A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
AN INVESTIGATION OF STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY IN
PHRASES FOUND IN INDONESIAN AUTHORS’
FAN-FICTION PRODUCTS
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By Rosa Wuri Amurti
Student Number: 081214049
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2012
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
AN INVESTIGATION OF STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY IN
PHRASES FOUND IN INDONESIAN AUTHORS’
FAN-FICTION PRODUCTS
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By Rosa Wuri Amurti
Student Number: 081214049
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2012
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ABSTRACT
Amurti, Rosa Wuri. 2012. An investigation of structural ambiguity in the phrases
found in Indonesian authors’ fan-fiction products . Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma
University.Indonesian authors who write fan-fictions in English should be able to deliver their writing products well. However, in their fan-fictions, there are some structural ambiguities which make some phrases found in the fan-fictions have more than one meaning and the messages that the authors intend to deliver in the fan-fictions remain unclear. Therefore, the writer conducts this study to investigate how frequent the structural ambiguity in phrases found in Indonesian authors’ fan-fiction products and how those structural ambiguities can be resolved by English learners.
Conducting this study, the writer uses content analysis since this study analyzed type of error in writing products which in this study are fan-fictions. During July-August 2012, the writer randomly selects and reads 27 the GazettE fan-fictions from six Indonesian authors’ before listing the structural ambiguity and analyzing it using tree diagrams individually, not related to the context of the text.
As a result, the writer finds 20 ambiguous phrases from noun phrases, verb phrases and adjective phrases. Ambiguous noun phrases occur 16 times or 80% from the percentage. Meanwhile, both ambiguous verb phrases and adjective phrases occur twice or 10% of the percentage. To resolve the ambiguities, the English learners should reconstruct the phrase structure. The ambiguous phrases should be analyzed to understand the meaning which is intended to be delivered before deciding which resolution is suitable to resolve the ambiguity.
The writer then addresses some recommendations for teachers who can use this study to help them in the teaching and learning process to give example and resolutions of structural ambiguity. This study also may improve the students’ skill in writing by helping them to understand and avoid some ambiguity which may occur in their writing products and to give some resolution to resolve the occurring ambiguity. Meanwhile, for future researchers, this study may be a reference for the future researchers who are going to conduct similar study in investigating structural ambiguity.
Keywords: structural ambiguity, phrases, fan-fictions
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ABSTRAK
Amurti, Rosa Wuri. 2012. An investigation of structural ambiguity in the phrases
found in Indonesian authors’ fan-fiction products . Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata
Dharma.Para penulis Indonesia yang menulis fanfic dalam Bahasa Inggris harus
mampu menyampaikan pesan fanfic dengan baik. Namun, masih banyak makna
struktural yang mereka buat sehingga menyebabkan beberapa frasa dalam fanfic
tersebut mempunyai lebih dari satu arti sehingga pesan yang disampaikan
menjadi kurang jelas. Oleh karena itu, penulis melakukan penelitian untuk
menginvestigasi frekuensi munculnya kedwiartian makna struktural dalam frasa
di fanfic-fanfic yang ditulis oleh para penulis Indonesia dan bagaimana
kedwiartian makna struktural tersebut dipecahkan.Dalam melakukan penelitian ini, penulis menggunakan metode analisa
konten karena penelitian ini menganalisa jenis kesalahan dalam karya tulis yang
dalam penelitian ini adalah fanfic. Selama bulan Juli hingga Agustus, penulis
secara acak memilih dan membaca 27 fanfic the GazettE dari enam penulis
Indonesia sebelum mendaftar kedwiartian makna struktural yang ada dan
menganalisanya menggunakan diagram pohon secara individual, di luar konteks
bacaan.Penulis menemukan 20 kedwiartian makna struktural dari frasa kata
benda, frasa kata kerja dan frasa kata sifat. Frasa kata sifat yang ambigu muncul
16 kali atau 80% dari presentase keseluruhan. Baik frasa kata kerja maupun
frasa kata sifat yang ambigu muncul dua kali atau 10% dari total presentase.
Untuk menyelesaikan masalah kedwiartian makna tersebut, para pembelajar
bahasa Inggris harus merekonstruksi struktur frasa. Frasa yang memiliki
kedwiartian makna struktural tersebut harus dipahami dan dianalisa terlebih
dahulu sebelum menentukan resolusi manakah yang tepat untuk
menyelesaikannya Penulis kemudian menyarankan beberapa rekomendasi untuk para guruyang bisa menggunakan penelitian ini untuk memberikan contoh tentang
kedwiartian makna struktural dan bagaimana cara penyelesaiannya yang
diaplikasikan dalam kegiatan belajar mengajar. Penelitian ini juga berguna untuk
meningkatkan kemampuan para murid dalam menulis dengan cara membantu
mereka untuk mengerti dan menghindari kedwiartian makna yang bisa muncul
dalam karya tulis mereka dan memberi beberapa cara untuk menyelesaikannya.
Sementara itu, untuk para peneliti di masa yang akan datang, penelitian ini dapat
menjadi referensi jika hendak melakukan penelitian yang sama yaitu meneliti
tentang kedwiartian makna struktural.Kata kunci: structural ambiguity, phrases, fan-fiction
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無限大名夢のあとの何もないよ野中じゃ そうさいとしい思いもめけ疎な二なるけど STAY し勝ちイメエジだらけの頼りない翼でも きっと飛べるさ ON MY LOVE After an endless dream In this world of nothingness It seems as if our beloved dreams will lose Even with these unreliable wings Covered in images that tend to STAY I'm sure we can fly ON MY LOVE
Wada Kouji – Butterfly This thesis is dedicated to my beloved father, my mother and my late grandmother.
I am very happy to see their smiles of relief when they knew that I have finished my thesis.
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ACKNOWLEDEGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my deepest feeling of gratitude to Jesus Christ for all blessing that He has given to me. Without His blessing and guidance, I will never be able to accomplish my thesis and my study in Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris of Sanata Dharma University.
My greatest thank and appreciation are extended to Drs. Barli Bram, M.Ed., Ph.D., my major sponsor, who has willingly devoted his time guiding me, giving corrections, comments and suggestions to my thesis. Because of his guidance, I am finally able to finish my thesis.
Deeply, I give thank to my beloved father, who calmly supports and prays in Eucharist Adoration for me every day so I can struggle on my thesis, and my mother, who has driven me crazy by reminding me every day to finish my thesis as soon as possible. You rock, Mom, Dad!
Thank to all Indonesian fan-fiction authors’: Aki, Kei, Nyo, Fen, Cinta, and Eiga who have allowed me using their fan-fictions as the object of my thesis so I can get the data needed for my thesis.
To my beloved classmate in PBI 2008 class A, I would like to thank for good and bad times that we have been through for this whole four years, especially: Yosi, Detta, Pauline, and Anggi. Thank to my partner in crime and also my proof-reader Mila, whom I always have thesis consultation together with, without her, I would have not knew when I would finish my thesis. Not forgetting my friends from Japanese community: Babah, Mbak Arda, Amie, etc, thank for
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teasing me after my long-way-working thesis, so, I have the spirit to speed my work with this thesis as fast as I could. See, now, I make it, dude! Last but not least, thanks to all my friends and people whose name I cannot mention one by one for their help and support for me in writing this thesis.
Rosa Wuri Amurti
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.6 Definition of Terms ......................................................................... 6
2.1.4.2 Structural Ambiguity ................................................................. 17
2.1.4.1 Lexical Ambiguity ..................................................................... 17
2.1.4 Ambiguity ..................................................................................... 15
2.1.3 Semantics and Word’s Meaning ................................................... 13
2.1.2 Theory of Syntax .......................................................................... 9
2.1.1 English Phrases ............................................................................. 8
2.1 Theoretical Description.................................................................... 8
CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
1.5 Research Benefits ............................................................................ 5
TITLE PAGE ........................................................................................................ i APPROVAL PAGES............................................................................................ ii STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY..................................................... iv
1.4 Research Objectives......................................................................... 5
1.3 Problem Limitation .......................................................................... 4
1.2 Research Problems........................................................................... 4
1.1 Research Background ...................................................................... 1
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION
DEDICATION PAGE .......................................................................................... viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS...................................................................................... xi LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................ xiii LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................. xiv LIST OF APPENDICES....................................................................................... xv
ABSTRAK .............................................................................................................. vii
ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................... vi
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ...................................................... v
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2.2 Theoretical Framework.................................................................... 19
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Method ............................................................................. 21
3.2 Research Setting .............................................................................. 21
3.3 Research Subjects ............................................................................ 22
3.4 Instruments and Data Gathering Technique .................................... 23
3.5 Data Analysis Technique ................................................................. 24
3.6 Research Procedure.......................................................................... 27
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Structural Ambiguity Occurrence in Indonesian Authors’ Fan-fictions ............................................................................................ 28
4.2 Ambiguous Phrases Found in the Fan-fictions and Its Resolution .............................................................................................. 30
4.2.1 Ambiguous Noun Phrases............................................................. 32
4.2.2 Ambiguous Verb Phrases.............................................................. 59
4.2.3 Ambiguous Adjective Phrase........................................................ 63
4.3 Resolution to Various Ambiguities.................................................. 66
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Conclusions................................................................................ 68
5.2 Recommendations...................................................................... 70 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................... 73 APPENDIX........................................................................................................... 76
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LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
2.1 Syntactic Categories........................................................................................ 10
3.1 Field Notes of Ambiguity Found in the Fan-fictions ...................................... 23
4.1 Occurrence of Structural Ambiguity in Indonesian Authors’ Fan-fiction Products................................................................................................................. 29
4.2 Ambiguous Phrase Found in the Fan-fictions and Its Resolution................... 67
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
2.1 O’Grady, Dobrovolsky, and Katamba’s Flat Structure Tree Diagrams.......... 11
2.2 Comparison between Flat Structure and Aarts’ X-bar Theory Tree Diagram ............................................................................................................................... 12
3.1 First Flat Structure Tree Diagram of ‘old men and women’ ........................... 26
3.1 Second Flat Structure Tree Diagram of ‘old men and women’....................... 26
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LIST OF APPENDIX
Appendix Page
1:
Table Notes of Ambiguity Found in the Fan-fictions ............................................................................................................................... 77
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION There are six sections addressed in this chapter. They are the research background,
research problems, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and finally definition of terms.
1.1 Research Background
People nowadays are getting more and more creative in spending time for their hobbies. A few years ago, the fans of certain forms of media, literature and popular culture such as movies, comic books, musicians, etc. were very passive. Most of them just collected some stuffs related to their favourites that other people may have seen them wasting money and time for a non-productive thing.
However, as the time goes by, those fans become more creative and productive by making on-line fan-made stories called fan-fictions.
As people type the words fanfic in Google or other internet searching engines, they will find thousand titles of fan-fictions. Black (2007, p. 385) defines fan-fictions as fan-made or “fan-produced texts that derive from forms of media, literature, and popular culture”. For example, as it is found in Fanfiction.net, fan- fictions may have various fandoms or the fans of a sport or famous person, various genres and ratings. Another example, in Live Journal blog-site, there is a fans community called gazette_yaoi which members can post, read and comment to self-made texts which have various genres and ratings even though the
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characters of text are constrained to the members of the GazettE, a famous Japanese rock band.
Million of authors around the world write their fan-fictions in English. They gather in these sites posting their fan-fictions not only to gain popularity but also to gain feedback and comments from the readers for the improvement of their fan-fiction products. On the other side, writing fan-fictions is just the same as writing another type of text.
Based on Gie, as cited by Syenny (2000, p.1) in her thesis, writing is “an activity of expressing an idea through a written form to read and to be understood in the medium of written language, a silent communication which uses symbols to read”, meaning that it is very important to the author to develop and communicate their ideas clearly so the readers would understand the messages they intend to deliver through the fan-fictions. This requires the authors to be well communicated in a written form of English.
In this case, the fact that most of the authors are not English native speakers is seen to be very interesting. As seen in gazette_yaoi community, almost three quarter of the authors are non-native Englsh speakers and some of them are Indonesians who do not study English particularly as their major or in certain English language institution. Since they mostly learn English only from school, most of Indonesian authors write their fan-fictions with limited knowledge of English sentence constructions. In the end, they ask their betas or proof-readers from English native speaker to proofread their fan-fiction products before they publish their final form of their fan-fictions. However, not all of the Indonesian
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authors have proofreaders. They have to work very hard to produce a good writing product by themselves. As a result, grammatical errors occur in their writing products, for example, some sentences or phrases in the fan-fictions are constructed in ambiguous sentence structures.
Kirkland and Dilworth (1994, p. 5) state that a writing product is considered as a good one if it fulfils three criteria of a good writing product: invention, style and management. Invention is related to the writer’s idea; style is related to how the words work together in the sentences and management is related to the organization of the compositions. The style of writing or how the words work together in the sentences is very important in writing. Structurally, each word should relate each other without creating an ambiguity or it will cause a misunderstanding in the information that the writer intends to deliver. For example, the sentence: I saw the man with the telescope. This sentence is ambiguous because it has two meanings: using the telescope I saw the man or I
saw the man who brought a telescope . This phenomenon, called structural
ambiguity in which both words and sentences can have more than one meaning (Kempson, 1977, p. 123), can be a very serious mistake if the writers is not aware of this.
Using the Indonesian authors’ English fan-fiction products which are posted in Live Journal as the object of the study, the writer is interested to conduct an investigation of structural ambiguity in phrases found in the fan-fictions since the authors have limited knowledge of English sentence constructions. This study later will deal with the interface between semantics, as this study is concerned
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with meaning, and syntax, in which the phrase structure is the cause of the ambiguity. Through content analysis research, this study will seek the structural ambiguities which occur in the fan-fiction products and suggest some ways to resolve the ambiguities.
1.2 Research Problems
The research problems under this study are listed as the following:
1. What are the frequency of the structural ambiguity occur based on the kind of ambiguous phrases found in the fan-fictions?
2. How can English learners resolve the ambiguity found in the fan-fictions?
1.3 Problem Limitation
The writer limits the study in a certain area in order to make this study become feasible for the writer to develop and for the reader to get the point that the writer intends to deliver.
First, the environment of this study is limited in Live Journal blog site among the other blog sites where authors can post their fan-fictions. Second, the subjects of the study are six Indonesian fan-fiction authors who do not study English as their major in university or particularly in an English language institution. The writer uses their fan-fiction products as the object analyzed in this study. Third, shortening the scope of this study, as the objects of the study, the writer puts a limit only in analyzing the structural ambiguities which occur in
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phrases. Moreover, analyzing structural ambiguity is more challenging than analyzing lexical ambiguity which is quite predictable.
From the fan-fictions, the researcher will identify and list the structurally ambiguous phrases. After listing the structural ambiguities, the writer will analyze how frequent the structural ambiguity occurs and how the structural ambiguity is resolved by suggesting some possible ways to clarify the sentence meaning.
1.4 Research Objectives
Based on the problem stated above, the writer formulates the objectives of the study in the following list:
1. To find out the frequency of the structural ambiguity occurs in the phrases found in the fan-fictions.
2. To find out the possible resolutions of how English learners can resolve the ambiguity found in the fan-fiction.
1.5 Research Benefits
Hopefully, this study will help not only the other researchers who will conduct a similar study in the future as a reference but also the readers, non-native English speakers, who are learning English, and Indonesian fan-fiction authors in order to improve their ability in writing in English. Knowing the ambiguity which may occur in their writing products will make the readers and fan-fiction authors become more aware in constructing a sentence or phrase so the readers and fan- fiction authors can avoid creating structural ambiguity and produce a good writing
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product with clearly delivered message. Moreover, the resolutions which later are proposed by the writer might help resolving the ambiguity occurring while writing.
As for teachers, this study can be a reference in improving their knowledge in teaching writing by paying more attention to the ambiguity of phrase meanings. This study will also help them assess their students writing products so that they can make improvement in their students writing skill.
1.6 Definition of Terms
There are several terms used in this study. To avoid misunderstanding, the writer provides a list of the terms below.
1. Fan-fictions
“Fan-fiction is fan-produced texts that derive from forms of media,
literature, and popular culture”. Fan-fictions are the same as narrative writings that feature characters from a certain media, literature and popular culture (Black, 2007, p. 385). For example, the authors who like Spiderman make own fictional stories in which Spiderman, Mary Jane, Green Goblin, etc. role as the characters of the fictions.
2. Meanings Meanings are “things that are grasped, stored and assembled in the mind of the speakers and hearers who use language” (Bergmann, 2007, p. 233).
Meaning of each expression also enables it to play a distinctive role in communication (Alston, 2000, p. 154).
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3. Structural ambiguity Structural ambiguity is a clear-cut phenomenon when both words and sentences can have more than one meaning (Kempson, 1977, p. 123). As supported by Ullman (1977, p.156), the sentences in question can be given two distinct syntactic trees. It is caused by grammatical factor such as the existence of many ambiguous grammatical forms and the equivocal phrasing.
4. Phrase Phrase is a group of words forming a meaning, but it does not have any subject or predicate (Mas’ud, 2005, p. 171). There are five types of phrases, namely: noun phrase which head is noun (Leech, 1994, p. 315), verb phrase which head is verb and it typically consists of just the main verb (Leech, 1994, p. 396), adjective phrase, prepositional phrase, and adverbial phrase (Heageman & Gueron, 2004, pp. 67-72).
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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter discusses two major sections. The first is the theoretical description
of the study outlined in Chapter 1. The second is the presentation of theoretical framework.
2.1. Theoretical Description
2.1.1 English Phrases
Traditionally, phrase is a term used in grammatical analysis which refers to a single element of linguistic structure containing more than one word, lacking of subject and predicate (Crystal, 1950, p. 170). Mas’ud (2005, p. 171) also mentions a similar statement that a phrase is a group of words forming a meaning, but it does not have any subject or predicate.
Based on Delahunty and Garvey (2010, p. 274), the definitions above entail three characteristics as follows.
(1) it specifies that only a group of words can constitute a phrase, implying that a single word cannot; (2) it distinguishes phrases from clauses; and (3) it requires that the groups of words believed to be a phrase constitute a single grammatical unit.
However, they reject the first characteristic that single words cannot constitute phrases. A word and a phrase may play identical grammatical roles in a clause, meaning that “a single word may be a phrase when it is the head of that phrase” (Delahunty & Garvey, 2010, p. 274). Stated by Delahunty and Garvey, “the head
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of a phrase is the phrase’s central element; any other words (or phrases) in the phrase orient to it, either by modifying it or complementing it” (2010, p. 275).
As it has been classified by some experts, there are five major types of phrase. Those are: noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, prepositional phrase and adverbial phrase. As the head of the phrase determines the phrase’s category (Delahunty & Garvey, 2010, p. 275), it is clear that a phrase which head is a noun is categorized as noun phrase (Leech, 1994, p. 315) which is considered as the most frequently occurring phrase. A group of words which its head is typically verb and it can consist of just the main verb is called verb phrase (Leech, 1994, p. 396). Meanwhile, a group of words which head is adjective and it is used to modify a noun or pronoun is called adjective phrase (Mas’ud, 2005, p. 171). At last, it is obvious that adverbial phrase is a phrase which head is adverb and prepositional phrase is a phrase which head is a preposition (Delahunty & Garvey, 2010, p. 275).
2.1.2 Theory of Syntax
Syntax is a study of the structure of sentences, “uncovering the underlying principles or rules, for constructing well-formed sentences if a particular language” (McManis, Stollenwerk and Zheng Seng, 1987, p. 153). As a subdivision of the study of grammar, not only concerning with the ways in which words can be combined together to form and sentences, syntax is also concerned with the interpretation of phrases and sentences (Radford, 1997, p. 1). There are two types of rules in studying sentence structures, those are: (1) phrase structure rules or
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constituent structure rules and (2) transformational rules. Those rules present the knowledge of how constituents of phrases or sentences are put together and categorized in a language (McManis, Stollenwerk and Zheng Seng, 1987, p. 171). However this study is not going to discuss further about this rules since it is not the focus of this study.
Leaving the rules above, words in all human language can be grouped into a relatively small number of classes called syntactic categories, in which constituents belong to, reflecting a variety of factors including the type of meaning the words express, the type of affixes that they take, and the type of sentence structures in which they can occur (O’Grady, Dobrovolsky, & Katamba, 1997, p. 182). The table 2.1 below will provides the example of how O’Grady, Dobrovolsky, and Katamba classify words in syntactic categories.
Table 2.1 Syntactic CategoriesLexical Categories Examples
Noun (N) Harry, boy, wheat, policy, moisture, bravery Verb (V) arrive, discuss, melt, hear, remain, dislike Adjective (A) good, tall, old, intelligent, beautiful, fond Preposition (P) to, in, on, near, at, by Adverb (Adv) silently, slowly, quietly, quickly, now
Non-lexical Categories Examples
Determiner (Det) the, a, this, these Degree word (Deg) too, so, very, more, quite Qualifier (Qual) always, perhaps, often, never, almost Auxiliary (Aux) will, can, may, must, should, could Conjunction (Con) and, or, but However, the fact that some items can belong to more than one category may be a potential source of confusion in the word classification.
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using DP matters for pedagogical purpose. Using NP structure in this scope is preferred (A. Radford, PC, October 17, 2012).
Over those three arguments of structuring a phrase or sentence, a phrase or sentence can be built by more than one tree diagram. This phenomenon will lead to the existence of structural ambiguity that will be discussed later.
2.1.3. Semantics and Word’s Meaning
Semantics is a term which is in inseparable from meaning. Semantics is roughly defined as the study of meaning in language. Based on Language Files compiled by McManis, Stollenwerk and Zheng-Sheng (1987, pp. 185-186), a word’s meaning is not simply based on dictionary. A word’s meaning also includes its mental image. As an example, while reading the words Mona Lisa, an image of the Mona Lisa will appear in our mind. As many words seem to stand for or refer to actual objects or relations in the real world, a referent also is considered as one aspect of the word’s meaning.
It is also believed that “anyone who does understand the sentences knows
what the world would be like in order for the sentence to be true .” (McManis,
Stollenwerk and Zheng-Sheng, 1987, p. 185) , meaning that the truth conditions rule as the other aspect of a word’s meaning as it is also determined by the conditions under which sentence may be used. Those aspects of meanings are what semantics studied, while it also “deals with the ways meanings of words are
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combined to give meanings of larger linguistic expressions such as phrases and sentences.” (McManis, Stollenwerk and Zheng-Sheng, 1987, p. 186).
Meanwhile, semantically, ‘meaning’ is described by various definitions. Among three definitions that Leech (1981, p. 23) proposes, it is clear that meaning is something which is performed rather than something which exists in statics way.
It involves action, interaction and speakers’ intention in conveying a certain meaning. Consequently, the interpretation of meaning depends on the context of the action, interaction and speakers intention. This definition is supported by Kempson’s similar statement which relates meaning and reference, as she states that “the meaning or sense of a symbol could be defined as a statement of the condition necessary and sufficient to hold in some state of affairs” (1975, p. 32).
Meaning is a multifaceted phenomenon. It is also defined as “things that are grasped, stored and assembled in the mind of the speakers and hearers who use language”, having two complementary aspects which cannot be separated (Bergmann, 2007, p. 233).
Bergmann (2007, p. 233) explains that a language is “a system of symbols used to represent object and states of affairs in the world”, while one of the aspects of linguistic meaning is the information content of language: “what language tells us about the real world”. In the other words, one aspect of meaning is the relationship between the symbols that we used to refer to things and the actual states of affairs that we use these symbols to describe.
On the other hand, linguistic meaning also does not exist independently outside the minds that process language. Therefore, as a cognitive and
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psychological phenomenon, the second aspect of meaning is its mental representation, “having of what a word or phrase means its sense of how the meanings of various words in our mental lexicon are related to each other” (Bergmann, 2007, p. 233).
Another similar concept of meaning is proposed by Alston, relating the concept of meaning to linguistic expression. Alston (2000, p. 148) stated that “a linguistic expression is a constituent of a language; hence it is something of an abstract order, something that can have many “realization” of different sorts.” meaning that each of linguistic expression has a meaning which is distinguishable. The meaning of each expression enables it to play a distinctive role in communication (Alston, 2000. p. 154). However, an expression, later on, may have two or more meanings (Alston, 2000, p.151). This fact later will lead to the existence of ambiguity.
2.1.4 Ambiguity
Some experts have defined ambiguity in various ways. As an example,
Lew (1996, p. 3) defines ambiguity as “linguistic ambiguity is that property of a
fragment of text which allows for two or more significantly different semantic
interpretations to be arrived at by a substantial proportion of typical text
recipients.” Meanwhile, Kempson (1977, p. 123) defines ambiguity as a clear-cut
phenomenon when both words and sentences can have more than one meaning.Looking up this definition, the ambiguity can occur both on spoken or written language. Both of the definition clearly mentions that if property of a fragment of
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text which are words or sentences has more than one meaning, it is considered
ambiguous.According to Djajasudarma, meaning ambiguity is caused by four reasons.
First, the ambiguity occurs because of the characteristic of general word or
sentences which has multiple meaning, for example the word ‘buku’ in Bahasa
Indonesia means ‘book’ or ‘joint’ (Djajasudarma, 1996, p. 56). Second, an unclear
context of the words or sentences makes the words or sentences itself become
unclear (Djajasudarma, 1996, p. 56). The unclear limitation of words or sentences
meaning become the third reason of the occurrence of the ambiguity and the last
one, the ambiguity is caused by the chosen words or sentence which is not
familiar with the reference (Djajasudarma, 1996, p. 56).Based on how long a sentence, a phrase or a word is considered ambiguous; ambiguity is divided in two categories namely permanent ambiguity and temporary ambiguity. Permanent ambiguity occurs when the sentence, phrase or word still remains ambiguous even though it has been related to its context.
Meanwhile, temporary ambiguity occurs when the sentence, phrase or word becomes unambiguous after it has been related to its context (Lavel, 2011). On the other hand, from the various types of ambiguity proposed by previous researchers, Ullman classifies three main types of ambiguity; those are phonetic ambiguity, lexical ambiguity, and grammatical ambiguity (1977, p. 156). Related to this study, the writer will explore only on the grammatical or commonly known as structural ambiguity and a little bit of lexical ambiguity for additional information.
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2.1.4.1 Lexical Ambiguity
As cited by Pateda (1989), each lexeme can contain multiple meanings. It depends on the information content of the lexeme undergone. Supported by Ullman (1977, p. 158), the main cause of lexical ambiguity is due to the occurrence of situation as polysemy and homonymy. In relation to polysemy, individual word or phrase that can be used (in different contexts) to express two or more different meanings, for instance, the words ‘head’ may undergo a meaning as ‘the upper part of the human body or the front part of the body in animals; contains the face and brains’ and ‘person who is in charge’ (Ullman, 1977, p. 158).
Meanwhile, in relation to homonymy, words that are spelled the same way but differ in meaning or the relation between two words that are pronounced the same way but differ in meaning, the words ‘bank’ can have two meaning. The first meaning is sloping land (especially the slope beside a body of water) and the second is a financial institution that accepts deposits and channels the money into lending activities (Ullman, 1977, p. 158).
If readers or listeners do not know the context of the words, polysemy and homonymy may cause ambiguity which later may lead the readers or listeners to different interpretation and information. However, this research does not study the lexical ambiguity; so, this type of ambiguity will not be explored further.
2.1.4.2 Structural Ambiguity
Pateda (1989) proposes that structural ambiguity usually occurs in a group of lexeme or in sentence level. As a result, the ambiguity can be seen from two
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different points of view. The first point of view which is proposed by Ullman (1977, p. 156) is ambiguity which is caused by grammatical formation. For example, affix can create multiple meaning which somewhat confusing. The suffix –able does not always have the same meaning in every word like in
desirable and eatable. The word desirable is only categorized as adjective,
meanwhile the word eatable is categorized as adjective and noun as well.The second point of view Ullman proposed (1977, p. 156) is ambiguity which is caused by equivocal phrasing or amphibology. In this case, the individual lexemes are not ambiguous, but their combination in forming a phrase or sentence may have two or more interpretations. For example, the sentence ‘I
meet a number of old friends and acquaintance’ , the adjective ‘old’ may refer to
both the friends and acquaintance or the friends only. This ambiguity may be clarified by looking up the context or the supra-segmental element within.
Similar studies of analyzing structural ambiguity have been conducted before by several researchers. This ambiguity can be resolve by “adding the hyphen (-) or the preposition (of) between the head and modifier, adding the word (which is) or (which are), and (who is) or (who are) to show about something that is being talked about, and placing the preposition phrase at the beginning of the sentence in terms to explain where the action took place”, as it has been suggested by Andarini (2012) in her study. However, the explanation about how the resolution can be applied has not been explained in detail.