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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The main source of this study is the utterances of two characters in Burnett’s novel The Secret Garden, Martha and Ben to the children; Mary, Colin, and Dickon.
Martha is a little girl who works as a housemaid in Mr. Archibald’s house. She has a head of servant called Mrs. Medlock. In Mr. Archibald’s house, Martha is required to
take care of Mary. Mary is a girl who was born in India. She is sent to England, to Mr. Archibald’s house since her parents die in cholera. In Mr. Archibald’s house,
Mary does not have any friends. She always plays alone. One day, when she walks around the garden, she meets Ben. Ben is an old gardener who works as a gardener in
Mr. Archibald’s house. He is a bachelor who lives at the gate. Mary and Ben always talks about the robin redbreast. One day, Martha finds out that there is someone else
in Mr. Archibald’s house. She always hears someone cries. When she asks Martha about the sounds that Mary hears, Martha says that it is only the sound of the wind.
Mary feels that Martha lies to her and Mary wants to know the truth. Finally, Mary finds Colin. Colin is Mr. Archibald’s son. He always spends his time alone in his
room since his father does not like him and everyone thinks that he cannot walk. During his life time, he never sees anyone except his father and the servants. Then,
Mary and Colin become friends. Mary often goes to Colin’s room. Suddenly, Martha
knows that Mary knows the existence of Colin. Martha is required by Mrs. Medlock not to tell Mary about Colin. Martha feels afraid that she will be fired. In fact, Colin
as her employer does not fire her. Colin asks Martha that he wants to go outside. He wants to play with Mary in the garden. For the first time, Colin meets Ben. Ben really
shocks of what he sees since Colin has eyes like her mother. When Colin’s mother lives, Ben is Colin mother’s gardener. He loves Colin’s mother and always takes care
of her roses. As stated in The Secret Garden, Martha and Ben are the Yorkshire lower class
people who use the Yorkshire dialect. Even though there are many characters using the Yorkshire dialect in The Secret Garden such as Mrs. Medlock, Dickon, Mr.
Archibald Craven, and Colin, Martha and Ben are chosen to represent the grammar feature on the Yorkshire dialect based on their utterances to the children.
The number of Martha’s and Ben’s utterances to each child is listed below:
Table 8. Number of Martha’s and Ben’s Utterances
No. Speaking To
Martha Ben
1. Mary
129 51
2. Colin
4 36
3. Dickon
TOTAL 133 utterances
87 utterances
From the table above, it is seen that Martha shares 137 utterances whereas Ben shares 87 utterances. The utterances spoken by Martha and Ben have different
number of sentences. The utterances sometimes contain only some words, one