composition in the study. This study also tries to find the structure composition of noun phrase in the utterances of one of the characters in the novel. Because this
study identifies the distribution of noun phrase, this study is similar to Pratama’s study.
The three other studies are also relevant to this study. As in Maestre’s and
Yudit’s studies, this study discusses the use of noun phrase in its types using the stylistic approach in order to find the function of the noun phrase to the character.
This study finds the character’s reflection through the distribution of noun phrase from the conversational and circumstantial context in the story of the novel as in
the study conducted by Roberts. Consequently, this study aims to identify the distribution and contribution of noun phrase fo
und in the character’s utterances to the character of a literary work such as a novel.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Stylistics
The theory of stylistics can be used as the basis of analysis in examining literary works. One of the focus of the stylistic analysis is the style of language
itself. In a literary work, an author puts their work in the most possible form of
language to appeal the senses used to appreciate the works. “Stylistics, the study of
style, can be defined as the analysis of distinctive expression in language and the description of its purpose and effect” Verdonk, 2002: 4.
The pattern of language used in a literary work can form a style that can be analyzed through stylistic approach. According to Simpson, “the perspective
through which a story is told constitutes an important stylistic dimension not only in prose fiction but in many types of narrative text” 2004: 26. According to the
linguistic features that is analyzed in stylistic approach, the structure of language has four levels such as graphology, phonology, lexis, and syntax. Each of the level
deals with different certain textual patterns that give the representational effects to the reader 2004: 58. The textual patterns are distinguished as follows,
a. Graphology
typographical features b.
Phonology rhyme, metre, assonance, alliteration
c. Lexis
vocabulary, metaphor, and other figures of speech d.
Syntax grammatical structures
The purpose of the study is to identify the data collected, for instance the noun phrase, from one of the character to seek the patterns and style of language
feature through the contribution of the noun phrases of the character’s utterances.
2. Theory of Syntax
A word can be considered as the small unit of language. The larger units of language are phrase and sentence. Those units can deliver a property of meaning
in the language. Akmajian, Demers, and Harnish state that the linear combination of words in many languages is an important role to determine the meaning of
sentences 2010: 152. It can be understood that a group of words have the compositional structure, phrase structure. The combination of words delivers
particular meaning to be observed based on its grammatical and structural aspects in a phrase or a sentence. From the observation, the question of whether the phrase
or sentence is well-formed or not will make the lexical ambiguity appear. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
One of the most important ways to discover why and how sentences must be structured is by specifically stating the structural properties of the language
Akmajian, et.al, 2010: 154. This study aims to discover the compositional structure of a noun phrase. Therefore, belows are the definitions of the theories of
noun, phrase, and noun phrase:
a. Noun
According to Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik, nouns have certain characteristics that differentiate them from other word-classes 1974: 127. They
mention that for semantic and grammatical reasons, nouns can have several types such as proper noun e.g. John, Paris, and Mississippi, common noun e.g. bottle,
cake, and bread, count noun e.g. apple, car, and egg, and mass noun e.g. bread, experience, and beauty.
Count noun is the kind of noun that can be distinguished as separable entities or basically, it can be counted e.g. one pig, two pigs, several pigs, . . ..
Whereas mass noun is seen as continuous entities that cannot be counted because of the continuity e.g. much pork, much information Quirk, et.al, 1974: 130.
Therefore, mass nouns are also usually called as non-count nouns. Since the mass noun is continuous entities and unable to be counted, it has no plural form as in
countable nouns with –s and –es. In some cases, a noun can be categorized to be in
two classes at the same time such as count noun or mass noun yet they have certain differences in meaning 1974: 129. For example, there is a distinction of meaning
of the noun lambs as in the sentence “I see the two little lambs” and “I eat New
Zealand lamb”. The word lambs in the first sentence refers to a count noun that
means animal whereas the word lamb in the second sentence refers to a mass noun that means meat of lamb.
b. Phrase
Radford 2004: 1 states that “phrases and sentences are built up of a series
of constituents i.e. syntactic units, each of which belongs to a specific grammatical category and serves a specific grammatical function
.” In order to be able to analyze the syntactic units of a certain type of sentence or phrase, the
identification of each of the constituents in the sentence or phrase. For example, in a sentence “Clare sings beautifully”, it can be understood that each of the three
words in the sentence have its own specific grammatical category Clare being a singular noun, sings being a present tense verb, and beautifully being an adverb
and grammatical function Clare as a subject, sings as a predicate, and beautifully as an adjunct.
In a phrase there must be a head word that determines the type of the phrase such as the expression students of Philosophy is a plural noun phrase because the
head of the phrase is the plural noun students. The plural noun students is the head instead of the noun Philosophy because the phrase students of Philosophy denotes
the kinds of student, not kinds of Philosophy 2004: 1.
c. Noun Phrase
Quirk and Greenbaum state that noun phrase serves the function as subject, object, complement of sentences, and as complement in prepositional phrases
1985: 59. For instance, there are different subjects in the following. 1
The girl is Mary Smith.
2
The pretty girl is Mary Smith.
3
The pretty girl in the corner is Mary Smith.
4
The pretty girl who became angry is Mary Smith.
From the examples, all of the subjects are the noun phrases that function
as a subject. Each of the noun phrases contains one head girl that stands alone or
accompanied by the modifier. The head of a noun phrase can be found in the form of noun e.g. book or pronoun e.g. it. Sometimes in a particular case, a substitute
head is found instead of noun or pronoun e.g. a good one good ones. Adjectival head also contributes to the structuring of the noun phrase e.g. the poor the
unemployed . The noun phrase’s head can be modified by determiner, pre-modifier,
and post-modifier Downing and Locke, 2006: 403. Bellows are the definition of the types of modifier of a noun phrase
according to its type:
i. Determiners
The first element to be shown in noun phrase structure is determiner. Its basic function is to particularise and identify the noun referent in the context of the
noun phrase in a certain speech situation Downing and Locke 2006: 423. According to Quirk and Greenbaum, there are three types of determiner such as
central determiners, pre-determiners, and post-determiners 1985: 62. The explanation of those three types are as follows.
1 Central determiners
Definite article the and indefinite article aan are the most common central determiners. Other types such as pronoun and possessive pronoun are another part
of central determiners. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Table 2.1 The Distribution of Central Determiners
Central Determiners Singular Count Noun
Plural Count Noun Non-count Noun
- The
- Possessive my,
our, etc. -
whose, whichever,
whatever -
some stressed -
any stressed -
no -
this -
that -
an -
every -
each -
either -
neither -
the -
Possessive my, our, etc.
- whose,
whichever, whatever
- some stressed
- any stressed
- no
- Zero article
- some unstressed
- any unstressed
- enough
- these
- those
- the
- Possessive my,
our, etc. -
whose, whichever,
whatever -
some stressed -
any stressed -
no -
Zero article -
some unstressed -
any unstressed -
enough -
this -
that -
much
2 Pre-determiners
Certain pre-determiners all, both, half can be found before the articles or demonstratives but they cannot appear with the quantitative determiners e.g. every,
n either, each, some, any, no, enough because the quantifiers of the noun phrase is the pre-determiners themself. Another type of pre-determiner e.g. double, once,
twice, threefour ... times, etc. occurs with singular and plural count nouns, and with noun-count nouns 1985: 63. Three, four etc. times as well as once, twice can
co-occur with central determiner e.g. a, every, each and less commonly with the use of per. The fractions one-third, two-fifth, three-quarters, etc. occurs with
singular and plural count noun, and non-count noun. They also can co-occur with the central determiners with the use of alternative of-construction 1985: 65.
3 Post-determiners
Numerals such as ordinal e.g. fourth, twentieth, next, last, other, another, additional and cardinal e.g. one, two, three ... and quantifiers e.g. many, a few,
few, several for countable plural nouns and much, a little, little for non-countable nouns must follow the determiners but precede the adjective in the pre-
modification structure. 1985: 65.
i. Pre-modifiers
The pre-modifiers are different from determiner in certain ways Downing and Locke, 2006: 436. Pre-modifiers which are also called as pre-head modifiers
help to classify the head. The pre- modifiers’ function is to describe or classify the
referent while the determiners’ function is to define and select the referent. Pre- modifiers are usually distinguished into epithet and classifier based on the function.
The epithet that is usually indicated by the adjectives helps to characterize the referent by its quality e.g. new room, a young man. The classifier which function
to restrict the referent into a sub-class indicated by nouns e.g. one Saturday morning, art lovers, top ten or particular kinds of adjectives and participles e.g. a
political broadcast, general elections, leading articles 2006: 404.
ii. Post-modifiers
The post-modifier is also known with the term qualifier. According to Downing and Locke the basic function of post-modifier is to either supply
information in order to specify and identify the referent or add supplementary information about the referent. The post-modifiers can be in the form of finite and
non-finite clauses, e.g. the film we saw, a man reading a newspaper, PPs e.g. in PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
February 1893 and, other noun phrase e.g. shoes that size and adverbial phrase e.g. the car outside 2006: 404.
Table 2.2 below is the summary of the noun phrase constituents that is proposed by Quirk and Greenbaum.
Table 2.2 Summary of Parts of Noun Phrase
Determiner Pre-
Modifier Post-
Modifier Pre-
Determiner Central Determiner
Post- Determiner
all, both, half double, once,
twice, threefour ...
times, one-third,
two-fifth, three-
quarters with of
construction. For singular count
noun: The, possessive my,
our.., whose, whichever,
whatever, some stressed, any
stressed, no, this, that, an, every,
each, either, neither Cardinal
numeral: one, two,
three... Classifier:
Noun art,
Saturday, water
Adjective political,
general, green
Qualifier: Finite
clause we saw,
Non finite clause
reading a newspaper
PP in
February 1893,
Other noun
phrase that size
For plural count noun: the, possessive my,
our.., whose, whichever,
whatever, somestressed,
anystressed, no, some unstressed, any
unstressed, enough, these, those, zero
article Ordinal
numeral: fourth,
twentieth, next, last,
other, another,
additional. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
For non-count noun: The, possessive my,
our.., whose, whichever,
whatever, some stressed, any
stressed, no, some unstressed, any
unstressed, enough, this, that, much, zero
article. Quantifier:
many, a few, few,
several much, a
little, little
d. The Functions of Noun Phrase in a Clause
Just like sentences can be complex sentences, noun phrases can also become complex noun phrases by reshaping the structure of the noun phrase Quirk
and Greenbaum, 1985: 61. Those noun phrases also have distinctive properties as in the function in a clause or sentences. Huddleston and Pullum 2005: 82 propose
that the main functions of noun phrases can occur are in the following. 1
In clause structure: i.
Subject The first function of noun phrase to occur in a clause is as a subject.
Typically, the subject of a clause is a noun phrase. The other form of subject in a clause is subordinate clause. For example, in a clause a student helped us, noun
phrase a student is the subject of the clause since the basic position of a subject is before the verb helped.
ii. Object
Almost all of the object of a clause is in the form of noun phrase. In order to identify the object of a clause, there are some indications of the object’s
characteristics. An object must be licensed by a verb since it is a special form of complement in the verb phrase. Sometimes the existence of an object is obligatory
to certain verbs. Intransitive and transitive verb are the ones responsible for the obligation
of the object. An intransitive verbs do not need an object like the transitive verbs do. For example, in a clause they elected a student, the verb elected is a transitive
verbs. Therefore, it needs an object such as a student. On the other hand, in a clause the children cry so loud
, the word cry is an intransitive verbs that it doesn’t need an object.
In addition, there are two subtypes of an object, the direct and indirect one. Those two kinds may occur together in one clause such as in Sue gave Max the
photo. The word Max is a proper noun that it functions as an indirect object and the noun phrase the photo is the direct object. The term direct and indirect are derived
from the idea that in a clause, the referent of the direct object is more directly involved
in being acted on than the indirect object’s referent in the situation. iii.
Predicative complement Predicative complement is the next kind of the verb dependent and
commonly in form of noun phrases. It contrasts the direct object. For example: 1
She is a student. 2
She found a good speaker. From the example 1 the noun phrase a student is a predicative
complement because the noun phrase denotes a feature that is ascribed to the subject she. On the other hand, the noun phrase a good speaker is a direct object since it
refers to participants in the situation. However, a predicative complement do not refer to the participants in the situation like the direct object does.
2 In prepositional structure:
i. Complement
In order to be a preposition, a word has to have a complement in the form of noun phrases. It means that noun phrases has the function to complement the
preposition to form a prepositional phrase structure. In a clause, we were talking [to a student], a phrase to a student is a prepositional phrase. It is indicated by the
preposition to followed by the noun phrase a student. Noun phrases are not limited to complete the clause and prepositional
structure only. They can also fill the structure of adverbial adjunct, object complement, and appositive. The examples of each kind are as follow.
1 We saw her several times.
The noun phrase several times is adverbial adjunct because it modifies the entire clause by providing additional information about the time.
2 Our cousins always called my uncle a dictator.
The noun phrase a dictator is an object complement because it follows directly the direct object. It is different from indirect object because object
complement describes the direct object not the other participant of the verb just like the indirect object.
3 Our friend, the mayor, lives here.
The noun phrase the mayor is the appositive because it renames or describes the noun right beside it.
Quirk and Greenbaum 1985: 375 also give an example when the simple and complex sentences can be reconstructed into one simple sentence with the
subject of a very complex noun phrase as follow. 1
The girl is Mary Smith. 2
The girl is pretty. 3
The girl was standing in the corner. 4
You waved to the girl when you entered. 5
The girl became angry because you waved to her. The sentences 1 to 5 listed above can be reconstructed into the following.
1 The pretty girl standing in the corner who became angry because you waved
to her when you entered is Mary Smith. The examples before, show that noun phrases can be distributed in a
certain function of part of speech of a sentence such as subject, object direct and indirect, or complement.
3. Theory of Foregrounding
Verdonk states that in stylistics, foregrounding is a psychological effects that the readers get then rousing the readers interest or emotions 2002: 5. In a
stylistic analysis, the focus of the analysis is not in every form and structure of a text but the features that stand out in every way instead. The foregrounding theory
states that there is some sounds, words, phrases, and clauses in any text that is different from what surround them which are set into relief by this distinction and
made prominent in the result Jeffries and Mcintyre, 2010: 31. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
According to Verdonk, the example of foregrounding elements are a distinct patterning or
parallelism in a text’s typography, sounds, word-choices, grammar, or sentence structures 2002: 6. There are other features that can be the
style marker of a particular text which is often achieved by linguistic deviation and parallelism from the linguistic elements and the rules of language in general as the
style is expected. Furthermore, these foregrounding features are seen as the memorable and highly interpretable features Jeffries, et.al, 2010: 31.
Another supporting theory of foregrounding which is mentioned by Simpson 2004: 50 is that
Foregrounding refers to a form of textual patterning which is motivated spesifically for literary-aesthetic purposes. Capable of working at any
levels of language, foregrounding typically involves a stylistic distortion of some sort, either through an aspect of the text which deviates from a
linguistic norm or, alternatively, where an aspect of the text is brought to the fore through repetition or parallelism.
Simpson also considers that foregrounding should acquire a striking point of drawing attention that is motivated by literary considerations such as textual
strategies in order to develop the images, themes, and characters. Thus, it stimulates the effect and affect of the text’s interpretations 2004: 50.
Basically, the activity of foregrounding can be determine as finding a textual pattern that has a motivation in terms of style for artistic purposes intended by the
author. Conducting foregrounding activity will also give an insight and deep interpretation in understanding literary works.
4. Theory of Character
