5 meaning of ambiguous phrase or sentence. The researcher hopes this study would
make the readers aware of the ambiguity. The awareness of ambiguity may trigger the reader to avoid ambiguity itself so that the misunderstanding will not occur.
B. Problem Formulation
This research is conducted to answer three questions. 1.
What words are lexically ambiguous in the Reader’s Forum section of The Jakarta Post newspaper?
2. What phrases are structurally ambiguous in the Reader’s Forum section of
The Jakarta Post newspaper? 3.
How do the tree diagrams enable the researcher to resolve structural ambiguities?
C. Problem Limitation
In this study, the limitation is needed in order to discuss the particular topic thoroughly. This study is limited to the lexical and structural ambiguity
found in The Jakarta Post newspaper. The researcher also limits the study only in the Reader’s Forum section. The data are taken from the official The Jakarta Post
website, www.thejakartapost.com. The interesting thing about the website is that it provides the printed edition of The Jakarta Post newspaper.
Some words, which are considered lexically ambiguous, would appear more than once. Unless the word has different meaning in the interpretation, the
researcher would only discuss one sample. Moreover, the researcher will only focus on lexical and structural ambiguity by using semantics approach. Any
6 ambiguities that are caused by different types of ambiguity such as scope and
referential ambiguity will not be taken into account in the study. The researcher will not consider any possibilities caused by the utterance as it is seen in
pragmatics. However, in order to decide the intended meaning of the writer, the researcher would depend on the passage or topic discussed. The researcher is
going to use the tree diagram in order to investigate the possible interpretations of each sentence or phrase.
D. Research Objectives
The researcher conducts this study in order to meet two main objectives. Firstly, the researcher wants to know if there are any ambiguous words, phrases,
or sentences that can be found in the well-known mass media, especially in The Jakarta Post newspaper. It is so because the researcher is aware of the effects of
the misinterpretation that may be derived from a public sphere. Moreover, the researcher will also find out which part of speech is ambiguous based on the data
found in The Jakarta Post newspaper. From the data, the researcher could see which part of speech occurs the most and be aware of it. Secondly, the researcher
wants to prove whether tree diagram can be used to solve the structurally ambiguous phrases.
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E. Research Benefits
