Theoretical Framework REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

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B. Theoretical Framework

This research addresses three research problems. The first and the second problems deal with semantics and polysemy. The important aspect of using a language in communication is knowing the meaning of the language that is obtained from understanding the meaning of words or combination of word meanings in phrases or sentences. The study in linguistics field that focuses on the meaning is semantics. Determining the meanings of words can be complicated because it happens that one word can have several meanings and one meaning can be defined by several words. The main focus of this study is on the polysemy, that a single word can serve several meanings. This study will discuss the meaning in a word level, which is a polysemous word. Therefore, the theory of lexical semantics is applied. Lexical semantics is a study of word meanings particularly content words Cruse, 2006. However, compositional semantics is also necessary because polysemous words will have different meanings when they are combined in a phrase and put in different context of sentences. In analyzing the sentences, the theory from Leech 1981 is used. A sentence consists of predicate and arguments where their combination of meanings will determine the overall meaning of the sentence. This analysis will also determine the meanings of the word take which has a role as a predicate. The main theory used in this study is polysemy. The definition of polysemy that a word has multiple related meanings has been discussed in polysemy definition part in the sub-heading of polysemy discussion. This research 38 will use the same definition of polysemy as proposed by many linguists mentioned in that part. Furthermore, this research will use the first traditional approach of polysemy proposed by Falkum 2011 which is based on Pustejovsky’s SEL where the meanings of polysemous words are listed in a single lexical entry in the dictionaries or lexicon. Certain types of polysemy will not be employed in this study. However, the researcher will refer to the levels of polysemy from Nerlich, Todd, and Clarke 2003. There are three levels of polysemy: primary level, secondary level, and tertiary level. In the categorization of the meanings to answer the second research problem, the researcher will apply the steps from Nida 1975 by categorizing the meanings into loosely related meanings. Some of the meanings are considered to share same components so that they can be included into one group. The relations between the meanings of the word take are drawn by applying the theory of semantic roles Norvig Lakoff, 1987; Kreidler, 1998. Semantic roles are applied in the predicate and arguments. The sentences in which the relation between predicate and arguments based on their semantic roles is the same, are classified into the same group. The third research problem deals with the meanings or definitions from dictionaries. Dictionaries provide a list of meanings of words. People tend to use dictionaries as the easiest way to look up the meanings of words. A dictionary can be a real help but it also has some weaknesses especially when people look up a particular meaning which needs semantics explanations. The theory of Bergmann, Hall and Ross 2010 will be used to answer the third research 39 problem. They agree that dictionary definitions or meanings are the most familiar for most people. Dictionaries are widespread in our culture. Carter 2000 claims that dictionaries have social prestige. He believes that every good family should have a dictionary. However, the meanings in the dictionary are not fixed. They change over the time as people tend to use the words differently from time to time. Basically, all theories discussed in the review of related literature will be used to support this research. 40

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the method of research and analysis used in this research. This chapter consists of six parts, namely the research method, research setting, research participantssubjects, instrument and data gathering technique, data analysis technique, and research procedure.

A. Research Method

Content analysis was employed as the method in this research. Content analysis is a method or technique to collect and analyze data in qualitative research along with observation and interviewing Fraenkel Wallen, 2008; Merriam, 2009. Fraenkel and Wallen 2008 define qualitative research as a study that observes the quality of relationships, activities, situations, or materials. Merriam 2009 states four characteristics as the key to understanding the nature of qualitative research: “the focus is on process, understanding, and meaning; the researcher is the primary instrument of data collection and analysis; the process is inductive; and the product is richly descriptive” p. 14. Furthermore, she adds that there are three major sources of data in qualitative research. The sources are the data from interviewing, observation, and documents. This research investigates a document as the source of the data. Thus, content or document analysis is used.