lexical cohesion of both texts. The Korea Herald describes the critics from the public about the resignation by the lexical items of „mistook‟, „failing to act promptly‟,
„inconsistent‟ while The New York Times employs the lexical items of „failing‟ and „fumbling‟. Those lexical items have similar semantic feature of [-succeed].
Moreover, the lexical items of „inconsistent‟ and „mistook‟ have same kind of prefix which means „lacking‟ or wrongly. By the used of those lexical items that have
negative meaning, The Korea Herald and The New York Times want to point out that the act of resigning from the position of a Prime Minister absorbs so many negative
critics due to their inability in responding the disaster of ferry sinking.
2. The cultural practice within the government of South Korea.
In their arrangement of subtopics, The New York Times and The Korea Herald present the subtopic about the governmental change after the resignation of the prime
Minister but there is a difference on how the two newspapers present it. The Korea Herald
placed this subtopic right after the discussion of the statements of the prime minister which is still at the beginning part of the text while The New York Times
placed this subtopic after the discussion of the irregularities on the ferry sinking at the end part of the text. It means that The Korea Herald gives more stress to the matter of
governmental change than The New York Times. The Korea Herald presents the subtopic of the governmental issue in more simple way rather than The New York
Times . The Korea Herald presents this subtopic limited on the event which will
happen after the resignation of the Prime Minister but The New York Times includes the cultural view on this subtopic.
The New York Times views the resignation of the Prime Minister is a culture
when there is scandal or policy failure in the government of South Korea. The Korea Herald
only uses the association of the lexical items of „accept‟ and „resolved‟ which means that the discussion on the governmental issue is limited on the matter of the
acceptance of the resignation by the President while The New York Times adds more about the cultural practice on the government of South Korea by using the lexical
items of „ceremonial‟, „executive‟, „scandal‟, „fired‟, „failure‟. By those lexical items, the culture in government of South Korea is
understood. The lexical items of „ceremonial‟ carries semantic feature of [+formal], [- executor] while „executive‟ has semantic feature of [+executor]. It means that the
position of being a Prime Minister is just a formality in the government. The power of executing the laws is concentrated on the president. The person with the position of
being a prime minister is sometimes fired when the government takes responsibility for a major scandal or policy failure. So, it can be concluded that in the matter of
discussion on the government The Korea Herald limits its discussion in the matters inside the country and its government while The New York Times adds the discussion
of cultural practice in South Korea. 3.
The description of the condition of the people after the disaster happened.
In the arrangements of subtopics, The Korea Herald does not elaborate this matter into separated subtopics like in The New York Times. In The New York Times,
there is a subtopic discussing the grief of the nation due to the disaster which elaborates the condition of the people after the disaster happened. The condition of
the people is described as gloomy and sad. By the absence of this subtopic in The Korea Herald
and the presence of this subtopic in The New York Times, it implies that The New York Times gives more concern on the condition of the people rather
than The Korea Herald which gives more concern in the governmental matter. In the aspect of lexical cohesion, The New York Times
uses „saw‟ instead of „witnessing‟, and then „sadness‟ and „fury‟ instead of „sorrow‟, „sadness‟, and
„anger‟. The lexical item of „saw‟ and „witness‟ has same semantic feature of [+aware of something using eyes]. But the lexical i
tem „witness‟ has contrast semantic feature of [+ of crime or disaster]. So, The New York Times chooses the lexical item which
has more specific meaning to elaborate the topic. Then, the lexical items that both newspapers uses to describe the people‟s
fee ling; „sorrow‟, „sadness‟, and „fury‟, have same semantic feature of [+feeling] and
[-pleasant] but The Korea Herald gives it a difference by employing the lexical item of „fury‟ which has distinctive semantic feature of [+extreme].
Besides using those lexical items, The New York Times also uses the lexical items which describe the happiness and contrast it to the lexical items which describe
grief. Those lexical items are „comedy‟, „cheering‟, „spring-break trips‟. These lexical items have similar semantic feature of [+pleasant]. Then the lexical items of
„banned‟, canceled‟, and „suspended‟ have similar semantic feature of [-pleasant]. So, by these contrasted lexical items, The New York Times wants to show how the nation
is in its grief regarding the disaster of ferry sinking.
