Symbols



“A symbol is something such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention.”


From the above definition, we can simply say that a symbol is something that represents something else . It tends to be the result of convention among the members of society. The important point to understand the concept of symbol is that a conventional relationship must exist between the symbol and its interpretation. In the history of human kind, we know symbol was first introduced by Ancient Egyptian. They used hieroglyphs as their written language which were in the form of symbols, In the linguistic field they are commonly called  pictogram (picture-writing). Take a look these below examples:

From the above example, we can see that there is a direct connection between the symbols and their representations. The Egyptian directly adopted the nature phenomena into the abstract drawing which had been agreed by the members of the society. More abstract form from a symbol is called logograms, it will be discussed in the next section.



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See also:

      Things to Contemplate

      Things to Contemplate

      When you realize how you have wasted your entire life for nothing, since all you have done just unimportant matters for you, your surrounds, and God, that will be a bright spot to start a new leaf. To fix everything you have done won't be as easy as you think, indeed, look deep down to your heart you'll see how cheeky the thing you do to him. As you look back, it just likes playing the recorder over and over, you can stop it but you can't change it. As a human, indeed, you’ll feel a sorry and that is a gift, it means that you have passed the contemplation journey to make you realize about all of it and to make you know what is wrong and what is right.

      When you think everything was right and so perfect, in that point you have lost the battle. You don’t have any reason to continue your fighting anymore; you have lost even before the battle is started. Sometimes you feel that nothing else matters since you have everything you need right here, but believe me, you are wrong. Thankful is a must but never give up is more important. Although it is a pain when you feed and let your ambition takes every single conscience in every parts of your life, but surely you can’t just surrender and beg everything you desire to God without doing anything to make it real. So I can say that fight and struggle are something that become, just say, a must to do.

      When you feel that a ton of problems come to stop you to light your spirit brighter, in that rate you are facing the real enemy. It is not the visible enemies that you have to worry about, but the invisible one, it always be. There always be options either let him to take control yourself or you fight to defeat him once and forever. Just like a cancer gnaws on your heart, sooner or later, it will weaken your faith and let you die at the end in remorse. Fight back, and always keep your faith guiding you. Don’t you ever think that you’re all alone, since He always opens His “arms” widely for those who walk into His path, He always there to welcome those who come near to Him. Always remember, through pain you can learn valuable thing that be able to sharpen your sense and accelerate your maturity. The more pain you get the more mature you will be.

      When you feel everything is messed up, it means that your conscience is sharpened even more than before and your character is growing stronger, you have to thank for that. Do mess things is just natural. No one in this world is so perfect with no mistake, that thing makes you human. You are only human, the place of forgets and mistakes, not angle whose life is dedicated only for God. Doing mistake is not always that bad, as long as you can take a lesson from it to learn how to avoid the similar thing happens. Try to think that do mistake is just the same as gaining new experience, the more experience you got the stronger person you will be.    

      When you feel so tired and disappoint, you are learning about earnestness. So tired since you have done many things and you feel that you have put your best on it but at the end it only gives you disappointments.  However, when you decide not to surrender to this bitterness, at this point you show the quality of your earnestness, the earnest of your will, spirit, and heart. Always remember this life is a test, a sustainable test that will only stop when you face your death. How strong you can cope with all the tiredness and disappointments reflects your true earnestness.   

      When you feel all your hard works are not appreciated, you are learning about sincerity. Sincerity doesn’t mean giving up to the condition, but do everything you have to do with no expecting anything in return. Perhaps, it will be so wise when you learn this thing from a lover; he will give everything he has to someone who he loves without expecting anything in return but happiness of that one he loves.   So just put your best in things that you have to do, hand the result to God, He is the All Fair and All Seeing. Ignore everything that can make you down. Keep that way; it is because what you have done and are doing will determine your quality in the eyes of God and other people. Does not mean that you have to always care of other people opinions, you may simply say I don’t care what the neighbor’s thinking or I don’t care what do they know about me, but notice this, the value of yourself is reflected from what they say about you that will be the real you.


         

      Onomatopoeia vs. Arbitrariness

       Onomatopoeia (The echo of nature)
      The controversy among linguist concerning either language is arbitrary or onomatopoeia begins since 6 B.C. in the ancient Greek. There were two groups of linguist who had different concept of naming things in language; they were, in one side, phusis who believed that language was onomatopoeia and thesis, on the other side, who believed that language was arbitrary. 
      • First was introduced by phusis;
      • There are connections/associations between words and nature; 
      • The echo of nature is used to name the concepts of material.
      • Other examples of onomatopoeia:splash, pick, sway, etc.  


                    
                     Arbitrary 
        “There be no direct, necessary connection between the nature of the things or ideas language deals with and the linguistic units or combinations by which these things or ideas are expressed”
        • The language items have no direct connection with the concepts they represent;
        • In naming things, human doesn't follow certain rule;
        • The names of things are the result of convention among the language users.

        Kerendahan Hati

        Taufik Ismail

        Kalau engkau tak mampu menjadi beringin
        yang tegak di puncak bukit
        Jadilah belukar, tetapi belukar yang baik,
        yang tumbuh di tepi danau

        Kalau kamu tak sanggup menjadi belukar,
        Jadilah saja rumput, tetapi rumput yang
        memperkuat tanggul pinggiran jalan

        Kalau engkau tak mampu menjadi jalan raya
        Jadilah saja jalan kecil,
        Tetapi jalan setapak yang
        Membawa orang ke mata air

        Tidaklah semua menjadi kapten
        tentu harus ada awak kapalnya….
        Bukan besar kecilnya tugas yang menjadikan tinggi
        rendahnya nilai dirimu
        Jadilah saja dirimu….
        Sebaik-baiknya dari dirimu sendiri

        Middle English

        Brief Introduction
          Extending from 1066 to 1485, this period is noted for the extensive influence of French literature on native English forms and themes.
          From the Norman-French conquest of England in 1066 until the 14th century, French largely replaced English in ordinary literary composition, and Latin maintained its role as the language of learned works.
          By the 14th century, when English again became the chosen language of the ruling classes, it had lost much of the Old English inflectional system, had undergone certain sound changes, and had acquired the characteristic it still possesses of freely taking into the native stock numbers of foreign words, in this case French and Latin ones.
          Thus, the various dialects of Middle English spoken in the 14th century were similar to Modern English and can be read without great difficulty today.

        Poetry
        Themes, characteristics, and famous works and authors:
          Religious teaching; “Ormulum”, “Ancren Riwle”, “the Owl and the Nightingale”.
          History; “Brut” (the history of “England”) èLayamon
          Heroes, great manè Ballads (tales told from mouth to mouth, which the origin and the authors were unknown); Robin Hood, King Arthur and His Knights
          Love, knight èRomance (tales of extra-ordinary deeds and events, which be possibly happened only on imaginative world, adopted from French literature); “Chanson de Roland”,  Alexander, the Pearl (mostly by unknown authors).
          Realistic (unlike the previous themes, in the 14th C the themes of the poems were ordinary man, such as Oxford scholar up to common farmer)è Geoffrey Chaucer (the pioneer)è “Canterbury Tales”; William Langlandè  “Piers Plowman”(alliteration).

        Prose
          Prose in Middle English was also dominated by a large number of religious works.
          John Wyclif, religionist and scholar, known as the translator of Bible, which has great influence not only in the teaching of moral values but also the style of language, through his language prose style represented in his work “Mandeville’s Travels” helped much the organizing of Standard English language used by the society.
          Strongly influenced by French not only in terms of lexicons, many borrowed terms from French language found, and the language style used, romance, but also in terms of the atmospheres, styles, and forms.

        Drama
          Its first appearance was used as a media to teach Christianity doctrines, which was usually delivered by the religionist to the people orally by using Latin language (mostly the people did not understand about it).
          The themes for the first time concerned with stories told in the bible such as: the birthday of Christ (Christmas day), the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ (Easter day), in which all the actors were the religionist them selves and it was played in the church (the language introduction was Latin then replaced by English) .
          The themes developedè “Miracles” (the stories of Saints) and “Mysteries” (themes adopted from the bible).



        The Old English (Anglo-Saxon)

        Old English (Anglo-Saxon)
        The indigenous of Britain isles was Celt (under protection of Roman Empire since 50 A.D, in which in 410 A.D withdrawn) was overran in 5th A.D. by North Germanic tribes: Jutes, Angles, and Saxons (Anglo-Saxon: the predecessor of English language). In 6th C, the Christianity scattered in the land of England (important moment in this era).

        Poetry
        Theme: religious (Christianity), Often bold and strong, but also mournful and elegiac in spirit, this poetry emphasizes the sorrow and ultimate futility of life and the helplessness of humans before the power of fate.

        Characteristics
        • Much of Old English poetry was probably intended to be chanted, with harp accompaniment, by the Anglo-Saxon scop, or bard.
        • Almost all this poetry is composed without rhyme, in a characteristic line, or verse, of four stressed syllables alternating with an indeterminate number of unstressed ones. This line strikes strangely on ears habituated to the usual modern pattern, in which the rhythmical unit, or foot, theoretically consists of a constant number (either one or two) of unaccented syllables that always precede or follow any stressed syllable. Another unfamiliar but equally striking feature in the formal character of Old English poetry is structural alliteration, or the use of syllables beginning with similar sounds in two or three of the stresses in each line.

        The famous literary arts
        -          Beowulf (the greatest)
        The epic poem Beowulf, written sometime between the 8th century and the late 10th century. Beginning and ending with the funeral of a great king, and composed against a background of impending disaster, it describes the exploits of a Scandinavian cultural hero, Beowulf, in destroying the monster Grendel, Grendel's mother, and a fire-breathing dragon.

        -          Caedmon
        Caedmon (650?-680?), considered the earliest of the Anglo-Saxon Christian poets. The only information concerning Caedmon is in the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation (731), by the English theologian Saint Bede the Venerable.

        In the end of 8th C, the Scandinavian attacked the Northern England destroying the culture including the literary arts. The remaining inscriptions were translated by the King Alfred the Wessex’s scholars into West Saxon dialect. The extinction of northern England’s literature brought the end of the era of poetry; and the appearance of King Alfred the Wessex signed the beginning of the new era in Anglo-Saxon literature, the era of prose.

        Prose
        Prose in Old English is represented by a large number of religious works. The imposing scholarship of monasteries in northern England in the late 7th century reached its peak in the Latin work Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People, 731) by Bede. The great educational effort of Alfred, king of the West Saxons, in the 9th century produced an Old English translation of this important historical work and of many others, including De Consolatione Philosophiae (The Consolation of Philosophy), by Boethius. This was a significant work of largely Platonic philosophy easily adaptable to Christian thought, and it has had great influence on English literature.

        References:
        Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2008. © 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
         Samekto. 1976. Ikhtisar Sejarah Kesusastraan Inggris. Jakarta: GM

          

        History of Engish Literature

        1. the Old English (Anglo-Saxon)
        2. the Middle English
        3. the Renaissance (Elizabethan)
        4. the Restoration
        5. the Romantic
        6. the Victorian
        7. the 20th C up to the Present

        Viking Prayer before Battle

        Lo! there do I see my father.

        Lo! there do I see my mother, sisters, my brothers.

        Lo! there do I see the line of my people back to the beginning.

        Lo! they do call to me.

        They bid me take my place among them.

        In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live forever...


        (Viking prayer before battle, 13th Warriors)

        Perjalanan

        Bising jalanan bagai nyanyian mendayu,
        Tutupi suara kalbu yang lirih menyeru,
        Lemah raga berpacu dengan waktu,
        Gelora muda tak terhentikan melaju,
        Ditemani ambisi terus ku memburu.


        Sejenak ku mabuk dalam indahnya cinta,
        Melayang jauh ke suwarga loka asmara.
        Bagai Majnun gila mendamba Laila jelita.
        Antara semu dan nyata ku kejar bayangnya,
        Cinta yang membuat si jahanam tak berdaya.


        Perjalanan ini sadarkanku akan arah tujuanku,
        Melihat lilin pelita itu semakin redup dan layu,
        Dibalik diammu terukir jelas akan galau hatimu.
        Ku tata hati, nyalakan kobar api, kaulah alasanku
        Ku gadaikan bahagiaku demi melihat cahayamu.


        Bukanku tak mencintaimu, maafkan ku cinta,
        Ku harus penjarakanmu tuk sementara.
        Karna dalam hati ku kan slalu percaya,
        Jika Dia Sang Maha Segala berkata iya,
        Kau kan jadi milikku untuk selamanya.


        Air mata dan simpuh dihadapNya
        Menjadi pedang di medan laga,
        Jadikan usaha sebagai batu bata,
        Tuk bangun kerajaanku di surga,
        Cahaya kan bersinar dengan bangga.


        Kesabaran adalah matahari,
        Kesadaran adalah bumi,
        Keberanian menjadi cakrawala,
        Perjuangan adalah pelaksanaan kata-kata.


        Untuk wanita tertangguh yang pernah ku kenal,
        Sebuah guratan dari sang putra.


        Malang, 11 oktober 2010


        Note: the sixth stanza is adopted from Iwan Falls’ lyric (Paman Doblang)

        Poor City

        Awali hari dengan secangkir kopi dan sebatang rokok adalah rutinitas yang sudah menjadi kebutuhan pokok. Sayang tak ku dengar lagi sapaan ayam jantan berkokok di kota dosa yang bikin orang baik menjadi kapok.

        Sejuk hawamu bikin orang kerasan, karena letakmu diapit gunung2 berjejeran. Tapi sayang kota ini besar lantaran imigran, karena banyak pribumimu yang buta akan pendidikan.

        Malang namamu moga tak semalang pendudukmu. Kota pendidikan katamu, kota dosa kataku, kota yang merubah orang lugu menjadi beringas seperti hantu.

        Transformasi hebat terjadi disini, Agent of Change jadi kurcaci ciut nyali, materialisme dan hedonisme jadi teman sejati, what a fuck they say jadi dalil suci.

        Banyak remaja memilih jadi ayam, daripada harus makan nasi garam. Itu dalih untuk halalkan yang haram, bikin paras elok kota ini makin suram.

        Gedung2 megah berdiri simbol keangkuhanmu, dimana segala transaksi  iblis terjadi disitu, norma agama dan budaya jadi makin layu, kebebasan dan kemunafikan menjalar seperti benalu.

        Aku bukannya bersikap skeptis Bos, tapi prihatin sebelum semua jadi chaos, lihat banyak institusi saling adu jotos, demi mendapatkan wajah2 yang masih polos.

        Lihat mal praktek terjadi dimana-mana, bikin orang enek dan mengelus dada. Merpercantik kuantitas mereka berlomba, kualitas jadi kata asing ditelinga.

        He! jangan cuman ngomong doang bung! Jangan bikin orang lain tambah bingung! tapi apa yang bisa dilakukan anak seumur jagung? Cuma bisa berkoar kemudian merenung.


                                                                                 Malang, 23 September 2010

        How to Make Social Profile Widget?

        social bookmark
        Social profile widget in your blog serves significant function to you to stay connect with your visitor. Furthermore, by doing this you can also increase your blog traffic by submitting or promoting either your blog or your posting to them. There are so many social bookmarks  you can follow such as: google+, facebook, twitter, feeds, technorati, stumbleupon, linkedin, etc.

        I really suggest for the blogger to add link of these social bookmarks to their blog. But how to make it? it is easy, just follow these steps:

        • Go to layout, 
        • add a gadget, 
        • choose: HTML/Java script, 
        • copy and paste this below script, 
        • change the ###### with your social profile (facebook, twitter, feeds, technorati, stumbleupon)

         ......................................................
        social bookmark

        List of Novels to Read

        1. Twilight
        2. The Da Vinci Code 
        3. Pride and Prejudice
        On going...  
        4. The Hound of the Baskervilles
        5. The Iliad (optional)  

        For further novels, visits:
        http://www.planetpdf.com/ 
          

        The Day Has Come

        The day has come
         When the name of the Mighty’s echoing in the sky,
        When the Winner celebrate the victory of joy.

        The day has come
        When the Muttaqin harvest the seeds they sow,
        When the Forgiver purifies the taints we draw.

        The day has come
        When the Lucky cry as if the precious’ gone,
        When the selfishness statue falls down.

        The day has come
        When the Pious beg to meet it once again,
        When the dirts’ heart’s faded by absolution’s rain.

        The day has come
        When we re-knit the broken twines, 
        When we’re reborn to be a new one.

        "عيد مبارك"
        تقبل الله منا ومنكم تقبل ياكريم و جعلنا واياكم من العائدين والفائزين 
        والمكبولين كل عام وأنتم بخير
                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                    Jombang, 1 Syawal 1431 H




        Syukurku

        SYUKURKU
        By: Awin Wijaya

        Duduk termenung seorang diri,
        Menerawang jauh mengarungi sanubari,
        Tertohok karya sufi agung dari Persi,
        Terngiang kisah-kisah mistik nan abadi:

        Si kakak tua dan penjual minyak wangi,
        “matilah sebelum kau mati”
        Sang singa dan si kelinci,
        “instropeksi diri, sebelum menghakimi”
        Ayaz, si pengawal raja yang setia,
        “janganlah lupa diri, semua adalah pemberian Illahi”
        Ataupun si musikus tua,
        yang akhirnya kepada Tuhan dia bernyanyi.

        Oh Lord…
        Syukurku atas pengetahuan yang Kau tunjukkan
        Syukurku atas peringatan yang Kau berikan
        Syukurku atas kesadaran yang Kau tanamkan
        Syukurku atas air mata yang mengalir hanya untukMu.

        Marhaban ya Romadhon…Marhaban ya Syahrus Siam…

        Malang, 10 Agustus 2010

        Forgive me

        Forgive me
        By: Awin Wijaya

        I thought I was the weakest
        I thought I was the hopeless
        I thought I was the flawless
        I thought I was the greatest

        See the children of violence; I feel my matters are nothing
        See the moments of the past day, I feel my mind's over thinking
        See the great man from the East; I feel my life has no meaning
        See the magnificent surrounds, I feel myself is a small thing

        For every sorrow is a lesson
        For every happening is a present
        For every deed has a consequence
        For every living being is eminent

        Forgive my complaint always flowing from my tongue
        Forgive my prejudice always being there in my mind
        Forgive my ignorance always coloring every performance
        Forgive my arrogance always looking everything down

        Malang, August 6, 2010

        Classroom Discussions and Pragmatics

        It is generally accepted that classroom interaction can facilitate students’ language development and communicative competence (Yu, 2008). The most common proposition of the role of classroom interaction is its contribution to language development simply by providing target language practice opportunities. According to Allright (1984), it is the process whereby classroom language learning is managed. In the language classroom the process of negotiation involved in interaction is itself to be identified with the process of language learning. The notion of negotiation is generally defined as ‘discussion to reach agreement’. Learners acquire linguistic knowledge and ability through the interaction.

        Furthermore, one of the classroom interaction patterns is classroom discussion, which Yu (2008) considers it as a productive teaching technique. Discussion can be a powerful means of allowing students to engage actively with course material and develop their own views based on sound critical thinking. Barton et al (2004) argue classroom discussion functions best when students are talking to students. Indeed, our goal is to get as many students involved in talking to one another as possible and for the teacher to fade into the background. Students are well practiced in how to talk to and listen to teachers, in how to address and look to authority figures for answers. But they are not well versed in how to talk to and listen to each other, in how to navigate and negotiate and discuss issues of serious consequence and work toward answers among equals.

        From the perspectives of applied linguistics, Liu (2007) states that more and more focus has been put on communicative language teaching, or communicative approach, an approach to foreign or second language teaching that emphasizes communicative competence as the goal of language learning. Communicative competence refers to the ability not only to apply the grammatical rules of a language in order to form grammatically correct sentences but also to know when and where to use these sentences and to whom. And there are still some other terms thought to be more effective in describing what it means to know and to be able to use language knowledge. One of these is Bachman’s (1990) communicative language ability and pragmatic competence. Pragmatic competence is generally considered to involve not only the ability of knowing how to use the language but also how to select the language forms to use in different settings, and with people in different roles and with different status.

        Moreover, Nunn (2004) states that pragmatics has much, possibly more, to tell us about communication in the educational contexts where so many of us spend so much of our lives communicating and where communication is of the essence. Harlig & Taylor (1999) states that pragmatics explores the ability of language users to match utterances with contexts in which they are appropriate. In the other words, pragmatics is "the study of linguistic acts and the contexts in which they are performed". The main purpose of pragmatics, in the relation to language teaching is to facilitate the learners’ sense of being able to find socially appropriate language for the situations that they encounter. Within second language studies and teaching, pragmatics encompasses speech acts, conversational structure, conversational implicature, conversational management, discourse organization, and sociolinguistic aspects of language use such as choice of address forms.

        Regarding the conversational implicature, Grice’s maxims, which are intended to be seen as a set of rules to be obeyed, could serve as useful guiding principles for teachers. Teachers, or students, as normal human beings, deliberately flout them, or unwittingly violate them. Experienced teachers could usefully make conscious attempts to self-observe, applying Grice’s maxims to their spoken communication with students and might also want to consider them as means of making written communication more efficient.

        A CONFESSION

        SEBUAH PENGAKUAN
        Oh Tuhan aku bukanlah ahli surga
        Juga tak mampu menahan siksa neraka
        Kabulkan taubat ampuni dosa-dosaku
        Hanyalah Engkau pengampun dosa hambaMu
        Dosa-dosaku tak terhitung bagai debu
        Ya Ilahi terimalah hamba taubatku
        Sisa umurku berkurang setiap hari
        Dosa-dosaku makin bertambah ya Ilahi
        Hamba yang berdosa datang bersimpuh menyembahMu
        Mengaku menyeru dan memohon ampunanMu


        A CONFESSION
        Oh my Lord I’m not deserved to be in Your heaven
        Nor I can hold on Your torment in hell
        Accepts my false ware and forgives my sins
        Coz You're the one who forgives all our sins
        My sins are like uncounted dust
        Ya Ilahi accepts my false ware
        My remaining age decreases day by day
        But my sins increase every day
        Your sinner servant knees before You
        Confessing, hailing, and bagging for Your forgiveness




        الاعتراف
        اِله لاالست للفردوس اهلا
        ولااقوي علي النارالجحيم
        فهبل توبة واغفر الذنوبي
        فاِنك غافرالذنب العاظيم
        ذنوُبي مثل اعدادالرمال
        فهبل توبة ياذي الجلال
        وعمرنا قص في كل يوم
        وذنبي زاِد كيف اختمالي


        PENGAKUAN
        Duh Gusti ingsun mboten pantes wonten suwargo
        Nanging ingsun mboten kiat ngraosaken sikso neroko
        Dipun sembadani taubat ingsun lan dipun ngapuro sedoyo duso
        Panjenengan Dzat kang ngapunten sedoyo duso
        Duso ingsung mboten keitung kados lebu
        Duh Gusti terami tobat ingsun
        Siso umur ingsun kirang saben dinten
        Nanging duso ingsun tambah saben wektu
        Kawulo kang hino sujud takdzim ten ngandap Panjenengan
        Mengaku menyeru lan memohon pengapunten Panjenengan


        UNE CONFESSION
        Oh Dieu, je ne suis pas un expert Paradise
        Aussi incapable de supporter le châtiment de l'Enfer
        Subvention de repentir, pardonne mes péchés
        Vous seul le pardon des péchés serviteur
        Innombrables comme la poussière Sins
        Oui Divine accepter mon serviteur repentance
        Time I a été réduit chaque jour
        Mes péchés ont augmenté si divine
        Sinful serviteurs venus adorer tes talons
        Admise appelant et vous demande pardon

        Diachronic and synchronic

        Diachronic and synchronic, the first term refers to the study of language from time to time. The basic characteristic of language is dynamic, it means language constantly changes from time to time depend on the necessity of the language users.

        Referring to the history of English, the transformation of English recorded by historian happened once. In the ancient time, we will find that English nowadays is very different than English that used at that time. The previous version of English sometime we call it old English version was used in the era of 5 C, in which it was strongly influenced by three Germany tribes, Jutes, Saxons, and Angles, which conquer the land of Great Britain during that time.

        During the 1066-1200, England was ruled by the Normandy. The district of this Normandy spread out on the northern coast of France; hence, their language used was much influenced by France. Long period of governing in England territory, the Normandy contributed the language shift of English. English which was resulted from the accumulation of the three Germany tribes stated previously had changed during this era of ruling colored by the existence of France language brought by the Normandy. The France began to manifest itself to the development of old English.

        The first link in the chain binding England to the continent was broken in 1204 when King John lost Normandy. As a result, during The Middle English period (1150–1500) was marked by momentous changes in the English language, changes more extensive and fundamental than those that have taken place at any time before or since. They took place more rapidly because the Norman invasion removed from English those conservative influences that are always felt when a language is extensively used in books and is spoken by an influential educated class. The changes of this period affected English in both its grammar and its vocabulary. Those in the vocabulary involved the loss of a large part of the Old English word-stock and the addition of thousands of words from French and Latin. At the beginning of the period English is a language that must be learned like a foreign tongue; at the end it is Modern English. Thus, related to diachronic, we can trace the evolution of language through the recorded data presented by the language historian, and learn from it.

        In the other hand, synchronic refers to the study of language in particular period of time. It means that the study of language can be done in the particular of time in which the language is still used and utilized by the language users to communicate each other in a society in particular period of time; it can be present day, 50 years ago, ancient time and so ford. However, one point to be paid attention is that there is no comparison made to other states language or other times. Thus, the first dichotomy introduced by de Saussure is meant to point out that language can be traced from time to time along with the history of it and can be learned in a particular period of time in which the language occur.


        Back to THE COMMON GROUND OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURES

        THE COMMON GROUND OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURES

        Many branches of studies include the discussion of the relationship between form and function. In linguistics the note of form and function was first introduced by de Saussure considered as the founding father of modern linguistics. In presenting his ideas concerning linguistics, he tended to use dichotomies. There are six dichotomies granted by Saussure in describing linguistics:

        1. Diachronic and Synchronic
        2. Langue and Parole
        3. signifian and Signifie
        4. Form and Meaning
        5.
        6.

        Literature

        Get up Young Ones!!!

        Tertunduk lesu tak berdaya
        Menanti hari yang tak kunjung tiba
        Janji terkoyak oleh ketidakpastian
        Semangat redup dalam kebosanan

        Waktu terlewati dengan percuma
        Detik terbuang dengan sia-sia
        Sempat lewat begitu saja
        Sesal diri pun tiada guna

        Mencoba melawan setan dalam diri
        Ku kutuk kelemahan yang menjangkiti
        Ganyang lingkaran yang menghantui
        Tuk bangkit dari keterpurukan abadi

        Genderang perang bergema membahana
        Ambisi bekobar membakar gelora api jiwa
        Secercah harapan segarkan rapuh raga
        Ku tatap hari laksana panglima taklukkan dunia

        Now bend on knees I pray
        To You Almighty only
        Never give up hope is the key
        Surely tomorrow shines brightly

        Malang, 14 Juni 2010

        TRUTH CONDITION THEORY

        Key issues:
        What is sentence?
        What is sentential semantics?
        What is truth?
        What is truth condition theory?
        What is componential analysis?


        Constative Sentence

        Performative Sentence

        Tarsky's (1933) postulate:



        S is true, iff p Sentence is true if and only if P

        S: sentence

        p: a condition which can guarantee the truth of the sentence

        e.g. "snow is white"

        Componential analysis
        Explaining the meaning of lexicon by presenting as many components as possible which construct totality of meaning of lexicon.

        Can you define and differentiate these words?
        Man, woman, boy, girl, bachelor, and spinster.

        Perfected by
        Ruth M. Kempson (1977)

        S means that p necessarily, S is true iff p

        : equal and only equal

        e.g. "A boy hurried home"

        Weaknesses:
        1. The theory is circular;
        2. It is restricted only on constative/ factual statement

        Meaning Relations

        1. Synonymy is a meaning relation which involves two or more expression having the same interpretation. Synonymy will always mean one of two or more words in the English language which have the same or very nearly the same essential meaning.
        Synonym: words which have the same meaning.

        Three kinds of synonymy

        • True synonymy is a meaning relation which involves two or more sentences having the same exact meaning.

        e.g.

        "Uncle is a true synonymy of the brother of one’s father or mother, or the husband of one’s aunt."


        • Close synonymy is a meaning relation which involves two or more expressions of which the interpretation is not entirely the same but very close.

        e.g. war, battle, combat, fight, struggle.

        • Partial synonymy is a meaning relation in which the meaning or interpretation of one lexicon only a part of the meaning of the other.

        e.g. hen is partial meaning of chicken.


        2. Antonymy: a meaning relation which involves two or more lexicons having opposite interpretations/ meanings.

        Four kinds of antonymy


        • True antonymy: the meaning relation which involves two or more lexicons having true opposite meaning.
        e.g. - male vs. female
              - true vs. false
        • Reciprocal antonymy: the meaning relation which involves two or more lexicons having reciprocal opposite meaning. Usually, it is in the form of actions.
        e.g. - close vs. open
               - sleep vs. awake
        • Gradual antonymy: the meaning relation which involves two or more lexicons having gradual opposite meaning.
        e.g. - uninjured- barely injured –injured- badly wounded- died
              - big – medium – small
        • One- to- many antonymy: the meaning relation in which one lexicons has many opposite meanings.

        e.g. . sweet vs. bitter
                              salty
                              sour
                              hot
                              etc.
        3. Hyponymy: a relationship between two words, in which the meaning of one of the words includes the meaning of the other words
        e.g. ‘Eagle’, ‘swallow’, ‘parrot’, etc. are hyponyms of the super ordinate ‘bird’

        4. Ambiguity: a meaning relation which involve only one expression having more than one interpretation.


        • Lexical ambiguity arises when context is insufficient to determine the sense of a single word that has more than one meaning.
        e.g. can, bank, duck etc.
        • Syntactic ambiguity arises when a sentence can be parsed in more than one way.
        e.g. The chicken is ready to eat

        5. Polysemy is a word or phrase with multiple, related meanings
        e.g.

        The house is at the foot of the mountains
        One of his shoes felt too tight for his foot
        'Foot' here refers to the bottom part of the mountains in the first sentence and the bottom part of the leg in the second.

        Definition of Semantics

        Key issues:
        Do you know what the definition of language is?
        Do you know what language feature are?
        Do you know what meaning is?

        Language:

        Linguistics:

        Semantics:


        Lexical meaning
        Lexical meaning is the meaning of a word in isolation. The term 'lexical meaning' is to be interpreted as the meaning of lexemes depends upon the meaning of the sentences in which they occur.
        Lexical meaning covers among other things the discussion about
        Ambiguity:
        Synonymy:
        Antonymy:
        Hyponymy:
        Polysemy:
        Homophony:
        and homonymy:

        Can you define for each term?

        Sentential Meaning
        A sentence is a set of words expressing a statement, a question, or a command. Sentence can be defined as a group of words that forms a statement, command, exclamation or question, it usually contains a subject and a verb and (in writing begins with a capital letter and ends of the mark (.,!,?) (Procter in Ahmadin, 1998: 12)
        Theories in sentential semantic:
        1. theory of truth condition:
        2. theory of deep structure:

        Discourse Meaning/ speech act
        Discourse is a term used in linguistics to refer to a continuous stretch of language larger than a sentence. In addition, according to Fromkin in Ahmadin (2002: 22) linguistic knowledge accounts for speaker's ability to combine phonemes into morphemes, morphemes into words and words into sentences. Knowing a language also permits combining sentences together to express complex thought and ideas. This linguistic ability makes language an excellent medium for communication. These larger linguistic units are called discourse.

        Politeness strategies

        According to Brown and Levinson (1990) politeness strategies are developed in order to save the hearers' "face" Face refers to the respect that an individual has and maintenance that "self-esteem" in public or in private situations. Or simply we can say that 'face' refers to the image that a person projects in his social contacts with others. Usually you try to avoid embarrassing the other person, or making them feel uncomfortable. Since every participant in the social process has the need to be appreciated by others and the need to be free and not interfered with. The need to be appreciated is called 'positive face' and the need to not be disturbed refers to 'negative face. Face Threatening Acts (FTA's) are acts that infringe on the hearers' need to maintain his/her self esteem, and be respected.

        The bald on-record strategy does nothing to minimize threats to the hearer's “face”

        The positive politeness strategy shows you recognize that your hearer has a desire to be respected. It also confirms that the relationship is friendly and expresses group reciprocity

        The negative politeness strategy also recognizes the hearer's face. But it also recognizes that you are in some way imposing on them. Some other examples would be to say, “I don't want to bother you but...” or “I was wondering if...”

        Off-record indirect strategies the main purpose is to take some of the pressure off of you. You are trying to avoid the direct Face Threatening Act of asking something.

        Code Choice

        Key terms:
        • Diglossia
        • Bilingualism
        • Multilingualism
        • Code-Switching,
        • and Code Mixing

        Diglossia vs. Digraphia

        Charles Ferguson (1959)

        “Situations where two varieties of the same language are used for different social functions”

        Janet Holmes
        defines diglossia as having three crucial features:
        1. In the same language, used in the same community, there are two distinct varieties. One is regarded as high (H) and the other low (L).
        2. Each is used for distinct functions.
        3. No one uses the high (H) in everyday conversation.

        The "High" form (called "Modern Standard Arabic") is normally used in FORMAL situations.
        The "Low" form (referred to as "dialects," such as Cairene, Levantine, etc.) is used in INFORMAL situations, such as conversations, etc.

        Digraphia??

        Bilingualism??
        Multilingualism??


        It is important to note from the outset that "diglossia" and "bilingualism/multilingualism" refer to different, although similar, sociolinguistic situations.

        • The key difference is that in a bilingual situation certain INDIVIDUALS (communities, etc.) will use Language A, while other INDIVIDUALS (communities, etc.) will use Language B, but EVERYONE will use the SAME LANGUAGE for all situations.

        • Code-Switching??

        In conversation
        Code Mixing??
        In single utterance

        Language, Dialect, and Varieties





        Key terms:
        Language variations
        Language
        Dialect
        Accent
        Idiolect
        Sociolect

        Internal Variation: the property of languages having different ways of expressing the same meaning. Importantly, this refers to within language, not across language, differences. (Phones, words, sentences)

        External Variation?

        Always remember DIALECT is NOT synonymous with accent

        Regional Dialect

        What are Isogloss, Dialect boundary, and Dialect continuum?
        Criterion of mutual intelligibility

         Language issues and non linguistics factors
        Prestige (standard vs. non-standard) Overt Prestige vs. Covert Prestige
        The standard dialect is the dialect that is associated with prestige in the society at large.

        Register (Class)
        Politic

        Kinds of variation
        • Phonological variations
        • Morphological variations
        • Syntactic variations
        • Semantic variations


        Can you give the examples for each?