The analysis of the tense choices in The Jakarta Post headlines news on November 1 - 30, 2007.

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ABSTRACT

SUSTIANI. The Analysis of the Tense Choices in The Jakarta Post Headlines News on November 1 - 30, 2007. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2008.

As the basic knowledge in English language, tenses has an important role because by learning tenses, we could understand the correspondence between the form of verb and our concept of time. That is why the choosing of tense in news writing is also important. Basically there are only two kinds of tense, present and past, but each tense can be in the simple form or can be combined with either progressive aspect or perfective aspect. Related with the statements above, the analysis will be focused on the types of tense and also the grammatical meanings of the chosen tense in The Jakarta Post Headlines News on November 1 – 30, 2007.

In this research, there are two problems which are formulated to guide the study. The first problem deals with the tense choices that are used in The Jakarta Post Headlines news on November 1 – 30, 2007. And the second problem deals with the grammatical reasons for choosing those tenses.

This study is a descriptive one, and the method employed in this study covered two stages. First, the data collections, the writer identified and made a list of finite clauses and divided them based on the type of tenses then calculated the distributions. Second, the data analysis, the writer did the analysis in line with the problems stated in chapter I. Answering the first problem, the writer identified the types of tense and described them. Answering the second problem, the writer analyzed the grammatical meanings of the chosen tense.

Through this study, the writer discovers some findings that can be stated as follow; firstly, the past tense forms are used more frequently with 59.82% of the occurrence than the present tense with 40.18%. The past tense clauses are dominated by the simple past form 92.94%, the past perfect form is 5.33% and the past progressive is 1.74%. While the present tense clauses are also dominated by the simple present 79.70%, the present perfect is 14.76% and the present progressive is 5.54%.

The second finding is that these types of tense may indicate some grammatical reasons. Predominantly, the simple past tense form is used to convey actions that take place at particular point of time in the past, the past perfect form is used to convey an action which extends in the past and seen from the past current relevance and the past progressive tense is used to show the limited duration of actions in the past. While the present tense form, predominantly, is used to indicate present actions/ present statements, present perfect form is used to indicate actions that went over time in the past and that is completed with the moment of speaking, and the present progressive is used to indicate actions which are in process/ in progress.

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ABSTRAK

SUSTIANI. The Analysis of the Tense Choices in The Jakarta Post Headlines News on November 1 – 30, 2007. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2008.

Dalam bahasa Inggris, tenses berperan sangat penting, karena dengan mempelajari tenses, kita dapat mengetahui hubungan antara bentuk kata kerja dan konsep waktu dari kegiatan tersebut. Oleh karena itu, pemilihan tenses (penunjuk waktu) dalam berita juga sangat penting. Pada dasarnya hanya ada dua tenses, past (lampau) dan present (sekarang), tapi tenses tersebut dapat berbentuk sederhana ataupun dikombinasikan dengan aspek perfektif dan progresif. Berhubungan dengan pernyataan di atas, analisis ini berfokus pada jenis-jenis tenses dan juga arti-arti gramatikal dari tenses yang digunakan dalam berita utama harian The Jakara Post di bulan November 2007 dari tanggal 1 sampai tanggal 30.

Dalam penelitian ini ada dua masalah yang dirumuskan untuk memandu pembelajaran. Permasalahan pertama berkenaan dengan pemilihan tenses di berita utama harian The Jakarta Post di bulan November 2007 dari tanggal 1 sampai tanggal 30. Permasalahan yang kedua berkenan dengan alasan gramatikal dari pemilihan tenses tersebut.

Penelitian ini adalah penelitian deskriptif. Penulis melakukan dua tahap dalam penelitian ini. Pertama pengumpulan data, penulis mengidentifikasi dan membuat daftar klausa-klausa dengan kata kerja finite dan membaginya berdasarkan jenis tenses lalu menghitung jumlahnya. Kedua, analisis data, penulis melakukan analisis sesuai dengan rumusan masalah yang terdapat di bab I. Untuk menjawab permasalahan pertama, penulis mengidentifikasi jenis dari tenses dan menjelaskannya. Untuk menjawab permasalahan kedua, penulis menganalisa arti gramatikal dari jenis-jenis tenses yang digunakan.

Hasil penelitian menujukan bahwa (1) past tense (lampau) lebih banyak digunakan dengan prosentase 59.82% dari pada present tense (sekarang) 40.18%. Bentuk lampau didominasi oleh bentuk simple (sederhana) 92.94%, past perfect 5.33%, dan past progressive 1.74%. Sedangkan present tense (sekarang) juga didominasi oleh bentuk simple (sederhana) 79.70%, present perfect 14.76% dan present progressive 5.54%. (2) Jenis-jenis tense dapat menunjukan beberapa alasan gramatikal. Secara garis besar, bentuk simple past tense digunakan untuk mengungkapkan kejadian yang yang berlangsung di satu waktu di masa lalu , past perfect digunakan untuk mengungkapkan kejadian yang berlangsung pada suatu periode di masa lalu dan dan dilihat dari saat itu juga, dan past progressive digunakan untuk menunjukan kejadian yang berlangsung pada dalam waktu yang terbatas di masa lalu. Sedangkan bentuk present tense secara umum digunakan untuk mengindikasikan kejadian ataupun pernyataan di masa sekarang, present perfect digunakan untuk mengindikasikan kejadian yang berlangsung dimasa lalu dan selesai saat waktu pembicaraan, dan present progressive digunakan untuk menunjukan kejadian yang sedang berlangsung.

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THE ANALYSIS OF THE TENSE CHOICES

IN THE JAKARTA POST HEADLINES NEWS

ON NOVEMBER 1 - 30, 2007

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By SUSTIANI

Student Number: 034214047

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2008

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THE ANALYSIS OF THE TENSE CHOICES

IN THE JAKARTA POST HEADLINES NEWS

ON NOVEMBER 1 - 30, 2007

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By SUSTIANI

Student Number: 034214047

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2008

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The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other . . .

--Robert Frost (1961)—

T

y

y y

R

W

E

1841

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Th is u n d e r g r a d u a t e t h e s is is d e d ic a t e d t o M y B e lo v e d P a r e n t s , M y B r o t h e r a n d S is t e r s ,

a n d a ls o Th e o n e w h o I Lo v e a n d Lo v e s m e m o r e

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Alhamdulillah, Ya Allah,Ya Rabbi, finally I could finish my undergraduate thesis. My deepest gratitude goes to Allah SWT for the wonderful grace upon my life and for guiding me in writing my undergraduate thesis.

I would like, to thank Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M. Pd., M.A., my advisor, for his guidance, incredible patience, suggestions, and the time that he has spent to correct this thesis. I also would like to thank my co-advisor, Dra. Bernadine Ria Lestari, M.S., for reading my undergraduate thesis and for the suggestions in order to make it better.

I dedicate this thesis for my beloved parents. I highly thank them for their prayers and their patience in supporting my study (Thanks Mom and Dad, your strict ways make me learn a lot of things). I thank my sisters for their prayers, supports, and helps, and also for my brother who teaches me how to “fight” in my life. Many thanks also go to all my families, my grandmother, my uncles, my aunts, my cousins, my nieces and my nephew. I thank them for the happiness, love and laugh. I am very grateful that I can be the part of the family.

I dedicate special thanks to “Hun”diarto Kurniawan who always supports me and helps me stand up when I fell down. You are the one who I love and loves me more, thanks for your love and your patience, you are a good listener who gives me good advice too.

Lots of gratitude go to Anna Fitrianti, S.S., M.Hum., who has become the “third advisor” of this thesis writing process. My sincere appreciation is also

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expressed to all of lecturers for their guidance and their time to share their knowledge during my study and to all Sanata Dharma University’s staffs and librarians, especially mbak Ninik in the secretariat of English Letters Department.

I would like to express high appreciations to my best friends Maxi_Boim, Yerry, Mbendol, Nyit-Nyit, dJatep, SuperBay, Bagor, Tyok, Ryan and also my Lil_sister Woelan for their helps, their supports, and becoming my real friends during my happiest and roughest days (From you all, I know that friends indeed are friends in need, together in laugh and cry). For We Won’t Pay crew, Prita, Chubby, Wayan, Novi, Widhi, Ella, Dodik, Bhayank, Vallone and Rensi and the others friends in ’03 class of English Letters, I thank them for giving me such a beautiful friendship.

Last but not least, I would like to thank Rinta Aribawa for the time that we shared within last few years, thanks for the prayers and for everything.

Sustiani

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ... i

APPROVAL PAGE ... ii

ACCEPTANCE PAGE ... iii

MOTTO PAGE ... iv

DEDICATION PAGE ... v

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS ... vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... viii

LIST OF TABLES ... x

ABSTRACT ... xi

ABSTRAK ... xii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ... 1

A. Background of the Study ... 1

B. Problem Formulation ... 3

C. Objectives of the Study ... 4

D. Benefits of the Study ... 4

E. Definition of Terms ... 5

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ... 7

A. Review of Related Studies ... 7

B. Review of Related Theories ... 9

1. Theory of Sentence Elements ... 9

a. Subject ... 9

b. Verb ... 10

c. Object ... 11

d. Complement ... 11

e. Adverbial ... 12

2. Theory on Sentence Structure ... 12

3. Theory on Tenses, Aspect and Mood ... 17

a. Present Tense ... 19

b. Past Tense ... 24

4. Theory on News ... 28

a. The News Story Elements ... 28

i. The Lead ... 28

ii. The Time Element ... 29

iii. Specific Information ... 29

iv. Sources ... 29

v. Attribution ... 30

b. The Characteristic of News ... 31

c. Headline ... 32

d. Headline News ... 33

C. Theoretical Framework ... 36

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CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ... 39

A. Object of the Study ... 39

B. Method of the Study ... 41

1. Data Collection ... ... 43

2. Data Analysis ... ... 44

a. Identifying the Types of Tense ... 44

b. Identifying the Grammatical Reasons of Choosing the Tense 45 CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS RESULT ... 46

A. The Type of Tenses in The Jakarta Post Headline News ... 49

1. Simple Present ... 51

2. Present Progressive ... 60

3. Present Perfect ... 62

4. Simple Past ... 65

5. Past Perfect ... 72

6. Past Progressive ... 75

B. The Grammatical Reasons of the Tense Choices ... 76

1. Simple Present ... 77

2. Present Progressive ... 89

3. Present Perfect ... 92

4. Simple Past ... 95

5. Past Perfect ... 100

6. Past Progressive ... 102

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ... 103

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 107

APPENDIX ... 110

List of Simple Present Tense Clauses in the Headlines ... 110

List of Simple Present Tense Clauses in the Articles ... 110

List of Present Progressive Tense Clauses in the Articles ... 126

List of Present Perfect Tense Clauses in the Articles ... 128

List of Simple Past Tense Clauses in the Headlines ... 132

List of Simple Past Tense Clauses in the Articles ... 132

List of Past Progressive Tense Clauses in the Articles ... 167

List of Past Perfect Tense Clauses in the Articles ... 168

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. The Types of Tense and Their Occurences in the Headlines.. 49 Table 2. The Types of Tense and Their Occurences in the Articles

of the Headline News ... 49 Table 3. The Variants of Present Tense and the Distributions

in the Headline ... 50 Table 4. The Variants of Present Tense and the Distributions

in the Articles of Headline News ... 51 Table 5. The Types of Finite Verbs in the Simple Present Tense

Clauses in the Headlines ... 56 Table 6. The Types of Finite Verbs in the Simple Present Tense

Clauses in the Articles ... 57 Table 7. The Variants of Past Tense and the Distributions in the

Articlesof the Headline News ... 65 Table 8. The types of Finite Verbs in the Simple Past Tense Clauses

in the Articles ... 69 Table 9. The Grammatical Reasons of the Choosing Simple Present

Tense in the Clauses of the Whole Samples ... 77 Table 10. The Grammatical Meanings of the Simple Present Tense

In the Present Speech Acts ... 78 Table 11. The Grammatical Meanings of the Simple Present Tense

Which Indicate Past Speech Acts ... 85 Table 12. The Grammatical Meanings of the Present Progressive Tense 90 Table 13. The Grammatical Meanings of the Present Perfect Tense

in the Clauses ... 93 Table 14. The Grammatical Meanings of the Simple Past Tense

in the Clauses ... 96 Table 15. The Grammatical Meanings of the Past Perfect Tense

in the Clauses ... 102

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ABSTRACT

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ABSTRAK

SUSTIANI. The Analysis of the Tense Choices in The Jakarta Post Headlines News on November 1 – 30, 2007. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2008.

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

According to Bloomfield (1962: 3) language plays an important role in our life because we need language to communicate with other. Language has been studied in a scientific way since the ancient times by careful and comprehensive observation. There are many kinds of language that people use in this world. All of them have their own characteristics which differentiate one from the other. One of those languages, that become an international language, is English. This language has commonly used including in Indonesia. Now days, English has become the second language in Indonesia after Indonesian. People use English not only for spoken language but also as written language. The using of English as written language can be seen in the application letters and in mass media such as magazines and also newspapers.

Both of the English spoken and written languages must follow the rule of grammar in order to avoid the grammatical mistakes. In constructing and analyzing a sentence, we should concern about the verb. Based on Explaining English Grammar, the most basic element in an English sentence is the verb (Yule, 1998: 54). The verb is the word that indicates action, state or condition, existence, or what is perceived by senses – touch, taste, hearing, seeing, and smelling (Young, 1958: 29). It generally refers to actions, events, and processes.

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The verbs have some different forms. If we want to describe the different forms of the verb, we need to talk about tense. Tense is a verb form that expresses actions which occur on certain time in the past, present and future (Curme, 1931: 354). In other words, tense often has to do with the position of a situation in the relation with the time of the speech. For example, in the sentence, When I met him, John had lived in Paris for 10 years, the past perfect form indicates that the speech is in the present time but the situation of When I met him relevant to a point in the past.

In English, the using of tenses is very important. As the basic knowledge in English language, tenses has an important role because by learning tenses, we could understand the correspondence between the form of verb and our concept of time (Quirk et al, 1985: 40). There were two main tenses in English-present and past. Each tense can have a simple form: and each can be combined with either progressive aspect or perfective aspect, or both (Close, 1977: 241). From those combinations, English has many kinds of tense variants.

The using of tense variants can be seen in the written language such as a news report. A news report is a right and objective announcement from facts that have values and have just happened that can attract readers of certain newspapers (Maulsby as cites in Sam Abede Pareno, 2003: 6). This news report is usually found in a newspaper and magazines. In a newspaper, the chosen of tenses is also an important thing because the typical news report is designed to focus on recent changes and the current situation (Yule, 1998: 71). From the choices of tense we could know the location of the actions/events of the news in time.

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Many kinds of tense variants are used in writing a news report. Even though the news commonly happens in the past time, sometimes in a news report, the report is written in a present tense and not always in past tense. The tense choices do not always follow the formal English rule. According to Berner R. Thomas,

The formal rule on sequence of tenses states that when a direct quotation is paraphrased, verbs are changed one degree that is from present to past. Journalists live by the paraphrase, and if they were to follow this rule, they would create inaccurate news stories, for by shifting tense, the journalist would be changing fact. (1992: 84)

Knowing that the tense choices are very important in a news report, the writer would like to analyze about the tense choices from The Jakarta Post. The Jakarta Post is a daily English-language newspaper in Indonesia. It was first published in 1983 and becomes the largest English-Language newspaper in Indonesia. The writer focused in analyzing the headlines news because the headline news is the most important story of today’s newspaper (Reddick, 1941: 250). And the writer takes the headlines news which were published on November 1 – 30, 2007 as the sample of the data.

B. Problem Formulation

From the background of the study and also the problem limitation above, the problem of this research can be stated as follows;

1. What tenses are used in The Jakarta Post headlines news on November 1 – 30, 2007?

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C. Objective of the Study

As the arrangement of the problem formulations, the goal of this research can be formulated as follows; the first is to find what kinds of tenses that commonly appear in The Jakarta Post headlines news. Basically there are only two kinds of tense, past and present, but when the tenses are combined with the progressive aspect or perfective aspect there will be 12 combinations of English tenses. In here the writer would mention the tense variants which are found in The Jakarta Post headlines news and give the examples which are taken from the headlines news. The writer also mentions the percentage distribution of each tense variant which appear in the headlines news.

The second objective is to identify the reason of using those tenses in referring the meaning of the sentence and also to show the occurrence of each grammatical meaning. A tense variant conveys a different grammatical meaning from the others and sometimes a tense variant may refer to 2 or 3 meanings. For example a simple past tense can be used to give description about a definite single completed event/action in the past, an event with duration that applied in the past and no longer applies in the present, habitual or repeated action/ event in the past, and etc.

D. Benefits of the Study

Some of the benefits of this study are to give knowledge to the readers about the kinds of tenses. Through the analysis and the examples which are given, the readers are able to identify the tense variants in the sentences especially in the

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news report and the reader will know what kind of tenses which frequently appears in the news writing. As the other advantages, the reader can also know about the grammatical meanings of each tense which are usually used in the news writing.

E. The Definition Terms

The terms that are used in this research are verbs, tense and news. 1. Verb

Asher and Simpson (1994: 5186) describe a verb as a member of the word class traditionally defined as a ‘doing’ word, denoting an action or states, for example knows, give, and broke. There are two classes of verbs forms. They are finite verb and non-finite verb. A finite verb contains a finite form of the verb, showing tense distinction between past and present, and being associated with particular subject (first, second, third person, singular or plural). A non-finite verb consists non-finite forms of the verb i.e. the infinitive form (usually with to), the present participle, or the past participle (Jackson, 1982: 72).

2. Tense

According to Curme tense is a verb form that expresses actions which occur on certain time in the past, present and future. Each tense can have a simple form and can be combined with more complex forms. Tenses express time from the standpoint of the moment in which the speaker is speaking without reference to some other fact (1931: 354). Tense is any

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of the form of a verb that may be used to indicate the time of the action or stated, expressed by the verb (Hornby, 1995: 1231).

3. News

As cited in New Survey of Journalism (Mott, 1969: 49), M. Lyle Spencer states that news can be defined as any accurate fact or idea that will interest a large numbers of readers. William S. Maulsby (as cited in Sam Abede Pareno, 2003: 6) also states that news may be defined as an accurate, unbiased account of the significant facts of a timely happening that is of the interest to the readers of the newspaper that prints the account. And according to Erie C. Hepwood (as cited in Sam Abede Pareno, 2003: 6) news is the first report of significant events which have interest for the public.

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

In this chapter, the writer takes three studies which are related to the analysis of this study. There are also some theories that are essential to answer the problem formulations. The theoretical framework shows the relation among those related theories that will help the writer to analyze the tense choices in the Jakarta Post headlines news on November 1 – 30, 2007.

A. Review of Related Studies

There are three studies which are taken as related studies. Three of them are the undergraduate theses of the students from Sanata Dharma University. The first related study is “A Study of –ly Adverb in Washington Post and The Jakarta Post Articles”. This study was written by Dionisius Pimarianto in 2005. This undergraduate thesis focused in analyzing the kinds of –ly adverbs and the positions of the adverb in a clause. From the analysis we may conclude that there are 5 kinds of adverb which are used in the articles, and by looking at the distributions, the adverbs always occur in the middle position and in the final position. The adverbs never occur in the initial position.

The second study is “A Study on English Preposition in in Newsweek Headline News Issued from May 2005 – October 2005”. Elisa Widyastuti wrote this undergraduate thesis in 2006. The aim of this study is to know the construction and the meanings of English preposition in in Newsweek headline

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news. In here, the most frequent construction which appears in the headline news as in + NP and most of the prepositions in show the meaning of denoting spatial rather than denoting time.

The third study was “A Study on Grammatical Meanings of Finite Verb Phrases in The Jakarta Post Headline News Issued in January 2007” written by Skolastika Pritania Nirwesti in 2007. Her undergraduate thesis focused on the finite verb phrases in the headline news. The writer analyzed the finite verb phrases and found the grammatical meanings to discuss their importance in the news writing. In her study, she found that the finite verb phrases were more frequently used than the non-finite ones. Those finite verb phrases indicated some grammatical meanings such as aspects (terminate, perfective, progressive), moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative), voices (active and passive) and tenses (past, present, future). In here, the aspects were dominated by the terminate aspect, the moods were dominated by indicative mood. The voices were dominated by passive voice, while the tenses were dominated by past tense.

The writer takes “A Study of –ly Adverb in Washington Post and The Jakarta Post Articles” and “A Study on English Preposition in in Newsweek Headline News Issued from May 2005 – October 2005” as related studies because both of them take the data from headlines news and also the articles from news report such as magazine and newspaper. The writer also takes the third study “A Study on Grammatical Meanings of Finite Verb Phrases in The Jakarta Post Headline News Issued in January 2007” because this undergraduate thesis analyzes the finite verb phrases and almost similar with the writer’s main focus to

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analyze the tense choices in the verb phrases. From the studies, the writer knows that the news report has the terms which are different from the other kinds of writing. That is why the writer tries to analyze the significance of the tense choices in the headlines news which are taken from the Jakarta Post issued on November 1 – 30, 2007.

B. Review of Related Theories 1. Theory of Sentence Elements

Tenses are the characteristics of finite verbs, which are parts of a clause in a sentence. According to Warriner (1958: 27) a sentence is a group of words containing a verb and its subject and expressing a completed thought. Quirk et al (1972: 34) explain that a sentence generally can be divided into two parts called subject and predicate. The predicate is divided into four important elements called as the verb, the complement, the object, and the adverbial.

Each sentence elements will be discussed more detail in the following paragraphs.

a. Subject

The subject of sentence has a close general relation to ‘what is being discussed’ (Quirk et al, 1972: 34). It consists of noun or a noun equivalent and characteristically name, places, people, animals, concepts, for example:

(1) She reads.

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The subject of a sentence is a part which is said (Young, 1958: 29). It occurs before the verb phrase in declarative clauses and immediately after the operator in questions. The subject of a sentence has a number and person concord where applicable with the verb phrase, and the examples are:

(3) The students have completed the task. (4) Have the student completed the task? b. Verb

Young (1958: 29) states that verb is the word that indicates action, state or condition, existence, or what is perceived by senses – touch, taste, hearing, seeing, and smelling. Asher and Simpson (1994: 5186) describe a verb as a member of the word class traditionally defined as a ‘doing’ word, denoting an action or states, for example knows, give, and broke. Verbs generally refer to actions, events and processes.

There are two classes of verb forms. They are finite verb and non-finite verb. According to Harman (1950: 93) a finite verb is one which asserts or predicates and it is “limited” by person and number. A finite verb contains a form of the verb, showing tense distinction between past and present, and being associated with particular subject (first, second, third person, singular or plural) (Jackson, 1982: 72), for example:

(5) The dog runs.

(6) I drive my motorcycle. (7) She slept in hotel yesterday.

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A non-finite verb is one which lacks the power to assert (Harman, 1950: 93). It is not limited by the person or the number of the subject. According to Jackson, a non-finite verb consists a form of the verb i.e. the infinitive form (usually with to), the present participle, or the past participle, for example:

(8) I want to go home.

(9) Going along the road, we sang.

(10) Covered with confusion, I left the room.

The non-fine verbs in sentence (8), (9), and (10) are go, going, and covered. c. Object

An object is a noun or noun equivalent (e.g. a clause) which is directed by the actions of the verb, or to which a preposition indicates some relations (Hornby, 1974: 557). Both Quirk (1973: 13) and Jackson (1982: 84) distinguish two types of object: direct and indirect object. The indirect object normally refers to a person, more particularly the person who is the recipient or who benefits from the action. For example:

(11) She gives me a book.

The indirect object tends to be done for or received by the direct object. The direct object is a word or group of words to which the verb carries the action from the subject. For example in sentence (11), the direct object is a book while the indirect object is me.

d. Complement

Mallery indicates complement as a word that completes the meaning of verb or predicate (1944: 43). Quirk et al (1972: 37) also distinguishes two types of

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complement: the subject complement and the object complement. The subject complement has a straightforward relation to the subjects of their respective sentences. While the object complement has a similar relation to a direct object. The examples are:

(12) Anne is the winner. (13) Tom made her the winner.

In sentence (12) the winner is the subject complement while in sentence (13) function as the object complement.

e. Adverbial

The adverbial function is filled by an adverb (including adverb phrase), noun phrase, prepositional phrase, finite verb clause, non-finite verb clause, and verbless clause (Quirk et al, 1972: 420). Leech states that adverbials usually tell something extra about the action, happening, or state which are described by the rest of the sentence (1975: 197). Some of the examples are:

(14) She hurried across the field. (15) We have to go before it’s too late.

2. Theory on Sentence Structure

Tense has an important position in English sentence structure. The term of tense always influences the form of verb. By knowing the English sentence structure, we can know the term of tense which is used in a sentence. According to Chomsky (as cited in Dwijatmoko, 2002: 55) an ordinary clause basically

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consists of three elements such as a Complementizer Phrase (CP), Inflection Phrase (IP), and Verb Phrase (VP).

According Dwijatmoko (2002: 55), a complementizer subcategorizes for a sentence (S) and equals to an Inflection Phrase (IP). The concept of complementizer is needed to label the presence of that, whether/if, and for in a sub-clauses and the absence of those complementizers result ungrammatical sentences, like in examples below:

(16) Mr. Hayes suggests that Holy see a doctor. *Mr. Hayes suggests Holly see a doctor.

The second element is Inflectional Phrase. The term inflection based on Chomsky (1986b) theory (as cited in Dwijatmoko’s book, 2002: 57), only refers to an affix which indicates the tense syntactic features, but since the inflection does not only cover tense affixes {-es} and {-ed} but also participle affixes {-ing} and {-en}, Dwijatmoko states that the term tense (TNS) will be used for the tense affixes and Part will be used for both present participle {-ing} and past participle {-en} affixes. Present participle {-ing} is used to show the progressive aspect and past participle {-en} is used to show perfective aspect.

According to Dwijatmoko (2002: 57), besides the tense affixes {-es} and {-ed}, modal auxiliary verbs like will, can, must, would, and could also indicate tense. The present tense is indicated by will, can and must while could and would indicate the past tense. Therefore, TNS covers the present tense affix {-es} or PRE, the past tense affix {-ed} or PST, and such modal auxiliary verbs.

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The third element is Verb phrase. As mentioned in the previous theory of sentence element, a verb phrase (VP) is a phrase which has a verb as the head. English verbs are usually classified into three classes: full verbs, linking verbs, and auxiliary verbs. Full verbs comprise the largest number of verbs such as go, eat, plan, decide, and arrive. The linking verbs form a small set of verbs, like be, become, feel, seem, and taste. While the auxiliary verbs further classified into modal auxiliary verbs, like can, may, must, and will, aspectual auxiliary verbs be and have, Auxiliary verb of voice be, and auxiliary verb of status do/does/did. Those three classes of verb occupy different position in English sentence structure Dwijatmoko, 2002: 37).

Before constructing the s-structure, we should know about the elements of a sentence such as Noun Phrase (NP), Verb Phrase (VP), Adjective Phrase (AP), Prepositional Phrase (PP), etc. Therefore, there is a theory which is used to analyze the formation of phrases, called the X-bar theory. The X-bar theory is a kind of theory in Universal Grammar (UG) and has a universal value (Dwijatmoko, 2002:5). It means that the X-bar theory applies to all types of phrases in all human language including English.

In the X-bar theory, any element of a syntactic unit which is not the head is a phrase. A phrase is the maximal projection of a category. A maximal projection is the representation in which all elements that occur in a phrase appear. According to Dwijatmoko (2002: 6), a phrase may contain a head, complement, attribute, adjunct, and a specifier as its elements. A complement is an element which is needed to complete the meaning of the head. A complement

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can also be said to be a thing or person whom an action or state is directed as in the example the news on the Gulf War. On the Gulf War is the complement of the Noun Phrase. A piece of news always tells about some things and in the Noun Phrase the news tells about the Gulf War.

The next elements are attribute and adjunct which show the characteristic of a head. The difference between the attribute and adjunct lies in their positions. An attribute comes before the head and an adjunct comes after the head, like in the following examples very good at the beginning. The example is a kind of Adjective Phrase (AP), the head is good, the attribute which comes before the head is very, and the adjunct which comes after the head is at the beginning.

The following element in construction of a phrase is specifier. A specifier is the element which a head requires to appear in a larger construction (Dwijatmoko, 2002: 6). The specifier makes the phrase head more specific. For example in a noun phrase, the specifier can be an article or genitive pronoun, he lost his dictionary, his is the specifier in Noun phrase his dictionary.

As stated before, a phrase is a maximal projection of a category. It means that a phrase with a category X or XP as the maximal projection of the category X. Based on Dwijatmoko (2002: 7), the letter X is used because the X-bar theory is applicable to all phrase categories. It can stand for N (noun), V (verb), A (adjective), P (preposition), or any category.

Every elements of a phrase such as a complement, attribute, adjunct, and specifier have different relations with the head and show different functions, they also form different levels of syntactic unit. A complement expands a head (X) into

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an X’. An attribute and an adjunct expand an X’ into another X’, and specifier expands an X’ bar into an X” or a phrase (XP). The relationships of the elements in a phrase are often shown in the following diagram.

XP (X”)

Specifier X’

X’ Adjunct

Attribute X’

X Complement

The relation between one element and another in a diagram can be called daughter or sister. An element is a daughter of another element if it is under the node of the other element. An element is a sister of another element if the two elements are under the same node. With the terms daughter and sister the elements which a head may have in a phrase in a diagram can be defined that a specifier is the daughter of XP and the sister of X’. An Attribute is the daughter of X’, the sister of another X’, and comes before the head. An adjunct is the daughter of X’, the sister of another X’, and comes after the head. And the last, a complement is the daughter of X’ and a sister of X.

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Based on Dwijatmoko (2002: 68) in making s-structure, there are some features that will be used, such as Complementizer phrase (CP), Tense phrase (TNSP), Verb phrase (VP), Noun phrase (NP), Adjective phrase (AP), or Preposition Phrase (PP). An English sentence (S’) is equal to a CP. Then C takes TNSP which is equal to a sentence in zero bar level (S) as its complement, and TNS takes VP as its complement. V may take another VP, NP, AP, or PP as its complement. The NP, AP, PP may be fully developed with an NP as its specifier, and form what are usually called as small clause. The above description can be represented as in the following example;

(17) John reads novel. CP -s [John read novel]. C’

C TNSP

NP TNS’ John TNS VP

-s V’

V NP Read Novels

3. Theory on Tenses, Aspect and Mood

The most basic element in an English sentence is the verb (Yule, 1998: 54). To describe the different forms of the verb, we need to talk about tense,

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which often has to do with the location of a situation in time and aspect, which characterizes the way in which the situation is perceived or experienced.

Tense is a verb form that expresses actions which occur on certain time in the past, present, and future (Murcia & Freeman, 1983: 62). Basically there are two main tenses in English: present and past. Each tense can have a simple form and each can be combined with either progressive aspect or with perfective aspect or with both (R.A. Close, 1977: 241). In most descriptions, the use of the modal verb will is included, typically as an indication of future reference (Yule, 1998: 54).

Quirk (1985: 40) explains that time is universal, non-linguistic concept with three divisions: past, present, and future. By tense, we could understand the correspondence between the form of the verbs and our concept of time. The forms of English tense are only present and past, but there are three divisions of time. In order to balancing the divisions of time, the forms of tenses can be combined with the aspect and mood. The aspect concerns about the manner in which the verbal action experienced or regarded, while mood relates the verbal action to such condition as certainty, obligation, necessity, possibility.

Tenses, Aspect and Mood are related one to another. In particular the expression of time present and past can’t be considered separately from aspects and the expression of future is closely bound up with moods. The forms of tense which are combined with aspect and mood will be discussed later in the following paragraph. Based on Quirk (1985: 41) with this small set of technical terms, the range of English verb forms can be divided into:

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a. Present Tense

Based on Quirk (1985:41), there are three basic types of present in English:

i. Timeless

The type of timeless is usually expressed with the simple present form and used for;

a. Expressing habitual action

(18) I (always) write with a special pen (when I sign my name).

b. Expressing universal statements/ general timeless truth, e.g. physical laws or customs.

(19) The sun sets in the west ii. Limited

The forms of the limited type are usually expressed by using the present progressive. It is used for;

a. Indicating that the action is in process

(20) I am writing (on this occasion) with a special pen (since I have mislaid my ordinary one).

b. Indicating that the action is in limited duration/ called as temporary activity (action will end and therefore lacks of permanence of the simple present tense)

(21) Normally he lives in London, but at present he is living in Boston. c. Indicating incompleteness (e.g. in a verb like stop whose action cannot in reality have duration)

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(22) The bus is stopping.

d. Indicating a habitual action and conveying an emotional coloring such as irritation (usually with an adverb of high frequency)

(23) He’s always writing with a special pen – just because he likes to be different.

According to Quirk (1985:48) present progressive can also refer to a future happening which is anticipated in the present. The basic meaning of it is fixed arrangement, plan, or program’.

(24) He is moving to London. iii. Instantaneous

The instantaneous type is usually expressed with either the simple or progressive forms.

(25) Watch carefully now: first, I write with my ordinary pen; now, I write with a special pen.

(26) As you see, I am dropping the stone into the water.

The using of simple present is regularly used in subordinate clauses that are conditional (introduced by if, unless, etc) or temporal (introduced by as soon as, before, when, etc). The used of simple present in main clause may be said to represent a marked future aspect of unusual certainty. In the other words, the simple present tense can be used for;

a. Referring to a sequential habit in subordinate clause with the main verb is in future time.

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b. Referring to a conditional in a future time especially in the subordinate clause.

(28) What will you say if I marry my boss?

According to Murcia & Freeman (1983: 63), a simple present tense can also be used for:

a. Describing about a present event/ action or speech act (29) I resign from the commission.

b. Describing a past events in narration (in conversation)

(30) “So she stands up in the boat and waves his arms to catch our attention.”

The other aspect in English language is perfective aspect. It can be combined with present tense as well progressive aspect. Based on Murcia & freeman (1983: 64), the using of present perfect form can be used for;

a. Referring to a situation that began in the past and that continuous into the present.

(31) I have been a teacher since 1972.

b. Referring to a past experience with current relevance (32) I have already seen that movie.

c. Referring to a very recently completed action (33) Mort has just finished his homework.

d. Referring to an action that went on over time in the past and that is completed with the moment of speaking

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e. Referring to a conditional time in the subordinate clauses (35) If you have done your homework, you can watch TV.

A present tense can also be combined with the combination of progressive aspect and also a perfective aspect. According to Murcia & freeman (1983: 65, the form of present perfect progressive is used for;

a. Describing a situation or habit that began in the past (recent or distant) and that continues up to present.

(36) I have been living in Seattle for 7 years.

b. Describing the incompleteness of an action in progress (37) I have been reading a book.

According to Quirk (1985: 47), there is no obvious future tense in English corresponding to the time/ tense relation for present and past. The expression of the future is closely bound up with mood. Instead there are several possibilities for denoting future time. It is rendered by means of modal auxiliaries or semi-auxiliaries, or by simple present forms or progressive forms.

Quirk (1985:47) also mentioned that the patterns of simple future (will and shall) is used to:

a. Refer to an action which takes place at some definite future time (38) He will walk to school tomorrow.

b. Refer to a future habitual action or future state (39) Joel will take the bus to work next year.

c. Refer to a situation that may obtain in the present and will obtain in the future but with some future termination in the sight

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(40) Nora will live in Caracas until she finishes school. d. Refer to the main clause in the future conditional sentence

(41) If you go, you’ll be sorry.

The form of progressive aspect can also be used to indicate the future time in present tense. The term of future progressive indicates:

a. An action that will be in progress at a specific time in the near future (42) He will be walking to school at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

b. Duration of some specific future action

(43) Mavis will be working on her thesis for the next ten years.

The perfective aspect can also be combined to describe a future time. The form of future perfect is giving information about:

a. A future action that will be completed prior to a specific future time (44) I will have finished all this typing by 5 p.m.

b. A state or action that will be completed in the future prior to some other future time or event (near or distant)

(45) He will have walked to school before you finish your breakfast. Both of the perfective and progressive aspects can also be combined in the same time to denote the future meaning. This pattern can be used for referring a durative or a habitual action that is taking place in the present and that will continue into the future up until or through a specific future time.

(46) On Christmas Eve our family will have been living in Chicago for

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b. Past Tense

Past tense has a simple form which can express a habitual activity (sentence (47)) and also can be used to convey an action which takes place at a particular point of time in the past (Quirk, 1985: 42), like in the sentence (48), (47) He always wrote with a special pen.

(48) I wrote my letter of 16 June 1972 with a special pen.

Past tense form can also indicate an action which takes place over a period of time. And later the period may be seen as extending up to the present (sentence (49)) or relating only to the past which can be viewed as having been completed (sentence (50)) or as not having been completed (sentence (51)).

(49) I have written with a special pen since 1972. (50) I wrote with a special pen from 1969 to 1972. (51) I was writing poetry with a special pen.

Like present tense, past tense can also be combined with progressive aspect or perfective aspect. The choice of perfective aspect is associated with time-orientation and consequently also with various time-indicators such as lately, since, so far, etc. In here, the point of current relevance to which the past perfect extends is a point in the past. Like in the following example,

(52) When I met him, John had lived in Paris for ten years.

According to Murcia & Freeman (1983:65), the form of past perfect can also be used to explain a past conditional of imaginative events in the subordinate clause (53) If Sally had studied harder, she would have passed the exam.

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The combination of past tense and the progressive aspect specifies the limited duration of an action like in the present. It can be seen in the sentence (43) (54) I was writing with a special pen for a period last night but my hand

grew tired.

In consequence, past progressive can also indicate a past action which is simultaneous with some other event.

(55) While I was writing, the phone rang.

The progressive aspect can also express incomplete action by contrasting pair like in the illustrated examples

(56) He read a book that evening (implies that he finished it)

(57) He was reading a book that evening (implies that he did not finish it)

According to Quirk (1985: 46) habitual activity may be expressed by the progressive aspect but it entails that the habit is temporary like in sentence (47), but the past progressive may also refer to pejorative habits like in sentence (48) (58) At that time, we were bathing every day.

(59) My brother was always losing his keys.

The past perfect progressive tense is a combination of the perfective and also progressive aspect with the past tense. Based on Murcia & Freeman (1983:65), it has functions to:

a. Describe an action or habit which is taking place over a period of time in the past prior to some other past event

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(60) Carol had been working very hard, so her doctor told her to take a vacation.

b. Describe a past action that is in progress but interrupted by another past action.

(61) We had been planning to vacation in Nevada but changed our minds when so much it got badly flooded.

Some of the future construction can be used in the past tense to express time which is in the future when seen from a view point in the past (Quirk, 1985: 50). Some terms in past tense which indicate the future are:

a. Auxiliary verb construction with would

(62) The time was not far off when he would regret this decision. b. Be going to-infinitive (often with the sense of unfulfilled intention) (63) You were going to give me your address.

c. Past progressive

(64) I was meeting him in Bordeaux in the next day. d. Be + to-infinitive

(65) The meeting was to be held the following week e. Be about to-infinitive

(66) He was about to hit me.

Besides the using of verb, there is also modal auxiliary in English sentences. According to Halliday (1994: 75), modal auxiliaries are the speakers judgments of the probability or the obligation involved in what he is saying. Modal auxiliaries doesn’t have –s forms, -ing forms or –ed participles, but can,

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may, shall and will have special past forms could, might, should and would respectively. Furthermore the modal auxiliaries have close relations with English moods. As stated by Curme (1966:235), there is a tendency to use the modal s in expressing the mood because they have more shades of meanings and are more effective in expressing moods.

According to Quirk et al (1985: 52-57), modal auxiliaries contain different meanings. Can expresses ability (be able to, be capable of, know how to), permission (be allowed to, be permitted to) and possibility (it is possible that/to), while could expresses past ability, present or future permission, present possibility, and contingent possibility or ability in unreal condition. Both of may and might shows permission and possibility (factual and theoretical). Quirk et al note that shall and will are used to show willingness, intention of the part of the speaker (only for the first person) like in the I shan’t be long, insistence like in the You do as I say, and legal and quasi legal like in the The vendor shall maintain the equipment in good repair. Will may also show predictions (specific prediction like in The game will be finished by now, timeless prediction like in oil will float in the water, and habitual predictions like in he’ll (always) talk for hours if you give him the chance).

Modal auxiliary would is also used to show willingness, insistence, characteristic activity in the past, contingent use in the main clause of a conditional sentence and probability. Should is used to indicate the obligation and logical necessity (You should do as he says), “putative” use after certain expressions, eg: it is a pity that, I am surprised that, hypothetical used in the main

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clause with a conditional sub clause. Finally, both must and ought to can be used to show obligation or compulsion and logical necessity. Must is usually used to indicate the obligation or compulsion in the present tense, except in reported speech (replaced by had to).

4. Theory on News

The news writing has different style of language from any other literature. To differentiate the style of language in news writing, it is essential to review some theories about what news is and the characteristic of news.

a. The News Story Elements

The typical news story is designed to convey news quickly, clearly and unambiguously. According to Berner (1992: 29) a news story usually comprises the element such as the lead, a time element, specific rather than general information, sources, attribution in direct and indirect quotations, and sentences and paragraphs.

i. The Lead

In the typical news story, the lead is in the first paragraph and usually no more than one sentence. The lead concisely tells the reader or listener what the story is about. The example of a lead as cited in United Press International:

PRAGUE, Czechoslovakia (UPI)—A pipe bomb exploded during an election rally in a busy tourist area of the city Saturday, injuring 15-20 people, witnesses and the Czechoslovak News Agency said.

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ii. The Time Element

The time element tells when the news happened. Usually it is confined to a day or a period in a day. In typical news story, tense is very relevant. By tense, we could convey the time element. Most of the verbs are past tense (Berner, 1992:30).

A journalist can choose from a variety of tenses, all the variations of present, past and future. But since by definition news is something that happened, past tense is the appropriate tense for most news story. In the following lead, the time element and past tense verbs are shown italic:

WASHINGTON (UPI)—Retired Chief Justice Warren Burger, saying the law profession should “hang its head in shame,” criticized by lawyers Friday and urged an attorneys group to determine whether regulation is needed.

iii. Specific Information

Specific information allows the reader and listener to know exactly what the story is about. The specific information includes names, ages, addresses, titles, number of votes (Berner, 1992: 31). Here are the first two paragraphs from a story on AIDS, the specific information is shown in italics:

GENEVA (UPI)—Global AIDS cases reported to the World Health Organization rose by 8,973 or 3.5 percent, in May to a total of 263,051, the U.N. agency said Friday.

The United States accounted for most of the increase with 6,309 cases for a total 132,436, or 50.4 percent of the world figure as May 31.

iv. Sources

The expert and the other people providing information in a story are called sources (Berner, 1992: 31). A news story can have one source or many sources.

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The sources of a story should have names although sometimes sources have to be anonymous. Sources can also be documents and other publications, and when a journalist observes something and reports it, the journalist becomes a source. In the previous story, the World Health Organization is the source. The other example will be shown in italics:

ERROL, N.H. (UPI)—Observers watching the first pair of bald eagles to nest in New Hampshire in more then 40 years report sighting at least one eaglet, a wildlife biologist said Thursday.

Christ Martin, wildlife programs manager for the New Hampshire Audubon Society, said it is possible that chicks are in the nest. He said observers, who check the nest near Umbaygog Lake several times a week, probably will be able to determine the exact number of eaglets by sometime next week.

v. Attribution

When a source is cited in a story, information is attributed to that source. An attribution lets the reader or listener know where information came from. It is clearly marked for the reader or listener by an attribution tag. The typical attribution tag which commonly used in news story are “(person’s name) said” or “according to (person’s name or document)” (Berner, 1992: 32). Attributed information appears as either a direct quotation or an indirect quotation. This is the example of a direct quotation with attribution tag.

“They beat them with their fist,” a duty nurse said of the Soviet soldiers who broke into the hospital. She refused to give her name. “I was afraid they will shoot me too.”

As in indirect quotation, the nurse’s exact words would be paraphrased, and where the first-person pronoun appears, the paraphrased statement would be shifted to a third-person pronoun. The example can be seen in the following paragraph.

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A duty nurse said Soviet soldiers broke into a hospital and beat the patients with their fists. The nurse, who refused to give her name, said she was afraid the soldiers would also shoot her.

b. The Characteristic of News

There are eight indicators or characteristics of the news as noted by Pareno (2003: 6-19, my translation). Firstly, the news is containing reports. The reports are delivered by the reporters or journalists based on what has been said, seen or done by from informants. Secondly, the news is informative. The information can be the form of fact gained by reporters that is delivered to the public. Then, the news must be new. A report that is made by the reporters or journalists must be new, or currently, news that is out of date has been known by the public. Next, the news which is reported must be true. In journalistic, it is important to tell true not truth, it means that the reporters or journalists must tell the true story based on statements of one or some figures that are admitted as related persons and have some credible references. The story must be true in the form of fact whether in the existence or the delivery of the fact.

The other characteristic is that the news must be neutral. In order to be neutral, a reporter or a journalist must be justified. Then the report must be factual. Further more, news must contain the news value. Some of the events that have the news value are often related to the public interest or necessity. Lastly, news must be attractive to the public.

Moreover about the characteristic of news, Miller (1969: 48-48) states that the language of newspaper must be easy to understand, because it is read by people from any level of education and under conditions that are far from

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comfortable and supporting conditions. It is also read more hurried than any other medium of communication. According to Miller (1969: 52), good news writing is the one that has reporting sentences that go straight to the points.

c. Headline

As cited in www.wikipedia.org, a headline is text at the top of newspaper article, indicating the nature of the article below it. According to Reddick (1941: 250), there are four purposes of the headlines. One purpose of the use of the headlines is to provide a more pleasing appearance by offering a contrast between headline type and body type. The second purpose is to classify news stories rank of importance. In the front page of the newspaper, the more important stories have the large headlines while the unimportant stories have small headlines. The third purpose of the headlines is to present in skeleton form the most important facts of the story. In here, the headlines must summary the important facts of the stories. The last purpose according to Reddick is to advertise the news. A headline is used to attract our intention, arouse our interest and lead us to read the story.

Reddick (1941: 256) also mentions that there are three important rules that must be followed in writing the headlines. The firs rule is to use the historical present tense instead of the past tense. The using of present tense gives the impression of action which is taking place now. It emphasizes the element of timeliness. In indicating the future action, the writer should use either the future tense or and infinitive. For example, “Roosevelt Will Speak in Chicago” or “Roosevelt to Speak in Chicago”. The second rule is every deck of the headline must have a verb either expressed or implied. And the third rule is the using of

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active voice in preference to the passive. The active voice lends vigor and life to a headline. The exception of this rule should be made only when the person or thing acted is more important than the agent of the action.

Reddick (1941: 260) states that the contents of the headlines should tell the news as specifically and as definitely as possible, and tell as many important facts as can be jammed into the space without making the headline appears crowded. The journalists should not editorialize in the headlines and they should write positive instead of negatives heads. And Reddick also states that the journalists should not repeat the important words.

In the Journalism and the School Paper, Reddick also describes that the choice of words in the headlines are also important. In the headlines, the journalist should not use the articles such as “a”, “an”, and “the”. The journalists should also use the only the well-known abbreviations and in the using of the verbs, Reddick mentions that headlines should have a verb expressed or implied in every deck. The using of active verbs is preferred rather than the passive voice. A headline should not begin with a verb or an infinitive when this form can be avoided and a headline should use the specific and definite nouns, verbs, and adjectives and never general terms.

d. Headline News

Suhandang (2004: 103) defines news as a report or announcement about every actual event that attract people’s attention. The events involve facts and the data available in the universe, and what happens must be actual, meaning to say that it has just happened or has just been discussed by public. Moreover,

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Suhandang notes that news might be in the form of straight news, and feature news (there is also hard news but Suhandang doesn’t mention it in his book).

Headline news, which becomes the main source of this thesis, is categorized as straight news. According to Suhadang, straight news is news that provides fact straightly or directly to the point (2004: 104). Straight news may be in the form of fact news, which only tells primary fact, action news, which only tells the action of the events or tells how certain events occur, and quote news, which tells some quotations from what the figures involved in certain events said.

Headline news is always shown in main page of the newspaper because headline news is the most important story of today’s newspaper (Reddick, 1941: 250). As the most important story of today’s newspaper, headline news has the largest headline on the page. Based on Reddick, the more important stories have the large headlines while the unimportant stories have small headlines (1941: 250).

According to Mott (1969: 249) the nature of the modern press, particularly the newspaper, emphasizes certain requisites of illustrative art. Headline news, as one of the most important story of today’s newspaper, requires a picture as the illustration of the event which is told in the news story and also caption to describe what the picture is. Mott also noted that the illustration is designed to tell a story. Illustration of any kind fails of its purpose if it doesn’t tell or contribute to a story. The picture which is used by the press generally deal with incidents, and even an illustration which is reproduced because of its artistic worth should have story value as well (1969: 249)

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News and feature pictures, covering the whole range of human events and interests, are assigned and placed in the layout in neat and orderly arrangement units. Under the pictures, usually there are a few clear and well-chosen words to show the essence of the picture story called caption. The caption is written by the copyreaders, who become the principal conservator of the proper standards of language in news paper.

The form of the headline news has the similarities with the other news story. The conventional news story has two parts: lead and the body (Mott, 1969: 65). The lead summarizes the story and serves three functions. Firstly, the lead answers the questions of who, what, when, where, why, and how. Secondly, the lead emphasizes the news feature of the story by placing it in the initial position. And the last, the lead provides such quick identification of persons, places, and events as it is necessary to an understanding of the story.

The second part is the body. The body is an elaboration of the lead (Mott, 1969: 65). When the facts are clear and well organized, the body will expand each of the points included in the lead in the same order, in which the lead has stated them. The material outlined by the lead may be presented based on the order of the interest. Those of greatest value being reported first and those with least value being used last.

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714. the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)announced Tuesday.

Simple Past 1 715. “The HDI report looks back at a measure of health, education

and income ... the standard of living among 177 countries and Indonesia is number 107 this year, one step further than last year,” Hakan Bjorkman, UNDP country director for Indonesia,

said.

Simple Past 1

716. “The change is related to other countries which are improving more. But, slowly, Indonesia is improving in these areas, but maybe not fast enough,” he told The Jakarta Post upon the launch of the Human Development Report.

Simple Past 1

717. “The improvement is not as fast as in Vietnam, but Cambodia and Myanmar are much slower than Indonesia,” he added.

Simple Past 1 718. Indonesia rose respectively from 67.2 to 69.7 and from

US$3,609 to US$3,843.

Simple Past 1 719. This year, the UNDP especially focused its report on climate

change conference in Bali in December.

Simple Past 1 720. “Since 1990 we have published the annual Human

Development Report, but this year’s report differs from last year’s in that it is not from a narrow economic point of view, but from the climate change point of view,” said Bjorkman.

Simple Past 1

721. “This report is a good reference for climate change issues,” he

added.

Simple Past 1 722. “The impact will be serious on the poor countries. If we don’t

do the right things right now, climate change will sabotage the Millennium Development (Goals),” said Bjorkman.

Simple Past 1

723. Bjorkman also said that most of the climate change has been caused by carbon emissions in developed countries over the past hundred years.

Simple Past 1

724. “As a good example of global solidarity between rich and poor countries, it’s a big responsibility for rich countries to support the countries that most effected, which are the poor countries, in terms of mitigating, fighting climate change or transplanting technology,” Bjorkman said.

Simple Past 1

725. Indonesia should also be able to rely on international support. Simple Past 6 726. Governments established some funding mechanism Simple Past 1

29 November 2007

727. “This will get worse in years to come. It has been estimated that by 2050, 25 percent of Jakarta will be inundated,” said

Armi Susandi, a climate change expert at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) on Wednesday.

Simple Past 1

728. He added that the poor city planning, bad zoning systems and a lack of infrastructure were contributing to the problem.

Simple Past 1 729. He received his Ph.D on climate change in 2004 from the

University of Hamburg, Germany.

Simple Past 1 730. He said regional climate change such as has take place in

Jakarta has the potential to increase local temperatures “inviting” more rain.

Simple Past 1

731. “The city’s severe pollution has created regional warming. This warming has moved the rain from Bogor in the south to Jakarta in the north,” he said.

Simple Past 1

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shifting rain – how the rain keeps moving to Jakarta. The increase in the city’s rainfall rate could reach up to 5 percent per year,” he said.

733. The increase in the city’s rainfall rate could reach up to 5 percent per year

Simple Past 4 734. The increasing sea level and the lack of buffer zone due to the

decreasing size of the mangrove forest that once covered the area would certainly aggravate the erosion of the beach and floods in coastal areas of the city, he said.

Simple Past 1

735. The increasing sea level and the lack of buffer zone due to the decreasing size of the mangrove forest that once covered the area would certainly aggravate the erosion of the beach and floods in coastal areas of the city

Simple Past 7

736. that once covered the area Simple Past 1

737. He added that the fact that the city’s land has sunk by 0.85 centimeters per year due to the pressure imposed by concrete buildings and skyscrapers as well as the massive exploitation of underground water springs hasn’t helped the city in dealing with the worsening floods.

Simple Past 1

738. Armi said that currently 40 percent of the city already lies below the sea level.

Simple Past 1 739. The government, he said, should construct a buffer zone in the

coastal areas to prevent the sea’s waves from entering the city.

Simple Past 1 740. The government ... should construct a buffer zone in the

coastal areas to prevent the sea’s waves from entering the city

Simple Past 6 741. The buffer could be made of mangroves or a six-meter-tall

concrete wall.

Simple Past 4 742. “When dealing with climate change-related problems, our

country has a very low adaptation capacity. In fact, all we have to do is decide whether we will plant mangroves or construct a wall. Otherwise, we need to relocate the residents who live along the coastal areas,” he said.

Simple Past 1

743. “In January 2008, the floods, I believe, will be worse than the ones we had in 2007 provided that the rainfall rate doesn’t change,” he said.

Simple Past 1

744. the ones we had in 2007 Simple Past 1

30 November 2007

745. Last year Indonesia was placed above Malaysia, and not far belo Brunei Darussalam.

Simple Past 1 746. The report categorized Indonesia as a country with education

expenditure of less than 3 percent of its GNP.

Simple Past 1 747. Globally, UNESCO said, world education is on the right track,

with the number of children starting primary school increasing sharply since 2000, more girls being in school than ever before and spending on education and aid rising.

Simple Past 1

748. Nicholas Burnett, director of the 2008 report and recently appointed UNESCO assistant director general for education,

concurred, saying that at the midway point, UNESCO’s assessment leaned toward the positive direction.

Simple Past 1

749. UNESCO’s assessment leaned toward the positive direction. Simple Past 1

(3)

Simple Past 1 = Conveying actions that take place at particular point of time in

the past

Simple Past 2 = Conveying actions that take place over a period of time and

having been completed

Simple Past 3 = Conveying the past abilities

Simple Past 4 = Conveying the present possibilities actions

Simple Past 5 = Conveying the contingent actions (the main verb) in the past

conditional clause

Simple Past 6 = Conveying obligations and logical necessities of the actions in

the past

Simple Past 7 = Conveying the probabilities of the future actions that state in the

past

Past Progressive Tense in the Articles

No. Finite

Clauses Grammatical

Reasons

3 November 2007

1. a recommendation by the law commission of the House of Representative to reopen the case, which was issued by a special committee a month ago, was being used by Laksamana’s political opponents

Past Cont. 1

4 November 2007

2. One resident, Yono, was evacuating on his motorcycle with his wife and son, carrying a big bundle.

Past Cont. 1 3. that authorities were getting tough Past Cont. 1 4. AFP they were focusing on evacuating 60,000 Past Cont. 1 5. Another local, Sumarni, was also fleeing by bike with her

husband and three children.

Past Cont. 1

8 November 2007

6. Tuesday the government was considering limiting the sales of subsidized fuels to private vehicles to help reduce the rising fuel subsidy resulting from the surging oil prices

Past Cont. 1

15 November 2007

7. He was riding his motorcycle in the heavy rain and strong wind

Past Cont. 1

16 November 2007

8. in its latest reported was projecting a 6.5 percent growth despite though challenges a head stemming from predicted slowdown in the global economy as a result on high oil prices and the U.S. sub prime mortgage crisis

Past Cont. 1

17 November 2007

9. it was releasing 1.5 million euros (US$2.2 million) in emergency relief aid to the country

Past Cont. 1

18 November 2007

10. Military ships and helicopters were trying on Saturday to reach thousands of survivors of a super cyclone that killed more than 1,600 people and pummeled the improvised country.

Past Cont. 1

11. that mourning relatives were joining “processions of death” as they try to bury them

Past Cont. 1

(4)

12. At a somber Liberal Party headquarters, party faithful were putting a brave face on the defeat.

Past Cont. 1

26 November 2007

13. Although Howard was also trying to have a closer relations with Asia, among others by becoming part of the East Asia Summit and concluding a defense agreement with Indonesia

Past Cont. 1

29 November 2007

14. that the poor city planning, bad zoning systems and a lack of infrastructure were contributing to the problem

Past Cont. 1

Notes:

Past Cont. 1 = Past Progressive Tense which is used to show the limited

duration of an action in the past

Past Perfect Tense in the Articles

No. Finite

Clauses Grammatical

Reasons

1November 2007

1. whether we should have separated conventions like Kyoto Protocol for adaptation

Past Perfect 2

3 November 2007

2. that the sale of the two tankers to Bermuda-based Frontline Inc. for US$ 184 millions in 2004 could have inflicted state losses

Past Perfect 3 3. it had not found any irregularities in the sale

_{Past Perfect 1}

4 November 2007

4. volcalonogist instruments high at the peak had not been damaged

Past Perfect 1

5. there had been a magmatic eruption

Past Perfect 1

6. some trucks had pick up residents in their village

Past Perfect 1

6 November 2007

7. he had been proven not guilty of committing graft and forest destruction in Mandailing Natal Regency, North Sumatra

Past Perfect 1

8. Prosecutors had earlier charged Adelin, PT Keang Nam Development Indonesia (KDNI) financial director, to 10 years imprisonment and Rp 1 bilion (US$ 111,000) fine for violating Law No. 31/1999 on corruption and Law No. 41/1999 on forestry.

Past Perfect 1

9. which had never used state funds for its operations

Past Perfect 1

10. the company had obtained a forest concession permit (HPH)

Past Perfect 1

11. because the panel of judges had failed to put into consideration a number of important matters

Past Perfect 1

12. he had received information that certain parties wished to rearrest his client due to the ruling

Past Perfect 1

8 November 2007

13. which had also lured speculators to the fray

_{Past Perfect 1}

(5)

14. Sunday he had received at least 50 complaints via e-mail, over the telephone and by fax

Past Perfect 1

14 November 2007

15. They had held months of talks that paved the way for Bhutto’s return from exile last month to contest the parliamentary elections.

Past Perfect 1

15 November 2007

16. the school had sent three requests to the city’s parks agency to remove the tree

Past Perfect 1

16 November 2007

17. there had been no revisions of its first

_{Past Perfect 1}

18. The central bank had estimated growth at 6.3 percent in the

third quarter

Past Perfect 1

19. export had continued to increase on the back of continuing high global demand and prices for Indonesia’s main commodities of coal, palm oil, and rubber

Past Perfect 1

20. The Finance Ministry had earlier reported that this year’s budget was in surplus to the tune of Rp 17.6 trillion as of the end of October due to slow spending

Past Perfect 1

17 November 2007

21. 550 lives had been lost

Past Perfect 1

22. at least 425 people had died

_{Past Perfect 1}

23. that 80 percent of the homes in his village had been flattened

Past Perfect 1

24. five ships had been dispatched with supplies of food,

medicine, and relief materials

Past Perfect 1

18 November 2007

25. the death toll had already crossed 2,000

Past Perfect 1

26. the death toll had been far higher

Past Perfect 1

20 November 2007

27. which had forced Indosat to postpone its network development

Past Perfect 1

22 November 2007

28. whose economy had in the past hampered by monopolistic practiced

Past Perfect 1

29. Monday that Temasek, along with eight other firms, mostly its subsidiaries, including STT and Singapore

Telecommunications (SingTel), had broken the Monopoly Law

Past Perfect 1

30. Telkomsel had abused its dominant market position by

charging excessively high tariffs

Past Perfect 1

23 November 2007

31. it had been approved by the government

Past Perfect 1

24 November 2007

32. he had arrived at three police stations as beatings were actually in progress

Past Perfect 1

33. police had shot detainees in their legs from close range, or electrocuted them

Past Perfect 1

34. treatment in prisons he had visited

_{Past Perfect 1}

25 November 2007

35. We‘ve all got goose bumps that finally we might have a leader who is passionate about fairness in this country

(6)

36. who had won four consecutive elections

Past Perfect 1

37. and (who had) held power for 11 years

_{Past Perfect 1}

38. his government had lost power in front of a crowd of

supporters in Sydney late on Saturday

Past Perfect 1

39. Howard had won four consecutive elections and was Australia’s second-longest serving prime minister behind Liberal Party founder Sir Robert Menzies.

Past Perfect 1

40. He had trailed in opinion polls all year.

Past Perfect 1

27 November 2007

41. By midday the water had reached as high as 1.5 meters in several subdistricts.

Past Perfect 1

42. the administration had warned residents of the possibility of a high tide

Past Perfect 1

43. although the administration had increased the height of the sea barrier in Muara Angke over the past few weeks