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LEXICAL SEMANTIC COLLOCATION OF SYNONYMOUS

ADJECTIVES IN THE NOVEL ISLAND BENEATH THE SEA by ISABEL

ALLENDE

Putu Ayu Mita Pratiwi

0901305034

English Department Faculty of Letters and Culture

Udayana University

Abstrak

Kolokasi adalah kata – kata yang sangat erat hubungannya dengan kata – kata tertentu dimana sebuah kata hanya bisa dipasangkan dengan kata tertentu saja. Beberapa kata – kata dinyatakan bersinonim apabila memiliki arti yang sama secara harfiah. Kesulitan bisa terjadi dalam pemilihan kata – kata yang akan digunakan karena adanya sinonim. Namun, dengan adanya kolokasi atau medan makna, maka kesulitan tersebut bisa diatasi. Untuk mengetahui adanya perbedaan kolokasi antara satu kata – yang bersinonim - dengan kata lain, maka diperlukan penelitian yang mendalam. Novel Island Beneath the Sea karya Isabel Allende digunakan sebagai data dalam tulisan ini. data terdiri dari kata – kata sifat yang bersinonim. Dengan menggunakan kombinasi teori dari Leech (198) tentang makna kolokasi dan Ullmann (1977) tentang kolokasi dalam sinonim. Sebagai hasil dari penelitian, ditemukan beberapa kata sifat yang bisa digunakan pada konteks yang berbeda – beda. Ditemukan pula kata sifat yang bisa digunakan pada konteks lain, namun maknanya bisa berubah atau menjadi tidak spesifik. Sedangkan ada juga kata sifat yang tidak bisa digunakan pada konteks lain, dengan kata lain hanya bisa digunakan pada konteks aslinya saja walaupun kata – kata sifat tersebut bersinonim.

Kata Kunci: Collocation, Synonyms, Adjective

  • 1.    Background of the Study

Collocation is concerned with how words are combined (Larson, 1984:144).

A word has its own combination. The study of collocation involves the combination of words that are commonly used by the native speakers and it sounds natural. The collocation that may be right for the learners of foreign language can be wrong for the native speakers (Ediwan, 1998:9). The right choice of the collocation has to be considered from the context of the sentences itself. If the collocation is not right, it will be understood but does not sound natural. Each synonym has a particular collocational range. There are synonyms which have a wider collocational range than others, therefore, they fit into some situational contexts (Ullmann, 1977:151). For example, the word happy has longer duration

sense of feeling than one of its synonym like glad which has temporaly sense of feeling. Both words have their own collocation range regarding to their situational context. Even the words are synonymous, needs of the proper words that are used in particular context and term is unbearable. Each word has its own restriction, such as some are based wholly on the meaning of the item, some are based on the range, and some combinations are collocations in the restriction sense, involving neither meaning nor range. Based on many studies, collocation is very interesting because it gives many options of words that can be used as preferences in writing or utterances. It gives a clear understanding of choosing the exactly right and proper words to be used. The importance of the study is to improve the ability of either speakers or writers in choosing the proper and right words based on the collocational range. Therefore, it is necessary to do a deep analysis about of the collocation of the synonymous words in English. Adjective class was chosen in this study because adjective is a class of word that is quite hard to find the collocation range for itself.

  • 2.    Problem of the Study

The problem in this study is how the collocational range of synonymous adjectives can be different from each other in the novel Island Beneath the sea by Isabel Allende.

  • 3.    Aim of the study

The aim in this study is to analyze the differences of collocational ranges of the synonymous adjectives found in the novel Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende.

  • 4.    Reseach method

The research method that was used in this study is qualitative method. Qualitative method is one of the two major approaches to research methodology in social sciences. Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research relies on reasons behind various aspects of behavior. The first step in the research method was collecting books from library and then the contents were analyzed. Adjectives found in the novel were determined using dictionary to find their synonyms. Every synonym and its range in the novel is elaborated descriptively using the

theory of Leech (1987) concerning collocative meaning and by Ullmann (1977) about collocation in synonyms.

  • 5.    Analysis of Lexical Semantic Collocation of Synonymous Adjectives

Based on Thesaurus dictionary, a number of synonymous adjectives were found in the novel (small=little, hard=harsh=rough, common=usual).

  • 1.    Small=Little

Here the sentences from the novel which contains the adjective small;

  • 1.    With difficulty I helped him sit up and gave him a sip of taffia and a small spoonful of the maitresse’s drops I had stolen from her blue vial.(Allende, 2010:111)

  • 2....and went to rest in the small room she occupied with Rosette. (Allende, 2010:202)

  • 3.    At that instant Maurice thrust his small face... (Allende, 2010:222)

  • 4.    .., they heard firing and saw a small squad of Galbaud’s regular troops, no longer trying to defend the city but attempting a retreat to the ships. (Allende, 2010:223)

  • 5.    The man took her to a small patio with one door, surrounded with high walls... (Allende, 2010:235)

The word small collocates with the words drops, room, face, squad, patio in the sentences (1), (2), (3), and (5). Small drops, small room, small face, and small patio, acorrding to the context mean not large of degree or measurement of something. The phrase small squad means relatively not large in amount or little units related to the context of novel that is in the war era.

Here the sentences from the novel which contains the adjective little;

  • 1.    The young man had never set foot outside France, and had paid very little attention to the stories.. (Allende, 2010:7)

  • 2....Eugenia had little interest in domestic matters and had done nothing to put things in order. (Allende, 2010:28)

  • 3.    The move had little effect; the colonist mocked the law, the pirates sailed up and down the coast and thousands of slaves fled to the mountains. (Allende, 2010:44)

  • 4.    That day had been the worst; there seemed to be little breathable air. (Allende, 2010:132)

  • 5....Tete and the little girl. (Allende, 2010:187)

The adjective little that collocates with attention, interest, effect, breathable air, value, and exercise means that relatively not much amount of something that cannot be seen or abstract. More likely uninfluential sense and uncountable noun.

The collocational range of the adjectives small and little are as follows:

drops

room

attention

interest

small

face                     little

effect

squad

girl

patio

air

From the collocation above it can be seen that the adjectives small and little are differently used to modify different nouns. The adjecitve small tends to occur in nouns which are explained comparatively little size or slight dimensions, little or close to zero in an objectively measurement aspect (as quantity), and made up of few or little units. The adjective little tends to occur in abstrack nouns which explain a not much of sense. In the other hand, little girl can be substituted with small girl but the meaning can be different or same due to the context of sentence in the novel. In a sentence “Tete and the little girl.” (187) Little implies a young girl. If little girl replaces by small girl there are two possibilities of meaning. A girl which has a small body but mature in age or a girl which has a small body and young age. In this case, the term small explains more general than little. Furthermore, adjective small cannot be collocated with words interest and air, either because in this case small cannot imply the meaning of a not much amount of interest and air

  • 2.    Hard=harsh=Rough

Here the sentences from the novel which contain the adjective hard;

  • 1 . The labor of cleaning the hard stalks, chopping them in toothed machines, crushing them in the rollers, and boiling the juice in the deep copper cauldrons to obtain a dark syrup was fascinating to these city people... (Allende, 2010:10)

  • 2....musk scented girl who yieled, fused, crumbled against the pressed bones and hard muscles of his own body cured by battles and privations. (Allende, 2010:20)

  • 3.    His fine lips had a hard expression. (Allende, 2010:27)

Here the sentences from the novel which contains the adjective harsh;

  • 1.    Do not be easy with her, she need a harsh hand. (Allende, 2010:36)

There is only one phrase which contains the adjective harsh found in the novel. Harsh hand implies someone who is able to do any hard work (physical work). As Palmer proposes about types of collocation harsh hand in sentence (1) is based on whole meaning of the item.

The examples below were added from British National Corpus

  • 2.    Harsh word led to action, and Haston despatched him down the public lavatory stairs (BNC:166)

  • 3.    He smiled a harsh smile (BNC:154)

Here the sentences from the novel which contains the adjective rough;

  • 1.    She seemed in her element, as if she had been doing this rough work all her life. (Allende, 2010:32)

These additional examples below are taken from British National Corpus (BNC):

  • 2.    These are new born babies facing a rough world, they need help, not neglect. (BNC: 1326)

  • 3.    Even very rough comparisons show how, in other economies, investement in company securities forms a much higher proportion of personal wealthholding than in the UK (BNC: 575)

  • 4.    The collocational range of adjectives hard, harsh and rough are as follows:

    muscles

    hand

    world

    Hard

    stalks        Harsh

    words

    Rough — work

    expression

    smile

    comparison

Hard is used when the nouns co-occuring with it are yielding to the touch, solid, especially for hard expression which means a difficult expression and not easily understood. Harsh hand means someone who is able to do a man’s work or physical work. Harsh words means not appropriate words and harsh smile means

not a good smile to look at or unusual smile or a smile made by a person who is unwilling to do that. If harsh smile becomes hard smile, when it is possible because both the meaning of the phrase and context of sentence do not change. But if hard expression is replaced by harsh expression, it sounds strange and unnatural. The meaning also changes seen from the context. Firstly, hard expression means an expression which is difficult to be understood both it may be good or bad (positive or negative), discomforting or not discomforting expression. It may have two meanings. But harsh expression means negative. It means an expression which is discomforting and not interesting expression to look at. Also the same as harsh word, it exchanges with hard word. Harsh words means words that is not appropriate to be said by someone, and it gives bad effect or discomforting for someone. Different from hard words which means words that difficult to be understood but has no bad or good effect (neutral). Hard muscles and hard stalks may exchange with harsh muscles and harsh stalks but they sound a little bit unnatural. In the British National Corpus, the adjective harsh which collocates with muscles and stalks are not found. Harsh hand may exchange with hard hand but they may has different meaning. Harsh hand implies someone who is able to do any hard work (physical work). But hard hand may implies someone’s hand which has a firm surface.

Rough world, based on the context of the sentence a world that neglects and treats the subject as enemy. Rough comparison means a complicated comparison that is not easily explained, identified, or understood. Rough work means a work that not easily done and needs a strong power and smart brain to accomplish. Hard expression may be change by rough expression and the meaning does not change. It is an expression which is difficult to understand they may be bad or good (negative or positive), discomforting expression.

  • 3. Common=Usual

Here the sentences from the novel which contain the adjective common;

  • 1.    They have two common things: in life they were rich, and in death wary. (Allende, 2010:89)

These additional examples below are taken from British National Corpus

(BNC):

  • 2.    The issuing of memos is a common means of give instructions. (BNC: 987)

  • 3.    You may recognise these common plants, especially if you have visited, or live, in the country. (BNC: 987)

  • 4.    It's just common sense and proves what we've always said that there isn't a need for this reservoir. (BNC: 196)

Here the sentences from the novel which contain the adjective usual;

  • 1.    She herself got pass-ports, after bribing the proper authorities, as was the usual custom, and proving that she was free and could support her children with the work. (Allende, 2010:313)

  • 2.    He resigned himself to violette’s continuing her usual profession, and he paid for her services like other clients. (Allende, 2010:22)

  • 3.    Relais accepted the task with usual serenity, after negotiating with the Commissaire to be granted permission to retire rather that advance in rank. (Allende, 2010:215)

The adjective usual in sentence (1) which is collocate with the noun custom means habit or ordinary used. The usual profession in sentence (2) means the profession performed by the subject ordinary. In sentence (3), usual serenity means expression that is commonly expressed by the subject.

The collocational range of adjectives common and usual are as follows:

things

custom

common

means       usual

profession

plants

serenity

Common and usual are synonyms but they have their own collocational range. Adjective common tends to co-occur with nouns that need to explain about general things and something that are found often in many places. The adjective usual tends to co-occur with noun that needs to explain something which has usually happened, customary or habit. In the example found that common and usual have different collocational ranges. If common sense changes with usual sense, it can be happened but it does not sound natural. However, if usual custom change with the common custom, it can happen and both naturally sounded. Therefore, the meaning is deserve.

  • 6.    Conclusion

The meaning of adjectives were analyzed based on the theory of collocative meaning by Leech (1987). Every adjective found in the novel has different collocational range based on its meaning, range, as well as its strictest sense due to the social context of the sentence. There are several synonymous adjectives which can interchange each other without changing the meaning of the context. But there are also several synonymous adjectives which are very strict and cannot be replaced even with their synonyms because the meaning may change. For example, both small room and little room can happen and they sound natural. In addition, the meaning can be preserved. However, little air can not be interchanged with small air because of the context, the meaning change. Therefore, the phrase does not sound natural.

  • 7.    Bibliography

Allende, Isabel. 2010. Island Beneath the Sea. London: Griffin Press.

Benson, M. 1990. Collocations and General-purpose Dictionaries. Oxford University Press.

Dixon, R.M.W. 1991. A New Approach to English Grammar, on Semantic Principle. New York: Oxford University.

Hornby, A.S. 1986. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Leech, Geoffrey. N. 1987. Semantics: The Study of Meaning. Middlesex: Penguins Books Limited.

Lyons. 1970. Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

British National Corpus. Resources: http//www.bnc.com

Ullmann, S. 1977. Semantics: An Introduction to the Science of Meaning. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.