1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Humans, as social creature, cannot live on their own without others; they
need to communicate with other people to help them fulfill their needs. Even the
richest person in the world cannot survive without a poor farmer who plants rice
in his field. Humans also need to share their feelings and emotions like happiness
and sadness.
In communicating with each other, humans use a communication tool
which we call language. So we can say that language plays the main role in
interaction between humans.
Trager (1949:23) says that a language is a system of arbitrary vocal
symbols by means of which the members of society interact in terms of their total
culture.
Yet another definition sees language as a system of communication that
enables humans to exchange verbal or symbolic utterances. This definition
stresses the social functions of language and the fact that humans use it to express
themselves and to manipulate objects in their environment. Functional theories of
grammar explain grammatical structures by their communicative functions, and
understand the grammatical structures of language to be the result of an adaptive
process by which grammar was "tailored" to serve the communicative needs of its
users.
Coghill and Magendanz (2003:16) say, "The grammar of a language is
the set of rules that govern its structure. Grammar determines how words are
Gerund is one of grammar's parts. Betty (1992:368) says that gerund is
the —ing form of verb used as noun. The English gerund ends in -ing (as in / I
enjoy playing basketball). The same verb form also serves as the English present
participle (which has an adjectival or adverbial function) and as a pure verbal
noun. Thus the -ing form in the English language can function as a noun, verb,
adjective or sometimes adverb; in certain sentences the distinction can be
arbitrary.
Gerund is the form that names the action of the verb (for instance,
playing is the action of "to play"). In some cases, a noun ending in -ing sometimes
serves as a gerund (as in / Ilike building / 1 like building things, I like painting / 1
like painting pictures, and / I like writing / 1 like writing novels), while at other
times serving as a non-gerund indicating the product resulting from an action (as
in /Iwork in that building, That is a good painting, and Her writing is good). The
latter case can often be distinguished by the presence of a determiner before the
noun, such as that, a, or her in these examples.
A gerund behaves as a verb within a clause (so that it may be modified
by an adverb or have an object); but the resulting clause as a whole (sometimes
consisting of only one word, the gerund itself) functions as a noun within the
larger sentence. For example, consider the sentence "Eating this cake is easy."
Here the gerund is the verb eating, which takes an object this cake. The
entireclause eating this cake is then used as a noun, which in this case serves as
the subject of the larger sentence. An item such as eating this cake in the
foregoing example is an example of a non-finite verb phrase; however, because
(Traditionally such an item would be referred to as a phrase, but in modern
linguistics it has become common to call it a clause.) A gerund clause such as this
is one of the types of non-finite clause.
Gerund has become a confusing part of grammar for students who study
in English Program for it has many forms and functions and complicated uses. For
those who learn or analyze gerund, they would find a complex problem such as
how and when gerund is used and what the functions of a gerund in a sentence
are. Moreover, it is not only gerund using the -ing formed verb in grammar; there
are also present participle which uses the same form but has different meaning.
This results one more dilemma: how do we distinguish them?
Gerund has four types: simple gerund, perfect gerund, active gerund, and
passive gerund. And there are seven functions of gerund: as subject, as object, as
complement, as apposition, after possessive case, after certain idiomatic
expression, and to show short prohibition.
Since gerund plays an important role in English, we can always find it in
many different writings which one of them is Mark Twain's novel "The
adventures of Huckleberry Finn" which was first published on December 1884.
For examples:
(1) It's something they give mefor learningmy lesson good.→Gerund as object of
preposition
(2)Laying on o' hands is my best holt.→ Gerund as subject
(3)We slid the raft intohiding quartersfor the day.→ Gerund ascomplement
(4)Thinks I, this is what comes ofmy not thinking.→ Gerund after possessive adjective.
Based on short explanation above, the writer is interested in raising
gerund as the topic and takes Twain's novel as the data source. This paper gives a
brief description about definition, form, and function of gerund found in the
novel.
1.2 Problem of the Study
The problems of the study are:
(1)What are the forms of gerund found in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
novelby Mark Twain?
(2)What are the functions of gerund found in the novel?
(3)What is the most dominant gerund found in the novel?
1.3 Scope of the Study
This paper describes one of grammar's elements called gerund. The
writer limits the study by concerning on its form, and function.
1.4 Purpose of the Study
The purposes of the study are:
(1) To find out the forms of gerund used in the novel
(2) To find out the functions of gerund used in the novel
1.5 Significance of the Study
This study is absolutely significant to enrich readers' knowledge about
gerund and to keep them from misusing gerund especially for those who are
interested in analyzing gerund or students who are excited to write their own
literature work.
1.6 Method of the Study
This study is a literary work which applies the library research where the
writer gets information and material by collecting some books which are relevant
to the tittle of the study such as education books, literary works, articles, and
journals.
The data are sentences and clauses containing gerund found in The
Huckleberry Finn novel by Mark Twain. The writer uses observation method as
data collecting method. Nazir (2003:125) states that the observation method is the
method of acquisition by using eyes without any standard tools.
In analyzing data, the writer uses descriptive qualitative method. Bunging
(2001:290) says, “Penggunaan strategi deskriptif kualitatif dimulai dari analisis
yang terhimpun dari suatu penelitian kemudian bergerak ke arah pembentukan
kesimpulan kategori atau ciri-ciri umum tertentu. (The use of qualitative
descriptive strategy starts with an analysis of various aggregate data from a
research then moves towards the establishment of conclusion category of certain
common.)
The steps of analyzing data are preceeded as the followings:
(2) Identifying sentences and clauses expressing gerund.
(3) Classifying them to their own forms and functions.
(4) Analyzing the data based on their forms and functions.
(5) Calculating the data to get the most dominant gerund.
To get the percentage, the writer applies a formula by Junaidi and
Suwono (2004:40):
X = the percentage of gerund
y = total of each gerund
n = total gerund
