THEME AND RHEME IN MARIO TEGUHS SAYINGS ON TWITTER.

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THEME AND RHEME IN MARIO TEGUH’S SAYINGS ON

TWITTER

A THESIS

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

By

MUHAMMAD IDRIS WARUWU

Registration Number: 208222047

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

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ABSTRACT

Waruwu, Muhammad Idris. NIM. 208222047, Theme and Rheme in Mario Teguh’s sayings on Twitter. A Thesis. The Faculty of Languages and Art (FBS). State University of Medan (UNIMED). MEDAN. 2012.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to thank to Allah SWT, The Almighty One who has given the greatest love, grace and blessing to the writer so that the writer could finish the thesis. The Almighty gave His blessing and strength so that the writer’s spirit keeps moving on. Accomplishing an important and such difficult work like this thesis is a resemblance of miracle to the writer. In limited period given and with many barriers faced by the writer during the process of conducting, this thesis has finally come to its completion. All of these have added valuable lessons to the writer since it is hardly possible to have this work done without many supports and inspiring guidance from people around me. This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and the help of several individuals who always contributed and extended their valuable assistances in the preparation and completion of this thesis. The writer’s special appreciation goes to:

 Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si. as the Head of State University of Medan.

 Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum. as the Dean of Faculty of Languages and Arts State University of Medan and to all her staffs.

 Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd. as the Head of English Department. Dra. Rahmah, M.Hum. as the Secretary of English Department, and Dra. Meisuri, MA as the Head of Non-Educational English Program thanks for their administrative help during the writer’s study in English Department State University of Medan.

 Drs. Elia Masa Gintings, M.Hum. as the writer’s Thesis Supervisor who always gave the encouragement, constant support, constructive comments, and suggestions to the writer in finishing this thesis. And Immanuel Prasetya Ginting, M.Hum who has given suggestions and advices in completing this thesis.

 Dra. Juriati Ownie, M.hum. as the writer’s Academic Counselor who has given her support to the writer’s thesis topic.

 Mam Endah and Mam Indri who have helped the writer in providing the academic administration.

 The writer’s greatest family, her Dad, the lovable, Ramlin Waruwu and her Mom, the greatest woman and the truly inspiring, Siti Thoibah Lase and also to his brothers and sisters for their endless love, prayers, advises, and encouragement. Without them, the writer may never have overcome this long journey, because when he felt down, their love will always give him strength in facing all complications happened in his life

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this script and thank you so much for the friendship, hospitality, moral support, and for all the fun and happy memories they shared. She treasures them and will never forget. And loyal support and motivation from Henny Fauziah Hrp.

 The writer’s special colleagues: Agus, Riko, Anton, Wira and All of the writer’s friends in Applied Linguistics A and B 2008, for studying together in classroom, discussing around and studying together under the ladder have motivated the writer to finish her study.

 The people who direct or indirectly contributed in this research, your kindness means a lot to her. Thank you very much. May Allah bless us. Amin.

Medan, September 2012 The Writer,

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LIST OF TABLES

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LIST OF APPENDICES

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study

Someone‟s language can determine from stratum of society someone belongs

to. We can analyze and compare the upper class, middle class, and lower class

through their language used. Technically the upper class use formal language in

every situation and condition they face because they have proper and high

education, meanwhile the lower class don‟t care or concern about their language

since they have no idea how to use the formality and standard language. The

development human‟s civilization requires human‟s attention to the language

since basically human being is the smartest and the perfect one in learning

language; human being is the only living things who can interact and share with

others because of their knowledge in language.

Language is an aspect of human behavior that involves the use of vocal

sounds in meaningful patterns and corresponding written symbols to form, express

and communicate thoughts and feelings. When someone communicates with other

people, the speaker conveys the message or information to the listener. When

receiving the message, the listener pays attention to many other factors apart from

the language itself. It means the communication is the act of transmitting

information from one person to another person. Searle says that languages such as

French or German consist of three components: a phonological

component that determines how words and sentences are pronounced, a

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words and sentences. (Searle, 2006: 3). In brief, language is a system that consists

of three aspects they are phonology, syntax and semantic.

We know language and use language since we were very young and small;

the language is a way to interact each other. Language itself develops as a human

being grows; it means the more adult they are so the better they use language

based on the context they comprehend around. There are so many factors why

someone‟s language is different from others; firstly geographical aspect secondly

is social economic status and their surroundings. Language can‟t be separated

from the development of human‟s civilization where until now no way or tool to

change its function to understand and communicate each other. We know what

someone‟s feeling and thought because of the language, we can convey what we

want to say to others because of language, a good relation can be built because of

language as well as the bad one. The way we interact and communicate influence

the result what kind of relation can be built; because of the language someone else

can get angry, happy, sad, or in other words all emotional expressions can be

conveyed through language. This is one of the aspects what makes human being

different from any other living creatures since animals as well as plants don‟t use

language to share or interact.

Nowadays the use of language has been very important in all aspects of life: it

seems that language is inseparable. Language has two categories which can be

divided into spoken and written; these two categories actually have the same

goals, purposes, and functions but different use since in spoken or oral language

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the media like ink, paper, and other. And usually written language is more formal

than spoken language because in written language we have to be on the track of

rules in writing which is called as the punctuations. Language also can be

separated into two sub categories; they are verbal and non-verbal language (body

language). In body language we have perceptiveness, intuition, and hunches in

getting the point or the meaning from body language. Pease says that From a

technical point of view, whenever we call someone „perceptive‟ or „intuitive‟, we

are referring to his or her ability to read another person‟s non-verbal cues and to

compare these cues with verbal signals. (Pease, 1981: 10)

The subject in this research is focused on the written language which is

conveyed by Mario Teguh who is a great motivator in his account Twitter. Every

day he gives his sayings on the social network account, just to motivate people

how to face problems and challenges in better way. Saying is a short, pithy

expression that generally contains advice or wisdom; since Mario Teguh is a

famous motivator many people follow his account on Twitter just to get the

motivations and sayings from him. Clauston says “may we not find the "whole

duty of man" condensed into a few brief sentences, which have been expressed by

thoughtful men in all ages and in countries far apart?” (Clauston, 2007: 3). In

other words all the human‟s experiences can be written or condensed in a few

brief sentences as the lessons or precious reminders for the next generation.

Talking about sayings is related with the morality and wisdom since a human

being basically is a peaceful and perfect man among other creatures exists in the

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benevolence and beneficence; tolerance of the opinions of others; self-control; the

acquisition of knowledge--that jewel beyond price; the true uses of wealth; the

advantages of resolute, manly exertion; the dignity of labor; the futility of worldly

pleasures; the fugacity of time; man's individual insignificance (Clauston, 2007:

3). In short saying is a well-known phrase or statement that expresses something

about life that most people believe is wise and true.

Information becomes the important things in human‟s life. Being one of the

most characteristics forms of human behavior, it is so familiar a feature of our

daily life that we rarely pause to think about it. The way how the information is

conveyed should be interesting because it will influence people in understanding

it. In delivering information or ideas, people use media which is called

communication media. There are many kinds of communication media such as

newspaper, magazine, books, billboard, etc. In this research, the analysis is

focused on the Mario Teguh‟s sayings which he writes everyday in social network

exactly on Twitter. The sayings he conveys on Twitter are in written form with

Indonesia version, so the data are changed into English to make us understand

more easily what Theme and Rheme in English are. However, it is necessary to

know that the research still involves the functional grammar as the basic source.

Social network is the linking connection among people around the world;

wherever they are and whatever they are as long as they have network or website

to be connected. In social network we can do a lot of things started from our

personal things like pictures, music, even thoughts or opinion to be shared. Kelsey

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and then share them with people, either privately or publicly. (Kelsey, 2010: 2). In

the social network we can describe our own feeling on the situation and context

we are facing, as having been said by Kelsey that people go through seasons:

sometimes the seasons are good, sometimes the seasons are bad, sometimes

they‟re dark, and sometimes they‟re joyful. (Kelsey, 2010: 3)

Twitter is one of social network media or access to connect people. Riley says

that Twitter is a very simple and easy to use social networking site that lets

anyone quickly and easily share “What's happening?” in a 140-character posting –

or tweet. (Riley, 2010: 6). All people can use it not only for friends, but also for

finding more with different purposes. In this case Riley adds ”Twitter isn‟t just

used by young people as an alternative to SMS. The site has a large following

among older, professional audiences, too, and a full quarter of Twitter‟s users are

high-earners, a valuable piece of information that makes the site a must-use for

any serious marketer. So we can see that social media sites aren‟t just attracting

kids looking for places to chat with their friends and find free music downloads.

They‟re also attracting smart, educated people with money to burn.” (Riley,

2010:6)

Functional grammar is an application of functional to allow speakers and

writers to make exchange meanings. Bloor (1995:1) says “language is a system of

meaning”. It makes meaning as a clue to understand everything in this world. It is

called as interpersonal function when the language is used to enable us to

participate in communicating acts with other people, to take on rules and to

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used to organize, understand, and express our perceptions of the world and of our

consciousness, it performs ideational function. Language is used to relate what is

said (written) to the real world and to other linguistic events. This involves the use

of language to organize the text itself. This is known as the textual function.

The structure of information becomes an important aspect in developing ideas

or information in written language. From this aspect, how the information

structure will be described. Another important aspect of how the text develops is

through the interaction of Theme and New information. The structure of

information itself is organized into Theme (given) and Rheme (new) as the

element of thematic structure. Theme is the starting point of the message or the

point of the departure of the message. It means that theme will influence the

listener‟s interpretation. Theme is usually put in initial position of the clause

because it will show how the message develops. Rheme is all the rest of the clause

after theme. Rheme can simply be found in a clause by identifying parts of clause

which do not belonging to theme. For example, the man loves the woman; the

underlined word is as the theme because it is the starting point of the message, and

the rest is as the rheme. In fact, theme and rheme are the elements which make up

the functional configuration of the clause as a message

As having been explained above, Twitter is one of social networks that

connect people more easily to interact among one country to other countries.

Mario Teguh‟s sayings on Twitter are written form in Indonesia since he is an

Indonesian. Mario Teguh is a great and famous motivator in Indonesia; along his

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faith, steadfastness and determination. He inspires people through social networks

and a program in television channel on Metro TV called Mario Teguh “The

Golden Ways”. His motivations give people strong spirit and determination to be

better.

Based on the background explained above, this study will focus on the

analysis of the structure of sayings written on Twitter, in this case Theme and

Rheme are found as the result of research done.

B. The Problems of the Study

The problems of the study are formulated as follows:

1. What types of themes are used in the Mario Teguh‟s sayings on Twitter?

2. What multiple themes are dominantly used in the Mario Teguh‟s sayings

on Twitter?

C. The Scope of the Study

A clause considered as a unit of experience which consists of Theme and

Rheme. This study focuses on the thematic structure especially on the types of

theme and multiple written by Mario Teguh on Twitter shared in December 2011

as the representatives.

D. The Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study are formulated as follows:

1. To find out the types of theme in the Mario Teguh‟s sayings on Twitter.

2. To find out the most dominant multiple theme in the Mario Teguh‟s

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E. The Significances of the study

The findings of the study are expected to be useful for:

1. People who would like to develop their ability in understanding the

thematic structure of a text

2. Other researchers who would like to conduct further studies about types of

theme and multiple theme in other media.

3. The readers to find easily the message or the starting point of a text

4. The readers to get the ideas of the metafunction in language namely

ideational, interpersonal, and textual function both in written and spoken

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

A. Conclusions

After analyzing the types of theme and the multiple theme in Mario teguh’s

sayings on twitter, conclusions are drawn as follows:

1. The types of theme (marked and unmarked theme) and multiple theme

(topical, interpersonal, and textual) can be found in any written text, in this

case the data analyzed in the written text especially in sayings shared by

Mario Teguh who is a great and well-known motivator in Indonesia.

2. The most dominant types of theme used in those data is unmarked theme

since those sayings used mood (declarative, imperative, interrogative) to

make them easy to be understood.

3. In multiple theme the most dominant one is topical theme since topical

theme prioritizes the simplicity to describes what the point of the saying to

be conveyed is.

B. Suggestions

1. It is suggested that understanding and describing theme of each saying in

regard of type of theme and multiple theme need a clear understanding of

the theory theme and rheme so that the data won’t get difficult to be

analyzed.

2. It is suggested for other researchers to make a detail analysis of theme and

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3. The findings of this research are advised to be used to fulfill a better

understanding for the readers of Mario Teguh’s works especially his

followers in his account twitter.

4. It is suggested to the readers or students who are concerned to this study to

conduct in depth-research to get better understanding in theory and the

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THEME AND RHEME IN MARIO TEGUHS SAYINGS ON TWITTER.