CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the
Study
Language is a system of communication that plays an important role in all
aspects of human life. It is the most effective tool of communication for
people.
Without language,
the world cannot
develop normally. Whatever
we do in
this world, we use
language to express
everything in our
mind. The study
about language is called Linguistics. Linguistics is scientific study
deals with language.
But altough it is the only
academic disipline that deals with language alone and is concerned with, its
practitioners cannot claim a monopoly of
the whole of their subject matter
(Matthews, 1997 :
vii). One of the
branches in linguistics
which concern with meaning is called Semantic. Semantics is the study of
the meaning of words, phrases,
or sentences in
the language or
semantics is the
study of linguistic meaning
(Leech, 1981: 2).
The meaning can
be distinguished by the
technique of subtituting other words in the same context and enquiry whether
the resulting sentences are equivalent (Lyons, 1977:2).
There are two varieties of
meaning in Semantics, linguistic meaning and speaker meaning. Leech (1981
: 8) states,
“The linguistic meaning of
an expression is simply the meaning or meanings of that expression in
some form of language. Speaker meaning is what a speaker means in producing an
utterance”.
Speaker meaning is divided in two
different types, literal meaning and non literal meaning.
Literal meaning based on the real or lexical meaning of utterance. We can find
this meaning in the dictionary, for examples: 1. I am a smart student.
2. They are university students.
3. She is beautiful.
All the
sentences above have literal
meaning as long
as the speakers
mean lexically in all utterances. The first sentence means that “I” is
smart, or clever, has a good knowledge, it also shows an ability in study. The
second sentence means that “they” are
university students, a group
of person who
study in university.
While the
third sentence means
that “she” is
beautiful, or gergeous,
has a nice face.
In daily activity, a speaker does
not always speak literally and means what his words mean, but
sometimes the speaker speaks
non literally, to tell the
listener another meaning of
his word. So,
non literal meaning
is very important to understand to avoid missunderstanding of
the meaning between
speaker and listener.
Martin (in Siswantoro, 2002: 10)
says that in the case of non literal meaning, there are a number of different
ways one can speak non literally. Non literal uses of language are called figurative language. They are described
by a large set of rhetorical terms
including simile, methapor, personification, apostrope, hyperbole, etc.
Non literal expression are often
found in literary works such as novel, plays, short story,
poems or even
in lyrics of
the song. In
this thesis the
writer is interested
to analyze the non literal meaning found in poem. Poem is defined as a piece of
writing in which
the words are
chosen for their
sound and the
images they suggest, not
just for their
obvious meaning (Oxford
advanced learner’s dictionary
1995: 890).
Percy Bysshe Shelley in Pardede
(2009:6) says that poetry is the record of the best and happiest moment of the
happiest and the best mind. This statement tells us that there is something
hidden in every poems, there’s a memory, it may be a happiest memory
or not. So
that, the poems
need to be
analyzed if the
reader wants to know the deep meaning of the poems. Sometimes it is very
difficult to understand a poem
for it may
contains so many expression
with non literal meaning.
As the object analysis, the
writer chooses Edward Estelin Cummings poems.
Cummings's poetry often deals
with themes of love and nature. Cummings often wrote in
very straightforward prosaic
English, sometimes created word images that are difficult to analyze but
easier to feel. More than most poets, he often make the difficult look simple,
to give the reader the feeling of "oh, I could have written that"(www.yu-hu.com).
1.2 Problem of the Study According
to the background explained above, there are some problems that appeared in
this research. The problems are : 1. What are the types of
non literal meaning
found in Edward
Estelin Cummings’s selected poems? 2.
What literal meanings are found in each type of non literal meaning in Edward
Estelin Cummings’ selected poems? 3. What
types of non literal
meaning are most
dominant in Edward Estelin
Cummings’ selected poems? 1.3 Objective of the Study Concerning with
the problem above,
this analysis is
intended to achieve some objectives, namely : 1. To find
out the types
of non literal meaning
in Edward Estelin Cummings’s
selected poems.
2. To describe the types of meaning found in each type
of non literal meaning in Edward Estelin Cummings’s
selected poems.
3. To find out types of non
literal meaning which are most dominant in Edward Estelin Cummings’ Selected
Poems.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar