symbol and referent, eufemisme

• SEMANTIC

The word semantics is derived from the Greek semaino, meaning, to signify or mean. Semantics is part of the larger study of signs, semiotics. It is the part that deals with words as signs (symbols) and language as a system of signs (words as symbols)." (Hipkiss, 1995:ix)

Menurut Hipkiss kata semantik diambil dari Yunani Semaino, yang bermakna Menandai atau memaknai. Semantik adalah bagian dari bidang studi tentang makna yang lebih luas yaitu semiotics. Semantik juga bagian yang membahas tentang simbol, tanda dan bahasa sebagai satu kesatuan sistem simbol.

Sementara itu, Saeed (2003:3) secara ringkas memaknai semantik sebagai berikut:

“Semantics is the study of meaning communicated through language.”

Lebih pendek lagi, Hurford dan Heasley (1983:1) mendefinisikan semantik dengan sangat sederhana, mereka mengatakan: "Semantics is the study of meaning in Language."

Selain itu, Palmer (1976:1) memaknai semantik sebagai salah satu bagian dari cabang ilmu linguistics. Ia menjelaskan bahwa:

 "Semantics is the technical term used to refer to the study of meaning, and since meaning is a part of language, semantics is a part of linguistics."

Menurut Palmer, semantik adalah istilah yang digunakan yang mengacu pada ilmu bidang makna, dan karena makna adalah bagian dari bahasa, maka semantik adalah bagian dari cabang ilmu linguistik.
Sebenarnya masih banyak lagi pakar-pakar bahasa, para ahli bahasa, para ahli linguistik yang memberikan beberapa definisi atau makna semantics tersebut. Akan tetapi semuanya rata-rata mengungkapkan bahwa semantics adalah bagian dari ilmu bahasa yang membahas tentang makna.
 

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Symbol and referent

These terms may clarify the subject. A symbol is something which we use to represent another thing - it might be a picture, a letter, a spoken or written word - anything we use conventionally for the purpose. The thing that the symbol identifies is the referent. This may sometimes be an object in the physical world (the word Rover is the symbol; a real dog is the referent). But it may be something which is not at all, or not obviously, present - like freedom, unicorns or Hamlet.

A referent /ˈrɛfərənt/ is a person or thing to which a linguistic expression or other symbol refers. For example, in the sentence Mary saw me, the referent of the word Mary is the particular person called Mary who is being spoken of, while the referent of the word me is the person uttering the sentence.

Two expressions which have the same referent are said to be co-referential. In the sentence John had his dog with him, for instance, the noun John and the pronoun him are co-referential, since they both refer to the same person (John).


The triangle of reference, from Ogden and Richards' The Meaning of Meaning.

In fields such as semantics and semiotics, a distinction is made between a referent and a reference. Reference is a relationship in which a symbol or sign (a word, for example) signifies something; the referent is the thing signified. The referent may be an actual person or object, or may be something more abstract, such as a set of actions.^[3][4]

Reference and referents were considered at length in the 1923 book The Meaning of Meaning by the Cambridge scholars C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards. Ogden has pointed out that reference is a psychological process, and that referents themselves may be psychological – existing in the imagination of the referrer, and not necessarily in the real world.^[5] For further ideas related to this observation, see absent referent and failure to refer.

Symbol merupakan unsur linguistik berupa kata, kalimat, dan sebagainya; yang menunjuk kepada nenda, situasi, peristiwa, dan sebagainya. Dalam kalimat “Ini bagus”. Hanya kata “Ini” merupakan satu symbol jika kata “ini” merujuk ke suatu benda, situasi, peristiwa, misalnya sebuah buku, sebuah baju, dan sebagainya. Kata “bagus” tidak memiliki fungsi simbolik karena kata “bagus” hanya melayani ungkapan sikap. Bagi Richards dan Ogden kata-kata yang menyatakan perasaan, sikap, harapan, impian, dan sebagainya tidak termasuk dalam pengertian symbol. Kata-kata tersebut (yang menyatakan perasaan, sikap, harapan, impian, dan sebagainya) dikelompokkan ke dalam “bahasa emotif”.

Bahasa simbolik yang didefinisikan oleh Richards dan Ogden ialah bahasa yang sesuai dengan fakta atau bahasa kefaktaan. Sedangkan, bahasa emotif memiliki kegunaan dalam proses komunikasi untuk membangkitkan sikap yang diharapkan dari orang lain atau untuk mendorong orang lain bertindak dan sebagainya.

Referent adalah objek atau sesuatu yang berada di luar bahasa. Jika kita menggunakan symbol maka kita merujuk kepada referent. Sebagaimana yang dikutip oleh Parera (1990: 43) Richards dan Ogden menyatakan adalah penting untuk menemukan referent agar diketahui apakah suatu reference benar atau tidak. Dan jika reference benar, maka ia merujuk kepada fakta (if a reference “hangs together” in the way the actual referent hangs together, the reference is true and refers to a fact).

Reference merupakan konsep atau ide. Pada gambar diatas, antara symbol dan referent tidak berhubungan langsung dengan ditandai garis berputus-putus (antara bahasa dan luar bahasa). Hubungannya melalui pikiran atau reference.

Chaer dan bukunya ‘Pengantar: Semantik Bahasa Indonesia ‘ (1995) – beliau menggunakan kata ‘kata’ untuk symbol, kata ‘makna’ atau ‘konsep’ untuk reference dan ‘sesuatu yang dirujuk atau referen’ untuk referent –mengungkapkan bahwa hubungan antara kata (symbol) dengan makna atau konsep (reference)nya adalah bersifat langsung. Begitu juga hubungan anatara makna/konsep (reference) itu dengan referent juga bersifat langsung.; tetapi hubungan antara kata (symbol) dengan referent (sesuatu yang dirujuk) tidak bersifat langsung. Dengan demikian, dalam dalam gambar di atas hubungan antara (symbol) dengan referent-nya ditandai dengan garis putus-putus.

Hubungan antara kata (symbol) dengan makna (reference)nya bersifat arbriter, artinya, tidak ada hubungan wajib antara deretan fonem pembentuk kata itu dengan maknanya. Namun, hubungan bersifat konvensional. Artinya, disepakati oleh setiap anggota masyarakat suatu bahasa untuk mematuhi hubungan itu; sebab kalau tidak, komunikasi verbal yang dilakukan akan mendapat hambatan.

Euphemism

A euphemism is “the substitution of a mild, indirect or vague term for one considered to be harsh, blunt, or offensive”. Sometimes called doublespeak, a euphemism is a word or phrase which pretends to communicate but doesn’t. It makes the bad seem good, the negative seem positive, the unnatural seem natural, the unpleasant seem attractive, or at least tolerable. It is language which avoids, shifts or denies responsibility. It conceals or prevents thought.

Doublespeak was one of the central themes of George Orwell’s famous novel, 1984, although he didn’t use that term, instead he used the terms “doublethink” and “newspeak”.

Here are some particularly amusing examples, except where downright offensive.

1. You aren’t poor, you are economically disadvantaged.
2. You aren’t broke, you have temporary negative cash flow.
3. You do not live in a slum but in substandard housing, or in an economically depressed neighborhood, or culturally deprived environment.
4. If you are managing company stakeholders, that means you are lobbying, which is really the same as bribing.
Euphemisms are often used in everyday speech to soften difficult situations.
Example 1
We have to let you go, Tyler.
To “let someone go” is to fire someone. This is a euphemism that sounds much nicer than the harsh truth of the situation.
Example 2
She’s a very curvy woman.
“Curvy” can sometimes be used as a euphemistic way of describing someone who is, in fact, overweight.
Example 3
Jimmy was sent to a correctional facility.
A “correctional facility” is a more professional and nicer-sounding phrase than jail or prison.

Examples of Euphemism in Literature

Example #1

Examples of euphemism referring to sex are found in William Shakespeare’s “Othello” and “Antony and Cleopatra”. In “Othello”, Act 1 Scene 1, Iago tells Brabantio:
“I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.”
Here, the expression “making the beast with two backs” refers to the act of having sex.
Similarly, we notice Shakespeare using euphemism for sexual intercourse in his play “Antony and Cleopatra”. In Act 2 Scene 2, Agrippa says about Cleopatra:
“Royal wench!
She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed.
He plowed her, and she cropped.”
The word “plowed” refers to the act of sexual intercourse and the word “cropped” is a euphemism for becoming pregnant.

Example #2

John Donne in his poem “The Flea” employs euphemism. He says:
“Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou denies me is;
It suck’d me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Thou know’st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead;
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pamper’d swells with one blood made of two;
And this, alas! is more than we would do.”
In order to persuade his beloved to sleep with him, the speaker in the poem tells her how a flea bit both of them and their blood got mixed in it. This is a euphemism.

Example #3

“The Squealer”, a character in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, uses euphemisms to help “the pigs” achieve their political ends. To announce the reduction of food to the animals of the farm, Orwell quotes him saying:
“For the time being,” he explains, “it had been found necessary to make a readjustment of rations.”
Substituting the word “reduction” with “readjustment” was an attempt to suppress the complaints of other animals about hunger. It works because reduction means “cutting” food supply while readjustment implies changing the current amount of food.

Function of Euphemism

Euphemism helps writers to convey those ideas which have become a social taboo and are too embarrassing to mention directly. Writers skillfully choose appropriate words to refer to and discuss a subject indirectly which otherwise are not published due to strict social censorship e.g. religious fanaticism, political theories, sexuality, death etc. Thus, euphemism is a useful tool that allows writers to write figuratively about the libelous issues.

link :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referent
http://literarydevices.net/euphemism/