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2.3 Semantics
Semantic can be defined simply as study of meaning. Furthermore, Saeed 1997:3 defines Semantic as the study of meanings of words and sentences.
Learning semantic is very important in understanding languages since the language are translated based on the situations and context. Therefore, it is really
necessary to know the social condition or context where the language used, in order to understand the meaning of language. Thus, semantic is one of the most
important parts of the linguistic branches.
2.3.1 Meaning
According to Robins 1981:17, meaning can be defined as follows: “meaning includes the relation between utterances and
parts of utterances and the world outside; and reference and denotation are among such relation”.
Saeed 1997:53 has an opinion that “meaning of a word is defined in part by its relations with other word
in the language”.
From the definition above, the writer concludes that meaning is a connection between language and reality where people make the language
agreement to be understood.
2.3.2 Situation
In semantic there are several aspects of meaning which show the level of the sentences. One of them is tense. A theorist, Vendler gives
some kinds of situation which are next divided as follows:
1. States
State situation is a static condition which shows a temporary and atelic action. States can be called statements. The examples of state situation
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can be seen as follows: hate, want, love, be sick, be tall, be dead, know, and believe.
For example : she hated ice cream.
2. Activities unbounded process
Activities situation is similar with the states situation above. This kinds of situation shows an atelic action unlimited. According to
Saeed 1997:107, one thing which differentiates state situation from activity unbounded process is the kinds of predicate in a sentence.
States uses verb to depict an atelic situation. In order to differentiate state from activity, states usually use adjectives after the verb, while
activity usually use verb as the predicate. The example of activities situation can be seen as follows:
- march
- watch -
roll -
swim -
run -
think -
walk -
snow -
write -
drink For example : Your cat watched those birds.
3. Accomplishments bounded process
Accomplishments boundary process show an action or situation which is done purposely. In this situation, the kinds of verb
take a process during the progressing. The example of verb of this kind of situation can be seen as follows:
- melt
- dry
- freeze
- learn
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For example : Her boss learned Japanese
4. Achievements point events
Achievement shows the situation in which the activity progresses immediately and rapidly. The example of verb for this kind of situation
can be seen as follows: -
pop -
find -
explode - begin
- shatter
- start -
recognize For example : The Cease-fire began at noon yesterday.
5. Semelfactive
Semelfactive indicates the punctual situation. It means that the activity is progressing when the verb is stated. In other words, that the
semelfactive situation is in which the verbs come up together with or resulted by the activity. The example of this kind of situation can be seen
as follows: -
knock -
cough -
bang For example : The gate banged.
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CHAPTER III METHOD OF RESEARCH
3.1 The Source of Data
The main source of the data is Sheldon’s If Tomorrow Comes. The secondary sources of the data are some books from other discipline of knowledge that are
related to the topic of the analysis. The data that are taken from the main resource are the intransitive sentence in the novel. While the data that are taken from the
secondary source are the theories which are going to be used in analyze the topic discussion of this thesis.
3.2 The Data Colleting Procedure
The data colleting procedure is begun by reading the novel Sydney Sheldon’s If Tomorrow Comes.
While reading the novel, the writer marks the sentences which are interpreted as intransitive sentences. Then, the writer writes down, on a note
book, all the intransitive sentence which have been marked before. After all the data from the novel have been collected, the writer continues to select the data. The next
collecting data is done by reading several books which are related to the topic discussion. The, the writer collects all the data or theories to be selected.
3.3 The Data Selecting Procedure
Not all the data, which have been collected before, will be used in the analysis. Therefore, the writer selects some data which really relate to the topic
discussion or which are strongly used in the analysis. The data taken from the novel contain the intransitive verbs, while the data that we take from other books relate to
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