SEMANTICS : SENTENCE MEANING : Grammaticality, Acceptability and Meaningfulness

 

SENTENCE MEANING : Grammaticality, Acceptability and Meaningfulness

a.       Definition of sentence meaning

Based on Oxford advanced lerners dictionary, sentence is a set of word expressing a statement, a question or an order, usually containing a subject and a verb. In writen English sentence begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop a period ( . ), a question mark ( ? ) or an exclamation mark/ exclamation point ( ! ). Meaning is a thing or idea that a sound, word, sign, etc.

Based on explanation above, sentence meaning is a set of word expressing a statement or a question that have meaning in the sentence.

 

On the other hand, there are three kinds that should attention in the sentence meaning, that are :

1.      Grammaticality

Fromkin and Rodman describe that grammaticality in sentences and phrases as “the confornity to the syntactic rules”.

Grammaticality is description of a well-formed sequence of words, one conforming to rules of syntax. Commonly sentence can say grammaticality is qualify components of basic word order that consist of, at least, a subject and a predicate/ verb.

Example :

a.       Subject + verb = Alex runs.

b.      Subject + verb + compliment = Brandon is a doctor.

c.       Subject + verb + object = Hana reads a book.

2.      Acceptability

Acceptability is accepted in a particular community and in particular culture. Acceptability is related to social etiquette, rationality and logical coherence.

Example :

a.       His father died last night.

b.      His father passed away last night.

Nevertheless, Lyons describes there are other kinds of acceptability and unacceptability which have nothing to do with whether an utterance is meaningfull or not. In other words, the grammaticality do not depend on whether the sentence is meaningfull or not (Fromkin and Rodman). Besides, Gasser cites that the grammaticality or the acceptability can occur in some non-standard dialect, but ungrammaticality in the standard dialect.

Example :

a.       I come back last night.

b.      I came back last night.

 

3.      Meaningfulness

Meaningfulness is conditioned by how well-formed that sentence is semantically. We will see some examples on the different between sentences grammatically right and has no meaning.

Example :

a.       Harmless young children sleep quitely.

b.      The horse raced past the barn fell.

c.       The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families.

d.      Colorless green sleep furiously

 

 Writer's note :

New post about semantics, hope it can be useful.... :)

                               suggestion is needed to make it perfect... thanks..

TUGAS SPEAKING : describe my family

 

MY FAMILY

My name is Anni Alimatul Azizah, my nick name is Anni. I was born in Metro, at 27 August 1996. I am 20 years old. I live in punggur. exactly in Totokaton. I am graduate in MI ma’arif 1 punggur, MTs ma’arif 1 punggur, and MA ma’arif 1 punggur. Now, I take English programme in State Islamic collage (STAIN) Jurai Siwo Metro. My hobby is singing and cooking. I have two brothers and no sister. I am the first in my family.  

My father name is Alimin. He was born in totokaton at 12 april 1964. He is 52 years old. My father is a farmer. He is a good father I ever had. Because, he is a good person and never got upset excessive. My father was very love me. Because, when he was angry that sign he really love me. My father also reserved. Because it, I also have the same characteristic with my father.

My mother name is Binti Qomariah. She was born in totokaton at 3 july 1971. She is 45 years old. My mother is a housewife. She i a good mother I ever had. Because, she is a good person and never got upset excessive. My mother was very love me. Because my mother same with my father, when she was angry that sign she really love me. My mother also reserved the same as my father. If the mother, I am more akin to the face of on its.

I have two brothers. His name is Abdul Malik Ardhofi. His nick name is Dofi. He was born in Punggur at 14 september 1998. He is 18 years old. He school in MAN 1 Metro. He now in the third grade of high school. He is a good person and he is clever. He is tall, he had brown skin, and black eye. I am always go to campus with him everyday but, I am go home with public transportasion. He is the second in my family.

His name is Muhammad Malik Assyafi. His nick name is malik. He was born in Totokaton at 23 july 2001. He is 15 years old. He school in MTs ma’arif 1 Punggur. He now in the third grade of junior high school. He is a good person. He is tall, he had black skin, and black eye. He is the last in my family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

VOCABULARY

 

Exacly             : persis

Graduate         : lulusan

Take                : mengambil

Farmer             : petani

Excessive        : berlebihan

Sign                 : tanda

Reserved         : pendiam

Same               : sama

Characteristic  : sifat

Housewife       : ibu rumah tangga

Akin                : mirip

Face                 : wajah

Grade              : kelas

Clever              : pintar

TUGAS SPEAKING : My school stories

 

My school stories

My name is Anni Alimatul Azizah. I was born in metro at 27 august 1996. I am 20 years old. The first, I am going to tell stories about my school. My school starting from kindergarten in the village Totokaton. I went to school in RA Al-furqon. I got a lot of friends there. Every day I go with my parents and my parents pick me up. For more experience I can not remember because it was so long ago.

The second, I will tell about my elementary school. I am school in MI Maarif 1 Punggur. There I began to make new friends again. My first year of school there when the increase in class, one of my friends stayed so my friend was decrease. In the following years passed. There I really like gymnastic sport and every morning I became the leader in front of all the students. After 6 years I graduated from elementary school and up to secondary school.

The thirth, I will tell about my junior high school. I am school in MTs Maarif 1 Punggur. There I also got a new friend. In secondary school, I attended extracurricular scouts and scout I started familiar with friends from other classes. I followed extracurricular scout then I will be more independent. My experience is when the camp admission of new students when my ninth grade. In the camp we could feel sad, happy, and scared too. Everything prepare to be the best and the great camp. I feel this period is the period of the most beautiful and I can not forget to this day.

 The last, I will tell about my high school. I am school in MA Maarif 1 Punggur. I got a new friends and new experiences. In here I am more and more love scouts. My experience when following the jamboree. There I am not a participant but the committee. There I learned to be responsible. That is about my school before I study in State Islamic Collage jurai Siwo metro.

TUGAS SPEAKING : Getting people's attention

 

Getting people's attention

              My name is Anni Alimatul Azizah. I was born in the Metro at 27 august 1996. I am 20 years old. I am going to tell about getting people's attention.
Everyone has got the attention. Attention can be obtained from a person such as a parent, boyfriend, or others. When a person who has a boyfriend it will be the attention of her boyfriend, while that did not have a will surely get the attention of someone more special, such as the elderly. Every parent would give all the attention and affection to his beloved son. Every child experiences the most memorable for sure is noticed and always loved by his parents. Examples of the usual attention given by parents to their children when a child is sick, parents will care for and look after until cured. Other examples such as when a child's birthday, the parents would want to be the first to say happy birthday to her and also give gifts may be highly desired by her. Attention from parents nothing could be exceeded because the parents will do anything for his happiness. If the boyfriend’s attention, it could be a fake because at the time is now very difficult to get a boyfriend the attention and affection with very sincere. Maybe someone who is good there is only one in a thousand. No doubt many who have experienced it feels hurt by a boyfriend’s or girlfriend attention was not sincere to him and turns his attention not only for her but for women or other men. Then we would have been happier if getting more sincere attention as the attention of parents. It will never replace anyone because the attention of the parents was more significant than the attention of others.