ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS USED IN SPORT COLUMN OF

THE JAKARTA POST DAILY NEWSPAPER

HendraSaeful Imam (0922.0217)

hendrasaeful2@gmail,com

English Education Study Program Language and Arts Department

SekolahTinggiKeguruandanIlmuPendidikan

Siliwangi Bandung

ABSTRACT

The objectives of this research entitled “An Analysis of English Idiomatic Expression Used in Sport Column of the Jakarta PostDaily Newspaper” were to find out the total numbers of idiomatic expressions and to identify the most and the least frequently type of idiomatic expressions used in sport column of The Jakarta Post daily newspaper. In this research the writer used descriptive qualitative method. Research instrument in this research wasthe researcher himself to find the idiomatic expressions in sport column. Population in this research was all the texts used in sport column ofThe Jakarta Post newspapers issued in 3rd to 13stinMarch 2013 and the sample of this research was entire population.The data of this research were identified, classified, analyzed based on O’Dell & McCarthy theory of idiomatic expressions;they are greeting and good wishes idioms; phrasal verb idioms; sayings, proverbs and quotations idioms; prepositional phrase idioms; compound idioms; and binomial idioms, and to find out the percentage category based on Wray’s theory.The result ofthis research showed that percentage category of idiomatic expressions found in the texts were 192 items of idioms; greetings and good wishes idioms was 1 item or 0.52%; phrasal verb idioms were 177 items or 92.19%; saying, proverbs and quotations were 6 items or 3.12%; binomial idioms were 5 items or 2.60%; and compound idioms was 1 item or 0.52%.From the data above it can be concluded that the most frequently idiomatic expressions found in sport column was phrasal verb idioms 177 items or 92.19% and the least frequently of idiomatic expressions was compound idiom 1 item or 0.52%. In addition, greeting and good wishes idiom was 1 item or 0.52%.

Keywords: idiomatic expressions, qualitative research, newspapers

1

ABACKGROUND

In linguistic, idioms are usually presumed to be figure of speech contradicting the principle of compositionality; yet the matter remains debated. Wright (2002: 10) commented that translating an idiom from one language into another is not possible to do; English idioms are something different from Indonesian idioms.

Hornby in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English (1995: 627) stated that “Idiom is a phrase of sentence that the meaning is not obvious through knowledge of the individual meanings of the constituent words but must be learnt as a whole.” In addition, idiomatic expressions can be just one or a group of words, and the meaning is not derived exclusively from the detonation of words comprising the expression. For example the English expression “caught red handed” means to be “obviously guilty of a crime.” (inbahasa: “tertangkapbasah.”).

Lyons (in Maimunah, 2008: 12) stated that contextual meaning is the meaning of a word according to the situations in which they are used; different situation might give a sentence in a different meaning. In brief, some idioms have various meanings depending on the contexts, because the meaning of idiomatic expressions only can be understood contextually.

Based on Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms (1998: vi), “Idioms are a colorful and fascinating aspect of English. They are commonly used in all types of language, informal and formal, spoken and written.”

Today, the usage idiomatic expressions are often used in all sorts of speaking and writing. Such as in media, either written or in electronic media, idioms are often found in magazines, newspapers and novels. Expression is essential to develop the media to attract and arouse the conscience of the readers and listeners. But it is many of the expressions used by mediator are unable to interpret by the readers. The readers ignore and do not understand the idioms used. There are many English idioms in the Jakarta Post daily newspapers. This is the issue that the writer writes this topic, entitled “An Analysis of English Idiomatic Expressions Used in Sport Column of the Jakarta Post Daily Newspaper.”

BLITERATURE REVIEWS

  1. The Definition of Newspaper

According to Hornby (1995: 792) “Newspaper is a printed publication appearing daily or weekly and containing news, advertisements and articles on various subjects.”

  1. Idiomatic Expressions

2.1 Definition of Idiomatic Expressions

O’Dell and McCarthy (2010:6) cited that “Idioms are fixed combination of words and the meaning is often to guess from the meaning of individual word.”

It means that the meaning of an idiom is often hard to understand, because we do not know exactly what a sentence means. It has non-literal or idiomatic meaning.

2.2 Clarifications of Idioms

According to Gaines (1986: vii-viii) idioms divided into some categories, namely:

  1. Noun Idiom

This may be simple nouns (pad, flop), modified nouns (eager, beaver, backseat driver), or noun phrases (apple of my eye, short end of the stick).

  1. Verb Idiom

There areone-word verbs (splurge, freeload), two word verbs (throw in the hotel, face the music).

  1. Adjective Idiom e.g. cool, swamped, gung-ho, half-baked.
  2. Adverb idiom e.g. on easy street, in a nutshell, once in a blue moon.

In addition, O’Dell and McCarthy (2010:6) added, that there are types of formulaic idioms, like:

  1. Greeting and good wishes, e.g. Happy birthday! Hi there! See you soon!
  2. Prepositional phrases, e.g. At the moment, in a hurry, from time to time.
  3. Saying, proverbs and quotations, e.g. It’s a small world! Don put your egg in one basket. To be or not to be – that is the question.
  4. Compounds,

Alawi (in Nuryani 2011: 14) provided the explication of compound in the following definition:

Verbamajemukadalahverba yang terbentukmelaluiprosespenggabungansatukatadengan kata lain. Dalamverbamajemuk, penjejeranduakataataulebihitumenumbuhkanmakna yang secaralangsungmasih bias ditelusuridarimaknamasing-masingkata yang tergabung. Contohnya, kata terjundankatapayungdapatdigabungkanmenjaditerjunpayung yang melakukanterjundariudaradenganmemakaialatsemacampayung.

Compound words are combination of two words that have regular structure and cannot be joined from other words. Like e.g. car park, bus stop, home-made. It has different meaning from individual word.

  1. Collocations, like blonde hair, deeply disappointed.

O’Dell & McCarthy (2008: 4) stated that “Collocation means a natural combination of words; it refers to the way English words are closely associated with each other.” That is, collocation should be well mastered in order to make the context better and has a more precise meaning.

Makkai (cited in Rahmawati, 2011: 26) classified the idioms into two areas, there are: lexemic and sememicidiomaticity areas. The lexemic idiomaticity area, or ‘the class of polylexonic lexemes’ consist of expressions of more than one word.

2.3 Interpretation of Idiomatic Expressions

Peaty (in Maimunah, 2008: 23) cited that an idiom is an expression, which cannot be understood from the literal meaning of words of which is composed. Some idioms have various meaning depending on the context.

For example:

· “To sit on the fence”, can literally mean that one is sitting on a fence.

· “I sat on the fence and watch the game”. In this sentence “I sat on the

fence” means that one is not making a clear choice regarding some

issues.

· “The politician sat on the fence”, means that they would not give theiropinion about the tax issues.

Baker (1992:65) believed that, there are various types of idioms in which some easily recognizable than others, namely:

  1. Idioms which violate truth conditions
  2. Idioms which seem ill-formed because they do not follow the grammatical of the language.
  3. Idioms which start with ‘like’ (simile, ‘like’ structures)

Hurfordet.al.(2007: 328) cited that:

Idioms are multi-word phrases whose overall meanings are idiosyncratic and largely unpredictable, reflecting speaker meaning that are not derivable by combining the literal senses of the individual words in which each phrase according to the regular semantic rules of language.

It says that the meaning is intended usually depends on the context which the expression is used. They are not fully compositional and have to be learned as a whole.

In addition, Spears (2000, vii):

All languages have phrases or sentences that cannot be understood literally. Even if you know the meaning of all the words in a phrase and understand all grammar of the phrase completely, the meaning of the phrase may still be confusing. Many proverbs, informal phrases, and common sayings offer this kind of problem. A phrase or sentence of this type is said to be idiomatic.

The statement tells us that phrases or sentences in all languages especially English cannot be understood literally even we know well all grammar of the phrases or sentences, because the meaning of phrases or sentences sometime can be confusing. Like proverbs, informal phrases, and common sayings.

2.4 Idioms and Fixed Expressions

Baker (1992:63) cited that “Idioms are frozen patterns of language which allow little or no variation in form and, in the case of idioms, often carry meanings which cannot be deduced from their individual components.” The definition above points out that the idioms cannot be changed by their forms, allow little or no variation (frozen pattern) because of idioms which have meanings from their patterns.

The speaker or writer cannot normally do any the following with an idiom, like the long and the short of it (the basic fact of the situation) allow no variation in form.

  1. Change the order of the words in it. Any changing of an idiom leads to the destruction of the idiom’s meaning. (the short and the long of it);
  2. Delete a word from it. Changing the word in idiom make an idiom would change its meaning. (e.g. spill beans);
  3. Add a word to it. Adding any word to an idiom would alter its meaning or remove its idiomatic sense. (e.g. ‘the very long and short to it’; ‘face the classical music’);
  4. Replace a word with another (substitution) in fixed expression it is not accepted if change the word, like long with tall adjective, despite they have nearly the same meaning. (e.g. ‘the tall and the short of it’; ‘bury a hatchet’);
  5. Change its grammatical structure. The structure active and passive form in idioms, make them different in meaning. (e.g. ‘the music was faced’).

Nevertheless most idioms resist no variation in form; some are more flexible than others. The example of it is a case of a reporter BBC. He once quoted a conference saying ‘There was too much buck passing’ (Baker and McCarthy, 1988 cited by Baker 1992:64). Actually the idiom used under circumstance is ‘pass the buck’, which means refuse to accept responsibility for something.

2.4.1 Metaphor

O’Dell and McCarthy (2010:12) cited that “Metaphors describe a person, object or situation by comparing it to something else with similar characteristics.” In idioms, metaphors are used so frequently, so fixed in the language, and much less original and thought-provoking than those used in literary works. The methapor uses one idea to stand for another idea (Wrght, 1992: 6).

2.4.2 Simile

O’Dell and McCarthy (2010:22) cited that “Similes are expressions which compare two things; they always include the words as or like.” The uses of similes in spoken and written English are to make them more colorful and comparisons more powerful. Similes are often in phrasal verb type, so that it is not possible to change in individual words.

2.4.3 Proverbs

Workman (1998; 70) cited that:

Proverbs are popular short sayings of a moral or practical nature. To qualify as proverbs, the sayings must be old contain some kind of enduring wisdom. They are used to give a word of advice or warning, or to make a wise general comment on a particular situation.

Proverbs contain some kind of wisdom, advice or warning. Originally, proverbs can be traced back to early Greek and Latin sources, but it is difficult to say where they come from, because they often translated from language to another language.

2.4.4 Euphemisms

According to O’Dell & McCarthy (2010: 28), “Euphemisms are a type of idiom used to avoid saying words which may offend or be considered unpleasant.” Euphemisms are useful to learn because it helps us to avoid or prevent unpleasant words in appropriate situations.

C. METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH

  1. Research Method

Based on Crowl (1996: 10), “Qualitative research method used to examine questions that can be best answered by verbally describing how participants in study perceive and interpret various aspects of their environment.”

In addition, the characteristic of this method in data finding are primarily in the form of words rather than numbers. (McMillan & Schumacher, 2001:41).

  1. Research Instrument

In qualitative research instrument, Lincoln and Guba (1986) (in Sugiyono, 2012: 306) stated that:

The instrument of choice in naturalistic theory is the human. We shall see that other forms of instrumentation may be used in later phases of inquiry, but the human is the initial and continuing mainstay. But if the human instrument has been used extensively in earlier stage inquiry, so that an instrument can be constructed that is grounded in the data that the human instrument has product

According the statement above, furthermore, the instrument to collect data and the main measurement tool for this research is the researcher himself, then, the researcher collected the data through examining documents.

  1. Research Population and Sample

Burn (in Rahmawati, 2011: 50) said that “Population is an entire group of the people or subject or events.” The explanation about population make him understood what population is. The population in this study was all the texts in sport column of “The Jakarta Post’ newspaper issued in March the third to March 13th 2013.

Based on Creswell (2012: 142), “A sample is a subgroup of the target population that the researcher plans to study for generalizing about the target population”. The sample of this research was all the entire population.

4.Reseach Data Collection

To get the data, he used document analysis for collecting the data. McMillan & Schumacher (2001: 42) cited that “Documents are the most important data source in concept analysis and historical studies.” In this study, the data were taken from the texts of the ‘Jakarta Post’ newspapers itself, and to find the types and the meaning of the idioms that he found in the newspaper, he used McGraw-Hill’s: Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs and James Main Dixon: Dictionary of Idiomatic English Phrases book.

In conducting the research, the researcher will take several steps to obtain the data, as follows:

  1. Reading/skimming

Reading is the first step in this research. He read all the texts in sport column of “The Jakarta Post” newspaper and also skimmed the texts to find the idioms there.

  1. Noting

Noting the idioms found in the texts. So, while reading the texts he made notes and marked the idioms found in the texts.

  1. Listing

After reading and marking the idioms found in the texts, he classified the types of idioms based on O’Dell and McCarthy clarification (2010, 6 & 10) and found out their meaning by using McGraw-Hill’s: Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs and James Main Dixon: Dictionary of Idiomatic English Phrases book.

5.Research Data Analysis

According to Creswell (2012:10), “Analyzing and interpreting the data involves drawing conclusions about it; representing it in tables, figures, and picture to summarize it; and explaining the conclusions in words to provide answers to your research questions.”Data analysis in qualitative research is a continual process that begins after the first document is collected and continues throughout the study to ensure that no information is overlooked that might be critical to answering the research question.

Then, to find out the percentage of each idiom, he used Wray’s theory (inNuryani, 2011: 28), as follows.

P = x 100%

As notes:

P= Percentage of each idiom

F= Frequency of each idiom

N= Total of English idiom

  1. Research Procedures

The writer conducted the procedures of the research as follows:

  1. Determining the title.
  2. Arranging a research proposal of the research.
  3. Searching the sources about idiomatic expressions including journals, articles,and dictionaries of English idiomatic expressions.
  4. Searching and collecting sport columns of the Jakarta Post daily newspaper.
  5. Collecting, signing, classifying and analyzing idiomatic expressions used in sport column of the Jakarta Post daily newspaper.
  6. Making conclusions.

D. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

  1. Research Findings

Accordingly, the findings were taken from O’Dell and McCarthy (2010: 6 & 10) clarifications, they were:

Greetings and good wishes e.g. Hi there! See you soon!

Phrasal verbs, e.g. put off, take care

Sayings, proverbs and quotations e.g. It’s a small world! Don’t put your egg in one basket

Prepositional phrases e.g. at the moment, in a hurry

Compounds, e.g. car park, bus stop

Binomials, e.g. rough and ready, hit and miss

  1. Total Numbers of Idiomatic Expressions

The writer found 192 English idiomatic expressions used in sport column of “The Jakarta Post” daily newspaper. The writer classified the data based on O’Dell and McCarthy clarification (2010: 6 & 10) the data were as follows.

Table 4

Total number of idiomatic expressions

THE CLASSIFICATION / NUMBER OF ITEMS
  1. Greetings and good wishes
/ 1
  1. Phrasal verb idioms
/ 177
  1. Saying, proverbs and quotations
/ 6
  1. Binomial idioms
/ 5
  1. Prepositional phrases
/ 2
  1. Compound idioms
/ 1
TOTAL / 192
  1. The PercentageCategoriesBased on Wray’s Theory:
  1. Greetings and good wishes

P = x 100%

= 0.52%

  1. Phrasal verb idioms

P = x 100%

= 92.19%

  1. Saying, proverbs and quotations

P = x 100%