Semantics in English Language Teaching

Group 1
Name: Ni Putu Ayu Fitri Amelia Pirdiyanti(20212003)
Edmond Reinaldus Alfado (20212005)
Major: English Language Education
Semester: VII

Majoring in English Language and Literature

Education
Faculty of Language and Arts Education
Saraswati Tabanan Institute of Teacher Training and
Education

School Year 2023/2024

 Semantics in English Language Teaching

Semantics in English language teaching is the study of how meaning is created by words. It is
sometimes compared with syntax, which concerns the rules that dictate how sentences are
formed. Semantic change is when a word changes meaning. It can become wider in meaning or
narrower, or more positive or more negative, and also Semantics is a branch of Linguistics that
studies the meaning or meaning contained in a language, code, or other type of representation.
The types of semantics include: behaviorist, descriptive, generative, grammatical, lexical,
historical, logical, structural semantics.

 Types of Semantics:

1). Behaviorist Semantics is the meaning of being in a position between stimulus and
response or question and answer. Example: Mother feeds food to the baby and another
example: “mam…mamm son”.
2). Descriptive Semantics is a semantic study that discusses meaning in the current
context. Example: (now) champion: the person who gets the top ranking. (formerly)
champion: organizer or mediator in a cockfight and another example: "I become
champion in the class".
3). Generative Semantics has several concepts, namely competence, outer structure, and
inner structure. Example: “The chicken is ready for breakfast”.
4). Grammatical Semantics is the study of meaning in semantics which specifically
examines meaning in sentence units. Example: Still sitting, my sister is already asleep
and another example: "That afternoon he was black shoes”.
5). Lexical Semantics is a discussion of meaning that focuses more on the meaning of
words as independent units. Example: Absurd (KBBI): unreasonable; impossible and
another example: “black shoes”.
6). Historical Semantics is the study of meaning which is studied based on time spans,
not changes in word form. In this case, semantics compares words based on periods or
between words in a certain period and words in other languages. Example: (B.
Indonesia): padi (B. Java): pari the phonemes /d/ and /r/ correspond.
7). Logical Semantics is the study of meaning more directed at logic. This means that
each sentence will be looked at from its logic to get a meaning from the sentence.
Example: “I quit when you see the P sign cross that one slant”.
8). Structural Semantics is from the structural view pioneered by Saussure. Adherents of
structuralism have the view that every language is a system consisting of several unique
structures and consisting of certain units. Example: "Young sister crying loudly".

 Semantic Aspects:
1). Sign: which states something
2). Symbol: The study of signs
3). Concept: design
  Sign
Semiotics is the science that studies signs. There are 10 types of signs to indicate something
namely:
o Qualisign: quality as far as the sign has

❖ the sound is loud, indicating someone is angry or something is wanted

o Iconic sign: a sign that shows similarity,

❖ Diagrams, photos, maps and punctuation

o Rhematic indexucal sign: namely a sign based on direct experience immediately attracts
attention because its presence is caused by something,

❖ Road signs where accidents often occur on that route

o Dicent sinsign: a sign that provides information about something that has properties

❖ The sign on the door of an office.

o Iconic legisign: a sign that provides information about something that has a reality

❖ Traffic signs
o Rhematic indexical legisign: a sign that refers to a particular object

❖ change pointer. Someone asked "where is that book" and the answer was "that"
o Dicent indexical legisign: a sign that means information and designates the subject of the
information.

❖ A sign in the form of a red light rotating above the ambulance indicates that there is one a sick
person or an injured person who is being rushed to the hospital.
o Rhematic symbol: a sign that is connected to its object through the association of a general
idea.

❖ we see a picture of a tiger

o Dicent symbol: a sign that is directly connected to an object through associations in the brain

❖ If someone says "go", then our brain's assumption is that we have to go

o Argument: a sign that is someone's idea of something based on reasons certain

❖ Someone said, “It's dark.” which means that according to him the room is considered dark
  Symbol
The symbol is conventional which has 10 characteristics, namely as:
o Sign: People say, “Pineapple!” Meaningful or giving a sign that someone is buying or asking
for something pineapple.
o Written or spoken form: usually verbal symbols are easier to understand than written symbols.
(spoken): It's okay. (writing): never mind
o Meaningful, every symbol must have meaning, there is a concept, there is a message, there is
an idea that it has. logos
o Rules: rules for how a person determines choices and attitudes.
o Someone says, “Stop!” Meaning, the person who received the message must stop. If not, it will
something happened.
o Contains many possibilities: People say “go!” The question arises: who is who going, why
going, with whom going, with what vehicle going, what time going, and what take with you
when you go?
o Developing: Symbols continue to develop according to human needs
o Judging: what is said all contains someone's assessment of something.
o Effects: symbols that, because they are used, cause certain effects
o Introducing: the symbol identifies the existence of something

 Concept
Concepts are abstract ideas that can be used to carry out classifications or classifications
generally expressed by a term or series of words.
Example: The sentence, "I went to campus." This sentence consists of 4 elements or words. Let's
pay attention to the elements or words I. If someone says I, the same goes for the word campus.
If people say go away, imagine is the activity of leaving, the activity of leaving carried out by
someone called me. These activities are directed to campus, not to the market or to the bus
terminal. This happened because someone said it or the words are written. The sound of written
speech is understood because the meaning of each word is in our brain.

 Definition of Naming in Semantics

Naming can be interpreted as a process or way of naming something. A name is a name or word
that is used as a label or term to recognize objects, people, places, products, activities, certain
groups, fruits, plants, and several events that occur in life.
  System Background Naming
According to Chaer (2013:43), argue that events can be the background for the emergence of the
system. There are eleven names, namely, imitation of sounds, mention of parts, mention of
characteristics, mention of inventor and maker, mention of place of origin, mention of materials,
mention of similarities, mention of shortening, mention of new naming, mention of terminology,
and mention of definition.
1). Imitation of sounds
2). Naming Based on Mention of Parts
3). Naming Based on Mention of Characteristics
4). Naming Based on Mention of Inventor and Maker
5). Naming based on Mention of place of origin
6). Mention of Materials
7). Mention of Similarities
8). Mention of Shortening
9). Mention of New Naming
10). Mention of terminology
11). Mention of definition

 Kridalaksana (1992) divides the results of shortening into: five categories, namely as
follows:
1). Abbreviations
2). Fragment
3). Acronyms
4). Contractions
5). Letter Emblem

 Understanding Meaning in Semantics

According to Djajasudarma (1993:5), meaning is a connection found among the elements of
language itself (especially words), Meanwhile, from Palmer (1976:30), meaning only concerns
intra elements Language.
  Aspects of Meaning in Semantics
1). Sanse
This aspect is also called theme, which concerns the idea and message in question.
Example: “It's raining today”
2). Feelings
This aspect of meaning is related to the speaker's attitude and the speech situation (happy, sad,
angry, hot, cold, irritated, etc.).
Example: "My condolences, OK?"
"Have fun, okay?"
3). Tone
The tone aspect will be related to the meaning aspect which has a feeling value. the speaker's
tone of voice selects the words which is appropriate to the situation of the interlocutor or the
speaker himself.
Example: “Help!” "Help?"
4). Goal (intention)
The meaning aspect of a goal is a particular intention, conscious or unconscious, which is the
result of improvement efforts (Pateda, 2010).
Example: "Don't repeat it, okay?"

 Types of Meaning according to Chaer:

1). Lexical Meaning
The actual meaning is in the dictionary
2). Grammatical Meaning
Meaning that occurs after grammatical processes (affixation, reduplication, composition)
3). Contextual Meaning
The meaning of a word in a context
4). Referential Meaning
Meanings that have references/references in the real world
5). Non-Referential Meaning
Meanings that have no reference in the real world
6). Denotative Meaning
The original meaning or actual meaning that a word has

 Theory According to J. Trier

❑Vocabularies in a language system are semantically related and build a complete lexical
system, system it is unstable and constantly changing.

❑Because language vocabulary is semantically related, we should not study semantic changes of
individual or separate words, but for integrated system.

❑Because lexemes are related in meaning, we can only determine the connotation of the word
with analyze and compare relationships semantics in other words.

 Hyponymy
Hyponymy is a relationship between words that have the scope of meaning is narrower contained
in one shade nickname.

 Synonym
Synonyms are a number of words which is related or similarity of characteristics, synonyms too
can mean several words which has almost the same meaning.

 Meaning Components
Palmer stated that components are a combination of meanings of something words that contain a
number of elements in them. Every element has different characteristics. The components of a
word are independent. The meaning component functions to differentiate meaning between
words so that it can make it easier for someone to understand use it.

 Meaning component analysis steps

Analyzing meaning components requires certain steps. Nida (in Sudaryat, 2009:57) mentions six
steps for analyzing meaning components.
1). Temporarily select the meaning that emerges from a number of common components the
understanding of the chosen meaning is still within that meaning. For example, in the criteria for
anger include the lexemes 'angry', 'grumble', 'swear', and 'rant'.
2). List all the specific characteristics that the reference has. For example, for the word father
there are specific characteristics between: [+human], [+male], [+married], and [+child].
3). Determine the components that can be used for other words. For example, the characteristic
'gender woman' can be used for mother, older sister, younger sister, aunt and grandma.
4). Determine the diagnostic components that can be used for each word. For example, for Dad
said there is a diagnostic component of 'manly', one derivative above ego.
5). Check the data carried out in the first step.
6). Describe the diagnostic components, for example in matrix form.

 Barriers to meaning component analysis

In analyzing the components of meaning, there are several difficulties or obstacles as follows:
following (Pateda, 2001:274).
1). The symbol heard or read is not followed by suprasegmental elements and also extra
linguistic elements.
2). Each word or lexeme has a different meaning for each scientific discipline. Words like this
called terms. For example, the term competency exists in the fields of linguistics, psychology, etc
education. Even though the terms have the same field, there are definitely differences according
to them with these scientific disciplines.
3). Each word or lexeme has different uses.
4). Abstract lexemes are difficult to describe. For example: liberal, system.
5). Diexic and functional lexemes are difficult to describe. For example: this, that, and, in.
6). General lexemes are difficult to describe. For example: animals, birds, fish, humans.

 Meaning component analysis procedure

1). Naming (Mention)
2). Paraphrasis
3). Classification
4). Definition

Meaning components are words that consist of several elements form the meaning of words,
meaning components function to differentiate meaning between words so that it can make it
easier for someone to understand use it. To find out the components of meaning, namely by gives
a plus symbol (+) which means the word has meaning components and the minus symbol (-) has
no components meaning.

 Grammatical semantic studies have a function

1). Semantic function which is characterized by the existence of an agent, goal, recipient, etc.
2). Syntactic function is characterized by the presence of a subject and object various
perspectives according to their predictive characteristics.
3). The pragmatic function is characterized by the presence of theme, tail, topic and focus (Dik,
1981:13).

 Types of Meaning
The types of meaning of words are divided into 12, namely, narrow meaning, broad meaning,
cognitive meaning, meaning connotative and emotive, reference meaning, significance
construction, lexical and grammatical meaning, meaning ideational, propositional meaning,
central meaning, significance pictorial, and idiomatic meaning.
1). Narrow Meaning
A narrowed meaning of the whole utterance
2). Broad Meaning
The meaning of a word is broader than its central meaning
3). Cognitive Meaning
Meaning that has a relationship between concepts and reality
4). Connotative and Emotive Meaning
Emotive meaning (Positive) Connotative meaning (Negative)
5). Meaning of Reference
Meaning related to reference.
6). Meaning of Construction
The meaning contained in construction
7). Lexical and Grammatical Meaning
Lexical (words in the dictionary), Grammatical (transformed words)
8). Identical Meaning
The meaning of words that have concepts
9). Meaning of Proportion
The meaning of words that have boundaries
10). Central Meaning
Meaning is the core of speech
11). Pictorial Meaning
Meaning related to the listener's feelings
12). Idiomatic Meaning
Meaning that deviates from Lexical meaning and Grammatical meaning.

 Grammatical Meaning
Grammatical is a word that cannot stand alone, where the word grammatical meaning can be
found if the word is accompanied by affixations and so on. In other words, meaning grammatical
is the meaning that occurs if the word has gone through accrual process and/or others.
 Lexical Meaning
Lexical is a word that can stand alone, and lexical meaning is meaning that can be found in the
dictionary.
 Contextual Meaning
Contextual meaning is the meaning in which the meaning of the word must be follow the
sentence spoken by the speaker.

 Examples of Contextual Meaning:

1). The girl took my pen.
2). This semester, he has not taken a Semantics course.
3). Reportedly, Mr Ridwan wanted to take the young man as his wife his secretary.
4). In situations like this we have to be smart in what we take chance.
5). Next year PT. Mayora will take on 10 new employees.