CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
The chapter discusses about introduction. It
discusses about background of the study, problems of the study, objectives of
the study, significance of the study, scope and limitation, and definition of
key terms.
1.1 Background of the Study Language becomes the
main element that people need. Linguistics has many branches that spread out
become a lot of parts. A part of them is semantics.
Crystal (1991:310) says that
semantics is one of the branches of linguistics studying about meaning and it’s
considered as a major branch of linguistics devoted to the study of meaning in
language.
Lyons (1984:136) says that
meaning itself is ideas or concepts that can be transferred from the mind of
the speaker to the hearer by embodying them, as it were, in the forms of one
language or another. In other side, Finegan (2004:187) states that lexical
semantics examines the relationship between word and meaning.
The words are sometimes called
lexical items or lexemes, the unity of lexicon.
The lexemes itself means the
minimal distinctive unit in semantic system of a language. Lexical semantics is
a subfield of linguistics that studies how and what the words of a language
denote. Words may be taken to denote either things in the words, or concepts
depending on the particular approach to lexical semantics.
Lexical itself means is the
meaning of a word in isolation. The term “lexical meaning” is to be interpreted
as the meaning of lexemes depending on the [1]
meaning of the
sentences in which they occur. The technical term in dictionary is “lexeme”.
The noun lexeme is related to the words “lexical” and “lexicon”. A lexeme is a
lexeme unit or a unit of the lexicon. The lexical structure of a language is
the structure of its lexicon or vocabulary and lexical meaning is equivalent to
the commonly used, less technical (ambiguous), term “word meaning”. Language
which always contains a vocabulary or lexicon not only list of lexemes of the
language, but also associated with each lexeme in all the information that is
required by the rules of the grammar. This grammatical information is of two
kinds (a) syntactic and (b) morphological. For instance, the English lexeme
“bring” would have associated with it in its lexical entry: (a) the information
that it belongs to one or more subclasses of transitive verbs: and (b) all the
information that is needed, including the stem or stems for the selection or construction
of its forms (bring, brings, bringing, brought) (Lyons, 1984:144).
meaning is a part of linguistic knowledge and is therefore a part of the
grammar. Lexical meaning is the meaning of lexeme which can stand by itself and
it is not on the context but out of context (Oka, 1994:234).
In the world there are many
things or ways that can change people’s mind or persuade them to do something
important. Speech is one of the ways. Speech can enthrall or bore. They can
inspire us or send us to sleep. A good speech leaves a lasting impression while
a bad one leaves you looking longingly at the exit.
There are speeches at weddings,
at conferences and at parent teacher nights. There are speeches too at Bar
Mitzvahs, at Birthdays and at Christenings. At this time of the year lots of
bosses is preparing their speeches for the annual staff party or
dinner. As we shall
see, politicians promise change in their speeches but we don' t have to be one
to make a difference. We can pressurize for a school uniform at a parent
teacher meeting. We can push for a ban on parking on our street at a resident’s
association meeting. We can make an impassioned plea from the dock regarding us
innocence of a speeding charge. Therefore, we can change our own life, our
environment or the life of others. All we have to do is give a speech that persuades
others that our ideas are the right ones. We must realize about how important
speech is.
That’s why speech is very important elements that can persuade other to be
“positive or negative”. In this world there are many influential speeches
especially in twentieth century. For instance, Nelson Mandela (1964) with the
title “I am the first accused”. Due to a tip-off from the CIA, Mandela was
arrested in 1962 for inciting people to strike and leaving the country without
a permit. He was sentenced to five years in prison. In 1964, the government
brought further charges including sabotage, high treason and conspiracy to overthrow
the government. This speech is his opening statement at the trial. We can also
see that Kennedy was inaugurated on January 20, and on that day he gave this speech. In the
speech he asks all Americans to unite against common enemies of tyranny,
poverty, disease, and war. To work toward this end, Kennedy created the Peace
Corps in 1961. This speech is only one of the many that Kennedy gave and it
shows his great talent for rhetoric. In addition, there so many influential
speeches that can change people even the world.
A study
related to the lexical meaning had ever been previously conducted by Kurniati
(2007) who studied semantic analysis on Cranberry’s songs focused on lexical
meaning generally in song. She found that lexical meanings such as denotative,
connotative and figurative language are dominant in the Cranberry’s songs. For
instance “how I’m killing you” as denotative killing means to make somebody or
someone dies and connotative means those drugs can kill somebody softly. Then,
figurative language of “like” means her eyes are like sparkle of diamond.
Nugroho (2007) studies lexical
meaning found on the lyrics of Metallica songs focused on denotative and
connotative. He stated that the lyrics contain positive and negative connotation.
Positive connotation means pure words or the sentence are constructed for daily
expression like “psychotic” means mentally unbalanced. Negative connotation
means snarl words or the sentences are mostly written in figurative language
like “psychotic” means mad or crazy.
Illah (2008) studied on the
lexical meaning and the message of the Eminem’s songs. She found that the songs
are mostly dominated by hyponymy and connotation. For example “Cause I hate you
do you hate me?” and “good cause you are so fucking beautiful when you are
angry”. The word “hate and angry” are hyponymy of subordinate emotion. Besides,
she also found the messages in every song such as religious, moral, social and
political messages.
Yet, she found the social messages
of Eminem’s song.
From those previous studies, the
researcher also wants to get more understanding about the lexical meaning. Yet,
the researcher does not analyze about the message. He will analyze about
how the speakers use lexical meanings in their speeches. Additionally, the
subject of the analysis is not a kind of music lyrics but speeches that become
a big influence in certain country. An example of those speeches is the great
speech of “Let British Quit India” by Mahatma Gandhi in August th 1942 and many other influential speeches.
Therefore, this study will be different from the previous studies. These
reasons make the researcher interested in analyzing the unique and the
importance of the speeches.
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