Analysis of Antonymy in the History of Indonesia

Analysis of Antonymy in

The History of Indonesia by Steven Drakeley

By:

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LETTERS

UNIVERSITAS PADJADJARAN

2011

Chapter I

Introduction

1.1. Overview

According to Hurford (1983:1), semantics is the study of meaning in

language. Semantics is the systematic study of meaning, and linguistic semantics is

the study of how languages organize and express meanings (Kreidler, 1998: 3).

Palmer (1976: 1) also states that semantics is the technical term used to refer to the

study of meaning. According to many linguist definitions about semantics, it can be

concluded that semantics is the study of meaning.

Meaning is message in which every speaker wants to deliver through

language. To communicate our feelings, opinions, facts and other expression, we

use language. Language is very important in our live because of its function

delivering messages or our intentions. Meaning consists in every single word,

phrase, clause, sentence or even bigger which is paragraph. We can find a meaning

in word which refers to any reference. However, not all kind of words have

reference. Predicate is exception. Although predicates do not have any reference,

they still have meaning.

Traditionally, words have been categorized by their meanings (Carpenter:

20). There are some relations in meaning which can be identical, opposite, or

ambiguous. These relations are called sense relation in semantics which are

synonymy, antonymy, homonymy, polysemy, and hyponymy. They all are

connected each other by meaning. We can easily identify a meaning of predicate by

looking its relation with other word. For example, we can identify the meaning of a

predicate dead by identifying the opposite predicate alive.

In this mini research, writer wants to focus on opposite sense relation which

is antonymy in The History of Indonesia book. Besides observing the antonym

pairs, the writer also observes about kinds of antonym and how we can identify

what kinds of antonym which predicates have.

1.2. Problem Statement

a. What is antonym of predicate in The History of Indonesia book?

b. What kinds of antonym do predicates have?

c. How can we indicate the kinds of antonym of predicates?

1.3. Aims of Study

a. To know antonym of predicate in The History of Indonesia book.

b. To know kinds of antonym which predicates have.

c. To describe the kinds of antonym of predicates.

1.4. Benefit of the study

Writer hopes that this mini research can enlarge knowledge of the writer

herself and other students who want to make a further observation about

antonymy. Besides, this mini research also provides more explanation about

how we can identify kinds of antonymy.

Chapter II

Literary Views

2.1 Semantics

According to Hurford (1983:1), semantics is the study of meaning in

language. Palmer also states that semantics is the technical term used to refer to the

study of meaning (1976: 1). It can be concluded that semantics is the study of

meaning. Every word in all languages has minimum a single meaning which refers

to a referent. However, some linguistic forms make comments about references;

these are predicates (Kreidler, 1998: 13). Although predicates do not refer to any

references, they also have meanings.

2.1.1 Meaning

Every single word has meaning. Meaning comes from human who identify

and interpret it. Words go together to form sentences which in turn are capable of

conveying meanings—the meanings of the individual words and the meaning that

comes from the relation of these words to one another (Kreidler, 1998: 22).

Meaning also comes from its relation to another word such as alive comes from

dead, married comes from single and so on. These words have opposite sense

relation.

2.1.2 Sense Relation

Sense relation may come from predicates which have opposite and similar

sense and ambiguous which has more than one sense. These kinds of sense relation

can be:

a. antonym

Antonym has opposite sense relation such as male and female. Male is sex

which does not give birth. However, the term female is opposite with male

which is sex that can give birth.

b. Synonym

Synonym has same sense relation such as predicates fall and autumn which

mean season of the year in which leaves are fall down.

c. Plysemy

Polysemy is a kind of sense relation which has more than one sense such as

flight. Flight at least has more than one meaning which are ‘passing through

the air’, ’power of flying’, ‘air journey’ etc.

d. Homonymy

Predicates which have two sense relation is homonym. Bark is a kind of

homonym because it can mean bark of a dog and bark of a tree.

e. Hyponymy

Man and human is a kind of hyponymy (Hurford and Heasley, 1983: 95).

In this min research, the writer just focuses on opposite sense relation – antonymy.

2.1.3 Antonymy

Simply, antonymy is oppositeness in meaning (Hurford and Heasley, 1983:

114). Predicates which have opposite meaning are bad and good. One can say

something is good if it has great quality. However, something bad is it has low

standard/quality. Pairs of words such as wide/narrow, old/young, big/small are

antonyms (Palmer, 1976: 79). We can say that this home is big. It means that it is

not small. This sentence can be interpreted according to context. Something can be

said as ‘big’ if there is one else which is smaller than it. Such adjectives can be

graded in value. However, words such as single and married can not be graded.

Therefore, antonym is divided into three.

a. Binary Antonyms

Binary antonyms are predicates which come in pairs and between

them exhaust all the relevant possibilities (Hurford and Heasley, 1983: 114).

Then, it can not make sense if one predicate is replaced by another for

example married and single. To determine whether it is binary antonym or

not, we can examined by using conditional sentence as it follows:

‘If A is true, A can not be false’, and

‘If A is false, A can not be true’

Predicates which are binary antonyms are definite. It can not be

relative. For example, dead and alive are binary pairs. It can be examined by

changing into a conditional sentence as it follows:

If p ~q

If q ~p

If they were dead They could not be alive

If they were alive They could not be dead.

It means that if someone was dead, he/she might be not alive. If

someone was alive, he/she might be not dead. There are only two

possibilities without a third possibility or an intermediate position

(Geeraerts, 2010: 86) which are dead and alive. Someone can not be half

dead or half alive. Other examples of binary antonyms are same/different,

married/single, true/false, male/female, and so on.

b. Gradable Antonyms

Gradable antonyms are predicates that have opposite senses which

can be graded. According to Hurford (1983: 118), ‘two predicates are

gradable antonyms if they are at opposite ends of a continuous scale of

values…’ Gradable antonym is measured by adding modifier such as very,

rather, quite, extremely, and the like (Kreidler, 1998: 101). Hot and cold are

gradable antonyms. It can be seen as it follows:

p ~q

~p q

The day is hot The day is not cold

The day is not hot The day is cold

It means that if today is hot, it can be not cold. Unfortunately, today

is not hot, it does not mean cold because it can be cool. Some modifiers such

as very can be added to gradable pairs for example very cold or extremely

hot. Moreover, due to antonyms are gradable, there are often intermediate

terms (Palmer, 1976: 80). Therefore, there are terms like warm and cold

between hot and cold.

Gradable antonyms can be also examined by asking question which

describes the degree of the gradable quality. We can say How tall are you?

Or How far is your home?. The answer may be my home is further than you

or I am shorter than you as mush as 45 cm. These examples are gradable

antonyms. It is also show how we can determine whether it can be graded or

not.

c. Converse

If a predicate describes a relationship between two things and some

other predicate describes the same relation when the two things are

mentioned in the opposite order and the two predicates are converse each

other (Hurford and Heasley, 1983: 116). If those two predicates are

conversed and it still makes sense, so it is converse. For any two converse

relational terms X and Y, if [a] is the X of [b], then [b] is the Y of [a]

(Kreidler, 1998: 106). Pairs which are converses: before/after, above/below,

give/receive, and so on. Words which are converse can be seen as it follows:

If [a] p [b], [b] q [a]

If I give you a pen, then you receive a pen from me.

The other example is:

X is the parent of Y.

Y is the child of X.

Chapter III

Discussion

There are six selected words from the book entitled The History of Indonesia by

Steven Drakeley. The words which are chosen are adjectives in order to know kinds

of antonym they have.

Data 1

His (Sukarno) presidency has a difficult and painful period in Indonesia's history.

(The History of Indonesia: 83)

It was easy for corrupt officials, European and indigenous to squeeze additional

amounts out of the villagers.


Difficult and easy are predicates which have opposite meaning. They are

gradable antonyms because they are at opposite ends of a continuous scale of values

(Hurford and Heasley, 1983: 118). Two words indicate a gradable antonym if they

can show sense relation as it follows:

The examination is difficult The examination is not easy

The examination is not difficult The examination is easy

From sentences above, we can indicate that if the examination is difficult, it

is not easy. Fortunately, the examination is not difficult. It does not mean that the

examination is easy because it can be rather easy or very easy. Therefore, these

words are kinds of gradable antonym.

From the first sentence ‘the presidency of Sukarno was a difficult period in

Indonesia history’, it means that his presidency could be not easy, not rather easy or

not very easy to handle. From the second sentence ‘It was easy for corrupt officials,

European and indigenous to squeeze additional amounts out of the villagers’, it

means that squeezing officials, European and indigenous were not too difficult to

do.

Data 2

He (Sukarno) also enjoyed good personal relationships with the Japanese

authorities


For instance, falling asleep on the podium during a parliamentary sitting was very

bad politics.


Opposite meaning of good is bad. This sense relation can be seen as it

follows:

Your hand writing is good Your hand writing is not bad

Your hand writing is not good Your hand writing is bad

These words are gradable antonyms. If your hand writing is good, it is not

bad. Then, if your handwriting is not good, it does not mean your hand writing is

bad. Maybe it is quite bad because I still can read it, for example. Gradable antonym

is measured by adding modifier such as very, rather, quite, extremely, and the like

(Kreidler, 1998: 101).

The data show that He (Sukarno) enjoyed good personal relationships with

the Japanese authorities. It means that Sukarno enjoy personal relationships which

was not too bad or not quite bad, for example. Otherwise, falling asleep on the

podium during a parliamentary sitting was not too good. From the context we can

assert that those attitudes are bad which are not too good to do so.

Data 3

Untung stated that Sukarno was safe.


He (Sukarno) made a crucial contribution during the delicate and dangerous

condition.


These words are binary pairs which exhaust all the relevant possibilities

(Hurford and Heasley, 1983: 114). To indicate whether these words are binary

antonyms or not, we can add a conditional word such as if. For example:

If this animal is dangerous This animal is not safe.

If this animal is not dangerous This animal is safe.

An animal is dangerous that we can not be much closer to it. If an animal is

not dangerous, we can touch it because the condition is safe.

It means that if Sukarno was safe, he must not be in a dangerous condition.

Data 4

A famous example of the value of Sukarno's unique personal authority at this

juncture occurred on September 19.


Periods without a dominant power were not unknown in the region's history.


Famous and unknown are gradable pairs. Some modifiers can be added to

these adjectives such as very famous or rather famous. We can say that Oprah

Winfrey is famous. However, not all people know her such as people in deep

Jayapura which never watch TV, for example. So, this condition is applied in

appropriate context.

Data 5

Many Peta and Hizbullah commanders also reformed their old units as best they

could.


The new elites quickly assumed the habits and outlooks of those they had replaced.


Opposite of old is new. It is gradable antonym because it can be graded.

Explicitly, their units were older than the other units. Logically, the term old can be

understood in term of being older. We can examine whether this is gradable or not

as it follows:

Her dress is old Her dress is not new

Her dress is not old Her dress is new.

If her dress is old, it can be not new. However, the dress is not old. It seems

oldish because its design, for example. So that it tends to be gradable antonym.

Data 6

For example, the central commander appointed by the government.


Many local commanders had forged business empires.


Central and local are binary antonyms. It can be checked as it follows:.

If government is the central commander, government is not the local

commander.

If governor is the local commander, governor is not the central commander.

In binary antonym, there is nothing to be graded because there are only two

possibilities. To say something is NOT the one is to say that it is the other as

government is not the local commander because it is the central commander.

Chapter IV

Conclusion

From the analysis above, the write conclude that:

1. Words which have opposite meaning are called antonymy such as difficult

and easy, good and bad, dangerous and save, famous and unknown, old and

new, central and local end so on.

2. There are three kinds of antonyms which are binary antonym, gradable

antonym and converse. In this mini research, there are only two kinds of

antonyms which are two pairs gradable antonyms and four pairs binary

antonyms.

3. To indicate two words which are gradable antonyms, we can add some

modifiers to the words such as (very) difficult, (quite) bad, (extremely) easy.

To indicate two words which are binary pairs, we can check by saying

something is NOT the one is to say that it is the other. Moreover, in binary

pairs, there are only two possibilities. In converse, two words can be

conversed and it still makes sense.

Bibliography

Carpenter, B. Type-Logical Semantics.

Drakeley, S. (2005). The History of Indonesia. New York, Greenwood Press.

Geeraerts, D. (2010). Theories of Lexical Semantics. New York, Oxford University

Press.

Hurford, James R. (1983). Semantics: a Coursebook.. Great Britain: Cambridge

University Press.

Kreidler, C. W. (1998). Introducing English Semantics. London, Routledge.

Palmer, F. R. (1976). Semantics a New Outline. Great Britain, Cambridge

University Press.

Analysis of Antonymy in the History of Indonesia

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