CHAPTER II 

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 What is Semantics?

In linguistics, Semantic is generally considered as the study of meaning in a language

(Palmer 1976:1). Semantics tries to understand what meaning is as an element of language

and how it is constructed by language as well as interpreted, obscured and negotiated by

speakers and listeners of language. Before the writer explains more about Semantics, it is

better if we know the history of the word ‘Semantics’. The term Semantics is a recent

addition to the English language. Although there is one occurrence of semantick in the phrase

semantick philoshophy to mean ‘divination’ in the seventeenth century, semantics does not

occur until it was introduced in a paper read to the American Philological Association in

1894 entitled ‘Reflected meanings: a point in semantics’. The French term sémantique had

been coined from Greek in the previous year by M. Bréal. In fact the term Semantics was not

simply to refer to meaning but its development. Such a concept of Semantics has been even

in used until the 20th Century as can be evident from ‘The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of

Current English’, which defines Semantics ‘branch of philology concerned with the meaning

of words’.

Semantics is closely linked with another sub discipline of linguistics, pragmatics

which is also broadly speaking the study of meaning. However, unlike pragmatics, semantics

is a highly theoretical research perspective, and looks at

meaning in language in isolation, in the language itself, whereas pragmatics is a more

practical subject and is interested in meaning in language in use.

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 Semantics is also informed by other sub disciplines of linguistics, such as

Morphology, as understanding the words themselves is integral to the study of their meaning,

and Syntax, which researchers in semantics use extensively to reveal how meaning is created

in language, as how language is structured is central to meaning.

Palmer (1976:1) says, “Semantics is technical term used to refer to the study of

meaning”. It is concerned with what sentences and other Linguistics objects express, not with

the arrangement of their syntactic parts or with their pronunciation. Semantics looks at these

relationships in language and looks at how these meanings are created, which is an important

part of understanding how language works as a whole. Understanding how meaning occurs in

language can inform other sub disciplines such as Language acquisition, to help us to

understand how speakers acquire a sense of meaning, and Sociolinguistics, as the

achievement of meaning in language is important in language in a social situation.

Semantics concentrates on the similarities between languages, rather than on the

differences. Semantics 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.

Semantics is concerned with the meanings of non-sentences, such as phrases and incomplete

sentences, just as much as with the whole sentences.

The writer of this thesis wants to show the readers some definitions of Semantics

given by the Linguists below:

- Djajasudarma (1993:14) states, “Semantik adalah ilmu makna, membicarakan makna,

bagaimana mula adanya makna sesuatu (mis., sejarah kata, dalam arti bagaimana kata

itu muncul), bagaimana perkembangannya, dan mengapa terjadi perubahan makna

dalam sejarah bahasa.”

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 - Tarigan (1985:7) states, “Semantik adalah telaah makna. Semantik menelaah

lambing-lambang atau tanda-tanda yang menyatakan makna, hubungan makna yang

satu dengan yang lain, dan pengaruhnya terhadap manusia dan masyarakat.”

- Saeed (2009:1) states, “Semantics is the study of meaning communicated through

language.”

- S. Shafiee (2012:3) states, “The study of meaning of words, phrases, and sentences”

From the definitions above, we know that Semantics is the study of meaning that is

used for understanding human expression through language.

2.2 Scope of Semantics

The answer of the scope of Semantics should relate to all meaningful utterance of

language and the relationship of meaning, which is contained by the utterance. In other

words, the scope of Semantics is the characterization of meaning and its relation. There are at

least two major approaches to know how the way meaning in a language is studied. The first

is linguistics approach, the second is philosophical approach. Philosophers have investigated

the relation between linguistic expression, such as the words of language and the persons,

things and events in the world to which these words refer.

There are three basic terms have been widely used in each of these approaches, i.e. (1)

meaning, (2) sense, and (3) reference. The term ‘meaning’ is simply derived from the word

‘mean’. The notion of sense and reference are central to the study of meaning. Reference is

not only meant the words which refers to something but also to the words which can not be

brought forward for the existence of something but have lexical items referring to it, while

the sense is a relation which occur between two lexical items.

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 2.2.1 Meaning

“What is meaning?” is a basic question of Semantics that has bee agreed by everyone.

It is supposed that an answer can be given of the form “meaning is this or that”. But the

question “what is meaning” does not admit of a direct “this or that answer; its answer is

instead a whole theory. Or we can say that “what is meaning” is a request for a Semantics

theory.

We shall attempt to answer the question by constructing a theory that explicates the

concepts of meaning within the frame work of a full systematization of the empirical facts

about Semantics structures in natural language.

Linguists and philosophers who have dealt with Semantics have found it possible to

give some sort “considered answer” to the question “what is meaning” by equating meaning

with something else-reference, dispositions to use words correctly stimuli that elicit and

control verbal responses, a body of Platonic archetypes, mental images so connected with

words as to serve as their external sensible signs and so on.

Lyons (1977:138) defines “Meaning as a word of the ordinary everyday vocabulary of

English”. In everyday English, the word ‘mean’ is used in a number of different ways.

For example:

a. Without ice cream, life wouldn’t mean (have any purposes) anything.

b. They are so mean (cruel) to me.

c. This will mean (result in) the end of second class citizenship.

From these examples, we know that there are various meaning of word ‘mean’.

Although there are various terms of meaning, in facts, exemplify two importantly sorts of

meaning, they are linguistic meaning and speaker meaning. In general, the linguistic meaning

of an expression is simply the meaning or meanings of that expression in some form of

language.

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For example:

1. The engines run well

Run means work

2. He scored a run in the third inning

Run means best point

Speaker meaning is what a speaker means in producing an utterance.

For example: The weather is bright. The speaker does not mean something different from

what the sentence means. The speaker tells about the weather’s condition.

The other explanations are stated by Bahren U. Siregar (1990:8) “Although we are

supposed not to make words mean what they do not mean, we sometimes mean something

different from what our words mean (linguistically). In other words, we sometimes speak

non-literally. Thus, if we are speaking non-literally, then we will mean something different

from what our words mean. If we are speaking literally, then we mean what our words

mean”.

In constructing a Semantics theory, Katz (1972:7) says, : A semantics theory must

explain why the meaning of a linguistic construction makes it a case of a certain Semantics

property or relation, makes it exhibit the phenomenon of synonymy, ambiguity, or

redundancy, so forth”.

2.2.2 Sense and Reference

Reference deals with the relationship between the linguistic elements, word,
sentences, and the non linguistic world of experience. Sense relates to the complex
system of the relationship that holds between the linguistics elements themselves
(mostly the words); it is concerned only with intra-linguistic relation. Palmer
(1976:30)

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 Based on the Palmer’s concept it can be said that the reference of the word is the

object designated by the word. For example, the reference of the word chair is the object

designated by the word which can be ‘upside down number four’. The other example is bed

has a certain meaning as ‘a piece of furniture with a mattress and covering’. Bed refers to ‘a

thing that functions to sleep or to rest on’. There are some words that have meaning but they

don’t have reference. They don’t refer physical object at all, for example: love, had,

inspiration and sad.

The words are common called as abstract thing. There are also some words that have

meaning but they are kinds of world of fairy story. In other words, they do not denote objects

in the world. For example: unicorn and goblin relate to creatures that do not exist.

When people are speaking of the meaning of a word, they are usually speaking about one

of its senses which are usually believed as the primary sense.

Some words, perhaps, have more than one sense. For example, the sense of sole in the

following example is different:

(1) This shoes need new sole and heel

(2) Have you ever seen a grilled sole

(3) He is the sole survivor of the crash

Sole in expression (1) means ‘button part of the shoes’; in (2) sole means ‘an edible flat

fish that lives in the sea’ while in the expression (3) sole means ‘one or only’.

A word, phrase, or sentence that has sense would be able to understand although they

don’t have reference. For example:

(4) Indonesia is led by a queen

(5) There are many people living in Mars

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 The two expressions above are understandable although they don’t have reference. As we

know Indonesia is not led by a queen, but a president and it has been found that there is no

man lives in Mars. Some scientists, even, have done some research in Mars and they still find

no one there.

The notion of sense and reference are central to the study of meaning. Reference is not

only meant the words which refers to something but also to the words which can not be

brought forward for the existence of something but have lexical items referring to it, while

the sense is a relation which occur between two lexical items.

2.3 Types of Meaning

According to Leech in his book Semantics (1974:23), there are seven types of meaning,

They are as followings:

1. Conceptual or Denotative Meaning

Conceptual meaning is also called logical or cognitive meaning. It is the basic

propositional meaning which corresponds to the primary dictionary definition. Such a

meaning is stylistically neutral and objective as opposed to other kinds of associative

meanings. Conceptual meanings are the essential or core meaning while other six types are

the peripheral. It is peripheral in as sense that it is non-essential.

Examples:

(1) Father = (+) human (+) male (+) adult.

(2) Son = (+) human (+) male (-) adult

(3) Mother = (+) human (+) female (+) adult

(4) Daughter = (+) human (+) female (-) adult

The aim of conceptual meaning is to provide an appropriate semantic representation to a

sentence or statement. A sentence is made of abstract symbols. Conceptual meaning helps us

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to distinguish one meaning from the meaning of other sentences. Thus, conceptual meaning is

an essential part of language. A language essentially depends on conceptual meaning for

communication. The conceptual meaning is the base for all the other types of meaning.

2. Connotative Meaning

Connotative meaning is the communicative value of an expression over and above its

purely conceptual content. It is something that goes beyond mere referent of a word and hints

at its attributes in the real world. It is something more than the dictionary meaning. Still

further connotative meaning can embrace putative properties of a referent due to viewpoint

adopted by individual, group and society as a whole. So in the past woman was supposed to

have attributes like frail, prone to tears, emotional, irrigational, inconstant, cowardly, etc. as

well as more positive qualities such gentle, sensitive, compassionate, hardworking, etc.

Connotations vary age to age and society to society.

Examples:

Conceptual meaning:

(1) Woman = (+) human, (+) female, (+) adult

Connotative meaning:

(2) Woman = (+) human (+) female (+) adult (+) wearing Kebaya ‘in Java society’

(3) Woman = (+) human (+) female (+) adult (+) wearing Kebaya ‘in Western society’.

The boundary between conceptual and connotative seems to be analogous. Connotative

meaning is regarded as incidental, comparatively unstable, in determinant, open ended,

variable according to age, culture and individual, whereas conceptual meaning is not like that.

It can be codified in terms of limited symbols.

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 3. Social Meaning

Social meaning is the meaning conveyed by the pieces of language about the social

context of its use. The decoding of a text is dependent on our knowledge of stylistics and

other variations of language. We recognize some words or pronunciations as being dialectical

i.e. as telling us something about the regional or social origin of the speaker. Social meaning

is related to the situation in which an utterance is used.

It is concerned with the social circumstances of the use of a linguistic expression. For

example, some dialectic words inform us about the regional and social background of the

speaker. In the same way, some stylistic usages let us know something of the social

relationship between the speaker and the hearer. Through utterances we come to know about

the social facts, social situation, class, region, and speaker-listener relations by its style and

dialect used in sentences.

Examples:

(1) “I ain’t done nothing”

In sentence (1), it tells us about the speaker is probably a black American,

underprivileged and uneducated.

Another example can be,

(2) “Come on yaar, be a sport. Don’t be lallu”

In sentence (2), the social meaning can be interpreted that it is uttered by Indian young

close friends.

4. Affective or Emotive Meaning

For some linguists it refers to emotive association or effects of words evoked in the

reader, listener. It is what is conveyed about the personal feelings or attitude towards the

listener. In affective meaning, language is used to express personal feelings or attitude to the

listener or to the subject matter of his discourse.

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 For Leech (1974:25) affective meaning refers to what is convey about the feeling and

attitude of the speaking through use of language (attitude to listener as well as attitude to

what he is saying). Affective meaning is often conveyed through conceptual, connotative

content of the words used.

Examples:

(1) “I hate you, you idiot!”

In sentence (1), speaker seems to have a very negative attitude towards his listener. This

is called affective meaning.

(2) “I am terribly sorry but if you would be so kind as to make lower your voice a little”

In sentence (2), speaker uses a sentence in politeness. Intonation and voice quality are

also important here.

Richards (in Leech 1974:25) argued that emotive meaning distinguishes literature or

poetic language from factual meaning of science. Finally it must be noted that affective

meaning is largely a parasitic category. It overlaps heavily with style, connotations and

conceptual content.

5. Reflected Meaning

Reflected meaning and collocative meaning involve interconnecation. At the lexical

level of language, Reflected meaning arises when a word has more than one conceptual

meaning or multiple conceptual meaning. In such cases while responding to one sense of the

word we partly respond to another sense of the word too.

Reflected meaning is also found in taboo words. Thus we can see that reflected meaning

has great importance in the study of semantics.

For example:

(1) Daffodils by William Wordsworth

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 “The could not but be a gay

In such jocund company”

The word ‘gay’ in example (1) was frequently used in the time of William Wordsworth

but the word now is used for ‘homosexuality’.

6. Collocative Meaning

Collocative meaning is the meaning which a word acquires in the company of certain

words. Collocative meaning refers to associations of a word because of its usual or habitual

co-occurrence with certain types of words.

Examples:

(1) Beautiful

(2) Handsome

The examples (1) and (2) indicate ‘good looking’. Beautiful collocates with girl,

woman, garden, or flower, etc. ‘handsome’ collocates with boys and men.

7. Thematic Meaning

Thematic meaning refers to what is communicated by the way in which a speaker or a

writer organizes the message in terms of ordering focus and emphasis. Thus active is

different from passive though its conceptual meaning is the same. Thematic meaning helps us

to understand the message and its implications properly.

Examples:

(1) Mr. Andi donated the car.

(2) The car is donated by Mr. Andi.

In sentence (1), ‘who gave away the car’ is more important, but in sentence (2) ‘what did

Mr. Andi gave is important”. Thus the change of focus changes the meaning also.

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 2.4 The Goals of Semantic Theory

Semantics can be limited both in theory and in practice, to sense relations. One

example is to be found in a well known article by J.J Katz and J.A Fodor entitled, “the

structure of semantic theory”. In this article, they talk about sentence and their theory is based

upon word meaning. They states:

“A semantic theory describes and explains the interpretive ability of speakers: by

accounting for their performance in determining the number of reading of a sentence; by

detecting semantic anomalies: by deciding upon paraphrase relations between sentences; and

by marking every other semantic property or relation that plays a role in this ability”. (Katz

and Fodor in Palmer)

It means that a semantic theory must account for ambiguity, anomaly, redundancy,

paraphrase, etc.

In studying about semantics theory, they are two goals (Akmajian, 1979:240):

1. A semantic theory should attribute to reach expression in the language the semantic

properties and relations it has and it should define those properties and relations. This

means that if an expression is meaningful, the semantic theory should say so. If the

expression is ambiguous, the semantic theory should record that fact, and so on.

Moreover, if two expressions are synonymous, or on entails the other, the semantic theory

should mark these semantic relations.

2. A semantic theory should have at least two kinds of contains:

a. A semantic theory of a natural language should be finite; people are capable of storing

only a finite amount of information but they nevertheless learn the semantics of

natural languages.

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 b. A semantic theory of a natural language should reflect the fact, except for the idioms,

expressions are compositional. This means that the meaning of a syntactically

complex expression is determined by the meaning of its constituent and their

grammatical relations.

2.5 Meaning Properties

Lyons (1977:57) states “Meaning properties is one of several features or components

which together can be said to make up the meaning”. We can say that the analysis of meaning

properties is almost the same with componential analysis.

We analyze the conceptual meaning of a word or utterances. In the componential

analysis of meaning, the analyzed word is written in small letters, and the component is

written in capital letters and put in square bracket. There are five kinds of meaning properties,

they are meaningfulness, anomaly, contradictory, ambiguity, and redundancy (Leech

1981:29).

2.5.1 Meaningfulness

Siregar (1992:19) states that “meaningful means having meaning and significance. Any

expression of language is meaningful. In order to be meaningful, an expression must obey the

semantics rule of the language as obeying the syntactic rule alone cannot end up with a

meaningful expression and must represent their meaning”. So, from this statement we can say

that meaningful expression is the word or expression which has meaning and it is not strange or

contradiction.

Examples:

a. Procrastinate means ‘put things off’

b. Father means ‘male president’

c. The rock frolicked.

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 Any expression of language is meaningful. (a), and (b) are sensical or meaningful,

provided it is neither anomalous nor contradictory. The speaker or the listener can easily

recognize the meaning. The sentences reflect a meaning which is not strange. Sentence (c) is

meaningless because it is anomalous. In order to be meaningful, an expression must obey the

semantic rule of the language as obeying the syntactic rule alone cannot end up with a

meaningful expression. So we can conclude that an expression is meaningful if it is specifies

or represent its meaning and follow the conventional grammar of the language.

2.5.2 Anomaly

An expression is anomalous when there is an incompatibility of meaning between

constituent expressions. Anomaly results when the selectional features of one member of the

construction are not satisfied by the member in construction with it.

Examples:

1. I heard the trees whispering.

Sentence (1), I heard the trees whispering has the syntactic rule, but the sentence refers to

anomaly because their constituent are thought to be unable denoting in any word spoken of.

The combination of the words trees and whispering are incongruous. The word trees has the

semantics property ‘inanimate’, and whispering has semantic property of ‘animate’.

2.5.3. Contardictory

An expression is contradictory when there is a contradiction of meaning between

constituent meaning expression. Charles W. Kreidler (1998:10) says: Sentences that make

opposite statements about the same subject are Contradictory. Anomaly differs from

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contradiction or contradictory expression in that the incompatibility does not amount to a

direct clash with a definitional component, as is the case with the contradiction.

Examples:

a. She drew a baseless triangle

This statement is contradictory. The words ‘baseless’ and ‘triangle’ are contradictory.

‘Baseless’ has the meaning without base or having no base. And the word ‘triangle’ has

the meaning with base.

b. Stewardess is male

These expression are contradiction, because the meaning of the word ‘stewardess’ in the

fact is female, but in this component is following by constituent male.

2.5.4 Ambiguity

Ambiguity is the property of having two or more distinct meanings or interpretations.

A word or sentence is ambiguous if it can be interpreted in more than one way.

Huford and Heasley (1983 :121) says: “a word or a sentence is ambiguous when it has

more than one sense”. It means that an expression is ambiguous when there is multiplicity of

senses versus uniqueness of senses. This ambiguous expression can happen in one word,

phrase, or sentence. The results of ambiguous expression are vague unclear, and make doubt.

According to Harford and Heasley (1983:128), there are two kinds of ambiguity:

2.5.4.1 Lexical Ambiguity

Harford and Heasley 91983:128) states, “lexical ambiguity is resulting the ambiguity

of word”. It means that the word in a sentence has more than one sense. Lexical ambiguity of

the expression is resulted from a polysemous word, e.g. a word that has more than one

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meaning. As Palmer (1976:67) states that “polysemy is one word with several meanings”. It

can be disambiguated by giving further information.

Examples:

a. We can fish.

There are two senses from this sentence, they are:

- to be able to; to have the ability to do something

- to preserve food, fruit, liquid, etc. by putting them in a sealed can (i.e., a metal

container)

b. The cranes are here.

There are two senses from this sentence, they are:

- a large machine or device with a long arm which is used to lift and move heavy

weights at construction sites.

- a large bird with long legs and a long neck

c. Look at the spring.

There are three senses from this sentence, they are:

- Season of the year

- A coiled piece of metal

- A source of water

2.5.4.2 Structural Ambiguity

Harford and Heasley (1983:128) states that “structural ambiguity happens because its

words relate to each other in different ways, even though none of the individual word is

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ambiguous”. It means that an expression is ambiguous in structure if it is resulted from the

way the constituents are grouped into larger syntactic unit.

Examples:

a. We need more intelligent leaders.

- We need leaders that are more intelligent.

- We need more leaders that are intelligent.

b. Visiting strangers can be dangerous.

- The strangers who are visiting can be dangerous.

- To visit the strangers can be dangerous.

These sentences are structurally ambiguous. Notice its possible constituent structures (and

meanings). However there may be some structural ambiguities that can not be disambiguated

in the same way.

Examples:

a. They hated shooting the hunter

- They hated shooting the hunter

- They hated the hunter’s shooting

b. The chicken is ready to eat

- The chicken is ready to eat

- The chicken is ready to be eaten

2.5.5 Redundancy

According to Leech (1981:30) “redundancy is the degree to which an expression

containing more information than is needed for it to be understood”. Redundant words or

phrase express the same meaning within the same sentence.

Examples:

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 1. My female aunt is in Bandung

2. She drinks a cold ice

The phrase ‘female sister’ is redundant since the words ‘female’ have been included to

the meaning of ‘aunt’. We must know that the words ‘aunt’ has reflected the meaning of

female without mentioning the word ‘female’ and phrase ‘cold ice’ is redundant because ‘ice’

has indicated ‘cold’.

2.6 Meaning Relations

Meaning relation is also called sense or semantics relations. It is the relationships of

meaning or sense that may be set up between two individual and groups of lexical items.

Semantic or meaning relations have eight terms (Palmer 1976:59) and that will be discussed

in this thesis. They are synonymy, polysemy, homonymy, hyponymy, antonymy, relational

opposites.

2.6.1 Synonymy

Synonymy is words that sound different but have the same or nearly the same

meaning. Palmer (1976:59) says, “Synonymy is used to mean ‘sameness meaning’. It can,

however, be maintained that there are no real synonyms, that no two words have exactly the

same meaning. Indeed it would seem unlikely that two words with exactly the same meaning

would both survive in a language. So, we can conclude that there are no perfect synonyms,

i.e. that no two words ever have exactly the same meaning.

For example:

1. - She is very beautiful

-I have a pretty sister

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 The word beautiful and pretty has the same meaning, so we can say that beautiful and

pretty is synonymy.

2.6.2 Polysemy

Sameness of meaning is not very easy to deal with but there seems nothing inherently

difficult about difference of meaning. Not only different words have different meanings; it is

also the case that the same word may have a set of different meanings. This is called

polysemy (Palmer 1976:65).

Examples:

(1) Crane:

a. A bird,

b. A type of construction equipment

(2) Present

a. Right now, the current moment

b. A gift

c. To show or display (e.g “Michael was next to present”)

2.6.3 Homonymy

According to Saeed (2003:64), there is a traditional distinction made in lexicology

between Polysemy and homonymy. Both deal with multiple senses of the same phonological

word, but homonymy is not invoked if the senses are judged to be related.

Homonyms are unrelated sense of the same phonological word (Saeed 2003:63).

Palmer (1976:67) states that homonymy is when there are several words with same shape. In

other words, homonyms are different words which are pronounced the same, but different

meaning.

Examples:

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 1. - sun → star round which the earth moves and which gives it heat and light

- son → male child of parent

2. - mail → official system used for sending and delivering letters, packages.

- male → belonging to the sex that does not give birth

2.6.4 Hyponymy

Saeed (2003:69) says, “Hyponymy is a relation of inclusion. A hyponym includes the

meaning of a more general word”. Palmer (1976:76) states that “hyponym involves us in the

nation of inclusion in the sense”. For example: crow, hawk, and swallow are hyponymy of

birds. A crow, hawk, and swallow are not necessarily called a bird crow, bird hawk, and bird

swallow since the meaning of bird has been included in the meaning of crow, hawk, and

swallow.

A hyponymy includes the meaning of more general word. The more general term is

called the superordinate or hypernym, for example ‘birds’. While crow, hawk, and swallow

are co-hyponyms of the general word. In the next example of hyponymy, e.g:

Sheep

Ram  Ewe Lamb

1.

2.6.5 Antonymy

Palmer (1976:78) says, “The term antonymy is used for ’oppositeness of meaning’;

words that are opposite are antonyms. Antonymy is often thought of as opposite of

synonymy, but the status of the two are different”. Antonym is a word that is opposite in

meaning to another word. According to Palmer (1976:80) there are three kinds of antonyms:

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 2.6.5.1 Complementary pairs or Binary Pairs

Palmer (1976:80) said that “complementary pairs are predicates which come in pairs

and between them exhaust all the relevant possibilities”. In complementary pairs if the one

predicate is applicable, then the other can not be and vice verse. In other words,

complementary pairs is a relation between words such that the positive of are implies the

negative of the other. For example:

For example: present - absent

male - female

So, the using these words literally ‘present implies not absent and married implies not

single’.

2.6.5.2 Gradable pairs

Palmer (1976:80) said that ‘gradable pairs are the negative words are not synonymous

with the other”. It means that a relationship between opposites where the positive of one term

does not necessarily imply the negative of the other. So, gradable pairs are different from

complementary pairs. In gradable pairs, it is usually used gradation of width, age, size, etc.

this relation is typically associated with adjective and has two major identifying

characteristics. First, there are usually intermediate terms as that between the gradable

antonyms hot and cold, for example.

There is a continuous scale of values between hot and cold, which may be given name

such as warm, cold, or tepid. It is also true of gradable antonyms that more of one is less of

another.

For example: wide >< narrow; tall >< short

(1) A is wider than B means A is less narrow than B

B is narrower than A means B is less wide than A

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 (2) C is taller than D means C is less short than D

D is shorter than C means D is less tall than C

Another characteristic of gradable antonyms is that one is marked and the other is

unmarked. The one is more commonly used by the speaker of the language is the unmarked.

In English, the unmarked member of the gradable pairs is the one which is used simple to ask

about or describe the degree of the gradable quality. In other words, some pairs one term is

more basic and common, so for example of the pair, such as high >< low and wide ><

narrow. It is more natural to ask of something “How high is it? Or How wide is it?” than

“How low is it? Or How narrow is it?” and answer “It is three feet high or it is four yards

wide”, but never “Three feet low or four yards narrow”, except humorously.

2.6.5.3 Relational Opposite

“Relational opposites happen when a predicate describes a relationship between two things

(or people) and some other predicate describe the same relationship with the two things (or

people) are mentioned in the opposite words” Palmer (1976:81).

Examples:

(1) Buy >< sell

(2) Husband >< wife

If A sells something to B, then B buys something to A; if C is D’s husband, then D is

C’s wife.

There are several verbs that are pairs in this way, e.g: lend >< borrow, rent >< lent,

give >< receive. There are also nouns, e.g. parent >< child, debtor >< creditor, doctor ><

patient, and by suffixing –er and –ee; -e and –ee, such as fiancé >< fiancée, employer ><

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employee. A number of terms referring to spatial position also belong here, e.g. above ><

below, in front of >< behind, north of >< south of.

In English, the other ways to form antonyms is by adding prefix, un-, non-, in-, dis-,

etc, such as common >< uncommon, fiction >< nonfiction, efficient >< insufficient, like ><

dislike.

2.7 Related Studies

In analyzing this thesis, some previous thesis that discussed about meaning properties

and meaning relations are used as related study. They are:

Gultom (2009) in her thesis “An analysis of meaning properties and lexical relations in

“The Rainbow” by D.H. Lawrence”, found and concluded that there are 4 (four) kinds of

meaning properties, they are 14 anomaly (19.71%), 4 contradictory (5.63%), 10 ambiguity

(14.08%), and 43 redundancy (60.56%). Meaning relations found are 7 homonymy (5.51%),

57 synonymy (44.88%), 50 antonymy (39.37%), and 13 hyponymy (10.23%).

Aryanto (2012) in his thesis entitled “Meaning Properties and Meaning Relations

Found in Amiri Baraka’s Essay “I Will Not Apologize, I Will Not Resign” found and

concluded that there are 5 (five) kinds of meaning properties, they are 161 meaningfulness

(85.2%), 15 anomaly (7.9%), 1 contradictory (0.5%), 11 ambiguity (5.9%), and 1 redundancy

(0.5). Meaning relations found are 4 synonymy (10.5%), 1 antonymy (2.6%), 9 polysemy

(23.7%), 3 homonymy (7.9%), 15 hyponymy (39.4%), 0 meronymy and member-collection

(0%), and 6 portion mass (15.8%).

Simbolon (2003), in her thesis An Analysis of Meaning Properties and Relations in

Westlife’s Song. In her analysis, she found 24 sentences of meaningfulness, 8 sentences of

anomaly, 4 sentences of contradictory, 7 lexical ambiguity and 3 structural ambiguity, 5

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sentences redundancy, 7 homonym, 13 synonym, 23 of antonym which are subdivided into

three kinds, they are: 8 complementary pairs; 10 gradable pairs; and 5 relation opposite.

Those three thesis can be used as review of related literature in analyzing meaning

properties and lexical relations. But in my analysis, Aryanto’s thesis was used as review of

related literature because my analysis is nearly the same with his analysis in finding meaning

properties and meaning relations. The similarity is Aryanto and the writer’s thesis use

Descriptive qualitative to analyze the data. The differences between Aryanto and the writer’s

thesis is Aryanto used Leech and Saeed’s theory in analyzing his thesis whereas the writer

use Leech and Palmer’s theory in analyzing her thesis. That is why Aryanto’s thesis is

different with the writer’s thesis.

Some theories of semantics are also used to support my analysis. They are:

Palmer (1976) in Semantics: A New Outline explains the goals of semantic theory and the

approach of problem of meaning from the point of view lexical relation. It includes the

classification of lexical relation, e.g. synonymy, polysemy, and antonymy.

Leech (1981) in Semantics: The Study of Meaning explains about meaning properties

and lexical relations and also their classifications.

Semantic theory should define the semantic properties and relations of the sentence of

the language that can be exhibit and how the semantic properties and relations of expression

are determined by its meaning, as Palmer (1976:29) said that “problem of semantics, is not,

then, nor can it be, the search for an elusive entity called meaning”

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