CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the definition of meaning, the definition of

semantics, types of meaning, definition of figurative language, types of figurative
language, kitchen nightmares TV show and Gordon Ramsay, YouTube, and
previous studies related to the research topics.

A. The Concept of Semantics

1. Definition of Meaning
In terms of pragmatics and semantics, meaning is defined as the
message or the information conveyed by words, sentences, and symbols
in a context (Nordquist, 2018). Without meaning, there will be no
language, or there will be no interaction in human daily life.
Meaning is concerned with morphemes and words (Pardede, 2016).
When we use the word “mean”, we use it differently way. Some words or
signs conveyed a direct meaning. Some signs are representing the
indicated thing, and the others do not have any sense of the thing they
refer to, these are symbolic (Bagha, 2011). The signifiers of meaning are
all sign phrases (the interpreted, the fact of denoting, and the
signification).
Ogden and Richards in their book under the title The Meaning of
Meaning (1923) give some lists of the definitions of meaning. The
meaning can be defined below:
1. An intrinsic property from some things,
2. The other words related to the word in a dictionary,
3. A word connotations,
4. The thing from the speakers’ understanding,
5. The thing that should refer to the speakers,
6. The thing that is certain from the speakers as the reference,
7. The thing that the hearer believes is being referred to.

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Those definitions, according to Leech, are those of philosophers,

psychologists, philologists, literary critics, and other specialists, in other
words, they are explained in terms of other scientific fields. They result in
a variety of frames of reference, as each professional seeks to understand
the significance of each field’s requirements. As a result, they will have
very little in common. If we say “bowl”, the concern must be with an
object (a place for soup or rice). The relationship between words and
objects to which they refer is the subject of meaning. These statements
give a view about the definition of meaning that, meaning is the
relationship between words and objects to which they refer (Pardede,
2016).

2. Definition of Semantics
Semantics is a branch of linguistics that refers to the study of
meaning. It is concerned with the relation between words or symbols to
which they refer. Other sources stated that semantics is the branch of
linguistics study that focuses on the change of the meaning of the word.
Semantics is also defined as the study of human responses to linguistics
under the symbols (Hayakawa, 2013).
Semantics is the most abstract level of linguistic analysis because
we cannot see or hear meaning the way we can hear and record sounds.
Meaning is inextricably linked to the human capacity to reason and
comprehend. Therefore, when humans strive to understand and analyze
meaning, we are attempting to understand and study the human capacity
to think. Leech (1981) states that the purpose of semantics is to “provide
a systematic account of nature of meaning” (Bagha, 2011).
The study of the human mind revolves around semantics—thought
processes, cognition, and conceptualization—all of which are inextricably
linked to the way we classify and transmit our experiences of the world
through language. According to Geoffrey Leech, semantics has a rule on
a broader sense-communication on social structure and the world, which
is communicated through cognitive processes and the like. The
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understanding language implies comprehending meaning, hence meaning

would be the starting point for communication (Pardede, 2016). Nick
Reamer in his book under the title Introducing Semantics states that the
word “meaning” refers to different things such as the idea in a piece of
language, the thing referred to by a piece of language, and the translations
in other languages. In addition, meaning is also related to the experience
of language used as everyone who ever listened to people talking in
another language that never heard before.
Hence, how might a semantic approach assist people in
understanding something? One way it could be useful is a way to explain
the “oddness” when reading or hearing English sentences like the
following:
The fish ate the man
This sentence has a nice syntactic structure but a strange meaning
structure. What is the source of the strangeness people are experiencing,
given that the line The man ate the fish is entirely acceptable? One possible
explanation is because the conceptual meaning of the noun fish differs
greatly from that of the noun man, especially when the nouns are
employed as the subjects of the verb eat. The types of nouns that can be
subjects of the verb ate must refer to entities that can eat. The noun fish
(unlike man) does not have this feature, which explains the oddity (Yule,
2010).
When learning more about semantics, it will discover a lot about
how languages around the world match forms to meanings. And in the
process, we will learn about ourselves and how we think, as well as gain
knowledge that can be applied to a variety of subjects and applications. In
this case, semantics may be utilized to deduce the meaning and effects of
the commercial’s advertisement language, which is meant to
communicate a message from the seller to the customer. It provides
effective communication.
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3. Types of Meaning
Geoffrey Leech in his book under the title Semantics: The Study of
Meaning (1981) stated that there were seven types of meaning:
a. Conceptual Meaning
Conceptual meaning can be called denotative or cognitive
meaning. It is widely famous to be the central factor in language
communication. Leech (1981) assumed that conceptual meaning is the
most important element of linguistic communication. The reason is
conceptual meaning has complex and hard organization, and it can be
compared to and related to the analogous organization at the syntactic
and phonological levels of language.
The goal of conceptual semantics is to provide a set of abstract
symbols for any given interpretation of a sentence that shows exactly
what we need to know in order to distinguish that meaning from other
possible sentence meanings in the language and match it to the
appropriate syntactic and phonological expression. For example, the
definition of the word found in a dictionary (the descriptive
definition).
It will be evident from this explanation that conceptual meaning
is an inextricable and vital aspect of what language is, to the point
where it is difficult to define language without mentioning it. A
language that communicated through means other than conceptual
meaning (for example, a language that communicated only through
expletive phrases like Oh! Oho! Aha!) would not be language in the
sense that the term is applied to men’s tongues.
b. Connotative Meaning
Connotative meaning is the communication value that an
expression has due to what it refers to. The concepts of reference and
conceptual meaning are involved. Connotative is not specific to
language, but it is related to the communication system, such as; music
and visual arts. For example, the word "baby" can be illustrated as a
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drawing of a baby or an imitation of a cry baby. The overlap between

visual connotation and linguistics is often found in advertising, where
words are often used to introduce a product.
The fact that connotative meaning is secondary to conceptual
meaning is due to the fact that connotations are very unstable: as we
have seen, they fluctuate greatly depending on culture, historical
period, and personal experience. Connotative meaning is as open-
ended as human knowledge and views about the universe: any
subjectively or objectively identifiable property of the referent might
be contributed to the connotative meaning of the phrase that designates
it (G. Leech, 1981).
c. Social Meaning
Social meaning is a piece of language that explains the social
environment of language use. Social meaning is explained as the
differences in dimensions and level of language style within the same
language or it can be called dialectical (G. Leech, 1981).
The social circumstances are easily seen in the social
relationship between the speaker and the hearer, which frequently uses
words based on social standing. Speakers could utilize words
differently depending on their social standing: the higher the speaker’s
social status, the more difficult the utterance to understand; the lower
the speaker’s social position, the more common words he used in his
speech.
The illocutionary power of a statement, whether it is taken as a
request, an assertion, an apology, or anything else, is also part of social
meaning. For example, Have you seen my book? This sentence may
mean a request as Please help to find it (Pardede, 2016).
d. Affective Meaning
Leech (1981) confirmed the definition of affective meaning is
defined explicitly through conceptual and connotative content.
Affective meaning is primarily a parasitic category in the sense that
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we rely on the mediation of other categories of conceptual,

connotative, or stylistic to communicate the feelings. For example,
someone who talks directly to be quiet, but there are some ways to tell
him more politely, but it has the same meaning, “I really sorry to
interrupt, but I wonder if you will so kind to speak a lower, please.”.
The emotional expression will help to communicate the feelings
or expressions and attitudes without the mediation of the kinds of
semantic function. Politeness is included here, as well as other factors
like voice tone (Pardede, 2016).
e. Reflected Meaning
Reflected meaning is the meaning when one word meaning
forms the part from the response to another case. The case where the
reflected meaning enters through the emotive suggestion illustrates by
words that have a taboo meaning (G. Leech, 1981).
Pardede (2016) says that reflected meanings are less clear in
poetry, necessitating a high level of linguistic attention. When words
are linked to a sex connection, they are considered forbidden. For
example, in the former, the word cock was deemed taboo and was
substituted with rooster in farmyard connotation. The term for this
type of substitution is called euphemism.
f. Collocative Meaning
An ndividual word’s distinctive meaning is called collocative
meaning. Collocative meaning as explained by Leech (1981) consists
of the word association which acquires because of the word meaning
that occurs in its environment. Collocative has a special property from
individual forms.
Geoffrey Leech takes the example from the adjective pretty and
handsome which has to mean good-looking. But, those adjectives can
be distinguished with the range of nouns such as pretty garden, pretty
color, handsome car, handsome typewriter, etc.
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The words like green are also collocative with grass, and dark
with night. The term collocate is a linguistics concept that refers to
words that have collocative words (Pardede, 2016).
g. Thematic Meaning
Thematic meaning is communicated by the way from speaker
organizes the message. Thematic meaning is mainly dealing with
grammatical construction. It is a decision between expressions that
have the same meaning but differ in communicative significance. For
example, the active sentence has a different meaning from the passive
sentence, even though they have the same meaning in a conceptual
context.
From those explanations, the sentences can be examined as
below;
Hana donated the old book.
The old book was donated by Hana
Despite the fact that these two sentences have the same meaning, their
arrangement has caused them to have slightly distinct communication
values (G. Leech, 1981).
B. Figurative Language
1. Definition of Figurative Language
Semantic studies include both literal and nonliteral meanings. The
opposite of non-literal meaning is the literal meaning. When the speaker
says something that has no other meaning than its natural meaning, it is
referred to as literal meaning. Non-literal meaning, on other hand, occurs
when the speaker says something that has a different meaning, or when
there is a concealed meaning. Figurative language can be defined as
language that uses words or idioms that have a meaning that differs from
the literal meaning. The figurative language is difficult to understand
because we cannot find the meaning in the dictionary such as in the other
vocabulary (Saputri & Setyaningsih, 2014).
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Figurative language can be defined as a form of expression that is

used to increase effect often by comparing one thing with another thing
that has the same meaning or familiar to the listener or reader (Harya,
2017). In comparison language, figurative language is overused with
alterations in particular grammatical aspects. There are substantial
reciprocal links between the figure of speech and vocabulary. Because it
is difficult to understand figurative meanings without understanding the
meanings of words, even connotative meanings. Of course, the
expressions’ meaning will become odd or not understandable. To know
the meaning of figurative language we need to use imagination to imagine
what the words refer to (Ersyadi, n.d.).
Figurative language can be used in daily communication and the
most used in literary works such as; poems, novels, advertisements, etc.
The use of figurative language has the function to make a literary work
more interesting, beautiful and has a deep meaning.
2. Types of Figurative Language
There are some types of figurative language. Geoffrey Leech
classified the types of figurative language into seven (Harya, 2017). The
types are below:
a. Metaphor
A metaphor is often treated as a phenomenon without reference
to the other kinds of transferred meaning. Metaphors compare two
different objects by identifying and substituting one with another (G.
N. Leech, 1981).
The role of metaphor ranges from flattery to abasement; from
the fundamental notion of an idea to a minor beauty; from clarifying a
point by analogy to stirring the audience’s thought by starling; and
from invoking connections and emotions to merely being a likeness.
Metaphors can be found in a variety of forms, including nouns, verbs,
and adjectives.
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Metaphor is more than a stylistic device; it is the foundation of

meaning and thought. One of the most appealing aspects of metaphor
is that it brings an idea to life. Although grasping the thread of an
abstract notion can be challenging, when the idea is expressed in
tangible terms, it comes to life. Furthermore, metaphor can provide
greater weight to the meaning of a literary piece. A writer can convey
a lot of information with a few words by using metaphor (Syarwani,
2017).
For example, she is sweet honey. Figuratively, she is a sweet girl.
The word "honey" describes that girl as sweet as honey. The other
example is My relationship between me and him has turned sour, the
metaphorical sense of the word sour has means unfriendly or not
harmonious.
b. Metonymy
Metonymy is the figure of speech that uses the name of the thing,
person, or others to represent it. Webster’s Third New International
Dictionary defines the metonymy as a figure of speech in which the
name of one item is substituted for the name of something else with
which it is associated. In practice, metonymy is viewed as a residual
category that encompasses all types of meaning transference that are
not classified as synecdoche or metaphor.
Metonymy is sometimes disregarded in literature due to the more
powerful effect of metaphor, yet it is nonetheless incredibly essential.
Metonymy, unlike metaphorical intuition, does not open new paths;
instead, it shortens distances in order to allow the quick intuition of
things previously known (G. N. Leech, 1981).
For the example “The White House” refers to the American
administration. The other example is The girl turning heads when she
walks. Literally, turning heads has meant she turns the heads of people
watching her as she walks by them.
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c. Hyperbole
Hyperbole is the type of figurative language which makes
subjective claims, however for exaggeration. Hyperbole is frequently
concerned with personal values and sentiments: that is, with making
subjective assertions that we could not check unless we were able to
go inside the skull of the person about whom allegations are made, no
matter how exaggerated they were.
In determining the truth of such claims, the address must rely
exclusively on society’s general standards and the understanding of
the speaker. Hyperbole represents something greater or less, worse or
better which is impossible as actual (G. N. Leech, 1981). For example,
there are a thousand things to do. The word "a thousand" means many
works to do.
The other example with all the quantity of love. It has means to
emphasize that his or her love is infinite in quantity and unparalleled
in quality and that it cannot be compared to anybody else’s. The
speaker’s goal is to convince us that no matter how large the incentive,
he/her would refuse it, therefore he/her comes up with a huge number
to represent the maximum (G. N. Leech, 1981).
d. Litotes
Litotes is a phrase used to describe a type of understatement in
which the speaker utilizes a negative sentiment when a positive one
would have been more forceful and obvious. Litotes is understood by
denying the opposite. For example: not bad. The phrase "not bad" is a
negative expression. It can be categorized as litotes because it consists
of the opposite meaning than has meant "good".
According to Shovel (2015), litotes have an impact since they
talk directly about the subject while also opposing a bad term to
emphasize the good meaning. The utility as a method of
understatement, modesty, and insult has resulted in widespread use
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and an almost universal presence in language and culture (Mitrovic et

al., 2020).
e. Irony
Irony is the figurative expression that is opposite to the speakers'
means. Sometimes consist of sarcasm. It is possible to begin irony
with an example to which the term SARCASM. Sarcasm is defined as
expressing the opposite of what is intended, such as saying something
beautiful with the purpose of making the hearer comprehend
something horrible (G. N. Leech, 1981). For example, you singing
well. This expression can be categorized as irony when the expression
is used by a person who has a bad voice.
Irony differs from sarcasm in that it has more nuance and wit. In
sarcasm, mockery is used forcefully for damaging aims, frequently
bluntly and contemptuously. It can be used in an indirect way, and it
can be ironic.
Irony, which originated as literary and rhetorical forms, is
demonstrated in the arrangement or structure of either language or
literary content, whereas sarcasm is present in the spoken word and
manifested mostly by vocal inflection (Singh, 2012).
f. Simile
The Simile is the type of figurative language that comparing
between things by using the word "as" and "like". The very
circumstantially simile is a limitation (G. N. Leech, 1981). For
example, Her face is bright like a diamond. The word “face” is
compared with “diamond” which means her face is shining.
In literary works, the simile is combined with metaphors to
improve the text’s effect and beauty. Simile, unlike metaphor, is an
overt comparison that explicitly and precisely explains the object. It is
the first and most basic method for conveying the beauty of a message,
and it is used in poetry, prose, and daily conversations. Even children
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who talk about their desire utilize simile as a way of expressing

themselves.
Fromilhague (1995) states that similes serve a variety of
purpose: It helps communicate quickly and effectively: they are one
of a group of linguistic techniques that expand the available linguistic
resources. Second, they can be used as cognitive tools for thought,
allowing us to think about the world in new and different ways
(Fadaee, 2011).
g. Personification
Personification expresses the human characteristic of an object.
For example, The sun smile at us. It is impossible. Figuratively, it
expresses that the sunlight up the place (G. N. Leech, 1981).
A writer can say something literally or figuratively. If the
meaning is literal, the words mean exactly what they say. However,
the meaning of figurative language, the description adds to the words’
meaning and comprehension. Personification is similar to metaphor in
that it involves the humanization of an object, an animal, or an abstract
phrase (truth, death, nature, betrayal, frustration, hunger, or fate) in
order to make a normally disembodied notion or element dramatically
effective.
The use of personification is to provide life and vibrancy to
statements or concepts since we always see the world through the
human perspective (Sayakhan, 2017).
C. Kitchen Nightmares TV Shows and Gordon Ramsay
Kitchen Nightmares is a reality TV show in the United States which
adapted from a famous English TV show of the same title. This Fox television
show is well-known for the rude and severe criticism provided by its hosts.
The host of this TV show uses scathing criticism and commentary to inspire
restaurant owners to get their businesses back on track.
The show's plot revolves around the host visiting a dying or about to go
bankrupt restaurant. The presenter will taste their meals and offer his true
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opinions and criticisms. Furthermore, the restaurant owner may agree or

disagree with the host's statements about whether the show will continue.
Gordon Ramsay, one of the most well-known British celebrity chefs,
hosts Kitchen Nightmares. Gordon Ramsay is a prominent restaurateur who
has gained 16 Michelin stars for a number of his establishments. Gordon
Ramsay is a well-known name in the entertainment industry. Ramsay began
his career in the entertainment industry in 1996 as a judge on the competitive
BBC cookery show Master Chef. Following that, he was offered the
opportunity to host two TV shows in the spring, Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen
Nightmares, both of which are based on American TV shows of the same
name. Gordon Ramsay is a chef with a volatile personality. He can be harsh
or rude at times, and he can also be nice and friendly at other times.
D. YouTube
YouTube is the one kind of social media that gives access to any video
online. YouTube provides many videos in all categories, such as; music, film,
tutorial, education, history, clip, vlog, etc. Users can access, download, share,
give some comments, and other feature on it (DeWitt et al., 2013). Another
potential of YouTube is both video and audio elements are combined and
users can adjust the quality of the video.
E. Previous Studies
Other researchers conducted a study about the use of figurative language
in advertisements. And the researcher took some they research. The first is
Sofyan et al., (2020) under the title Using Figurative Language in Cosmetic
Advertisements on Indonesian Television. The result shows that from 23
cosmetic advertisements, the most figurative expression used is hyperbole and
the others were personification, repetition, metaphor, simile, and parallelism.
The second is Wibowo (2016) under the title Figurative Language of
Maybelline Cosmetics Advertisement Found in Catalogue Online on
Pinterest. Based on the result of the research, the researcher took the data from
Pinterest that publish in the year 2016 up to 2018. There were eleven
sentences categorized into eight types of figurative language such as
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personification, paradox, metaphor, apostrophe, symbol, allegory, hyperbole,

and repetition.
The third research is by Harya (2017) under the title An Analysis of
Figurative Languages Used in Coelhos’s Novel Entitled “Alchemist”. The
result shows that 70 sentences have figurative language. The most figurative
language used in the novel is a simile and the second is personification. The
researcher also explains that using figurative language in the novel makes the
reader can imagine the story.
The fourth research is about broadcasting that came from Sihite (2016)
under the title A Stylistic Analysis of Figurative Language Style Found in
English News Broadcasting Program. The result showed that the selected
statements, sentences, and utterances use many types of figurative styles, and
the most dominantly used is personification.
The fifth research comes from Kitchen Nightmares TV Shows that came
from Pramono (2020) under the title Impoliteness Strategies Performed By
Gordon Ramsay in Kitchen Nightmares Season 2 Episode 6. The result
showed that all types of impoliteness strategies (bald on record, positive
impoliteness, negative impoliteness, sarcasm or mock impoliteness, and
withhold politeness) were done by Gordon Ramsay to female participants and
four types of impoliteness strategies (bald on record impoliteness, positive
impoliteness, negative impoliteness, and sarcasm or mock impoliteness)
performed on male participants.
According to the previous study above, the researcher is interested in
finding the figurative languages that are used on Kitchen Nightmares TV
Shows. The data were taken from the one of channels on YouTube. The new
thing in this research with the previous research is, that most previous research
only discusses figurative language in literary works such as poems, music,
novel, and advertising. But, figurative language on reality TV-show is
difficult to find. Also, this research not only analyzed the kind of figurative
language, but this research also explains the reason why this TV shows’
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program uses those dominant types of figurative language because most

studies that discuss figurative language only discuss the dominant type.
The researcher used Geoffrey Leech’s theory, because Leech’s approach
is rhetorical which refers to the successful use of language in its most general
sense, focusing on regular conversation, and then more planned and public
uses of language. Leech says that people regarded semantics to be an
unsatisfactory field: it was difficult to distinguish semantics from linguistics
and say, “here we have linguistics dealing meaning in terms of subcategories,
structures, similar to grammatical structures”. On other hand, meaning is a
window into the world and into social interaction through language
communication. Meaning is defined in terms of interaction between language
and context (Pertejo, 2007).