A. WHAT IS SEMANTICS?
Semantic word comes from the
Greek sema, which means sign or symbol (sign). "Semantics" was first
used by a French philologist Michel Breal named in 1883. The word semantics was
agreed as the term is used for the field of linguistics that studies of linguistic
signs with the things that are being marked. Therefore, the word semantics can
be defined as the science of meaning or of meaning, which is one of the three
level analysis of language: phonology, grammar, and semantics (Chaer, 1994: 2).
Pandangan yang bermacam-macam dari para ahli mejadikan
para ahli memiliki perbedaan dalam mengartikan semantik. Pengertian semantik
yang berbeda-beda tersebut justru diharapkan dapat mengembangkan disiplin ilmu
linguistik yang amat luas cakupannya.
1. Charles
Morrist
Mengemukakan bahwa semantik menelaah
“hubungan-hubungan tanda-tanda dengan objek-objek yang merupakan wadah
penerapan tanda-tanda tersebut”.
2. J.W.M
Verhaar; 1981:9
Mengemukakan bahwa semantik (inggris: semantics)
berarti teori makna atau teori arti, yakni cabang sistematik bahasa yang
menyelidiki makna atau arti.
3. Lehrer;
1974: 1
Semantik adalah studi tentang makna. Bagi Lehrer,
semantik merupakan bidang kajian yang sangat luas, karena turut menyinggung
aspek-aspek struktur dan fungsi bahasa sehingga dapat dihubungkan dengan
psikologi, filsafat dan antropologi.
4. Kambartel
(dalam Bauerk, 1979: 195)
Semantik mengasumsikan bahwa bahasa terdiri dari
struktur yang menampakan makna apabila dihubungkan dengan objek dalam
pengalaman dunia manusia.
5.
Ensiklopedia britanika (Encyclopedia Britanica, vol.20, 1996: 313)
Semantik adalah studi tentang hubungan antara suatu
pembeda linguistik dengan hubungan proses mental atau simbol dalam aktifitas
bicara.
6. Dr.
Mansoer pateda
Semantik adalah subdisiplin linguistik yang
membicarakan makna.
7. Abdul
Chaer
Semantik adalah ilmu tentang makna atau tentang arti.
Yaitu salah satu dari 3 (tiga) tataran analisis bahasa (fonologi, gramatikal
dan semantik).
Instead of thinking of words as “containers” of meaning,
we can look at the “roles” they fulfill within the situation described by a sentence.
If the situation is a simple event, as in the boy kicked the ball, then the
verb describes an action (kick). The noun phrases in the sentence describe the
roles of entities, such as people and things, involved in the action. We can
identify a small number of semantic roles (also called “thematic roles”) for
these noun phrases
C. LEXICAL RELATION
Not only can
words be treated as “containers” of meaning, or as fulfilling “roles” in events,
they can also have “relationships” with each other. In everyday talk, we often.
explain the meanings of words in terms of their relationships. If we’re asked
the meaning of the word conceal, for example, we might simply say, “It’s the
same as hide,” or give the meaning of shallow as “the opposite of deep,” or the
meaning of daffodil as “a kind of flower.” In doing so, we are characterizing
the meaning of each word, not in terms of its component features, but in terms
of its relationship to other words. This approach is used in the semantic
description of language and treated as the analysis of lexical relations. The
lexical relations we have just exemplified are synonymy (conceal/hide),
antonymy (shallow/deep) and hyponymy (daffodil/flower)
1. Synonym
Two or more
words with very closely related meanings are called synonyms. They can often,
though not always, be substituted for each other in sentences. In the
appropriate circumstances, we can say,what was his answer? or what was his
reply? with much the same meaning. Other common examples of synonyms are the
pairs: almost/nearly, big/large, broad/wide, buy/purchase, cab/taxi, car/automobile,
couch/sofa, freedom/ liberty
We should
keep in mind that the idea of “sameness” of meaning used in discussing synonymy
is not necessarily “total sameness.” There are many occasions when one
word is
appropriate in a sentence, but its synonym would be odd. For example,whereas
the word answer fits in the sentence Sandy had only one answer correct on the
test, the word reply would sound odd. Synonymous forms may also differ in terms
of formal versus informal uses. The sentence My father purchased a large automobile
has virtually the same meaning as my dad bought a big car, with four synonymous
replacements, but the second version sounds much more casual or informal than the
first
2. Antonym
Two forms
with opposite meanings are called antonyms. Some common examples are the pairs:
alive/dead, big/small, fast/slow, happy/sad, hot/cold, long/short, male/ female,
married/single, old/new, rich/poor, true/false.
Antonyms are
usually divided into two main types, “gradable” (opposites along a scale) and
“non-gradable” (direct opposites). Gradable antonyms, such as the pair big/small,
can be used in comparative constructions like I’m bigger than you and Aponyis smaller
than a horse. Also, the negative of one member of a gradable pair does not necessarily
imply the other. For example, the sentence My car isn’t old, doesn’t
necessarily mean my car is new.
With non-gradable
antonyms(also called “complementary pairs”), comparative constructions are not
normally used. We don’t typically describe someone as deader or more dead than
another. Also, the negative of one member of a non-gradable pair does imply the
other member. That is, my grandparents aren’t alive does indeed mean My grandparents
are dead. Other non-gradable antonyms in the earlier list are the pairs: male/female,
married/single and true/false.
Although we
can use the “negative test” to identify non-gradable antonyms in a language, we
usually avoid describing one member of an antonymous pair as the negative of
the other. For example, while undress can be treated as the opposite of dress,
it doesn’t mean “not dress.” It actually means “do the reverse of
dress.”Antonyms of this type are called reversives. Other common examples are enter/exit,
pack/unpack, lengthen/shorten, raise/lower,tie/untie.
3. Hyponymy
When the
meaning of one form is included in the meaning of another, the relationship is
described as hyponymy. Examples are the pairs: animal/dog, dog/poodle, vegetable/carrot,
flower/rose, tree/banyan. The concept of “inclusion” involved in this relationship
is the idea that if an object is a rose, then it is necessarily a flower, so
the meaning of flower is included in the meaning of rose. Or, rose is a hyponym
of flower. When we consider hyponymous connections, we are essentially looking
at the meaning of words in some type of hierarchical relationship. We can
represent the relationships between a set of words such as animal, ant, asp,
banyan, carrot.
cockroach,
creature, dog, flower, horse, insect, living thing, pine, plant, poodle, rose,snake,
tree and vegetable as a hierarchical diagram. Looking at the diagram, we can
say that “horse is a hyponym of animal ”or“ cockroach is a hyponym of insect.”
In these two examples, animal andinsect are called the superordinate (=
higher-level) terms. We can also say that two or more words that share the same
superordinate term are co-hyponyms. So, dog and horse are co-hyponyms and the
superordinate term is animal.
The relation
of hyponymy captures the concept of “is a kind of,” as when we give the meaning
of a word by saying, “anasp is a kind of snake.” Sometimes the only thing we know
about the meaning of a word is that it is a hyponym of another term. That is, we
may know nothing more about the meaning of the word asp other than that it is a
kind of snake or that banyan is a kind of tree.
It is worth
emphasizing that it is not only words for “things” that are hyponyms.Words such
as punch, shoot and stab, describing “actions,” can all be treated as co-hyponyms
of the superordinate terminjure.
4. Prototypes
While the
words canary, cormorant, dove, duck, flamingo, parrot , pelican and robin are
all equally co-hyponyms of the superordinate bird, they are not all considered to
be equally good examples of the category “bird.” According to some researchers,
the most characteristic instance of the category “bird” is robin. The idea of
“the characteristic instance” of a category is known as the prototype. The
concept of a prototype helps explain the meaning of certain words, like bird,
not in terms of component features (e.g. “has feathers,” “has wings”), but in
terms of resemblance to the clearest example. Thus, even native speakers of
English might wonder if ostrich or penguin should be hyponyms of bird (technically
they are), but have no trouble deciding about sparrow or pigeon. These last two
are much closer to the prototype.
Given the
category label furniture, we are quick to recognize chair as a better example
than bench or stool. Given clothing, people recognize shirts quicker than shoes,
and given vegetable, they accept carrot before potato or tomato. It is clear
that there is some general pattern to the categorization process involved in
prototypes and that it determines our interpretation of word meaning. However,
this is one area where individual experience can lead to substantial variation
in interpretation and people may disagree over the categorization of a word
like avocado or tomato as fruit or vegetable. These words seem to be treated as
co-hyponyms of both fruit and vegetable in different contexts.
5. Homophones
& homonyms
When two or
more different (written) forms have the same pronunciation, they are described
as homophones. Common examples are bare/bear, meat/meet, flour/flower, pail/pale,
right/write, sew/so and to/too/two.
We use the
term homonyms when one form (written or spoken) has two or more unrelated
meanings, as in these examples:
Bank (of a river) – bank(financial
institution)
Bat (flying creature) – bat (used in
sports)
Mole (on skin) – mole (small animal)
Pupil (at school) – pupil (in the
eye)
Race (contest of speed) – race (ethnic
group)
The
temptation is to think that the two types of bankmust be related in meaning.
They are not. Homonyms are words that have separate histories and meanings, but
have accidentally come to have exactly the same form.
6. Polysemy
When we encounter
two or more words with the same form and related meanings,we have what is
technically known as polysemy. Polysemy can be defined as one form (written or spoken)having
multiple meaning sthat are all related by extension. Examples are the word head
,used to refer to the object on top of your body, froth on top of a glass of beer,
person at the top of a company or department, and many other things. Other
examples of polysemy are foot (of person, of bed, of mountain) or run (person
does, water does, colors do).
7. Word play
These last
three lexical relations are the basis of a lot of word play, usually for humorous
effect. In the nursery rhyme Mary had a little lamb, we think of a small animal,
but in the comic version Mary had a little lamb, some rice and vegetables,we think
of a small amount of meat. The polysemy of
lamb allows the two interpretations. We make sense of the riddle Why are
trees often mistaken for dogs? by recognizing the homonymy in the answer: Because
of their bark. And if you are asked the following question: Why is 6 afraid of
7?, you can understand why the answer is funny (Because 789) by identifying the
homophones.
8. Metonymy
The
relatedness of meaning found in polysemy is essentially based on similarity. The
head of a company is similar to the head of a person on top of and controlling
the body.There is another type of relationship between words,based simply on a close
connection in everyday experience. That close connection can be based on a
container–contents relation (bottle/water, can/juice), a whole–part relation (car/wheels,
house/roof )ora representative–symbol relationship (king/crown, the
President/the White House). Using one of these words to refer to the other is
an example of metonymy.
