An analysis of lexical and contextual meanings in the lyrics of bob marley’s songs

2018 – 2020 (1)

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

M.A. THESIS
AN ANALYSIS OF LEXICAL AND
CONTEXTUAL MEANING IN THE LYRICS
OF BOB MARLEY’S SONGS

NGUYỄN THỊ NHUYN

(Phân tích nghĩa từ vựng và nghĩa văn cảnh trong
bài hát của BOB MARLEY)

Field: English Language
Code: 8.22.02.01

Hanoi - 2020


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS
AN ANALYSIS OF LEXICAL AND
CONTEXTUAL MEANING IN THE LYRICS
OF BOB MARLEY’S SONGS

(Phân tích nghĩa từ vựng và nghĩa văn cảnh
trong bài hát của BOB MARLEY)
NGUYEN THI NHUYN

Field: English Language
Code: 8.22.02.01
Supervisor: Dr. Tran Thi Le Dung

Hanoi - 2020


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled AN ANALYSIS OF LEXICAL AND CONTEXTUAL MEANING IN
THE LYRICS OF BOB MARLEY’S SONGS submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language. Except
where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without
due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.
Hanoi, 2020

Nguyen Thi Nhuyn

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)
Date:……………….

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A completed thesis would not be done without any assistance. Therefore, the
author who conducted this research gratefully gives the acknowledgement to their
support and motivation during the time of doing this research.
First of all, I would like to express my endless thanks and gratefulness to my
supervisor, Tran Thi Le Dung, Dr. Her kindly support and continuous advice went
through the process of completion of my thesis. Her encouragement and comments
had significantly enriched and improved my work. Without her motivation and
instructions, the thesis would have been impossible to be done effectively.
I am extremely grateful to my parents for their love, prayers, caring, preparing
me for my future. Also I convey my thanks to my brothers, sisters for their support,
encouragement and care spiritually throughout my life
As last, my deep thanks come to all the lecturers of the Faculty of English who
gave me a chance to carry out this thesis.

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ABSTRACT
Semantic is the branches of linguistics. This branch is the important one,
and there are lexical meaning and contextual meaning. By listening to the songs,
we can get knowledge about appreciates literature and the background of the song.
Therefore, the researcher was interested in analyzing the kinds of meaning used
in Bob Marley’s songs. The researcher dedicated to give the title of this research
“An Analysis of Lexical and Contextual Meanings in the lyrics of Bob
Marley’s Songs”. The problem of this study is: (1) What are the lexical meanings
in the lyrics of Bob Marley’s Song? (2) What are the contextual meanings in
the lyrics of Bob Marley’s Songs ? The writer takes three songs from different

album. This study uses a descriptive qualitative method because the writer would
analysis and interpret the research object of Bob Marley’s Song Lyrics. The result
of this research is as follows: (1) related to the lexical meaning, while (2) related to
the contextual meaning. The researcher expects that this research will be useful for
the other researchers who are eager to know more about semantics. Moreover,
semantic is an important branch of linguistics that is interesting to be studied,
especially when it is applied to literary works, such as songs or poem .

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Stanza: S
Line: L

iv


LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 3.3.1. Data collection

35

Figure 3.3.1. Data analysis

35

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality…………………………………………….
Acknowledgements………………………………………………….
Abstract……………………………………………………………...
List of abbreviations ………………………………………………..
List of tables and figures ……………………………………………
Table of contents…………………………………………………….

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Chapter I. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………..

1

1.1. Rationale of the study………………………………………………..
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study…………………………………….

1
3

1.2.1. Aims of the study…………………………………………………..
1.2.2. Objectives of the study……………………………………………..
1.3. Research questions………………………………………….………..

1.4. Methods of the study…………………………………………………
1.5. Scope of the study ……………………………………………….…..
1.6. Significance of the study …………………………………………….
1.7 Design of the study …………………………………………………..

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3
3
3
4
4
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Chapter II. LITERATURE REVIEW ………………………………...

6

2.1. Review of previous studies…………………………………………..
2.2. Semantic……………………………………………………………..
2.3. Kinds of meaning……………………………………………………
2.3.1. Lexical meaning…………………………………………………..
2.3.1.1. Synonymy………………………………………………………..
2.3.1.2. Antonym …………………………………………………………
2.3.1.3. Polysemy…………………………………………………………
2.3.1.4. Hyponymy………………………………………………..………

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8
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2.3.1.5. Homonym………………………………………..………………
2.3.1.6. Ambiguity…………………………….…………………………
2.3.2. Context……………………………………………………………..
2.3.2. 1. Authorial context………………………………………………...
2.3.2. 2. Socio-historical context………………………………………….
2.3.2. 3. Philosophical context………………………………………….....
2.3.2. 4. Literary context…………………………………………..............

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2.3.2. 5. Critical context…………………………………………...............

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2.3.3. Contextual meaning …………………………………………..........

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2.3.4. Grammatical meaning………………………………………….......

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2.3.5. Denotative meaning…………………………………………...........
2.3.6. Connotative meaning………………………………………….........
2.3.7. Conceptual meaning…………………………………………..........

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2.4. Word …………………………………………....................................
2.4.1. Meaning of word …………………………………………..............
2.4.2. Class of word …………………………………………....................

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2.4.2.1. Noun …………………………………………..............................
2.4.2.2. Determiner ………………………………………….....................

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2.4.2.3. Verb …………………………………………...............................
2.4.2.4. Adverb …………………………………………...........................
2.4.2.5. Adjective ………………………………………….......................
2.5. Phrases ………………………………………….................................
2.6. Song…………………………………………......................................

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2.7. Lyrics…………………………………………....................................
2.8. Message
2.9. The biography of Bob Marley………………………………………..

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2.10. Summary…………………………………………............................
Chapter III. METHODOLOGY ……………………………………….
3.1. Research approach…………………………………………...............
3.2. Methods of the study…………………………………………............
3.3. Data collection and data analysis …………………………………….
3.3.1. Data collection ………………………………………….................
3.3.2. Data analysis …………………………………………....................
3.4. Summary…………………………………………..............................

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Chapter IV. AN ANALYSIS OF LEXICAL AND CONTEXTUAL
MEANING IN THE LYRICS OF BOB MARLEY’S SONGS ……..
4.1. Research Findings …………………………………………..............
4.1.1 Data presentations …………………………………………............
4.1.1.1. The first data …………………………………………...............
4.1.1.2. The second data ……………………………………………….…
4.1.1.3. The third data …………………………………………..............

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4.1.1.4. Summary ………………………………………….......................

47

4.2. Discussion of the data ……………………………….……………….

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4.2.1. Lexical meaning……………………………………………………

48

4.2.1.1. Synonym……………………………………………………........
4.2.1.2. Antonym……………………………………………………........
4.2.1.3. Homonym…………………………………………………….......

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4.2.1.4. Hyponym……………………………………………………........
4.2.1.5. Denotation……………………………………………………......
4.2.1.6. Connotation ……………………………………………………...

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4.2.2. Contextual meaning………………………………………………..
4.2.2.1. Context of situation………………………………………………

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4.2.2.2. Context of purpose ………………………………………………
4.2.2.3. Mood context of speaker or listener……………………………..
4.3. Summary……………………………………………………………..
Chapter V. CONCLUSION ……………………………………………
5.1. Recapitulation………………………………………………………

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5.2. Concluding remarks…………………………………………………
5.3. Limitation of the research……………………………………………
5.4. Recommendation…………………………………………………….

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REFERENCES……………………………………………………………

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CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale of the study
A language has an important

function

in society.

One can keep

communicate in their daily life by using language. Language is also very
important tools on establishing and preserving relationship among people.
Communication is the basic thing to all human communities. It can be widely
defined as the process with actions such as exchange information; making
transaction, cooperating with others, and doing any other things that need
language. Using language is the majors of communication through (verbal or non
verbal language) people are able to express their thought and to communicate with
other or even with themselves. Bloomfield (1930) said that language symbolizes a
sense, a concept, an idea or a thought that is delivered in the form of sound.
Apart from that, Chomsky (2000) thought that language is a means of
communication between members of the public in the form of sound symbols
produced by a human utterance. Also, Amindudin (2011) considered that literature is
one form of artistic creations using language as media presentation. People can
communicate through poems, prose, or songs and so on. Song is a kind of musical
expression in the form of oral and written form. Music is really necessary for human
life. Some music needs good lyrics in order that the listener can enjoy it. The musician
uses the meaning of the word in combination and the contact in which they happen
and the writer tries to arrive at what the musician intends his message to convey. It’s
undeniable that music occupies a part of expressing of thinking and feeling Goddaid
(1998) considered that semantic which is one of an important branch of linguists is
interesting to be studied when it is applied to literary work such as the song, poem
and prose. Certainly semantic is the study of language meaning.
According to Jackendoff (1983) linguistic semantic analyzes how language

organizes and expresses meanings. Kreidler (1984, p.41) said that “The dimensions
of meaning include denotation, connotation, sense relations, lexical and grammatical
meaning, morphemes, homonymy, polysemy, lexical ambiguity, sentence and
meaning”. What is more, Frawley (1992) considered that the kind of meaning can
include a lexical, grammatical and contextual meaning, referential and non-referential
meaning, denotative and connotative meaning, conceptual and associative meaning
and lexeme. Kearns (2000) also said that semantic is a sub – discipline of linguistics

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which can focus on the study of meaning. Also, Goddaid (1998) thought that
linguistics meaning is divided into two meanings namely lexical and contextual
meaning.
Semantics is a sub discipline of linguistics which focuses on the study of
meaning. The present study analyzes about semantic analysis especially on the
lexical meaning and contextual meaning, “An Analysis of Lexical and Contextual
Meanings in the Lyrics of Bob Marley’s Songs”. The lexical meaning is to
be interpreted as the meaning of lexemes depending on the meaning of sentences in
which they occur. Lexical meaning concerned with the relationship between
words and meanings. Related to lexical meaning involves denotation, connotation,
synonymy, antonym, hyponymy, homonymy, homophone, polysemy, and
figurative language. In this research, the writer chooses literary works like songs.
Song is any poem even there is an attention of it being set to music. In this
research, the researcher chooses the literary problem about song. Song is a piece
of music with word that is sung or music for the voice. Its means that the
producing musical sounds with the voice and augments regular is speech by the uses
of both tonality and rhythm. And then, sings was called a singer or vocalist. Singers
perform music that could be sing either with or without accompaniment by
musical instruments. Certainly, singers usually conveys the message either lexically

or contextually in their lyric. Therefore, lyrics can be used as one form or mean of
communication among the people; every song has a message to give readers
understanding to the content of the song. One of musicians that leaves deep
impression on the researcher is Bob Marley. In this research, the researcher
chooses the literary problem about song. It was “Bob Marley’s Song”. The study
was limited on lexical meanings and contextual meanings. He was born in 1945 and
died in 1981. He was a Jamaican singers – song writer and musician. He is considered
as one the most influential musician of all time and credited with popularizing, reggae
music around the world. Marley has also evolved into global and inspired numerous
items of merchandise.
The researcher finds out that Bob Marley’s songs tell about revolution and
give a lexical and contextual meaning then a message for someone who loves the
songs. Bob Marley usually uses reggae as his weapon of resistance to justice, racism,
poverty and colonialism to imperialism. The researcher is really impressed by the

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Bob’s lyrics and tries to explore the meaning that contains inside his reggae music
and wants to change people’s views on reggae music that is assumed as violence.
More importantly, by listening to song, Vietnamese learners and teachers of
English can get knowledge about semantics, literature and the background of the
English songs. The lyrics of song are categorized into poem or poetry. Thereby we
can understand more about good lyrics. Lyrics of song can be described as
composer’s expression to represent its feeling, thought and willingness. In addition
to some extent, they can see what the lexical meaning and contextual meaning in
semantics so they can apply these in learning and using English language in life.
It may be not bored if English learners would take to study English by English
songs. What is more, the researchers who analyze the meanings of songs involved in
semantic theories in the way of interpretation are still rare. For these reasons, the

researcher has decided to choose the topic “An Analysis of Lexical and Contextual
Meaning in the Lyrics of Bob Marley’s Songs” for my master thesis.
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study
1.2.1. Aims of the study
This study is hoped to give new information to semantic study suitably and
persuasively. Besides, the thesis is done to help learners and teachers to know and
understand the lexical and contextual meaning used in the songs, and the thesis will
give a bit of inspiration for lectures to give the topic in teaching and learning process.
1.2.2. Objectives of the study
The objectives of the study are:
-To identify the kinds of lexical meaning in the lyrics of Bob Marley’s songs.
-To interpret the types of contextual meanings in the lyrics of Bob Marley’s songs.
1.3. Research questions
To be completed these aims of this research work, the thesis has to answer
following questions:
-What are the lexical meanings in the lyrics of Bob Marley’s songs?
-What are the contextual meanings in the lyrics of Bob Marley’s songs?
1.4. Methods of the study

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- The descriptive method examines with a particular focus on information of the
songs.
- The qualitative method will be used to gather and analyze the lexical and contextual
meaning in the lyrics of Bob Marley’s songs.
1.5. Scope of the study
In this research, the researcher chooses Bob Marley’s songs to be analyzed and
elaborated in detail. The study is limited to lexical and contextual meanings. Also,
the researcher only focuses on three lyrics of Bob Marley’s songs in the different

album. The titles of the song are No Women No Cry in 1975 “Live” album, One Love
in 1977 “Exoclus” album, and Redemption songs in 1980 “Uprising” album.
1.6. Significance of the study
Studying this thesis, we got a lot of knowledge to understand more about the
items of linguistic semantic, especially the kinds of lexical meaning found in the
English translation Bob Marley’s songs. With foreign language learners like me,
linguistic semantic opens a new view so that we can approach foreign language easier.
Studying linguistic semantic to help readers and learners to reach deep
comprehension on the English songs. Readers not only enjoy the music, understand
the lyric but also they can catch the message of the song-writer. Practically, the result
of the thesis is hoped to give a contribution to the learners who are interested in this
study and encourage them to know the lexical meanings of the songs which are used
in life. The next researchers, perhaps, will be different result in investigating the.
Songs by using semantics theory. The researcher also hopes that this study can be
used as references for further relevant researchers.
1.7. Design of the study
The thesis begins with Declaration by Author, Acknowledgements, Abstract
and Table of Contents. The content of the study is divided into five chapters, which
are presented as follows:
Chapter I. INTRODUCTION
This chapter states the rationale of the study, the aims and objectives of the
study, the research question, methods of the study, the scope of the study, the
significance of the study and the design of the study.
Chapter II. LITERATURE REVIEW

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This chapter presents some necessary studies related to the study and the basic
theory for the study.

Chapter III. METHODOLOGY
The methodology includes research design, research methods, data source,
data collection and data analysis.
Chapter IV. AN ANALYSIS OF LEXICAL AND CONTEXTUAL
MEANING IN THE LYRICS OF BOB MARLEY’S SONGS
Chapter IV presents data obtained from the data sources. The data
presentation is divided into three categories which are in accordance to the number
of the songs used as the data sources of this research.
Chapter V. CONCLUSION
It gives the conclusion about the research.

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CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Review of previous studies
There are some previous studies in investigating semantics. “Lexical
Semantics” by Cruse (1986) is one of the valuable books on this linguistic aspect in
the English language. In this book, Cruse (1986, p.159) considered that “The semantic
relationship between a lexical item denoting a part and that denoting the
corresponding whole”. For this reason, Kearns (2000) explained that the semantic
relationship can be identified with the sentence frame “X is part of Y” e.g. finger and
palm are meronyms of hand.
Another thesis is “Semantic Analysis on Iwan Fals’’ Songs by Nila
Kurniasari (2005). The study was limited on meanings and messages and
therefore, the title of her thesis is Semantic Analysis on Iwan Fals’ Songs. The
problems to be discussed are: (1) What are the meanings found in Iwan Fals’ songs?
(2) What are messages found in Iwan Fals’ songs?. The objectives of the study are
to find out the meanings implied and the messages that exist in Iwan Fals’ songs.
In this study, the researcher took ten songs, by the way all of songs in Iwan Fals’

songs in the “In Collaboration With” album. The study was descriptive qualitative.
In the research, the writer used some books of their works to support this thesis.
Khulala (2012) wrote “A Semantic Analysis on the English Translation
of surah Almuzammil”. The study aims answering two following question. The first
question was what kind of meaning and message are used in the English
translation of surah Almuzammil by Yusuf Ali. She used conducting descriptive
qualitative method, because the data of this study are in the form of the sentences
or word of surah Almuzammil by Yusuf Ali.
Muhammad Syaiful Rizal (2010) had the thesis with the title “Lexical
Meanings Used In Five Speeches of The Most Influential Speeches In Twentieth
Century”. This study further conducted with the following problems: 1. What
lexical meanings are used in the most influential speeches in twentieth century?
2. How are lexical meanings used in the most influential speeches in twentieth
century? This research was conducted by using qualitative method To answer the
point of utterances used by the speaker that is by describing what and how the
lexical meanings used by the speaker. After the data have been obtained, the writer
took several steps to analyze the data. First, the writer categorized data into five

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categories in accordance with the number of the speeches uses as the data sources.
The data of each category were presented, analyzed and concluded. After the data
of the whole categories had already been presented, analyzed and concluded,
he made tentative conclusion. After consulting with the informants, the writer
made final conclusion.
In “Semantics” Saeed (1997, p.68) thought that “Hyponymy is a relation of
inclusion in the sense that the meaning of hyponym is included in the meaning of a
more general word, called super ordinate”.
Illah (2008) focused one kind of meaning namely lexical meaning. This study

finds that generally the lyrics of Bob Marley’s song contain synonym, antonym,
hyponym, denotation, connotation and mess.
Kreidler (1998) who studied semantic analysis on Cranberry’s song focused
on lexical meaning generally in song. She found that lexical meaning such as
denotative, connotative, and figurative are more dominant. For instance, “How to be
killing you” as denotative killing means to make somebody or someone dies and
connotative means that drugs can kill somebody softly. Then, figurative language of
“like” means her eyes are like sparkle of diamond.
Nugroho (2007) studied lexical meaning found on the lyrics of Metallica lyrics
focused on denotative and connotative. He stated that the lyrics contain positive and
negative connotation. Positive connotation means purr words or the sentences are
constructed for daily expression like “psychotic” means mentally unbalanced.
Negative connotation means snarl words or the sentences are mostly written in
figurative language like “psychotic” means mad or crazy.
A Vietnamese researcher who regarded the use of synonyms as lexical
cohesion is Nguyen Hoa (2000) in “An Introduction to Discourse Analysis”.
According to him, the usage synonyms or near synonyms is very frequent in English.
This is to avoid unnecessary repetition.
Besides the works above, these are some related thesis including “Synonym
Substitution in English and Vietnamese” by Le Thi Thuy Trang (2011) and “The
Lexical Features of English Used in Travel Brochures in Vietnam” by Vu Thi Thu
Huong (2018). Tran Thi Le Dung (2018) had the thesis with the title “Đối chiếu từ
đồng nghĩa trong Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt trên bình diện ngữ nghĩa và ngữ dụng”.

7


Both of them focus on different semantic relations with specific examples. However,
the present study is slightly different from the previous studies as the object of this
present study is the song while the previous studies are poems, novels, words, brief

news and soon.
Consequently, the researcher tries to clarify some linguistic semantics to study
in my thesis in English, in which the lexical and contextual meaning are mainly
focused. With the findings of my thesis named “An Analysis of Lexical and
Contextual Meaning in the Lyrics of Bob Marley’s Songs”, I hope that my study
will be of some help for the teaching and learning English of Vietnamese teachers
and learners.
2.2. Semantic
Semantic is the study of how person responds to words and other symbols.
In addition, the term semantic is mentioned as one of linguistic branches, which is
crucial part of overall linguistic competence.
Linguistic semantics is the topic of this book, but we need to limit to
ourselves to the expression of meanings in a single language, English. The
researcher thinks that semantic was a part of linguistics. On the other word, semantic
was one of the branched of linguistics studying about the meaning of language.
According to Charles (1998, p.3), “Semantic is the systematic study of
meaning and linguistic semantic is the study of how languages organize and express
meanings”. Its means that, meaning in linguistic semantic was very needed for
us to limit ourselves to the expression of meanings in a single language.
Charles (1998 ) said that there were three disciplines were concerned with the
systematic study of meaning, in itself: psychology, philosophy and linguistics. It
means that, psychologist were interest in how individual humans learn, how they
retain, recall or loss information. Philosophies of language were concerned with
how we know, how any particular fact that we know or accept as true was related to
other possible facts. And then, the last systematic study of meaning is about
linguistic, linguistics want to understand how language works.
Akmajian Deneners and Mernish (1981, p.225) stated that “Semantic is
generally considered to be the study of meaning in language, while in logic semantic
is language”. Also Kriedler (1998, p.3) considered that “Semantic is the systematic

8


study of how languages organize and express meanings”. Meaning in linguistic
semantic is really necessary for us to limit ourselves to the expression of meanings in
a single language.
Cruse (1986) thought that semantic is the study of meanings of words and
other parts of language, the general study or signs of symbols and what they stand
for. Also, Mukhlis (2004) stated that semantic is the study of meaning which stands
at the very center of the linguistic guest to understand the nature of language and
human language abilities. It is obvious that semantic has an important role in
understanding and comprehending a language especially for English since semantic
does not only concern the study of meaning, but also the relationship between
language and culture. What is more, Lyons (1984) believed that semantic is a study
of meaning. The term of meaning in the semantic theory can be described from the
mind of speaker to the mind of the hearer by embodying them, as it was, in the form
of one language or anther Lyons also stated that the word meaning may not have the
same range of application as any single word in other language. For example, there
are contexts in which “meaning” can be translated into French with signification
or sense, and the context of meaning (signification or sense) does not match with
“bedeutung and sinn” in German.
Unlike Lyons, Evans (1984, p.19) stated that meaning is related to the
form of expressions which conveys the meaning, but it is difficult to know the
certain relationship between them, as what they say: “Certain sounds arranged in
particular ways become word, and words arranged in particular ways become
sentence. The form of sentences is argued that some aspects of the meaning of
these sentences determine their form. In any aspects or even the speaker of
language intuitively associates meaning with particular language forms. No
one knows the exact nature of the relationship between forms and meaning”.
The meaning of the word is fully reflected by its context. The meaning of the

word is constituted by its context. The meaning of the word is constituted by its
contextual relations. Hence, a distinction between of participation as well as modes
of participation is made. In order to accomplish this distinction any part of a sentence
that bears a meaning and combines with the meaning of other constituents.
With the many types of meaning put for word by linguists, the researcher is
interested in analyzing the lexical meaning and contextual meaning of the words in a

9


song lyrics. By knowing the lexical meaning and contextual meaning of the word in
the song lyrics, it will be easy to understand the overall meaning of the song.
Semantic is appropriate to investigate and analyze the contextual meaning in
the lyrics of Bob Marley’s songs because semantic can deal with the meaning of the
songs to convey their intended meaning of Bob Marley’s songs.
2.3. Kinds of meaning
The study of linguistic meanings of morphemes, word, phrases, and
sentence is called semantics. Semantic is considered with aspect of meaning in
language. Dealing with the meaning, it could be categorized into some reference.
According to Charles (1998), the dimensions of meaning include reference and
denotation, connotation, sense relations, lexical and grammatical meaning,
morphemes, homonymy, polysemy, lexical ambiguity, sentence and meaning.
According to Pateda (2001), kind of meaning include a cognitive meaning, ideational
meaning, denotational meaning, promotional meaning, while Evans (2009) thought
that kind of meaning include emotive meaning, cognitive meaning, descriptive
meaning, referential meaning, pictorial meaning, dictionary meaning, fringe
meaning, core meaning. According to Kreidler (1998), kind of meaning include
of grammatical meaning and lexical meaning. According to Boomfield (1930),
there were narrowed meaning and widened meaning.
According to Chaer (2007), kinds of meaning include a lexical,

grammatical and contextual meaning, referential and non-referential meaning,
denotative and connotative meaning, conceptual and associative meaning, and
lexeme. Pateda (2001) said that kinds of meaning include a theoretical of referential
or correspondence, theoretical of contextual, the theory of mentalism or conceptual,
and theoretical formalism.
The study of linguistics meaning of morphemes, word, phrases and
sentence is called semantics. Semantic concerns aspect of meaning in language, work
in semantic deals with the description of word meaning in language. Lyons (1984,
p.136) stated that “There are many types of meaning such as lexical meaning,
philosophical meaning, contextual meaning, grammatical meaning, sentence
meaning, descriptive meaning, expressive meaning and social meaning”.

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Also, according to Kreidlers (1998, p.41), “The dimensions of meaning
include reference, denotation, connotation, sense relations, lexical, and grammatical
meaning morphemes, homonymy, polysemy, lexical ambiguity, sentence and
meaning.”
All of the kind of meaning with the different reference, the researcher takes
a focus in lexical meaning, contextual meaning, grammatical meaning, denotative
meaning, connotative meaning and conceptual meaning in this study.
2.3.1. Lexical meaning
Lexical meaning is the smallest meaning unit in the meaning system of
language that could be distinguished from other similar units. A lexeme is an
abstract unit. It can occur in many different forms of actual spoken or written
sentences. It is regarded as the same lexeme even when inflected. According to
Flawley (1992) said that lexical meaning is the meaning of the word when the
word is seen in isolation, either in form or shape lexeme affixes whose meaning
more or less fixed, as can be read in a particular language dictionary.

Lexical meaning is also smallest meaning unit in the meaning system of
language that could be distinguished from other similar units. A lexeme is an
abstract unit. It can be occurring in many different forms of actual spoken or
wrote sentences, and regarded as the same lexeme even when inflected.
Lexical meaning refers to the real meaning, meaning that proper with our sense
of observation, or granted meaning. It has been known that a language has amount
of lexical system by which the semantic with structure could be based its meaning
on paradigmatic and systematical. The researcher said that lexical meaning could
be defined as a meaning which has a characteristic of lexicon, lexeme and word.
It also has a meaning as it reference, meaning which is result of our observation
through our sense, or the reality in our life. Not all lexeme were word-lexeme or
lexeme whose forms are words forms. Many of them would be phrasal lexeme
whose forms were phrases.
Therefore, many people who say that the lexical meaning is the meaning
in the dictionary or that of the lexeme meaning even without any contexts. For
example, “horses” have similar lexical meaning ordinary a quadruped ridden. This
example, the lexical meaning is the exact meaning or meanings that accord with

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the observation of our senses. In the dictionary, usually contains only lexical
meaning possessed by the word described.
The meaning of words on lexical meaning is a part of linguistic knowledge
and it is therefore a part of the grammar. The term lexical meaning, which is used in
semantics is interpreted as the meaning of lexeme whether it is word lexeme or
paraphrase lexeme.
Lexical meaning is usually considered as being the meaning of word. Lyons
(1984, p.140) stated that “Lexical meaning is a meaning described in the lexicon or
dictionary”. Lexical meanings are the meaning of a word or sentence which upon the

meaning of its constituent lexemes. Also, Chaer (2007) thought that lexical meaning
is an adjunction form derived from the form of a noun lexicon (vocabulary). The unit
of the lexicon is a meaningful unit of language. If we compare the lexicon with
vocabulary or vocabulary then we can equate lexeme with word. Thus lexical
meaning can be interpreted a lexicon, lexeme or a word. “A lexical word or meaning
is the meaning that corresponds to its referent meaning that is in accordance with the
result of observation of the sense or meaning that is truly real in our lives , in other
words, picture of a concept as the word symbolizes”. (Chaer, 2007, p.63). Lexical
meaning can also be consider as the meaning contained in a dictionary. Chaer (2007)
considered that lexical meaning is owned or existed in lexeme even without any
context. For examples, the phrase “The mouse got killed the cat” contains the word
mouse that has the lexical meaning of a rodent that can cause typhus. The word mouse
in the sentence above refers to the animal mouse and not to other. We can see these
mice in dirty places and usually roam inside the house especially in hidden places. If
you are not aware, these mice can damage foods and cause diseases when eaten by
humans.
According to Trenskaner (2006), the lexical patters or semantic fields are
identified as synonymy, antonym, polysemy, hyponym, connotation, homonym,
denotation.
2.3.1.1. Synonymy
Synonymy simply describes a lexical item that is in some sense similar in
meaning with a preceding one. It is not a straight forward repetition of the sense of it.
Palmer (1986) defined the concept as a lexical relationship of close relatedness in
meaning. According to Smith (2006), synonymy refers to a situation whereby two or

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more forms are associated with the same meaning the critical point is that in some of
the songs in the collections selected for this study, there are instances of both partial

and complete synonymy. In “Redemption Song”, for instance, the following lexical
items illustrate the operation of synonymy.
Old pirates = Merchant ships
These words also refer to a criminal who plunder at sea and attacks merchant
vessels. In this song, Bob Marley describes someone in a sea pirate. The critical point
is that, these words have similarity of meaning and they are used by the musician in
tracking the readers through the message of the song. Also, Kreidler (1998, p.97)
said that “Synonyms are typically single lexemes of the same weight”. Hence,
synonym is a semantic relation that states the similarity of meaning between the unit
of speech with other speech unit’
Bloomfield (1930, p.89-p.91) stated that there are five ways to identify
synonyms:
1) Some sets of synonyms belong to different dialects of the language. For
instance, the term ”fall” is used in the United States. In some western countries they
use ”autumn”.
2) There is similar situation, but a more problematic one, with the words that
are used in different styles, for examples ” a nasty smell” might be, in the appropriate
setting, “an obnoxious effluvium” and “an horrible stink”.
3) Some words may be said to differ in their emotive or evaluative meanings.
The remainder of their meaning, their “cognitive” meaning, remains the same. Some
semanticists have made a great play with the emotive difference between “politician”
and “statesman”, “liberty” and “freedom”.
4) Some words are colloquially restricted, they occur only in conjunction with
other words, for instance, the word “rancid” occurs with ”bacon” or “butter”, “added”
with “eggs”
5) Many words are close in meaning or that their meanings are overlap. For
instance mature” the possible synonyms are “adult”, “ripe”, and “perfect”.
2.3.1.2. Antonym

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Antonym describes lexical items which are opposite in meaning. These
words, according to Smith (2006), antonym may be defined as two (rarely more)
words of the same language belonging to the same part of speech with contradictor
meaning. Unlike synonymy, antonyms do not differ in style, emotional coloring or
distribution. For example, in “Redemption Song”, Bob Marley uses the word “sold”
and “took” the two antonymous lexemes which describe this contradictory action are
“sold” meaning to provide services and “took” meaning to get into one’s hands.
Crystal (1987) said that antonyms are divided into two kinds: gradable and
non-gradable antonyms. Gradable antonyms include the pair "big-small", "tall-short"
can be used in comparative constructions "bigger than- smaller than", "taller thanshorter than". The meaning of adjectives in gradable pairs is related to the object they
modify. The words do not provide an absolute scale, for instance "a small elephant"
is much bigger than "a large mouse", fast is faster when applied to an aero plane than
to a car. The negative of one word is not necessarily imply the other, for instance
someone who is not big is not necessary small.
A non-gradable antonyms which is also called complementary pairs such as
"alive-dead", "present-absent", "awake-asleep" is not usually used in comparative
constructions. The negative of one word does imply to the other. For instance, “the
most beautiful student in this class is absent” means that the student is not present. In
English, there are a number of ways to form antonyms. We can add the prefix un:
likely/unlikely, able/unable, fortunate/unfortunate.
2.3.1.3. Polysemy
According to Metlinger (1994) and Chaer (2007), polysemy is the existence of
several connected meanings within a word as the result of the development or changes
of the original meaning. For example, the word “mouth” means a part of human body
or any opening. Hence, a word or utterance unit called polysemy if the word has more
than one meaning.
Pateda (2001) said that polysemy is a word which has two (or more) related
meanings. Polysemy refers to cases where a lexeme has more than one meaning. For

example, “chip” can mean a piece of wood, food, or electronic circuit. So people see
no problem in saying that the word “chip” has several different meanings in English
(Crystal, 1987, p.106). The relatedness of meaning accompanying identical form is
technically known as polysemy, which can be defined as one form (written or spoken)

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having multiple meaning which are all related by extension. For example the word
“head” is used to refer to 1) the object of the top of your body, 2) on the top of a glass
of beer, 3) on the top of a company or department, or foot (of person, of bed of
mountain).
2.3.1.4. Hyponymy
The term “hyponymy” derives from Greek, and it is a combination between
hypt + nymy which means “under+ name”. Hyponymy refers to the hierarchical
relationship between the meaning of lexemes, in which the meaning of one lexeme is
included in (under) the meaning of another lexeme). This happens most obviously in
scientific classifications such as in Biology. For example, the meaning of “panther”
is included within that of cat (as the name of the cat family). In its sense of “domestic
cat” the word “cat” is itself a hyponymy of the general word cat.
Halliday (1994, p.574) stated that “Hyponymy is a kind of elaborating
relationship in which a lexical items represents a class of a thing. It is simply a relation
of meaning inclusion, in which the meanings of certain lexical items are included in
are lexical item”. Chaer (2007) considered that hyponym is a semantic relation
between a figure of speech whose meaning is included in the meaning and the
utterances form. For example there is a word said between “birds” and “pigeons”.
Meaning of the word “pigeon” is included in the meaning of the word “bird”. We
could say that the “dove” is a bird, but “bird” could be a bird of paradise or the name
of the other birds.
2.3.1.5. Homonym

Kreidler (1998, p.52) thought that “The homonym is two lexemes and the
same form but the meaning is very different”. What is more, Bloomfield (1930) said
that homonym are words which are the same in sound and spelling or at least in one
of those aspect but different in their meaning. For example, buy – by, knight – night.
2.3.1.6. Ambiguity
Ambiguity is often said to be double or ambiguous meaning. Chaer (2007)
stated that the symptoms may be due to the multiplicity of meaning different
grammatical interpretation. Different grammatical interpretations are common in
wrote a language, due to the surpassed mentally elements of wrote language could
not be described accurately. For example, "new history book" can be interpreted as

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