REVEALING THE IDEOLOGY OF THE NEWSPAPER THROUGH THE ANALYSIS OF THE USES OF THEMATIC ROLES AND PROPOSITIONS IN THE JAKARTA POST AND THE NEW YORK TIMES PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 9

REVEALING THE IDEOLOGY OF THE NEWSPAPER THROUGH THE ANALYSIS OF THE USES OF THEMATIC ROLES AND PROPOSITIONS

  IN THE JAKARTA POST AND THE NEW YORK TIMES TH PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 9 , 2010 AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

  Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

  By

IRENE OSSI WIDYASTUTI

  Student Number: 074214063

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

REVEALING THE IDEOLOGY OF THE NEWSPAPER THROUGH THE ANALYSIS OF THE USES OF THEMATIC ROLES AND PROPOSITIONS

  IN THE JAKARTA POST AND THE NEW YORK TIMES TH PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 9 , 2010 AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

  Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

  By

IRENE OSSI WIDYASTUTI

  Student Number: 074214063

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

  I dedicate this thesis to my beloved parents, Fransiskus Xaverius Sumarwan and Veronica Sri Puji Minulyo and my best of the best brother,

  Domenico Adi Nugroho Thank you for the love and support you always give in my life.

  

PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH

UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

  Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : Irene Ossi Widyastuti NIM : 074214063 Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

  

Revealing the Ideology of the Newspaper through the Analysis of the Uses of

Thematic Roles and Propositions in the Jakarta Post and the New York Times

th Published on November 9 , 2010

  beserta perangkat yang diperlukan. Dengan demikian, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media yang lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta izin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

  Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal 11 Agustus 2011 Yang menyatakan, Irene Ossi Widyastuti

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  My greatest gratitude goes to the Almighty for always giving me strength to finish this thesis. Now I realize that everything He plans to me will always grow me stronger than before.

  This thesis would also not be finished without the guidance and supports of my thesis advisor, Ms. Anna Fitriati, S.Pd., M.Hum and my co-advisor, Ms.

  Linda Valentina Budiman, S.S., M.Hum. I greatly appreciate your patience and sincere helps during the process of finishing this thesis.

  I would also like to give thanks to Sanata Dharma University and the Department of English Letters for giving me facilities and comfortable place to learn and grow up maturely, and also to my academic advisor, Mr. J. Harris Hermansyah Setiajid, S.S., M.Hum for guiding me during my study.

  I dedicate this thesis to my beloved parents, F.X Sumarwan and Veronica Sri Puji Minulyo and to my best of the best brother, Domenico Adi Nugroho. I feel so thankful for the love and supports they always give to me.

  I am so grateful to have Sylvia Puput Pandansari, Sri Ruth Meilina Sianturi, and Henrica Angelia as my best friends; Denty Setya Putri, Ayu Primasandi, Cyrilla Sarah Nodita, Florentina Noviani, Adita Primasti Putri, Astrid Rosaria as my nice and cheerful mates in Kos Legi 1; and my cousin Novia Nugraeni. I give you big hug and great gratitude for always be there to support me and cheer me up through hard times. A life without you would be lonely.

  My gratitude also goes to my beloved friends of 2007, Hellen ‘Pibi’, Dita, Lala, Ani, Aya, Zi, Gogor, Yudha, Nice, Kiky, Adit, Kenan, Dito, Sony, Herman ‘Cheng’, Risang, Yona, Simon, Putra, Adi, Natan, Satria and others whom I cannot mention one by one. Having you as nice and cooperative friends during our study here is really a wonderful gift God has given to me.

  Finally, I realize that this thesis is not perfect. Therefore, I expect comments and suggestions for better improvement.

  Yogyakarta, August 11, 2011 Irene Ossi Widyastuti

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE

  …………………………………………………………........... i

  APPROVAL PAGE

  …………………………………………………………. ii

  ACCEPTANCE PAGE

  ……………………………………………………… iii

  DEDICATION PAGE

  ………………………………………………………iv

  PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI

  …………………………. v

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  ………………………………………………… vi

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  …………………………………………………… viii

  ABSTRACT

  …………………………………………………………………. x

  ABSTRAK

  …………………………………………………………………… xi

  

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ………………………………………….. 1

A. Background of the Study ………………………………………… 1 B. Problem Formulation …………………………………………….. 5 C. Objectives of the Study ………………………………………….. 5 D. Definition of Terms ……………………………………………… 6

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ……………………………….. 8

A. Review of Related Studies ……………………………………….. 8 B. Review of Related Theories ……………………………………… 10

  1. Theory of Proposition ………………………………………… 10

  2. Theory of Thematic Roles ……………………………………. 12

  3. Theory of Ideology in the News ……………………………… 15

  4. Theory of Rhetoric in the News ……………………………… 18

  5. Theory of Yes/No Questions …………………………………. 21

  C. Theoretical Framework ………………………………………...… 22

  

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ……………………………………...… 24

A. Object of the Study ……………………………………………….. 24 B. Method of the Study …………………………………………...…. 24 C. Research Procedure ……………………………………………….. 26

  1. Data Collection ……………………………………………….. 26

  2. Data Analysis …………………………………………………. 26

  

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ………………………………………………… 28

A. Analysis of the Uses of Propositions and Thematic Roles

  1. Analysis of the Uses of Propositions and Thematic Roles on the Online Newspaper Article Taken from

  the Jakarta Post ………………………………………………. 28

  a. Analysis of the Title ……………………………………… 28

  b. Analysis of the Content …………………………………... 30

  2. Analysis of the Uses of Propositions and Thematic Roles on the Online Newspaper Article Taken from

  a. Analysis of the Title ……………………………………… 39

  b. Analysis of the Content ………………………………….. 40

  B. Analysis of the Ideologies ……………………………………….. 49

  1. Analysis of the Ideology of the Online Newspaper Article Taken from the Jakarta Post …………………………………. 49

  2. Analysis of the Ideology of the Online Newspaper Article Taken from the New York Times ……………………………. 54

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION

  …………………………………………….. 64

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  …………………………………………………………… 65

  

APPENDICES ……………………………………………………………...... 67

Appendix 1 …………………………………………………………... 67

  The Meaning of the Key Words Appeared on the Online NewspaperArticle Taken from the Jakarta Post and the

  New York Times …………………………………………………… …67 Appendix 2 …………………………………………………………… 74

  The General Comparison of the Analysis between

  the Jakarta Post and the New York Times ……………………………..74 Appendix 3 …………………………………………………………… 77

  The Full Article Taken from the Jakarta Post ……………………….. 77

  Appendix 4 ………………………………………………………….. 78

  The Full Article Taken from the New York Times ………………….. 78

  

ABSTRACT

  IRENE OSSI WIDYASTUTI. Revealing the Ideology of the Newspaper

  

through the Analysis of the Uses of Thematic Roles and Propositions in the

th

Jakarta Post and the New York Times Published on November 9 , 2010.

  Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2011.

  Language is used in our everyday life both verbally and non-verbally. Language is used to deliver any kinds of information. One kind of information that is delivered through language is news. News, especially the text discourse in the newspaper not only provides new information but also persuades the readers to see something in a certain point of view. That is why analyzing the linguistic features is needed to reveal the biases and ideological opinions that are implied, hidden, denied, or taken for granted. This research compares two online articles

  th

  taken from the Jakarta Post and the New York Times published on November 9 , 2010 which discuss the same topic of the handshake between the Indonesian Minister and US First Lady.

  The main problem in this thesis is how the uses of propositions and thematic roles reveal the different ideologies of the online articles taken from the Jakarta

  

Post and the New York Times. The objective of the study is to analyze the uses of

  propositions and thematic roles on the online newspaper articles taken from the

  

Jakarta Post and the New York Times and to reveal the different ideologies seen

from the uses of propositions and thematic roles in both articles.

  This research uses qualitative research of case study because this research studied an event in depth by comparing two articles that were different in certain ways but had the same topic. Library research was also used as the method of the study since all the data, theories, and references were collected from the written source or from the text, not from the interview or recording

  The result from the analysis is that there is no specific ideology found in this research, such as pro-unification ideology, pro-independence ideology, or others. However, the ideology in the newspaper here means that basically a newspaper will gain good opinions toward people who belong to the same group (called as Our group) and bad opinions toward them who do not belong to the same group (called as Their group). The Jakarta Post mitigates the minister’s act by gaining good opinions or less bad opinions toward the Indonesian minister as a person who belongs to the same group or the Indonesians’ group, while the New

  

York Times emphasizes the minister’s act by gaining bad opinions toward the

  Indonesian minister as a person who does not belong to the same group or the Americans’ group. The minister’s act is considered bad since he is a conservative Muslim who has to obey the rule of avoiding contact with women but he did a handshake with woman, who was the US First Lady.

  

ABSTRAK

  IRENE OSSI WIDYASTUTI. Revealing the Ideology of the Newspaper

  

through the Analysis of the Uses of Thematic Roles and Propositions in the

th

Jakarta Post and the New York Times Published on November 9 , 2010.

  Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2011.

  Kita memakai bahasa dalam kehidupan sehari-hari dalam bentuk verbal maupun non-verbal. Bahasa dipakai untuk menyampaikan berbagai macam informasi, salah satunya adalah berita. Berita, terutama berita yang tertulis dalam surat kabar tidak hanya menyediakan informasi tetapi juga mengajak pembaca untuk melihat suatu hal melalui sudut pandang tertentu. Itulah mengapa analisis terhadap fitur-fitur kebahasaan diperlukan untuk mengungkapkan bias dan opini ideologis yang tersirat, tersembunyi, atau dianggap benar . Penelitian ini membandingkan dua artikel online yang diambil dari surat kabar the Jakarta Post dan the New York Times yang terbit pada 9 November 2010 yang membahas topik yang sama mengenai jabat tangan antara Menteri Indonesia dan Ibu Negara Amerika Serikat.

  Skripsi ini mempunyai rumusan masalah utama yaitu bagaimana penggunaan proposisi dan peran tematik dapat mengungkapkan perbedaan ideologi dalam artikel online yang diambil dari the Jakarta Post dan the New York

  

Times . Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis penggunaan proposisi dan

  peran tematik guna mengungkapkan perbedaan ideologi dalam kedua surat kabar tersebut.

  Penelitian ini menggunakan penelitian kualitatif studi kasus karena penelitian ini mempelajari suatu kejadian secara mendalam dan studi pustaka karena semua data, teori, dan referensi dikumpulkan dari sumber tertulis atau teks, bukan dari hasil wawancara atau rekaman.

  Tidak ada ideologi yang spesifik yang ditemukan dalam penelitian ini, seperti ideologi pro-unifikasi, pro-kemerdekaan dan sebagainya. Namun, ideologi dalam surat kabar yang dimaksud adalah bahwa surat kabar secara umum akan membangun opini yang baik terhadap orang yang termasuk dalam satu kelompok dengan surat kabar tersebut dan opini yang buruk terhadap orang yang tidak tergolong dalam satu kelompok dengan surat kabar tersebut. The Jakarta Post tidak menekankan kelakuan menteri Indonesia yang dinilai buruk karena dia adalah seorang Muslim konservatif yang seharusnya menaati aturan untuk menghindari kontak dengan perempuan namun dia berjabat tangan dengan perempuan, yaitu Ibu Negara Amerika Serikat dengan membangun opini yang tidak terlalu buruk terhadap menteri tersebut karena ia tergolong dalam satu kelompok dengan the Jakarta Post atau kelompok Indonesia sedangkan the New

  

York Times menekankan kelakuan menteri tersebut dengan membangun opini

  yang buruk terhadapnya karena ia tidak tergolong dalam kelompok yang sama dengan the New York Times atau kelompok Amerika.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Communication is a basic and important thing that every human being in

  this world should acquire. By communicating, people can have close relations to each other. They can deliver and receive information to and from others. One way to communicate is by using language.

  Language is used in our everyday life both verbally, as when we speak to be heard by others, and non-verbally, as when we write something to be read by others. Language is used to deliver any kinds of information. One kind of information that is delivered through language is news.

  News is “information about recent events that are of interest to a sufficiently large group, or that may affect the lives of a sufficiently large group.” (Reah, 2002: 4). The term news itself actually is ambiguous. News as stated by Reah above is considered as the general notion of news, which means new information. While based on van Dijk’s statement, news is “part of a second class of meanings, which involves the media and mass communication.” (1988:3). But van Dijk (1988:3) states that this notion needs to be specified because there is printed news, such as news in the newspapers, magazines, and so on, and there is news broadcasted on television or radio. In other words, the notion news implied several concepts as stated below.

  1. New information about events, things, or persons

   

  3. A news item or news report (i.e. a text or discourse on radio, TV, or in the newspaper, in which new information is given about recent events.

  (1988: 4) This study focuses on the third concept of news, especially the text discourse in the newspaper.

  Newspapers not only provide new information but also persuade the readers to see something in a certain point of view. Newspapers often lead the readers to see things based on their point of views. That is why Kuo, supported by Fowler, suggests that the readers of the newspapers should read more than one newspapers to widen their perspectives and knowledge so they are not influenced by one newspaper only. Fowler as quoted by Kuo in her research Language as

  Ideology: Analyzing Quotations in Taiwanese News Discourse

  states that by studying the details of linguistic structures in the news text, the readers can reveal the ideology of the text which is invisible or not clearly seen.

  Reading only one newspaper or watching the news on only one television channel, most people thereby are likely to develop narrow and normative attitudes to the media. Fowler warns that “this situation can only lead to complacency and intolerance” and since people tend to accept the discourse as ‘natural’, he further suggests that only by studying the minute details of linguistic structures in news texts can the invisible ideology permeating language be uncovered. (Kuo, 2007: 297) There are some details of linguistic structures such as transitivity, passives, modality, nominalization, lexical choice, and so on. By analyzing those details, the readers can reveal the ideology of the text that is used to manipulate readers’ perceptions and interpretation of some certain events or people in the news texts as quoted from Fowler by Kuo in this following paragraph.

   

  … transitivity, passives, modality, nominalization, and lexical choice discussed in Fowler (1991), is a discursive mechanism which can become a powerful ideological tool to manipulate readers’ perceptions and interpretation of people and events in news reports. (Kuo, 2007: 297) Because media, or –to be more specific– newspaper, can manipulate readers’ perception and interpretation towards certain events or people, analyzing the linguistic features is needed to reveal the biases and ideological opinions that are implied, hidden, denied, or taken for granted.

  Media discourse is biased and the ideological opinions held by the media institutions are very often implied, hidden, denied, or taken for granted. Only by a critical investigation of the linguistic devices and discourse strategies can these biases be uncovered. (Kuo, 2007: 298) To conduct the study, the writer took two different articles from two different online newspapers. Online newspapers are chosen because those are more accessible than printed newspapers. Nowadays, internet is used widely throughout the world. Through the internet, people can access many kinds of information, including news from the newspaper. Newspaper companies now have two forms of newspapers to be published, the printed edition and the online edition. Online newspapers are also chosen because they are rarely used to be analyzed since the earlier studies mostly used printed newspapers.

  The first article entitled “Did Indonesia Minister Shake US First Lady’s Hand?” was taken from www.thejakartapost.com, while the second article entitled “Indonesian Minister Blames Michelle Obama for Handshake” was taken from

  th

  www.nytimes.com. Both articles were published on Tuesday, November 9 , 2010. To see the difference, the writer uses the articles that discuss the same topic, which was the case of Tifatul Sembiring, Indonesian Minister of Information,

   

  who shook hands with Michelle Obama, the first lady of the United States, during

  th

  the Presidential visit of Barrack Obama in Indonesia on November 9 , 2010. It became a controversy because Tifatul Sembiring is known as a Moslem who obeys the teaching of his religion by restricting his contact with women.

  The articles from the Jakarta Post and the New York Times are chosen because the Jakarta Post is published in Indonesia and the New York Times is published in US, while those two countries were involved in the case of Tifatul Sembiring and Michelle Obama. Therefore, different perspectives and ideologies might arise from those two newspapers representing the country from which they are published.

  Based on its company profile, the Jakarta Post itself is “…the largest English newspaper in Indonesia that provides up-to-date, in-depth accurate information and analyses. The Jakarta Post.com aspires to be a one-stop reference point on Indonesia that will serve both local and international audiences.” (http://www.thejakartapost.com/company_profile), while the New York Times is an American daily newspaper published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, ‘The Gray Lady’—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record. Founded in 1851, the newspaper has won 98 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper. (http://www.linkedin.com/ companies/the-new- york-times).   

  Both of the newspapers  are reliable and trusted national newspaper written in English that have local and international target readers.

  By analyzing the data and finding out the answers of the problems, this research is aimed to prove how the analysis of linguistic details can reveal the

   

  ideology of a newspaper. To make it clearer, the writer compares two different articles with the same topic to see the different ideologies of both newspapers.

  B. Problem Formulation

  Based on the background of the study explained above, there are two problems that the writer tries to answer. Those two problems are formulated as follows:

  1. How are the uses of propositions and the thematic roles applied on the online newspaper articles taken from the Jakarta Post and the New York Times?

  2. How do the uses of propositions and thematic roles reveal the different ideologies of the Jakarta Post and the New York Times?

  C. Objectives of the Study

  The objectives of the study are aimed to answer the related problem formulation above. Based on the first problem formulation, the objective of the study is to analyze the uses of propositions and thematic roles on the online newspaper articles taken from the Jakarta Post and the New York Times. The second objective of the study is to reveal the different ideologies of the Jakarta

  

Post and the New York Times seen from the use of propositions and thematic

roles.

    D.

   Definition of Terms

  In order to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation in analyzing the data, some definitions of the linguistics terminology is needed. The terms used in this analysis are proposition, thematic role, and ideology in the newspaper.

  proposition

  The term based on the term defined by Teun van Dijk is “the smallest, independent meaning constructs of language and thought…. propositions are also the smallest semantic unit that can be true or false. Propositions are typically expressed by single sentences or clauses.” (van Dijk, 1988: 31). He further defines that propositions are usually analyzed through the main predicates (1998: 32). In other words, proposition is the core meaning of a clause or a sentence.

  The next term needed to be known is thematic role. Jacobs states that thematic role is the semantic concept that defines the set of roles assigned to arguments (1995: 19). He elaborates that strategies are needed to determine and interpret the grammatical units and the relation that make up what we hear and read. An English sentence, just like any other sentences in any languages, is made up of units that are combined to make an overall semantic interpretation. Each unit makes a grammatical relation to other units, for example a noun phrase or a clause can be placed as an object and it can also be placed as a subject. These noun phrases and clauses also function as arguments to their predicate, and their semantic roles, such as ‘doer’, are the semantic relations of a larger language structure. But the term semantic role here suggests a semantic concept broader

   

  than the set of roles assigned to arguments. So instead of using the term semantic role, he uses the term thematic role (Jacobs, 1995:19).

  The last term is the ideology in the newspaper. Mullainathan and Shleifer (2002:1) in their research Media Bias state that ideology, in this case the ideology in the newspaper, “…reflects a news outlet’s desire to affect reader opinions in a particular direction.” Van Dijk (1998: 24) further defines that “…ideologies in general are not wrong or right, but rather more or less effective in promoting the interests of a group.” He also adds that ideology “…reflect the basic criteria that constitute the social identity and define the interests of a group (van Dijk, 1998:25). So what is meant by ideology in the newspaper here is the representation of interest of a group that forms a social identity and affects readers’ opinions in a particular direction.

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies The ideological analysis for analyzing news has been studied previously

  by some researchers. Sai Hua Kuo in her research Language as Ideology:

  

Analyzing Quotations in Taiwanese News Discourse studies the different

  ideologies appearing on two ideologically different newspapers in Taiwan, which are the pro-unification United Daily News and the pro-independence Liberty

  

Times, through their uses of quotations. She states that quotations – as one of the

  linguistic options used in the news discourse – can make news report livelier “as well as to give it a semblance of factuality and authenticity.” (Kuo, 2007: 281).

  Although it is conventionally considered as the original statement of the speaker, in direct quotation the journalist inevitably does not quote all of the utterances.

  The journalist “filters the quoted speaker’s message by selection of the quote and choice of framing material.” (Kuo, 2007:282). Indirect quotation is much further away than the original because it is usually in the form of a paraphrase made by the journalist. Therefore, through the different uses of quotations, the same news event can be reported differently by the different newspapers based on their underlying ideologies because the quoting pattern in the news is not neutral but it is mediated or filtered by the journalist so that it can create ideological biases. (Kuo, 2007:282).

   

  Thomas Hawes and Sarah Thomas on their research Theme Choice and

  Lateral Verbs in Newspaper Editorials

  compare the co-occurrences of the major theme types with the various lateral verbs of 31 editorials from The Sun and 29 from The Times, two British newspapers sharing the same ideology, but having very different styles. They analyze themes of different kinds in conjunction with their lateral verb types. Lateral verb system is a system created by Kress and Hodge (1979) as cited in Hawes and Thomas (1995:104) that is divided into two major groups, actional and relational. Actional verbs are related to actions.

  Relational verbs are verbs that refer to relation. Hawes and Thomas (1995:104) state that relational verbs “involve writer comments on entities or action and broken down into attributive…”

  From their research, they draw a conclusion that through different uses of themes and lateral verbs, a newspaper may present the information differently from other newspapers though actually they share the same ideology. For example, The Sun uses more marked choices,” in which actionals became rare and many themes had no entities capable of being actors, suggesting that its ideology is more foregrounded than that of The Times.”, while The Times “disseminates its ideology indirectly, through less overtly political topics (Hawes and Thomas, 1995:112).” The last conclusion is quoted by Hawes and Thomas (1995:112) from Bolivar. Bolivar (1985: 96) states that, “Whether (newspapers) state it or imply it, they provide us with an ideological framework which we share consciously or unconsciously.”

   

  While Kuo studies the different ideologies appearing in two ideologically different newspapers through their uses of quotations and Hawes and Thomas study how two different newspapers presented the same ideology through their different styles in themes and lateral verbs used, in this research, the writer studies the different ideologies appearing on two different newspapers through their uses of thematic roles and propositions. Although the main topic discussed on those two newspapers is the same, the uses of thematic roles and propositions to inform the reader about the news are different. Therefore, the writer wants to find out whether different thematic roles and propositions can reveal different ideologies too.

B. Review of Related Theories

  The theories needed for this study are the theory of proposition, the theory of thematic roles, the theory of ideology in the news and the theory of rhetoric in the news, and the theory of yes/no question.

1. Theory of Proposition

  The term proposition basically means the core meaning of a clause or sentence which can be analyzed through the main predicate and a number of arguments with different semantic roles such as Agent, Patient, and so on (van Dijk, 1988: 59, 1998: 32). Van Dijk further defines that propositions are “the smallest, independent meaning constructs of language and thought…. proposition are also the smallest semantic unit that can be true or false. Propositions are

   

  typically expressed by single sentences or clauses.” (1988:31). Van Dijk gives an example of a sentence Sandra fired the manager yesterday. In this sentence,

  Sandra and the manager are not propositions since they cannot be true or false.

  We can see whether the sentence is true or false by looking at the main verb fired. So the core meaning of that sentence is the action of firing done by Sandra as the doer, to the manager as the person who is affected by the action. Fire itself means to force somebody to leave their job.   Therefore the sentence means that Sandra

  forced the manager to leave his job. 

  If it is analyzed further, force has the meaning to make somebody do something that they do not want to do. So the sentence means that Sandra made the manager leave his job although the

  

manager did not want to do that. Such analysis of propositions can form some

  implied opinions which further may reveal the ideologies, as what is stated by van Dijk (1998:32) below,

  Concepts and their expressions in lexical items usually do not come alone, but combine into propositions expressed by clauses and sentences. Thus the occurrence of words that seem imply opinions (such as “terrorist”) does not mean much if we do not know the meaning of the sentences in which they occur (and of course, of the whole text and context, to which we turn below).

  Further van Dijk (1998:32) gives an example that there is considerable difference between the proposition ‘He is a terrorist’ and its denial ‘He is not a terrorist’. Although they both contain the concept of ‘terrorist’, the first sentence shows the affirmation while the second sentence shows the negation or denial of the first sentence. That is why analyzing proposition or the core meaning of a sentence is important to know the implied opinions beyond.

    2.

   Theory of Thematic Roles

  Jacobs (1995:19) defines thematic role as the semantic concept that defines the set of roles assigned to arguments. He classifies some thematic roles assigned by the predicates into the thematic role Agent, Theme, Instrument, Experiencer, Source and Goal, Benefactive, and the thematic roles for non- argument noun phrases such as Location and Time.

  Jacobs (1995:19-25) defines the thematic role Agent as a mind-possessor who acts, usually intentionally, as seen in the sentences Emily Brontë opened the

  

drawer with that iron key and The drawer was opened by Emily Brontë (Jacobs,

1995:23). In those sentences, Emily Brontë has the thematic role Agent.

  The next thematic role defined by Jacobs is Theme. Theme is the role of often inert entity, which is in a certain state or position or is changing its state or position such as in the sentences The girders were rusting, Cavour rolled the ball

  

down the slope, and The news would have shocked that community (Jacobs,

  1995:24). The noun phrases the girders, the ball, and the news have the thematic role Theme. Theme can also be assigned to clauses, such as in For Charlotte to

  

outdo Branwell would shock that community and in the sentence Patrick believed

that Emily had the greatest talent. The clauses for Charlotte to outdo Branwell

  and that Emily had the greatest talent have the thematic role Theme.

  Theme can also be assigned to that of affected mind-possessing entities. But because this class is not a class of inert entities and seems different in nature, the term Patient is sometimes used instead of broader term Theme. Patients undergo the action of process specified by their predicate and are affected by it, as

   

  seen in these sentences A wealthy hunter killed the Bengal Tiger and The Bengal

  died (Jacobs, 1995:24). The Bengal tiger here has the thematic role Patient.

  The thematic role Instrument is defined as the thing with which the action is done, for example in the sentences Emily Bronte opened the drawer with that

  iron key

  and That iron key opens the drawer (Jacobs, 1995:23). The argument

  that iron key here has the thematic role as the instrument.

  Jacobs also defines the thematic role Experiencer as the one who experiences a mental process or state involving cognition (thinking, knowing, believing), perception (seeing, hearing, smelling), or emotion (liking, hating, fearing, being angry) such as in the sentences The trooper hoped for a promotion and Montaigne’s words inspired the young poet (Jacobs, 1995:24). The thematic role Experiencer is assigned to the trooper and the young poet.

  There are also the thematic roles Source and Goal. Source refers to the location from which someone or something originates and Goal refers to the location that serves or should serve as the destination, as in the sentence The

  

delegates left Mexico City (Source) for Buenos Aires (Goal) (Jacobs, 1995:25). In

  an active voice sentence, the Goal is typically the indirect object of the object of to, and the Source is typically the object of from.

  The next thematic role is Benefactive. Benefactive is the role of the individual for whose benefit some action is undertaken, for example in the sentence The chef baked Jessica a cherry pie (Jacobs, 1995:25). Jessica in that sentence plays the Benefactive role. Sometimes the preposition for is also used to

   

  introduce the Benefactive role, as in the sentence The chef baked a cherry pie for

  Jessica (Jacobs, 1995:25).

  There are also the thematic roles of Location and Time which show the location and the time of the action, for example in the sentences Moses waited for

  them on the mountain

  and A truce will be declared for two weeks (Jacobs, 1995:25). The thematic role Location is assigned to the noun phrase the mountain and the thematic role Time is assigned to the noun phrase two weeks.

  Frawley (1992:225-227) adds more thematic roles. The first is thematic role Reason. Thematic role Reason is assigned to arguments that denote the prior conditions of a predication and that are connected to the intentions or motivations of the agent, for examples are the sentences I ran from fear, Bob jogs because of

  

his need to keep fit, and The murderer acted out of passion (Frawley, 1992:225).

  On the first sentence, fear precedes and motivates the running, on the second sentence, the need to keep fit motivates the jogging, and on the third sentence, passion motivates the actions. From those examples, based on Frawley’s (1992:225) theory, “…the reasons derive from events external to the predication and motivate the predication through the intentions of the agent,”

  The second thematic role defined by Frawley is Purpose. While Reason is the motivational source of predication, Purpose is the motivational goal. It is the result or consequence of a predicate, for examples on the sentences I went to the

  

doctor for a checkup and Tom has a silk shirt for impressing his friends

  (Frawley, 1992:227). In the first sentence, the checkup is the goal of the action

   

  and in the second sentence, impressing his friend is the result of Tom’s having the silk shirt.

3. Theory of Ideology in the News

  Teun van Dijk states that ideology, in this case the ideology of language in the newspaper, is “…like a knowledge and natural language (or rather like grammars and discursive rule systems that underlie language use).” (van Dijk, 1998: 22). Further he also states that “…ideologies are formed and changed through the everyday interaction and discourse of members in societal contexts of group relations and institutions like the press.” (van Dijk, 1998:23). Therefore, ideology here is not personal, but rather more social, institutional, and political.

  Many ideologies use the representation between Self and Others or Us and Them which are then polarized into We are Good and They are Bad, especially when there are different interests between groups. For example, in Kuo’s research, there are two ideologically different newspapers, which are the pro-unification

  

United Daily News and the pro-independence Liberty Times. The pro-unification

  newspaper will reveal the good sides of somebody or something that belongs to its ideology, which is the pro-unification, but it will reveal the bad sides of somebody or something that belongs to the other ideology, which is the pro-independence. So what is meant by We or Self here is the person or thing which belongs to the same group or same ideology as what the newspaper has, but They or Others means the person or thing that belongs to different group or ideology from the newspaper. This will finally affect to Our opinion and attitude to Them in the

   

  specific social domain, or in other words it will create a bias (van Dijk, 1998: 23- 26).