Background of Study INTRODUCTION

one main clause or an independent clause which isjoined by one or more subordinate clauses. Independent clause is a clause that can stand by itself: for example: I am a student , whereas, subordinate clause or also known as dependent clause is a clause that cannot stand by itself as a sentence. A subordinate clause served to modify an independent clause or served as a component. There are some different types of dependent clause, such as: noun clauses, adverbial clauses and relative clauses. Relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun or a noun phrase. Relative clause is introduced by a relative pronoun such as: who, which, whom, whose, that and zero, for example: It was wrinkled like an old woman who’d spent her youth sunbathing Green, 2005 : 34 the relative clause in that sentence which is in bold italic is introduced by a relative pronoun who. There are two types of relative clause: restrictive and non-restrictive relative clause. Restrictive relative clause isa type of relative clause which modifies its head word meaning: for example: I hated sports, and I hated people who played them Green, 2005:45 and non-restrictive relative clause the other type of relative clause which only provides supplementary information for example: Hyde talked about the Gospel of Mark , which I hadn’t read until the day before. Green, 2005 : 69 . The structure of sentence with relative clause is more complicated than a simple sentence. Some English learners are still confused about it. It is very important to English learners to have a clear knowledge about a relative clause in order to be able to organize the sentence or clause in a well-structured unit. Based on the explanation above, the syntactic structures of relative clause is a very interesting topic to be analyzed, therefore it was chosen as the topic of this study. The examples of the relative clauses that were analyzed were taken from the novel entitled Looking for Alaska by John Green. This novel was chosen since it has complete data in the language used especially in relative clauses.

1.2 Problems of Study

There are some problems that can be discussed in this study, those are: 1. What types of relative clause are found in the novel Looking for Alaskaby John Green? 2. How are the syntactic structures of relative clause in the novel Looking for Alaska by John Green?

1.3 Aims of Study

In relation to the problems of this study, theaims of this study are as follows: 1. To describe the types of relative clause found in the novel Looking for Alaska by John Green. 2. To analyze the syntactic structures of relative clause in John Green’s novel entitled Looking for Alaska.

1.4 Scope of Discussion

The analysis of John Green’s novel Looking for Alaska focuses on the syntactic structure and types of relative clause. Based on the problems that have been mentioned, the scopes of discussion in this study are: 1. The types of relative clause are restrictive relative clause and non-restrictive relative clause. The clause is introduced by relative pronoun: who, which, whom, whose, that , zero, or by a phrase which contains a relative pronoun such as: for which, to whom, etc. 2. The structure of the relative clause is based on a theory by Wekker and Haegeman 1985 in their book A Modern Course in English Syntax.

1.5 Research Methods

Method is a certain procedure, a regular or systematic way for accomplishing something. The research method contains some explanations of how this study will tackle the research problems. It will provide a description about the work plan and some activities necessary in completing this research. The research method used in this research includes: data source, method and techniques of collecting data, and method and techniques of analyzing data. Those will be further elaborated below.