Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

As a printed media, newspaper sometimes provides wrong information. It contains issues and fact. Newspaper can give information for the readers, but sometimes it just provides issue to the readers. Articles, advertisement, announcement, and editorials are some parts in a newspaper. Readers can get some information from those parts. Some of the newspaper’s readers just want to get information. Reading an English newspaper can gain vocabularies for the readers. The Jakarta Post is an English newspaper. The Jakarta Post is aimed to the readers who expert in English. As the student of English Department reading The Jakarta Post newspaper can not only get information, but also get the data source of the research, for example research in linguistic. In linguistic theories, noun phrase has a role that is called thematic role. Thematic role is used to describe the part played by a particular entity in an event O’Grady, 1997:262. Many linguists call thematic relation by several names such as: ‘participant role’, ‘semantic role’ or ‘thematic role’. According to Hurford 1983,231 participant roles indicate relationships between a verb and the referring expressions in a sentence. There is simple declarative sentence found in title of the Jakarta Post newspaper that can be analyzed based on theory thematic role. Thematic role 1 is the stem of semantic, while semantic according to O’Grady 1997:245 is the study of meaning in human language. The writer wants to analyze the title of the Jakarta Post newspaper by using thematic role theory. Besides that, the writer also analyzes the meaning of those titles. Denotation meaning based on O’Grady 1997:250 is one well-known approach to semantics attempts to equate the meaning of a word or phrase with the entities to which it refers. Connotation meaning according to O’Grady 1997:249 is one notion that is closely linked with the concept of meaning. For example: 1 Islamic parties find a home in Tasikmalaya. 2 Six judges reported to KPK for corruption. The sentence 1 above has three NP: Islamic parties, a home and Tasikmalaya. Based on the thematic role, it can be described: NP1 agent the entity who performs an action Islamic pasties NP2 theme the entity undergoing a change of state a home NP3 location the place at which an entity or location is located Tasikmalaya So, the rule is: NP1 _ NP2 in NP3 Agent theme location The meaning of that sentence denotatively is agent here is Islamic parties who find a place that is called home in Tasikmalaya region. Connotatively, Islamic parties are having supporter called home that located in Tasikmalaya. And the sentence 2 “Six judges reported to KPK for corruption” has three NP that can be described: NP1 beneficiary the person for whose benefit or to whose detriment the action six judges NP2 goal entity which movement is directed to KPK NP3 reason something moved for a goal corruption Then, the rule is: NP1 _ to NP2 for NP3 Beneficiary goal reason The meaning of that sentence denotatively is amount of judges are doing corruption then they are reported to KPK. Connotatively, those six judges that are reported to KPK are consuming people’s money. According to the explanation above, the writer has interest to analyze on title of the Jakarta Post newspaper. The Jakarta Post is an English newspaper that is read by people in Indonesia. The writer uses some theories to analyze this term. Then the writer will conduct a research entitled An Analysis of Semantic Roles of Titles of the Jakarta Post.

B. Previous Study