Text Analysis of the Positive Self Representation of Barrack Obama in His Speech by Using Systemic Functional Grammar.

ABSTRACT

Dalam skripsi ini, saya menganalisis sebuah pidato yang dibawakan oleh tokoh nomor satu di dunia saat ini, yaitu Presiden Amerika Serikat Barrack Obama, dengan judul Statement by the President on the School Shooting in

Newtown, CT. Pidato yang dibawakan sangat menarik karena kita bisa melihat

bagaimana Presiden mampu memberi dukungan kepada keluarga khususnya dari pihak korban perihal kasus penembakan yang terjadi melalui ide-ide serta pemikirannya yang tertuang dalam pidatonya.

Saya menganalisis untuk mengetahui bagaimana seorang Presiden Barrack Obama dipresentasikan dengan mengaplikasikan tiga komponen utama dalam

Systemic Functional Grammar gagasan Michael Halliday, yaitu melalui textual meaning, ideational meaning dan interpersonal meaning. Hasil analisis data

menunjukkan secara jelas bahwa Barrack Obama dipresentasikan secara positif. Saya berharap analisis ini dapat memberikan banyak inspirasi dan kontribusi bagi pembaca yang tertarik dalam menganalisis sebuah teks khususnya pidato.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... i

ABSTRACT ... iii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ... 1

1.1 Background of the Study ... 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem ... 3

1.3 Purpose of the Study ... 4

1.4 Method of Research ... 4

1.5 Organization of the Thesis ... 4

CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 5

2.1 Textual Meaning ... 6

2.1.1 Cohesion ... 6

2.1.1.1 Reference ... 6

2.1.1.2 Substitution ... 7

2.1.1.3 Ellipsis ... 7

2.1.1.4 Conjunction ... 8

2.1.1.5 Lexical Cohesion ... 8

2.1.2 Theme and Rheme ... 9

2.2 Ideational Meaning ... 9

2.2.1 Transitivity ... 9

2.3 Interpersonal Meaning ... 11

2.3.1 Mood and Modality ... 11

CHAPTER THREE: TEXT ANALYSIS OF THE POSITIVE SELF REPRESENTATION OF BARRACK OBAMA IN HIS SPEECH BY USING SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR ... 12

3.1.1 Analysis of Reference ... 13

3.1.2 Analysis of Substitution ... 15

3.1.3 Analysis of Ellipsis ... 17

3.1.4 Analysis of Conjunction ... 18

3.1.4.1 Analysis of Additive Conjunction ... 19

3.1.4.2 Analysis of Comparative Conjunction ... 20

3.1.4.3 Analysis of Consequential Conjunction ... 22

3.1.5 Analysis of Repetition ... 23

3.1.6 Analysis of Antonymy ... 28

3.2 Analysis Theme and Rheme... 30

3.3 Ideational Meaning... 33

3.3.1 Analysis of Transitivity ... 33

3.4 Interpersonal Meaning ... 40

3.4.1 Analysis of Mood and Modality ... 40

CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ... 42

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 46

APPENDICES ... 47

Appendix 1: Primary Text 1 ... 47

Appendix 2: Primary Text 2 ... 49

Appendix 3: Clauses Division ... 51

Appendix 4: Reference Chains... 54

Appendix 5: Table of Clauses Using Conjunctions ... 57

Appendix 6: Table of Theme and Rheme ... 58

Appendix 7: Table of Transitivity ... 61

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Language is a device of communication. When someone says something, he uses words to communicate. The sentence itself consists of structure and meaning. By using language, someone can convey what he means to people. Speech is a form of device of communication and it is used to convey some issues to the audience and show the speaker’s personal opinion. The speaker can also express both his thoughts and expressions in his speech and he can make positive and negative representation about something later. The speaker definitely has purpose and also reason behind his speech. Moreover, there is always a representation in a speech, either it is a positive representation or a negative representation or both of them.

There are a lot of ways in which society can be manipulated in language to give such positive or negative representation of political leaders; however, people expect the leaders to show a positive representation by using positive terms when they deliver speech (Charteris-Black 102). On the other hand, those who oppose

the government can be represented as negative representation by mentioning the weaknesses and faults of the government. A political leader can make the audience support him and agree with him with what he says in his speech. As a part of government and as the President of the United States, obviously Barrack Obama tries to show positive representation in his speech. He expresses his thoughts and expressions toward the shooting tragedy in his speech on 14 December 2012 in delivering his condolences and encourage the families and friends of victims. Obama has purpose and reason in his speech; in addition, he focuses on the actions that will be taken toward the issue.

The source of data that I use is a speech entitled “Statement by the President on the School Shooting in Newtown, CT.” The speech is taken from Barrack Obama’s speech as a main issue in the United States on 14 December 2012 which claimed many lives from 27 people including 20 children at primary school (“Sandy Hook Shooting: What Happened?”). In this speech, he deliberately applies some positive terms which give a positive representation as he encourages the people, especially those who are grievous over the tragedy. I only focus on Obama who tries to position himself to get involved to feel the same towards the tragedy as the self; furthermore, there is no negative self in the speech. I am interested in the speech because it not only contains an immense issue but also includes the speaker’s personal opinion about it, which is appealing for me to analyze.

The topic of my thesis is “Text Analysis of the Positive Self Representation

of Barrack Obama in His Speech by Using Systemic Functional Grammar”.

passage, spoken or written, and also can create representation (Halliday and Hasan 1).

One of the texts that can be analyzed by using instrument of Discourse Analysis is speech. Therefore, I use a speech for my analysis in this thesis. A text may contain grammatical unit and semantic unit. When we perform textual analysis on a text, we can interpret that may be made of that text. (293)

I use Systemic Functional Grammar as the basic theory in conducting the textual analysis in order to help me to analyze the speech. This theory focuses on the study of language in use and its effect, which involves text and context. Systemic Functional Grammar also helps me to be more critical in studying the discourse and analyzing the representation. I also apply some particular linguistic features to decode meanings through textual meaning, ideational meaning and interpersonal meaning. Specifically, I apply the elements of Cohesion, Theme and Rheme, Transitivity, Mood and Modality to analyze the discourse. Those elements will be explained further in the next chapter.

My analysis is significant because the readers will be more critical in comprehending a message in the analyzed speech and to improve our critical way of thinking. Moreover, I believe that using Systemic Functional Grammar in a text analysis will help us to be more detailed in analyzing a discourse, especially to find out the representation. I do hope my analysis can give some contribution to the application of textual analysis of Systemic Functional Grammar.

(720 words)

Statements of the problem I am going to analyze in my thesis, I state them as the followings:

1. How is Barrack Obama represented in the text?

2. How is the Systemic Functional Grammar used to reveal the representation of Barrack Obama?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purposes of this analysis as follow:

1. To find out how Barrack Obama is represented as the self.

2. To find out how the linguistic instruments are used to reveal the self representation.

1.4 Method of Research

In the beginning, I browsed the Internet for some data about Barrack Obama’s speeches and chose one that I was interested in. Then, I did research by finding and reading some books that are relevant to my analysis. I also read some theories and browsed some further explanations related to the topic in the Internet. Finally, I started doing the analysis and writing the research report.

1.5 Organization of the Thesis

I divide the thesis into four chapters. The first chapter is Introduction, which consists of Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of the Study, and Organization of the Thesis. The second chapter contains Theoretical Framework in which I present some devices that I use to analyze the data. The third chapter is the analysis of the data. The last

chapter contains the conclusion of the analysis. In the end of the thesis I enclose Bibliography and Appendices.

CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

After analyzing a speech entitled “Statement by the President on the School Shooting in Newtown, CT,” I get three kinds of functional components of meanings in Systemic Functional Grammar analyzed: textual meaning, ideational meaning and interpersonal meaning. Based on the three kinds of meanings, the speech always leads Barrack Obama to the positive self representation. Since the condolence speech was delivered by Barrack Obama, who at that time was the President of the United States, the representation must be positive. In addition, Obama wants to show that he takes sides and encourages the people, who in this case mostly are both victims and families of the victims. By supporting the people, Obama creates a positive image of his role as the President.

The linguistic instruments that I use to get textual meaning are cohesion and theme and rheme. Cohesion consists of reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, antonymy and repetition. According to the analysis that I have done in the previous chapter, I find that there are some points that I can conclude. The first point shows that there is only one representation which is described as the self and Barrack Obama is the self in the speech. The second

one, the use of theme and rheme indicates how Obama desires to convey his concern of the tragedy throughout his speech. He states the main point of the information and the most important information will be the theme of a clause. His flowing ideas are related to each other.

After analyzing the cohesion of the speech, I find main four participants in the reference analysis. They are Obama, Obama together with the audience, and both victims and families of the victims. By analyzing reference, I found that Obama mostly uses the inclusive referent we in order to minimize the distance between him and the audience. I believe that Obama wants the audience to agree and support both his ideas and statement. In the substitution analysis, we can see that Barrack Obama replaces the presupposed items for positive purposes to avoid repetition of item.

From the analysis of ellipsis that has been done, it is seen that Obama omits the presupposed items and it does not affect his positive actions in his speech. By analyzing conjunctions, I find that Obama uses additive conjunction more to give more ideas as additional information. The use of antonymy in his speech indicates how Obama really cares about the victims and at the same time, he also tries to console them. In the repetition analysis, we can see that he implies what he wants to emphasize that he sides with the victims and their families.

In my opinion, the use of textual meaning and its instruments show the positive representation of Obama and how he can apply them well in delivering the condolences speech. It also helps to reveal the main concern of Obama to the audience so we can see how they relate to the self representation. By getting the obvious explanation, we are given further information about Obama’s concern

that can be interpreted according to the common meaning of its words of the speech.

The representation of the self can also be discovered from the ideational meaning, which is transitivity. Transitivity helps to reveal how the participant is represented in the speech. Barrack Obama is represented positively as a powerful but loving actor. He is also represented as a deep thinker to give his best encouragement to the audience, especially the families who are grieving over their children because of the tragedy.

Here, I only analyze three major processes which are applied in the speech. They are mental process, material process and relational process. I find how Obama is specifically represented by doing analysis involving these processes. In the mental process, Obama is the participant who is active in thinking of something. From the material process, we can see that Obama is doing positive actions actively. The relational process deals with facts that he does and it helps to see that the facts support the positive representation. He does good deeds through what he says and shows positive image he creates.

Through the interpersonal meaning analysis, I find that all of the clauses contain the declarative mood, which is used to provide information to the audience. In addition, in declaring his statements, Obama creates close distance with the people. In terms of Modality, the clauses contain the two probabilities: median and low. Those probabilities show that Obama makes commitments as the President to make the American people believe in him. Both Mood and Modality show Obama’s attitudes towards the tragedy to build a close relationship and solidarity among his

people.

Having done a thorough analysis of Barrack Obama’s speech by using systemic functional grammar, I come to realize that the use of both textual meaning and ideational meaning is necessary in discovering the positive self representation of Obama. In addition, the transitivity analysis also gives influence in order to uncover how Barrack Obama can be represented in the speech. Furthermore, the characteristics of Obama, who is a powerful and caring as the President, also supports his representation and can come out in this analysis.

The whole text can be analyzed by many theories which can be applied to analyze. The Systematic Functional Grammar that I use is reliable and effective theory because it focuses on each clause of the text. Moreover, this theory helps us to be more critical and detailed in doing an analysis.

The use of linguistic instruments can be applied not only in analyzing a speech but also in analyzing any kind of text such as a newspaper, reports and, articles. My suggestion to the readers who want to start analyzing a text is they have to find a well-suited data to analyze. They may use data which is produced by a recognized figure for the purpose that it can be examined whether the data is objective or not. As a consequence, the objectivity from the analysis can be considered. I recommend analyzing other speeches of Barrack Obama because I believe that so many interesting speeches by him and he shows his rapid reaction in responding every event that happens to his country.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Texts

Sandy Hook Shooting: What Happened? CNN Edition, 2012. Web. 27 February

2014.

Statement by the President on the School Shooting in Newtown, CT. The White

House Washington, 2012. Web. 27 February 2014. References

Chartesis-Black, Jonathan. Analysis Political Speeches: Rhetoric, Discourse and

Methaphor. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Print.

“Extend.” Oxford Online Dictionary. Oxford Online Dictionary 2014. Web. 6 October 2014.

Gerot and Wignell. Making Sense of Functional Grammar. Sydney: Antipodean Educational Enterprises, 1994. Print.

Groth, Cheryl. Semantics is Fun. Bandung: Alfabeta, 2013. Print.

Hall, Stewart. Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices. Sage: Michigan University Press, 1997. Web. 28 February 2014.

Halliday, M.A.K. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold, 1975. Print.

Halliday, M.A.K. and Hasan. Cohesion in English. London: Longman Group Limited, 1976. Print.

“Heart.” Oxford Online Dictionary. Oxford Online Dictionary 2014. Web. 6 October 2014.

chapter contains the conclusion of the analysis. In the end of the thesis I enclose Bibliography and Appendices.

CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

After analyzing a speech entitled “Statement by the President on the School Shooting in Newtown, CT,” I get three kinds of functional components of meanings in Systemic Functional Grammar analyzed: textual meaning, ideational meaning and interpersonal meaning. Based on the three kinds of meanings, the speech always leads Barrack Obama to the positive self representation. Since the condolence speech was delivered by Barrack Obama, who at that time was the President of the United States, the representation must be positive. In addition, Obama wants to show that he takes sides and encourages the people, who in this case mostly are both victims and families of the victims. By supporting the people, Obama creates a positive image of his role as the President.

The linguistic instruments that I use to get textual meaning are cohesion and theme and rheme. Cohesion consists of reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, antonymy and repetition. According to the analysis that I have done in the previous chapter, I find that there are some points that I can conclude. The first point shows that there is only one representation which is described as the self and Barrack Obama is the self in the speech. The second

one, the use of theme and rheme indicates how Obama desires to convey his concern of the tragedy throughout his speech. He states the main point of the information and the most important information will be the theme of a clause. His flowing ideas are related to each other.

After analyzing the cohesion of the speech, I find main four participants in the reference analysis. They are Obama, Obama together with the audience, and both victims and families of the victims. By analyzing reference, I found that Obama mostly uses the inclusive referent we in order to minimize the distance between him and the audience. I believe that Obama wants the audience to agree and support both his ideas and statement. In the substitution analysis, we can see that Barrack Obama replaces the presupposed items for positive purposes to avoid repetition of item.

From the analysis of ellipsis that has been done, it is seen that Obama omits the presupposed items and it does not affect his positive actions in his speech. By analyzing conjunctions, I find that Obama uses additive conjunction more to give more ideas as additional information. The use of antonymy in his speech indicates how Obama really cares about the victims and at the same time, he also tries to console them. In the repetition analysis, we can see that he implies what he wants to emphasize that he sides with the victims and their families.

In my opinion, the use of textual meaning and its instruments show the positive representation of Obama and how he can apply them well in delivering the condolences speech. It also helps to reveal the main concern of Obama to the audience so we can see how they relate to the self representation. By getting the obvious explanation, we are given further information about Obama’s concern

that can be interpreted according to the common meaning of its words of the speech.

The representation of the self can also be discovered from the ideational meaning, which is transitivity. Transitivity helps to reveal how the participant is represented in the speech. Barrack Obama is represented positively as a powerful but loving actor. He is also represented as a deep thinker to give his best encouragement to the audience, especially the families who are grieving over their children because of the tragedy.

Here, I only analyze three major processes which are applied in the speech. They are mental process, material process and relational process. I find how Obama is specifically represented by doing analysis involving these processes. In the mental process, Obama is the participant who is active in thinking of something. From the material process, we can see that Obama is doing positive actions actively. The relational process deals with facts that he does and it helps to see that the facts support the positive representation. He does good deeds through what he says and shows positive image he creates.

Through the interpersonal meaning analysis, I find that all of the clauses contain the declarative mood, which is used to provide information to the audience. In addition, in declaring his statements, Obama creates close distance with the people. In terms of Modality, the clauses contain the two probabilities: median and low. Those probabilities show that Obama makes commitments as the President to make the American people believe in him. Both Mood and Modality show Obama’s attitudes towards the tragedy to build a close relationship and solidarity among his

people.

Having done a thorough analysis of Barrack Obama’s speech by using systemic functional grammar, I come to realize that the use of both textual meaning and ideational meaning is necessary in discovering the positive self representation of Obama. In addition, the transitivity analysis also gives influence in order to uncover how Barrack Obama can be represented in the speech. Furthermore, the characteristics of Obama, who is a powerful and caring as the President, also supports his representation and can come out in this analysis.

The whole text can be analyzed by many theories which can be applied to analyze. The Systematic Functional Grammar that I use is reliable and effective theory because it focuses on each clause of the text. Moreover, this theory helps us to be more critical and detailed in doing an analysis.

The use of linguistic instruments can be applied not only in analyzing a speech but also in analyzing any kind of text such as a newspaper, reports and, articles. My suggestion to the readers who want to start analyzing a text is they have to find a well-suited data to analyze. They may use data which is produced by a recognized figure for the purpose that it can be examined whether the data is objective or not. As a consequence, the objectivity from the analysis can be considered. I recommend analyzing other speeches of Barrack Obama because I believe that so many interesting speeches by him and he shows his rapid reaction in responding every event that happens to his country.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Texts

Sandy Hook Shooting: What Happened? CNN Edition, 2012. Web. 27 February 2014.

Statement by the President on the School Shooting in Newtown, CT. The White House Washington, 2012. Web. 27 February 2014.

References

Chartesis-Black, Jonathan. Analysis Political Speeches: Rhetoric, Discourse and Methaphor. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Print.

“Extend.” Oxford Online Dictionary. Oxford Online Dictionary 2014. Web. 6 October 2014.

Gerot and Wignell. Making Sense of Functional Grammar. Sydney: Antipodean Educational Enterprises, 1994. Print.

Groth, Cheryl. Semantics is Fun. Bandung: Alfabeta, 2013. Print.

Hall, Stewart. Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices. Sage: Michigan University Press, 1997. Web. 28 February 2014.

Halliday, M.A.K. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold, 1975. Print.

Halliday, M.A.K. and Hasan. Cohesion in English. London: Longman Group Limited, 1976. Print.

“Heart.” Oxford Online Dictionary. Oxford Online Dictionary 2014. Web. 6 October 2014.