psychological phenomenon, the second aspect of meaning is its mental representation, “having of what a word or phrase means its sense of how the
meanings of various words in our mental lexicon are related to each other” Bergmann, 2007, p. 233.
Another similar concept of meaning is proposed by Alston, relating the concept of meaning to linguistic expression. Alston 2000, p. 148 stated that “a
linguistic expression is a constituent of a language; hence it is something of an abstract order, something that can have many “realization” of different sorts.”
meaning that each of linguistic expression has a meaning which is distinguishable. The meaning of each expression enables it to play a distinctive role in
communication Alston, 2000. p. 154. However, an expression, later on, may have two or more meanings Alston, 2000, p.151. This fact later will lead to the
existence of ambiguity.
2.1.4 Ambiguity
Some experts have defined ambiguity in various ways. As an example, Lew 1996, p. 3 defines ambiguity as “linguistic ambiguity is that property of a
fragment of text which allows for two or more significantly different semantic interpretations to be arrived at by a substantial proportion of typical text
recipients.” Meanwhile, Kempson 1977, p. 123 defines ambiguity as a clear-cut
phenomenon when both words and sentences can have more than one meaning. Looking up this definition, the ambiguity can occur both on spoken or written
language. Both of the definition clearly mentions that if property of a fragment of
text which are words or sentences has more than one meaning, it is considered ambiguous.
According to Djajasudarma, meaning ambiguity is caused by four reasons. First, the ambiguity occurs because of the characteristic of general word or
sentences which has multiple meaning, for example the word ‘buku’ in Bahasa Indonesia means ‘book’ or ‘joint’ Djajasudarma, 1996, p. 56. Second, an unclear
context of the words or sentences makes the words or sentences itself become unclear Djajasudarma, 1996, p. 56. The unclear limitation of words or sentences
meaning become the third reason of the occurrence of the ambiguity and the last one, the ambiguity is caused by the chosen words or sentence which is not
familiar with the reference Djajasudarma, 1996, p. 56. Based on how long a sentence, a phrase or a word is considered
ambiguous; ambiguity is divided in two categories namely permanent ambiguity and temporary ambiguity. Permanent ambiguity occurs when the sentence, phrase
or word still remains ambiguous even though it has been related to its context. Meanwhile, temporary ambiguity occurs when the sentence, phrase or word
becomes unambiguous after it has been related to its context Lavel, 2011. On the other hand, from the various types of ambiguity proposed by previous researchers,
Ullman classifies three main types of ambiguity; those are phonetic ambiguity, lexical ambiguity, and grammatical ambiguity 1977, p. 156. Related to this
study, the writer will explore only on the grammatical or commonly known as structural ambiguity and a little bit of lexical ambiguity for additional information.
2.1.4.1 Lexical Ambiguity
As cited by Pateda 1989, each lexeme can contain multiple meanings. It depends on the information content of the lexeme undergone. Supported by
Ullman 1977, p. 158, the main cause of lexical ambiguity is due to the occurrence of situation as polysemy and homonymy. In relation to polysemy,
individual word or phrase that can be used in different contexts to express two or more different meanings, for instance, the words ‘head’ may undergo a meaning
as ‘the upper part of the human body or the front part of the body in animals; contains the face and brains’ and ‘person who is in charge’ Ullman, 1977, p. 158.
Meanwhile, in relation to homonymy, words that are spelled the same way but differ in meaning or the relation between two words that are pronounced the
same way but differ in meaning, the words ‘bank’ can have two meaning. The first meaning is sloping land especially the slope beside a body of water and the
second is a financial institution that accepts deposits and channels the money into lending activities Ullman, 1977, p. 158.
If readers or listeners do not know the context of the words, polysemy and homonymy may cause ambiguity which later may lead the readers or listeners to
different interpretation and information. However, this research does not study the lexical ambiguity; so, this type of ambiguity will not be explored further.
2.1.4.2 Structural Ambiguity
Pateda 1989 proposes that structural ambiguity usually occurs in a group of lexeme or in sentence level. As a result, the ambiguity can be seen from two
different points of view. The first point of view which is proposed by Ullman 1977, p. 156 is ambiguity which is caused by grammatical formation. For
example, affix can create multiple meaning which somewhat confusing. The suffix –able does not always have the same meaning in every word like in
desirable and eatable. The word desirable is only categorized as adjective, meanwhile the word eatable is categorized as adjective and noun as well.
The second point of view Ullman proposed 1977, p. 156 is ambiguity which is caused by equivocal phrasing or amphibology. In this case, the
individual lexemes are not ambiguous, but their combination in forming a phrase or sentence may have two or more interpretations. For example, the sentence ‘I
meet a number of old friends and acquaintance’ , the adjective ‘old’ may refer to
both the friends and acquaintance or the friends only. This ambiguity may be clarified by looking up the context or the supra-segmental element within.
Similar studies of analyzing structural ambiguity have been conducted before by several researchers. This ambiguity can be resolve by “adding the
hyphen - or the preposition of between the head and modifier, adding the word which is or which are, and who is or who are to show about something that
is being talked about, and placing the preposition phrase at the beginning of the sentence in terms to explain where the action took place”, as it has been suggested
by Andarini 2012 in her study. However, the explanation about how the resolution can be applied has not been explained in detail.
2.2. Theoretical Framework
Semantics and syntax are studies which cannot be separated. As cited by Tambunan 2005, p. 6, Hurford and Heasley state that “semantic theory is a part
of a larger enterprise, linguistic theory, which includes the study of syntax grammar and phonetics pronunciation, besides the study of meaning. The
different grammar and pronunciation in language may differ the meaning of that language.” Moreover, linguistic semantics, as defined by Frawley 1992, p. 1, is
the study of literal meanings that are grammaticalized or encoded. By, this definition, how the grammar of a language structures its sentences, is reflected on
semantics. Every literal meaning, which is studied in semantics, is bound up with the
mechanism that language has for grammatical expression, which is what syntax studies. These two definitions show how semantics and syntax are related to each
other in linguistics. Ambiguity, in relation to syntax and semantic, means that a phrase or sentence has more than one meaning and more than one structure
building, which later can alter the actual meaning which is intended to be delivered into other meanings.
As Indonesian authors who have to write the fan-fictions in English, Indonesian fan-fiction authors should have good ability in writing. Their not
studying English language specifically may be seen to be interesting since they can produce fan-fictions products in English. As being stated by Thusnet 1997
that writing fan-fictions is not a professional writing, the Indonesian fan-fiction authors may not be totally fluent in writing, not mention to some grammatical
