Grammatical Metaphor Representations and Transgrammatical Semantic Domains in the Social Contexts of English Language Learning in Indonesia

Abstract

Grammatical metaphor refers to the coding of meaning or experience in the manner as if the meaning or experience were coded by another lexicogrammatical coding. Metaphorical representation implies that there are two manners of coding, namely the congruent or literal and incongruent or metaphorical coding. Transgrammatical semantic domains extends meaning by a range of grammatical units. Transgrammatical semantic coding implies that agnated meanings are realized by more than one semantic unit. Grammtical metaphor representation inherently contains transgrammatical coding. This paper addresses grammatical metaphor commonly used in texts of science, technology and academics, which are very difficult for Indonesian students to understand and translate into good bahasa Indonesia (BI). By applying knowledge or competence of gramatical metaphor and transgrammatical semantic domain Indonesian students are expected to effectively learn the meaning of English text of science, technology and academics and to translate the texts into good BI. 366 Transgrammatical semantic domains extend meanings across different grammatical units (Halliday, 2014: 665). In other words, agnated meanings are potentially coded by more than one grammatical aspect. This implies that grammatical metaphor inherently involves transgrammatical semantic domain.English texts of science, technology, and academics are very difficult for Indonesian students to understand as the texts are coded in grammatical metaphor. However, by applying transgrammatical semantic domains the English texts can be better undestood by Indonesian students leaning English as a foreign language. This paper firstly addresses both grammatical metaphor representtation and transgrammatical semantic domains. Secondly, both aspects of grammatical metaphor and transgrammatical semantic domian are applied to English language learning by which Indonesians learners can better understand the various kinds of texts. Finally, the paper proposes steps in teaching the grammatical metaphor by applying transgrammatical semantic domain.

Grammatical Metaphor Representations in News Item Text of Jakarta Post

“…A metaphor is defined as a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another that may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas. The term metaphor was coined by Aristotle, deriving from Greek meta 'beyond' and pherein 'to carry' (Ross 1952in Saragih 2018. Thus, metaphor conveys meaning beyond that carried by words.…”

“…To compare the congruent data coding to incongruent data coding, grammatical metaphor is represented in Table 3. Grammatical metaphor forms when there is a tension or discrepancy between semantics and its coding or realization in grammar (Taverniers 2003in Saragih 2018. So, grammatical metaphor occurs when there is incongruent realization relations between semantics and lexicogrammar (Halliday, 20014: 664).…”

“…News language is often about KISS standing for Keep It Short and Simple. Grammatical metaphor representation shows that a text was expressed in another grammatical coding (Saragih: 2018). So, an experience or meaning which is commonly coded in a normal or common wording is expressed in another mode of wording.…”