1.

0 Introduction

Both comic trThe meaning of semantics is the study of the linguistic meanings of words,

phrases, and sentences in the human language. It is concerned with the relationship between

the signifiers such as words, phrases, signs, and symbols of what does it stands for or also

known as their denotation. The learning of semantics included the word meaning, the phrase

and sentence meaning, figurative language and the phrasal verbs. Pragmatics is the usage of

language in social context and the way of how people produce and comprehend meanings

through language The aspects of pragmatic include the pronouns and discourse, deixis,

maxims of conversation, implicatures and speech acts.

2.0 Semantic analysis

2.1 Word meaning: Denotative and Connotative

Denotative is the strict dictionary definition of the words and it refers to the actual thing that it

represents. In the Comic Strip 1, the word ‘sneak’ is an example of denotative meaning.

‘Sneak’ means an action to move or go in a furtive or stealthy way. The word ‘sneak’ is used

to show the action of bringing a drink in a stealthy way.

Connotative meaning refers to the emotional or psychological associations a word carries with

it. The connotation of a word goes beyond its strict meaning to express the feelings, thoughts,

and images the word suggests or evokes. In the Comic Strip 1, the word ‘style’ is an example

of connotative meaning. The word ‘style’ shows a different kind of ways that his friend do which

is to bring the coffee machine in the movie theatre. In the Comic Strip 2, the words that have

connotative meaning is ‘like’ and ‘ears’. ‘Like’ is used to show that the wife is asking whether

the husband wanted to hear about what is she going to say. ‘Ears’ here means that the

husband is forced to listen to his wife.

2.1 Phrase and sentence meaning: Lexical semantic relation

 Lexical semantic relation

A lexical semantic relation is the meaning of words in terms of their relationships. A lexical

relation is a pattern of association that exists between lexical units in a particular language.

2.1.1 Synonymy

Synonyms are words that have similar meanings that can be used interchangeably in most

cases. In the Comic Strip 2, the word ‘better’ and ‘good’ is the adjective that has a similar

meaning. These words are used to give a description of a listener.

2.1.2 Homonymy

A homonym is one of the group words that share the same spelling and the same

pronunciation but have different meanings. Both comic strips have homonyms of homograph.

A homograph is a homonym that has the same spelling. As an example, the word ‘hard’ is the

homonym found in Comic Strip 1. The word ‘hard’ can be meant as solid, firm and rigid, not

easily broken. In addition, it also can be meant as putting a lot of energy into an activity or

done with a great deal of force or strength. Another example of homonym in the Comic Strip

1 is ‘extension’. This word can be meant as a part that is added to something to enlarge or

prolong it. The other meaning of this word is a room or rooms added to an existing building.

3.0 Pragmatics analysis

3.1 Deixis

Deixis is a reference by means of an expression whose interpretation is relative to the

extralinguistic context of the utterance such as who is speaking, the time or place of speaking,

the gestures of the speaker and the current location in the discourse. There are three types of

deixis which are person deixis, place deixis and time deixis. The Comic Strip 2 contains a

person deixis in the sentence “ Would you like me to tell you what my manicurist said about

my cuticles”? In this sentence, the word ‘you’ is a deictic expression used for the husband and
it conveys the meaning that she wants to know that either her husband want to listen to her or

not.

3.2 Maxims of Conversation

Maxims of conversation are any of the four rules that were proposed by Grice (1975) in making

a successful communication. Thee are four rules of the maxim that one must obey when they

are communicating.

3.2.1 Maxims of quality

According to this rule, people are expected to say what they know to be true. As an example,

the Comic Strips 1 contain the maxim of quality when Pierce replies with what he believes to

be the truth. As an example, he replies by saying “The hard part is all the extension cords”. As

we can see the evidence of extension cords are there.

3.2.2 Maxims of quantity

The rule of a maxim of quantity is to provide just enough information to get the point across.

The example of the maxim of quantity is found in the Comic Strip 2 where the husband respond

as informative as required by his wife. When his wife asked whether he wanted to hear about

her babbling he replies as required by his wife without adding being more informative to her.

3.2.3 Maxims of a manner

Maxim of manner is the rules whereby the comments that we gave must be direct, clear and

straight to the point. In the Comic Strips 2, it shows that her wife had violated the maxim of

manner when she states something in a long, drawn-out way when she can simply state it in

the simpler manner. She can just state that all husband did not like to listen to his wife.

4.0 Conclusion
Based on both Comic Strips we can see that there is a lot of semantic and pragmatic aspect

found. The analysis of semantic in both Comic Strips mainly consists of the connotative and

denotative meaning, the synonym and homonym which is the lexical semantic relation.

Meanwhile, the analysis of pragmatic in both comic strips is focused on the deixis and the

maxim of conversation.
Reference
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Ahmed, I. (2014, July 10). Deixis presentation. Retrieved from

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