between the very old and the very young.”
Source 2 Comments of the
writer. The success of Katoen has created a sensation in Japan and brought responses
from all over the country. The declining number of children now being born each year has left unused space at many nursery schools. It has therefore been
suggested that these surplus areas are utilized by the elderly. In this way, in spite of living in small nuclear households, children can experience the advantages of
close contact with people of much older generation.
51
Observing the analysis of the text, it can be inferred that the text has these following RD: News worthy event Background event Source 1 Source 2 .
This implies that text 51 should have been included in News Item. To sum up the two reading texts, text 84 and 51, are not qualified to be
model texts.
4.2.2 Recount
Six analyzed recounts are found to have complete obligatory elements. Only one
out of six that has no re-orientation element, that is text number fifty-nine, however as that element is optional, that text can still be included as Recount. Its
RD analysis is presented below.
An Unforgettable Night Element Function
Text
Orientation Providing the
setting introducing the
participants One night in the early fall in 1980, I was driving home alone
in my 1978 Fort Pinto. Something told me that I should not have passed the highway. But John, my best friend said that
this was the fastest way to get to my house.
Element Function Realization
Events Telling what
happened A few minutes ago, it started raining hard, and now the
shower was coming down. The highway was dark that I could barely see my way. Suddenly there was a white
shadow. It appeared so sudden that I could not stop my car and hit the shadow.
Re-orientation optional
Closing the events
this part was not provided
59 The RD analysis above shows that the text, although its RD has no re-orientation,
depicts what happened to I one night in the early fall in 1980. It can be so, for re- orientation is an optional element; it may or may not be available in the text.
However, based on the clause analysis, there is a realization of meaning in one of its clauses that is problematic. That problematic clause realization, clause G
realization, can be seen in the clause analysis shown below. A
One night in the early fall in 1980, I was driving home alone in my 1978 Fort Pinto.
Res MOOD Res
Adj S F
Pred C
M Adj
Adj Th Rh
Cir. T
Act
Mat P Cir.p
C.m Cir.p
B α
Something told me MOOD Res
S F
Comp Th Rh
Sayer Ver P
Receiver C
’ that I should not have passed the highway
MOOD Resi
S F Pred C
Th1 Th2 Rh Ac
Mat P
Goal D
α But John, my best friend said
MOOD S
F Th1 Th2
Rh Sayer
Ver P
E that this was the fastest way to get to my house.
MOOD Res S F Comp
Pred Comp
Th Rheme
Tok Rel
P Value Mat
P Cir. P
F 1
A few minutes ago, it started raining hard, Re MOOD
Sidue Adj S
F Pred
Adj Th1 Th2
Rh Cir.t
Mat P Cir.m
G 2 +
and now the shower was coming down. Res MOOD Res
Adj
S F
Pred C Th1 Th2 Rh
Cir t Act Mat P
Cir m H
α The highway was dark
MOOD Res S F
C Th Res
Car Rel P
Att I
X that I could barely see my way.
MOOD Res S
F Mood Pred
C Th1 Th2 Rh
Sen Men
P Cir
Men P
Ph
J Suddenly there was a white shadow.
Res MOOD Res
Adj S F
C Th Rh
Cir m Ext
P Existent
K α
It appeared so sudden MOOD Res
S F
C Th Rh
Act Mat P Cir:m
L X 1
that I could not stop my car MOOD Res
S F
Pred C
Th1 Th Rh Act
Mat P
Goal M
2 + and my car hit the shadow.
Process Clause Percentage
Material A,C,E,F,G,K,L,M 61.5
Mental I 7.7
Relational H
7.7 Existential J
7.7 Verbal B,D
15.4 Processes used in text 59
The table shows that eight material processes are dominantly used in this text. This text is Recount whose social purpose is for retelling past event. Past
experience is usually related to activities, happenings, events whose realization needs the use of material processes, the processes that express a notion whose
MOOD Res S F C
Th1 Th2 Res Act Mat
Goal
entity physically does something which is done to some other entity. This implies that the domination of material processes to realize the rhetorical development
elements of Recount has to be such. However, clause G is problematic. Since the clause is paratacticly bound with the previous clause F, both clauses F and G
and their clause analyses are shown below. F 1
A few minutes ago, it started raining hard, Re MOOD
Sidue Adj S
F Pred
Adj Th1 Th2
Rh Cir.t
Mat P Cir.m
G 2 +
and now the shower was coming down. Res MOOD Res
Adj
S F
Pred C Th1 Th2 Rh
Cir t Act Mat P
Cir m The time circumstance now is not appropriately used here. It would have been
appropriate if now in clause G is changed into then, and the complete clause complex becomes A few minutes ago it started raining hard, then the shower was
coming down. That finding causes this text inappropriate to be a model text. One of the analyzed Recounts is Historical Recount. That is reading text
number seventy-one. The last paragraph of it has an incomplete clause that makes the text fail to be a model. The two last clauses are presented below.
Q The main purpose of this meeting will be to asses the program made in attaining the
goals of the 1974 and 1984 conferences.
MOOD Res S F
Pred C
Th Rh Act Mat
P Goal
R Also on the agenda will be promotion of international awareness of
population issues, guidance on population problems, and the adoption of an updated set
of recommendation. MOOD Res
Adj .p F
Pred C Th
Rh Cir place
Exist P Existent
71 In the analysis of clause R above, precisely in the second row, it can be seen that
the clause does not have any subject. The construction ‘Adjunct + Process + Subject’ is only possible when the Process is not Relational or Existential one.
This is suggested by Wales 2001:141 who states that ‘in formal English, especially literary, other verbs than be can be found in that construction’, for
example: There rose in the distance a huge cloud of yellow dust. In the example
the verb is rose, not be.
Clause G, therefore, should have been improved, otherwise the reading text ha-ving it reading text number 71 fails to be a model text.
4.2.3 Report
