year
Organization
1
2008 - 2009
Member of OSIS SMA PGRI 1 Purwakarta
2
2010 - 2011
Member of FUNCO
3
2011 - 2012
Member of SADAYA UNIKOM
4
2010 - 2012
Member of HIMA SAIS UNIKOM
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background to the Study
There are many fields of research that people do on humour; one of those
fields is linguistics. As Mulder (2002:3) states, humour is a field of research that
is done by combining or involving several academic disciplines in an approach to
a topic or problem. Yet, Semantics is a part of linguistics field, as Kreidler
(2002:3) mentions that the way meanings are organized and expressed by the
language are what linguistic semantics is. In addition, Kreidler also mentions that
the humour that depends on the double meanings of words or ambiguities found in
sentences will find pleasure in jokes (2002:2).
Jokes may be said as something spoken, written, or done, which are
intentionally humorous for entertaining. There are several forms of jokes; one of
the several forms of jokes is a question-answer. The question-answer jokes are
typically posed as riddles, which have usual question and humorous effect in the
answer. The answer may attach word play to reach the humorous effect. The word
play in the answer usually utilizes the ambiguity in sentence, which may be
happened when there is one form of the same written and spoken word that has
double meanings as Kreidler stated.
As slightly introduced, what are mentioned by Kreidler as double
meanings word that unrelated but has the same written and spoken form
(2002:63), which is an approach to find pleasure in jokes may be determined as
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homonyms. Relating to Mulder statement, the writer tries to combine the term of
homonyms using syntax and semantics approaches, which syntactically defines
the syntactic categories of the homonyms and semantically examines lexical
relations and associative meanings to apply to humour that is formed as riddles as
a problem of this research.
A previous research in this field is entitled Compound Adjective in The
Jakarta Post by Donna Pradana (2012), the case of the research is how the lexical
relations are indicated within the data of hyphenated compound adjectives.
Different from the previous research, this research applies the lexical relations that
are indicated on homonyms in the riddles. Thus, this research is entitled, “The
Homonyms in Eight Ate: A Feast of Homonyms Riddles: A Study of Syntax and
Semantics”
1.2
Research Questions
To specify the problem, the writer formulates them in the following
questions:
1. What syntactic categories are found in homonyms in the selected data in
Eight Ate: A Feast of Homonyms Riddles by Marvin Terban?
2. What lexical relations are found in the data?
3. What associative meanings are found in the data?
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1.3
Objectives
Based on the research questions above, this research tries to find the
answers to those questions in the following:
1. To provide the syntactic categories that are found in homonyms in the
selected data in Eight Ate: A Feast of Homonyms Riddles.
2. To examine the lexical relations that are found in the data.
3. To examine associative meanings that are found in the data.
1.4
Significance to Knowledge
Theoretically, this research is expected to enrich the study of syntax and
semantics that can be used for further reference, especially dealing with
homonyms, syntactic categories, lexical relations and associative meanings.
Practically, the writer hopes that this research is worthwhile in
understanding homonyms, syntactic categories, lexical relations and associative
meanings for English Department students, especially for English Department
student of Indonesia Computer University, language learners and the writer
himself in improving their ability in analyzing lexical relations and associative
meanings that are applied on homonyms correctly.
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1.5
Framework of the Theory
This research focuses on the investigation of the selected data that are
found in the homonyms riddles in Marvin Terban‟s book entitled Eight Ate: A
Feast of Homonyms Riddles (1982). In analyzing the data, the writer focuses on
the meaning relations and the associative meanings occurring in homonyms
riddle. To aid the analysis, the writer uses the grand theories of meaning relations
and associative meanings from George Yule: 2006 The Study of Language: Third
Edition and Alice Mwihaki: 2004 Meaning as Use: A Functional View of
Semantics and Pragmatics, as well as the other theories that the writer uses for
supporting the grand theories.
In understanding the term of homonyms, the writer uses the theory from
Kreidler (2002:52), which says that the term of homonyms are they pronounce
and spell identically but have unrelated meanings. From the term of homonyms,
there are other terms that are identical in pronunciation but unrelated spelling,
which are homophones. In addition, there are also the terms that are reflecting
from the terms of homophones. The terms that are identical in spelling but
unrelated pronunciation, they are called homographs.
The writer classifies the data based on the syntactic categories. To define
the syntactic categories, the writer uses the theory from Yule (2006:86) that
defines syntax as the study of structure and component order among a sentence.
In realizing the lexical relations, the writer uses the theory from Yule
(2006:104), which states that the functions of the words are not only fulfilling a
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role. They have relationship; it may represent the sameness, the entailment, and
even the opposite meaning each other.
Additionally, the theory from Mwihaki (2004:131) is used by the writer to
comprehend the associative meaning. She states that:
“Associative meaning describes a composite of six modes
of language usage, which draw on certain mental
connections. Such connections are based on the
contiguities of real-world experience rather than the
linguistic context.”
Mwihaki has developed the theory from Leech, which composes six types of
associative meaning. Meanwhile, Mwihaki only describes four types‟ associative
meanings in her research, which are connotative, social, and affective meanings.
She mentions that associative meanings are more defining the meaning of words
based on experience than the linguistic context. The descriptions above are
illustrated in the following figure:
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Semantics
Syntax
Homonyms
Homographs
Riddles
Homophones
Meaning
Relations
Syntactic
Category
Associative
Meanings
Synonyms
Connotative
Hyponyms
Social
Meronyms
Affective
Antonyms
Collocative
Figure 1.1 Framework of the theory
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
This chapter is a theoretical review of this research. This chapter consists
of several theories that support the research. This research is actually built and
accommodated by some theories. In particular, this chapter explains what syntax,
syntactic categories, semantics, homonyms, meaning relations and associative
meanings are.
2.1
Syntax: Syntactic Categories
The theory of syntax is used in this research as the study of structure and
component order within the homonyms. According to Yule (2006:86):
“When we concentrate on the structure and ordering of
components within a sentence, we are studying the syntax
of a language.”
Yule defines syntax as the study of structure and component order among a
sentence. In addition to that, Radford (2004:7) defines syntax as the study of how
the phrase and the sentence are organized out of the word. In this research, the
discussion about the term of syntax is limited in syntactic categories.
The data in this research are classified based on the syntactic categories
among the homonyms in the data. Bickford and Daly (1996:2) mention that the
term of syntactic categories is contract to grammatical category and grammatical
class. In addition to that, they state that the terms of grammatical category and
grammatical class are also used as synonym for part of speech.
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According to Bickford and Daly statements, the writer uses the description
of part of speech from Yule (2006:74-75). He describes eight kinds of part of
speech in simple description, he divides as follow:
a. Nouns, which are the word, used referring people, objects, creatures,
places, qualities, phenomena, and abstract ideas. They all refer to „things‟.
For example: school, earthquake, love
b. Articles, which are used to form a noun phrase. Article classifies noun to
give information of „those‟ things. It can be indicated to refer the noun that
is already mentioned or known.
For example: a, an, the
c. Adjectives, which are the words to give some information. It typically
gives some information to noun.
For example: happy, large, strange
d. Verbs, which involves the action of the people or things in some events.
For example: run, talk, have
e. Adverbs, which are the word used to give more information to actions,
states, and events. Some adverbs also pair to modify adjective, to give
some information about things.
For example: slowly, yesterday, very
f. Prepositions, which are the word used with noun in phrase to indicate
some information about time, location, and other connection. Prepositions
involve actions and things.
For example: at, in, on
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g. Pronouns, which are the word to indicate the people or things that are
already known.
For example: she, they, you
h. Conjunctions, which are the word to refer connection and relationship
between events.
For example: and, but, when
2.2
Semantics: Semantic Features
In addition to analyse the structure and component order of the homonyms
within the data, this research aims the meaning that is produced among the
homonyms and the data. As Kreidler (2002:3) states that:
“Semantics is the systematic study of meaning, and
linguistic semantics is the study of how languages
organize and express meanings.”
According to Kreidler, semantics is the meaning methodical study. To emphasize
it, he states that how meanings are organized and expressed by the language is the
discipline of linguistic semantics. In addition to that, Griffiths (2006:1) states that
semantics is the tool to learn the meaning, to add knowledge in building and
producing vocabulary as a pattern of elaborate meanings. Palmer (1976:5)
assumes that linguistics level or component such as phonetics and grammar are
equal to semantics. Additionally, Saeed (1997:3) defines semantics as the
meaning communication of language discipline.
Based on the way it is described, semantics can be determined as the study
that analyzes the meaning through language communication. In addition, it leads
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us to focus on what words mean conventionally. In this research, the discussion
about the term of semantics is limited in semantics features.
To share the conceptual meaning of the homonyms, this research provides
the semantics features between the homonyms and the data. Yule (2006:101)
distinguishes semantic features to prevent the oddness of the sentence, semantic
features include „animate‟, „human‟, „male‟, „adult‟. In addition, he uses the signs
(+) and (-) to describe whether the word denotes to or does not denotes to. The
words boy and man have the different semantic features. It can be determined by
means applying the word to this table:
Boy
Man
Animate
+
+
Human
+
+
Male
-
-
Adult
-
+
Table 2.1 Semantic features
The table shows the differentiation of semantic feature between boy and
man. Man denotes to all semantic features, but boy does not denote to „adult‟
because boy indicates a male child or youth. To help the reader understanding the
meaning relations, this term can be used to support in defining meaning relations
and to share the basic information of each word. So that makes the reader easier to
understand the meaning relations beside from the conceptual/real meanings.
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2.3
Homonyms
This research uses the theory of homonyms from Kreidler (2002:52),
which defines the term of homonyms as a word with the same pronunciation and
spelling. Still, the meanings of homonyms are quite separating. The examples of
homonyms are:
a. Bank „a financial institution‟, and
b. Bank „the edge of a stream‟.
Yule (2006:107) states that the same pronunciation and spelling on
homonyms are just accidentally happening.
In addition, Palmer (1976:68) defines some difficulties on defining the
same distinction in writing or speaking. It happens when there is word that only
has the same pronunciation or word that only has the same spelling. To treat the
difficulties, then the term of homographs and homophones are formed.
2.3.1
Homographs
First term that Palmer mentions to treat the difficulties is homographs.
Kreidler (2002:52) mentions the term of homographs as two words that have the
same spelling but the pronunciations are different. The examples of this term are:
a. „Bow‟ that rhymes with „go‟ and referring to an instrument for shooting
arrows, and
b. „Bow‟ that rhymes with „cow‟ and indicating a bending of the body as a
form of respectful greeting.
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2.3.2
Homophones
Second term that Palmer mentions to treat the difficulties is homophones.
Kreidler (2002:52) mentions the term of homophones as two or more words that
have the same pronunciations but the spelling are different. The examples of this
term are:
a. Steak and
b. Stake
Both share the same pronunciation, which is /steɪk/.
From those three terms explanations, the writer tries to apply the
definitions of homonyms, homographs, and homophones using a table.
Homonyms
Identical
Different
Homophones
Pronunciation
Spelling
Homographs
Spelling
Pronunciation
Table 2.2 Homonyms
In addition, Palmer (1976:68) states that there are some homonyms and
homophones that are antonyms very nearly, for example:
a. Cleave „part asunder‟, and
b. Cleave „unite‟
c. Raise, and
d. Raze
So it can be determined that some of homonyms (a-b) and homophones (cd) have related meanings, even that are the opposite meaning.
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2.4
Lexical Relations
The lexical relations among homonyms and the data in this research lead
to Yule (2006:104) statement that word function is not only containing and
fulfilling the roles; every single word has relationship with other words. In
addition to that, Kreidler (2002:86) mentions that we need to recognize some
semantic relationship that two or more lexemes may have to know the meanings.
In this research, the applied lexical relations are meronyms, hyponyms, synonyms,
and antonyms. They are described as follow:
2.4.1
Meronyms
First type of lexical relations that are discussed in this research is
meronyms. Saeed (1997:70) states that meronyms is a term of the part of the
whole thing. Meronyms lead to know the part of something, for example:
a. Nose as a meronym of face;
b. Others are usual but not obligatory, like collar as a meronym of shirt;
c. Still others are optional like cellar for house.
In this research, the writer applies these three types of meronyms when the
data indicates the meaning relations of meronyms. The meronyms is signed by the
„less than‟ sign (