CilWi"TER 2
REVl..EW OF RELATED LITERATI.JRE
Thls chapter will analyze ilie iliccry iliat
Ambiguous Words and Sentences
Style
The Jakarta
be used in analyzing "Analysis on
the Article Headlines
Weefamder".
Style Counsel and Global
writer focuses specifically on !he lexical
arr:biguity, consist1'1g homonymy and polysemy, and structural ambiguity
the a.-ticles
headline of Style Counsel and Global Styie column. The writer also uses this cl!a,;;ter tc
strengthen the analysis.
Akmajian, Demers, farmer, and Hamish (1998, p.5) stated that linguistic is the
scientific
of language. Me&;whlle, Frorr!kin, Curtiss, Hayes, Hyams, Keating,
Ko1Jprru.m, Monro, et
(2001,
stated that 'the scientific study ofhmrum language
is called linguistics'. This explabs that linguistics focuses in explaining
natme of
The field of linguistics, the scientific study of human natural language, is a growing
exciting area of study, with ll.1l important impact on fields as diverse as
education, anthropology, sociology, langnagn teaching, cognitive psychology,
philosophy, computer scienoo, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence, among
others ( ajian, Demers, Fa.rmer, a::d Hamish, 1998, p.5).
4
5
From t.he quotation above, it is clear that the field of linguistics is not limited to
grammatical theory, but it includes a large number of subfields, which is true of most
scieoces concerned with phenomer,a as complex
as human language. According to
Akmlljia:n, Demers, Farmer, a'ld Hamish (1998, p.6)
into
morphology, phonetics and
field
linguistics are divided
phonemic transcription, phonology, syntax
and
sen:umties. Portner (in Paso!d ad Linton, 2006, p.l37) stated that the main field of
linguistics is study of meanlr..g, consisting semantics and pragmatics.
a'lalyzing this
paper, the writer only focuses on seoantics theory which will be explaLned furthermore
the next point.
2.2. Ambiguity
Trask (2007, p.l4) stated that sema."lties is L'le linguistics aspects which studies
meaning. On simpler words, Hurford and Heasley (1984, p.l) in Semantics: a Course
s"..ated that Sema.'1tics is 'the study of meaning
language'. It is important
because semantics is the study of how languages organize and express meanings. Tl>,e
mea:rlng of language uaually contains two types of meanings, explicit and implicit
meaning or
other words ambiguity.
A.•nbigcity is the
of semantics beesuse it is related to meaning. Bach (1994,
'1[.1) stated thst 'c. word, phrase, or seotence is ambiguous if it has more than one
meani<"1g'. According to Kreidler (1998, p.ll) ambiguity is words or the sentences that
has more tha.'1 one meaning. For example: that greasy kid stuti..From the following
example it can be seen that the sentence has more than one meaning. The first meaning
that stc ff for greasy kid and the second meaning is the kid stuff is greasy.
6
are two types of ambiguity based on Hurford and Heasley (1984, p.l28).
a:re lexical ru:d .struct ml ambiguity. Bach (1994, '1[.4) a.l.so grouping ambiguity into
two, lexical and structural ambiguity, Trask (2007, p.14} categorize ambiguity into two
types: lexical and structural ambiguity.
Kea.'llS (2000, p.3) stated lexical as the meaning of the individual words. Hurford
Heasley (1984, p.121!) al.so said that lexical ambiguity is any ambiguity resulting
the ambiguity of a word. Meanwhile, Trnsk (2007, pJ4) explabs tl',at lexicai
ambiguity
'two or more sharply distirrct rneanings for a single string of words'. The
follovving ex:unple wi!l explain the definitions above;
Example: I v,il!
to
bank
It's lexical ambiguity because the word bank ca."'Tied more than one
meaning. The meani"lgs are:
first bank meruring is the place for saving money.
second bank mearring is tbe side of a river.
Hurford and Heasley adds that there are two types of lexical ambiguity, Which
are homonymy and polysemy. They stated that 'homonymy is one of an ambiguous
word, whose different sense are far apart from each other anci not obviously related to
other
words
anyway' (!984,
123).
t.l:!e simple way to describe homonymy is
have the same fmm but different meaning or has more than one meaning with
nc related sense (Finegan, 1999, p.l98).
7
Polysemy, according to Hurford and Heasley (i984, p.123) is described as 'one
where a
has several very closely related senses'. Or according to Finegan (1999,
pp. 197-198) it refers to words that have same form, and have more than one meaning
writer put some exa;nples of homonym and polysemy:
related senses. Below,
•
Homonymy
Example: Still
word still
more than one meaning with :no related sense.
Still
2.
Yet
of Homonymy
•
Polysemy
Exru:nple:
The word plain has mo:re
one meaning with related senses.
·.
.
.
.
W >rdl
. ·.
Plain
2.
3.
.
·.
..
Clear
::-!ot good '
.
j
.
Plain English
Undecorated
Plain
· Related Senses
Plain white shirt
·o
Plain Jane
:
8
·No
4.
man, Plains
Table
Keams (2000, p.3) s+.ated structural ambiguity as 'L'le meaning of the way the
words are combhled'. Htnford
ambiguity is a sentence
Heasley (1984, p.l28) explain lhat structural
is ambiguous because of the sentences structure.
Following Trask (2007, p.l4) Structural a1nbiguity is 'the words have fue same
meanings, but quite different structures can
assigned to fue entire string of words,
producLdifferent meanings'. Based on Hvmns. Fromkin, and Rodman
a sentence
has more than one constituent structme, it is ambiguous fu"ltd each tree will correspond to
one of the possible mea.'"l.Lqg'. Constituent iructure or P!-JaSe structure is a tree diagram
'l'lith
infonnation of syntactic category (2007, p.l23). Below, the "'Titer
the
example of structural ambiguity:
w
Structural ambiguity: Ambi§;-uous se:: tence
Exa;:r,ple: The boy saw the
ma!l wifu
the telesoone
It's structural a.'llbiguity beca'Jse the ¥/hole sentence ca..'Tied more than
one meaning. TI1e meanings are:
9
Meallling 1 is the boy saw the rnan who are using the telescope
st:nJJ,:fure:
s
NP
D
I
Aux
I
v
N
I
I
I
I
i
I
II
I
l
bo' y
Tne
!
I
I
sa:w
pp
NP
on
!
t
past
VP
i
the
man
p
I
l
I
with
NP
"
Det
I
the
N
I
telescope
M<:!II il:llg 2 is the boy using telescope saw the man
s
NP
VP
nA
j
v
------------
NP
Det.
I
!
N
PP
P J'-rp
I
The
I
boy
saw
l
the
Det.
!
with
N
I
telescope