ABSTRACT
Maria Septiyani. 2014. Determiner Deletion in The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globe and International New York Times. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies. Graduate Program. Sanata Dharma University.
Style in linguistics has gained prominence in at least two branches of linguistics, sociolinguistic and stylistic. However, the focus is different. In sociolinguistic, style may have the effect on the society. In traditional stylistic, the focus is on the style itself. This research is a stylistic study on how determiner deletion occurs in English-language newspapers published in Indonesia. Determiner itself is one of the distinctive features in a text since it used to express the reference of noun and noun phrase in a text. In this research, the texts used are news articles from three English-language newspapers. Two are published in Indonesia, namely The Jakarta Globe and The Jakarta Post. The other one is International New York Times. The first two are the most leading English-language newspapers in Indonesia, and the last is a global newspaper which exemplary can be found in Indonesia. International New York Times is used as a comparison of the writing style and also type of deletion between Indonesian English-language newspapers and global English-language newspapers.
There are two research problems in this research (1) in what contexts are determiner deleted in The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globe and International New York Times and (2) what possible effects determiner deletions may have related to the news-writing style in The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globe and International New York Times. To answer those questions, document analysis is employed. In this case, the documents are fifteen newspaper articles gathered from The Jakarta Globe, The Jakarta Post and International New York Times. The writer is the instrument who sorted the determiners and the possible deletions. The results of the study show that identifiers, as one of the determiners, are used more than the other determiner, the quantifiers. Among the identifiers, the definite article the is used the most compared to the indefinite article a/an. The reasons are due to its nature as reference backward and also as context identifier. Related to the context of the determiner deletions, the study shows that the determiner deletion occurs in two contexts. The first context is the deletion in coordination phrase. The second context is the appositional name phrase. In the context of coordination phrase, the results also show that as the most used determiner, the also has the highest possibility to be deleted as a result of being economic. Then, in the context of appositional name phrase, the result shows that determiner deletion on naming apposition may bring title given which are in the same level to President or Professor.
reputation gained from the readers. The less determiner deletion occur in a news-article, the more dependable the newspaper is. The third effect is new titles and status raising.
The results of this study are also expected to be beneficial for fellow students of English Language Studies to conduct deeper stylistic study, for news article writers in Indonesia and for English teachers in Indonesia.
ABSTRAK
Maria Septiyani. 2014. Determiner Deletion in The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globe and International New York Times. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies. Graduate Program. Sanata Dharma University.
Style dalam linguistik sangat menonjol dalam dua cabang linguistic yaitu sosiolinguistik dan juga stilistika. Walaupun fokusnya pun berbeda untuk setiap bidangnya. Dalam sosiolinguistik, fokusnya lebih berkaitan antara style dan masyrkat. Sedangkan tradisional stilistika minitikberatkan pada style itu sendiri. Penelitian ini adalah sebuah penelitian stilistika yang menitikberatkan pada penghilangan kata penentu (determiner) dalam surat kabar berbahaa inggris yang terbit di Indonesia. Determiner sendiri penting dalam sebuah teks karena merupakan referensi sebuah kata benda maupun frasa kata benda. Dalam penelituian ini, tiga surat kabar berbahasa lokal yaitu The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globedan satu surat kabar bahasa Inggris internasionalInternational New York Times digunakan sebagai objek penelitian. Alasannya karena The Jakarta Post dan The Jakarta Globe adalah surat kabar berbahsa Inggris terkemuka di Indonesia. Sedangkan International New York Times digunakan sebagai pembanding cara penulisan artikel dan jenis penghilangan determinerantara surat kabar berbahasa Inggris lokal dan surat kabar berbahasa Inggris yang terbit secara global.
Ada dua permasalahan yang hendak dicari jawabannya melalui penelitian ini (1) dalam konteks apa saja penghilangan determiner dalam The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globe dan International New York Times 3) apa saja efek yang timbul melalui penghilangan determiner terhadap gaya penulisan surat kabarThe Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globe dan International New York Times. Untuk menjawah pertanyaan tersebut, maka analisis dokumen sebagai metode penelitian dipilih. Sebagai data, ada lima belas artikel yang dipakai dari ketiga surat kabar yang sudah disebutkan diatas. Penulis penelitian ini juga sebagai instrumen penelitian yang menyortir determiner apa saja yang digunakan beserta penghilangannya.
Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa dari dua jenis determiner, identifier dan quantifier, identifier lebih sering digunakan dalam surat kabar. Diantara identifier tersebut, kata penentu the lebih sering digunakan daripada a/an. Alasannya karena the mempunyai fungsi sebagai referensi dan juga sebagai penentu menurut konteks. Hasil lainnya menunjukkan bahwa penghilangan determiner berfungsi membawa fungsi ‘gelar’ yang setara dengan Presiden dan Professor. Efek yang mungkin timbul melalui penghilangan determinerini adalah efisiensi. Karena data yang digunakan adalah artikel online, maka tempat sangat penting. Karena dalam media online, terdapat banyak sisipan link, video maupun iklan. Hasil dari penelitian ini juga diharapkan dapat memberikan manfaat untuk sesama mahasiswa yang ingin melaksanakan penelitian stilistika, juga untuk guru bahasa Inggirs dan juga penulis berita di Indonesia.
DETERMINER DELETION IN
THE JAKARTA POST, THE
JAKARTA GLOBE
AND
INTERNATIONAL NEW YORK TIMES
A THESIS
Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain theMagister Humaniora (M.Hum.)Degree
in English Language Studies
by Maria Septiyani Student Number: 126332001
THE GRADUATE PROGRAM OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
A THESIS
DETERMINER DELETION IN
THE JAKARTA POST, THE
JAKARTA GLOBE
AND
INTERNATIONAL NEW YORK TIMES
by
Maria Septiyani Student Number: 126332001
Approved by
Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M. Pd., M.A.
A THESIS
DETERMINER DELETION INTHE JAKARTA POST, THE JAKARTA GLOBEANDTHE INTERNATIONAL NEW YORK TIMES
Presented by Maria Septiyani Student Number: 126332001
Defended before the Thesis Committee and Declared Acceptable.
THESIS COMMITTEE
Chairperson : Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A. __________________ Secretary : Dr. B.B. Dwijatmoko, M.A. __________________
Member : F.X. Mukarto, Ph.D. __________________
Member : Barli Bram, M.Ed., Ph.D __________________
Yogyakarta, February 27, 2015 The Graduate Program Director Sanata Dharma University
STATEMENT OF WORK‘S ORIGINALITY
This is to certify that all ideas, phrases, sentences, unless otherwise stated, are the ideas, phrases, and sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full consequences including degree cancellation if she took somebody else’s ideas,
phrases, sentences without proper references.
Yogyakarta, August 11, 2014
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama : Maria Septiyani NIM : 126332001
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
DETERMINER DELETION IN THE JAKARTA POST, THE JAKARTA GLOBEANDINTERNATIONAL NEW YORK TIMES
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin maupun memberikan royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal : 11 Agustus 2014
Yang menyatakan
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, I would like to thank Jesus Christ and Mother Mary for the guidance, for the love, for the blessing and for strengthening me to complete my thesis. My
very deepest gratitude also goes to my thesis advisor Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A. for his time, patience, help, and suggestions in completing this thesis.
I am also very thankful to have wonderful lecturers while studying in the English Language Studies of Sanata Dharma University, especially to Dr. B.B. Dwijatmoko, M.A., Prof. Dr. Soepomo Poedjosoedarmo, Dr. J. Bismoko, Dr. Fr.
B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A. and other lecturers whom I cannot mention. I am grateful to have learned a lot of new things from them. Their sharing and discussion in class
have enriched my knowledge and also my experiences. I would like to thank Maria Adelheid Lelyana for her help during my study time in the English Language Studies.
This thesis would not be completed without the help and support from many people around me. My deepest gratitude also goes to my beloved father
Yohanes Supardjan, my beloved mother Helena Suprapti, and my grandmother. I thank them for their continuous love, their continuous prayer and their continuous support which really strengthen my motivation in finishing this thesis. I also
would like to thank my friends in Linguistic Class of 2012 Simon, Irene, Agnes, Bu Intan, Mbak Reny, Mbak Ruth, Rina and Mas Eko. I feel grateful for the
Eli, Siwi, Clara Aurora, Mbak Lia, all ELS friends Nindy, Mbak Laras, Yuki, Mbak Mera, and others whom I cannot mention. May God always bless them.
Last but not least, I would like to thank Paulus Joko Sambodo for his love, his support and his care during the process of writing this thesis. I also thank him for always being a very wonderful sharing and discussion partner. May Jesus
bless him.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE ... i
APPROVAL PAGES ... ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ... iv
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ... v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... viii
LIST OF TABLES ... xi
LIST OF FIGURES ... xii
LIST OF APPENDICES ... xiii
ABSTRACT ... xv
ABSTRAK ... xvii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 A. Background of The Study ... 1
B. Problem Formulation ... 8
C. Research Objectives ... 8
D. Research Benefits ... 9
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ... 11
A. Review of Related Literature ... 11
1. The Concept of Style and Stylistics... 11
3. Stylistic Analysis Theory ... 17
4. Determiners ... 19
a. The Articles ... 21
b. The Demonstratives ... 26
c. Possessives ... 27
d. Quantifiers ... 28
5. Ellipsis in Noun Phrase and Apposition Name Phrase ... 28
6. Effects of Determiner Deletion in Newspaper Writing ... 31
7. Review of Related Studies ... 32
B. Theoretical Framework ... 34
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ... 37
A. Type of Study ... 37
B. Type of Data... 38
C. Source of Data... 38
D. Size of Data ... 39
E. Data Analysis Method ... 40
CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ... 44
A. The Context of Determiner Deletion inThe Jakarta Post, The Jakarta GlobeandInternational New York Times ... 44
B. The Possible Effects of The Deletion... 59
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 63
A. Conclusions ... 63
LIST OF TABLES
Page Table 3.1. Classification of Determiners ... 41 Table 4.1. Determiner Occurrence in Sport-themed Article inThe Jakarta
Globe, The Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times... 46 Table 4.2. Determiner Occurrence in Entertainment-themed Article inThe
Jakarta Globe, The Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times
……….. 46
Table 4.3. Determiner Occurrence in Travel-themed Article inThe Jakarta
Globe, The Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times... 47 Table 4.4. Determiner Occurrence in Science-techonology-themed Article in
The Jakarta Globe, The Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times... 48 Table 4.5. Determiner Occurrence in Health-themed Article inThe Jakarta
Globe, The Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times... 49 Table 4.6. The Details of Determiner Occurrences in Article inThe Jakarta
Globe, The Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times... 50 Table 4.7 Examples of Determiner Deletion in Phrase Found inThe Jakarta
Globe, The Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times... 53 Table 4.8 The List of Appositional Name Phrase Found inThe Jakarta Post,
The Jakarta GlobeandInternational New York Times... 55 Table 4.9 The Effects of Determiner Deletion inThe Jakarta Post, The Jakarta
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1 The Sport-themed articles fromThe Jakarta Globe, The Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times... 69 APPENDIX 2 The Sport-themed articles fromThe Jakarta Globe, The Jakarta
PostandInternational New York Times... 72 APPENDIX 3 The Sport-themed articles fromThe Jakarta Globe, The Jakarta
PostandInternational New York Times... 75 APPENDIX 4 The Entertainment-themed articles fromThe Jakarta Globe, The
Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times... 78 APPENDIX 5 The Entertainment -themed articles fromThe Jakarta Globe,
The Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times... 81 APPENDIX 6 The Entertainment-themed articles fromThe Jakarta Globe, The
Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times... 83 APPENDIX 7 The Travel-themed articles fromThe Jakarta Globe, The
Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times... 85 APPENDIX 8 The Travel -themed articles fromThe Jakarta Globe, The
Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times... 87 APPENDIX 9 The Travel-themed articles fromThe Jakarta Globe, The
Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times... 90 APPENDIX 10 The Science Technology-themed articles fromThe Jakarta
Globe, The Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times. 93 APPENDIX 11 The Science Technology -themed articles fromThe Jakarta
Globe, The Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times. 95 APPENDIX 12 The Science Technology -themed articles fromThe Jakarta
Globe, The Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times. 97 APPENDIX 13 The Health-themed articles fromThe Jakarta Globe, The
Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times... 99 APPENDIX 14 The Health-themed articles fromThe Jakarta Globe, The
APPENDIX 15 The Health-themed articles fromThe Jakarta Globe, The
Jakarta PostandInternational New York Times... 105 APPENDIX 16 List of Determiner Deletion in Appositional Name Phrase Found
in Articles fromThe Jakarta Globe, The Jakarta Postand
International New York Times... 108 APPENDIX 17 List of Determiner Deletion in Phrases Found in Articles from
The Jakarta Globe, The Jakarta PostandInternational New
ABSTRACT
Maria Septiyani. 2014. Determiner Deletion in The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globe and International New York Times. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies. Graduate Program. Sanata Dharma University.
Style in linguistics has gained prominence in at least two branches of linguistics, sociolinguistic and stylistic. However, the focus is different. In sociolinguistic, style may have the effect on the society. In traditional stylistic, the focus is on the style itself. This research is a stylistic study on how determiner deletion occurs in English-language newspapers published in Indonesia. Determiner itself is one of the distinctive features in a text since it used to express the reference of noun and noun phrase in a text. In this research, the texts used are news articles from three English-language newspapers. Two are published in Indonesia, namely The Jakarta Globe and The Jakarta Post. The other one is
International New York Times. The first two are the most leading English-language newspapers in Indonesia, and the last is a global newspaper which exemplary can be found in Indonesia. International New York Times is used as a comparison of the writing style and also type of deletion between Indonesian English-language newspapers and global English-language newspapers.
There are two research problems in this research (1) in what contexts are determiner deleted in The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globe and International New York Times and (2) what possible effects determiner deletions may have related to the news-writing style in The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globe and
International New York Times. To answer those questions, document analysis is employed. In this case, the documents are fifteen newspaper articles gathered from The Jakarta Globe, The Jakarta Post and International New York Times.
The writer is the instrument who sorted the determiners and the possible deletions. The results of the study show that identifiers, as one of the determiners, are used more than the other determiner, the quantifiers. Among the identifiers, the definite article the is used the most compared to the indefinite article a/an. The reasons are due to its nature as reference backward and also as context identifier. Related to the context of the determiner deletions, the study shows that the determiner deletion occurs in two contexts. The first context is the deletion in coordination phrase. The second context is the appositional name phrase. In the context of coordination phrase, the results also show that as the most used determiner, the also has the highest possibility to be deleted as a result of being economic. Then, in the context of appositional name phrase, the result shows that determiner deletion on naming apposition may bring title given which are in the same level to President or Professor.
reputation gained from the readers. The less determiner deletion occur in a news-article, the more dependable the newspaper is. The third effect is new titles and status raising.
The results of this study are also expected to be beneficial for fellow students of English Language Studies to conduct deeper stylistic study, for news article writers in Indonesia and for English teachers in Indonesia.
ABSTRAK
Maria Septiyani. 2014. Determiner Deletion in The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globe and International New York Times. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies. Graduate Program. Sanata Dharma University.
Style dalam linguistik sangat menonjol dalam dua cabang linguistic yaitu sosiolinguistik dan juga stilistika. Walaupun fokusnya pun berbeda untuk setiap bidangnya. Dalam sosiolinguistik, fokusnya lebih berkaitan antara style dan masyrkat. Sedangkan tradisional stilistika minitikberatkan pada style itu sendiri. Penelitian ini adalah sebuah penelitian stilistika yang menitikberatkan pada penghilangan kata penentu (determiner) dalam surat kabar berbahaa inggris yang terbit di Indonesia. Determiner sendiri penting dalam sebuah teks karena merupakan referensi sebuah kata benda maupun frasa kata benda. Dalam penelituian ini, tiga surat kabar berbahasa lokal yaitu The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globedan satu surat kabar bahasa Inggris internasionalInternational New York Times digunakan sebagai objek penelitian. Alasannya karena The Jakarta Post dan The Jakarta Globe adalah surat kabar berbahsa Inggris terkemuka di Indonesia. Sedangkan International New York Times digunakan sebagai pembanding cara penulisan artikel dan jenis penghilangan determinerantara surat kabar berbahasa Inggris lokal dan surat kabar berbahasa Inggris yang terbit secara global.
Ada dua permasalahan yang hendak dicari jawabannya melalui penelitian ini (1) dalam konteks apa saja penghilangan determiner dalam The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globe dan International New York Times 3) apa saja efek yang timbul melalui penghilangan determiner terhadap gaya penulisan surat kabarThe Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globe dan International New York Times. Untuk menjawah pertanyaan tersebut, maka analisis dokumen sebagai metode penelitian dipilih. Sebagai data, ada lima belas artikel yang dipakai dari ketiga surat kabar yang sudah disebutkan diatas. Penulis penelitian ini juga sebagai instrumen penelitian yang menyortir determiner apa saja yang digunakan beserta penghilangannya.
Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa dari dua jenis determiner, identifier dan quantifier, identifier lebih sering digunakan dalam surat kabar. Diantara identifier tersebut, kata penentu the lebih sering digunakan daripada
a/an. Alasannya karena the mempunyai fungsi sebagai referensi dan juga sebagai penentu menurut konteks. Hasil lainnya menunjukkan bahwa penghilangan
determiner berfungsi membawa fungsi ‘gelar’ yang setara dengan Presiden dan Professor. Efek yang mungkin timbul melalui penghilangan determinerini adalah efisiensi. Karena data yang digunakan adalah artikel online, maka tempat sangat penting. Karena dalam media online, terdapat banyak sisipan link, video maupun iklan. Hasil dari penelitian ini juga diharapkan dapat memberikan manfaat untuk sesama mahasiswa yang ingin melaksanakan penelitian stilistika, juga untuk guru bahasa Inggirs dan juga penulis berita di Indonesia.
INTRODUCTION
This chapter consists of four parts, namely the background of the study,
problem formulation, research objectives and research benefits. Each part
contributes important points to this thesis.
A. Background of the Study
Language varies according to its uses as well its users, according to
where it is used and to whom, as well as according to who is using it (Holmes,
2001: 223). Therefore, the addressees and the context will affect the choices of
code or variety. The code and variety itself can be in form of language, dialect or
style. The illustrations about the choices of variety can be seen in the example
about three different requests for information as follows:
1. From a friend
Where were you last night? I rang to see if you wanted to come to the party? 2. In a court from a lawyer
Could you tell the court where you were on the night of Friday the seventeenth of March?
3. From a teacher to his pupils in school on the day after Halloween.
I know some of you went ‘trick-or-treating’ last night and so I thought we might talk a bit today about how you got on. Did you go out last night Jimmy? (Holmes, 2001: 223)
The three examples above are actually asking the same matter. The addresser, the
one who is asking the question, asks the addressees whether they are out at night.
The difference between the three utterances are stylistic differences.
Style in linguistics has gained prominence in at least two branches of
linguistics, sociolinguistics and stylistics. The focus of style in those two branches
of linguistic is different depending on the point of view. In sociolinguistic, style of
people’s group membership. Moreover, it also reflects the contexts in which
language is used. The context here means the context of the addressee. Addressee
plays important role in deciding someone’s style, especially the age of addressee
and the social background of the addressee (Holmes, 2001: 223).
Related to the age of addressee, many speakers use different styles in
addressing different people. In addressing elderly people, whether in spoken or
written text, people will use more complicated words and use longer and more
complex sentences. In the other hand, in addressing the youngsters especially
children, people tend to use more common words and use shorter and simpler
sentences. Therefore, it can be concluded that different addressees clearly
influence the language used (Holmes, 2001: 226).
Further, Holmes also gives examples on how social background of the
addressee can also affect the people’s style of language. This fact is illustrated by
the utterances pronounced by newsreaders from different radio stations in
Australia. The pronunciation has been recorded and scripted as follow:
1. Last week the British Prime Minister Mrs Margaret Thatcher met the Australian Premier Mr Bob Hawke in Canberra…Their next meeting will not be for several months.
2. Las’ week British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher met Australian Premier Bob Hawke in Canberra…Their nex’ meeting won’t be for sev’ral months (Holmes, 2001: 228).
The illustrations above show some differences in terms of pronunciation
and grammar. In example (b), compared to example (a), there is simplification of
consonant clusters, so the word last [lɑːst] becomes [lɑːs] and the word next
Mrdisappear and there is the contractionwon’t(Holmes, 2001: 228).
As an addition, the utterances above are performed by newsreaders in
different radio stations in New Zealand. Example (a) is performed by a
newsreader in a prestigious National Radio Network whose audiences are older
and better-healed. Meanwhile, example (b) is performed by a newsreader in a
middle-of-the-road station whose audiences are from the lower and end of
spectrum. In other words, it can be said that the audiences for example (a) is more
educated and they have a higher social status compared to the audiences for
example (b). Based on the example, it can be seen that although the news is the
same but the style of the newsreaders is different due to the different audiences as
well. This illustration is able to proof that different addressees or audience is a
very significant influence on a speakers’ style (Holmes, 2001: 228).
To this point, it can be seen that the concept of style in linguistic field has
an extensive existence in sociolinguistic field. However, as far as the writer can
note, the concept of style occurs not only in sociolinguistics but also in stylistics itself. Outside the boundary of linguistics, the concept of style also occurs, as for instance in the history of art and in literary criticism, and it also exists as an
everyday term with a rather imprecise meaning and ambiguous edges (Jucker,
1992: 1). Thus, it is very common to use the word style with reference to the shape or design of something, for example the minimalist style of a house. Or else, it is very common to use the word style to describe the way something is presented and to describe someone’s manner of writing, speaking or performing.
luxurious style’ (Verdonk, 2002: 1). Due to its ambiguous meanings edges, the
concept of style should be defined appropriately depending on the area of discussion.
In linguistics, in spite of the differences between the concept of style, it is
generally agreed that “style is a comparative concept in that it describes some
relevant differences between a text or a discourse and some other texts or
discourses; or, in some methodological frameworks, with some kind of implicit or
explicit norm” (Jucker, 1992: 4). Therefore, style generally applies to language
that has been produced by speakers with their beliefs, aims and goals in specific
situations and in particular physical, social and temporal environments. In other
words, the concept of style applies to real language or parole (Saussure, 1965) and performance (Chomsky, 1986). Based on this definition, the concept of style
can always be found in the final product of speakers’ performance, such as in
written texts and spoken discourse since it is the realization of the language
knowledge that speakers have owned.
According to some experts in linguistics such as, Chomsky, the study of
the real language is not interesting at all and it gains no significance and it has no
status at all in linguistic theory (Jucker, 1992: 4). Furthermore, Chomsky explains
why real language is not interesting at all. The reasons are because “it appears to
have no significance and it has no status in linguistics theory” (Jucker, 1994: 1).
However, the realization of the real language in written texts or spoken discourse
has a systematic variation and it is highly organized. These two points, the
to the problem of uncovering some of the regularity underlying the variation and
seeming unorderliness of E-language” (Jucker, 1994: 1).
Hence, it can be said that style in linguistics has gained prominence in at
least two branches of linguistics, sociolinguistics and stylistics. The focus of style
in those two branches of linguistics is different depending on the point of view. In
sociolinguistics, style of language may have the effect on the society since
sociolinguistic studies the language which is used by society (Jucker, 1992: 4).
However, in traditional stylistics, the focus is on the style itself. Style here means
the language features which are used in certain literary texts. Those language
features are distinctive and they are also thoughtfully chosen by the authors.
Therefore, stylistics, the study of style, can be defined as the analysis of
distinctive expression in language and the description of its purpose and effect
(Verdonk, 2002: 4).
Distinctive expression in a text may have different forms. The forms
might be in the forms of typography, repeated vowels and consonants, choice of
words, grammatical structures and many others. Writers who understand and
appreciate the rules of the language know how to break the rules to create certain
distinctive features in a text. Poets, for example, break the rules with unorthodox
indentations, mid-sentence capitalization and other departures from Standard
English which serve their purposes (Itule and Anderson, 1999: 176).
Therefore, this research aims to explore one of the language features
which is distinctively found in a text, especially in the newspaper article. The
emphasized in composition courses. Another reason is that newspaper language
has often been the subjects of linguistic investigations. Study on newspaper itself
can be considered as a media study. As O’ Keeffe (2011) says that media itself is
a very board term since it compasses print and broadcast genres, that is anything
from newspaper to chat show. The academic area of media studies cuts across a
number of disciplines including communication, sociology, political science,
cultural studies, and philosophy. According to O’Keeffe as well, the study of
media also comes under the radar of linguistics because “at the core of these
media is language, communication and the making of meaning, which is
obviously a great interest to a linguist.”
Over the years, many studies of language and the media have been
focused on the written genres, particularly newspapers. The reason why
newspapers are used is that they are more readily available for analysis compared
to spoken media discourse. The investigations are either using just one newspaper
or comparing two different newspapers usually a broadsheet paper and a tabloid.
Some experts have conducted some studies on newspaper language. O’Keeffe
(2011) notes down several studies of written texts, Toolan (1988) examines the
language of press advertising, Wallace (1977), Ghadessy (1988) and Bhatia
(1993) examine sport reporting in newspapers. McQuail (1994) and White (1997)
examine how newspapers have created a model of social order.
One of the distinctive features that can be examined in written texts is
grammatical features (Crystal, 2006: 8). According to Crystal, grammatical
word inflections.” As an addition, grammatical features are also considered as one
of the categories in stylistic study (Leech and Short, 1981: 6). This study is
conducted to explore more on one of the grammatical features which can be found
in the written texts, the determiner deletion. Thus, it will try to explore more about
determiner deletion in English language newspapers. Determiner deletion here
means the dropping of the articles like ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’.
The dropping of the articles and other linguistic items is called as ellipsis.
In the interest of economy in written communication, especially in newspaper
reporting, good usage of English accepts the omission of certain pattern or words.
However, the omission should obey certain rule in order to enhance the meaning
(Ayodele, 1988). In newspapers, where the nature of communication is in a hurry
and governed by time (deadlines and timelines) and by space (story size and item
position), often practices ellipsis and one of the items which is omitted is the
determiner. This pattern will not be seen clearly, unless depth observation is
conducted. Therefore, this thesis aims to observe the phenomenon of the deletion
in English language newspapers, especially those which can be found in
Indonesia.
There are three English language newspapers which are going to be used
as the objects of this study, namely The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globe and
International New York Times. The first two are local English newspapers and the last one is a global English newspaper. The writer of this research is going to take
only five articles from each newspaper. The length of each article itself is more
newspaper. Therefore, the news writers who write for International New York Times are native speakers of English or people who have a very good mastery of English. Then, International New York Times can be compared to the local English-language newspapers whose news writers are mostly Indonesian.
For that reason, this research aims to find out about what determiners are
used in the articles, which determiner deletion occurs in those three newspapers
and what are the possible effects from the determiner deletion. Later, the findings
are also hoped to show the different style between Indonesian news writers and
foreign news writerss in terms of determiner deletion.
B. Problem Formulation
The problems of this research are formulated as follows.
1. In what context are determiners deleted in The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta GlobeandInternational New York Times?
2. What possible effects do the determiner deletions have related to the news
writing style on The Jakarta Post, The Jakarta Globe and International New York Times?
C. Research Objectives
This research studies determiner deletion which occurs in three
English-language newspapers, two are Indonesian English-English-language newspapers and one
is global English-language newspaper. Then, related to the problem formulation,
there are several objectives which would like to be achieved through this research.
The first objective is finding the determiners in the news articles. It is related to
context, the determiners found in the news articles will be classified and
categorized so that the exact number of the determiners used in the articles will be
discovered. The classification of the determiners will be done based on the theory
of the kinds of determiners. It is important to find the number of the determiners
since they are one of the distinctive features in news writing style. Moreover, they
are the main objects of the research.
The second objective is finding the determiner deletion context. As what
have been discussed in the background of the study, deleting the determiners is
one of the rule breaking which is done by the news writers. Moreover, it becomes
the style which is done by the news writers. Finding out the number of the deleted
determiners will be able to reveal which newspaper has the most deletion in its
article. Later, the result of the number of deletion will be beneficial to compare
the news writing style of those three newspapers, which is also one of the main
points of this research.
The third objective is finding the possible effects of the determiner
deletion. After gaining the number of the determiners which are used and the
number of the determiners which are deleted in those three newspapers, this
research aims to compare the result. The comparison result is hoped to show the
different style applied by local news writers and also foreign news writers in
terms of determiner deletion.
D. Research Benefits
There are two kinds of benefits of this research, theoretical and practical
on how determiners can affect the newspaper writing style. Therefore, the result
of this study should give another insight on the study of style in a text, especially
in newspaper.
As for the practical benefit, this research is expected to help fellow
linguistics students who are also interested in conducting research on stylistics.
This research is expected to trigger more research on style of newspaper writing
style. Moreover, the result of this study is also able to help news writers in
Indonesia to improve their writing skill of English-language article. It is important
since English is not the main language of most local news writers who work in the
Indonesia English-language newspapers.
This research is also expected to give benefit for fellow language
teachers. The result on the use of determiners is also expected to give more insight
for teachers whenever they are teaching English grammar for their students.
Moreover, they can also use the result of the study as a reference whenever they
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
This chapter will review some related theories and also previous studies.
The theories presented here are necessary to answer the problems presented in the
previous chapter. These theories later on will be constructed into a framework
which will be the ground to answer the problems.
A. Review of Related Literature
1. The Concept of Style and Stylistics
Stylistics is the study of style in language (Verdonk, 2002: 3). However,
the word style itself, without specific references, is used commonly in the daily
conversation and in everyday writing. Therefore, the word ‘style’ frequently
appears whenever people want to describe the shape or design of something, such
as the classic style of a house. Furthermore, people also use the word ‘style’
whenever they describe someone’s manner of writing, speaking, or performing,
such as she writes in a vigorous style. The word ‘style’ is also used whenever
people say their opinion on fashionable elegance, smartness or a superior manner,
for example one can eat in style here.Then, these discussions about style make a
good point to explain more about what style actually is.
Verdonk (2002: 3) defines that style in language is a distinctive language
expression. Therefore, according to Verdonk, “stylistics, the study of style, can be
defined as the analysis of distinctive expression in language and the description of
its purpose and effect.” This definition of style is the same as what is stated by
is rarely undertaken for its own sake, simply an exercise in describing what use is
made of language.”
As an addition, Jeffries and McIntyre (2010: 1) also have defined
stylistics as a “sub-discipline of linguistics that is concerned with the systematic
analysis of style in language and how this can vary according to such factors, as
for example, genre, context, historical period and author.” They also add that the
term style in an individual distinguishes one writer from another. Therefore, the
styles associated with particular genres (e.g. newspaper language or the gothic
novel), or the characteristics of what might constitute ‘literary’ style.
Then, the definitions above will be best applied to the most specific
domain of style, which is the style of text. A text, whether it is considered as a
whole work or just an extract from a work, is the nearest access to a homogenous
and specific use of language. Therefore, in a text, the study of style can be done
more detail with a more systematic attention to what words or structures are
chosen. (Leech and Short, 1981: 12). Furthermore, they also mention another
reason why texts are the natural focus for stylistics study, “within a text it is
possible to be more specific about how language serves a particular artistic
function.” The last reason mentioned by Leech and Short becomes the nature of
stylistics. The text which can varies from different genres or types of text
containing specific features of style create particular effect. Therefore, the text
which may become the object of the study of stylistics might be newspapers,
2. The Type and Organization of Newspaper Texts
Recently, printed newspapers are experimenting with ways to survive in
the digital age. Their efforts to stay alive are directed at two areas: cutting costs
and increasing revenue. Cost-cutting efforts have ranged from mild to the
extreme. Sharing certain stories is one of them. This has been done by two
American newspapers, The Washington Post which shares stories with The
Baltimore Sun. The most drastic cost-cutting step of all is dropping the print
edition altogether and becoming an online-only publication. The example is the
Ann Arbor News in Michigan, stopped its printed operation and become
AnnArbor.com(Dominick, 2010: 114-115).
Talking about online newspapers, Dominick (2010: 121) explains that
there are three main types of online newspaper web sites: (1) news aggregators,
(2) online web sites associated with a local or national print newspaper and (3)
online-only sites. News aggregators are sites that take information from many
sources and meld it into a news presentation. According to Dominick, there are
two types of news aggregators. First, sites that use an automatic formula to scan
news publications and group related stories together, such as Google News and
Yahoo! News. Second, sites that use humans to scan and select the stories, such as
The Huffington Post. These sites typically carry headlines, photos, video, a lead
sentence or two, and links to the full story.
The second type, online Web sites associated with a local or national
print newspapers are the most common one. Dominick (2010) further explains
newspapers, either dailies or weeklies. Sometimes, this type also posts pictures
and video links along with the articles. The structure of this online newspaper
varies. Some sites have a stand-alone organization with staffers who work only
for the online site. Other sites combine the print and online operations so that one
person may work for both. Based on this explanation, it can be deduced that the
effectiveness of the workers is also varied. If they work for both print and online
newspapers, they have to be very effective in writing the article in terms of time
and space. They have to be able to manage their words so that it can be adjusted
for both types.
Dominick also further explains that the writing style for online media is
highly variable. Some newspaper sites may simply post the print version post the
story without minor editing. Meanwhile, other sites might post the headline and a
couple of sentences highlighting the main points of the story with a link to the rest
of the story. “The newspaper inverted-pyramid style is generally used, and photos
and video are integrated to the text” (Dominick, 2010: 319).
According to Blake, Inverted-pyramid style is one of the styles in
newspaper writing. Inverted-pyramid means when the news is written, the most
newsworthy information is put at the beginning of the story and the least
newsworthy information is put at the end. The decision of putting that comes as
the most trustworthy is by considering its news value.
(http://kelab.tamu.edu/spb_encyclopedia/data/Inverted%20pyramid%20story%20f
ormat.pdf). Therefore, the idea of inverted writing style is putting all information
newspaper article. Then, the detailed information will be put on the following
paragraphs. Here is the example of inverted-pyramid style taken from
(http://kelab.tamu.edu/spb_encyclopedia/data/Inverted%20pyramid%20story%20f
ormat.pdf).
Figure 1. The beginning of inverted-pyramid style
The example above summarizes the points that should be included in the
beginning of a story using inverted-pyramid style. The “what” there is there is a
man died. The “when” and “where” is on Monday afternoon and on Broad Street.
The “who” is a Murfressboro man. The “why” is he died because his car spun out
of control and crashed into a utility pole and threw him through the windshield.
By looking at the example above, there is an advantage of having
inverted-pyramid style in a newspaper article. The advantage is that readers who are in a
hurry can grasp the information needed by reading the first paragraph only.
Related to the style of writing, news writers are usually faithful to the
conversations of good English except when departing from the rules help them
communicate better with their mass audience. Itule and Anderson (1999: 177) say
that writers who understand and appreciate the rules of language know when to
break the rules and enhance effectiveness. If poets do it with unusual indentations,
mid-sentence capitalization, news writers take the liberties of the language by
to indicate attribution and so on. They provide examples of these liberties which
are taken fromUSA Todayduring the 1991 Persian Gulf War:
a. Troops set; Bush ‘prepared’ for ground war
b. Poll: Most support U.S in gulf war
c. Bush ‘prepared’ for Ground War
The examples above show the liberties which are often taken by news
writers. In example (a), the semicolon (;) is used in order to show two different
actions which still has relationship to one another. In example (b), the colon (:) is
possibly used to replace the verbs ‘says’ or ‘states’ and it is possibly used to
shorten the sentence since it is a headline. In example (c), the single quotation
mark is put on the verb ‘prepared’ because it possibly signs that Bush has been
ready since a long time ago to face Ground War.
The examples below are the examples of another liberty takes by news
writers, it is the determiner deletion. The study of determiner deletion in
newspaper is proposed by Bell (2011):
a. (the) Finance Minister Bill English
b. (a) City Council spokesperson Richie Moyle
c. (its) Chief Executive Roger Sutton.
The examples given by Bell include initial mentions of people in the news which
usually take the form of two appositional noun phrases. The first noun phrase is
the descriptive of the person and it is followed by an appositional noun phrase
the appositional expressions is often defined as something unique. The deletion
restructures the apposition because it elevates the name to equal status with the
description.
3. Stylistics Analysis Theory
Leech and Short (1981: 74) say that every analysis of style, in their
terms, is an attempt to find the artistic principles underlying a writer’s choice of
language. Therefore, it is useful to have a checklist of features which may or may
not be significant in a given text. The categories of analysis are placed under four
general headings: lexical categories, grammatical categories, figures of speech and
cohesion and context.
The main focus of this research is one of the distinctive features which
can be found in the newspaper named determiner. According to Leech and Short
(2011: 75-78), there are nine categories which are placed under the grammatical
categories, namely sentence types, sentence complexity, clause types, clause
structure, noun phrases, verb phrases, other phrase types, word classes and
general.
The first category is sentence types. This category concerns about some
points, among others are whether an author uses only statements (declarative
sentences) and whether an author also uses questions, commands, exclamations or
minor sentence types. The function of the sentence type can be further
investigated under this category.
The second category is sentence complexity. For this category, the
this category are whether the sentences have a simple or complex structure,
whether the complexity of the sentence vary strikingly from one sentence to
another and whether the complexity is due to coordination, subordination or
parataxis. The average sentence length can be also be addressed under this
category.
The third category is clause types. In this category, there are some points
which can be addressed. For example, what kind of clauses are favoured in the
text and whether reduced or non-finite clauses commonly used in the text. Further
investigation on clauses like the use of infinitive clauses,-ing clauses,-ed clauses
can also be done under this category.
The fourth category is clause structure. For this category, the stylistic
analysis can be done by following a point, such as whether there is anything
significant about clause elements, for example frequency of objects, complements
or adverbials. Some other points that are useful under the clause structure
category are whether there are any unusual orderings or whether special kinds of
clause construction occur.
The fifth category is noun phrases. For noun phrases category, the issues
which can be addressed to get the data are whether the phrases are simple or
complex or where the complexities of the phrases lie. Listing the occurrences of
the adjective sequences, the coordination or apposition also can be done under this
category.
The sixth category is verb phrases. For verb phrases, the analysis can be
use of the simple past tense. This can be done later by comparing the number of
past tense occurrences to other verb phrase types such as the present tense, the
progressive aspect, and other verb phrases.
The seventh category is other phrase types. This category tries to find out
about other phrase types and their significance for the text such as prepositional
phrases, adverb phrases, and adjective phrases.
The eighth category is word classes. Since a major or lexical word class
has been already considered in the previous category, considering minor word
classes is also important. The examples of minor word classes here are
prepositions, auxiliaries, determiners, conjunctions, pronouns, interjections.
The ninth category is general category. For the last category, the point
that is possible to consider is whether any general types of grammatical
construction are used to special effect, for example comparative or superlative
constructions, coordinative or listing constructions, appended or interpolated
structures.
Crystal (2006) also adds that grammatical features also become one of
the types of stylistic approaches in written language. Crystal explains that in
grammatical features, the many possibilities of syntax and morphology may
become the object of stylistic study. Therefore, from all of the categories above, it
can be seen that stylistic investigation on determiner is possible to do. The reason
is because determiner belongs to one of the distinctive features which is word
classes. Furthermore, what are important from these nine categories are the
4. Determiners
The English articles are part of a larger system of reference and
determination.
“Articles are sometimes called determiners, although the term is also used generically to refer to a larger class of items which determine noun status in similar ways (e.g. this; that), but which can be used more flexibly (e.g. as pronouns) than the articles proper.” (Wales, 2001: 30).
Quirket aldefines determiner as “words which can determine nouns and
they form a set of closed –system items that are mutually exclusive with each
other” (1985: 137). Furthermore, Quirk, et al explains the exclusiveness in
determiners. It means that there cannot be more than one determiner occurring
before the noun head. Therefore, both a the boy and a some boy are
ungrammatical.
Related to Wales’ explanation on determiner, he also explains that articles
only have little lexical meaning. Therefore, in certain contexts they can be easily
omitted to save space or time, e.g. newspaper headlines, small ads, note-taking
and many more (2001: 30). However, though the articles have little lexical
meaning, they are central to the class of determiners in that they have no function
independent of the noun they precede. It means that determiner will be
meaningful only when they are attached to the noun or noun phrase. For example:
I want the ink here is the
I want some ink here is some
In the example above, the determiners in the second column does not have any
further explain that the articles solely contribute definite or indefinite status to the
nouns they determine but the dependence is not unilateral (Quirket al, 1985: 137)
Determiners can be discussed under the headings identifiers and
quantifiers. Identifiers consist of the articles, the possessives and the
demonstratives. Whereas quantifiers consist of definite and indefinite quantifiers.
The articles consist of the indefinite article, the definite article and the zero article.
For quantifiers, the definite quantifiers are marked by the numeral and the
indefinite quantifiers are marked by some, any, much, many and some other
quantifiers (Close, 1977: 128). In English, the definite and indefinite articles are
used to identify new and given information. Given information, tends to take the
definite article, while new information tends to take the indefinite article
(Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman, 1999: 271).
As what has been stated before, Close (1977) has classified determiners
into two, identifiers and quantifiers. Identifiers include the articles, the
demonstratives and the possessive form of the personal pronouns.
a. The articles
There are three kinds of articles which are used in English Grammar. The
first is the indefinite article a and an. According to Close (1977: 129), the
indefinite article is aor an when the head of a nominal group is a singular count
noun: ais used before a word beginning with a consonant sound and an before a
vowel sound, for example:a man, a red apple, an apple, an uncleand many more.
Furthermore, he also explains about its characteristics, as explained in the
Close also mentions several other characteristics of the indefinite article
a/an. The first is that A (n)+ noun can refer to class of thing as a whole, as in:a
catina cat is a small domesticated animal. Close defines this as a typical form of
definition. The second is that A (n) + noun can also refer to the idea of one
example of the class, as expressed in: May I have an apple, please? The third
characteristic of indefinite article a (n) is that it isA (n)is obligatory when a count
noun singular is an indefinite complement of BE, as it can be seen in example a
cat is a small domesticated animal and in sentenceMr Cartwright was a famous
surgeon. The last is that A+ one occurs exceptionally in colloquial English, as in
Oh, you are a one!The ‘a one’means amusing or daring person.
Related to the concept of indefinite articlea(n), Yule (2004) explains that
the indefinite article a(n) is closely connected, both historically, to the number
one. Therefore, in many cases, “the basic meaning of a(n) X is single instance of
the X type of thing.” (Yule, 2004: 33) Further, he also explains that indefinite
articles is used in a process named classifying. Classifying is a process by which a
thing or things are named to belong to a certain class of objects. Then, the
example of classifying objects signalled by indefinite articles is as follows there’s
a farmhouse with a horse, a dog and an old truck.
The second article in English grammar is the definite article the.
According to Close (1977: 133-135), the definite article,the, can be used before a
count singular, a count noun plural, or a mass noun. One of its main functions is
to indicate that the speaker is referring to a particular example, or to particular
can identify the particular examples to which he is referring. The word thealone
is sufficient to identify the examples. However, the definite article the also
indicates that something already said or reference backwards. The example of
reference backwards can be seen in the following example:
Here is a glass, some water and three coins. Watch! I pour the water into the
glass, then drop the coins one by one into the water.
In that example, the water, the glassandthe coins refer to glass, waterand coins
which are mentioned in the previous sentence.
The definite article the also indicates that something about to be said or
reference forwards. According to Close, there are three patterns which can explain
the occurrence oftheas reference forwards. The first is when the speaker assumes
there is only one single thing according to his own thought, for example: The light
is on in the dining room. When it is said, then the speaker assumes that there is
only one light in the room. Second, the may appear in mass nouns, especially
abstract nouns, which are often modified by a prepositional phrase beginning with
of , e.g. the history of China. Third, an adjective only attracts the if it serves
definitely to identify the thing mentioned, for exampleThere are three coats here,
which one is yours? The grey coat is mine. Reference forward can also be made
by a superlative, by an ordinal number and by next and same, e.g. Tokyo is now
the largest city in the world, That’s the third time you’ve trodden on my toe,
Woodside Road is the next turning on your right, The same thing happened to me
The definite article the + noun frequently occurs when the speaker is
referring to some object or person that he assumes the hearer can identify in the
environment which they share, for example I’ll meet you at the post office, or at
the bank. The is also used as a signal that the speaker is distinguishing one part of
his environment from another, for example He speaks of living in the town is
distinct from living in the country.
Related to the explanation on definite article provided by Close, Yule
(2004) explains that the definite article the is closely connected, historically and
conceptually to the demonstrative that. Therefore, the basic meaning of the X is
‘that particular X’. According to Yule, while indefinite articles mark the
classifying process, definite article is used to mark the identifying process.
Identifying is a process by which a thing or things are referred as distinct from
other members of the same category of class of objects. As a definite reference,
the has a distinguishing effect and is usually intended to pick out a specific thing
or things (Yule, 2003: 33).
Yule also makes a number of implications based on his explanations on
indefinite and definite article. However, the most powerful implication is that, in
communicative terms, the definite article signals more than the indefinite article.
When definite article is used, it means that the classification has already been
completed since the whole entity has already been identified (Yule, 2003: 34).
The classifying and identifying process marked by the indefinite and
definite article is important in this study to answer the first research question that
classifying things, it is often used with the first reference. Meanwhile, the definite
article is typically identifying things, it is often used with the second or later
references. Therefore, it can be said that indefinite article introduces new
information in an English text while definite articles introduces given information.
They have important role in news report writing. New information itself can be
defined as information that the speaker presents as a new to the hearer. Then,
given information can be defines as information that the speaker treats as
currently known to the hearer. Therefore, in a news report, it always begins with
the introduction of several new things which are going to be the highlight of the
story. Later, as the report continues, many of the entities then can be treated as
already known or ‘given.’
The last article in English grammar is the very important phenomenon
named the zero article. Close defines zero article as the absence of article and it
serves as an indefinite identifier. It occurs in several patterns, such as before a
count noun plural noun referring to a class as a whole, e.g. cats, as in Cats like
fish, don’t they? The example states a characteristic of cats in general. A similar
pattern can be used for definitions, especially in Grapes are kind of fruit.It also
occurs before a count noun plural referring not to the class as a whole but to a
number of indefinite of indefinite examples, e.g. people in Don’t stand in the
doorway. There are people waiting. Zero article also occurs before a count noun
plural, e.g. engineers inMr Cartwright’s sons were engineers(1977: 133).
Related to the explanation on zero article provided by Close, Yule also
and definite articles in some common phrases, and it is treated as significant for
the interpretation of ‘no differentiation required’ (Yule, 2004: 24). Though Yule
has mentioned that given information is marked by the definite article, he adds
that the clearest given information is sometimes marked by the absence of the
article. It can be observed clearly in texts providing instructions and also in
recipes.
From the theory above, it can be concluded that there are three basic
articles which exist in English grammar. They are the indefinite article, the
definite article and the zero article. Indefinite article is used to mark the new
information and definite article is used to mark the given information. The zero
article is used to mark the clearest given information which is commonly found in
instructions and recipes.
In using the articles with the noun, the basic forms of articles in English
can be summarized as follow
1) The indefinite article a is used for common noun, which is countable and
singular, and the noun begins with consonant. Meanwhile, Indefinite articlean
is used for common noun, which is countable and singular, and the noun begins
with vowel
2) The definite article the is used for common noun, which takes the singular or
plural countable and non-countable form and the noun begins in either
consonant or vowel
3) The zero article is used for proper and common noun. For the common noun, it