Semantics and Word’s Meaning

2.2. Theoretical Framework

Semantics and syntax are studies which cannot be separated. As cited by Tambunan 2005, p. 6, Hurford and Heasley state that “semantic theory is a part of a larger enterprise, linguistic theory, which includes the study of syntax grammar and phonetics pronunciation, besides the study of meaning. The different grammar and pronunciation in language may differ the meaning of that language.” Moreover, linguistic semantics, as defined by Frawley 1992, p. 1, is the study of literal meanings that are grammaticalized or encoded. By, this definition, how the grammar of a language structures its sentences, is reflected on semantics. Every literal meaning, which is studied in semantics, is bound up with the mechanism that language has for grammatical expression, which is what syntax studies. These two definitions show how semantics and syntax are related to each other in linguistics. Ambiguity, in relation to syntax and semantic, means that a phrase or sentence has more than one meaning and more than one structure building, which later can alter the actual meaning which is intended to be delivered into other meanings. As Indonesian authors who have to write the fan-fictions in English, Indonesian fan-fiction authors should have good ability in writing. Their not studying English language specifically may be seen to be interesting since they can produce fan-fictions products in English. As being stated by Thusnet 1997 that writing fan-fictions is not a professional writing, the Indonesian fan-fiction authors may not be totally fluent in writing, not mention to some grammatical errors that they make. Not merely on their grammatical construction, the lack of ability in writing may lead in constructing the sentences with ambiguous meaning, either lexically or structurally. The ambiguity in sentence construction may be found in the Indonesian authors’ fan-fiction products resulting in the different interpretation of each reader. This phenomenon explains how the ambiguity in semantic and syntax occurs in real-life writing which is going to be discussed in this study. As Aartz 1997 states that tree diagram shows how the constituents in sentence structure can be marked off. Tree diagram is useful to identify the structural ambiguity, especially the structural ambiguity which is caused by equivocal phrasing or amphibology in which the individual lexemes are not ambiguous, but their combination in forming a phrase or sentence may have two or more interpretations Ullman, 1977, p. 156. Meanwhile, there are several suggestions proposed by Andarini 2012 to resolve the ambiguity adding the hyphen - or the preposition of between the head and modifier, such as what has been stated in the previous section. Hopefully, by identifying the structural ambiguity of Indonesian fan- fiction authors’ writing products, it can prevent not only the authors of the fan- fictions, but also also PBI students of Sanata Dharma University, from making the structural ambiguity and can challenge them to write better if there were structural ambiguity found in their writing product by applying the resolution that later will be suggested by the writer. 21

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the writer discusses 1 the research method of this study, 2 the research setting, 3 the research subjects, 4 the instruments and data gathering technique used in this study, 5 the data analysis technique, and 6 the research procedure.

3.1 Research Method

To resolve the problem of this research, the writer used content analysis research method which may also be called document analysis. Numan 1994, p. 27 describes content analysis as a research which is “focused on analyzing and interpreting recorded materials within its own context”. The analyzed materials can be textbooks, newspapers, speeches, television programs, or any other types of documents. One of the purposes is to analyze types of errors in students’ writing Numan, 1994, p. 442. This research method was chosen to answer the research problems because the writer examined a certain type of documents, which are fan-fictions, and analyzed the types of errors in the writing.

3.2 Research Setting

This study was conducted by selecting several Indonesian authors’ fan- fiction products posted in Live Journal blog site, located in www.livejournal.com,