THEME AND RHEME IN THE FROG PRINCE SHORT
STORY WRITTEN BY BROTHERS GRIMM
A THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
By :
LAURA ATIKA SEMBIRING
Registration Number : 2112220011
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
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ABSTRACT
Sembiring, Laura Atika. 2112220011. Theme and Rheme in The Frog Prince Short
Story Written by Brothers Grimm. A Thesis: English Department. Faculty of
Languages and Arts, State University of Medan. 2016.
This study deals with the theme and rheme in the text of The Frog Prince short story written by Brothers Grimm. The objectives of this study were to find out the types of Theme used, to derivethe dominant type of Theme used, and to describe the types of thematic progression used in The Frog Prince short story.
This study was conducted by using descriptive qualitative method. The data of this study was analyzed by using three steps : analyzed every clause of text from The Frog Prince short story, grouping the types of Theme and Rheme in to table based on the data, and providing description and arguments of the result of data analysis. The source of data were collected from the text of The Frog Prince short story. The findings indicated that there were two kinds of thematic progression used in The Frog Prince short story, they were 8 constant theme patterns and 7 linear theme patterns. There were 77 (38.6%) topical themes, 24 (12.0%) interpersonal themes and 98 (49.2%) textual themes. The most dominant Theme used in The Frog Prince short story is Textual Theme; the total calculation is about 49.2%.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, the writer would like to express her greatest gratitude to Allah SWT who has granted countless blessing, knowledge and opportunity so that the writer could finish the academic year and completing this thesis entitled “Theme and Rheme in The Frog Prince Short Story Written by Brothers Grimm” as one of the requirements for completion of Sarjana Sastra (S1) at English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
During the process of completing this thesis, the writer realized that she DepartmentFaculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan. Syamsul Bahri, S.S., M.Hum.,the Head of English Literature Study
Program.
Dr. Rahmah, M.Hum., her First Thesis Advisor and Juli Rachmadani Hasibuan, S.S, M.Hum.,her Second Thesis Advisor whose advice, encouragement, robust criticism and sincere motivation have been a great deal towards this thesis writing process right from the very beginning. Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A.,Ph.D., and Dra. Meisuri, M.A., her proposal
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Eis Sri Wahyuningsih, M.Pd.,the Administration Staff of English Department, for her attention, assistance, and information in completing this thesis.
Asmin Efendi Siadari, her beloved grandfather, Zul Yusuf Azaddin Sembiringand Nurlita Mariani Rosa Siadari, her beloved parents for their endless love, wholehearted care, days and nights prayer, moral and material support in her whole life.This thesis is dedicated to you.
Her beloved sisters and brother; Petra Emalia Yusriani Sembiring, Sri Ira Handayani Sembiringand Ilham Yusriadi Sembiringfor their endless love, prayers, and encouragement.
Her best friendsRahma Willis Marpaung, Vera Novelina Sirait, Marischa Dwi Fergina,Fauziah Muhlisa Mtd, S.Pd., Pevi Handayani, Andrea Veronica Sembiring,ArieDwiutamiMirza, Desy Mita Rahmani, S.Pd., and David Bonaris Hutabarat, S.S.,for their everlasting support, togetherness, amazing moments and experiences, and sad-happy days they have spent together in her four-year study.
Eggi Ariza Bangun, whose kindhearted help, valuable support and priceless time has unforgettably assisted her throughout her ups and downs.
The writer realizes that this thesis is still far from being perfect, she warmly welcomes any constructive suggestions, and comments that will improve the quality of this thesis. She hopes that this thesis would be useful for those who read and feel interested in the field of this study.
Medan, August 2016 The writer,
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E. The Significance of The Study ... 5
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE ... 6
A. Theoretical Framework ... 6
2) Characteristic of Theme ... 12
3) Marked and Unmarked Theme... 14
4) Types of Theme... 15
a) Ideational (Topical) Theme ... 15
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c) Textual Theme ... 17
5) Multiple Themes ... 18
6) Thematic Proggression ... 19
a. The Constant Theme Pattern ... 19
b. The Linear Theme Pattern ... 19
c. The Split Rheme Pattern ... 20
d. The Derived Themes Pattern ... 20
3. Literary Works ... 22
5. Biography of Brothers Grimm ... 26
B. Relevant Studies ... 28
C. Conceptual Framework ... 30
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ... 31
A.Research Design ... 31
B. The Source of Data ... 31
C.Technique of Collecting Data ... 32
D.Technique of Analyzing Data ... 32
CHAPTER IV DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS ... 33
A. Data ... 33
B. Data Analysis ... 33
1. Identification of Thematic Progression ... 34
a. Constant Theme Pattern ... 34
b. Linear Theme Pattern ... 36
C. The Findings... 37
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CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 40
A. Conclusions ... 40
B. Suggestion ... 40
REFERENCES ... 41
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LIST OF TABLE
Table 2.1 Metafunction ... 8
Table 2.2 Process Type in English ... 9
Table 4.1 Table of Identification of the Types of Theme ... 31
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LIST OF FIGURE
Figure 2.1 Constant Theme Pattern ... 20
Figure 2.2 Linear Theme Pattern ... 20
Figure 2.3 Split Rheme Pattern ... 21
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LIST OF APPENDIX
Appendix A Data of Analysis ... 43
Appendix B Identification Types of Theme ... 47
Appendix C Analysis of Theme ... 55
Appendix D Identification Types of Thematic Progression ... 56
1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of The Study
In social life people need a language to interact and change their ideas with each other. People use language as a tool to express their wishes and ideas. Withoutlanguage it is so difficult to believe how people can cooperate and get along withothers.Language itself is divided into two parts, written and spoken. A writtenlanguage exists only as a complement to a specific spoken language. Writtenlanguages use visual symbols to represent the sounds of the spoken languages, butthey still require syntactic rules that influence the production of meaning from theseries of words. Written language can be significantly more precious. Written wordscan be chosen with greater deliberation and thought, and a written argument can be extraordinarily sophisticated, intricate, and lengthy.
The purposes of language use and meanings come from the social contexts and the language organized to serve social functions. These are reflected in the grammar. Grammar is the central processing unit of language, the powerhouse where meanings are created (Halliday, 1994:15).
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In English, the Theme, the „point of departure‟ for the clause, is also one
of the means bywhich the clause is organised as a message. Theme is the „glue‟
that structures and bindsthe ideational and interpersonal meanings. The belief that anunderstanding of the way in which Theme works can be usefully incorporated intopedagogy is the motivation behind this and many other studies of Theme. Theme, then, is seen to play a crucial role in focussing and organising the message and tocontribute to the coherence and success of the message. Martin (1992:12) argues that thechoice of what comes first is “a textual
resourcesystematicallyexploited” to effectdifferent patterns.
Theme gives a special status to a chosen part of the clause, it helps organise the message and plays a crucial role in the success of a text from a reader‟s perspective. It also helps construe the intended interpretation of the
clause and the text as a whole. In addition, it is commonly understood that Theme is important since it extends the analysis of a text beyond the grammatical structure of individual clauses or sentences to the unit of text.
There are three types of Theme namely: (a) Ideational or Topical, (b) textual, and (c) Interpersonal. Ideational or Topical Theme consist of: (1) Unmarked Topical Themes and (2) Marked Topical Themes.
Short story is a short work of prose dealing with characters and situations which represent real life. Usually a short story involves a character or characters who are confronted with a conflict or crisis of some sort.
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Linguistic theory which proposed by Halliday as the framework of the discussion. Gerot and Wignell (1994: 5) statedthat Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) focuses on the purpose and language.They derive from examination of spoken and written language and thecontexts of their use. They investigate how language is used and its effect.Their aims includes: Revealing many of the choices languages users haveinteraction, and showing how meaning is made.Functional grammar views language as a resource formaking meaning. There are three kinds of meaning within grammatical structures thatcan be identified: ideational, interpersonal, and textual meaning. This research isfocuses on the textual meaning or metafunction.
There have been some previous studies that related to the theme and rheme. Anggraeni (2010) studied about the Employment of Theme and Rheme in Ali Muakhir‟s Short Story Purbasari yang Baik Hati and Its Translation The
Good-Hearted Purbasari by Noviana Abdu. She focused in two framework such
as theories of Translations and theory of Sistemic Functional Linguistic. She also used two kinds of data such as the source text and its translation to support her research.
Kuswoyo (2013) researchedabout Theme of Imperative Clause in Political Advertising Slogan. He focused in employed descriptive method and adopted Systemic Functional Grammar approach in order to find out the Theme choices, the kind of theme and the meaning of slogan based on context of situation.
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Prince short story viewed from Systemic Functional Linguistic theory proposed
by Halliday. The writer chooses The Frog Prince short story to be analyzed because this series introduces young readers to the captivating world of classic fairy tales, with simple, yet fascinating retellings. This short story is written by Brothers Grimm in 1857, traditionally it is the first story in their collection.
The purpose of this research are to find out the types of theme used in The Frog Prince short story, to derive the thematic progression, and to find out the
dominant types of Theme used in The Frog Prince short story.
B. The Problem of The Study
Based on the background above, the problems of the study are formulated as the following :
1. What types of Theme are used in The Frog Prince short story?
2. What is the dominant type of Theme used in The Frog Prince short story? 3. What types of thematic progression used in The Frog Prince short story?
C. The Objective of The Study
In line with the problems, the objectives of the study are :
1. to describe the types of Theme used in The Frog Prince short story.
2. to derive the dominant type of Theme used in The Frog Prince short story. 3. to describe the types of thematic progression used in The Frog Prince
5 D. The Scope of The Study
In this study, the writer limits the study to the use of Theme and Rheme.This study is focused on textual meaning of metafunction. The concepts of Theme and Rheme are textual function which explains in the most general way how a message is organized in language.
E. The Significance of The Study
The findings of this study was expected to be useful and relevant in two respects, theoretically and practically. Theoretically, the findings of this study are expected to enrich the knowledge and theories of Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL), particularly on the use of English in Indonesian context of culture.
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions
After analyzing the Theme and Rheme in The Frog Prince short story, conclusions are drawn as the following :
(1) There were three types of Theme used in The Frog Prince short story; they were 77 Topical theme (38,6%), 24 Interpersonal Theme (12,0%) and 98 Textual Theme (49,2%).
In relation to the conclusions, suggestions were presented as the following: (1) It is suggested that everyone who wants to do a similar research should focus the attention to the Theme used in the short story to stimulate people to do some activities.
(2) It is also suggested that other researcher should conduct further researches on Theme and Rheme in other field of studies.
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Elnaz, G. (2013). “Textual Theme in Reading Comprehension of English Romantic and Criminal Short Stories”. International Association of Research in Foreign Language Education and Applied Linguistics ELT Research Journal, Vol. 2(2), 51-62.
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