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D. The Comparison of the Meanings with Dictionary Definitions
The commonest way to know the meaning of a word is by looking up in the dictionary. Dictionary lists lexical entries that provide all information about
words. Dictionary will also list words which have multiple meanings in a particular way. Polysemous words are listed in a single lexical entry while
homonyms are listed in separated lexical entries. The researcher had conducted a data analysis to figure out the meanings of the word take in the novel. In this part,
the researcher makes a comparison between the meanings from the finding with the meanings in the Oxford English Dictionary OED to answer the third problem
formulation of this research. There are 396 senses or meanings of the word take listed in the OED. The
dictionary lists thirteen general arrangement of senses for the word take. The comparison was made by comparing the meanings of the word take from the
findings with those thirteen general arrangement of senses from the OED. The comparison is depicted in Table 4.5. The complete comparison of the meanings
from the finding with the meanings in the dictionary can be seen in Appendix E.
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Table 4.5 The Comparison of the Meanings of the Word Take with Dictionary Definitions
The Meanings of the Word Take in OED
The Meanings of the Word Take from the findings
I. To touch II. To seize, grip, catch
Context 12 Took the Kings sword III. Ordinary current sense, i. with
material obj.; ii. with non-material obj.
Context 62 Took the Sun
IV. To choose, take for a purpose, into use
Context 21 Took the lead V. To derive, obtain from a source
Context 32 Took some biscuits VI. To receive, accept, admit, contain
Context 13 Take my advice VII. To apprehend mentally,
comprehend Context 56 Took any notice
VIII. To undertake, perform, make Context 7 Take the adventure
IX. To convey, conduct, deliver, apply or betake oneself, go
Context 16 Take him where he cannot hear us
X. Idiomatic uses with special obj. Context 17 That took ones breath
away XI. Intransitive uses with preposition
XII. Adverbial combinations = compound verbs
Context 66 Took away the trembling from my limbs
XIII. Idiomatic phrases
The comparison shows that all the meanings of the word take in the novel can be found in the dictionary. On the other hand, some meanings from the OED
do not occur in the sentences in the novel. Every general arrangement sense is still divided into several meanings. Thus, every meaning in the contexts is possible to
have a more specific meaning comparison in the dictionary. For example, the contexts in the group comparison with the OED general arrangement sense VII to
apprehend mentally, comprehend can be compared to more specific senses as:
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Context 56 and Context 57 with sense VII.51.c of the OED which is
defined as to exercise with the mind, in thought note, notice, intent, etc. or with the mind and will, in action care, heed, diligence, etc.
Context 29 with sense VII.47.c of the OED which is defined as to suppose,
apprehend, assume as a fact, be of opinion that... Usually take it. However, the researcher limited the comparison only with the general
arrangement senses because it had answered the third problem formulation that all meanings from the finding could be found or listed in the dictionary. The
researcher also found that the meanings of idiomatic uses with special object in sense X of the OED were not listed under the headword take. The meaning of the
idioms could be found under the headword of the words which collocated with the word take. For example, the meaning of the idiom take it in your stride can be
found under the headword stride. This finding showed that dictionaries, especially the unabridged version could help language learners to deal with the meanings of
polysemous words. Unabridged dictionaries provide many meanings that are listed from general to more specific definitions.
Table 4.5 shows that phrasal verbs are frequently occurred in the comparison in senses XII. The definitions from the dictionary might help in
determining the secondary and tertiary levels of polysemy. However, the phrasal verb meanings arrangement in the lexical entry does not always show the
differences of the levels of polysemy. In order to show the levels of polysemy of phrasal verbs, the arrangement should be: the first heading is the phrasal verb in
secondary level and phrasal verbs in tertiary level should be in the sub-heading of
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the phrasal verb in secondary level of polysemy. Some of the meanings of phrasal verbs in the OED are listed in the same heading or level. For example, the
meaning of phrasal verb take in has twenty-one 21 meanings and listed under the heading take in
by the numbers 1, 2, 3,…, 21. It means that all twenty-one 21 meanings of phrasal verb take in are in the same level. However, other phrasal
verb lists give more specific division of meanings in which the secondary and tertiary level of polysemy can be determined. For example, in the list of meanings
of phrasal verb take off, there are two kinds of heading. The first heading is marked by cardinal numbers 1, 2, 3, and so on and the second heading is marked
by alphabet a, b, c, and so on which is listed under the cardinal number heading. From that arrangement, it is possible to determine that the meanings listed in the
cardinal number headings are the secondary level of polysemy and the meanings listed in the alphabet headings are the tertiary level of polysemy.
Those two cases of phrasal verb meanings listed in the dictionary indicate that the determination of secondary and tertiary levels of polysemy cannot be
settled by merely referring to the arrangement in the dictionary. Interpreting the meaning based on metaphorical and metonymical extensions is needed to
differentiate the phrasal verbs in secondary level from the phrasal verbs in tertiary levels of polysemy.
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CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This final chapter presents the conclusions and recommendations. The conclusions are drawn from the results of data analysis and finding discussions.
The suggestions are addressed to English teachers and learners and future researchers.
A. Conclusions
The aim of this research is to understand polysemy phenomenon where a single word has multiple meanings. The multiple meanings of a polysemous word
are considered to be related to one another. This aspect of relatedness becomes the concern of this research besides the interpretation of meanings. The case of
polysemous words being observed in this research is the polysemy of the word take that occurs in the novel. This research addressed three research problems.
The first research problem was related to the multiplicity of the meanings of the word take. The second problem was about the relations between those multiple
meanings and the last problem was about the comparison of the meanings with the dictionary definitions. This research answered those three research problems. The
researcher drew conclusions based on the findings that had been discussed in the previous chapter as the final results of this research.
The word take occurred almost in all chapters in the novel except in Chapter Four. It indicated that the word take frequently occurred throughout the
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