TEXTUAL FUNCTION IN THE JAKARTA POST EDITORIALS.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, the writer would like to thank God for the blessing, guarding,
guidance, and everything that have been given to the writer accomplish this thesis.
This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements to obtain the S1 degree
of Sarjana Sastra at English Department in Faculty of Languages and Arts, State
University of Medan.
In completing this thesis, the writer has received a lot of assistance and
academic support from some people. Therefore, the writer would like to express
her sincere gratitude, love and special thanks to:


Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si., as the Rector of State University
of Medan.



Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Faculty of Languages and
Arts State University of Medan.




Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., as the Head of English Department, Rika
S.Pd, M.Hum., as Secretary of English Department, Dra. Meisuri, M.A.,
as the Head of English Literature Department, and Dra. Masitowarni,
M.Ed., as the Head of English Education Department.



Dr. Zainuddin, DIP.TEFL., M.Hum., as Thesis Advisor.



Drs. Johan Sinulingga, M.Pd., Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A., Ph.D., Prof.
Dr. Berlin Sibarani, M.Pd and Drs. Bachtiar, M.Pd as Reviewers, for
the advice, comment, knowledge in correcting to complete this thesis.



All the Lecturers throughout her academic years at State University of
Medan that could not be mentioned one by one.




Her beloved parents; her mother, Rohana Sihombing and her father, Saut
Naibaho for the pray, love, moral and financial support. And also thanks

for the love and support from her sisters, Syinthia Rosa Naibaho and her
lovely brother Josua S.M Naibaho.


To my lovely big family who always support me. Especially for Christina
Purba who always accompanied to find up some references books to
complete this thesis.



All her beloved classmates of Applied Linguistics Regular 2010
especially Gelora Septrina Girsang, Kristellia Rasmiyati Sirait, Marito
Portune Tambun, Tiur Simamora and the others that cannot be
mentioned all. Thank you for the support, information, encouragement,
and beautiful day spent together.




Small Group Servios es Ces Dios (Lestari Batubara, Nelly Hutabarat,
Marini Simangunsong, Pinta Panjaitan and Lita Panjaitan) especially
our beloved sister Riahmawani Purba who led her to be a good person.



To all friends in my boarding house (Evi, Eny, Asina, Deasy, Irna, Rita,
Mariati and Febri) who always support her in complete this thesis.



Maam Euis, for helping the writer in preparing the files for the purposes
of this thesis.
Without their deep and sympathetic understanding, this thesis could not

complete. Over all, the writer hopes this thesis can give a bit contribution to the
Applied Linguistics. Therefore, comments, critics, suggestions, and advices are

expected from the readers.

Medan,
July 2014
The writer,

Novita S.C Naibaho

ABSTRACT

Naibaho, Novita S.C. 2014.Textual Function in The Jakarta Post Editorials.
A Thesis. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan.
This research deals with Theme and Rheme in Editorials texts of The Jakarta Post
newspaper. The aims are to find out the optional element dominates the structure
of theme in the editorials of The Jakarta Post newspaper and to describe where the
optional dominant element occurs. The research was conducted by using
descriptive qualitative method. The data were collected from three different
editions of The Jakarta Post editorials which is publish on January 2014. The
findings indicate that conjunction was an element dominantly used in textual
theme because there were so many compound clauses and there were two or more

clauses in coordination relation or dependency on another. In interpersonal theme,
adjunct was an element dominantly used that is means that a prepositional phrase
has its own internal structure containing complement within it and preposition is
put at first position of a clause which is called Theme. Conjunction and adjunct
were dominantly used when the editors tells their argumentation, comment and
their assessment of the news, because of the using of colloquialism or spoken
language in editorials of the Jakarta Post newspaper.

Keyword: Theme, Rheme, Editorial.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................
LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................
LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................

i
ii
iv

vi
vii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study .........................................................
B. Problems of the Study ...............................................................
C. Objectives of the Study ............................................................
D. Scope of the Study ...................................................................
E. Significances of the Study ........................................................

1
3
3
4
4

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Metafunctions ............................................................................
B. Text and Context. ......................................................................
C. Theme and Rheme .....................................................................

1. Patten of Theme and Rheme ...................................................
a. Characterization of Theme..................................................
b. Other Characterization of Theme .......................................
2. Types of Theme.......................................................................
a. Unmark and Mark Theme ...................................................
b. Simple and Complex Theme ..............................................
3. Thematic Progression ..............................................................
a. The Constant Theme ...........................................................
b. The Linear Theme ..............................................................
c. The Split Theme..................................................................
d. The Derived Theme ............................................................
D. Structure of Information ............................................................
E. Editorial of The Jakarta Post Newspaper ..................................
1. The Jakarta Post ....................................................................
2. Editorial ................................................................................

5
7
9
9

9
11
12
12
13
17
17
17
18
18
19
20
20
21

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Design…....................................................................
B. Population and Sample ..............................................................
C. Technique of Collecting Data ..................................................
D. Technique of Analyzing Data ...................................................


25
25
26
26

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
A. Data … ...................................................................................... 27
B. Data Analysis ........................................................................... 27
1. Theme in The Jakarta Post Editorials
(Unmarked and Marked Theme) …......................................... 27

2. Multiple Themes in The Jakarta Post editorials ..................
C. Findings … ................................................................................
1. Theme in The Jakarta Post Editorials
(Unmarked and Marked Theme) … .....................................
2. Multiple Themes in The Jakarta Post editorials ..................
D. Discussions................................................................................

28

39
39
39
40

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions… ........................................................................... 42
B. Suggestions ............................................................................... 43
REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 44
APPENDICES ................................................................................................... 45

TABLE OF
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE 4.1 List of The Unmarked and Marked Theme in Clauses ..................
TABLE 4.2 List of Multiple Theme:
Topical, Textual and Interpersonal Themes ..................................
TABLE 4.3 List of Elements of Textual Themes...............................................
TABLE 4.4 List of Elements of Interpersonal Themes ......................................

28

29
30
37

LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX A The Identification of Thematic Structure… .............................. 46
APPENDIX B Editorials texts of The Jakarta Post newspaper… ..................... 66

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
In Hallidayan grammar, there are two parallel and interrelated systems of
analysis that concern with the structure of clause. The first of this called
Information Structure and involves constituents that are labeled given and new.
The second is called Thematic Structure and involves constituents that are labeled
theme and rheme.
Theme is the element that serves as the starting point for the message that
is what the clause is going to be about. Theme typically contains familiar or given
information. Rheme is defined as the rest of the clause in which the theme is
developed. Rheme contains unfamiliar or new information. Rheme can be simply
found in a clause by identifying parts of the clause which do not belong to
Theme.This organization depends on the context of using language that is purpose
of the text.
The written language offers a wide variety of grammatical tools to mediate
an author’s intended message. In newspapers, as in other kinds of texts, events
that take place out there in the “real” world are expressed through the linguistic
choices that editors make. That is, events are reconstructed as text through
discourse. This reconstruction involves linguistic choices at many turns and levels
in the unfolding of the discourse. In Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) Systemic
Functional Linguistics (SFL) is a linguistic theory which allows the analyst to
shed light on just how it is these choices interact with the social context to imbue
texts with the meanings that are expressed. One of the main assumptions of SFL is

that language serves three main purposes: the experiential (or ideational),
through which language users express their view of the world; the interpersonal,
through which language users establish and maintain social contact; and the
textual, which allows for the first two to be brought together and organized in a
way that is communicatively effective.
In the editorial column, many readers are difficult to interpret the news
that written by editors because they do not understand the thematic structure
contained in the sentence. It’s happened because the editors often manipulating
the thematic structure which was originally intended to attract the reader’s
attention to read the contents of the text that written by the editor. Editorial texts
are typically means to voice missions of the newspaper. Thus, a newspaper has its
own way of organizing the editorial texts. The thematic structures in The Jakarta
Post editorials are problematized because their patterns highlight why The Jakarta
Post editorial texts mean what they do.
The reason why the writer chooses theme and rheme as a topic to discuss
is because theme and rheme common used in every text, but how to identify the
theme and rheme in clause, how to label the elements of clause with references
and how to analyze complex theme in text will be discussed in this study.
In this case, the writer takes three editorials in The Jakarta Post newspaper
to analyze the uses of thematic Structure which is published in January 2014. The
Jakarta Post is an English newspaper which published in every morning. The
Jakarta Post has some column such as: headline, national, international, features,
art and culture, entertainment news and also one of the columns is editorial.

Editorial column is an article in a newspaper or other periodical presenting the
opinion of the publisher or editors. In presenting the editorial, the editor often
used styles and variations of language. The style and variation of language are
used to attract the reader’s attention and to inform the interesting news.
The writer used editorials text to analyze the ways in which reporter and
editorial make choices in topical, interpersonal and textual element through theme
to show the value of the linguistic theory for explain the ways in which
experiential meaning is encoded along with interpersonal intent through the
textual function.

B. The Problems of the Study
Based on the background above, the problems of the study are formulated
as in the following:
1. What optional element dominates the structure of Theme in the editorials
of The Jakarta Post newspaper?
2. In what context does the dominant element occurs?

C. The Objectives of the Study
In relation to the problem of the study, the objectives of this study are
formulated as in the following:
1. To describe the optional dominant element in the structure of Theme in the
editorials of The Jakarta Post newspaper.
2. To describe in what context the optional dominant element occurs.

D. The Scope of the Study
This study is to analyze the editorial column in The Jakarta Post
newspaper. This study focuses on analyzing the editorial column in Jakarta Post
newspaper based on theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics, specifically to
analyze the thematic structure.

E. The Significances of the Study
The findings of this study are significant in two respects, theoretically and
practically. Theoretically, the findings enrich theories of Systemic Functional
Linguistics (SFL), particularly on the use of English in national newspaper The
Jakarta Post and Indonesian context of culture. Practically, it is useful for, namely
(1) students, (2) journalists/editors and (3) teacher. This study equips the students
with the knowledge and skill to comprehend English text. This study is also useful
for Journalists/ editors in a way in which it provides them with knowledge and
skill of how to write editorials. Further, this study is useful for teacher in
preparing teaching material that need of the learners.

REFERENCES
Ate, Andrew Asan. 2008. Editorial Writing. Nigeria: National Open University of
Nigeria.
Bloor and Bloor. 1995. The Functional Analysis of English: A Hallidayan
Approach. London: Edward Arnold
Cochran and Patton. 2002. A Guide to Using Qualitative Research Methodology.
London: School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Colis and Hussey. 2003. An Introduction to Research and Research Method.
University of Bradford
Eggins, S. 2004. An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. New York:
Continuum
Ginting and Situmorang. 2008. Filsafat Ilmu dan Metode Riset. Medan: USU
Press
Halliday, M.A.K. 1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London:
Edward Arnold
Halliday, M.A.K. 2002. Linguistic Studies of Text and Discourse. London:
Continuum
Halliday, M.A.K. 2002. On Grammar. (The first volume). London: Continuum.
Hughes, Clair. 2009. Assessment as text production: drawing on systemic
functional linguistics to frame the design and analysis of assessment tasks.
Australia: The University of Queensland
Knapp and Watkins. 2005. Genre, text, grammar: Technologies for teaching and
assessing writing. Sydney: UNSW Press
Martin, J.R. 1992. English Text: System and Structure. Philadelpia: John
Benjamins
Rahmah. Functional Grammar. 2012. State University of Medan (Medan)
Unpublished
Saragih,A. Discourse Analysis. 2013. State University of Medan (Medan)
Unpublished