Repetition or Same Word Synonym or Near-synonym

cohesion embraces two different aspects, which are related each other. They are reiteration and collocation.

1. Reiteration

This is the repetition of a lexical item, or the occurrence of a synonym of some kind, in the context of reference; that is, where the two occurrences have the same referent. 13 It can be concluded from Guy Cook’s statement above that reiteration can appear in three forms. First, it appears in the repetition of a lexical item. Second, it can be seen in the occurrence of a synonym, and the last it can be found in two occurrences that have same referent. Halliday and Hassan have different opinions, they said that: “When we talk about reiteration, therefore, we are including not only the repetition of the same lexical item but also the occurrence of a related item, which may be anything froudym synonym or near synonym of the original to a general word dominating the entire class. Let us categorize these as above: any instance of reiteration may be a same word, b a synonym or near-synonym, c a superordinate or d a general word.” 14 The writer gets some important points from Halliday and Hassan’s explanation above that reiteration can be categorized into four forms. They are same word, a synonym or near-synonym, a superordinate, and a general word. This theory will be writer’s principal theory to analyze writer’s data in this research.

a. Repetition or Same Word

Repetition is the simplest form of lexical cohesion. In repetition, the same reference is repeated over and over again throughout the whole 13 Guy Cook, Discourse Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1989, p. 19. 14 Halliday and Hassan, 1976, Op.cit., pp. 279-280. discourse makes the discourse coherent and, therefore, contributes to the cohesion. Look at the example: John comes to the farewell party in this school. This farewell party is held at 07.00 p.m until 12 p.m. The word farewell party is repeated in that sentence above. Repetition is a way to maintain cohesion between sentences in a discourse. That relationship is formed by repetition of a part of sentence element. Repetition is used to maintain the idea or topic that is discussed, but, too many repetitions in a text can make reader feel bored.

b. Synonym or Near-synonym

Synonymy is generally perceived as the ‘sameness of meaning’. 15 Synonymy are two or more word forms with very closely related meaning. It should be noted that idea of meaning is not necessarily total sameness. Synonyms can be any part of speech e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs or prepositions, as long as both members of the pair are the same part of speech. More examples of English synonyms are: 1. student and pupil noun 2. buy and purchase verb 3. sick and ill adjective 4. quickly and speedily adverb 5. on and upon preposition 15 Ibid., p. 59. There are dictionaries of synonyms that contain many hundreds of entries, such as 16 : apathetic phlegmatic passive sluggish indifferent pedigree anchestry genealogy descent lineage The words apathetic, phlegmatic, passive, sluggish, indifferent mean “not interested in something”. While the words pedigree, anchestry, genealogy, descent, lineage mean “line of person in a family who lived a long time ago or family history”. Cruse speaks about ‘a scale of synonymity’ in his book Lexical Semantics, which is pointed to by two semantic intuitions: “the first is that certain pairs or groups of lexical items bear a special sort of semantic resemblance to one another. For example, in Dictionary of English Synonyms gives kill as a synonym of murder but, interestingly, not vice versa. The second intuition is that some pairs of synonyms are ‘more synonymous’ than other pairs, e. g. settee and sofa are more synonymous than boundary and frontier.” 17 The writer agrees with Cruse’s opinion that there is a broader conception of the characteristics of intuitions of synonym. The first intuition tells that two or more words may have similar meaning which are often closely related but not always intersubstitutable in sentences. Like the word kill and murder. Kill can be substituted by murder, but an accidental killing can not be substituted by murder. The second intuition explains that synonym has a degree. For example, the word boundaries 16 Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, Nina Hyams, An Introduction to Language Massachusetts: Thomson Corporation Heinle, 2003, Seventh Edition, p. 181. 17 D.A. Cruse, Lexical Semantics Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1986, p. 265. and frontier. According to Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary, boundaries mean “line that marks a limit” 18 , while frontier means “the border between two countries” 19 . So, boundaries is more general than frontier. The other instance, settee that means “sofa”, and sofa means “long comfortable seat”. It can be found that settee and sofa is more synonymous than boundaries and frontier. Palmer is even more straightforward: he maintains that “there are no total synonyms, that no two words have exactly the same meaning” 20 Modestly, there are no synonyms which have exactly the sameness meaning in all contexts or social levels of language because etymology, orthography, phonic qualities, ambiguous meanings, usage, etc. make them unique. Different words that are similar in meaning usually differ for a reason: long and extended are only synonyms in one usage and not in others. For example, a long arm is not the same as an extended arm. Synonymy also can be distinguished by special contexts in which one member of a synonymy pair is used, but the other not. For examples, pupil as the aperture in the iris of the eye is not synonymous with student. Similarly, he expired means the same as he died, yet my passport has expired cannot be replaced by my passport has died. Although a pair of synonymy may be similar in terms of style, intensity, and dialect, they still 18 Oxford University, Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary New York: Oxford University Press. 2008, Fourth Edition, p. 46. 19 Ibid., p. 178. 20 F.R. Palmer, Semantics a New Outline Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1976, p. 63. are not necessarily intersubstitutable because they sometimes are different in terms of connotation.

c. Superordinate