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.

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.

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.”

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.

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]

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]

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]

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 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.

Table 2.1. Part of speech based on lexical categories.

Lexical categories

Examples

Noun (N)

Verb (V)

Adjective (A)

Preposition (P)

Adverb (Adv)

barry, girl, moisture, bravery, wheat

arrive, eat, discuss, like, hear, remind

good, tall, young, smart, beautiful

to, in, on, at, by, near

silently, slowly, quietly, quickly, now

Table 2.2. Part of speech based on non-lexical categories.

Non-lexical categories

Examples

Determiner (Det)

Degree words (Deg)

Qualifier (Qual)

Auxiliary (Aux)

Conjunction (Con)

the, a, an, this, those

too, so, very, more, quite

always, perhaps, often, never, almost

will, can, may, must, should, could

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

Tree diagram examples:

(24)The people in the room will move the desk into the hall

S

NP

Aux

VP

ArtNPP

V NP

PP

P NP

Art N P NP

Art N

Art N

The people in the room 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:

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

Aux VP

ArtN

PP

The mother of the boy and the girl will arrive soon

Picture 2.2. Tree diagram 2a.

S

NP

Aux

VP

NP

NP

The mother of the boy and the girl will arrive soon

Picture 2.2. Tree diagram 2b.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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

2.5.1History 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.

2.5.2Headline

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 by reading it. (Source:http://www.wordnik.com/words/headline)

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

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.

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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