Analysing structural ambiguities in a Malaysian English newspaper : an X-bar theory approach /

Newspaper is one of the reliable sources for people to get updated with current news and issues. A comprehensive news content is very crucial to avoid misunderstanding among readers in perceiving the message. A good sentence construction plays an important role to ensure the comprehensiveness of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ahmad Fahmi Ramli (Author)
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Subjects:
Online Access:http://studentrepo.iium.edu.my/handle/123456789/11117
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040 |a UIAM  |b eng  |e rda 
041 |a eng 
043 |a a-my--- 
050 0 0 |a P299.A46 
100 0 |a Ahmad Fahmi Ramli  |9 3304  |e author 
245 |a Analysing structural ambiguities in a Malaysian English newspaper :   |b an X-bar theory approach /  |c by Ahmad Fahmi bin Ramli 
264 |a Kuala Lumpur :   |b Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia,  |c 2021 
300 |a xii, 107 leaves :  |b illustrations ;  |c 30 cm. 
336 |a text  |2 rdacontent 
337 |a unmediated  |2 rdamedia 
337 |a computer  |2 rdamedia 
338 |a volume  |2 rdacarrier 
338 |a online resource  |2 rdacarrier 
347 |a text file  |b PDF  |2 rdaft 
500 |a Abstracts in English and Arabic. 
500 |a "A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Human Sciences in English Language Studies." --On title page. 
502 |a Thesis (MHSLG)--International Islamic University Malaysia, 2021. 
504 |a Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-99). 
520 |a Newspaper is one of the reliable sources for people to get updated with current news and issues. A comprehensive news content is very crucial to avoid misunderstanding among readers in perceiving the message. A good sentence construction plays an important role to ensure the comprehensiveness of the news content to prevent any language issues like structural ambiguity. Structural ambiguity is a language issue that causes a sentence may produce two possible meanings. This leads to a wrong interpretation among readers towards the news they have read. Thus, this study aims to analyze structural ambiguities found in a Malaysian English newspaper by using the X-bar theory approach. It is purposely to demonstrate the use of X-bar theory in breaking down ambiguous sentences into small units, so that two possible interpretations made could be justified. This qualitative content analysis study involved a two-month period of analysis in which New Straits Times (NST) newspaper articles were analyzed from the 1st December 2020 to 31st January 2021. The result showed that the structural ambiguities found in the newspaper articles were majorly caused by the attachment of the Prepositional Phrase (PP). Besides, the phenomenon of the structural ambiguities can be clearly explained by using the X-bar theory approach because X-bar theory illustrated on how two possible meanings of each ambiguous sentence occurred. The constituent of tree diagrams portrayed the phrase attachments that causes the sentences become ambiguous. To add on, one major factor causing structural ambiguities in the news articles was when the phrase attachments function as an adjunct. This concluded that structural ambiguity is one of the language issues that can be found in the selected NST newspaper articles and it should be taken into account as an assurance of a good quality of newspaper article writing. Keywords: English Malaysian newspaper, structural ambiguity, X-bar theory, Prepositional Phrase (PP)  
650 0 |a Structural linguistics  |z Malaysia  |9 17785 
650 0 |a Ambiguity  |9 17786 
650 0 |a Grammar, Comparative and general  |x Grammatical catagories  |9 17787 
655 |a Theses, IIUM local 
690 |a Dissertations, Academic  |x Department of English Language and Literature  |z IIUM  |9 9116 
700 0 |a Roziana Mohamed Rosli  |e degree supervisor  |9 13787 
700 0 |a Siti Afifah Hashim  |e degree supervisor  |9 13788 
700 0 |a Zahariah Pilus  |e degree supervisor  |9 13789 
710 2 |a International Islamic University Malaysia.  |b Department of English Language and Literature  |9 9117 
856 4 |u http://studentrepo.iium.edu.my/handle/123456789/11117 
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942 |2 lcc  |c THESIS 
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