THE EFFECTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF DYNAMIC AND STATIVE VERBS IN HEMINGWAY’S “IN ANOTHER COUNTRY” AND “THE KILLER”
i
THE EFFECTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF DYNAMIC AND
STATIVE VERBS IN HEMINGWAY’S “IN ANOTHER
COUNTRY” AND “THE KILLER”
An Undergraduate Thesis
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
In English Letters By
Lucia Tri Natalia Sudarmo
Student Number : 034214082
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2007 ii
iii iv
YOU MAY SHOOT ME W I TH YOUR W ORDS,
YOU MAY CUT ME W I TH YOUR EYES,
YOU MAY KI LL ME W I TH YOUR HATEFULN ESS,
BUT STI LL, LI KE AI R, I ’LL RI SE.
[“St ill I Rise” MAYA ANGELOU]
f or my Beloved Parent s, sist ers, and lat e mBah Put ri.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All praise for the Almighty God for giving me a chance to finish this thesis, for giving the obstacle and guidance, for sending lovely people who have been willing to help me in finishing this thesis.
I would like to give my enormous gratitude toward my advisor, Adventina Putranti, S.S., M.Hum. I would like to thank her for the guidance, patience, help in solving my problem in finishing this thesis, and for her willingness to give her time, even her day off, in guiding me. I am also deeply grateful to my co-advisor, M. Luluk Artika W., S.S. for her willingness to read my thesis, check the content, and give constructive criticisms.
I would like to express my uncountable thanks for my parents who have been supporting me with love. Also, for my sisters, Ike and Fit ri, who shower me with their love, laughter, criticism, anger and many more. I never wish to have another sister but the two of them.
I thank Ratna and Dwi for lending me their flash disks, Dita for the friendship and criticism, for Icha, Dian, Ami and the gang, mbak Nik at the secretariat, Tika, Atiec, and Puteh for constantly dropping by at my house and being the oasis in the desert.
Lastly, as the saying said “no rose without a thorn,” I deeply realize that this thesis is still out of perfect. Nevertheless, hopefully it will be useful for others.
Lucia Tri Natalia Sudarmo vi
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19 C. Data Collection ……………………………………………. 20 D.
56 APPENDIX ………………………………………………………...
BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………
46 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION…………………………………... 54
41 C. The Effects Evoked from the Employment of Dynamic and Stative Verbs …………………………………………..
22 B. The Distribution of the Verbs into Dynamic and Stative Verbs ……………………………………………………….
They Share …………………………………………………
22 A. Verb Meanings Based on the Same Semantic Property(s)
20 CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ……………………………………...
Data Analysis ………………………………………………
18 B. Research Methodology …………………………………….
TABLE OF CONTENT TITLE PAGE …………………………………………………… i
APPROVAL PAGE …………………………………………….. ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE ………………………………………… iii
MOTTO PAGE …………………………………………………. iv
DEDICATION PAGE ………………………………………….. v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………. vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………. vii
LIST OF TABLES ……………………………………………… viii
ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………... ix
ABSTRAK ………………………………………………………. x
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ………………………………18 A. Object of the Study ………………………………………...
17 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY …………………………….
15 C. Theoretical Framework ……………………………………
6 B. Theory of Narrative Fiction ……………………………….
6 A. Theory of English Verbs ………………………………….
4 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE …………………
4 D. Definition of Terms ……………………………………….
Objectives of the Study ……………………………………
1 B. Problem formulation ……………………………………… 3 C.
1 A. Background of the Study ………………………………….
58
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. The number of verb meanings and the verbs having the meaning ……. 40 Table 2. The distribution of dynamic verbs …………………………………….. 43 Table 3. The distribution of stative verbs ………………………………………. 45 viii
ABSTRACT
LUCIA TRI NATALIA SUDARMO. The Effects of the Employment of Dynamic
and Stative Verbs in Hemingway’s “In Another Country” and”The Killer.”
Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2007.
In case of categorical level, a writer may have his own tendency in employing classes of word, such as verbs. Verbs can evoke certain effects on, for example a narration of a story. Hemingway is a writer who is well-known for his simple style. However, instead of analyzing the simplicity that has been proven by many analysts, the writer has decided to analyze the employment of verbs in the narration of Hemingway’s short stories, “In Another Country” and “The Killer”, in order to figure out the effects of Hemingway’s tendency in using verbs in the narrations. “In Another Country” is chosen for the domination of narrations in it while “The Killer” is selected because narrations are the minimum part of it.
There are three objectives to answer in this thesis. The first objective is to find out the meaning of each verb in the data found in both short stories based on the same property shared. The second is to classify the verbs into dynamic and stative verbs. The last one is to identify the effects that are evoked by the tendency of using certain meanings in the narrations of the two short stories.
The method applied in the discussion consists of the techniques of collecting and analyzing data. The data used in this thesis are full verbs and multi-word verbs in the narration of both short stories. The number got is, after excluding the same verbs encountered, 114 verbs in 107 sentences from both of them.
Having done the analysis, three findings are found. The first finding is that there are thirteen meanings of verb that can be found in “In Another Country” and they are physical movement and activity, communication, perception that involves doing something, process, transitional event, momentary action, bodily sensation, feeling and other mental states, physical stance or position, non-action, inert perception, inert cognition, and relation, while there are only eight meanings found in “The Killer” and they are physical movement and activity, communication, perception that involves doing something, transitional event, momentary action, physical stance or position, inert perception, and relation. The second finding is on the distribution of the verbs into dynamic and stative verbs. In “In Another Country”, dynamic verbs dominate the finding with 69.44 % of all verbs found in the short story while stative verbs comprise only 36.11 %. Similar to “In Another Country”, dynamic verbs found in “The Killer” also comprise the major number of the verbs found with 83.33 % while stative verbs found are only 16.66 %. The last finding on the effects evoked from the tendency of employing more dynamic verbs, which denotes action, shows that the narration of both short stories are lack of emotion and the form of the verbs are similar to those of news reports. ix
ABSTRAK
LUCIA TRI NATALIA SUDARMO. The Effects of the Employment of Dynamic
and Stative Verbs in Hemingway’s “In Another Country” and”The Killer.”
Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2007.
Pada level kategori, seorang penulis dapat memiliki kecenderungan tersendiri dalam penggunaan kelas kata, seperti verba. Sebagai contoh verba mampu menimbulkan suatu efek pada narasi sebuah cerita. Hemingway adalah seorang pengarang yang terkenal dengan gaya bahasa yang sederhana. Namun, karena telah banyak analis yang membuktikan kesederhanaan gaya bahasanya, penulis memutuskan untuk menganalisis penggunaan verba di dalam narasi cerita pendek yang ditulis oleh Hemingway yaitu “In Another Country” dan “The Killer” untuk memerikan efek- efek yang diakibatkan oleh kecenderungan Hemingway dalam menggunakan ve rba tertentu di dalam narasi kedua cerita pendeknya tersebut. “In Another Country” dipilih karena narasi mendominasi cerita tersebut sedangkan “The Killer” dipilih karena narasinya hanya bagian kecil dari cerita.
Ada tiga pokok permasalahan yang akan dianalisis dalam skripsi ini. Permasalahan yang pertama adalah untuk menemukan arti dari ma sing- masing verba di dalam data yang ditemukan dalam kedua cerita pendek tersebut berdasarkan pada properti yang sama yang ditemukan pada tiap verba. Yang kedua adalah untuk mengklasifikasikan verba- verba tersebut ke dalam verba yang bersifat dinamis dan statis. Yang terakhir adalah untuk mengidentifikasi efek yang ditimbulkan oleh kecenderunga n penggunaan arti tertentu dalam narasi kedua cerita pendek tersebut.
Metode yang digunakan dalam pembahasan permasalahan terdiri dari tehnik pengumpulan data dan analisis data. Data yang digunakan adalah verba penuh dan verba ganda yang ada dalam narasi kedua cerita pendek tersebut. Jumlah verba yang didapatkan adalah, setelah menyisihkan verba yang sama, 114 dari 107 kalimat dari dua cerita pendek tersebut.
Setelah analisis dilakukan, ada tiga temuan yang didapat. Temuan yang pertama adalah bahwa ada tiga belas arti verba yang dapat ditemukan di dalam "In Another Country" dan makna tersebut adalah aktivitas dan pergerakan fisik, komunikasi, persepsi yang melibatkan suatu aktivitas, proses, peristiwa transisi, tindakan sesaat, sensasi jasmani, perasaan dan hal- hal yang berhubungan dengan mental lainnya, cara berpendirian fisik atau posisi, persepsi yang tidak melibatkan tindakan, tanpa tindakan, pengamatan tanpa daya, dan hubungan, sementara itu hanya delapan arti yang ditemukan di “The Killer” dan makna- makna tersebut adalah aktivitas dan pergerakan fisik, komunikasi, persepsi yang melibatkan suatu aktivitas, peristiwa transisi, tindakan sesaat, cara berpendirian fisik atau posisi, persepsi tanpa daya, dan hubungan. Temuan yang kedua adalah distribusi dari verba ke dalam verba yang bersifat dinamis dan statis. Di dalam "In Another Country" verba yang bersifat dinamis mendominasi temuan dengan 69.44 % dari semua verba yang ditemukan di x dalam cerita pendek tersebut sedangkan verba yang bersifat statis hanya meliputi 36.11 % saja. Serupa dengan "In Another Country", verba dinamis yang ditemukan di dalam "The Killer" juga merupakan jumlah yang terbanyak dengan persentase 83.33 % sedangkan verba yang bersifat statis hanya ditemukan 16.66 % saja. Temuan terakhir mengenai efek- efek yang ditimbulkan dari kecenderungan memanfaatkan lebih banyak kata kerja dinamis yang menandakan tindakan menunjukkan bahwa narasi dari kedua cerita pendek tersebut tidak mampu menunjukkan emosi yang cukup dan bentuk dari narasinya menjadi serupa dengan bentuk narasi berita. xi
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study A writer already has his own way that is consistently applied to produce his
best literary works. He can intuitively or consciously create the style of his works. His style is a matter of choice since it results from his tendency to choose certain structures among other structures available in language (Traugott and Pratt, 1980: 29). One of the choices a writer may make is in the way he makes use of or chooses the verbs in his writings.
From the choice of the verbs only there are a lot of variations that can be made because verbs already carry meanings with them. The meanings they carry can show situation types. These situation types, like state, events or actions, can be durative or instantaneous.
Based on the quality of being durative or instantaneous, verbs can be classified into dynamic and stative verbs. Dynamic verbs can be either durative or instantaneous and included in them are event and actions. Stative verbs are durative only and states belong to them (Comrie, 1976 cited in Kreidler, 1998: 201). Actually, when used in a literary work, the choice to make use of dynamic and stative verbs in balance, more dynamic verbs, or more stative verbs can give a certain effect to the narration of the story for they can evoke different effects of feeling or emo tion.
Related to the discussion of verbs and feeling or emotion in literature Levin has noted one American writer whose writings consist of verbs which lack strong feeling of excitement, admiration, interest, great eagerness, etc. and rarely show important special meaning or value (1957:78). Moreover, this writer avoided describing the emotions and thoughts of his characters by giving descriptions of actions that are not influenced by feeling and by using simple verbs (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761577417/Hemingway_Ernest_Miller.html).
The writer is Ernest Miller Hemingway.
Hemingway, who ended his life by committing suicide with gunshot at his home in Idaho on July 2, 1961, is considered one of the great stylists in American fiction besides William Faulkner. Nobel Prize committee acknowledged that he gave his greatest contribution in the area of prose style (http://www.people.vcu.edu/~bmangum/hemstories.htm). He was a genius who created emotion of his stories “by walking away from emotion” (Edel, 1955: 170).
Hemingway, instead of flourishing his narration with too much detail, just made his writings in an arrangement of simple clauses or complex clauses formed from the arrangement of simple clauses plus simple clauses (Foerster and Falk, 1960: 1080- 1). Furthermore, rooted on an architectural maxim of Mies Van Der Rohe’s writing “Less is more”, as Hemingway admitted, his writing gains its power by saying less but communicating more to the readers (Weeks, 1962: 1). From this point of view it is obvious that Hemingway chose not to flourish his writing; instead he crossed the road and created straight-to-the-point narrations.
His tendency to employ straight-to-the-point narrations was influenced by his experience in journalism. He was active in journalism since he was a high school student at Oak Park High School, where he wrote for school newspaper The Trapeze. His first professional carrier at Kansas City Star, where he became a cub reporter for it, taught him to use short sentences and vigorous English
(http://www.people.vcu.edu/~bmangum/hemstories.htm). These types of journalistic writing applied in fiction writing may result on certain effects of the verbs used and the narration in the stories written.
Based on those reasons, the writer has decided to observe and analyze Hemingway’s short stories to find out the use of the verbs in the narrations. Two short stories, “In Another Country” and “The Killer”, are selected for different reasons. The story of “In Another Country” is built by the use of narrations which dominate the story while “The Killer” barely consists of narrations. Therefore the writer intends to observe the major and minor narrations in the story, and it will be done through the analysis of the verbs in the narrations. The verbs, as the data of the analysis, are limited into full verbs and multi- word verbs only since modal, especially be which is predomina nt in every Hemingway’s writing (Levin, 1957: 78), often serves only as an obligatory verb and is empty in meaning (Jeffries, 1998: 72). In brief, in this thesis, the writer will try to figure out the use of the verbs in the narrations of Hemingway’s two short stories and the effect(s) of the verbs to the narrations of his short stories.
B. Problem Formulation 1.
Based on the same property each verb shares, what meanings of verbs are found in the narrations of “In Another Country” and “The Killer”?
2. How is the distribution of the verbs into dynamic and stative verbs in both short stories?
3. What effect(s) are evoked from the use of dynamic and stative verbs to the narration of the two short stories?
C. Objectives of the Study
There are three objectives that will be discussed in this thesis. The first objective is to identify the meaning of each verb in the narration of “In Another Country” and ”The Killer” based on the property each verb shares. By analyzing the meaning of the verbs, then, the writer can classify them into dynamic and stative verbs, which is the objective of the second problem. The second problem is to figure out the distribution of the verbs. The verbs found in the narration are grouped into dynamic and stative verbs. From these two classifications, the type of the verbs employed by Hemingway can be clearly seen. Accordingly, the tendency of the verbs used in the narration can be revealed. The third, or the last, problem is to find out the effect(s) evoked from this tendency of verbs employment to the narration of the stories.
D. Definition of the Terms
Before moving further, it is important to define briefly specific terms mentioned in this chapter. The terms used in the discussion are narration, verbs, dynamic verb, and stative verb.
Narration can be defined simply as the production of a narrative (Mcquillan, 2000: 322). Narration can be posterior which comes after narrated events, anterior which precedes the event in time, simultaneous which occurs at the same time as the events, or intercalated which is situated between two moments of action as in epistolary novels (Mcquillan, 2000: 322- 3).
Verbs are classes of words that represent situation-types (Jackson, 1992: 288). Related to situation-types, verbs can be distinguished into two classes of verb namely dynamic and stative verbs. Dynamic verbs are verbs that “are fitted to indicate action, activity, and temporary or changing conditions” (Quirk, et al., 1973: 21). They have the capacity to show tense and aspect. Some examples of this kind of verb are walk, and change. In contrast, stative verbs are verbs which cannot
move, kill, chase,
indicate action, activity, and temporary or changing conditions. They are not able to refer to something in progress, are stable and can neither determine the tense nor aspect in a sentence (Quirk et al., 1973: 21). Some of the examples are hate, love, lean, remember, remain, and stay.
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE In this chapter the writer provides theories needed to analyze the data. The
theories used in this thesis are theory of English verb that consists of theory of transitive and intransitive verbs, multi-word verbs and dynamic and stative verbs, and theory of narration.
A. Theory of English Verbs
English verbs are distinguished into several classifications due to various considerations. Some of them are the classification of verbs into transitive and
intransitive verbs based on the potentialities for complementation, the classification
of verbs into phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs, and phrasal- prepositional verbs based on the particles or prepositional attached to them, and the classification of verbs into dynamic and stative verbs based on the quality of being durative or instantaneous.
The distinctions of verbs into these three classifications will be described further in the following sub-sections.
1. Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
The classification of verbs into transitive and intransitive is based on whether one verb requires direct object as the complement or not. Verbs requiring direct objects as the complements are termed transitive verbs like sentences (1) and (2).
1. The boy caught the ball, (Quirk et al., 1985: 358).
2. The other waitress wiped the table, (Quirk et al., 1985: 359). In contrary to transitive verbs, intransitive verbs do not require any direct object, even they can never take direct objects as in (3)
3. Your friends have arrived, (Quirk et al., 1985: 352).
2. Multi-word Verbs
In their use verbs are not always on their own. There are cases where the main verbs consist of verbs and one or more other words, and result on what so-called multi- word verbs. This kind of verbs can be classified further into three; phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs, and phrasal-prepositional verbs.
Generally speaking phrasal verb is one type of multi- word verb which consists of a verb plus an adverbial particle.
4. The children were sitting down.
5. He can’t live down his past.
6. He is playing around.
7. Get up once, (Quirk et al., 1985: 347).
8. We will set up a new unit.
9. Find out whether they are coming.
10. They turned on the light.
11. I can’t make out what he means, (Quirk et al., 1985: 348).
Sentences (4) to (7) and (8) to (11) seem similar in that they contain verbs plus particles. Nevertheless, they are not that similar. Phrasal verbs (4) to (7) cannot take direct objects. Therefore they are called intransitive phrasal verbs.
Unlike sentences containing intransitive phrasal verbs, sentences (8) to (11) can take direct objects and thus, they are called transtitive phrasal verbs . It is worth noting, however, that there are some combinations that can be either transitive or intransitive with or without having different meanings like:
12. and 13. Drink up your milk Quickly.
Drink up quickly.
14. When will they give in? and
15. They gave in their
resignation , (Quirk et al., 1985: 348).
If phrasal verbs contain verbs plus partic les, prepositional verbs consist of verbs in combination with preposition (Quirk et al., 1985: 349).
16. They called on the man.
17. They looked at the picture, (Quirk et al., 1985: 349). In contrast to phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs allow an inserted adverb after the verbs and relative pronouns after the prepositions. Hence, in sentence (16) an adverb such as early can be inserted between the verb and the preposition, and will result in sentence (18) below:
18. They called early on the man (Quirk et al., 1985: 349). While for phrasal verbs the insertion of adverbs or relative pronouns cannot be done.
19. They called up the man *20. They called the man up, (Quirk et al., 1985: 349).
Similar to phrasal verbs, however, prepositional verbs vary in their idiomaticity (Quirk et al., 1985: 349). Moreover, to distinguish phrasal verbs from single-word verbs plus prepositional phrases, prepositional verbs allow pronominal questions with who(m) for personal noun phrases and what for the whole prepositional phrases.
21. They called on the man (Quirk et al., 1985: 349). Sentence (21) above can be questioned with:
22. Who(m) did they call on? (Quirk et al., 1985:349) but cannot be questioned with:
23. Where did they call? (Quirk et al., 1985: 349) Moreover, many prepositional verbs allow noun phrases to become the subject of a passive transformation of the sentence. Thus, sentence (21) can be passivized into
24. The man was called on (Quirk et al., 1985: 349). Instead of taking one particle only, verbs may be followed by two particles and form phrasal-prepositional verbs.
25. He puts up with a lot of teasing (Quirk et al., 1985: 351). They can be analyzed as transitive verbs with noun phrases as direct objects. Also, they allow pronominal questions and under certain conditions can occur in the passive:
26. He can’t put up with bad temper ~ What can’t he put up with? ~Bad temper can’t be put up with for long, (Quirk et al., 1985: 351).
In the case of insertion, in phrasal-prepositional verbs, an adverb cannot be immediately inserted before the object although it is possible to do so between the particles.
- 27. He puts up with willingly that secretary of his
28. He puts up willingly with that secretary of his (Quirk et al., 1985: 351)
Like phrasal and prepositional verbs, these multi-word verbs vary in their idiomaticity (Quirk et al., 1985: 351). Some examples of this kind of verbs are break in on (the conversation) which means interrupt, cut down on (expenses) which means curtail, and look in on (somebody) which means visit (Quirk et al., 1985: 352).
3. Dynamic and Stative Verbs
There are four types of situation; states, action, achievement, and accomplishment (Vendler, 1967 cited in Kreidler, 1998: 206). A state denotes a situation that will continue with or without energy until it turns into a certain state (Comrie, 1976 cited in Kreidler, 1998: 201). Thus, state is a durative verb. Unlike states; action, achievement, and accomplishment require energy that enables a situation to continue. The situation will continue as long as there is an input energy and it may cease when there is no energy any more. Thus action, achievement, and accomplishment can either be durative or instantaneous (Comrie, 1976 cited in Kreidler, 1998: 201). The qualities of being durative or instantaneous cause them to be classified into two classes of verb namely dynamic and stative verbs.
a. Dynamic Verbs
As mentioned earlier, dynamic verbs have the qualities of being durative or instantaneous. It is durative when there is an input energy and instantaneous when there is no energy any more (Comrie, 1976 cited in Kreidler, 1998: 201). Moreover, verbs can be characterized as dynamic because they can indicate action, activity, and temporary or changing conditions (Quirk et al., 1985: 21).
29. Something moved
30. The sun came up
31. They discussed the plan (Kreidler, 1998: 201)
The above sentences are activity sentences with dynamic ve rbs. This type of verbs has several different meanings for each verb and the meaning includes: 1)
Verbs that express some form of physical movement (Kreidler, 1998: 202) or activity verbs: abandon, ask, beg, call, come, drift, drink, eat, float, go, help
hop, learn, pound, rain, read, slice, throw, rotate, turn, vibrate, walk , work, and write (Quirk et al., 1985: 46).
Movement or activity verbs can be either durative or instantaneous. In the form of simple tenses, they are instantaneous while in progressive they refer to continuing movement or activity. In other words, in the form of progressive they are durative verbs (Leech, 1981: 19).
2) Verbs of communication: argue, complain, discuss, explain, invite, question,
report, say, shout, talk, translate, whisper, write (Kreidler, 1998: 202)
3) Verbs of perception that involve doing something: listen, look at, look for, sniff, and watch (Kreidler, 1998: 202).
This meaning denotes that the perceiver actively do what the verbs indicate. It can be also said that this kind of verbs are “doing verbs” which involve animate sense and is different from the other meaning that denotes passive perception, or inert perception (Leech, 1981: 23).
4) Process verbs, like change, deteriorate, dwindle, improve, and worsen, designate a change occurring over a period of time (Kreidler, 1998: 202). This type of dynamic verb ordinarily has duration, but not indefinite duration (Leech, 1981: 19). It does not either have instantaneous result (Kreidler, 1998: 207).
5) Transitional event verbs (Quirk et al., 1985: 46) which are about process moving towards completion (Kreidler, 1998: 206) are, for examples arrive,
die, fall, land, leave, and lose (Quirk et al., 1985: 46). Similar to process verbs, verbs having this meaning are durative.
6) Momentary verbs (Quirk et al., 1985: 46) which denote actions that are momentary and have no duration, and the meanings are repetitive and iterative
(Kreidle r, 1998: 203) are like hit, jump, kick, knock , nod, tap (Quirk et al., 1985: 47).
32. Albert kicked a ball and the ball struck a post (Kreidler, 1998: 202). As in (32) the progressive aspect suggests repetition of kicking and striking.
7) Verbs of bodily sensation: ache, feel, hurt, itch, tingle.
A difference should be noted between the meaning of feel, which is a question of internal sensation, the effects are inside the body and have no relation with outside of the body, like I feel hungry, and the meaning of feel as a verb of perception denoting external sensation, the effects are felt because of some stimuli from outside of the body, such as I can feel a stone in my shoe (Leech, 1981: 22). The second meaning of feel makes the verb be classified into stative verb.
b. Stative Verbs
According to Comrie, stative verbs are durative verbs since the situation in this type of verb will continue until it turns into a certain state with or without input energy (as cited in Kreidler, 1998: 201). Verbs are characterized as stative since they cannot be seen as referring to something that was in progress (Quirk et al., 1985: 21).
33. Jesse had a headache all morning (Kreidler, 1998: 201). If the sentence above is true then at every time during that morning sentence (35) is true (Kreidler, 1998: 201).
Stative verbs also suggest a continuing and unchanging state. However, some of them can express change of state in certain context. Including in stative verbs are: 1)
Verbs that express feeling: abhor, adore, desire, enjoy, envy, fear, hate, like, long for, mind, prefer, regret, wish, and want (Kreidler, 1998: 201).
2) Verbs that express other mental states: believe, doubt, expect, intend, interest, and understand (Kreidler, 1998: 202).
know, suppose, suspect, think,
3) Verbs that express a physical stance or position: kneel, lean, lie, sit, and stand
(Kreidler, 1998: 202). This kind of meaning seems to be dynamic because of the term “physical”. It is, however, stative since it denotes a state instead of an activity.
4) Verbs that express non-action: remain, stay, and wait (Kreidler, 1998: 202).
5) Verbs of inert perception. The term ‘inert’ is used for these verbs to distinguish perception of the verbs where the perceiver is passively receptive, like see, from dynamic verbs that denotes the meaning of active perceiver, where the perceiver is actively directing his intention towards some object, for example look at (Leech, 1981: 20)
34. I could feel something hard under my foot
35. I could hear a knocking at the door
36. I could see someone through the window (Leech, 1981: 20)
These verbs usually have the equal verbs denoting activity, such as hear and listen to, and see and look at.
6) Verbs of inert cognition, like the verbs of perception above, are passive in meaning:
37. I think that they are coming
38. I believe we have met already
39. I forget what I paid for the house (Leech, 1981: 21) This kind of verbs shows the meaning of knowing.
7) Relational verbs (Quirk, 1985: 47), or state verbs of Having and Being (Leech,
1981: 21) or verbs that express a relation between two entities (Kreidler, 1998: 202) comprise belong to, contain, consist of, cost, depend on, deserve, equal,
fit, have, include, involve, lack, matter, mean, owe, own, require, resemble,
like
40. This carpet belongs to me
41. Your age doesn’t matter
42. This bread contains too much yeast (Leech, 1981: 22)
B. Theory of Narrative Fiction
Newspaper reports, history books, films, comic strips, pantomime, gossip, dance, and psychoanalytic sessions are only some of the narratives in our lives. There is one kind of narratives that has direct relation with literature namely narrative fiction (Rimmon- Kenan, 1994: 1). Narrative fiction can be in the form of novel, short story or poem. The characteristics that distinguish this kind of narration from another narrative like film, dance, and gossip are, in this narration, the message of the narrative is transmitted by addresser to addressee and verbal form is used as the medium to transmit the message (Rimmon- Kenan, 1994: 2). Furthermore, unlike the other narratives, narrative fiction represents related events in order (Tomashevsky, 1965 cited in Rimmon- Kenan, 1994: 2). These related events can be summed up by a verb or a name of action (Rimmon- Kenan, 1994: 2).
A verb is able to sum up the events since one can find in narratives the principal verbal categories that are expanded and transformed proportionately. The verbal categories are tenses, aspects, moods, and persons (Barthes, 2000: 111). Moreover, verbal forms can also show the duration possessed by narration although most fiction ignores the duration and treats narration instantaneously (Rimmon- Kenan, 1994: 91).
The relation between verbs and narration mentioned in the previous paragraphs is the characteristic of verbs in a narration. The characteristics required for creating a good narrative fiction, however, is different from the characteristic described in the previous paragraphs. A narrative, in its minimal form, consists of two clauses which are ordered temporarily. Changes in the order will change the way the readers interpret the assumed chronology. Although it can be presented in its minimal form, still a narrative needs flourishment.
Simpson notes some requirements for a good narrative in the following quotation.
Of course, most narratives, whether those of canonical prose fiction or of the spontaneous stories of everyday social interaction, have rather more to offer than just two simple temporally arranged clauses. Narrative requires development, elaboration, embellishment; and it requires a sufficient degree of stylistic flourish to give it an imprint of individuality or personality. Stories narrated without that flourish will often feel flat and dull. (Simpson, 2004: 19).
It can be concluded then that a good narrative should have the characteristic of having flourishment and interesting addition detail so that it can give a certain remark of the writer. Violating this theory of flourishment can result in a flat and dull narration. The following quote can give a clear example of a narration without flourishment.
Well this person had a little too much to drink And he attacked me And the friend came in And she stopped it (Labov cited in Simpson, 2004: 19)
The narration, which is only a skeleton of a fully formed narrative, was told by an adult informant who had been asked to recollect an experience where they felt they had been in danger. According to Simpson, it does satisfy the minimum criterion for narrative in that it comprises temporally connected clauses. However, the lack of number of important elements which are important to the delivery of a successful narrative makes it ill formed. There are a lot of questions that may be asked to the writer of this narration. Who was ‘the person’ who had too much drink, who attacked the person, and so on. Obviously much detail is missing from it. In short it lacks sufficient contextualization and offers little sense of closure or finality (Simpson, 2004: 19).
C. Theoretical Framework In this chapter the writer has mentioned the theory needed to analyze the data.
The first is theory of English verbs that are classified with certain consideration into transitive and intransitive verbs, multi-word verbs, and dynamic and stative verbs. The second one is theory of narrative fiction that contains the use of verbs in a narration.
These theories are provided in order to support the answer of the problems formulated in the previous chapter so as not to be merely an assumption without any base. The problems are to identify the meaning of the verbs in each group based on the property they share, to figure out the distribution of the verbs in “In Another Country” and “The Killer”, and to find out the effect(s) evoked from the tendency of the verbs used in the narrations of both short stories.
The first and second problem can be solved by applying theory of verbs and theory of dynamic and stative verbs specifically. To differentiate each verb and to be able to put the verbs into group the writer needs the theories of verbs so that the writer will be able to distinguish phrasal verbs from prepositional verbs or from phrasal- prepositional verbs and so on. Then, to denote the meaning and to group the verbs into whether they are dynamic or stative, the theory of dynamic and stative verbs will be useful. The theory of narration is applied when analyzing the narration of the two short stories. This theory is applicable because it is used as the base for the analysis of the use of the verbs in the narrations.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study There are two short stories that are to be analyzed in this thesis and both of
them are Hemingway’s literary works. They are “In Another Country” and “The Killer” which are included in the same collection, Men Without Women.
“In Another Country” is a touching story of ex-soldiers who, having finished their duties in war, took some medical treatment in Milan, Italy for the wounds they had and accepted rejection from their surrounding. The narrator of this story is an American. He got wounded on his knee and leg that caused them not to be able to drop and work properly. The others are a major who had a withered hand like a baby’s, another boy in the same age as the narrator who lost his nose and was about to rebuilt it, and three other men who also got injured in the war. They all felt a little detached from the society that disliked them because they were officers.
The strength of this story is built; beside from the content of the story itself, from the narrations that dominates it. The narration holds an important role in that it is the one to make the story known and to make it understood by the readers. In other words, since most part of it is narration, the narration is the only part that is able to tell the story.
“The Killer” is one of Nick Adams stories. In this short story, Nick Adams happened to know a murder plan of an ex-heavyweight prizefighter named Ole Andreson when he was in a restaurant. Knowing the plan, he decided to tell it to Ole Andreson. He expected that, by telling the plan to him, he could prepare himself or even could leave the town before the murderers came to his house. However, far from his expectation, he chose to wait them to murder him. Nick felt sick knowing this and decided, then, to leave the town, avoiding seeing or hearing anything about the murder.
This short story is, unlike the previous one, dominated more with dialogues than the narrations. However, critics often praised it for the domination of dialogues and the way the narrator is not obvio usly presented in the story (Rimmon- Kenan, 1994: 96).
B. Research Methodology
Linguistics is a scientific study that applies scientific methods. As a scientific study, linguistics should be empirical, exact, and objective. Scientific investigation is described as being exact and objective because it employs an empirical approach. It is empirical in that the data analyzed is observable. It is exact in that it requires observation with the application of some related theories not only hypotheses, and it is objective in that it needs the observers to see the conformity of a subject in question to some sort of standard measure not based on the same mental they have (Dinneen, 1967: 4-5).
In its application, scientific study requires some method to do. The term method means a procedure in a research that consists of techniques of collecting data and of analyzing data. Hence the writer describes the method of collecting data and analyzing data in the following sections.
C. Data Collection
There are two major data that are used in this thesis. Both data are Hemingway’s short stories, “In Another Country” and “The Killer”. From these two short stories the writer will only take the narration of the stories to analyze and thus exclude the direct speeches in the stories. Moreover, although the writer intends only to observe the verbs, still the data are presented in full sentences.
The population of the data used in this thesis is all sentences in the narration of “In Another Country” and “The Killer”. From this population the writer takes only the sentences whose verbs are full verbs or multi- word verbs and leaves sentences with
be. Having excluded sentences with be, the writer gets the “defined population”
(Cates, 1985: 55) and from the sentences included in defined population are the sample drawn.