A semantics study on expressions used in a circumcision ceremony by Blitarese

ABSTRACT

Background of this research is started with living in a village in Blitar. Over there, the citizen are often executing traditions, one of them is circumcision ceremony. Ceremony was considered sacred and it becomes an obligatory for them. They believe that if they do not do it, something unpleasant or even bad luck would happen in their lives latter. It was done from generation to generation.

In the circumcision ceremony, a master of ceremony makes speech according to meal that is presented in front of him. He speaks in a quick murmuring manner. The questions then arise are what are murmured by the master of ceremony, and what does it mean. This first question is then formulated by the researcher as a question to reveal the speech of the master of ceremony, and the second question is developed into two, based on the kind of meaning according to semantics science, i.e. literal and contextual meaning.

This research is a descriptive research, aimed at describing a master of ceremony’s speech and the meaning of that speech. The data gathered and collected here then divided into five categories, based on five events of circumcision ceremony. To dig the data deeply, a free directed interview technique is used. This is aimed that there is a free directed communication in that interview process, so that, it looks more attractive, smooth, and flexible. Recorder is also used to record the data that might be not recorded by notes.

The result that can be derived here is that the data found are close to complete, based on the kinds of meaning and based on ambiguities. Based on the word, each category contains the whole major kinds of word. The data also reveal an unexpected result, i.e٠ there are differences among five data categories based on the way of speech and the use of the speech.