Understanding

Meaning of
Speech
By:
Anggun Fitriana Dewi
Kharisma Mutiara
Oktanika Wahyu Nurjanah
Wulan Septikawati

OUTLINE
Introduction

Surface Structure and Deep Structure

Proposition

Constituent as psychological reality

Strategies of understanding meaning

INTRODUCTION
sentences

Perception of Sound

Clauses

phrases

words

syllables
sounds

INTRODUCTION
How do people understand words, phrases, clauses, or sentences that they hear?
How do people form comprehension ?
What is comprehension?

In general, comprehension refers to the mental

prosess by which listeners take in the sounds
uttered by a speaker and use them to
construct an interpretation of what the speaker intended to
convey (Clark and Clark, 1997)

Comprehension
Clark and Clark (1997)

The construction process

The listeners contruct an interpretation of what they hear

The utilization process

The listeners utilize this interpretation for further purposes

SURFACE STRUCTURE & DEEP STRUCTURE

Example: An old man is having dinner in a luxurious restaurant.
Interpretation :
there is a man the man is old he is doing something the something is having dinner
he is doing something in a placethe place is a restaurant the restaurant is luxurious.
Most of meaning of speech can be understood from the order of the speech

SURFACE STRUCTURE & DEEP STRUCTURE

Example: Lelaki dan wanita tua itu sedang makan malam di sebuah restoran mewah.
Interpretation:
tua woman or tua both man and woman?
tua limits the noun wanita or tua limits the phrase lelaki dan wanita?

NP
NP

N
lelaki

Conj.
dan

NP

Adj.
tua
N
wanita

N
Lelaki

NP

Conj.
dan

N
wanita

Adj.
tua

SURFACE STRUCTURE & DEEP STRUCTURE

Example: John loves Marry more than his brother
Interpretation:
1. Johns love for Marry is greater than his love for his brother
2. Johns love for Marry is greater than his brothers love for Marry

The meaning of a sentence is not only

determined by its surface structure but
also its deeper structure

A sentence has both surface

and deep structure

Propotition
I give you my heart

MY HEART

GIVE YOU

GIVE
GIVE
II

Proposition
A set of the referents of all
referring elements and how
they are linked
(Lobner, 2002: 23-29 and 99122)

The
unit
of
meaning
constitutes the
subject
(Crystal, 200: 316)

which

Propositional Content
Kinds & Examples:
The young troop defeated the army
1.
2.

The troop were young

The troop defeated the army

A robber stole my cluth

3.
4.
5.
6.

Someone stole a clutch

Someone refers to a robber
The clutch is mine
It happened in the past

Proporsition
A robber stole my clutch

A robber

A man

Has tattoos

Clutch

Negative
behaviour

Speakers
Clutch

Money
inside

Proporsitional Content
Predicate Propostition and Argument Proportition
Delillah sang Ballad
sang (y,z)
Hamid is designing brand identity is designing (y,z)
Jasmine gives Ewa a flower gives (x,y,z)

x
Predicate Prop.
Sang
Is designing
Gives

y, z

Argument Prop.
Ballad
Brand identity
Ewa; a flower

Conclusion: Proporsition is critically important entities in comprehending sentences.

Actually we comprehend the sentence by each proporsition constructing it.

Constituent as Psychological Reality

The old thief steals my bike
The old thief
The old
The

old

thief

steals my bike
steals
my

my bike
bike

1. Constituent has complete meaning.

the old thief he or Alex
It shows that constituent has a complete meaning

2. Disturb if it is not broken down based on the constituent

The old / thief steals / my bike //
The old thief / steals / my bike //
The second example is broken down based on its constituent

3. Humans memory

The old thief steals my bike

The one who old thief, not the bike

Strategies in Understanding Speech

Conclusion :
Constituent takes a great role in understanding meaning

Strategies in Understanding Speech

 Three factors to help understanding

World
Syntactic
Semantic
Knowledge
Approach
speech:

World Knowledge
1. Universal
e.g. An elephant is big, and an ant is small. Once we fou
nd a small elephant or a big ant, it will destroys our st
ereotype.
2. Local
e.g. Javanese calendar: pon, pahing, legi, wage, kliwon.
3. Accidental
e.g. Petrus (penembak misterius) in Soeharto era.

Syntactic approach
Listeners are assumed to use the surface struc
tures or features for a sentence to make an in
terpretation.

e.g. when we hear a determiner the, what co

mes in your mind?
The ??

Semantic approach
Listeners are assumed to work from the interpretation of a sente
nce would be
conveying.
Using logic in understanding speech
e.g. the cat bites the mouse
- the mouse bites the cat
Find constituent that fulfills certain semantic requirement
e.g. when we hear the word mencarikan, what comes in your min
d?
Ibu yang
berbaju biru
menantu

sedang

mencarikan

anaknya

a) There has to be the doer

b) There has to be the object
c) There has to be the victim of the object
) When it comes to word order: N V N, the first noun (u
sually) is the doer.
e.g. Whats the difference between these sentences?
- Lukluk eats the cake.
- The cake is eaten by Lukluk.
) Find the antecedent when finding pronouns.
e.g. They went to PGS yesterday. Lusi bought a batik skir
t, and Doni bought her a pair of shoes.

 Old information usually comes before n

ew information.
e.g. Compare these sentences below!
- Bang Takdir menikah sehabis Lebara
n kemarin.
- Bang Takdirlah yang menikah sehab
is Lebaran kemarin.