2 One can analyze a text through systemic functional linguistics as the
theoretical frameworks. A text typically has three meanings, namely: ideational, interpersonal, and textual, which represents how the speaker makes meaning in its
utterances. As a persuasive text, sales letter carries distinctive interpersonal meaning, which relates to the social relationship between the sales letter writer
and the potential customers. On the other hand, sales letter owns a lot of spoken text features although it has a written form. Thus, the writer is also encouraged to
observe the interpersonal meaning and type of language contained in a sales letter. Since there have already been plenty research projects that address mood-
residue structure and other type of metafunction, the writer decides to conduct a research project regarding to interpersonal meaning in sales letter as a different
research object. The writer limits her focus on the typical mood types being used, social relationship between participants, and text type of sales letter. The research
is intended to complete the other research projects which only focused on mood and residue structures.
1.2. Research Problem
There are several research problems conducted in the research as follows: 1 What kind of structure do sales letters have?
2 What is the social relationship between the speaker and the hearer in a sales letter?
3 What kind of text is a sales letter?
3
1.3. Purpose of the Study
There are several purposes conducted in the research to answer the problems stated as follows.
1 identifying the mood types used and their functions in the sales letters. 2 discovering the role and social relationship between the sales letter writers and
the prospective buyers. 3 determining whether a sales letter is a spoken or written text.
1.4. Previous Studies
The study of lexicogrammar has been developed as an analysis instrument in discussions about discourse time by time.
In order to come up with an appropriate research topic which has not been done before, the writer is obliged to examine
the previous works. Therefore, the writer compiles the following previous studies which utilize Hallidays Systemic Functional Grammar approach.
Septiana 2009 focused on identifying mood elements in the film script of Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets. She uses MOOD system in analyzing
the data. It later shows that there are declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamative moods existing in the script, with declaratives being the dominant
ones and exclamatives being the rare ones. Susanti 2007 explores the mood-residue structure in Eugene ONeills
Thirst play script and figures that declaratives dominate the text. She also suggests
4 that there are various kinds of structure for Residue. Meanwhile, Ermawati 2008
analyzes mood-residue structure in Nick McIvers novelette and finds that declarative mood dominates the text. No exclamative is found in the text.
Unfortunately, how the dominant patterns affect the texts is not explained in the research projects given above.
On the other hand, Narolita 2012 conducts a study of genre on company profiles. She discovers that company profile has linguistic features dominated by
specific participants, classifiers, and specific deixis in nominal groups. Material processes and simple present tenses also dominate the observed clauses. She also
figures that a company profile has two main linguistic structures, which are identification and description. It has social function of describing the company
being represented from its general stuffs to the specific ones. Continuing on, Dewi Indah 2013 attempts to analyze the genre of This Odd World column in The
Jakarta Post newspaper. She combines genre analysis and transitivity system to find the significant features of the articles published in the column. The result is
that there are five kinds of text genre found in the articles: spoof text, recount text, news item text, anecdote text and narrative text. Both research projects show the
overall structure of the analyzed texts and their functions. Considering the strengths and weaknesses of the previous studies, the
writer conducts a research through analyzing dominant mood type, social relationship between interactants and text type of sales letter. The writer attempts
to provide a comprehensive illustration about the interpersonal meaning of sales letter.
5
1.5. Organization of the Writing
