The study of semantic features on English verbs containing meaning to walk - USD Repository
THE STUDY OF SEMANTIC FEATURES ON ENGLISH
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By AGNES SRI PAULINA
Student Number: 034214111
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2009
MOTTO
Perseverance can make something impossible become possible,
make a possibility become a bigger possibility, and make a
bigger possibility come true.
(Robert Half)
Everything will be fine at the point of time.
(Agnes S.Paulina)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writer believes that she would not be able to finish this undergraduate thesis if there were no help from others. She is very glad to express her gratitude to those who have been so kind to her during her study in the college. She would like to dedicate her gratitude to particular names below.
First of all, she thanks Jesus Christ who is always guiding and protecting her anywhere and anytime. Without His blessing, she believes that she was nothing.
She thanks her advisor Adventina Putranti S.S. M. Hum, for the kindness in guiding her in the process of finishing this thesis, for the advice to dedvelop her analysis, and for the information on the reference books. She also thanks her co-advisor Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M. Pd. M. A., for giving her some corrections in this thesis.
She expresses her everlasting gratitude to her father Paulus Jiminar
Adwianto S. Pd, her mother Lusia Sriyati, and her sister Elisabet Dewi
Sulistyawati. Thanks for the love, care, and support so that she could motivate
herself to finish this thesis as soon as possible.
She would like to thank her beloved man Aloysius Adityo Esti
Wijatmico, for the love, support, care, happiness, sadness, and consolation. She
thanks Mico’s mother, father, and twin sister Rita and Ratih, for the support to keep spirit. Thanks to Frater Veri who always accompanies and guides her to pray.
She thanks Paulina Gupta Wijaya, for the willingness to share some ideas with her. Her best friends Margareta Novita Kasmawati, who always share some jokes, sadness, happiness with smile, and Putri Kurnia Jati, who always asks her to keep spirit. She also extends her gratitude to 9C’ s big family
Ery, Eli, Beta, Byti, Anyez, Sari, Yanita, Helmy Siska, Yani, Yanti, Aken, and
Lala.Finally, she would like to express her greatest gratitude to all her friends in the Seriboe Djendela Teater and the 2003 English Letters especially Sastra
Mungil Community. Thanks to Leni, Mando, Abit, Mei, Maya, Clara, C-sil,
Ike, Demz, Sondang, Djamil, Dewi, Theo, Ketut, Nani, Afrill, Yuni, Intan,
Yacko, Inop, Cita, Ginting, and Muji.Agnes Sri Paulina
TABLE OF CONTENT
TITLE PAGE .............................................................................................. i APPROVAL PAGE .................................................................................... ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ............................................................................... iii MOTTO PAGE ........................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENT ............................................................................... vii TABLE OF TABLE..................................................................................... ix ABSTRACT................................................................................................. x ABSTRAK ................................................................................................... xi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION……………………………………….. 1 A. Background of the Study .................................................................
1 B. Problem Formulation ......................................................................
3 C. Objectives of the Study ...................................................................
3 D. Definition of Terms .........................................................................
3 CHAPTER II: THEORITICAL REVIEW……………………………. 5 A. Review of Related Studies ...............................................................
5 1. Undergraduate thesis by Dwi Ratri Indriyana ...........................
5 2. Undergraduate thesis by Sigid Bintoro ....................................
6 B. Review of Related Theories ............................................................
7 1. Theory on Linguistic Meaning ..................................................
7 a. theory on word meaning ......................................................
8
b. theory on sentential meaning ……………………………... 9
2. Theory on Synonym………………………………………….. 10
3. Theory on Componential Analysis…………………………… 11
C. Theoretical Framework…………………………………………….. 13
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY…………………………………….. 15 A. Object of the Study ......................................................................... 15 B. Approach of the Study ....................................................................
16 C. Method of the Study ........................................................................
17
1. Data Collection .................................................................… 17 2. Data Analysis .....................................................................
18 CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS……………………………………………… 21
A. The Semantic Features of English Verbs containing meaning to walk 21 B The Use of the English Verbs containing meaning to walk ............ 41
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION…………………………………………... 64 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................... 66 APPENDICES……………………………………………………………. 70 Appendix 1……………………………………………………………. 70 Appendix 2……………………………………………………………. 73
TABLE OF TABLE
Table 1 ………………………………………………………………… 18 Table 2 ………………………………………………………………… 22 Table 3 …………………………………………………………………
23 Table 4 ………………………………………………………………… 24 Table 5 …………………………………………………………………
25 Table 6 ………………………………………………………………… 26 Table 7 …………………………………………………………………
27 Table 8 …………………………………………………………………
28 Table 9 …………………………………………………………………
28 Table 10 ………………………………………………………………… 30 Table 11 ………………………………………………………………… 31 Table 12 ………………………………………………………………… 32 Table 13 ………………………………………………………………… 32 Table 14 ………………………………………………………………… 33 Table 15 ………………………………………………………………… 34 Table 16 ………………………………………………………………… 35 Table 17 ………………………………………………………………… 36 Table 18 ………………………………………………………………… 36 Table 19 ………………………………………………………………… 37 Table 20 ………………………………………………………………… 38 Table 21 ………………………………………………………………… 39 Table 22 ………………………………………………………………… 40
ABSTRACT
AGNES SRI PAULINA. The Study of Semantic Features on English Verbs
Containing Meaning To Walk. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters,
Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2009.This thesis is about the semantic features on English verb containing meaning to walk. The writer studies the English verb containing meaning to walk because it is one of English verbs with many near synonyms. The verb to walk in this case is defined as “to move along at a slow or moderate pace by lifting up and putting the down each foot in turn”. This definition is stated from Oxford
Advanced Learner’s dictionary . The scope of the study is related to only human
activities, which do not include animals, plants, and inanimate matters, because the human being has many kinds of moving that are seen from different manner, position of body, and reason.
This research has two objectives in the semantic analysis. First, it is to highlight the differences of each verb meaning to walk through the semantic features. Second, it is to show and analyze the use of each verb meaning to walk in sentences.
The writer uses Linguistic theories that involve word meaning and sentential meaning, synonyms, and theory on componential analysis to support the analysis. The writer uses componential analysis as the approach.
After analyzing the whole data, the writer obtains five things. First, using the semantic features, the features of the verbs can be categorized into manner, position of body, and the reason for moving. There are 14 features on manner of the movement such as slowly, relaxedly, heavily, lifting the feet, short steps,
backwards and forwards, unsteadily, move gently in water, laboriously in any
substance, move on toes, move in weakness, stealthy manner, move with regular
steps of equal length, individually . There are 4 features on the position of body
such as standing firmly, sideways, laming, almost falling over. There are 19 features on the reason for moving such as, not to attract attention, partially
disabled leg, moving together group or military formation, waiting for something
nervously, playing in the water, procession to celebrate something, without
resting, exercising, aimless, weakness, tiredness, laziness, being nervous, bored,
old, drunkenness, fatigue , to steal, to boast off, relaxed activity, not to be known
the presence, having no house, tired on long journey, any substance that is
Second, all verbs are intransitive. Third, Some verbs require the direction shallow. such as edge, march, pace, plod, promenade, shamble, shuffle, stalk, stride, stroll,
tiptoe, totter, trudge, wade and some do not require such as limp, paddle, parade,
ramble, stagger, tramp . Fourth, the features of each verb can be identified
explicitly through the choice of words and implicitly by looking at the context. Fifth, each verb meaning to walk has different reason to move
ABSTRAK
AGNES SRI PAULINA. The Study of Semantic Features on English Verbs
Containing Meaning To Walk. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas
Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2009.Skripsi ini tentang fitur semantis dari kata kerja Bahasa Inggris yang berarti to walk. Penulis kata kerja bahasa Inggris yang berarti to walk karena kata kerja ini adalah salah satu dari kata kerja bahasa Inggris yang memiliki banyak padanan kata dengan makna yang kurang lebih sama tetapi tidak identik. Kata kerja to walk dalam masalah ini didefinisikan sebagai “bergerak dengan langkah pelan atau teratur dengan cara mengangkat dan menurunkan masing-masing kaki secara bergantian.” Definisi ini didapatkan dari kamus Oxford Advanced
Learner’s dictionary . Penelitian ini hanya mencakup kegiatan manusia, tidak
termasuk hewan, tumbuhan, dan benda-benda tidak bergerak, karena manusia memiliki beragam bentuk berjalan yang dapat dilihat dari perbedaan cara, posisi tubuh, dan alasan.
Penelitian ini memiliki dua tujuan dalam analisa semantik. Pertama, tujuannya adalah untuk menggarisbawahi perbedaan dari setiap kata kerja to walk lewat fitur semantis. Kedua, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menunjukkan dan menganalisa penggunaan setiap arti kata kerja to walk dalam kalimat.
Penulis menggunakan teori Linguistik yang mencakup arti kata dan arti kalimat, teori sinonim serta teori analisa komponen untuk mendukung analisa. Penulis menggunakan pendekatan analisa komponen.
Setelah menganalisa data-data, penulis mendapati empat hal. Pertama, menggunakan fitur semantis, fitur dari kata kerja dapat dikategorikan ke dalam cara, posisis tubuh, dan alasan bergerak. Terdapat 13 fitur cara bergerak seperti dengan pelan, dengan rileks, dengan langkah berat, mengangkat kaki, langkah pendek, mondar-mandir, sempoyongan, bergerak dalam air dengan pelan, bergerak dalam zat cair yang pekat, bergerak dengan ujung kaki, bergerak dengan keadaan lemah, bergerak dengan diam-diam, bergerak dengan langkah yang sama, 4 fitur posisi tubuh seperti berdiri dengan tegak, berjalan menyamping, pincang, hampir jatuh, dan 19 fitur untuk alasan bergerak seperti supaya tidak menarik perhatian, salah satu kaki tidak berfungsi dengan baik, bergerak bersama dalam kelompok atau formasi pasukan militer, menunggu seseorang dengan gelisah, bermain dalam air, prosesi untuk merayakan sesuatu, tanpa istirahat, latihan, tak bertujuan, lemah, kelelahan, malas, gelisah, bosan, tua, mabuk, kelelahan yang sangat, menyelinap/mencuri, menyombongkan diri, aktivitas santai, tidak diketahui kehadirannya, tidak punya rumah, lelah karena perjalanan jauh, zat cair yang dangkal. Kedua, semua kata kerja tersebut termasuk intransitif. Ketiga, beberapa kata kerja membutuhkan arah acuan seperti edge, march, pace, plod,
promenade, shamble, shuffle, stalk, stride, stroll, tiptoe, totter, trudge, wade, dan
beberapa tidak memerlukan arah acuan seperti limp, paddle, parade, ramble, . Keempat, feature dari setiap kata kerja dapat diidentifikasi secara
stagger, tramp eksplisit lewat pemilihan kata dan secara implisit dengan melihat konteks.
Kelima, masing-masing kata kerja memiliki alasan yang berbeda.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Living in the world, a human being needs to interact and socialize with
others. Human being should be able to deliver their ideas by using good ways and methods of communication. One of them is by using language. In order to deliver the ideas, the human being needs to know and understand well what the language itself is. Ronald Wardhaugh defines language as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication (Wardhaugh, 1977:3). It is similar to the definition of language according to Aitchison which it is the specialized sound signaling system which seems to be genetically programmed to develop in humans to communicate (Aitchison, 2003:13)
Language is creative, the communication is not restricted to a fixed set of topic; human being constantly produce and understand new messages in response to new situations and new experiences (Kreidler, 1998: 7). It means that language has always undergone the improvement in line with experiences of human being himself. There are three parts of language; phonology, syntax, and semantics. Phonology is the study of sound pattern. Syntax is the study of the arrangement and the forms of words. Semantics is the study of meaning. (Aitchison, 1982:17).
The writer studied semantics because the writer studied the meaning as the basic knowledge. In this research, the writer analyzed the English verbs meaning to walk because it was one of English verbs with many near synonyms. Especially, the writer studied the semantic features on the English verb meaning to walk because the writer wanted to highlight the differences of each verb used in sentences for English students. This study could enrich their English vocabularies by understanding the features of each verb and the use in sentences. In this research, using semantic feature, the writer tried to identify the features and the use of each type. To analyze the words meaning to walk, the writer used the study of synonyms. Synonyms are words that have one or more meaning in common and are interchangeable within certain context (Dees, 2003: 3). The synonymous words share the common meaning. In most situations could be substituted for each other with little difference in meaning
To limit the problems, the writer referred to the basic definition in
Oxford Advanced Learner’s dictionary. It stated that the meaning of the verb
to walk is to move along at a slow or moderate pace by lifting up and putting
down each foot in turn (Hornby, 1995:1337). The writer decided to analyze twenty verbs meaning to walk which were related to human activities only, which did not include animals, plants, and inanimate matters, because the human being had many kinds of moving that was seen from different reason, and situation. They were edge, limp, march, pace, paddle, parade, plod,
promenade, ramble, shamble, shuffle, stagger, stalk, stride, stroll, tiptoe,
totter, tramp, trudge, wade.B. Problem Formulation
In order to get deeper understanding about the differences of each verb meaning to walk, as guidance, the writer has formulated two problems.
1. What are the semantic features on English verb containing meaning to
walk ?
2. How are these verbs used in sentences? C.
Objectives of the study
The objectives of the study of the semantic analysis were mainly to answer the problems. First, the research was to highlight the differences of each verb meaning to walk through the semantic features. Second were to show and analyze the use of the each verb meaning to walk in sentences.
D. Definition of Terms In this research, some terms are defined below.
a.
Componential Analysis. According to Richard, Platt, and Weiber in
, it is an approach to a study
Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics
of meaning, which analyses a word into a set of meaning components or semantic features. Componential analysis is applied to a group of related words that may differ from one another only by one or two components. Besides, linguists use any approaches to analyze linguistic units which usually words and sound are divided into smaller parts or components (1985: 53).
a. Semantic Features. The smallest units of meaning in a word. The meaning of words may be described as a combination of semantic features. Often, semantic features are established by contrast and can be stated in terms of <+> and <―>. (Richard, Platt, and Weiber, 1985: 254)
CHAPTER II THEORITICAL REVIEW In this chapter, the writer discusses the review of related studies and
review of related theories. The reviews of related studies present the studies that had been done by previous writers that have relation to this study. In the review of related theories, the writer presents and list several theories that can support this analysis.
A. Review of Related Studies
1. An undergraduate thesis written by Dwi Ratri Indriyana entitled The
Semantic and Syntactic Features of the intransitive verb related to visual
senseIndriyana on one occasion analyzed the semantic features of the intransitive verb related “to visual senses”. Her objectives were to find out the words denoting visual sense, to find out the semantic properties of these words and to know the syntactic properties of the verbs. In her research, she found sixty-three verbs denoting visual activities that twenty-four of them are in the intransitive verb category; crane, discern, gape, gawk, gaze, glance, glare,
glint, gloat, glower, goggle, leer, look, observe, ogle, peek, peep, peer,
rubberneck, see, spy, squint, stare, watch. She used four dictionaries to define
these verbs; Meriam-Webster’s College Dictionary Eleventh Edition,
Webster’s New Twentieth Dictionary Unbridged, Longman Dictionary of
English Language and Culture, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. From these dictionaries, she could find the semantic features of each verb. Besides, she also used the syntactic features to show the similarities and the differences that were owned by the verbs.
In her study, Indriyana focused only on the intransitive verbs to be analyzed. This idea contributes the writer of this thesis to analyze the English verb meaning to walk to prove whether these verbs having meaning to walk are the intransitive verb or not.
However, there are two differences between Indriyana’s study and this thesis. First, Indriyana used syntactic features to show the similarities and the differences of each verb. Meanwhile, this thesis uses only semantic features to see the differences and the similarities of each verb. Second, Indriyana did not use each verb in sentences whereas the writer of this thesis uses each verb in sentences.
2. An undergraduate thesis written by Sigid Bintoro entitled The Semantic
Features of English Words Meaning “Good Looking”
Sigid Bintoro did another study of semantic features of English words meaning “Good Looking”. The objectives of his study were to find out the definition of the English adjective meaning “good looking”, and to find out the semantic features of the words. He found fifteen words that have meaning “good looking”; beautiful, handsome, fine, charming, graceful, attractive, pretty, elegant, lovely, sexy, cute, gorgeous, exquisite, fair, and breathtaking.
He used four dictionaries: Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Webster’s
Encyclopedia Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Merriam
Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary Unbridged. He used componential analysis method to show the
semantic features of the words.
In Bintoro’s study, he only focused on the semantic feature. His study contributed the writer to analyze another word with the same scope. It is about the semantic features. In this thesis, the writer studied the English verbs containing meaning to walk. Bintoro used componential analysis approach to guide the analysis. The writer of this thesis also used componential analysis as the approach to see semantic features.
There are several differences between Bintoro’s study and this thesis. First, the writer of this thesis directly analyzes the semantic features each word while Bintoro’s study analyzed the definition of the words at first to decide the semantic features. Second, the writer of this thesis sees the uses of the words in sentences from sources such as dictionary and articles in website while Bintoro’s study did not use the words in sentences from sources..
B. Review of Related Theories
In this review, the important theories that are related to the research and can support the analysis are presented. The theories can be seen in the following part.
1. Theory on Linguistic Meaning
The study of the linguistic meaning is called semantics. According to Fromkin, Blair, and Collins, semantics concerns with the meaning of words, and the meaning relationships among words, phrasal, or sentential meaning (2000: 151).
a.
Theory on Word Meaning
According to Richard, Platt, and Weiber, word is the smallest Linguistic units which can occur on its own in speech or writing (1985: 311). Nida supports this idea. According to her, a single word may have a number of quite different meanings. However, in most instances, a word has central meaning from which a number of other meanings are derived. There will be a connection between each of these meanings and the apparent central meaning.
(1975: 11).
The same word may have different meanings, and different words may have closely related meanings. For instances, the adjectives beautiful, pretty,
and graceful have the same meaning as good looking (Bintoro, 2007:31).
According to Nida, there are four types of relations between related meanings of different terms; inclusion, overlapping, complementation, and contiguity (1975: 15). Inclusion is the meaning of one word that is included into meaning of another word. For example, the meaning of poodle is included into the meaning of dog; the meaning of dog is included into the meaning of animal.
Overlapping is the meaning of one word that can be substituted with other
words in certain context without significant change in the conceptual content of an utterance, for example, sick/ill, answer/reply, possess/own.
Complementation is the meaning that has contrast meaning with another word meaning, such as good/bad, beautiful/ugly, much/little, and many/few.
Contiguity is the components/features of meaning that represent the relations
between closely related meanings. It means that although a word has similar meaning with others, there is a distinct feature to differentiate with others. For example, walk, run, hop, and skip (1975: 18). These verbs share the features of movement by an animate being by using the parts of body but they are different in the number of part of body that is used and the order of movement.
b. Theory on sentential meaning
According to Fromkin, Blair, and Collins, sentential meaning is built from the meaning of noun phrases and verb phrases (2000: 171). This explanation has similar idea with Cruse. According to Cruse, a sentence is a grammatical unit that must contain at least one independent clause and at least one predication. It means that it does not need another clause. Thus, the sentence is the smallest linguistic unit that can be used in an act of “telling” (2000: 22). However, a sentence is not merely used to tell something. It should have truly condition and contain grammatical arrangement. The grammar of language is associated with the principles of composition, how to put together the meanings of constituents of a construction to get the global meaning of the construction (Cruse, 2000: 23). It is said that a sentence should have truth condition because it makes a sentence be a true statement.
A sentence is composed of phrases. According to Fromkin, Blair, and Collins, the study of how word meanings are combined into phrases and sentences meanings and the meaning relationships among these larger units is called phrasal or sentential meaning (2000: 164). The meaning of a phrase or sentence depends on both meaning of its words and its context (Fromkin, Blair, and Collins, 2000: 164)
2. Theory on Synonym
Words that have the same meaning in a given context are called synonym. In another word, the words are called synonym when they have the same value for all of their semantic features. For example man and boy, big and large.
There are three kinds of synonym in language system; near-synonymy, partial synonymy, and absolute synonymy. Near synonym are the expressions that are more or less similar but not identical in meaning (Lyons, 1995: 60). In other words, near synonym is the words that have the same concepts but it can not substitute each other For examples, mist and fog, stream and brook, dive and plunge, man and boy. Man and boy both refer to male human. The meaning of boy includes the additional semantic properties ‘youth’ and the meaning of Man includes the semantic properties ‘adult’. Partial synonymy is the expressions that have a part of meaning because there is a shifting of meaning. It means two words that have similar meaning, sometimes both can be used in certain contexts, but sometimes both cannot be used in other contexts, such as big and large. Absolute synonymy is the expression identical in all their condition, semantically equivalent on all dimensions of meaning, descriptive and non-descriptive, and synonymous in all contexts (Lyons, 1995: 61). For example, the word sofa and couch both refer to the same object and both have semantic properties
Fromkin, Blair, and Collins mentions that synonym does not occur only in the words that have the same sound but it can occur also in the words that have different sound (2000: 157). It shows that there are no perfect synonyms having same meaning.
3. Theory on Componential Analysis Kempson mentions that componential analysis is used to give an explicit representation of the systematic relation between words, not as unitary concepts but as complexes made up of components meaning (1989: 18). For example, spinster has the components [FEMALE], [NEVER MARRIED], [ADULT], [HUMAN]. This kind of analysis is used to account for the kinship terminology in various cultures. However, componential analysis is not limited to kinship terms; it can be applied in many areas of the vocabulary. It is used to contrast the component. For example, the differences of the word
murder and kill (1989: 18). Murder has the component of intention, causation,
and death. Kill has the component of causation and death. Besides, there is another component that can be shared. The word murder has another component of human.
To establish a word meaning, some ways can be conducted, including by looking at its semantic features. Semantic features itself, according to Radford, Atkinson, Britain, Clahsen, and Spencer, in Linguistics: An Introduction, should be decomposable (1999:200). It means that the meaning of a word should be separated or broken up into constituent parts, especially as parts that build up the words. For examples, ram, ewe, lamb (1999: 201). They mean
sheep. The fundamental distinction lies on the gender, whether it is male or
female, and the maturity, whether it is adult or non-adult. Thus, the semantic features of these words are ram – [male, adult...], ewe – [female, adult…], lamb-[none, adult…]. These features express the semantic relation between different lexical items that have different main meaning.
To understand the degree of similarity between words, it can be easily measured by the number of features they have in common. According to Parker in Linguistics for Non-Linguists, lexical decomposition is a method that is used to characterize the sense/meaning of words (1986: 30). There are several advantages using lexical decomposition. It is easy to characterize the meaning of additional words by adding features and it can explain the intuitions as English speaker such as man and boy (1986: 30). Both are more closely related than the meaning of man and girl. Man and boy have the same value [+male]. Meanwhile, man and girl do not have the same value. Although the linguists have used lexical decomposition, they cannot account exactly how many and which features constitute the universal set of semantic features.
According to Nida, componential analysis does not attempt to describe in detail all the various features or characteristics of each type of related event, but only to point out the distinctive contrast which serve to separate one meaning or set of meanings from the others (1975: 60-61). For example, the English words whisper, murmur (1975: 61). The verb whisper has semantic features [+verb, -musical pitch, -voices] and the verb murmur has semantic features [+verb, - musical pitch, +voiced]. The value [± voiced] is not an exactly component in this case because both words still produce the voice.
Thus, the right component is [± loudness].
C. Theoretical Framework
The objectives of this thesis are to highlight the differences of each verb meaning to walk through the semantic features and to show and analyze the use of the each verb meaning to walk in sentences.
Two questions in the problem formulation were the main discussions in the analysis. The first question is concerning the semantic features of the English verb meaning to walk. The second question is about the use of these verbs in sentences. To answer the questions related to the objectives, theories on Linguistic Meaning that consist of word meaning and sentential meaning, Synonym, and Componential Analysis were applied on the analysis.
In answering the first question, the writer used theory on synonym to search the verbs that have similar meaning with the verb meaning to walk and
theory on word meaning to define these verbs based on four dictionaries.
Besides, the writer also uses Componential analysis to analyze the semantic features on each verb and to see the differences between them.
The theory on sentential meaning was used to answer the second question. This theory is used to analyze the use of each word in sentences.
The review of related studies provides the ground for further analysis to describe the semantic features of English verbs containing meaning to walk. The review of related studies directed the writer to avoid the plagiarism in the analysis.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY This chapter consists of three parts including the object of the study, the
approach of the study, and method of the study. The object of the study discusses the object being analyzed, that is the English verb meaning to walk. The approach of the study discusses about the approach that is used to analyze the object. Finally, the method of study presents data collection and data analysis.
A. Object of the Study The data in this study are the verbs containing the basic meaning to walk.
Thus, in this study there are only verbs meaning to walk to be analyzed. The meaning of the verb to walk is “to move along at a slow or moderate pace by lifting up and putting down each foot in turn” (Hornby AS, 1995:1337). This definition is also supported by other definitions. Webster’s New Twentieth
Century Dictionary Unabridged stated “To go along or move about on foot at a
moderate pace; specifically to move by placing one foot firmly on the ground before lifting the other (Simon and Schuster, 1981: 2055)”. Random House
Webster’s College Dictionary stated “to travel on foot at a moderate speed;
proceed by advancing the feet alternately so that there is always one feet on the ground in bipedal locomotion (2001: 1469)”. Longman Dictionary of
contemporary English stated “To move along putting one foot in front of the other
(2001: 1605)”. The definitions are limited to human activities only, which do not include animals, plants, and inanimate matters, because human being has many kinds of walking that are seen from different reason, and situation.
Generally, the analyses, by discovering the semantic features that make the verb meaning to walk different from each other, are revealed. The complete definition will show automatically the distinctive elements clearly, since each verb is considered as synonym. The synonyms always have the distinctive elements in its meaning. The verbs meaning to walk that are going to be analyzed are edge,
limp, march, pace, paddle, parade, plod, promenade, ramble, shamble, shuffle, stagger, stalk, stride, stroll, tiptoe, totter, tramp, trudge, and wade. The writer
uses a dictionary Roget’s Thesaurus of English words and phrases that is written by George Davidson in 2003 by Penguin Books and The Oxford Dictionary and
Thesaurus in 1996 by Oxford University Press because these dictionaries are the most used.
To define each verb, the writer uses four dictionaries; Oxford Advanced
Learner’s Dictionaries (1995), Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary Unabridged (1981), Random House Webster’s College Dictionary (2001),
. The writer decides to use these
Longman Dictionary of contemporary (2001)
fourth dictionaries because they are commonly used for learners and easy to understand.
B. The approach of the Study
This thesis is studying in Linguistic that focusing on semantics. As this thesis is related to semantics, it studies the meaning. In meaning, the writer uses Componential Analysis because it is effective when it comes to present the similarities and differences among the words with related meaning.
Componential analysis involves the analysis of the meaning of a lexeme into its component parts (Lyons, 1995: 107). The components will be analyzed. After knowing the components, the writer will explain them one by one. From this explanation, the distinction of the words will appear.
C. Method of the Study: 1. Data Collection
In order to write this thesis, the writer conducted some relevant procedures or steps. The first step that was done by the writer in the data collection was defining the verb to walk based on four dictionaries. The second step was selecting verbs containing meaning to walk from the dictionary, which were the verbs having meaning to walk in Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and
Phrases . In this dictionary, there were many verbs which containing meaning to walk . However, not all verbs could be included in the data of this research. It was
because the writer had limited to human activities only that did not include animals, plants, and inanimate matters. To make it sure, the writer searched for the verbs that containing meaning to walk in The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus. It was also to add whether there were other verbs that containing meaning to walk.
To select a verb, the writer defined each verb by looking at Oxford Advanced
Learner’s dictionary . From this selection, the writer could decide which verb
could be considered. The third step, the writer used four dictionaries to define each verb completely; Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionaries, Webster’s New
Twentieth Century Dictionary Unabridged, Random House Webster’s College Dictionary, Longman Dictionary of contemporary English. The writer decided that four dictionaries because they were common to use for learners, the words were easier to understand, and the definition completed each other. From those definitions, the writer could conclude the features of each verb commonly and input all features into a table. To conclude the features, the writer also examined carefully for the sentences as the example in the dictionaries. The fourt steps were collecting the sentences from dictionaries and articles in website. The destination . they involve the articles as the examples.
2. Data Analysis
In analyzing the data to answer the two problems, the writer did these following steps. First, the writer tried to define each verb by using four dictionaries. Second, by looking at the definitions completely and using the componential analysis, the writer tried to identify the semantic features of the English verbs meaning to walk. To identify these features, the following table was applied to each verb. The table has been prepared based on the meaning element of the analyzed word. The complete cart of the features is shared in the following with no indication of the value.
Table: 1. Semantic Features to identify in the analyzed verbs.
Manner Position of body Reason
- Slowly standing firmly not to attract attention
- relaxedly sideways partially disabled leg
- heavily laming moving together group or military formation lifting the feet almost fal
- over waiting for something short steps
- nervously backwards and
- playing in the water forwards