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).
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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
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