TEXTUAL FUNCTION IN THE JAKARTA POST EDITORIALS.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, the writer would like to thank God for the blessing, guarding,

guidance, and everything that have been given to the writer accomplish this thesis.

This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements to obtain the S1 degree

of Sarjana Sastra at English Department in Faculty of Languages and Arts, State

University of Medan.

In completing this thesis, the writer has received a lot of assistance and

academic support from some people. Therefore, the writer would like to express

her sincere gratitude, love and special thanks to:

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

of Medan.

 Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Faculty of Languages and

Arts State University of Medan.

 Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., as the Head of English Department, Rika S.Pd, M.Hum., as Secretary of English Department, Dra. Meisuri, M.A.,

as the Head of English Literature Department, and Dra. Masitowarni,

M.Ed., as the Head of English Education Department.

 Dr. Zainuddin, DIP.TEFL., M.Hum., as Thesis Advisor.

 Drs. Johan Sinulingga, M.Pd., Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A., Ph.D., Prof. Dr. Berlin Sibarani, M.Pd and Drs. Bachtiar, M.Pd as Reviewers, for

the advice, comment, knowledge in correcting to complete this thesis.  All the Lecturers throughout her academic years at State University of

Medan that could not be mentioned one by one.

 Her beloved parents; her mother, Rohana Sihombing and her father, Saut

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for the love and support from her sisters, Syinthia Rosa Naibaho and her lovely brother Josua S.M Naibaho.

 To my lovely big family who always support me. Especially for Christina

Purba who always accompanied to find up some references books to

complete this thesis.

 All her beloved classmates of Applied Linguistics Regular 2010 especially Gelora Septrina Girsang, Kristellia Rasmiyati Sirait, Marito

Portune Tambun, Tiur Simamora and the others that cannot be

mentioned all. Thank you for the support, information, encouragement, and beautiful day spent together.

 Small Group Servios es Ces Dios (Lestari Batubara, Nelly Hutabarat,

Marini Simangunsong, Pinta Panjaitan and Lita Panjaitan) especially

our beloved sister Riahmawani Purba who led her to be a good person.  To all friends in my boarding house (Evi, Eny, Asina, Deasy, Irna, Rita,

Mariati and Febri) who always support her in complete this thesis.

 Maam Euis, for helping the writer in preparing the files for the purposes

of this thesis.

Without their deep and sympathetic understanding, this thesis could not complete. Over all, the writer hopes this thesis can give a bit contribution to the Applied Linguistics. Therefore, comments, critics, suggestions, and advices are expected from the readers.

Medan, July 2014 The writer,

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ABSTRACT

Naibaho, Novita S.C. 2014.Textual Function in The Jakarta Post Editorials. A Thesis. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan.

This research deals with Theme and Rheme in Editorials texts of The Jakarta Post newspaper. The aims are to find out the optional element dominates the structure of theme in the editorials of The Jakarta Post newspaper and to describe where the optional dominant element occurs. The research was conducted by using descriptive qualitative method. The data were collected from three different editions of The Jakarta Post editorials which is publish on January 2014. The findings indicate that conjunction was an element dominantly used in textual theme because there were so many compound clauses and there were two or more clauses in coordination relation or dependency on another. In interpersonal theme, adjunct was an element dominantly used that is means that a prepositional phrase has its own internal structure containing complement within it and preposition is put at first position of a clause which is called Theme. Conjunction and adjunct were dominantly used when the editors tells their argumentation, comment and their assessment of the news, because of the using of colloquialism or spoken language in editorials of the Jakarta Post newspaper.

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TABLE OF

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 4.1 List of The Unmarked and Marked Theme in Clauses ... 28 TABLE 4.2 List of Multiple Theme:

Topical, Textual and Interpersonal Themes ... 29

TABLE 4.3 List of Elements of Textual Themes... 30 TABLE 4.4 List of Elements of Interpersonal Themes ... 37

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LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX A The Identification of Thematic Structure… ... 46

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study

In Hallidayan grammar, there are two parallel and interrelated systems of

analysis that concern with the structure of clause. The first of this called

Information Structure and involves constituents that are labeled given and new.

The second is called Thematic Structure and involves constituents that are labeled

theme and rheme.

Theme is the element that serves as the starting point for the message that

is what the clause is going to be about. Theme typically contains familiar or given

information. Rheme is defined as the rest of the clause in which the theme is

developed. Rheme contains unfamiliar or new information. Rheme can be simply

found in a clause by identifying parts of the clause which do not belong to

Theme.This organization depends on the context of using language that is purpose

of the text.

The written language offers a wide variety of grammatical tools to mediate

an author’s intended message. In newspapers, as in other kinds of texts, events

that take place out there in the “real” world are expressed through the linguistic

choices that editors make. That is, events are reconstructed as text through

discourse. This reconstruction involves linguistic choices at many turns and levels

in the unfolding of the discourse. In Halliday and Matthiessen (2004) Systemic

Functional Linguistics (SFL) is a linguistic theory which allows the analyst to

shed light on just how it is these choices interact with the social context to imbue

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that language serves three main purposes: the experiential (or ideational),

through which language users express their view of the world; the interpersonal,

through which language users establish and maintain social contact; and the

textual, which allows for the first two to be brought together and organized in a

way that is communicatively effective.

In the editorial column, many readers are difficult to interpret the news

that written by editors because they do not understand the thematic structure

contained in the sentence. It’s happened because the editors often manipulating

the thematic structure which was originally intended to attract the reader’s

attention to read the contents of the text that written by the editor. Editorial texts

are typically means to voice missions of the newspaper. Thus, a newspaper has its

own way of organizing the editorial texts. The thematic structures in The Jakarta

Post editorials are problematized because their patterns highlight why The Jakarta

Post editorial texts mean what they do.

The reason why the writer chooses theme and rheme as a topic to discuss

is because theme and rheme common used in every text, but how to identify the

theme and rheme in clause, how to label the elements of clause with references

and how to analyze complex theme in text will be discussed in this study.

In this case, the writer takes three editorials in The Jakarta Post newspaper

to analyze the uses of thematic Structure which is published in January 2014. The

Jakarta Post is an English newspaper which published in every morning. The

Jakarta Post has some column such as: headline, national, international, features,

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Editorial column is an article in a newspaper or other periodical presenting the

opinion of the publisher or editors. In presenting the editorial, the editor often

used styles and variations of language. The style and variation of language are

used to attract the reader’s attention and to inform the interesting news.

The writer used editorials text to analyze the ways in which reporter and

editorial make choices in topical, interpersonal and textual element through theme

to show the value of the linguistic theory for explain the ways in which

experiential meaning is encoded along with interpersonal intent through the

textual function.

B. The Problems of the Study

Based on the background above, the problems of the study are formulated

as in the following:

1. What optional element dominates the structure of Theme in the editorials

of The Jakarta Post newspaper?

2. In what context does the dominant element occurs?

C. The Objectives of the Study

In relation to the problem of the study, the objectives of this study are

formulated as in the following:

1. To describe the optional dominant element in the structure of Theme in the

editorials of The Jakarta Post newspaper.

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D. The Scope of the Study

This study is to analyze the editorial column in The Jakarta Post

newspaper. This study focuses on analyzing the editorial column in Jakarta Post

newspaper based on theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics, specifically to

analyze the thematic structure.

E. The Significances of the Study

The findings of this study are significant in two respects, theoretically and

practically. Theoretically, the findings enrich theories of Systemic Functional

Linguistics (SFL), particularly on the use of English in national newspaper The

Jakarta Post and Indonesian context of culture. Practically, it is useful for, namely

(1) students, (2) journalists/editors and (3) teacher. This study equips the students

with the knowledge and skill to comprehend English text. This study is also useful

for Journalists/ editors in a way in which it provides them with knowledge and

skill of how to write editorials. Further, this study is useful for teacher in

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