A. INTRODUCTION
Semantics is a study of the meaning of lexical items and
other parts of language. According to Godfrey Leech, there are seven types of
meaning in Semantics; conceptual, connotative, stylistic, affective, reflected,
collocative and thematic meaning (1981). This paper focuses on only two of the
types of meaning: conceptual meaning and connotative meaning. The lexical items
chosen for the study are /Life/,/Was/, /Much/, /Easier/, /When/, /Apple/,
/and/, /Blackbery/, /Were/, /Just/, and /Fruits/. These words seem so
interesting and unique to be elaborated as follows:
B. CONCEPTUAL MEANING
Conceptual meaning means logical, cognitive, or denotative
content (Nida, 1975:25). It is based on two structural principles, which are
contrastiveness and constituent structures. It is usually derived from
definitions we find in dictionaries and the appearance of these lexical items.
We give these lexical items features (constituent structures) and eliminate
other features which are not present (contrastiveness structures).
Life
|
+Abstract entity
+ A condition that distinguishes human beings, animals and
plants from earth , rock, etc.
|
Was
|
+One of the to be of Past tense
+showing state
|
Much
|
+It is used for the uncountable plural noun
+similar to the word “many”
|
Easier
|
+it means not difficult
+free from pain, discomfort, anxiety, trouble etc.
|
When
|
+Showing period or time something happened.
|
Apple
|
+Inanimate
+ it is one kind of fruit,
+its shape is round
+it has firm juicy flesh
+Its skin is green, red or yellow when the fruit is ripe.
|
And
|
+A conjunction connecting words, clauses and sentences
|
Blackberry
|
+Inanimate
+commonly found in USA
+a kind of small berry
+this fruit when ripe growing wild on bushes called
“brambles”.
|
Were
|
+One of the to be of past tense
+showing state
|
Just
|
|
Fruits
|
+Inanimate
+collective pattern
+parts of a plant or tree
+They contain the seeds
+It is also used as food e.g. Apples, bananas.
|
C. CONNOTATIVE MEANING
Connotative meaning refers to what is communicated by virtue
of what language refers to (Nida, 1975:25). In other words, it is the meaning
above the conceptual meaning and it may vary according to culture, background
or society. Thus, connotative meaning can be subjective or unstable. It depends
very much on how an individual or society perceives a word. It is the
association that we make in our mind of what these lexical items represent.
At first there is a word of “Life”. This word as the part of
message of that slogan is given by human being aimed at the same kind of
creature. So, the word “Life” in this case refers to the life of human being in
living their daily life. Then it is stated that “Life was much easier” which
means that human life in the past time was assumed as “lesser difficulty or
“much easier”. The life of human being will be predictably easier if “Apple and
Blacberry were just fruits”. In this context the speaker or the communicator
try to propose a problem by delivering a direct comparison between the entity
of Apple and Blackberry as the real fresh fruits and Apple and Blackberry as
modern technological gadget findings.
In addition, the word “Apple” denotatively refers to a round
fruit with firm juice flesh a skin that is green, red and yellow when the fruit
is ripe. In addition, in the context of modern era the word “Apple” refer to
the Steve job’s famous brand of computer and electronic gadget like iMac, iPod,
iPhone and iPad. People around the world mostly youngsters in urban area will
have this famous brand in mind when they hear someone saying the word “Apple”.
Besides that the word “BlackBerry” denotatively refers to the small berry which when it ripe, it grows wild on bushes. Similar to the case of the modern context of the word “Apple”, this word associate to the company of RIM issued this famous product all over the world.
Besides that the word “BlackBerry” denotatively refers to the small berry which when it ripe, it grows wild on bushes. Similar to the case of the modern context of the word “Apple”, this word associate to the company of RIM issued this famous product all over the world.
The most interesting thing from that slogan is the
hidden or implicit effort of the speaker or the communicator of this
slogan to say how hard the competition companies which want to promote their
product brands and how the use of sophisticated gadget of famous brand will
also create competition of the pride in social and cultural status. Most
teenagers will be happy and feel proud if the can buy and use both famous
technological gadgets. They will ready to stand in line to buy the newest
release of Apple and Blackberry as their favorite products.
D. CLOSURE
The speaker or the communicator of the banner has been
successfully proposes the conceptual and connotative idea of the hard battle of
rivalry between the products of the techno-gadgets of Apple and BlackBerry.
Before the existence of both new references, they were just fruits as a part of
a tree or plant that is used as food like bananas, grapes or apples.
REFERENCES:
Hafriza, 1997. Semantics: Words without meaning is
meaningless. University of Kebangsaan Malaysia Press.
Nida,Eugene A. 1975. Componential Analysis of Meaning.
Paris. Mouton –The Hague.
http://www.wikipedia.com
http://www.merriam-webster.com
http://www.askoxford.com
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