LEXICAL AMBIGUITY RESULTING IN HUMOR IN MIND YOUR …termasuk dalam homonimi dan beberapa kasus...

LEXICAL AMBIGUITY RESULTING IN HUMOR

IN MIND YOUR LANGUAGE TV SERIES OF SEASON 1

EPISODES 1 AND 2

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

CHRISTOFORUS HARJUNO KATON BHASKORO

Student Number: 154214036

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA

YOGYAKARTA

2019

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ii

LEXICAL AMBIGUITY RESULTING IN HUMOR

IN MIND YOUR LANGUAGE TV SERIES OF SEASON 1

EPISODES 1 AND 2

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

CHRISTOFORUS HARJUNO KATON BHASKORO

Student Number: 154214036

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA

YOGYAKARTA

2019


A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

LEXICAL AMBIGUITY RESULTING IN HUMOR IN MIND YOURLANGUAGE TV SERIES OF SEASON I EPISODES 1 AND 2

ByCHRISTOFORUS HARJUNO KATON BHASKORO

Student mnnber: 154214036

--

Dr. Fr. B. Nip, M.Pd., M.A.Advisor

Arina lsti'allah, S.Pd., M.HlIln.Co-Advisor

Approved by

iii

Apri110,2019

Aprill0,2019


A Sarjana Saslra Undergraduate 111esis

LEXICAL AMBIGUITY RESULTING IN HUMOR IN MIND YOURLANGUAGE TV SERIES OF SEASON I EPISODES I AND 2

ByCHRISTOFORUS HARJUNO KATON BHASKORO

Student number: 154214036

Defended before the Board ofExaminerson May 9, 2019

and Declared Acceptable

BOARD OF EXAMINERS

NAME

Chairperson : Dr. Fr. B. A1ip, M.Pd., M.A

Secretary : Arina !sti'anah, S.Pd., M.Hum.

Member! : Anna Fitriati, S.Pd., M.Hum.

Member 2 : Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A.

Member 3 : Arina lsti'anah, S.Pd., M.Hum.

iv


STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I certify that this undergraduate thesis contains no material which has been

previously submitted for the award of any other degree at any university, and that,

to the best of my knowledge, this undergraduate thesis contains no material which

has been previously written by any other person except where due the reference is

made in the text of the undergraduate thesis.

AP'il9'~

Christoforus Harjuno Katon Bhaskoro

v


LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAHUNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma

NamaNomor Mahasiswa

: Christoforus Harjuno Katon Bhaskoro: 154214036

Demi pertimbangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada PerpustakaanUniversitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul

LEXICAL AMBIGUITY RESULTING IN HUMOR IN MIND YOURLANGUAGE TV SERIES OF SEASON 1 EPISODES 1 AND 2

beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memerikankepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan,mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengolahnya dalam bentuk pangkalan data,mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau medialain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin kepada saya maupunmemberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagaipenulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Dibuat di YogyakartaPada tanggal9 April 2019

Yang~./akan

c~aton Bhaskoro

vi


vii

A Day without Laughter is a Day Wasted

-Charlie Chaplin-


viii

FOR YOU

WHO HAVE SPENT YOUR LAUGHTER WITH ME

AND

ACCEPTED MY JOKES AS THE WAY I AM


ix

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

These acknowledgements are addressed to some people whose support and

presence mean a lot for me. First of all, I would like to thank God for the bless has

given to me.

Second, I express my gratitude to my thesis advisor Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd.,

M.A., for his guidance and patience in giving me the best advice during the process

of my undergraduate thesis writing. I also deliver my gratitude to my Co-Advisor

Arina Isti’anah, S.Pd., M.Hum., for taking time to read my thesis, help me and

give me suggestion and correction to my thesis.

Third, I thank all of my family, mama, papa, mas and also Oliv. Thank

you for the support and prayer from the beginning until the end of my study here.

Fourth, for my lovely PR Squad, Christin, Vena, Indah, Lintang, Ardhia,

Rizky, Emma, Santi and Pak Harris. Thanks for the supports, laugh and the

companionship. Lastly, I would like to say a lot of thanks to my mood-booster

Veronika Ika Widiarsi for her smile, laugh, support, care and motivation so I can

finish my undergraduate thesis passionately.

Christoforus Harjuno Katon B


x

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ..................................................................................................... ii

APPROVAL PAGE .......................................................................................... iii

ACCEPTANCE PAGE ..................................................................................... iv

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY .................................................................. v

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH .. vi

MOTTO PAGE ................................................................................................ vii

DEDICATION PAGE ..................................................................................... viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................. x

LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................... xii

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................... xiii

ABSTRAK ....................................................................................................... xiv

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1

A. Background of the Study ............................................................................ 1

B. Problem Formulation .................................................................................. 4

C. Objective of the Study ................................................................................ 4

D. Definition of Terms .................................................................................... 5

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE .................................................. 6

A. Review of Related Study ........................................................................... 6

B. Review of Related Theory ........................................................................ 10

1. Semantics.............................................................................................. 10

2. Meaning ................................................................................................ 11

3. Ambiguity ............................................................................................. 12

4. Lexical Ambiguity ................................................................................ 13

a. Homonymy ....................................................................................... 13

b. Homograph ...................................................................................... 14

c. Homophone ...................................................................................... 14

d. Polysemy .......................................................................................... 15

5. Humor .................................................................................................. 15

a. Incongruity Theory ........................................................................... 16

b. Superiority Theory ........................................................................... 16

c. Relief of Release Theory .................................................................. 17

6. Conversation Theory ............................................................................. 17

C. Theoretical Framework ............................................................................. 18

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ................................................................ 20

A. Object of the Study ................................................................................... 20

B. Approach of the Study .............................................................................. 21

C. Method of the Study ................................................................................. 21

1. Data Collection ..................................................................................... 22

2. Data Analysis ........................................................................................ 23


xi

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS RESULT AND DISCUSSION .......................... 25

A. Words in Mind Your Language TV Series of Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2

Containing Lexical Ambiguity .................................................................. 26

1. Ambiguous Word “Right” ..................................................................... 26

2. Ambiguous Word “Departed” ............................................................... 27

3. Ambiguous Word “Brown” ................................................................... 28

4. Ambiguous Word “Underground” ......................................................... 29

5. Ambiguous Phrase “A Word” ............................................................... 30

6. Ambiguous Word “Bitch” ..................................................................... 32

7. Ambiguous Word “Inspector” ............................................................... 33

8. Ambiguous Word “Register” ................................................................ 35

9. Ambiguous Word “Sir” ......................................................................... 36

10. Ambiguous Word “Present” ................................................................ 37

11. Ambiguous Phrase “Hot Water” .......................................................... 38

12. Ambiguous Word “Exercises” ............................................................. 39

B. How the Words Result in Humor .............................................................. 40

1. Incongruity Results in Humor ............................................................... 40

2. Superiority Results in Humor ................................................................ 48

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ....................................................................... 52

REFERENCES ................................................................................................ 54

APPENDIX ...................................................................................................... 56

Conversations Containing Lexical Ambiguity in Mind Your Language TV

Series of Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2 ...................................................... 56


xii

LIST OF TABLES

No. Table Page

1. Conversation 1: Episode 1, 00:01:59 00:02:11 26







8 Conversation 12: Episode 2, 00:21:23 00:21:37 34







xiii

ABSTRACT

BHASKORO, CHRISTOFORUS HARJUNO KATON. (2019) Lexical

Ambiguity Resulting in Humor in Mind Your Language TV Series of Season 1

Episodes 1 and 2. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters,

Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Humor can be found everywhere. Generally, humor is divided into two:

verbal humor and non-verbal humor. Verbal humor produces the humorous effect

through the spoken language, one of which is lexical ambiguity. This study focuses

on analyzing lexical ambiguity that results in humor in Mind Your Language TV

series of season 1 episodes 1 and 2.

There are two objectives on this study. The first is to find the ambiguous

words in the conversation from Mind Your Language season 1 episodes 1 and 2.

The second is to find how the words which contain lexical ambiguity result in

humor.

This is a qualitative research and the researcher used population method to

collect the data. The researcher wrote down the conversations that have words or

phrases which contain lexical ambiguity. After the data were collected, the data

were analyzed using semantic theory about lexical ambiguity to find out whether

the word is homonymy, homophony or polysemy. After that, the researcher used

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8th Edition to find the meanings of the word

or phrases. After it was analyzed, the researcher used humor theory by Shade to

analyze in what way the word or phrases which contain lexical ambiguity resulting

in humor.

In conclusion, there are 13 conversations that have word or phrase which

contain lexical ambiguity on Mind Your Language season 1 episodes 1 and 2. There

are 10 words and 2 phrases. Most of the data are considered as homonymous and

few cases as polysemous, such as sir, brown, register and inspector. Those words

and phrases result in humor because of the multiple meaning that make different

interpretation. The humor is created by using incongruity and superiority strategy.

According to incongruity, the expectation about what will happen from one

character is presented differently from the interpretation of other character towards

the meaning of the words or phrases. Superiority strategy is used when somebody

is ridiculed because of their mistake to understand the meaning of the word or

phrase. On the other hand, the auditory humor elements such as dialects and the

visual elements such as gimmick, expression and silly reaction also increase the

humor effect of the lexical jokes on making humor on TV series.

Keywords: humor, lexical ambiguity, TV series.


xiv

ABSTRAK

BHASKORO, CHRISTOFORUS HARJUNO KATON. (2019) Lexical

Ambiguity Resulting in Humor in Mind Your Language TV Series of Season 1

Episodes 1 and 2. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra,

Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Humor dapat ditemukan di mana saja. Pada umumnya, humor dibagi

menjadi dua yaitu humor verbal dan humor non-verbal. Humor verbal

memproduksi humor melalui bahasa lisan yang salah satu sumbernya adalah

ambiguitas leksikal. Penelitian ini terfokus untuk menganalisa ambiguitas leksikal

yang menyebabkan humor pada serial TV Mind Your Language pada season

pertama episode 1 dan 2.

Ada dua sasaran dalam penelitian ini. Yang pertama adalah menemukan

kata-kata ambigu dalam percakapan dari serial televisi Mind Your Language

episode 1 dan 2 pada musim pertama. Yang kedua menemukan bagaimana kata-

kata yang mengandung ambiguitas leksikal menghasilkan humor.

Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif dan peneliti menggunakan

metode populasi dalam pengambilan data. Peneliti menuliskan percakapan yang

memiliki kata atau frase yang mengandung ambiguitas leksikal. Setelah data

terkumpul, data tersebut dianalisa menggunakan teori semantik untuk menentukan

apakah kata tersebut homonim, homofon atau polisemi. Setelah itu, peneliti

menggunakan Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8th Edition untuk

menemukan pengertian dari setiap kata atau frase. Setelah data tersebut dianalisa,

peneliti menggunakan teori humor oleh Shade untuk menganalisa bagaimana kata

atau frase yang mengandung ambiguitas leksikal menghasilkan humor.

Kesimpulannya, terdapat 13 percakapan yang memiliki kata atau frase yang

mengandung ambiguitas leksikal dalam serial televisi Mind Your Language episode

1 dan 2 pada musim pertama. Terdapat 10 kata dan 2 frase. Kebanyakan data

termasuk dalam homonimi dan beberapa kasus termasuk dalam polisemi seperti

kata brown, register and inspector. Kata dan frase tersebut menghasilkan humor

karena makna ganda yang menyebabkan adanya perbedaan interpretasi. Humor

diciptakan melalui dua metode yaitu inkongruensi dan superioritas. Berdasarkan

metode inkongruensi ekspektasi tentang apa yang akan terjadi selanjutnya dari

salah satu karakter dimunculkan secara berbeda dengan interpretasi karakter lain

terhadap makna kata atau frase tersebut. Metode superioritas digunakan ketika

seseorang direndahkan karena kesalahaanya untuk mengerti makna sebuah kata

atau frase. Elemen suara seperti dialek dan elemen visual seperti gimik, ekspresi

wajah maupun reaksi konyol juga menambah efek humor dalam candaan leksikal

pada pembuatan humor dalam serial televisi.

Keywords: humor, ambiguitas leksikal, serial TV.


1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Laughing is the happiest part that cannot be separated from our daily life.

People said that by laughing we can feel better from our pain. Laughing can be

found in many things that are funny, silly and also an accident that are unexpected.

Humor, that is one of the cause of laughter, can be found in many things such as

film, books or in daily conversation. Humor can be defined as all-encompassing

category, covering any event or object that elicits laughter, amuses, or felt to be

funny (Attardo, 1994, p. 4). In other words, humor can be found everywhere.

Humor can be divided into two: non-verbal humor and verbal humor. Non-

verbal humor can be found in a silent performance such as what Charlie Chaplin

did on his silent movie. The non-verbal humor emphasizes on the funny act and

gesture and also with a unique costume and make up. On the other hand, verbal

humor deals with language. Verbal humor is an utterance with a humorous effect in

conversation (Ortega, 2013). Verbal humor can be found in any contents that

contain conversation in it such as in play, film or literary text.

Language-based jokes or verbal humor find their humorous power through

ambiguities apparent in the English language (Seewoester, 2009). Ambiguities in

language can be analyzed by semantic theory of ambiguity. Semantic ambiguities

can be divided into lexical, syntactic and phonological ambiguity (Bucaria, 2004).


2

Lexical ambiguity appears with a double meaning of a word. It becomes ambiguous

because a word can have more than one meaning.

One of the characteristics of lexical ambiguity is that the word or sentence

can be true in different circumstances. Based on semantic point of view, a sentence

is ambiguous if it can be simultaneously true and false, relative to the same state of

affairs (Kempson, 1989, p. 128). Lexical ambiguity can be found in some form

which are homonymy and polysemy. Homonymy is described as different words

with the same form (Lyons, 2005, p. 55) and polysemy is a word that has very

closely related senses (Hurford et al, 2007, p. 130). If it is analyzed in the surface,

it will be quite difficult to differentiate between polysemy and homonymy. Both

seem to have no distinction.

Homonymy has no relation between the words, while in polysemy the words

still have a relation in sense although the meaning are different. For example word

bank. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the first meaning is

“the side of a river or canal and the land near it” (p.101). The second meaning is

“an organization that provides various financial services, for example keeping or

lending money” (p.101). Those two words have different meaning and can be

ambiguous if the speaker and listener have different context. This lexical ambiguity

can be included as homonymy because both have same writing and pronunciation.

In the other hand, polysemy is a lexical ambiguity which the two words have

different meaning but still have connection or relation which is called as sense

(Hurford et al, 2007, p. 130). Sense can be a similar physical description such as


3

shape or color or another context that makes those words have connection or

relation.

This undergraduate thesis focuses on identifying lexical ambiguity in

comedy TV series. Comedy TV series is one of the humorous material that can be

used to analyze lexical ambiguity because it is one example of literary works that

contains verbal humor in it. The conversation between the characters can be

analyzed whether it contains lexical ambiguity or not. As the audience of the film

we can see and analyze the two concepts or perspectives between the characters so

we can identify the words and analyze why it becomes funny.

The comedy TV series that was chosen is Mind Your Language season 1

episodes 1 and 2. Mind Your Language is a British TV series that was premiered on

ITV in 1977. It was produced by London Weekend Television and directed by

Stuart Allen. Three series were made by London Weekend Television between

1977 until 1979, and the show was briefly revived in 1986 for 13 episodes, with six

of the original cast. This comedy TV series tells us about an English class for

foreigners. The communication does not work well because of the ability of the

student that is very minimum. On episodes 1 and 2 season 1, the characters that

come from different places still cannot use English language well. Sometimes they

use the words that have different context one and another, so the message cannot

be delivered. The humor on the film is produced because of the miscommunication

between the characters. The communication becomes funny because there are two

concepts that are different one and another. This different concept of word meaning


4

is the indicator that the words contain lexical ambiguity and the lexical ambiguity

can create humor on the verbal humor.

This study identifies the words that contain lexical ambiguity in TV series

Mind Your Language season 1 episodes 1 and 2. This study also identified how

those words that contain lexical ambiguity result in humor. This study will be

important for the further research about ambiguity on verbal literary works and also

a deeper research about humor.

B. Problem Formulation

The problems in this study are formulated as follows:

1. What words in Mind Your Language TV series of season 1 episodes 1 and

2 contain lexical ambiguity?

2. How do the words result in humor?

C. Objectives of The Study

This undergraduate thesis analyzes the words that contain lexical ambiguity

that found in comedy TV series. There are two objectives that are discussed. The

first goal is to find out the words that contain lexical ambiguity in Mind Your

Language film episode 1 and 2 season 1. The second is to analyze how the words

result in humor. The research will analyze how lexical ambiguity can create a joke

or humor.


5

D. Definition of Term

This part clarified some definition of terms that were used on this research.

The first terminology is lexical ambiguity. Lexical ambiguity arises when at least

one word in phrase has more than one meaning (Fromkin et al, 2011, p. 143).

Lexical ambiguity can be formed as homonymy and polysemy. Homonymy can be

defined as different words with the same form (Lyons, 2005, p. 55) while polysemy

is where a word has very closely related senses (Hurford et al, 2007, p. 130

The second terminology is humor. Humor can be defined as all-

encompassing category, covering any event or object that elicits laughter, amuses,

or felt to be funny (Attardo, 1994, p. 4). In a simply way, Attardo tries to define that

everything that makes laughter can be included as humor. Generally, humor can be

divided into two types which are verbal humor and non-verbal humor. Verbal

humor deals with everything that is spoken as a source of humor while non-verbal

humor uses visual thing such as picture, motion or body language to make people

enjoy the humor. The example of non-verbal humor are mime, slapstick, comic and

the other examples. In the other hand, verbal humor has numerous forms such as

pun, riddle, joke and another examples.

Jokes is something said or done that provokes laughter (Shade, 1996, p. 3).

According to language-related jokes Shade explains that joke can be divided into

five forms which are phonological, lexical, surface structure, deep structure and

metalinguistic. Lexical joke is joke that based on multiple-meaning of words (p.

4). This undergraduate thesis would deal with lexical joke that using multiple-

meaning of words as the source of humor.


6

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter contains the review of some references that are used to develop

the research. This chapter contains three parts that will be discussed. In the first

part, there is a review from several related studies that have been made before.

There are one journal articles and three theses. In the second part there is a review

from several related theories that are taken from book or article journal. The

theories that are written here are very useful to develop the study. In the third part

is theoretical framework. On this part the writer explained the contribution of each

theory and review in solving the problem of this study.

A. Review of Related Studies

This part talks about several previous studies of people that researched about

lexical ambiguity that results humor. There are two studies that contribute to this

research. Those studies helped the writer to develop the idea to research about how

lexical ambiguity can result humor in a film.

The first study is entitled Lexical and Syntactic Ambiguity in Humor by

Charina (2017). This journal article focuses on investigating the ambiguity in

creating humor. There are 25 cases that are identified on this research. 12 sentences

are lexically ambiguous and 12 sentences are syntactically ambiguous. Those 25


7

cases were taken from electronic sources in forms of newspaper headlines, jokes,

riddles and anecdotes.

In order to analyze the data, Charina uses the theory of lexical ambiguity

and structural ambiguity on semantic. This theory of semantic can be used in written

or spoken language. In this research, Charina uses this theory to analyze lexical and

structural ambiguity that contained on some cases above. The spoken English such

as jokes and riddles are transcribed and analyzed with this theory. This way of

analyzing will also be used by the writer to analyze the conversation on the film.

The contribution of her journal article into this research lies on the analysis

of lexical ambiguity. In the analysis of lexical ambiguity, Charina finds that lexical

ambiguity can create humor because lexical ambiguity can confuse the reader or

the audience and at the same time can create a mind-blowing possible interpretation

(p. 130). Charina also adds that the using of lexical ambiguity for creating humor

can strengthen the humorous meaning when the possible interpretations involve a

serious meaning and a humorous counterpart.

The difference between Charina’s research and this research lies on the

discussion and the object of the study. This research will focus on discussing lexical

ambiguity while Charina analyses both lexical and structural ambiguity. The object

of the study also different. Charina uses the cases from many electronic sources

such as newspaper, jokes, riddles and anecdotes while this research will use comedy

TV series entitled Mind Your Language of season 1 episodes 1 and 2.

The second study that contributes to this research is entitled Ambiguity and

Flouting of Gricean Maxims in Sexual Humor in CBS’ 2 Broke Girls: Episodes 1-


8

2 of Seasons 1-5 by Sari (2017). This study focuses on identifying ambiguous

expressions and flouting of Gricean maxims which imply sexual humor the

episodes of CBS’ 2 Broke Girls.

The writer uses ambiguity theory to find twenty five expressions which are

classified based on three types of ambiguity, lexical, referential, and syntactical.

There are sixteen lexical ambiguity, nine referential ambiguity, and no expression

using syntactic ambiguity which are found in CBS’ 2 Broke Girls Episodes 1-2 of

Seasons 1-5.

In order to solve the second problem which elaborates ambiguities and

flouting of Gricean maxims in creating sexual humor, the writer uses semantic and

pragmatic approach. The writer finds there are eight expressions which flout

Gricean maxims of quantity, one expression flout Gricean maxims of quality, two

expressions flout Gricean maxims of relation, and one expression flout Gricean

maxims of manner.

The contribution of Sari’s research lies on the way of identifying ambiguity

in a situational comedy TV series. The differences between Sari’s research and this

undergraduate thesis lies on the object of the study and the scope of the problem.

Sari’s research uses CBS’ 2 Broke Girls as the object of the study while this

undergraduate thesis uses Mind Your Language TV series. In the other hand, Sari

identified all forms of ambiguity while this study only focuses on identifying lexical

ambiguity.


9

The third study that contributes to this study is Ambiguity and Tree Structure

of Sentences in Home Movie by Ritan (2018). This study focuses on identifying

sentences that are ambiguous that can be found in the conversation on this movie.

In order to solve the problem, the researcher uses semantic and syntax

approaches. On the first problem, the researcher uses semantic approach to find

what ambiguous sentence in Home movie. The second problem are formulated to

identify the tree structure of the ambiguous sentences.

There are 18 sentences from Home movie that are discussed because of the

ambiguity which is contained on each sentence. Those sentence are either lexically

or structurally ambiguous. The ambiguous sentences have nonsensical meanings,

multiple meanings, ungrammatical sentence structure and sentences with

contradictory facts within a single sentence (p. 68).The ambiguity occurs because

of wrong word choice or incoherent words with in one sentence.

The contribution of Golu’s research to this research lies on the discussing

of ambiguity on a movie. In the other hand, the difference between Golu’s research

and this undergraduate thesis lies on the object of the study. Golu uses Home movie

for the object of her study, while this research uses Mind Your Language of season

1 episodes 1 and 2.

The forth study that contributes to this undergraduate thesis is entitled

Lexical and Structural Ambiguity Found in Zootopia Movie by Safitri (2017). This

undergraduate thesis focuses on identifying lexical and structural ambiguity that

found on Zootopia movie.


10

In order to identify the lexical and structural ambiguity the writer uses

Semantics theory by Stephen Ullmann. In lexical ambiguity, the writer analyzes the

types of lexical ambiguity based on the kinds of the word which known as part of

speech. The kinds of phrase analyzed in structural ambiguity and it is based on Yule

theory. Furthermore, the writer analyzes the frequency of structural and lexical

ambiguity on the movie based on the theory.

The result of this research shows that the most dominant ambiguity in this

research is lexical ambiguity which produced for 41 times or 86% in out of 47 total

number of data. The structural ambiguity only produced only 6 or 14% from the

total number of data.

The contribution of Safitri’s research to this undergraduate thesis lies on the

discussing of lexical ambiguity on a movie. In the other hand, the difference

between Safitri’s research and this undergraduate thesis lies on the object of the

study. Safitri uses the Zootopia movie on her study, while this research usez comedy

TV series entitled Mind Your Language of season 1 episodes 1 and 2.

B. Review of Related Theories

In this study, the researcher uses some theories to observe the objects which

are comedy TV series.

1. Semantics

For discussing and identifying the lexical ambiguity of the object, the

researcher needs the theories that are related to the meaning. The theory about

meaning is the part of semantics. Semantics is the study of the linguistic meaning


11

of morphemes, words, phrases and sentences (Fromkin et al, 2011, p.138) In the

other hand, Kreidler simplifies that semantics is the systematic study of meaning

and linguistic semantic is the study how languages organize and express meaning

(1998, p. 3). It can be concluded that semantics deals with the meaning of unit of

language and how it is organized and expressed.

2. Meaning

Meaning is an important part to understand what the speaker wants to say.

In semantics and pragmatics, meaning is the message that is conveyed by words,

sentences and symbols in context. They are called lexical or semantic meaning

(Nordquist, 2018). Nordquist also adds that there are two kinds of meaning which

are semantic meaning and pragmatic meaning. Semantic meaning is a sentence

expresses a more or less complete propositional content while pragmatic meaning

comes from a particular context of the sentence. For example, whenever there is a

person says “crack the window”. Semantically, it means asking someone to crack

the window. It is meant word by word. In pragmatic to understand the utterance

needs to understand the context whenever it is spoken. If it was spoken in a room

with a warm temperature, “crack the window” can be meant to open the window

not cracking the window.

In a conversation, the meaning can be concluded in two ways by linguistic

meaning and speaker meaning. The linguistic meaning is the meaning of expression

in the language (Akmaijan et al, 2001, p. 229). Akmaijan et.al. add speaker meaning

depends on whether the speaker is speaking literally or nonliterally (p.229). When

the speaker speaks literally there will be no different between the linguistic


12

meanings because both are identify the meaning based on the meaning of the word.

In the other hand, speaking nonliterally can mean something different from what

the words mean. The example of nonliterally meaning are idioms and metaphor.

On identifying lexical ambiguity on TV series, dictionary can be useful. It

can be used to find the meaning whether literal or nonliteral meaning on the

dialogue. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary has explanations about the

meaning of word or phrase whether literal and nonliteral meaning such as idiomatic

expression. It is used to find the meanings of lexical ambiguity that is possible to

have more than one meaning. The dictionary helps to find as many as possible

meanings and conclude what meaning that is meant by the speaker.

3. Ambiguity

Ambiguity is a phenomenon that can be found on identifying a word, phrase,

or sentence. Empson explains that ambiguity can mean an indecision as to what you

mean, an intention to mean several things, a probability that one or other or both of

two things has been meant, and the fact that a statement has several meanings

(1949, pp. 5-6). On this statement we can conclude that ambiguity is a phenomenon

that a word, phrase or sentence could have more than one meaning. An ambiguity

has probability to have several interpretations and both interpretation are correct.

On another hand, a sentence is ambiguous if it can be simultaneously true and false,

relative to the same state of affairs (Kempson, 1989, p. 128). Through this

statement, ambiguity can be analyzed as true and false by looking at the state of

occasion. In the other word, we need to see the context of a statement to understand

what the meaning of the ambiguous word.


13

4. Lexical Ambiguity

Lexical ambiguity is one of the types of ambiguity. Lexical ambiguity is

related to the meaning of a word. Lexical ambiguity is the presence of two or more

possible meanings within a single word (Norquist, 2018). According to Kreidler,

when homonyms can occur in the same position in utterances, the result is lexical

ambiguity (1998, p. 55). This statement is also similar with the statement from

Hurford et.al that lexical ambiguity depends on homonymy (senses not related) and

polysemy (senses related) (2007, p. 137). There are some forms of lexical ambiguity

which are:

a. Homonymy

The first form of lexical ambiguity is homonymy. Homonymy is the two

words that the pronunciation and spelling are identical but meanings are unrelated

(Kreidler, 1998, p. 52). Fromkin et.al also identify homonym as the words that have

different meanings but are pronounced the same, and may or may not be spelled the

same (2011, p. 158). For example is the word bank. Bank as a financial institution

and bank as the edge of the stream are pronounced and written identically but the

meaning is different. According to Nordquist, the term homonymy refers both

to homophone and homograph (2018). Some associate homonyms only with

homophones which are words that sound the same. Others associate homonyms

only with homographs which are words that look the same.


14

b. Homograph

Another form of lexical ambiguity is homograph. Homograph is two words

that have different pronunciations but the same spelling (Kreidler, 1998, p. 52). For

example is the word bow. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

there are two ways to pronounce the word bow. The first is pronounced /baʊ/ which

means to bend your head or body forward (p.164) and the second is pronounced

/bəʊ/ which means a weapon for shooting arrows (p.164). This form of lexical

ambiguity wouldn’t be discussed a lot on this undergraduate thesis because

homograph can be found on written text while the object of this study is a

conversation.

c. Homophone

The third form of lexical ambiguity is homophone. Homophone is one of

two or more words that are identical in sound but different in spelling and meaning

(McArthur, 1992, p. 483). For example the words bear and bare. These word are

called homophones because both have the same way to pronounce. Both are

pronounced /beə/. The word bear and bare are written differently but pronounced

identically. The meaning of both words are also different. Based on Oxford

Advanced Learner’s Dictionary the word bear means an activity of accepting or

dealing with something unpleasant and a name of an animal (p.173). In the other

hand, bare means naked or plain (p. 103). This undergraduate thesis would deal a

lot with the form of homophone because the object of this study that is a

conversation on comedy film.


15

d. Polysemy

The fourth form of lexical ambiguity is polysemy. Fromkin et.al explain that

polysemy occurs when a word has multiple meanings that are related conceptually

or historically (2011, p. 158). Kreidler states that a polysemous lexeme has several

(apparently) related meanings (1998, p. 52). For example is the word head. The

noun head, for instance, seems to have related meanings when we speak of the head

of a person, the head of a company. All of the word has different meaning but still

have the same relation which is the top of something such as the top of the body or

the top of the company. The other example is the word man. It has some meaning

such as the human species, males of the human species and adult males of the

human species. Those three meaning still have relation between one and another

which refers to human.

5. Humor

Humor is everything that can make a laughter. Attardo defines humor as all-

encompassing category, covering any event or object that elicits laughter, amuses,

or felt to be funny (1994, p. 4). Humor can be divided into two kinds. There are

verbal humor and non-verbal humor. Non-verbal humor produces humor without

any spoken language. It could be in a form of slapstick, pantomime and the other

performance (p.6). In the other hand Verbal humor has numerous forms such as

puns, riddles, jokes, satire and the other forms that use spoken language to produce

humor. Joke is the most common form of verbal language. Jokes can be defined as

something said or done that provokes laughter (Shade, 1996, p. 3). Shade also adds

that joke has several types of jokes become evident in a scope of linguistic. There


16

are phonological, lexical, surface structure, deep structure and metalinguistic. In

order to identify lexical ambiguity on Mind Your Language TV series, the

researcher uses lexical jokes explanation which is based on multiple-meaning of

words to evident the humor (p. 4).

There are several major theories in the literature related to the numerous

concepts and ideas about humor.

a. Incongruity Theory

The first theory that related to the concept of humor is incongruity theory.

This theory explains that humor is created when we expect one thing and suddenly

presented with another (Shade, 1996, p. 11). This is why the name of the theory is

incongruity because humor is the result of unexpected connection. For example

whenever a character is asked to go to bank as economic institution but the character

goes to a river bank and becomes confused. The example above is an example of

lexical ambiguity that produces incongruity humor.

b. Superiority Theory

The second humor theory that is mentioned by Shade is superiority theory.

Shade stated Mark Twain statement that everything is funny as long as it is

happening to someone else (p. 11). This statement is an example and also

introduction to the superiority theory of humor. Shade adds that humor will appear

when someone is being disparaged, ridiculed, humiliated, or degraded as a result of

making mistake. Some philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Descartes,

and Bacon took a view that laughter occurs when some flaw, imperfection, or

deficiency is seen in others as we compare them to ourselves (p. 12). For example


17

the character is degraded by the other character using unpleasant word because of

his or her mistake.

c. Relief or Release Theory

The third theory is relief theory or release theory. This theory is advanced

by Sigmund Freud. Shade explains that this theory emphasizes the social and

behavioral components of humor. In this case, humor may be used to rebel against

repressive or uncontrollable elements of society (p. 12). Example of this humor is

when someone gives a joke in the middle of meeting to add little levity to a tense

situation.

6. Conversation Theory

Identifying lexical ambiguity on TV series needs to deal with the

conversation between the characters. Akmaijan et.al explain that language is a

conversational system for communication or a system for conveying a message

(2001, p.227). They add that communication can be accomplished only because

words have certain meaning therefore language is necessary to describe the

meaning (p.228). It can be concluded that conversation is succeed if the message

can be accepted and understood by the speaker and hearer.

There are some problems on a conversation that can be occurred because of

the multiple meanings of lexical ambiguity. The first is the hearer cannot determine

the possible meaning that the speaker intends. Since many expression are

linguistically ambiguous, the hearer must determine which of the possible meanings

of an expression is the speaker intended as operative on that occasion (Akmaijan,

2001, p.366). The second is the different interpretation between the speaker and the


18

hearer because of the explanation that is not clear. The message model must be

supplemented by mechanism for successfully recognizing the intention to refer to a

specific person, place, or thing (p.367). The third is that the message model does

not account the additional fact that often be spoken nonliterally (p.368). For

example whenever the hearer interprets the idiomatic expression differently with

the meaning of the idiomatic expression. For example whenever someone said,

“Don’t be a chicken!” As an idiomatic expression it means do not be a coward but

it is possible to be interpreted literally by someone that does not understand that it

is as idiomatic expression. These problems can be happened because of the multiple

meaning of a lexical ambiguity. A clearer information and the same perception

about what is talked about are needed to make a good conversation.

C. Theoretical Framework

The theories that have been mentioned above are used to help the researcher

in analyzing the data. Since the main problem is about the lexical ambiguity in TV

series Mind Your Language of season 1 episodes 1 and 2, the researcher uses the

theories that help the researcher to analyze the data.

The theory of meaning is used to identify the objects which are the words

on the conversations on TV series Mind Your Language of season 1 episodes 1 and

2 that contain lexical ambiguity. The word’s meaning in the conversation is

analyzed and organized based on the meaning that is conveyed by the word whether

it conveys multiple meaning or not.


19

In analyzing the words that contain lexical ambiguity, the researcher uses

semantic approach to help the researcher finding the problem in that ambiguous

words. Semantics will help the researcher to find the ambiguity in the conversation

of TV series Mind Your Language of season 1 episodes 1 and 2. Based on the

theories that have been mentioned above, there are several terms in lexical

ambiguity theory that are used to analyze the word such as homonymy, polysemy,

and synonymy. Those terms will help the researcher to find some possibilities about

lexical ambiguity perspective in the word.

The humor theory is used to analyze in what way the lexical ambiguity can

result in humor. Based on the humor theory the researcher also can find in what

kind of humor lexical ambiguity be the best way to make laughter in a conversation

or joke.


20

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter contains the explanation about how the researcher did the

research. The first part clarifies the object of this research. The researcher explains

clearly about the object of this research. In the second part the researcher clarifies

the approach of the study that is used in this research. The third part is the method

of this research. In this part the researcher explains about the method to get the data

on this research.

A. Object of the Study

The object of the study is the words and phrases that contain lexical

ambiguity that is found in Mind Your Language TV series of season 1 episodes 1

and 2. Mind Your Language is a British TV series that premiered on ITV in 1977.

The length of each episode is around 25 until 30 minutes with more than 300

utterances. There are 12 characters in the movie who are Mr. Brown, Miss

Courtney, Ali, Ranjeet, Jamila, Taro, Su Lee, Danielle, Anna, Max, Giovanni and

Juan. They have their own characteristic of their accent, gesture and ability to speak

English. Their uniqueness sometimes make humor on the conversation between

them.

The story is about an English as a foreign language class. Mostly it shows

the learning activity in the classroom. The fact is that the student are from many

countries that do not use English as their conversational language. Their ability that


21

is not really good yet will be possible to make misinterpretation between one and

another. It is shown, for example, whenever they are faced with words and phrases

that are lexically ambiguous. It could happen because lexical ambiguity has more

than one meaning and not all of the meaning can be known by the character.

The word and phrase which contain lexical ambiguity in the conversation

were the focus to analyze. The word and phrase which contain lexical ambiguity

could produce humor in a conversation. It would be in the form of homonymy,

homophony or polysemy. Lastly, the linguistic elements were combined with

humor theory by Shade to find in what way those words produce humor.

B. Approach of the Study

The approach that was used by the researcher in this undergraduate thesis is

semantics. Semantics is considered as the study of the linguistic meaning of

morphemes, words, phrases and sentences (Fromkin et al, 2011, p. 138). This

undergraduate thesis discussed the lexical ambiguity that occur in Mind Your

Language TV series of season 1 episodes 1 and 2. Semantics helped the researcher

to analyze the meaning of each words and identify why those words contained

lexical ambiguity.

C. Method of the Study

This part explained about how the researcher collected and analyzed the

data. This part divided into two sections. The first explained how the researcher


22

collected the object of the study which is words that contain lexical ambiguity on

Mind Your Language TV series of season 1 episodes 1 and 2. The second part

contained explanations about how the researcher analyzed the data.

1. Data Collection

In collecting the data the researcher did some steps. The first step was

searching and downloading the object of the study from www.youtube.com. The

researcher found that the Mind Your Language TV series already has the English

subtitle on the video, so the researcher did not find the subtitle anymore. The second

step was watching the video and looking for the conversations that contain lexical

ambiguity resulting in humor. The third step was collecting all the conversation on

Mind Your Language TV series of season 1 episodes 1 and 2 which contain lexical

ambiguity resulting in humor as the population. Population can be defined as the

group to which we would expect the results of the study to generalize (Krathwohl,

1998, p. 164). The researcher chose the first and second episodes from the season

one because the researcher found that humor on these episodes mostly are produced

by using lexical ambiguity as the source of humor.

The researcher wrote down the conversation that has word that contains

lexical ambiguity and gave a note about the time of the conversation. In the fourth

step the researcher gave a mark on the word that has lexical ambiguity to be

analyzed. The researcher found that the word is lexically ambiguous by looking at

the context of the conversation and how the character reacts to the word. All lexical

ambiguities found on the conversation in Mind Your Language TV series of season

1 episodes 1 and 2 were separated into three which are homophony, homonymy and


http://www.youtube.com/

23

polysemy because only those three types of lexical ambiguity can appear in the

verbal language. Finally by using humor theory by Shade, the data were analyzed

to find why those lexical ambiguities result in humor on the TV series.

2. Data Analysis

In solving the problem on this research, some steps of research were done.

After the data were taken, the data were given code to make easier to read. To solve

the first problem the researcher analyzed the word one by one. The first step the

researcher used the semantic theory to clarify that the word is homonymy,

homophony or polysemy. After that the researcher identified the meaning of the

word because lexical ambiguity deals with double meaning of a word. The

researcher used Oxford Advanced Leaner’s Dictionary 8th Edition to find the

meaning of the word. By analyzing the meaning the researcher found the

misinterpretation created by the word that contains lexical ambiguity. After finding

the double meaning of the word, the researcher used the theory of humor by Shade

to analyze why the lexical ambiguity result in humor.

The data analyzed in this study were arranged systematically. Firstly, the

researcher analyzed all the conversations that contain lexical ambiguities on

episode 1 and then followed by all the conversation on the episode 2. Each datum,

that is a conversation, was given a code to make it easier to be read and explained.

The code consists of the number of the conversation followed by a slash and

followed by the episode.

Conversation 1: Episode 1, 00:01:59 00:02:11

Data Code Character Utterance

C1/E1 Ms. Courtney Go down the corridor.


24

Ali Nadim Down the corridor

Ms. Courtney Turn Left

Ali Nadim Turn Left

Ms. Courtney Right

Ali Nadim You are confusing me. Left or

right?

Ms. Courtney Left!

C1/E1 means that this is the first conversation on the first episode that

contains lexical ambiguity. In the above of the datum table, the researcher wrote the

number of the conversation, the episode and the time or scene of the conversation.

The duration was shown by the minute when the conversation is started until the

conversation is ended. Therefore, the previous time shows when the conversation

is started and the other shows when the conversation is ended. On the datum table

the researcher also wrote the transcription of the conversation to make a clear

explanation. The word that contains lexical ambiguity was written with bold to

indicate the word is lexically ambiguous. Those words become the main data to be

analyzed in this undergraduate thesis.

To answer the first problem, the researcher analyzed the words that contain

lexical ambiguity by looking at the form of the lexical ambiguity and explain the

multiple meaning of each word. After finding the multiple meaning the researcher

used humor theory to analyze why the word results in humor to answer the second

problem.


25

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS RESULTS AND DISCUSSSIONS

In this chapter the researcher answered the problems that had been

mentioned in chapter 1. The first step the researcher analyzed what words in Mind

Your Language TV series season 1 episodes 1 and 2 that contain lexical ambiguity.

The second step the researcher analyzed in what way the words result in humor.

The way to analyze the problem has been mentioned and explained on chapter 3.

Mind Your Language TV series has duration around 20 until 25 minutes for

each episode. Humor in Mind Your Language TV series does not constantly appear

in a specified period of time but usually it appears every 1 until 3 minutes. The

humor that is shown on the TV series not only produced by using lexical ambiguity

as the source of humor. Mind Your Language TV series mixed up between the

visual humor, verbal humor and also auditory humor. These all elements can be

found on the TV series even though this undergraduate thesis focus on the lexical

ambiguity that results humor. This lexical ambiguity can be found in a form of

lexical jokes

There are 13 conversations from Mind Your Language TV series season 1

episodes 1 and 2 that were analyzed in this research. The data were chosen because

they contain lexical ambiguity that result in humor. After analyzing the lexical

ambiguity, those words were also analyzed to find in what way these words produce

humor.


26

A. Words in Mind Your Language TV Series of Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2

Containing Lexical Ambiguity

This part contains the analysis of the first problem. The researcher discussed

about what words in Mind Your Language TV Series of Season 1 Episodes 1 and 2

which contain lexical ambiguity. There are 13 conversations containing lexical

ambiguity which are analyzed. The researcher found the meanings of the words by

using Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8th Edition and analyzed the possible

interpretation of those words on the conversation.

1. Ambiguous Word “Right”



C1/E1

Ms. Courtney Go down the corridor.

Ali Nadim Down the corridor

Ms. Courtney Turn Left

Ali Nadim Turn Left

Ms. Courtney Right

Ali Nadim You are confusing me. Left or

right?

Ms. Courtney Left!

The word that contain lexical ambiguity is right. Based on Oxford Advanced

Learner’s Dictionary 8th Edition, the word right has some meanings. The first

meaning is morally good, justified, or acceptable. The other meaning is true or

correct as a fact (p. 1272). Both meanings show the word right as an adjective. As

a noun, right also means the right-hand part, side, or direction. According to form

of lexical ambiguity, the word right is in the form of homonymy which is two words

or more that the pronunciation and spelling are identical but meanings are unrelated.


27

Based on the possible meaning and the topic of the conversation which

talking about direction to the class, both meanings of right can be accepted. The

first interpretation is that Miss Courtney give an agreement or show correctness to

someone’s utterance. The second interpretation is that Miss Courtney gave a wrong

direction so she wants to change the direction from left to right.

If we see the next dialogue, it can be concluded that the meaning of the word

right on the conversation is to show something true or correct. Miss Courtney wants

to show that Ali’s utterance which repeated her direction is correct. Therefore,

whenever Ali tries to ask it again Miss Courtney answers left to show the direction.

2. Ambiguous Word “Departed”



C2/E1

Ms. Courtney Especially after the unfortunate

incident involving Mr. Warburton

Mr. Brown Mr. Warburton?

Ms. Courtney He was teaching English to foreign

students last term. I am afraid he

only lasted a month, then he

departed.

Mr. Brown Dead?

Ms. Courtney Demented. Yes, the strain was too

much for him

The word that contains lexical ambiguity is departed. Based on Oxford

Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8th Edition, the word depart has two meanings. The

first meaning is to leave a place, especially in order to start a trip. The second

meaning is referring to dead (p. 391). According to form of lexical ambiguity, the


28

word departed is in the form of homonymy which is two words or more that the

pronunciation and spelling are identical but meanings are unrelated.

Based on the meaning, there would be two possibilities. The first possibility

that Mr. Warburton leaved the school to go somewhere. The second possibility is

that Mr. Warburton was dead because of the pressure while he was teaching. The

second possibility is more fit rather than the first: Mr. Brown guesses that Mr.

Warburton was dead.

If we see the next dialogue we can see that the meaning of departed which

Miss Courtney said is different with all the meanings in dictionary. The meaning of

departed that Miss Courtney said is that Mr. Warburton became crazy after taught

the student.

3. Ambiguous Word “Brown”



C3/E1

Mr. Brown l am Brown

Ali Nadim Oh, no. You are committing a

mistake

Mr. Brown Mistake?

Ali Nadim Yes, you are not brown! We are

brown! You are white

Mr. Brown My name is Brown! I am your

teacher.

On the conversation, we can find that the word which contains lexical

ambiguity is brown. The meaning of word brown on Oxford Dictionary 8th Edition

is the color of earth or coffee. It is also related to dark-skinned or suntanned (p.

180). All the meanings are related to brown as a color. This lexical ambiguity is in


29

the form of polysemy which the meaning still related to one thing, which in this

word related to brown as a color.

Based on the meaning there are two possible interpretations. The first one

is that Mr. Brown wants to introduce his name and the second possibility is that he

wants to say that he has a brown colored skin. According to that, it is possible that

there will be a misinterpretation to the word Brown.

We can see from Ali’s utterance that he thinks Mr. Brown tell about his skin

color. Ali thinks that Mr. Brown tell he has brown skin color. Therefore, Ali said

that the person who has brown skinned is him and his friend not Mr. Brown.

According to that, on the next dialogue Mr. Brown emphasizes that he tell about his

name not his skin color.

4. Ambiguous Word “Underground”



C4/E1

Mr. Brown What is your name?

Ranjeet Ranjeet Singh

Mr. Brown And from which country?

Ranjeet Punjab

Mr. Brown Good, what is yourjob?

Ranjeet l'm a very important member of the

British underground.

Mr. Brown The underground what?

Ranjeet Just the underground. Mind the

doors!

Mr. Brown Oh, that underground.

The word which contains lexical ambiguity on this conversation is

underground. On Oxford Dictionary 8th Edition, the word underground has some


30

meanings. As a noun, an underground means a group or movement organized

secretly to work against an existing regime or a group or movement seeking to

explore alternative forms of lifestyle or artistic expression. It also means the

underground railway, especially the one in London (p. 1621). According to form of

lexical ambiguity, the word underground is in the form of homonymy which is two

words or more that the pronunciation and spelling are identical but meanings are

unrelated.

These two possibilities creates different interpretation. The first

interpretation is that Ranjeet being the part of an organization that against the

government. The second interpretation that he works on the London underground

railway. According to this ambiguity, Mr. Brown tries to clarify what kind of

underground it is.

On the next dialogue Ranjeet clarifies that underground which he said is

that London Underground railway. We can see by the sentence “mind the door”

which is usually existed on the Underground railway. Therefore it can be concluded

that the underground that is said by Ranjeet means London underground railway.

5. Ambiguous Phrase “A Word”



C5/E2

Ms. Courtney I just want you to give Mr. Brown a

message.

Ranjeet I will be very happy to comply with

your request.

Ms. Courtney Would you tell Mr. Brown, I would

like a word with him.


31

Ranjeet Most certainly. Which word would

you like?

Ms. Courtney Just say I want to speak to him.

Foreigners!

The lexical ambiguity in this conversation is contained on phrase a word.

According to Oxford Dictionary 8th Edition, the phrase “a word” has some

meanings. The first meaning is single unit of language which means something and

can be spoken or written. The second meaning is a thing that you say, remark or

statement. The other meaning is a piece information or news (p. 1712). According

to form of lexical ambiguity, the phrase a word is in the form of homonymy which

have identical pronunciation and spelling but meanings are not related one and

another. Based on those meanings we can find a several interpretations.

Based on the meaning, the first interpretation is that Ms. Courtney wants to

get a word from Mr. Brown either spoken or written. The second interpretation is

that Ms. Courtney wants to have something to say with Mr. Brown and the third

interpretation is that Ms. Courtney has an information for Mr. Brown.

If we see the next dialogue, Ranjeet seems to interpret the word as its literal

meaning which is a single unit of language. If we see the next dialogue we can see

that what Ms. Courtney meant is that she wanted to speak with Mr. Brown. The

second and the third meaning could be more possible to this conversation rather

than the first meaning. It can be concluded that the meaning of word in this

conversation is having a conversation with Mr. Brown.


32

6. Ambiguous Word “Bitch”



C6/E2

Anna Do you know how many shirts Mrs.

Valker make me iron last night?

Mr. Brown Walker

Anna Ya Valker. Twelve! Then I had to

prepare a meal for the bitch.

Mr. Brown

Anna, she may be a hard

taskmistress but I don't think you

ought to call her that.

Anna Who?

Mr. Brown Mrs. Valker... Walker

Anna I was meaning the dog bitch.

Based on the conversation, the lexical ambiguity is contained in the word

bitch. It is lexically ambiguous because the double meaning that contained on the

word. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8th Edition, there are

some meanings of the word bitch. The word bitch can be classified as homonymy

which the pronunciation and the spelling are identically but the meaning is different.

The first meaning is a female dog. As a slang word, the word bitch is an

offensive way of referring to a woman especially an unpleasant one (p. 136). The

other meaning of bitch that is a thing that causes problems or difficulties. If we see

the conversation, we can find that the conversation talked about Mrs. Walker that

gave a lot of responsibility so Anna cannot do the homework.

According the word and the topic of the conversation we can find there are

two interpretations. The first interpretation is that Anna had to prepare a meal for

Mrs. Walker’s dog and the second interpretation is that Anna had to prepare a meal


33

for Mrs. Walker who is called offensively by Anna. Those interpretations are

possible. If we see the latest dialogue, Anna give an explanation that the word bitch

which she meant is Mrs. Walker’s female dog.

7. Ambiguous Word “Inspector”



C7/E2

Ms. Courtney I thought I'd better tell

you that an inspector has arrived

Mr. Brown Well my conscience is clear.

Ms. Courtney I beg your pardon?

Mr. Brown

Apart from the odd parking ticket,

I've never been in any trouble with

the police

Ms. Courtney An education inspector.

Mr. Brown Oh, I'm sorry! How stupid of me

The word that contains lexical ambiguity in this conversation is inspector.

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8th Edition, there are some

meanings of the word inspector. The first meaning is a person whose job is to visit

schools, factories to check that rules are being obeyed and that rules are acceptable.

The other meaning is an officer of middle rank (p. 777). In Britain inspector also a

person whose job is to check tickets on a bus or train to make sure that they are

valid (p. 777). The word inspector can be classified as polysemy which the

pronunciation and the spelling are identically and the meaning are also related. Both

meanings are related to a job which is responsible to ensure all things are in

accordance with the regulation.


34

Both meaning are possible to make several interpretation. The first

interpretation is that Ms. Courtney give information that the inspector from

education authority has arrived. The second interpretation is that Ms. Courtney give

information that the police inspector has arrived.

According to the next dialogue Mr. Brown thinks that the inspector that

come is the police inspector. If we see the further dialogue it can be concluded that

the inspector that Ms. Courtney means is the inspector from education authority.

The ambiguous word inspector also found in the C12/E2.



C12/E2

Mr. Brown What is your job?

Roger Kenyon Inspector

Mr. Brown What local transport?

Roger Kenyon Local Education Authority

Mr. Brown I thought he was the new student

According to the conversation, Mr. Brown thinks that Mr. Kenyon is an

inspector of a local transport because Mr. Brown does not know that Mr. Kenyon

is the local education inspector that Miss Courtney has said before. On the other

hand, at Britain the word inspector is used to a person who check tickets on a local

transport. Therefore, it is possible to have this interpretation. It can be concluded

that the word inspector that was said by Mr. Kenyon means the inspector from local

education authority.


35

8. Ambiguous Word “Register”



C8/E2

Ms. Courtney I expect he'll want to see your

register.

Mr. Brown My register?

Ms. Courtney You do have a register?

Mr. Brown Oh, that register! Yes of course

Ms. Courtney You'd better call it as soon as you

get back to your class.

The word register on the conversation above contains lexical ambiguity.

Based on Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8th Edition, there are some

meanings that stand as a noun. Usually the word register has meaning as an official

list or record of names, items and the other official record. Especially in British

English, register could be a book used to record if a child is present at school

(p.1238). Based on that meaning, there is a sentence call the register that means

checking the student who is present at school.

According to these meaning there will be two possible interpretations. The

first interpretation is that the inspector wants to see his list about something and the

second interpretation is that the inspector wants to check the list of student or the

student itself.

Based on the latest dialogue we can conclude that what Miss Courtney

means by register is that the book used to record the student at school. We can

conclude it from the dialogue, call it as soon as you get back to your class. That

means to call the student or check the student who present at school.


36

9. Ambiguous Word “Sir”



C9/E2

Giovanni Si professori.

Mr. Brown No Giovanni! Not professori.

Giovanni No professori,

Mr. Brown No, you should address me as Sir.

Giovanni Now I understand (bow). You have

been knotted.

Mr. Brown Come again.

Giovanni To become a Sir! You got Knotted

by the queen.

Mr. Brown The word is knighted! And

I'm not that kind of sir.

The word that contains lexical ambiguity on that conversation is the word

sir. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8th Edition there are three

meanings. The first meaning is a polite way of addressing a man whose name you

do not know to show respect. The second meaning is that a title that is used before

the first name of a man who has received one of the highest British honors. The

third meaning is used as a form of address by children in school to a male teacher

(p. 1387). These are polysemy which all meanings have relation in sense which is

used to address a man.

According to these meanings, there will be some interpretation. The first is

that Mr. Brown asks to be called sir because he is a teacher. Mr. Brown thinks

Giovanni how to address a teacher in English language. The other interpretation is

that Mr. Brown has received British honor. It happens whenever Giovanni thinks

that Mr. Brown asked to be called sir because he was knighted by the Queen. On


37

the next dialogue Mr. Brown clarifies that he is not that kind of sir. He is not

knighted by the Queen.

It can be concluded that the meaning of sir on the conversation is the way

to address and give respect to the teacher. In this case, Mr. Brown wanted to teach

Giovanni, who called him professori, to call him sir.

10. Ambiguous Word “Present”



C10/E2

Mr. Brown Ali Nadim

Ali Nadim Gift

Mr. Brown Gift?

Ali Nadim

I'm surprising you, no. Each day l

am learning new English word. And

I am finding that gift is another

word for present.

Mr. Brown Very ingenious.

On the story, Mr. Brown calls the student one by one. When the student is

called, they must answer by saying present. Whenever, Ali is called he answers by

saying gift.

The word that contain lexical ambiguity on the dialog is the word present.

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 8th Edition, the word present

has some meanings and also can be in the form of adjective, noun and verb. As an

adjective, present is used to show something existing or happening now. As a noun,

present is a thing that you give to somebody as a gift. As a verb, the word present

means to give something, to show or offer something etc. (p. 1155). The word


38

present can be classified as homonymy which the pronunciation and the spelling

are identically but the meaning is different.

On the dialog, Mr. Brown asked them to say present to show their existence

in the class. In the other hand Ali thought the word present as a noun which is a

thing that we give to somebody. This meaning has similar meaning or synonym

with the word gift, like what Ali said. It can be concluded that the word present that

is meant by Mr. Brown is to show the existence of the student in class not a gift like

what Ali thought.

11. Ambiguous Phrase “Hot Water”



C11/E2

Mr. Brown I'd better take down your particulars

otherwise l may get into hot water.

Ali Nadim You are going to have a hot bath?

Mr. Brown No Ali, it's just another way of

saying I may get into trouble.

The phrase that contains lexical ambiguity is hot water. As a literal meaning,

hot water means water that is hot. It could be hot water for drinking or bathing.

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s 8th Edition, get into hot water is an idiom

that means to be in or get into trouble (p. 728). These literal meaning and idiomatic

meaning make ambiguity on the dialogue.

The first interpretation is that Mr. Brown should be hurry up before he gets

into trouble because the educational inspector will come soon. The second

interpretation is that Mr. Brown should be hurry up before he baths in hot water.


39

This interpretation was told by Ali because he does not understand the meaning of

the idiom.

In the next dialogue Mr. Brown explains that it is an idiom. The idiom uses

to say the he may get into trouble. So it can be concluded that hot water, which Mr.

Brown said before, cannot be interpreted in its literal meaning because it is an

idiom.

12. Ambiguous Word “Exercises”



C13/E2

Mr. Brown Get out your textbooks! I'm going to

give you all a few exercises.

Giovanni Scusi professori sir! I cannot do any

exercises.

Mr. Brown Why not?

Giovanni I got a bad back.

Lexical ambiguity on the conversation above can be found on the word

exercise. There are some meaning of exercise according to Oxford Advanced

Learner’s 8th Edition. The first meaning is a physical or mental activity that you do

to stay healthy or become stronger. The other meaning on exercise is a set of

question in a book that test your knowledge or practices a skill (p. 510). The word

exercise can be classified as homonymy which the pronunciation and the spelling

are identically but the meaning is different.

Based on the meanings, there are two possible interpretations. The first

interpretation is that Mr. Brown would give a physical activity and the second

interpretation is that Mr. Brown would give practices on learning English. The first


40

interpretation was told by Giovanni. He thought that Mr. Brown would give them a

physical activity. That is why he said that he cannot do that because his back was

painful.

Based on the next conversation, it can be concluded that the meaning of

exercise that Mr. Brown said before is not about physical activity but practicing

English. We can see that there are misinterpretation because of the dual-meaning

on the word exercise and both meaning are possible on the situation.

The words and phrases on these conversations contain lexical ambiguity

because the words and phrases have multiple meanings. According to the data,

phrases that contain lexical ambiguity are in the form of idiom that cannot be

interpreted in its literal meaning. In the other hand, the words that contain lexical

ambiguity have multiple meaning because those words has different meaning in

different part of speech or different context.

Therefore, there are 13 conversations from Mind Your Language TV series

season 1 episodes 1 and 2 that contain lexical ambiguity on the dialogue. According

to the research, it was found that there are 10 words and 2 phrases that contain

lexical ambiguity. The lexical ambiguity on the conversation can be found in the

form of homonymy and polysemy.

B. How the Words Result in Humor

This part discussed how the words results in humor. There are 13 data which

are analyzed in this part. The words and phrases containing lexical ambiguity that


41

have been found in the previous part are analyzed by using Shade’s humor theory

to find in what way those words and phrases result in humor.

1. Incongruity Results in Humor

The first method that is used to produce humor in Mind Your Language TV

series season 1 episodes 1 and 2 is incongruity. According to Shade, incongruity

produces humor whenever we expect one thing but suddenly presented with other

(1996, p. 11). The expectation that is changed can be from the character on the TV

series or the audiences. The words and phrases that contain lexical ambiguity can

change the expectation because it contains multiple meaning. It is used to make a

lexical joke which make a joke by multiple meaning that is contained on a word,

phrase or sentence (Shade, 1996, p. 4).

On datum C1/E1, we can find humor on the word right that contains lexical

ambiguity. The target audiences of the sitcom that are people who are English native

speaker can understand what the meaning of right based on the context of the dialog.

The audience can get the purpose of Miss Courtney saying right which is giving an

agreement of what Ali said. The expectation of the audience is that Ali will also

understand about the meaning of the word, because it is a simple word. Suddenly

the expectation is surprised by the other thing because the fact that Ali did not

understand that Miss Courtney said so he asked and clarified it again. The fact that

the audience’s expectation is different from the fact is presented makes the word

right which has multiple meaning becomes funny in that situation.

On C2/E1 the humor come from the word departed. The meaning of

departed usually used for some body that has been dead. This interpretation also


42

appeared whenever Mr. Brown is told about what happened to Mr. Warburton. He

tries to clarify the meaning of departed on the conversation. He and most of the

audience expect that Mr. Warburton has been dead but this expectation was changed

by Miss Courtney by saying that Mr. Warburton has not been dead, yet he get

mental illness. The truth is presented differently with what people thought or

expected. It is possible to be happened because off the multiple meanings of word

departed.

The expectation that was presente

LEXICAL AMBIGUITY RESULTING IN HUMOR IN MIND YOUR …termasuk dalam homonimi dan beberapa kasus...

Documents

Transcript of LEXICAL AMBIGUITY RESULTING IN HUMOR IN MIND YOUR …termasuk dalam homonimi dan beberapa kasus...