Data Processing RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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3.3 Data Processing

In order to analyze the meaning of a word, we need to contrast it with other words which share certain features. Nida 1975 says that to determine the meaning of any lexical unit, from the level of a morpheme to the level of an entire discourse, it is essential to establish the basis of contrast. A word has meaning only in terms of systematic contrasts with other words which share certain features with them but contrast with them in respect to other features. Therefore, the writer first contrasted the verb run with other verbs, i.e. race, gallop, and sprint. In order to make the contrastive analysis effective, the data are presented in the form of tables. Afterwards, the writer assigned the values for each semantic feature by giving plus andor minus sign. Table 3.1: Example of Contrastive Analysis RUN RACE GALLOP SPRINT Semantic Feature 1 ± ± ± ± Semantic Feature 2 ± ± ± ± Semantic Feature 3 ± ± ± ± Semantic Feature 4 ± ± ± ± Semantic Feature 5 ± ± ± ± Semantic Feature 6 ± ± ± ± The next step after contrasting the verb with other verbs in the same domain, the writer searched definitions of run from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English and analyzed its context from both the definition and the application in a sentence. The definition will include verb definition only and cover single verb. The writer will not discuss the noun definition and the idiom. In this step, the writer also made table to show the contextual analysis. 49 Table 3.2: Example of Contextual Analysis No Context Meaning Example in Sentence 1. 2. 3. etc. After the writer conducted the contextual analysis, he then determined which semantic properties are related to the verb run in the conceptual meaning. The step of the research can be illustrated as follows: 1. Find the definition of the conceptual meaning of the verb run, race, gallop and sprint from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. 2. Make the comparative analysis of the verb run with the other verbs which have the same semantic domain, i.e. race, gallop, and sprint. 3. Make the semantic features and assign the values for each feature by giving plus and minus sign. Those first three steps are taken in order to answer the first problem in this study, i.e. to find the semantic properties of the conceptual meaning of the verb run when it is compared with the verb race, gallop, and sprint. 4. Find the definitions of the verb run beyond the conceptual meaning in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. 5. Determine the context of the verb run based on their definitions. 6. Apply the context in a sentence. 7. Determine the semantic properties related to the conceptual meaning of the verb run. The last four steps are taken in order to answer the second problem in this study, i.e. to find the semantic properties which are related to the conceptual meaning of the verb run when it is put beyond the conceptual meaning. 50

CHAPTER IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION