Grammatical Intricacy And Lexical Density In Scientific And Narrative Texts

GRAMMATICAL INTRICACY AND LEXICAL DENSITY IN SCIENTIFIC
AND NARRATIVE TEXTS

A THESIS

BY:
RABIATUL ADAWIYAH
REG. NO. 110705013

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES
UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA
MEDAN 2015

Universitas Sumatera Utara

GRAMMATICAL INTRICACY AND LEXICAL DENSITY IN SCIENTIFIC AND
NARRATIVE TEXTS

A THESIS


BY:
RABIATUL ADAWIYAH
REG. NO. 110705013

Submitted to Faculty of Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara Medan in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra from
Department of English.

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES
UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA
MEDAN 2015

Universitas Sumatera Utara

Approved by the Department of English, Faculty of Cultural Studies University of
Sumatera Utara (USU) Medan as thesis for The Sarjana Sastra Examination.

Head,


Secretary,

Dr. H. Muhizar Muchtar, M.S.

Rahmadsyah Rangkuti, Ph. D.

NIP. 19541117 198003 1 002

NIP. 19750209 200812 1 002

Universitas Sumatera Utara

Accepted by the Board of Examiners in partial fulfillment of requirements of the
degree of Sarjana Sastra from the Department of English, Faculty of Cultural Studies
University of Sumatera Utara, Medan.

The examination is held in Department of English, Faculty of Cultural Studies
University of Sumatera Utara on 2nd July 2015.

Dean of Faculty of Cultural Studies

University of Sumatera Utara

Dr. H. Syahron Lubis, M.A.
NIP. 19511013 197603 1 001

Board of Examiners
Dr. H. Muhizar Muchtar, M.S.

……………………………..

Rahmadsyah Rangkuti, Ph. D.

……………………………..

Prof. T. Silvana Sinar, M.A., Ph. D.

……………………………..

Dr. Roswita Silalahi, Dipl. TESOL., M. Hum.


……………………………..

Universitas Sumatera Utara

AUTHOR’S DECLRATION
I, RABIATUL ADAWIYAH DECLARE THAT I AM THE SOLE AUTHOR OF
THIS THESIS EXCEPT WHERE REFERENCE IS MADE IN THE TEXT OF
THIS THESIS. THIS THESIS CONTAINS NO MATERIAL PUBLISHED
ELSEWHERE OR EXTRACTED IN WHOLE OR IN PART FROM A THESIS BY
WHICH I HAVE QUALIFIED FOR OR AWARDED ANOTHER DEGREE. NO
OTHER

PERSON’S

WORK

HAS

BEEN


USED

WITHOUT

DUE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IN THE MAIN TEXT OF THIS THESIS. THIS
THESIS HAS NOT BEEN SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF ANOTHER
DEGREE IN ANY TERTIARY EDUCATION.

Signed :

Date

: 2nd July 2015

v
Universitas Sumatera Utara

COPYRIGHT DECLARATION


NAME

: RABIATUL ADAWIYAH

TITLE OF THESIS

: GRAMMATICAL INTRICACY AND LEXICAL DENSITY
IN SCIENTIFIC AND NARRATIVE TEXTS

QUALIFICATION

: S-1/SARJANA SASTRA

DEPARTMENT

: ENGLISH

I AM WILLING THAT MY THESIS SHOULD BE AVAILABLE FOR
REPRODUCTION

DEPARTMENT

AT
OF

THE

DISCRETION

ENGLISH,

FACULTY

OF

THE

LIBRARIAN

OF


CULTURAL

OF

STUDIES,

UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA ON THE UNDERSTANDING THAT
USERS ARE MORE AWARE OF THEIR OBLIGATION UNDER THE LAW OF
THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA.

Signed

:

Date

: 2nd July 2015

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Universitas Sumatera Utara

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Bismillahirrahmanirrahiim.
All the praises and thanks to Allah, I would like to express my sincerest
appreciation and deep gratitude to the people who have encouraged and supported
me completing this thesis. This thesis could not have been finished without their
motivation, suggestion, and guidance. However, I shall name a few as the following:
1.

Dr. H. Syahron Lubis, M.A. the Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Studies

2.

Dr. H. Muhizar Muchtar, M.S. the Head of English Department and
Rahmadsyah Rangkuti, Ph.D. the Secretary of English Department

3.


Prof. T. Silvana Sinar, MA., Ph. D. my supervisor and Rudy Sofyan, S.S.,
M.Hum., co-supervisor, who has guided and given hints during the
completion of this thesis

4.

All of the lectures of English Department for their guidance and knowledge, I
had obtained during my study

5.

The most gratitude is dedicated to my beloved parent Syarifah for her great
love, prayer, and support for me. And my beloved sisters who always support
and pray for me. You are the strength when I am weak

6.

All of my friends in English Department, especially Indah Pratiwi and Irma
Yanti who have been my best friends and give me support, motivation during
completion of this thesis


7.

Another thanks is dedicated to my beloved friends Marliana Sari Nasution,
Nadia Balqis, Khairina Fitri Arwanda, Fahmi M Adnan Lubis, Amd., Rudi
Firmansyah, S.T., Rahmad Surya, S.T., and my friend in UMSU Rendi

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Universitas Sumatera Utara

Yudha Satria, who has given support and remind me not to be lazy to
accomplish this thesis and I know you always pray for me.
Finally, I do appreciate any recommendations and suggestions to make this
thesis better. Therefore, I cordially welcome any critics and comments. I do hope this
thesis will be useful for those who want to enhance and expand his/her knowledge on
sentence structure.

Medan, 2nd July 2015

Rabiatul Adawiyah
Reg. No. 110705013

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ABSTRAK
Skripsi yang berjudul “Grammatical Intricacy and Lexical Density in Scientific and
Narrative Texts” membahas tentang kerumitan tata bahasa dan kepadatan leksikal.
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan tingkat kerumitan tata bahasa dan
kepadatan leksikal yang terdapat dalam teks ilmiah dan naratif. Teori yang
mendukung analisis ini adalah teori yang dikemukakan oleh Eggins (2004) untuk
menghitung kerumitan tata bahasa dan Ure dalam To (2013) untuk menghitung
tingkat kepadatan leksikal. Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan metode deskriptif
kualitatif. Sumber data dalam penelitian ini adalah teks ilmiah berjudul
“Transportation Technology” (teks 1) dan “The Impact of Science and Technology
Development to the Life of Indonesian People” (teks 2) yang diperoleh dari buku
teks bilingual siswa SMA program Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam kelas XII berjudul
History ditulis oleh Habib Mustopo dan Agus Suprijono, diterjemahkan ke dalam
bahasa Inggris oleh Eko Marsudiono, dan teks naratif berjudul “Law Kawar” (teks
3) dan “Bawang Merah Bawang Putih” (teks 4) yang diperoleh dari kumpulan cerita
rakyat Indonesia berjudul Other Folk Tales from Indonesia ditulis oleh S.D.B. Aman.
Data yang digunakan adalah klausa dan kalimat dalam menganalisis tingkat
kerumitan tata bahasa, leksikal (lexical items) dan jumlah keseluruhan kata (total
words) pada tiap teks dalam menganalisis tingkat kepadatan leksikal. Hasil analisis
menunjukkan bahwa kerumitan tata bahasa pada teks 1 = 1.5, teks 2 = 1.5, teks 3 =
2.0, dan teks 4 = 2.1. Kepadatan leksikal pada teks 1 = 49.4%, teks 2 = 50.2%, teks 3
= 41.0% dan teks 4 = 40.8%. Dengan demikian tingkat kerumitan tata bahasa yang
tinggi terdapat pada teks naratif karena memiliki lebih banyak jumlah klausa per
kalimat sehingga sulit dipahami. Tingkat kepadatan leksikal teks ilmiah lebih tinggi
daripada teks naratif karena memiliki lebih banyak jumlah lexical items sebagai
perbandingan dari jumlah keseluruhan kata sehingga teks tersebut sulit dibaca.
Kata kunci: kerumitan tata bahasa, kepadatan leksikal, kalimat, klausa, lexical items,
total words.

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ABSTRACT
This thesis entitled “Grammatical Intricacy and Lexical Density in Scientific and
Narrative Texts” discuss about grammatical intricacy and lexical density. This study
aims to describe the level of grammatical intricacy and lexical density in scientific
and narrative texts. The theory supported this analysis are theory proposed by Eggins
(2004) to find out grammatical intricacy and Ure in To (2013) to find out lexical
density. The data source in this study were scientific texts entitled “Transportation
Technology” (Text 1) and “The Impact of Science and Technology Development to
the Life of Indonesian People” (Text 2) taken from bilingual textbook entitled
History written by Habib Mustopo and Agus Suprijono which are translated into
English by Eko Marsudiono and used for Grade XII of Science Program of the
Senior High school, and narrative texts entitled “Law Kawar” (Text 3) and “Bawang
Merah Bawang Putih” (Text 4) taken from Indonesian folktale entitled Other Folk
Tales from Indonesia written by S.D.B. Aman. The data of this study were clauses
and sentences for grammatical intricacy, lexical items and grammatical words for
lexical density. The result of analysis shows that grammatical intricacy of text 1 =
1.5, text 2 = 1.5, text 3 = 2.0, and text 4 = 2.1. Lexical density of text 1 = 49.4%, text
2 = 50.2%, text 3 = 41.0%, and text 4 = 40.8%. Thus, the level of grammatical
intricacy of the narrative texts are higher than the scientific texts, so the narrative
texts are more difficult to understand due to many clauses per sentence. The level of
lexical density of the scientific texts are higher than the narrative texts, so the
scientific texts are more difficult to read due to the texts have a high number of
lexical items as a proportion of all words.
Key words: grammatical intricacy, lexical density, sentences, clauses, lexical items,
total words.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

AUTHOR’S DECLRATION ............................................................................ v
COPYRIGHT DECLRATION ......................................................................... vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................. vii
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................ ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................. xi
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................. xiii
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................... xiv
CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION................................................................ 1
1.1. Background of the Study ................................................ 1
1.2. Problem of the Study ...................................................... 7
1.3. Objective of the Study .................................................... 7
1.4. Scope of the Study .......................................................... 8
1.5. Significance of the Study ................................................ 8

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE ............................................. 9
2.1. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)........................... 9
2.2. Grammatical Intricacy..................................................... 12
2.3. Lexical Density ............................................................... 13
2.4. Clause .............................................................................. 15
2.4.1. Independent Clause ...................................................... 15
2.4.2. Dependent Clause ........................................................ 16
2.4.3. Clause Complex ........................................................... 20
2.5. Sentence .......................................................................... 21
2.6. Related Studies................................................................ 25
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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD ...................................................... 27
3.1. Data Source and Data ...................................................... 27
3.2. Technique for Collecting the Data .................................. 27
3.3. Technique for Analyzing the Data .................................. 28

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS ............................................. 29
4.1. Analysis ........................................................................... 29
4.1.1. Grammatical Intricacy ................................................. 29
4.1.2. Lexical Density ............................................................ 34
4.2. Findings ........................................................................... 38
4.2.1. Grammatical Intricacy ................................................. 38
4.2.2. Lexical Density ............................................................ 39

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ........................... 40
5.1. Conclusions ..................................................................... 40
5.2. Suggestions ..................................................................... 40

REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 42
APPENDICES

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.

Context of situation: casual, brief encounter between two friends in
the street ...........................................................................................

10

Table 2.

Context of situation: teacher job interview .......................................

10

Table 3.

Mode: characteristics of spoken and written language
situation .............................................................................................

11

Table 4.

Characteristic feature of spoken and written language .....................

11

Table 5.

Spoken and written language ............................................................

14

Table 6.

Subordinate conjunctions ..................................................................

16

Table 7.

Relative pronouns .............................................................................

17

Table 8.

Types of sentence in text 1................................................................

29

Table 9.

Types of sentence in text 2................................................................

31

Table 10.

Types of sentence in text 3………………………………………….

32

Table 11.

Types of sentence in text 4................................................................

33

Table 12.

Number of lexical items, number of words and number of
other words in text 1 .........................................................................

Table 13.

35

Number of lexical items, number of words and number of
other words in text 2 .........................................................................

Table 14.

35

Number of lexical items, number of words and number of
other words in text 3 .........................................................................

Table 15.

36

Number of lexical items, number of words and number of
other words in text 4 .........................................................................

37

Table 16.

Grammatical intricacy among the four texts .....................................

38

Table 17.

Lexical density among the four texts ................................................

39
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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. An example of embedding clause ........................................................

19

Figure 2. An example of complex structure ........................................................

24

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