Assalamualaikum.
Today is the 5th day and Semantics is still
stubborn not letting me go.
Fine, Language Users are creative huh?
Okay, let’s do this one exercise. Muntahkan apa yang anda tahu.
What I have been reading so far are mainly the explanation and arguments on WHY
English Grammar is making our life miserable.
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| My brain is... |
Basically, there are two sets of theory from the
Functionalists and the Syntacticians on how to study language. So…Syntactic people are all proud and kecoh pasal rules. Language is all about
abiding the rules. And as we know, to follow the rules is the most difficult
task to be accomplished.
Memanglah, cuba tengok. Senang ke nak menulis dengan flawless grammar
or..or..flawless English? Kalau native
speakers of English bolehlah. Even so, native speakers pun banyak rosakkan
grammar. Haha. Err..my writing pun has a lot of grammatical errors. Tak kisah lah kan. Ini
free-flow-writing-exercise. Syntactic people kecoh-kecoh cakap that we have to
exactly follow the rules given and they believe in the SENTENCE-BASED THEORY.
Dalam that very theory, it looks at how phrases are structured and also they
look at the compositional view of meaning.
Now, what on earth does that mean? Well. Itulah. That is what we have to
explain with full illustrations in final exam nanti.
I heard many of my classmates are doing good in Semantics. Tapi kenapa macam
aku seorang diri je yang rasa macam Semantics ni super alien? Berapa hari dah
bertapa menghadap Semantics. Fahamnya baru berapa peratus.
*Tadah tangan sambil berdoa.. Mohon Allah permudahkan jalan.*
On the other hand, the Functionalists (aku suka mereka ni),
they saw that rules are overpowering the language. Yelah. Mana tak nya. Cuba
pergi check buku grammar berapa tebal? Tebal nak mampus siap ada table-table
yang mungkin korang forever takkan faham pun apa fungsinya. So again, later on
kita nampak rules are overpowering the language. Rules dah jadi MONSTER. So,
perlu ada orang yang akan break the tradition or the rules. Jadi, mari kita
lihat siapa hero yang bawa idea baru untuk musnahkan tradisi tersebut. Saussure
is one of the linguists who break the traditional rule. Kerana dia kata,
language adalah creative sepatutnya. They believe in SIGN-BASED THEORY.
Mehehehe…so sekarang, RULES versus MEANINGS.
Cuba korang explain kenapa dalam surat khabar bahasa Mat
Salleh tu tulis berita pasal Chelsea macam ni: “Chelsea are a strong team”.
Bukan ke Chelsea tu singular? Kenapa guna are pulak? Hah. Explain cepat.
So, Syntactic people akan kata, itu adalah Exception. Simply because they are
too lazy to explain why. Or maybe they do not even know why. Kan dah terikat
dengan rules. So, that’s why lah. Haha.
But, the Functionalists kata, there must be an explanation as to why ‘are’ is
being used. Maybe, di dalam context ayat tersebut, Chelsea is considered as
something which includes everything: the coach, players, managers ke,
strategies and set up ke, and what not.
Jadi..begitulah. Ini hasil bertapa dengan Semantics beberapa hari ni.
Tapi still tak cukup lagi sebab I still don’t know how to elaborate the points
with proper illustrations.
Tensi.
Nak makan nasik.
Selamat Malam Dunia yang fana.
Yang Gila Semantik,
Fathi.