CHAPTER 2
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter is about the theories that are used for completing the research.
There are some theories that are related to the research; ambiguity, lexical ambiguity,
structural ambiguity, constituent structure, tree diagrams, phrase, mass media, print
media, and headline.
2.1.
Ambiguity
According to Finegan (1999, p.184), ambiguous is when the meanings of
words make the sentence have two distinct meanings. Moreover, Hurford, Heasley,
and Smith (2007, p.128) stated that “a word or sentence is ambiguous when it has
more than one sense.” A sentence is ambiguous if it has two (or more) paraphrases
which are not themselves paraphrases of each other. Similarly, Akmajian, Demers,
Farmer, and Harnish (1998) stated that a word is said to be ambiguous when it is has
more than one meaning. Furthermore, According to Cann (1993, p.8), “a sentence is
said to be ambiguous whenever it can be associated with two or more different
meanings.” Cann mentioned that ambiguity can arise in a sentence for a number of
reasons:
a. through the ascription of multiple meanings to single words;
b. through the assignment of different syntactic structures to a sentence;
c. or through the use of certain expressions that may have different semantic
scope.
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For example:
(1) Ethel’s punch was impressive.
(2) The strike was called by radical lecturers and students.
(3) Every good politician loves a cause.
The word “Punch” in (1), may be interpreted as a drink or as an action. In
sentence (2), there are two understandings of this sentence, it is necessary to know
whether adjective “Radical” modifies the nominal phrase, lecturers and students, in
which case both the lecturers and the students who called the strike are all radical,
or whether it modifies just the noun lecturers, in which case the lecturers who
called the strike are said to be radical but the political attitude of the students who
did so is not specified. There are two meanings that can be interpreted in sentence
(3):
(3a) Every politician loves a cause and that is their own career.
(3b) Every good politician loves a cause and each one loves a cause that
everyone else loathes.
There are some ways to identify ambiguity. There are three kinds of
ambiguity according to Cann (1993, p.8), they are lexical ambiguity, structural
ambiguity and semantic scope ambiguity. On the other hand, Hurford, et.al. (2007)
and Fromkin and Rodman (1983) group ambiguity only in two types, they are lexical
ambiguity and structural ambiguity. It can be simplified that these kinds of ambiguity
consist of two types of ambiguities; they are lexical and structural ambiguity.
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2.1.1. Lexical Ambiguity
Fromkin and Rodman (1983, p.169) stated that lexical ambiguity occurs if in
the sentences there is one or more ambiguous words. Fromkin and Rodman (1983,
p.169) said that “when different words are pronounced the same but have different
meanings, they are called homonyms or homophones.” They may have the same or
different spelling. To, too, and two are homophones since they are all pronounced as
/tu/. Homonyms may create ambiguity which is lexical ambiguity. For example: “She
cannot bear children”. It can be interpreted as she is unable to give birth to
children, or she cannot tolerate children. In this case, there is an ambiguity which
is lexical ambiguity, because the word ‘bear’ has two different meanings. We also
can see the lexical ambiguity and misunderstanding happens in humor below:
(4)
White Queen: “How is bread made?”
Alice
: “I know that!” Alice cried eagerly. “You take some flour—“
White Queen: “Where do you pick the flower?” the White Queen asked. “In
a garden, or in the hedges?”
Alice
: “Well, it isn’t picked at all,” Alice explained: “It’s ground—“
White Queen : “How many acres of ground?” said the White Queen.
(taken from Fromkin & Rodman, 1983)
The humor above is based on two sets of homonyms: flower and flour and the
two meanings of ground. There are some misunderstanding between these two
persons, Alice and White Queen. Flower and flour are misunderstood because of the
pronunciation. Then when Alice means ground the past tense of grind, the White
Queen is interpreting ground to mean “earth.”
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On the other hand, Hurford, et.al. (2007, p.135) defined lexical ambiguity as
any ambiguity that is a result from the word ambiguity. Hurford, et.al. (2007) split
lexical ambiguity by two; homonymy and polysemy. Based on Hurford, Heasley,
and Smith (2007, p.130), Homonymy is “one of ambiguous words whose different
senses are far apart from each other and not obviously related to each other in any
way with respect to a native speaker’s intuition.” For example: ‘mug’ can be
interpreted as drinking vessel or gullible person. Polysemy is “one where a word has
several very closely related senses.” For example: the word ‘mouth’ of a river or of
an animal is closely related senses by the concepts of an opening from the interior of
some solid mass to the outside, and of a place of issue at the end of some long
narrow channel.
2.1.2. Structural ambiguity
Bach (1994) stated that structural ambiguity occurs when a phrase or sentence
has more than one underlying structure. For example:
(5) Tibetan history teacher.
(6) Short man and woman.
(7) The girl hit the boy with a book.
(8) Visiting relatives can be boring.
In the phrase (4) we can interpret it into two meanings:
(5a) A history teacher that come from Tibet.
(5b) A teacher who teaches Tibet history.
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There are also two meanings that can be interpreted by looking phrase (5):
(6a) A short man only and a woman.
(6b) A short man and a short woman.
In sentence (6), there are two possible meanings:
(7a) The girl hit the boy by using a book.
(7b) The girl hit the boy who holds a book.
The possible meanings of sentence (7) are:
(8a) When you visit relatives can be boring.
(8b) When relatives visit you can be boring.
On the other hand, Kreidler (1998) divided structural ambiguity into six
surfaces of ambiguity and three deep structures of ambiguity. Below are the
examples:
Examples of surfaces ambiguity:
1.
Constructions containing the coordinators and and or.
(9) John and Mary or Pat will go.
(10) We’ll have bacon or sausage and eggs.
Possible interpretations:
(9) - [John] and [Mary or Pat]
- [John and Mary] or [Pat]
(10) - [bacon] or [sausage and eggs]
- [bacon or sausage] and [eggs]
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2.
A coordinate head with one modifier:
(11) The only people left were old men and women.
(12) The postman left a letter and a package for Ellen.
Possible interpretations:
(11) - [old men] and [women]
- old [men and women]
(12) - [a letter] and [a package for Ellen]
- [a letter and a package] for Ellen
3.
A head with a coordinate modifier:
(13) Your essay should contain four or five hundred words.
Possible interpretations:
(13) - [four] or [five hundred]
- [four hundred] or [five hundred]
4.
A head with an inner modifier and an outer modifier:
(14) The sick pet was taken to a small animal hospital.
Possible interpretations:
(14) - [small] [animal hospital]
- [small animal] [hospital]
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5.
A complement and modifier or two complements:
(15) Joe bought the book for Susan.
(16) The tourist objected to the guide that they couldn’t hear.
Possible interpretations:
(15) - [bought] [the book for Susan]
- [bought the book] [for Susan]
(16) - [objected to] [the guide that they couldn’t hear]
- [objected to the guide] [that they couldn’t hear]
6.
Certain function words, including not, have possible differences in scope:
(17) The tennis courts are open to members only on Thursdays.
(18) I’d like to find ten more interesting articles.
(19) They didn’t leave because they were angry.
Possible interpretations:
(17) - [members only] or
- [only on Thursdays]
(18) - [ten more] [interesting articles] or
- [ten] [more interesting articles]
(19) - [didn’t leave] [because they were angry] or
- [didn’t] [leave because they were angry]
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Examples of deep structures ambiguity:
1.
Gerund + object or participle modifying a noun:
(20) Overtaking cars on the main road can be dangerous.
Possible interpretations:
(20) - Overtaking cars is dangerous.
- Cars overtaking are dangerous.
2.
Adjective + infinite, tied to subject or to complement:
(21) The chicken is too hot to eat.
Possible interpretations:
(21) - Too hot to eat anything.
- Too hot for anybody to eat it.
3.
Ellipsis in comparative constructions:
(22) I like Mary better than Joan.
Possible interpretations:
(22) - Better than I like Joan.
- Better than Joan likes Mary.
Theories of Kreidler (1998) above are useful to analyze the data and it is
really useful to distinguish the ambiguous sentences or phrases by its category.
Moreover, Fromkin and Rodman (1983, p.172) stated that “sometimes when there
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are two or more ways of understanding a sentence, the ambiguity is not due to the
occurrence of lexically ambiguous words or to the fact that the sentence may be
literally or metaphorically interpreted,” as shown in the following examples:
(23)
I know a man with a dog who has fleas.
There are two interpretations in sentence (22):
(23a) The man who is with a dog that has fleas.
(22b) The man who has fleas with a dog.
2.2.
Constituent Structure
Trask (2007, p.52) defined “constituent structure is hierarchical: a sentence
consists of a couple of large pieces, each of which consists of some smaller pieces,
each of which in turn consists of some still smaller pieces, and so on, until we reach
the smallest pieces of all, the words or morphemes.” Every one of these pieces called
constituent of the sentence. The resulting structure of a sentence can be revealed by
using a tree.
2.3.
Tree Diagrams
Part of speech on tree diagrams is very important to understand, according to
Trask (2007), every language contains of thousands of words, they are grouped into a
small number of classes variously called part of speech, or word classes or lexical
categories. O’Grady, Archibald, Aronoff, and Miller (2001) divided syntactic
categories into two; they are lexical categories and non-lexical categories.
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Table 2.1. Part of speech based on lexical categories.
Lexical categories
Examples
Noun (N)
barry, girl, moisture, bravery, wheat
Verb (V)
arrive, eat, discuss, like, hear, remind
Adjective (A)
good, tall, young, smart, beautiful
Preposition (P)
to, in, on, at, by, near
Adverb (Adv)
silently, slowly, quietly, quickly, now
Table 2.2. Part of speech based on non-lexical categories.
Non-lexical categories
Examples
Determiner (Det)
the, a, an, this, those
Degree words (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
Another abbreviations that often used and known by all linguists:
S = Sentence
Art = Article
NP = Noun Phrase
VP = Verb Phrase
PP = Prepositional Phrase
AP = Adjective Phrase
Adv P = Adverb Phrase
NC = Noun Clause
AC = Adjective Clause
Adv C: Adverb Clause
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Tree diagram examples:
(24)
The people in the room will move the desk into the hall
S
NP
Art
Aux
N
VP
PP
V
P
The people in
NP
NP
Art
Art
N
the
room
PP
N
P
NP
Art N
will
move the
desk into the hall
Picture 2.1. Tree diagram 1.
2.3.1. Tree Diagrams and Structural Ambiguity
According to Akmajian, Demers, Farmer, and Harnish (1998, p.169), tree
diagrams or here called phrase makers can be used to explain structural ambiguity
which an unambiguous sentence is associated with just one basic phrase maker, and
structurally ambiguous sentence is associated with more than one basic phrase
maker. Then the structure in the diagrams will be simplified by using triangles for
certain phrases rather than indicating the internal structure of those phrases. To
understand more how to use tree diagrams for explaining structural ambiguity, there
are some examples:
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Ambiguous sentence:
(25)
The mother of the boy and the girl will arrive soon
There are two pictures below which have different sentences to be conjoined
by using triangles. It also means differently when sentence conjoined differently.
S
NP
Art
Aux
N
VP
PP
The mother
of the boy and the girl
will
arrive soon
Picture 2.2. Tree diagram 2a.
S
NP
Aux
NP
The mother of the boy
VP
NP
and
the girl
will
Picture 2.2. Tree diagram 2b.
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arrive soon
In picture 2.2. Tree diagram 2a, the head noun of the subject, mother, is
modified by a prepositional phrase that has a conjoined noun phrase in it: of the boy
and the girl. In picture 2.2. Tree diagram 2b, on the other hand, the subject noun
phrase is itself a conjoined noun phrase: the mother of the boy followed by the girl.
From those examples we can see that phrase makers can be used to describe
instances of structural ambiguity by making more than one phrase makers or tree
diagrams. In order to solve structure ambiguity, tree diagram is very useful to
determine whether the sentence consists of structure ambiguity or not.
2.4.
Phrase
Trask (2007, p.218) defined “phrase is a grammatical unit which is smaller
than a clause.” Phrase is used to indicate a grammatical unit which consists of two or
more words, but does not contain all of the things in a clause. For example,
prepositional phrase consists of a preposition with its object, as in under the bed,
with her boyfriend.
There are several types of phrases:
A.
Noun phrase
A noun phrase consists of a pronoun or noun with any associated modifiers,
such as adjectives, adjective phrases, adjective clauses and other noun in possessive
case. Noun phrase can act as a subject, object of a verb, subject complement, object
complement, and the object of a preposition. For examples:
As a subject:
(26)
Small children often insist that they can do it by themselves.
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As an object of a verb:
(27)
To earn a lot of money is Zola’s goal.
As a subject complement:
(28)
Frankenstein is the name of the scientist not a monster.
As an object complement:
(29)
I consider Bobby my favorite dog.
As an object of preposition:
(30)
The arctic explorers were caught unawares by the spring breakup.
B.
Noun phrase using verbals
Some verbals can act as nouns, they are gerund and infinitive, and it is also
applied to noun phrase. For example:
(31)
Ice fishing is a popular winter pastime.
Since verbals are formed from verbs, they can take direct objects and can be
modified by adverbs. A gerund or infinitive phrase then, is a noun phrase consisting
of a verbal, modifiers (adjectives and adverbs), and objects, such as the examples
below:
(32)
Running a marathon in the summer is thirsty work.
(33)
I am planning to buy a car next week.
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C.
Verb phrase
Verb phrase consists of a verb, direct or indirect objects and any adverb;
adverb phrases or adverb clauses which modify it. For examples:
(34)
Steward is trying to decide whether she wants to go to medical school or
to fo to law school.
(35)
He did not have all the ingredients the recipe called for; therefore, he
decided to make something else.
(36)
After she had learned to drive, Alice felt more independent.
(37)
We will meet at the library at 3:30 p.m.
D.
Adjective phrase
An adjective phrase is any phrase which modifies a noun or pronoun. It is
constructed by using participle or preposition with the objects. For example:
(38)
We saw Peter dashing across the quadrangle.
(39)
We picked up the records broken in the scuffle.
(40)
I was driven mad by the sound of my neighbor’s constant piano practicing.
(41)
My father locked his keys in the trunk of a borrowed car.
In (38), participle phrase dashing across the quadrangle acts as an adjective
describing the proper noun “Peter.” Similarly in (39), participle phrase broken in the
scuffle modifies the noun phrase “the records.” Then in (40), the prepositional phrase
of my neighbor’s constant piano practicing acts as an adjective modifying the noun
“sound.” Identically, in (41), the prepositional phrase of a borrowed car acts as an
adjective modifying the noun “trunk.”
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E.
Adverb phrase
Adverb phrase consists of adverbs with complement and modify them in
different ways. The pattern of adverb phrase commonly is head and accompanied by
modifiers as in the example below:
(42)
Aluminums burns comparatively slowly.
The adverb head of sentence (42) is slowly, and modified by adverb comparatively.
There are three main functions of adverb phrase, the first one is used as
modifier of adjectives (43), and the second one is used as modifier of adverbs (44),
and the last one is used as adverbial in clause structure (45). Here are the examples:
(43)
The current design of platform is vastly superior to the old one.
In this sentence, adverb vastly modifies the adjective superior.
(44)
The situation has improved very slowly.
In the sentence above, very modifies the adverb slowly.
(45)
Consequently, the design had to be improved.
F.
Prepositional phrase
Prepositional phrase consists of the preposition, object, and modifiers of the
object. Noun, pronoun, and a group of words that used as a noun are the object of the
preposition. For example:
(46)
The coin fell between the cracks.
The preposition for the sentence above is between, and the cracks is the
object of preposition.
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Prepositional phrase is also used as adjectives and adverbs. The phrase
follows the noun or pronoun it modifies when it is used as an adjective (47). When
prepositional phrase is used as an adverb, its position can be found in any part of the
sentence (48).
(47)
My check for the dress is in the mail.
For the dress, as prepositional phrase, tells which check. The prepositional
phrase which acts as an adjective modifies noun check.
(48)
The boy fell on the steps.
On the steps, acts as an adverb in the sentence (46), it tells where the boy fell
and modifies the verb fell.
2.5.
Mass Media
According to Croteau and Hoynes (2003), media is the plural of word
medium. It comes from Latin word medius, which means “middle.” There are three
types of media, such as print media, electronic media, and chemical media. Books,
magazines, newspapers are examples of print media, whereas radio, television, and
internet are categorized as electronic media. Then in chemical media, there are
photography, films, and movies.
Characteristics of mass media:
A.
Communication is mostly one way
B.
Audience has great deal of choice
C.
Aim messages to attract largest audience possible
D.
Influence society and are, in turn, influenced by society
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2.5.1
History of Printed Media
According to Wells, Burnett, and Moriarty (2003, p.238), “print media are
media that deliver messages one topic at a time and one thought at a time.”
Technology of printing was invented by a Korean named Choe Yun Ui in the
beginning of the fifteenth century. He created the cast metal type that made printing
possible. Then Johannes Gutenburg made more practicable printing by converting a
winepress into the first printing press with moveable type in 1450. In 1840s
technology of telegraph exist for communicating each other even for long distance
communication. But it did not reach a large audience so it could not be said as a mass
media. Then newspapers came up to spread information even in long distance and
reached a large of audience. In addition of invention of the telephone in 1876 gave a
way more accessible for personal long distance communication and helped to
facilitating the work of reporters who worked in collecting news, then printed and
distributed the newspapers. Then print media become more developed as we can see
in this new era, it also uses in advertising, such as magazines, books, and brochures.
2.5.2
Headline
Headline is a title for an article in a newspaper, sometimes one line,
sometimes more, set in larger and bolder type than the body of the article and
indicating the subject matter or content of the article. It is also as a window of
newspaper because it is a major source of information to most of the people who
judge
top
of
the
news
(Source:http://www.wordnik.com/words/headline)
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by
reading
it.
There are some rules for making a headline related to the language used:
1.
Use present tense for past events
2.
Use to for future events
3.
Omit the a, an
4.
Use comma (,) for and
5.
Never spell out numbers
6.
Use colon for said or says
7.
Use single quotation mark (‘)
8.
Omit be in its various forms, except when emphasized
9.
Don’t split phrases between lines
Some characteristics that make a good headline:
1.
Attracts the reader’s attention
2.
Summarizes the story
3.
Helps the reader index the contents of the page
4.
Depicts the mood of the story
5.
Helps set the tone of the newspaper
6.
Provides adequate typographic relief
Three basic skills for writing headline:
1.
Accurate perception of the story
2.
Use of abroad and deep vocabulary
3.
Use of sharp sense of sentence structure
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2.6.
Review of Related Studies
There are two related studies that are concerning in ambiguity, which is the
same topic with the writer. The first study is “The Structural and Lexical Ambiguity
Found in Cleo Magazine Advertisements” by Kristianty (2006), and the second is
“The Analysis of Lexical and Structural Ambiguity in Your Letters of The Jakarta
Post” by Tambunan (2009).
2.6.1. The Structural and Lexical Ambiguity Found in Cleo Magazine
Advertisements (Kristianty, 2006)
Kristianty (2006), with her study “The Structural and Lexical Ambiguity
Found in Cleo Magazine Advertisements” found that there are five structural
ambiguities including three declarative sentences, one adjective phrase, and one noun
phrase. There are also ten lexical ambiguities that are included in the advertisement;
they are four nouns, two verbs, three adjectives, and one adverb. She also found that
lexical ambiguity is the most frequently ambiguity that often occurs in Cleo
Magazine advertisements. There are 40 advertisements from two editions that taken
by her, but only 15 advertisements that are chosen to be analyzed. There are two
ways for analyzing the ambiguity used by Kristianty, they are Tree Diagrams and IC
Analysis. Furthermore, she found that not every advertisement is ambiguous in Cleo
Magazine, such as fashion, cosmetics products, etc. She used descriptive qualitative
methods in analyzing her research; she also provided tables for her research to group
them and made it easier to understand.
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2.6.2. The Analysis of Lexical and Structural Ambiguity in Your Letters of The
Jakarta Post (Tambunan, 2009)
Tambunan (2009), in her research, “The Analysis of Lexical and Structural
Ambiguity in Your Letters of The Jakarta Post” found that there are 47 kinds of
ambiguous words and phrases which are 23 of them are lexical ambiguity, it is about
48.9% and 24 of them are structural ambiguity which is about 51.1%. She also found
that structural ambiguity is the most dominant kind that often occurs in “Your Letters
of The Jakarta Post.” She used descriptive method in doing her research. She takes
the data within two weeks from March 2009. She found 52 letters and chose the data
became 29 letters that are contains the ambiguous words and phrases. She used IC
Analysis in analyzing the data.
Both of the studies above are analyzing both structural and lexical ambiguity.
However these studies investigate ambiguity differently in some ways from the
writer. These studies are useful and helpful for the writer to do the research, such as
how to analyzing the data by using tree diagrams, how to calculate the data, etc.
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