Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the Study

Humans need a language to talk to others, listening to others, reading, and writing. Language enables people to describe events in the past and plan for the future. Language makes humans can pass information from one generation to the next and create a rich cultural heritage. Santrock 2007:530 states: “Bahasa adalah suatu bentuk komunikasi-entah itu lisan, tertulis atau isyarat yang berdasarkan pada suatu sistem dari simbol-simbol. Bahasa terdiri dari kata-kata yang digunakan oleh masyarakat beserta aturan-aturan untuk menyusun berbagai variasi dan mengkombinasikannya.” ‘language is a form of communication-whether it could be spoken, written or gesture that is based on a system of symbols. Language consists of words used by society and the rules to compose different variations and combine them’. According to Gerrot 1994:158, there are two types of language, they are Spoken and Written Language. Spoken and written language differ in a number of ways. Written language is not simply speech written down. Speaking and writting are manifestations of the some linguistic system but in general they encode meaning in different ways because they have evolved to serve different puposes. Spoken language is coded in or realized by sounds phonemes and that written language is coded in scripts grapheme, but also in grammatical aspects. Spoken language has high grammatical intricacy and low lexical density whereas written language has low grammatical intricacy and high lexical density. Spoken language is related to general language or the language of common people, such as news reports and scripts for 2 plays and films. Written language is related to the language of science and tecnology, such as instant message, email, essay, article or book. In appropriate with the title of this thesis “Transitivity System in Lancar Berbahasa Indonesia 2 Textbook for Elementary School Grade Four”, the writer analyzes a textbook and finds out the most dominant typeof transitivity process in a texbook for child aged 9 years.The writer herself has some reasons why she chooses a textbook as her main object which is going to be analyzed. First, it is because textbook is the main media that is used in childrens learning in school. Second, it is because the textbook contains many stories and insights that are worth or not to be studied children aged 9 years. Third, it is because textbook consists of the level of meaning, saying or wording, and sounding or writing. So, a textbook can be analyzed based on the system of transitivity. Furthermore, the writer chooses Lancar Berbahasa Indonesia 2 Textbook for Elementary School Grade Four by Dendy Sugono which is going to be analyzed. The reasons choosing the textbook which is arranged by Dendy Sugonoinstead of others are first it is because there are many stories in those textbook which are learned by children aged 9 years. Dendy Sugono was born on May 7, 1949, in Banyuwangi, East Java. He has served as a Chief of Language Centre of Departement of National Education since 2001 to 2008. Besides, he is also remembered asChairman of the Assembly Language Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia Mabbim Indonesia, since 2001 to 2008, Linguistic Cooperation Committee Chairman since 2001 to 2008, Member of Indonesian Linguistics Society since 1978, and Member Film Censorship Board since 2006 to 2008. For those reason, the writer chooses his work as the object which is going to be analyzed. 3 The reason why the writer chooses Transitivity system as the topic of this research because the writer wants to find or know the meaning which is contained in the stories of 9 chapters in Lancar Berbahasa Indonesia 2 textbook for Elementary School Grade Four through transitivity. Languages involve three generalized meanings or functions, called Metafunctions; ideational, textual, and interpersonal.The ideational function relates to the inner and outer worlds of reality; it is “language about something. According to Halliday in Sinar 2002:42, whenever one reflects on the external world of phenomena or the internal world of one’s consciousness, the representation of that reflection would take the form of ‘content’. This form of content is called the experiential function. Within the notion of ideational function there is logical function, which stores information about the way in which one situation is related to the other. Focussing language on the clause level with respect to the notion of clause as representation, clause as a representation means that one function of the clause is as a representation of experience of both external reality reality outside oneself and internal reality reality inside oneself. The experiential or representational function of language clause is realised by the transitivity system of langauge clause. The outer world of reality that is brought into the inner world of reality in one’s conciousness, which is encoded in the transitivity system of language, is interpreted as a what-is-going-on process, which is related to material actions, events, states and relations. The what-is-going-on process falls into various process. Halliday has identified the encoding process of the realities under discussion, and he has also 4 linguistically grammatically classified the various processes. He classified the process into six principal process types: 1 Material Processprocess of material doing, 2Mental Processprocess of sensing, 3Relational Processprocess of being and having, 4Verbal Processprocess of saying, 5 Behavioral Processprocess of psychological and physiological behavior, and 6Existential Processprocess of existence. According to Halliday in Sinar 2002:43, the framework of the process status, as set up in the clause grammar, is that a process consists, in priciple, of three components: 1 the process itself, typically realised by a verb or a verbal group. 2 participants in the process, typically realised by a noun or nominal group. 3 circumstances associated with the process , typically realised by an adverbial group or a prepositional groupphrase. This tripartite interpretation of processes is what lies behind the grammatical distinction of word classes into verbs, nouns, and the rest, a pattern that in some form or other is probably universal among human languages. For example: Before I was born. Circ. time Par.: goal Process: material 5 The concepts of process, participant and circumstance are semantic categories which explain in the most general way how phenomena of the real world are represented as linguistic structures. 1.2.Problems of the Study According to the title of this proposal “Transitivity System in Lancar Berbahasa Indonesia 2 Textbook for Elementary School Grade Four”, the writer try to clarify the problem into some questions, they are : 1. What is the most dominant type of transitivity process found in nine chapters of Lancar Berbahasa Indonesia 2 Textbook for Elementary School Grade Four? 2. What is the meaning of the most dominant type of transitivity process found in nine chapters of Lancar Berbahasa Indonesia 2 Textbook for Elementary School Grade Four? 1.3.Objectives of the Study Dealing with the,the objectives of the analysis of this proposal are: 1. To explainthe most dominant type oftransitivity process found innine chapters of Lancar Berbahasa Indonesia 2 Textbook for Elementary School Grade Four. 2. To explain the meaning of the most dominant type of transitivity process found in nine chapters of Lancar Berbahasa Indonesia 2 Textbook for Elemeentary School Grade Four. 6 1.4.Scope of the Study In research, it is very important to limit the analysis on specific data that has been chosen so that over complicating and unfocused issues and analysis do not exist. As long as we know, Discourse Analysis is not only concerned with the description and analysis of written text but it is also concerned with spoken interaction. Therefore, the analysis is only focused on the analysis of the Ideational function, focusing on the transitivity system participant, process, and circumstancefound in nine chapters ofLancar Berbahasa Indonesia 2 Textbook for Elementary School Grade Four, they are chapter 1 page 1- 3 and 11 -15, chapter 3 page 39 – 42, chapter 5 page 52 – 54, chapter 7 page 78- 80, chapter 9 page 104 -105 and 109 -110, chapter 11 page 129 -130 and 131 – 134, chapter 13 page 152 -152, chapter 15 page 178 -181, chapter 17 page 199 -202. The writer choos every even chapters because there are some chapters which have same theme. 1.5.Significances of the Study Through this research, the writer figures that the significance of this research is hopefully can give contribution in Discourse Analysis. Besides, the writer also hopes that this research can be useful for the students of English Department, especially for students who are interested in the same subject. And finally, this research can be additionalreference in analyzing Transitivity system used in a written text, especially in a textbook. 7

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE