TRANSITIVITY SYSTEM USED BY SARA CREWE, THE MAIN
CHARACTER IN A LITTLE PRINCESS NOVEL
A THESIS
Submitted as the Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Sarjana Sastra
By :
BERNIKA CHRISTINI URSULA SINAGA
Registration Number : 2111620003
ENGLISH LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
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ABSTRACT
Sinaga, Bernika Christini Ursula. 2111620003. Transitivity System Used by Sara Crewe, The Main Character in A Little Princess Novel. A Thesis. English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan. 2016.
This study aims at the aplication of Halliday’s theory of transitivity model of text and to identifyhow the main character’s personality was portrayed through language used in France Burnett’s novel “A Little Princess”. The study was conducted to describe Process types, Participants function and Circumstatial Elements of Transitivity Analysis that used in A Little Princess novel. The study applied descriptive qualitaive method. The data were in the form of 110 clause of the utterance the main character. The findings showed that there were 6 types of processes, 14 participants and 6 circumstances that can be found in the dialogues of Sara Crewe in A Little Princess Novel. The dominat type of the process was Relational Process (31,82%), the dominat type of the Participant Functions was Actor (14,11%) and the dominant type of the Circumstances Element was Place-Location (41,02%).The findings showed that the linguistic in transitivity was important role to building up the main character of the story.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Great thanks and praise to Almighty God, Jesus Christ for the amazing grace and blessed the writer to complete her thesis as the partial fulfiment of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra at English Department,Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
There are lots of help and support that the writer obtained in finishing this Thesis. Without those helps and supports, it must be hard for the writer to finish this assignment. For that, the writer would like to thank:
Prof. Dr. H. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., 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., the Head of English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan
Dra. Meisuri, M.A., the Secretary of English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan and as her Thesis Advisor who had given her valuable suggestions, advice in completing and correcting this Thesis
Nora Ronita Dewi, S.S., M.Hum., the Head of Educational English Program and Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan Syamsul Bahri, S.S., M.Hum., the Head of English Non-Educational
Program and Dr. Siti Aisah Ginting, M.Pd as her Thesis Examiners and
Reviewer.
Morada Tetty, S.S., M.Hum her Second Thesis Advisor and Citra Anggia Putri, S.S., M.Hum her Academic Advisor.
Eis Sri Wahyuningsih, M.Pd., and Mr. Pantes as the Administration Staff of English Department for the attention helping the writer in preparing all the fulfillment in conducting her Thesis.
All the Lecturers who had adviced and given knowledge through also to all her family members for the support and prayers.
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All her best friends, Eryca, Ingrid, Melbebahwati Saragih, Nurul Siregar, Tablita, Sondang, Novi, Rio, Endang, Nia, Ade, Anggi, Niko, Roy, Immanuel, Rheta, Lamtiar Sinaga most grateful feeling for having them as precious friends at the process of completing the Thesis.
The people who directly or indirectly have contributed in the process of the Thesis. Your kindness means a lot to the writer. Thanks you so much for everything. God bless us, Amin.
The writer admits that this Thesis is still far from being perfect. Overall, the writer hopes this Thesis can give a bit contribution to the English Education students and further pedagogical research.
Medan, September 2016
The Writer,
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E. The Significance of the Study... 5
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ... 6
A. Theoritical framework ... 6
1. Metafunction of Language ... 6
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2) Short Story ... 25
B. Relevant Studies ... 25
CHAPTER III: METHOD OF RESEARCH ... 28
A. The Design of the Research ... 28
B. The Source of Data... 28
C. The Technique of Collecting Data ... 29
D. The Technique of Analyzing Data ... 29
CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ... 30
A. The Description of Data ... 30
B. Data Analysis ... 30
1. Process ... 30
2. Participant ... 32
3. Circumstance ... 34
C. Research Finding ... 36
D. Discussion ... 36
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ... 39
A. Conclusion ... 39
B. Suggestion ... 40
REFERENCES ... 41
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1 Participant, Process, Circumstance ...9
Table 2.2 Process ...10
Table 2.3 Example of Material Process ...10
Table 2.4 Example of Material Process ...11
Table 2.5 Example of Mental Process ...13
Table 2.6 Example of Mental Process ...13
Table 2.7 Example of Mental Process ...13
Table 2.8 Example of Mental Process ...13
Table 2.9 Example of Relational Process ...14
Table 2.10 Example of Relational Process ...14
Table 2.11 Example of Relational Process ...15
Table 2.12 Example of Relational Process ...16
Table 2.13 Example of Relational Process ...16
Table 2.14 Example of Relational Process ...16
Table 2.15 Example of Verbal Process ...18
Table 2.16 Example of Verbal Process ...18
Table 2.17 Example of Verbal Process ...18
Table 2.18 Example of Behavioural Process ...19
Table 2.19 Example of Behavioural Process ...19
Table 2.20 Example of Existential Process ...19
Table 2.21 Example of Existential Process ...20
Table 2.22 Process and Participants ...21
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Table 4.1 The numbers of Process in Sara Crewe dialogue ...31
Table 4.2 The numbers of Participant in Sara Crewe dialogue ...33
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LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX
Pages
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
As a fundamental of communication, language is used to convey or share
ideas and express thoughts, humans' needs, wishes, intentions and desires.
Language also can be as a communication tool for human. Halliday (1978: 60)
stated that language has three functions which are known as metafunction of
language. Metafunction of language consists of idetional, interpersonal, and
textual . Ideationalstates that all adult languagesare organized around the small
number of functional components.Interpersonal is one of the three metafunctions
(the others being ideational and textual). And textual is one of the three functional
diversifications (metafunctions) which enables the speaker or writer to construct
texts. Language is used to describe, which is known as ideational meaning is
classified into two sub functions, the experiential meaning and the logical
meaning. The ideational function of language which is concerned with the
transmission of ideas is called transitivity. Halliday (1985:53, 60) states that
transitivity generally refers to how meaning is represented in the clause. It plays a
role in showing how speakers encode in language their mental picture of reality
and how they account for their experience of the world around them.
When people speak or write, they produce text, the term text refers to any
instance of language. Human in society need language to interact, to communicate
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phonological constituents, but with considerable variation in how constituency is
organized (Halliday, 2004:3, 5).
Novel is book with long narrative in literary prose which describe fictional
characters and events with specific setting and imaginatively in human
experience. "A Little Princess" novel is fascinating to read by all ages and also
the story talks about racism that happened in England. The writer also assumes
that the story is the best example for young children to learn transitivity systems
especially for short story because the novel is easy to understand and full of
imagination.
When the story begins, we see interactions between a little girl named Sara
Crewe and her father (Papa Crewe), who are extremely sad about an imminent
event. The imminent event happens to be the fact that Papa Crewe is shipping
Sara off to boarding school in London (the cloudiest, most dreary of all places to
be abandoned) because she simply cannot stay with him in India. It’s not good for
children because sun is worse than rain, and foreign countries turn good children
into savages, or something
In this novel, the main character, Sara Crewe, is a beloved student at Miss
Michin’s School for young ladies until a tragic event turns her life upside-down.
Forced to live in poverty and work as a servant for her former friends, Sara must
find a way to hold onto the life she once knew.
A previous research about Transitivity was used in William Butler Yeats’
Short Story “Where There Is Nothing There Is God” (Pramono, 2014). He found
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dominated over the other participants,while the circumstance of place (38.56%)
was more dominant than the other circumstances. The field of discourse is
realized by the experiential domains, short term goal and the long term goal.
Transitivity analysis was also used by Harahap (2009) in Barrack Obama
speech. She found that the most dominant process in Barrack Obama speech was
Material Process 287 (54,6%), the most dominant participant was Actor 192
(31,1%) and the last the most dominant circumstance found in the speech was 94
(46,1%)
Another research about transitivity was conducted by Rambe (2014). He analyze
two short stories in Nancy Chang Ing’s The Chinese Pen. He found that material process was the most dominant process that occurred in the three selected short
stories. That was material process occurred 296 clauses or 70.14 %, then it
followed by verbal process, which occurred in 57 clauses or 13.50 %, next to it
was mental process. It was occurred in 33 clauses or 7.81 %.
Transitivity is a system for decribing the whole clause rather than just the verb
and its project. The function of transitivity itself is to represent experience, to
describe the events and states of the real(and unreal) world. Trasitivity is an
improtant and powerful semantic concept in Halliday. Transitivity can show how
speakers/writers enccode in language their mental reflection of the world and how
they account for their experience of the world around them. Therefore, the writer
analyzedwhat types of transitivity system used in A Little Princess novel and
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B. The Problems of the Study
The problems of the studywere formulated as follows:
1. What types of Transitivity system used by Sara Crewe, the main character
in A Little Princess novel?
2. What was the most dominant type of Transitivity system used by Sara
Crewe dialogue in A Little Princess novel?
3. Why did the most dominant type of Transitivity system occur as the way it
was in Sara Crewe dialogue?
C. The Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this study were formulated as follows:
1. To find out thetypes of Transitivity systemused by Sara Crewe, the main
character in A Little Princess novel
2. To find out the most dominant type of Transitivity systemused by Sara
Crewe dialogue in A Little Princess novel
3. To describe the reasons why the most dominant type of Transitivity
systemoccured in Sara Crewe dialogue
D. The Scope of the Study
Based on the background of the study, the writer only focused on transitivity
system found in A Little Princess novel written by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The
novel has 9 characters and the writer only focused on the analysis of the dialogues of
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E. The Significance of the Study
The findings of this study were expected to be useful theoretically and practically
for the following:
1. Theoretically
Itwas expected to be one of the sources improving transitivity system
studies.
2. Practically
a. The study could be used as references to other researcher who want to
do the research about transitivity system.
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusion
After analyzing the transitivity involving process, participant, and circumstance in
Sara Crewe’s main character in the Little Princess Novel, some conclusions could
be drawned as :
1. The six types of process were found in the Sara Crewe’s dialogue, the are
Material, Mental, Relational, Behavioural, Verbal and Existentia Process.
The types of participants that used in Sara Crewe’s dialogue were Actor,
Goal, Senser, Phenomenon, Token, Value, Carrier, Attribute, Possessor,
Possessed, Behavior, Sayer, Verbiage and Existent. The types of
circumstance that were found in Sara Crewe’s dialogue were Extent,
Location, Manner, Contingency, Accompaniment and Role.
2. The most dominant of process used in Sara Crewe’s dialogue is Relational
Process (31,82%), Participant is Actor (14,11%) and Circumstance is
Location (41,02%).
3. As stated previously, Relational Process is construes being and relation
among entities through Identification and Attribution (Saragih2005:4).This
process stresses on defyning something. In this case,Sara Crewe utterances
mostly contains sentences that define something as she speaks to other
characters. This is also another explanation of the reason to put Relational
Process as the dominant process in this novel. The actor was the dominant
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As we know that Sara Crewe did all of things as student and servant as the
main character.Location came out as the most dominant on in
circumstance because as the part of the transitivity system, this novel uses
circumstances mostly as the adverb of places that tells about the places or
situation in which the characters describe in their speeches. In this case,
the adverb of places that is dominantly used by the author is considered as
Location.
B. Suggestion
1. Theoretically, it was expected to be one of the sources improving transitivity
system studies.
2. Practically it was expected for:
a. The study could be used as references to other researcher who want to
do the research about transitivity system.
b. For the university students, as their references in learning transitivity
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REFERENCES
Afrianto and Zuhud, Dudih A. 2014. Mental and Relational Process of Transitivity in Donne’s and Blake’s Poems: A Systemic Functional Linguistics Approach. Sumedang : Faculty of Humanities Universitas Padjadjaran.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. 1905.A Little Princess: Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe Now Told for the First Time.
Bustam, Muhammad Rayhan.. 2011. Analyzing clause by Halliday’s transitivity system. Jurnal Ilmu Sastra Vol. 6 No.1, Mei 2011. Hal 22-34
Cunanan, Bonifacio T. 2011. Using Transitivity as a Framework in a Stylistic Analysis of Virginia Woolf’s Old Mrs. Grey. Manila : Bulacan State University.
Eagleton, Terry. 1996. Literary Theory: An Introduction 2nd Edition. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press.
Eagleton, Terry. 2005. The English Novel: An Introduction.Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Thesis, English Education and Literature Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, the State University of Medan.
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Pramono Herry. 2014. Transitivity Analysis of William Butler Yeats’ Short Story “Where There Is Nothing, There Is God”. Semarang : Faculty of Humanities.
Rambe, Sulaiman. 2014. Transitivity Analysis on Two Short Story in Nancy Chang Ings’s The Chinese Pen. Medan : Faculty of Humanities University North Sumatera.
Sandelowski, Margarete. 2000. Focus on Research Methods : Whatever
Happened to Qualitative Description?. North Carolina : School of Nursing. Research in Nursing & Health Journal.
Saragih, A. 2005. Discourse Analysis:A Systemic Functional Linguistic Approach to the Analysis of Discourse and Texts. Medan : Faculty of Language and Art University of Medan
Saragih, A. 2010. Discourse Analysis:A Systemic Functional Linguistic Approach to the Analysis of Discourse and Texts. Medan : Faculty of Language and Art University of Medan