perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id AN ANALYSIS OF SYMBOLIC SIGNS (A Semiotics Approach) THESIS Submitted as a Partial Fulfilment of Requirements for the SarjanaSastra Degree in English Department Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts Sebelas Maret University by Nabila Inaya Jannati C0308052 ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LETTERS AND FINE ARTS SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY SURAKARTA 2012 perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id TABLE OF CONTENTS Cover...................................................................................................................i Approval of The Thesis Supervisor .................................................................... ii Approval of The Board of Examiners.................................................................iii Pronouncement ...................................................................................................iv Motto...................................................................................................................v Dedication...........................................................................................................vi Acknowledgement ..............................................................................................vii Table of Contents................................................................................................viii Abstract...............................................................................................................x I. CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION A. Research Background ...............................................................................1 B. Research Questions...................................................................................4 C. Research Limitation..................................................................................5 D. Research Objectives..................................................................................5 E. Research Benefits......................................................................................5 F. Research Methodology ............................................................................. 6 G. Thesis Organization ..................................................................................8 II. CHAPTER II : LITERATURE REVIEW A. Previous Researches..................................................................................9 B. Semiotics of Poetry...................................................................................11 1. ......................................................................13 a. Displacing meaning .......................................................................... 14 b. Distorting meaning...........................................................................14 c. Creating meaning.............................................................................. 14 2. Sign Production ....................................................................................16 a. Semes and Presupposition ................................................................16 b. Clichés ..............................................................................................17 perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id c. Descriptive systems .......................................................................... 17 3. Text Production ....................................................................................18 a. Expansion .........................................................................................18 b. Conversion........................................................................................ 19 4. Interpretants..........................................................................................19 a. Lexematic interpretant......................................................................20 1). Heuristic......................................................................................20 2). Hermeneutic................................................................................21 b. Textual interpretant .......................................................................... 22 C. Symbol ......................................................................................................23 D. Symbols in Death Poems .......................................................................... 25 E. Biography of Emily Dickinson .................................................................27 F. Frame of Thought ..................................................................................... 29 III.CHAPTER III : ANALYSIS A. ............................32 1. Because I could not stop for Death.......................................................32 2. It was not death, for I stood up.............................................................39 3. I died for beauty, but was scarce ..........................................................46 4. a death in the opposite house .......................................... 51 5. How many times these low feet staggered ...........................................60 6. If I should die .......................................................................................65 B. The Way Dickinson Constructs Symbols in her Death Poems................. 72 IV. CHAPTER IV : CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION A. Conclusion ................................................................................................86 B. Recommendation ......................................................................................87 BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id ABSTRACT Nabila Inaya Jannati. C0308052. An Analysis of Symbolic Signs in Emily . Undergraduate Thesis. Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts. Sebelas Maret University. This research explores the symbolic signs in Emil poems. This is a descriptive qualitative library research. The main data are six death poems taken from The Poems of Emily Dickinson.Meanwhile, the supporting data are involved the historical background of the writer, books, articles, journals, critics and other academic writings. The objectives of this research are to identify the kinds of symbols appear in son constructs symbols in her death poems. This research uses semiotic approach and applies Semiotics of Poetry. This theory focuses on poetry analysis and gives the most representative tool to uncover symbolic signs in poem. This theory also relates to social and cultural background analysis. The first result shows that there are two kinds of symbols, personal symbols and conventional symbols. The second result shows that there are three major ways of Dickinson in constructing symbols in her death poems. First, she states that poetry expresses indirection (displacing, distorting, and creating meaning). on in the process of understanding the poem. Second, she uses cliché, customs and the role of influence or any characteristics of the conventional poems. Third, she creates personal symbols into two ways; modifies conventional symbols into personal symbols and uses the symbols of nature and modifies the meaning. Based on the conclusion, it is recommended for other researchers to analyze symbolic signs on poetry written by other poets with other themes. Further, it is expected that this research will attract other researchers to do research on poetry. Moreover, the use of other theories and approaches is essential to enrich the type of research in English Department, especially the research on poetry. perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Research Background Death is an interesting topic to discuss in human society, not only important but also controversial. In short, death is the end of life of a person and other living things. However, there are various conceptions of death from different scientific approaches and belief systems across the world. In biological approach, death means the end . he loss of heart and lung function can be seen as the criterion of death (Fisher, 1999, p. 473). In religious approach, Buddhism focuses on seeing death as an ordinary spiritual opportunity and a component of natural life cycle or sufferings cycle (Heendeniya, 2009, p. 71).Death can be seen as a single event or maybe a process. Death emerges with an unclear definition that still being discussed by the society. In general, people see the death of living things as a scary, frightening, and upsetting phenomenon. As the result, most of people have almost similar idea in suggesting death prevention consciously or unconsciously. There areother ideas which sees death phenomenon differently. For example, Hinduism accepts death as a part of reincarnation process which relates to the cycle of death and rebirthfor all the living things (http://www.uky.edu/Classes/PHI/350/meaning.htm).Moreover, Voodoo believes about life after death and the existence of supernatural world. As their tenet, 1 perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id 2 (http://www.cookross.com/docs/haiti.pdf).Death can be seen as a controversial topic which is not only logical but also ambiguous. The ideas of death emerged in the advance of literary works, especially poetry. In the era of poetry development, poetry did not only talk about love, beauty and other romantic things. However, some of themprecisely view dark and gloomy things.