AN ANALYSIS OF LEXICAL AMBIGUITY IN SURAT PEMBACA SECTION OF PIKIRAN RAKYAT

This study aims to explain thekinds of lexical ambiguity which are found in Surat Pembaca section of Pikiran Rakyat. It also aims to determine kinds, word classes, and phrase types of lexical ambiguity which frequently occurs in Surat Pembaca section of Pikiran Rakyat.
This study is conducted by applying a descriptive qualitative research design since the data are in the form of words. In addition, to analyze the data, this study applies the theory of lexical ambiguity from Hurford and Heasley. The source of data is Surat Pembaca of Pikiran Rakyat issued in May-June 2017 edition. The data of this study are letters which contains the ambiguous words expressed by the readers of Pikiran Rakyat in the Surat Pembaca section.The data are collected by using content analysis methodbecause the source of this analysis is written materials which are taken from Pikiran Rakyat.
The results of this study show there are 41 data contain the ambiguous words, they are 24cases ofhomonymy and 17 cases of polysemy.The functions of word classes are 12 for noun, 10 for verb, and 2 for adjective. Moreover, the function of phrase types are 16 for noun phrase and 1 for verb phrase.