SEMANTIC ROLES ANALYSIS IN BBC NEWS

(UKRAINIAN CHILDREN FACE SCHOOL PLACE DAYS)

This mini research conducted to fulfil the assignment of Semantic

Lecturer : Mrs. Dian Ekawati, M.Pd

Researchers :
Muhammad Bagja Ramadhan 1192040065
Muhammad Ibnu Syaifurrokhman 1192040070
Nisa Lailatul Qodriyah 1192040080

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTEMENT

TARBIYA AND TEACHER TRAINING FACULTY
UIN SUNAN GUNUNG DJATI BANDUNG
2022
BACKGROUND
News is a report of a current event. It is information about something that has just
happened or will happen soon. News is a report about recent happenings in a newspaper,
television, radio or internet. News is something that is not known earlier. From all these, we
can safely define news as a development that has happened in the past 24 hours which was
not known outside and which is of wide interest to the people and that which generates
curiosity among listeners.

The first portion of a news article is made up of factual material, and the second part is
made up of opinion sentences. The reader or listener must comprehend the differences in the
sentences in order to comprehend the content. Thematic role or semantic role is used to
describe the part played by a particular entity in an event (O’Grady, 1997). Readers and
listeners can benefit from semantic roles by better understanding them and by receiving
comprehensive and in-depth information. Semantic role is a way of characterizing the
meaning relationship between a noun phrase and the verb of a sentence. Thematic Roles
originate in word meaning. The use of semantic roles can be easy found in news, so therefore
we chose one of news form BBC news with tittle “Ukrainian children face school place
delays” to be used as our research.

I. THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

Semantic

Semantic is one of linguistic branch which relate to the interpretation and meaning,
sentence structure and symbols. It used in human everyday communication both verbal and
non verbal such as news or articles, in different context for different purpose. Fasold &
Connor-Linor, 2006 state that semantic gets interesting when human analyse about the ways
in which meaning gets expressed in various language. The semantic concepts describe how
words, phrases, and sentences have a coherence one another in the context and to the world.
It concept aim to propose exact meanings and remove confusion in order lead the readers to
believe that a word may has many relevant meaning. (Sidabutar & Zakrimal, 2020) stated in
addition, semantics motivate the readers to explore a sense of meanings. By changing words
position and twisting the words in the clause, reader might analyse what is mean on the
context.

Semantic Role
 According to (Finegan, 2008) semantic role defined as the way characterizing
relationship meaning between a noun phrase and the verb in a sentence. It refers to the way in
which the referent of the noun phrase contributes in term of state, action, or situation
descripted by the sentence. A semantic role pointing the relationship that a participant has
with the main verb in a clause which depend on the meaning of particular verb. It indicates
what role of the participant base on it action relating to the verb in the sentence. There are
nine roles of semantic such as agent, patient, experiencer, instrument, recipient, benefactives,
locative and temporal.

Agent and Patient

Agent is the role of responsible initiator of an action that affects another entity.
Beside, patient is the role of the entity that undergoing the action effect.

Ex : Fahmi ripped the paper

The paper was ripped by Fahmi

In both first and second sentence, Fahmi role as an agent who doing an action which
causes the paper is broken. Then, the paper role as patient that accept the action.

Agent can be joined with another agent linked by and. For instance, Fahmi and Faiz
ripped the paper.

Experience

The role that receives a sensory input such as experiences a physical or mental
sensation.

Ex : Puty likes an ice cream. The sentence mean that Puty feel a sensory input “like”
to the ice cream

Instrument

Instrument defined an argument that the means by which an action performed

Ex : The oven baked a bread. The sentence mean that the bread can be baked with an
oven

Recipient, Benefactive, Locative, Temporal

Recipient define as a noun phrase that receives physical object, Ex : Mia sent Paula
the letter. In the sentence, Paula receives a letter from Mia
 Benefactive define as for whom or thing an action is performed, Ex : She gave money
to me for Nova. In the sentence, Nova role as someone that aimed by the action

Locative define as the location of action, Ex : Bandung is rain

Temporal define as the time which the action happen, Ex : My father went last week

II. RESEARCH QUESTION

From the background above, there are two questions which are taken in the mini
research, they are :
1. What are the semantic roles in BBC news sentence?
2. How is the analysis of semantic roles in the BBC news sentence?

This mini research aim to :

1. Identify the semantic roles in BBC news sentence.
2. Describe the semantic roles in BBC news sentence.

III. FINDING AND DISCUSSION

A. Data Presentation
The datas presented below are cited from BBC news text on the tittle “Ukrainian
children face school place delays” that are investigated to be analysed in the data
analysis.

Number Sentences
1. Mr Rogers said he was bounced between the council and schools he
applied to, which led to a lot of confusion.
2. A spokesman for the local authority said it would be "following up
on all other child arrivals through our welfare visits, as some children
will not be of school age or are continuing their education through
remote learning".
3. Polina was welcomed with "open arms" by Hodnet Primary School
within days of arriving in Shropshire after her family fled their
hometown in central Ukraine.
4. She added that Polina initially anxious about joining the school.
 5. They arrived on the Thursday, they given a uniform on Tuesday - and
in school for her first day by Wednesday."

B. Data Analysis
Number 1
Mr Rogers said he was bounced between the council and schools he applied to,
which led to a lot of confusion.
Based on the sentence, Mr Rogers is an agent in the sentence. The reason why
he is an agent is because he is responsible for an action which he applied to a
council and schools. On the other hand, the council and the schools are the
recipient. It is because they receive a change of state from the agent. Before, the
council and schools does not have Mr Rogers but as he applied to both, both
council and schools have Mr Rogers as part of them.

Number 2
A spokesman for the local authority said it would be "following up on all other
child arrivals through our welfare visits, as some children will not be of school
age or are continuing their education through remote learning".
Based on the sentence, the spokesman is the agent. It is because the
spokesman is responsible for an action, which the spokesman speaks for the local
authority about some children will not be of school age. Another semantic role is
benefactive which is the local authority. The reason being, is that local authority is
to whom or what the action is for.

Number 3

Polina was welcomed with "open arms" by Hodnet Primary School within days of
arriving in Shropshire after her family fled their hometown in central Ukraine.

The sentence above indicates four roles of semantic. Patient, Instrument,

Agent, Locative. It define Polina as patient who get an action in the context. Then
open arms role as instrument of the action “welcome”. In addition hodnet primary
school role as agent who initiate the action “welcome” to Polina. Then, for temporal
 role cited in the sentence within days that indicate when Polina welcomed by the
hednet primary school.

Number 4

She added that Polina initially anxious about joining the school.

The sentence indicates one role of semantic. Polina role as an experiencer who
receives a sensory input that anxiety.

Number 5
They arrived on the Thursday, they given a uniform on Tuesday - and in school for
her first day by Wednesday."
The sentence above indicate three roles of semantic. Agent, Temporal, and
Recipient. “They” in the first word role as an agent who initiate the action. Next,
temporal role cited in the word on Thursday. The second “They” role as a
recipient who accept an uniform as a physical object.

IV. CONCLUSION
It is undeniable that a news requires a comprehensive ability to manage the
information received, readers are required to be critical and understand the content of
the information conveyed. The ability to distinguish factual words as well as opinion
words is needed, so that readers do not misunderstand the information received. We
find that someone's understanding of semantic roles can be very helpful in the process
of managing the information received, especially in its completeness and clarity.
which in the end the understanding of the semantic role is expected to be obtained by
the community at large and especially academics.

V. REFERENCES
Fasold, R. W., & Connor-Linton, J. (Eds.). (2006). An introduction to language and
linguistics. Cambridge University Press.

Finegan, E. (2008). Language: Its structure and use (5th ed). Thomson Wadsworth.

O’Grady, et. al. (1997). Contemporary Linguistic (third edition). Bedford/St.Martins.

Sidabutar, M. D., & Zakrimal, Z. (2020). Semantic Roles in Joko Widodo Re-Elected
as President of BBC Online News. Linguistic, English Education and Art (LEEA)
Journal, 4(1), 56–65.