A STUDY ON THE COMMON AND COMPOUND NOUNS USED BY THE INDONESIAN AND NON-INDONESIAN WRITERS
IN THE OPINION COLUMN OF THE JAKARTA POST
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
E. Putri Swastikasari Student Number: 041214123
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
i
A STUDY ON THE COMMON AND COMPOUND NOUNS USED BY THE INDONESIAN AND NON-INDONESIAN WRITERS
IN THE OPINION COLUMN OF THE JAKARTA POST
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
E. Putri Swastikasari
Student Number: 041214123
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
iv
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the references, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, 18 June 2009
The Writer
E. Putri Swastikasari
v
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama : E. Putri Swastikasari
Nomor Mahasiswa : 041214123
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
A STUDY ON THE COMMON AND COMPOUND NOUNS USED BY THE INDONESIAN AND NON-INDONESIAN WRITERS
IN THE OPINION COLUMN OF THE JAKARTA POST
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, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta,
Pada tanggal: 22 Juli 2009
Yang menyatakan
vi ABSTRACT
Swastikasari, E. Putri. 2009. A Study on the Common and Compound Nouns Used by the Indonesian and Non-Indonesian Writers in the Opinion Column of The Jakarta Post. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Department of Language and Arts Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education. Sanata Dharma University.
The precise use of nouns in writing an opinion in a public newspaper might result in a better understanding for the readers. The use of noun in the opinion would help the readers to understand the topic of the opinion. Therefore, the writer of an opinion article should be able to choose and use the appropriate nouns based on the topic in order to make the opinion more understandable.
This research was intended to provide information about the frequency, types, forms, and markers of common and compound nouns used by an Indonesian writer and a non-Indonesian writer in the Opinion column of The Jakarta Post from September - October 2007.
This research was a document analysis which used qualitative approach to analyze the data. The reason for using qualitative approach was that the data were analyzed in the form of descriptive information. Otherwise, descriptive statistical data were only used for the data presentation.
The sources of data were the two opinion articles about Global Warming written in The Jakarta Post’s opinion column. The data were the selected nouns taken from those two opinion articles. The nouns were selected based on Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms (2003). The frequency of the selected nouns within every opinion article was compared with Collins-Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (2001). Then, the types, forms, and markers of these nouns were analyzed based on the theories from two grammar books. The result of the analysis was the description on frequency, types, forms, and markers of common and compound nouns used by both Indonesian and non-Indonesian writers as the precise use of nouns in their opinion articles.
vii ABSTRAK
Swastikasari, E. Putri. 2009. A Preliminary Study on the Common and Compound Nouns Used by the Indonesian and Non-Indonesian Writers in the Opinion Column of The Jakarta Post. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan. Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Penggunaan kata benda yang tepat dalam penulisan sebuah opini di suatu surat kabar umum dapat menghasilkan suatu pemahaman yang lebih baik bagi pembaca. Penggunaan kata benda yang tepat dalam opini akan membantu pembaca untuk memahami topik opini tersebut. Oleh karena itu, penulis artikel opini sebaiknya mampu memilih dan menggunakan kata benda yang sesuai berdasarkan topik sehingga opini tersebut dapat lebih dipahami.
Penelitian ini dimaksudkan untuk memberikan informasi tentang frekuensi, tipe, bentuk, dan penanda dari kata benda umum dan gabungan yang digunakan oleh seorang penulis Indonesia dan seorang penulis non-Indonesia di kolom Opini dalam The Jakarta Post dari bulan September-Oktober 2007.
Penelitian ini merupakan sebuah analisis dokumen yang menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif untuk menganalisa data. Alasan untuk menggunakan pedekatan kualitatif ini adalah bahwa data dianalisa dalam bentuk informasi deskripsi. Selain itu, data statistik deskriptif hanya digunakan untuk presentasi data.
Sumber data adalah dua artikel opini tentang Pemanasan Global di The Jakarta Post. Data adalah kata benda yang telah diseleksi dari dua artikel opini tersebut. Kata benda diseleksi berdasarkan Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Frekuensi dari kata benda yang telah diseleksi yang didapat dari dalam artikel opini tersebut dibandingkan dengan Collins-Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners. Kemudian tipe, bentuk, dan penanda dari semua kata benda tersebut dianalisa berdasarkan teori-teori dari dua buku tentang tata bahasa. Hasil dari analisa tersebut adalah berupa deskripsi tentang frekuensi, tipe, bentuk, dan penanda dari kata benda umum dan gabungan yang digunakan oleh kedua penulis Indonesia dan penulis non-Indonesia sebagai kata benda yang tepat dalam artikel opini mereka.
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Around here, however,
we don’t look backwards for very long.
We keep moving forward,
opening up new doors and doing new things,
because we’re curious…
and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
(Walt Disney)
I dedicate this thesis to:
<
My beloved parents, Bapak A. Mulyono and Ibu Trining T.<
My lovely grandma, Ibu Tugiyarti<
My brothers and sister-in-law, Agung, Radhita, and Dianaix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to address my first and greatest gratitude to Jesus Christ for
His blessings to be my biggest strength in the weariness during the completion of
this thesis. Without Him I might not keep on fighting in finishing this thesis.
I address my deepest gratefulness to Dr. Retno Muljani, M.Pd., as my
major sponsor for her assistance in guiding me through many confusing process of
this work. I would like to express my sincere appreciation for her patience to be
the listener and advisor on my complaints and problems. I deeply thank her for the
willingness to spare time in giving me precious criticism, advices, and many
corrections on my work even during her busy days.
I would like also to extend my deepest thankfulness to all of PBI’s
lecturers for all shared knowledge and intellectual experiences and secretary staff
for openhandedly giving me their time in preparing all administration data.
I address my indisputable thanks to my father, A. Mulyono for giving a
sincere love, patience, and support, and especially to my mother, V.C. Trining
Tintri, S.Pd., M.Hum., who has been a tough, responsible, and inspirational
woman that I ever have. I acknowledge profound gratitude for her hard works in
paying my tuition fee and trust to make me achieve my degree on time. Genuine
thank is also given to masAgung for his helps during the computation problems.
My deep appreciation goes to masDhita, and his wife, mbak Diana, for keeping
my spirit on with their warm and open-minded reception, encouraging me to have
x
I am grateful to thank all friends in PBI for all great shared moments
during my study. Special thanks are given to Mira, Dewi, and Hana for
memorable friendship, MOSS group especially Festy and Kenyar, for giving such
a combination of mutual friendship and partnership experiences. I also express my
thankfulness to “Everyday is Sunday” crew, and respectable people in KBI for
giving me such an experience about teamwork and working world.
I specially thank Yessiko Yolanda Dwipunopanen, S.T., for being the
apple of my eye and the biggest motivation to finish this work sooner. I am
indebted to have such a partner who has given me not only support,
understanding, and encouragement but also quarrels and hesitancy. I thank him for
making me struggle and believe that something difficult is not impossible to
conquer. Without him, I might not have the strength to pass my difficult times.
I also thank my boarding house friends, mbak Nana “Cimot”, Intan
“Chorz”, and Rintan “Jimhin”, to be my companions in my daily routine and
shoulders to cry on. I shall always miss every chat and cheerful moment we have
shared together.
Finally, I would like also to show my sincere appreciation and thankfulness
to everyone who has been involved in my effort to finish my work. At last, I
realize that this research still has many weaknesses. So, I will openly receive any
suggestions and criticisms to improve this thesis. Hopefully, this research can be
useful for all the readers who are involved in the educational field.
xi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE ………. i
APPROVAL PAGES ……… ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ……….. iv
ABSTRACT ……… vi
ABSTRAK ……… vii
DEDICATION PAGE ……… viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……….. ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS ………... xi
LIST OF TABLES ………. xiii
LIST OF FIGURE ……….……… xv
LIST OF APPENDICES ……… xvi
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION A. Research Background ………. 1
xii
Page
4. Related Sources ……… 20
a. English Grammar Books ………. 20
b. Dictionaries ………. 21
B. Theoretical Framework ……….. 23
CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY A. Research Method ……… 26
B. Research Sources of Data ………... 27
C. Research Instruments ………. 27
D. Data Gathering Technique ……….. 28
E. Data Analysis Technique ……… 29
F. Research Procedure ………. 31
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION A. Data Presentation ……… 33
B. Data Analysis ……….. 53
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions ……… 66
B. Suggestions ………. 68
REFERENCES ……….. 70
xiii
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
2.1 Conceptual Framework ……….. 25
3.1 Table of Noun Frequency ……… 29
3.2 Table of Noun Type, Form, and Marker ……….. 29
4.1 The Frequency 1 Nouns used by the Indonesian Writer ………. 35
4.2 The Frequency 2, 3, 4, and ≥ 5 Nouns used by the Indonesian Writer 36
4.3 The Type, Form, and Marker of Frequency 1 Nouns used by the Indonesian Writer ……… 38
4.4 The Type, Form, and Marker of Frequency 2 Nouns used by the Indonesian Writer ………. 40
4.5 The Type, Form, and Marker of Frequency 3 Nouns used by the Indonesian Writer ………. 41
4.6 The Type, Form, and Marker of Frequency 4 Nouns used by the Indonesian Writer ………..……. 42
4.7 The Type, Form, and Marker of Frequency ≥5 Nouns used by the Indonesian Writer ………... 43
4.8 The Frequency 1 Nouns used by the non-Indonesian Writer ……….. 46
4.9 The Frequency 2, 3, 4, and ≥ 5 Nouns used by the non-Indonesian Writer ……….. 47
xiv
Table Page
4.11 The Type, Form, and Marker of Frequency 2 Nouns used by the
non-Indonesian Writer ………..……….. 50
4.12 The Type, Form, and Marker of Frequency 3 Nouns used by the
non-Indonesian Writer ………..………. 51
4.13 The Type, Form, and Marker of Frequency 4 Nouns used by the
non-Indonesian Writer ………. 52
4.14 The Type, Form, and Marker of Frequency ≥5 Nouns used by the
xv
LIST OF FIGURE
Figure Page
xvi
LIST OF APPENDICES
Page
Appendix 1 Permission Letter ………... 74
Appendix 2 Copy of the Two Opinion Articles as the Data Sources in the
Research ………. 75
Appendix 3 Copy of Collins-Cobuild English Dictionary Pages ……….. 84
Appendix 4 Copy of McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and
Technical Terms Pages ……….. 86
1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter is divided into six parts. The parts are the research background, problem formulation, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and definition of terms.
A. Research Background
People use language to communicate and context is considered important in interpreting the language. People use language to convey meaning of their thought or opinion within a context. Therefore, it is important to study “how people use language within a context and why they use language in particular ways.” (McManis, et al., 1987: 197)
One way to express our opinions is through writing. To be good in writing one needs to master the ability to choose diction as stated by Memering and O’Hare (1982: 320) that “Searching for the right word, the one that is most specific for your meaning, is one mark of a skilled writer.” It can be said that a writer can be good in conveying his opinion in a particular topic if he can also choose the right words to use. Thus, the choice of the right words within a particular topic will also indicate whether a writer of newspapers is good in composing within a particular context or not.
message to the listeners, while in written communication, the writer expresses his message to the readers. As the message sender, the speaker or the writer expresses his message with a particular meaning that has to be received by the listeners or the readers. In reality, sometimes, the listeners or the readers do not get the precise meaning of the message as the speaker or the writer meant to give. Generally, it can happen naturally in both oral and written communications.
The difference of those both modes of communication is the capacity of the message sender to meet the message receiver directly or not. In oral communication, the listeners can meet the speaker right away so that any unclear messages can be known and clarified right after being uttered. So, if the speaker knows that his message is not understood well by the listeners, he can directly recreate clearer or more understandable sentences until his listeners get the exact meaning of his message. Otherwise, the listeners can also ask the speaker directly about some unclear sentences.
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Any writer of newspapers who is aware of the limitation of his readers to meet him will be more careful in creating sentences so that readers can understand his message easily and correctly. A writer of newspapers realizes that his writing can be read by anyone with any intellectual background so the choice of words should be a priority for a writer of newspapers. Northern Star newspaper in its article entitled News Writing Tips states that one of the ten guidelines to clearer writing is to choose the precise use of word (www.star.niu.edu/nina/highschool/write). To choose the precise use of words for a composition, a writer of newspapers starts with a context, as stated by Northern Star that in the first five paragraphs, articles in newspapers should be started with context. Before writing anything, a writer of newspapers articles should know his point that leads the whole text. Context is one of common problems in leads that involves the reader, showed clear, immediate significance.” (www.star.niu.edu/nina/highschool/write.html)
Before discussing the important points of the precise use of words in a composition, it is useful to consider the study on nouns. The study focuses on the significance of a noun as one of the parts of speech in relation with their role in a sentence. Thus, this study discusses especially on the importance of the precise use of nouns in a composition within a certain topic. Furthermore, the researcher also considered particular types of nouns, composition, and topic.
There are varieties of classification and categories of words into parts of speech. In particular, this study will begin with nouns as one of the parts of speech in English sentences. Even in both English simple and complex sentences, noun is considered to be one of the important parts of speech. Frank (1972: 6) states that “The noun is one of the most important parts of speech. In addition, it may function as the chief or “head” word in many structures of modification.” It is already stated that noun is important because its presence can create major role in sentence structures. Memering and O’Hare (1982: 320) also state that “Nouns can powerfully influence your writing.”, so nouns can also function as an essential indicator for a good writing.
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In short, this study aims to help English learners to give detailed interpretation on how an Indonesian writer and a non-Indonesian writer having precise use of nouns in their opinion articles within a similar particular context.
B. Problem Formulation
This study is intended to answer the following problems:
1. What is the frequency of the common and compound nouns used by the
Indonesian and the non-Indonesian writers in the Opinion column of The Jakarta Post from September - October 2007?
2. What are the common and compound nouns types used by the Indonesian and
the non-Indonesian writers in the Opinion column of The Jakarta Post from September - October 2007?
3. What are the forms of common and compound nouns used by the Indonesian
and the non-Indonesian writers in the Opinion column of The Jakarta Post from September - October 2007?
4. What are the markers of common and compound nouns used by the
Indonesian and the non-Indonesian writers in the Opinion column of The Jakarta Post from September - October 2007?
C. Problem Limitation
compound nouns are considered to be the most commonly used in a composition (Frank, 1972: 6).
The nouns analyzed in this study are the nouns used in two opinion articles written by an Indonesian writer and a non-Indonesian writer. The nouns used by two different writers were compared and analyzed.
This research uses opinion articles of a newspaper as the source of data. The consideration is that they are considered as one’s original writing and published publicly. The researcher decided to take the opinion articles of The Jakarta Post because this daily newspaper is available for both Indonesian and
non-Indonesian people.
Besides, the choice of the opinion article was also based on Global Warming topic. In order to get reliable opinion articles on Global Warming topic, the researcher decided to take them from the period before the Global Warming Convention in Bali which was held on December 2007. Considering the months that produced more opinion articles on Global Warming, the researcher decided to choose period September and October 2007.
D. Research Objectives
In accordance with the research problems formulated previously, the research objectives of the study are:
1. To provide information about the frequency of the common and compound
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2. To provide information about the common and compound nouns types used by the Indonesian and the non-Indonesian writers in the Opinion column of The Jakarta Post from September - October 2007.
3. To provide information about the forms of common and compound nouns used by the Indonesian and the non-Indonesian writers in the Opinion column of The Jakarta Post from September - October 2007.
4. To provide information about the markers of common and compound nouns
used by the Indonesian and the non-Indonesian writers in the Opinion column of The Jakarta Post from September - October 2007.
E. Research Benefits
This study can be viewed as a basic research on nouns. This study focuses on two types of nouns, particularly common and compound nouns, that are used in the opinion articles written in a newspaper.
This study is expected to provide beneficial information for people in improving their written English. The study tries to help people to realize the importance of the precise use of nouns in a written work. Hopefully, this study can help English writers, English teachers, and other English researchers.
The study is also intended to help English teachers in better view of the importance of deciding the appropriate nouns in relevance with the context when their students write an opinion. So, the teachers can explain better about the word choice especially nouns and minimize their students’ confusion.
Meanwhile, for future researchers, this study of common and compound nouns will give a description and explanation of the analysis about nouns. This description, then, can probably become a reference and encourage them to conduct more thorough research of the similar topic.
F. Definition of Terms
In order to avoid ambiguity, the researcher explains the terms which will be used throughout the study:
1. Common Noun
As suggested by Curme (1947: 11), “a common noun is a name that can be applied to any one of a class of living beings or lifeless things.” In this study, a common noun is defined as any noun that is not representing unique entities and consists of only one single word in the opinion articles. The examples of common nouns are climate, air, and technologies.
2. Compound Noun
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power plants, global warming and farmland are included in this noun type. In
addition, terms number 1 and 2 belong to the types of nouns. 3. Opinion Column in The Jakarta Post
Opinion column in newspaper is a “particular section of the newspaper for columns, illustrations, and letters that express opinion, clearly separating factual reporting from these less objective features.” (www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4184) Moreover, an opinion column in this study refers to a column that consists of pages provided by The Jakarta Post’s editor for editors themselves and readers to express their personal opinions about some popular issues or news.
4. Frequency
The definition of frequency according to the internet article is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency) Frequency in this study refers to the number of occurrences of nouns on the opinions and on the dictionary.
5. Type
This word can be defined as a class or group of things that have characteristics in common (Hornby, 1995: 1290). In this study, type means the classification of nouns that shares similar characteristics. The examples of noun type are common, compound, proper, collective, abstract, concrete, countable, and uncountable.
6. Form
appearance of the nouns in the sentences. The samples of the form in this study are singular and plural.
7. Marker
11 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter consists of two parts, namely, theoretical description and theoretical framework. The theoretical description discusses the related literature used in this study. The theoretical framework presents the main theories applied in conducting this study.
A. Theoretical Description
The theoretical description discusses, firstly, theories of nouns which are related to noun types, forms, and markers. Secondly, it discusses the opinion column in The Jakarta Post. Thirdly, it discusses Global Warming topic. Fourthly, it discusses some related sources which are two English grammar books and two dictionaries.
1. Nouns
Noun can be considered as one of the most important part of speech, because it is most widely used in a sentence and considered as the main word of a sentence. As defined by Frank (1972: 6): “… it may function as the chief or “head” word in many structures of modification.”
Meanwhile, Curme (1947: 11-13) suggests the definition and classification of nouns involving common, proper nouns, compound and derivative nouns.
a. Types
This section discusses the classification, the definition, and the examples of nouns types as suggested by Frank and Curme.
As suggested by Frank (1972: 6-19), nouns types are classified into two kinds. They are meaning-based and form-based classifications. Meaning-based classification consists of four noun types. They are proper nouns, concrete or abstract nouns, countable or noncountable nouns, and collective nouns. Meanwhile form-based classification consists of one noun type, noun compounds.
Meanwhile, the classification of nouns types according to Curme (1947: 11-13) consists of two main types, which are common and proper nouns. Here, common nouns involve formless mass nouns, collective nouns, abstract nouns, and concrete nouns. Compound nouns are not classified as the nouns types but as one of the nouns forms.
The similarities on two English grammar books by Frank and Curme are that common nouns involve all other nouns types except proper nouns and that compounds nouns are treated as a form-based noun type.
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Meanwhile, the term compound nouns in accordance with Frank’s book (1972: 7) means “a group of words” (two or more) which “are joined together into one vocabulary unit that functions as a single part of speech. Likewise, Curme (1947: 12) defines compound nouns as “a group of two or more nouns that often forms a unit, a compound” in the case of both common and proper nouns.
Based on Frank (1972: 6-7), the definition of a concrete noun is “a word for a physical object that can be perceived by the senses”, while an abstract noun is “ a word for a concept”. Frank also defines a countable noun as a word that can be pluralized by the adding of -s, while a noncountable noun as a word that is not used in plural. Moreover, as suggested by Frank, a collective noun means “a word for a group of people, animals or objects considered as a single unit.
b. Forms
This section consists of the three main classifications of nouns forms based on Frank and Curme. The classification of nouns forms are inflectional, plural inflectional, possessive inflectional, and derivational nouns.
1) Inflectional
Based on Frank (1972: 12), nouns in many European languages may be inflected, that is, changed in form, for certain grammatical properties. Usually these changes are created through particular endings. Inflectional forms of nouns may show gender (e.g. maid-maiden, brother-sister), case (e.g. The teacher sits. The teachers sit.), and number (e.g. potato-potatoes, wife-wives).
2) Plural Inflectional
Frank (1972: 13) states that the general rule for writing the plural of English nouns can be done by simply adding -s to the singular form (e.g. girl-girls, grape-grapes).
3) Possessive Inflectional
Meanwhile, a singular noun can be changed to possessive form by the adding of -s (e.g. one girl's mother).
4) Derivational Nouns
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Besides, Curme (1947: 12) suggests that derivative nouns are similar to compound nouns in which they are formed by adding an adjective to a common or proper noun or a suffix to a verb. The suffixes are –ness, ship, -dom, -th, -er, -ing, -ess and also other endings such as –kin, -ling, -ette, -lett,
-ie, -y. The examples of the nouns are relationship, warmth, heiress,
kitchenette.
c. Markers
As explained by Frank (1972: 18-19), a marker is a structure word that signals the part of speech of a word following it. There are two markers that can be used to identify whether a word is a noun or not. The markers are determiners and prepositions.
1) Determiners
Frank states that there are five kinds of determiners. The determiners are articles that are divided into indefinite articles -a, -an (e.g. a pen, an employer) and definite articles the (e.g. the Earth), possessive a) (e.g. my lecturer, Mary's book), demonstratives (e.g. this research, those books), numbers (e.g. six representatives, the seventh convention), words of indefinite quantity a) (e.g. some farmers, more forests).
2) Prepositions
In addition, Frank also writes that descriptive adjectives may indicate the nouns that follow them (e.g. the beautiful dress, a long composition).
According to Close (1975: 107), typical nouns endings can also indicate a noun. They are er, or, ar, ant, ist, age, al, ance, ery, ment, sion, tion, -ure, -ence, -ity, -ness, and -th.
In addition, Quirk et al. (1972: 348) states that noun as a subject “occurs before the verb phrase in declarative clauses and after the operator in question clauses”. Noun as an object is usually place after the subject and the verb phrase, while noun as a complement written after the subject, verb phrase, and object.
2. Opinion Column in The Jakarta Post
MacDougal (1966: 16-18) wrote that “opinions are what we ‘think’ is true.” It can be said that every thought can develop into an opinion. In hence, someone can understand others’ by their idea that is developed onto utterances in an opinion. It is supported by MacDougal (1966: 20) that wrote “All rational thinking do not by any means come to the same conclusions, so opinions and public opinions will differ.” It indicates that even opinion from one person can be different with another, so it can also be different among public community.
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So, public opinion is related with people whom each of them is capable to express their idea by developing an opinion. And while MacDougal (1966: 29) claimed that “human understanding depends on the free flow, throughout the planet, of movies, radio, and the printed word.”, the researcher may say that opinions can be expressed through written media that are available to everyone publicly. In further, newspapers are the valuable example medium of expressing opinions.
Opinion as a free expression of thought by someone can be either different or even similar with each other. The variety of opinion can surely depend on certain issue that becomes controversy among a community. When the issue influences many communities or even all around the world, the opinion may also become so varied. It is also supported by MacDougal’s book, Understanding Public Opinion, which states “Something becomes a matter of public opinion when it is a subject of popular concern or controversy. If it relates to matters not of public concern, it is private, not public, opinion.” (MacDougal, 1966: 26) In relation with that quotation, any writer who intentionally corresponds his opinion to a newspaper, actually, publicizes his own opinion to all readers. Here, his opinion can be implied as a public opinion.
The discussion on opinion as a public article published in a newspaper is, then, compared with the other articles in that newspaper. The characteristic of opinion compared with other articles lies on the authority of the real writer to defend his authenticity of a text or composition. It means the more edited an opinion will be less authentic that opinion is. In journalism point of view, newspaper has right and obligation to report news for public. For such social phenomena, differences of opinion, of course, exist (MacDougal, 1966: vii). Therefore, a newspaperman or journalist cannot be expected to determine with absolute certainty whose analysis is correct. That is because an opinion page or rubric in the newspaper is needed and set to accommodate information that may come from anyone who desires to urge others to take an action with his personal reflection or opinion. So, opinion is not an action yet, but rather on supplying such personal understanding of a phenomenon as the first step to realistic approach to find the solution.
So, opinion column in a newspaper is provided by the editorial to be the place for anyone including the editor to share their opinion about some hot issues. It is also suggested that “Newspapers often have an editorial section that features the opinions of editors and, frequently in the same section of the newspaper, an Op-Ed page that features other opinions.” (www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4184)
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participation or action. One way one can express his opinion is through corresponding in opinion column in a newspaper. This opinion as a personal reflection, then, can function as persuasive action from someone to others to make the next action towards social phenomena being discussed.
3. Global Warming Topic
Topic is very important for the researcher in relation with the selection of opinions. Global Warming is strongly considered as one of the actual and factual issue that is still happening until the completion of this study. In fact, it also has become not only controversial subject but also full of responsibility concern for all people in the world.
In accordance with Global Warming topic, it can be defined as “an increase in the average temperature of the earth's atmosphere (especially a sustained increase that causes climatic changes).” (www.wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn) It is also important to define the definition of greenhouse effect that causes global warming. According to McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms (2003), greenhouse effect is “the effect created by the earth’s atmosphere in trapping heat from the sun; the atmosphere acts like a greenhouse.” So, it can be concluded that global warming is the raising of temperature or heat on earth that is caused by the effect of the trapped sun heat inside the earth’s atmosphere.
4. Related Sources
In order to generate a valid and reliable analysis of noun, the researcher uses two kinds of requisite references. The description will be on the source of English usage inside the books or dictionaries, the publication time, the content of them in relevance with the information needed for this research, and the organization of the contents to help the researcher find the valuable information easier.
a. English Grammar books
1) Modern English: A Practical Reference Guide written by Marcella Frank and
published by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
21
2) English Grammar written by George E. Curme and published by Barnes &
Noble, Inc.
This second grammar book is used to complete the classification of nouns. With the description of present usage and older usage of English, this book is considered to widely read and studied. The organization of content is more systematic and comprehensible than others. So, the researcher can understand the content easier. The description of nouns in this book involves the definition and classification of nouns. Besides, it also describes compound and derivative nouns in separate category.
b. Dictionaries
1) McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, written by
Mark D. Licker, et al and published by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. As suggested by its title, this dictionary contains vocabularies on scientific and technical terms. Meanwhile, Global Warming topic is considered to be related with technical term. Therefore, this dictionary is supposed to determine the right nouns that have relevancy with Global Warming topic. This dictionary is very important for the researcher to limit the choice of nouns to study.
(Licker, 2003: vii) So, as non-specialist reader, the researcher can easily choose the nouns by observing the fields that are related closely with Global Warming topic.
2) Collins-Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, written by John
Sinclair, et al and published by HarperCollins Publishers.
The second dictionary is also important to compare the frequency of the nouns found in the opinion articles and in the dictionary. This dictionary is based on a corpus, the Bank of English, which now contains around 400 million of words of English, most of which were spoken or written in the 1990s (Sinclair, 2001: ix). The more important thing is that besides providing information on definition, typical examples, pronunciation, grammar, semantics, and pragmatics, it also gives information on frequency to complete the entry.
23
According to Sinclair (2001: x|ii), there are some explanation on these 5 frequency bands. The complete explanations are restated as follows: a) 5 bands : Many of the words in 5 bands are the common grammar
words and very frequent vocabulary items. There are approximately 680 words in this band.
b) 4 bands : There are about 1040 words in this band.
The words in those two bands account for about 75% of all English usage. Therefore, their significance is apparent.
c) 3 bands : This band consists of approximately 1580 words. By knowing
the words in this band can widen the range of topics which we can talk about.
d) 2 bands : This band includes more advanced vocabulary and there are
about 3200 words in this band.
e) 1 band : There are around 8100 words in this band.
The last two bands contain words which we are likely to see less frequently than words in other bands, but which are still important.
B. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
readers. Thus, the writer should have precise use of words in order to have a good writing.
The study of precise use of words should begin with a study on parts of words, namely parts of speech. The study will be better started with the study of noun as one of the important parts of speech. Moreover, the researcher considers this study as the first study of common and compound nouns particularly in the opinion column of The Jakarta Post daily newspaper discussing the Global Warming topic. The opinion column is considered to be an appropriate public forum for any writer to express their persuasive writings about a popular topic.
In order to answer the first research problem, the researcher will use McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms (2003) to be the source to select the particular nouns based on the Global Warming topic. Then, to discover the frequency of the selected nouns, the researcher will implement the theories of frequency based on Collins-Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (2001). The classifications of the frequencies used in this study are based on the theories of frequency bands in the dictionary.
Afterwards, the researcher will apply the theories of nouns types in the two grammar books by Frank (1972) and Curme (1947) in order to address the second research problem. The theories of nouns types are about the classification and definition of nouns types namely common and compound nouns.
25
will only use the terms of nouns forms from the theories of plural inflectional noun form. The terms of nouns forms used in this study are singular and plural forms.
To answer the fourth problem of this study, the researcher will implement the theories of nouns markers by Frank (1972), Close (1975), and Quirk et al. (1972). In this study, the theories of nouns markers are based on the following indicators, determiners, prepositions, positions, and functions. The positions that mark the nouns are before verb phrase, after the subject and the verb phrase, after the subject, after the verb phrase, and after the object. Besides, the functions that can mark the nouns are as a subject, an object, a subject complement, an object complement, and a complement.
Table 2.1 will help to understand the theoretical framework easier.
Table 2.1 Conceptual Framework
References Theories Research Problem
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms (2003)
Vocabulary reference of scientific nouns according to Global Warming topic
1 The classification of nouns
according to their types 2 Curme
(1947) The classification of nouns
according to their forms 3 Close
The classification of nouns
26 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the researcher presents the research methodology to answer
the problems formulated in Chapter 1. This chapter discusses six sections. They
are the research method, research sources of data, research instruments, data
gathering technique, data analysis technique, and research procedure.
A. Research Method
This study is classified as a document analysis and was conducted by
using qualitative approach. According to Fraenkel and Wallen (1993: 380),
document analysis is carried out to obtain an in-depth look at a particular set of
materials. In this study, the document analysis was conducted by analysing the
data taken from the opinion articles of a newspaper.
Meanwhile, Fraenkel and Wallen (1993: 380-381) state that in qualitative
research, there is preference for holistic description of complex phenomena and
unwillingness to interfere with naturally occurring phenomena. The descriptive
data are not manipulated and the process of obtaining and observing the data are
the product of the research. Therefore, in this study, the data analysis was
obtained by conducting deep observation on the opinion articles to gain the deep
description or interpretation of the whole natural findings from the process to the
27
Otherwise, descriptive statistical data were only used for the data
presentation. In this study, the statistic data were the frequency of the nouns and
presented in the data presentation. This frequency was being described into
descriptive data in the data analysis.
B. Research Sources of Data
The sources of data were the two opinion articles about Global Warming
written in The Jakarta Post’s opinion column. The data were the selected nouns
taken from those two opinion articles. The selection of the research sources of
data were based on the topic, writer’s nationality, and publication date.
C. Research Instruments
According to Moleong (2006: 9), in qualitative research, the researcher is
considered to be the main instrument to analyze to data. The researcher as an
instrument is expected to have more capabilities to understand the correlation of
her data with its influence in the reality.
Furthermore, in qualitative research the process of analyzing the data is
more important than the result (Moleong, 2006: 11). It means that the researcher
will understand clearer the correlation of elements in the research during the
process of analyzing the data rather than only from the result.
As also suggested by Wiersma (1995: 218), qualitative research is
“researcher-dependent” and the researcher is the instrument for the data
makes decisions about what data to collect, whom to interview, and so on. In
other words, the researcher’s perspectives are influential for the whole data
interpretation.
The researcher as an instrument involved in the process of collecting the
data by conducting the selection of the nouns from the two opinion articles. The
list of all selected nouns of each opinion column was first being checked of its
occurrence in McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. All the
checked nouns were calculated of its frequency in each opinion article and
contrasted with the frequency in the Collins-Cobuild English Dictionary for
Advanced Learners.
Moreover, there were instruments to analyze the data. They were two
types of tables used in the data presentation. The first type of table presented the
frequency of the selected nouns, while the second type of table presented the
types, forms, and markers of the selected nouns. In the table of frequency, there
were three categories of frequency. They were Low (1-2 appearance), Medium
(3-4 appearance), and High Frequency (≥5 appearance).
D. Data Gathering Technique
The data used in this study were the selected nouns taken from the two
opinion articles. As derived from Wiersma (1995: 215), this study was conducted
by using the document collection technique to gather the data. In this study, this
technique was conducted through five main steps. They were conducting library
29
analysing the opinion articles, collecting the proper sources of data in from the
library, and collecting the selected nouns.
E. Data Analysis Technique
The gathered data were the selected nouns. These selected nouns were
presented in two types of tables. These two types of tables were derived from
Frank’s theories on nouns classification which consist of nouns types, nouns
forms, and nouns markers.
Table 3.1 was used to calculate the frequency of nouns in the opinion
articles and in the dictionary. Meanwhile, Table 3.2 was used to present the type,
form, and marker of nouns.
Table 3.1 Table of Noun Frequency
No. Word Frequency in
Dictionary
Table 3.2 Table of Noun Type, Form, and Marker
No. Word Type Form Marker
Then, the researcher conducted the next step of the data analysis which
was elaborating a detailed description on every writer characteristic in developing
analyzing the data essentially involves synthesizing the information that the
researcher obtains from the document analysis into a coherent description of what
has observed or discovered.
In this study, there were two opinion articles written by two different
writers. For each article, the frequency of a noun in the opinion articles was
compared with the frequency in the dictionary. The type, form, and marker of this
noun were classified based on the theories of nouns by Frank (1972) and Curme
(1947).
Then, the analysis of noun frequency, type, form, and marker in every
opinion article was compared each other. The result of the analysis was the result
of the comparison of noun frequency, type, form, and marker between those two
opinion articles.
For example, the noun ‘global warming’ was used by both Indonesian and
non-Indonesian writers. The Indonesian writer used this noun in low frequency
while the non-Indonesian writer used in medium frequency. To be compared in
the dictionary, this noun was having low frequency band that meant this noun was
not considered as a familiarly used noun. By this frequency comparison, it meant
that the non-Indonesian writer considered ‘global warming’ to be more frequently
written in his opinion article than the Indonesian writer did although it is included
as an unfamiliarly used noun in the dictionary. Thus, the researcher can imply
‘global warming’ as the important noun, the noun that was used in the opinion
article but had low frequency band in the dictionary. Then, the type, form, and
31
compiled with the analysis on the other nouns to be elaborated into detailed
information.
Overall, the result of classification, calculation, comparison, and
determination of nouns, then, was elaborated in a systematic explanation on the
nouns classification which consisted of nouns types, forms, and markers used by
the Indonesian and non-Indonesian writers.
F. Research Procedure
There were seven main steps to be conducted in this research. They were:
1. Searching The Jakarta Post newspapers (September 2007-October 2007)
The searching was conducted in two ways. They were searching for
the printed newspapers and for the online newspapers. The purpose was to
find any opinion articles entitled or related to Global Warming topic.
2. Collecting opinion articles about Global Warming
Since The Jakarta Post is a daily newspaper, opinion articles are also
issued every day. So, the researcher really took deep selection in order to
collect the opinion articles that really consisted of Global Warming idea.
3. Identifying and classifying the origin or nationality of the writers and the
publication date of the article
The opinion articles, then, were identified and classified by the author
or the writer into two main classes which were Indonesian and
Non-Indonesian writers and by the publication date which were September and
4. Selecting 1 Indonesian writer and 1 Non-Indonesian opinion articles
After selecting the opinion articles based on the topic, writer’s
nationality and publication date, then, the researcher could decide to choose
two appropriate opinion articles for this study.
5. Conducting the analysis on the two opinion articles
The analysis consisted of calculating the frequency, comparing it with
the dictionary and between two opinion articles, examining the structural
features (type, form, and marker) of nouns, and elaborating the description of
the data presentation into the nouns classification which consisted of nouns
types, forms, and markers used by the Indonesian and non-Indonesian writers.
In general, this five-step procedure could be represented by the Figure 3.1.
Figure 3.1 The Five-Step Research Procedure
Opinion column of The Jakarta Post
1 Indonesian and 1 non-Indonesian opinion articles
Analysis of the Data Global Warming
topic
Writer’s Origin
33
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter is divided into two main parts namely data presentation and
data analysis.
A. DATA PRESENTATION
In this study, the sources of data are the two opinion articles about Global
warming taken from The Jakarta Post daily newspapers issued in September and
October 2007. Meanwhile, the data are the selected nouns taken from those two
opinion articles.
The data presentation consists of tables that represent the frequency, type,
form, and marker of the selected nouns used by both the Indonesian writer and the
non-Indonesian writer in their opinion articles. There are two types of tables. The
first type of table represents the frequency of nouns in each opinion article and in
the comparison with the dictionary. The second type of table represents the type,
form, and marker of each opinion article.
The tables of frequency are divided into three groups. They are groups of
low, medium, and high frequency. The low frequency group is intended for nouns
which are used once (Frequency 1) or twice (Frequency 2). Nouns which are used
three (Frequency 3) or four (Frequency 4) times belong to the medium frequency
group. The high frequency group is intended for nouns that are used five times
Since the nouns in Frequency 1 have bigger quantity than the nouns in the
other frequencies, they are represented in a separate table. Consequently, the
nouns in Frequency 2 are presented in one same table with the Medium and High
Frequency group.
Along with the frequency table, there is a column which indicated the
frequency band based on the dictionary. There are five frequency bands based on
the dictionary. In addition, there are two distinctive marks to indicate nouns with
specific frequency in dictionary. Nouns with ‘x’ mark mean that they have no
frequency band, but still deserve an entry in the dictionary. Meanwhile, nouns
with ‘NO’ mark mean no such noun listed in the dictionary.
Data from the Indonesian writer is presented in the first section and the
Non-Indonesian writer is in the second section. In addition, all of the nouns are
presented in an alphabetical order so that they can be analyzed easily.
There is a difference in the length of the two opinion articles. The
Indonesian writer’s opinion article has a longer text with total number of 939
words while non-Indonesian writer’s opinion article has a text with total number
of 790 words. There are 149 words fewer in non-Indonesian opinion article. From
that 149-fewer-word, the researcher found 29 chosen nouns in the Indonesian
35
1. Indonesian Writer
The title of the opinion article : “RI Farmers Can Join Fight against Climate
Change” | October 22, 2007 by Tomohide Sugino.
a. Frequency
From 29 total nouns found in the Indonesian opinion article, there
are 24 nouns having Low Frequency, 4 nouns having Medium Frequency,
and 1 noun having High Frequency.
Table 4.1 The Frequency 1 Nouns used by the Indonesian Writer No. Noun Frequency
in Dictionary
1 afforestation x
2 air 5
10 photosynthesis x
11 plant 5
12 plants 5
13 power plants 1
14 reforestation x
15 sciences 4
16 technologies 4
17 water 5
The table shows 17 nouns with one-time appearance used in the opinion
article by the Indonesian writer. There are three nouns that do not get any
frequency band in the dictionary. They are afforestation, reforestation, and
different frequency. In contrast with the frequency in the opinion article which
supposed to have the low frequency, they get even the highest frequency in the
dictionary. They are air, lands, plant, plants,and water. Meanwhile, nouns such as sciences and technologies are also considered important in the dictionary with four bands. There is only climate that deserves three-band in the dictionary. The last two bands, two and one-band, are for conservation, ecosystem, ecosystems,
erosion, global warming, and power plants.
There are also other nouns found having Low Frequency. They are
presented in the table along with Medium and High Frequency nouns.
Table 4.2 The Frequency 2, 3, 4, and ≥ 5 Nouns used by the Indonesian
As confirmed in the dictionary there are two nouns that could not be
37
can be seen that only one noun that deserved five-band in the dictionary. This
band is for land. Meanwhile, the noun with frequency two in the opinion article,
trees, deserves to get four bands. Surprisingly, most of the other nouns just get three-band such as atmosphere, forest, forests, while carbon has very high frequency in the opinion article with 34 occurrences. Moreover, nouns which have
low frequency in the dictionary are nitrogen, CO2, emission, and farmland. From Table 4.1 and Table 4.2, it can be concluded that nouns with ‘NO’
and ‘x’ mark or less than three-band in the dictionary are considered important. It
is because such nouns like afforestation, biomass, climate change, CO2,
emission, conservation, ecosystem, ecosystems, erosion, farmland, global warming, nitrogen, photosynthesis, power plants, and reforestation can be considered to be the specific terms related to Global Warming that are used by the
Indonesian writer.
These nouns have low frequency band in the dictionary so they are
considered not familiar or not usually used in the common texts. However, the
Indonesian writer used these nouns in his opinion article about Global Warming.
In other words, the Indonesian writer took into consideration on these nouns to be
the frequently used in the opinion article about Global Warming. The Indonesian
b. Type, Form, and Marker
From total 29 nouns in Indonesian opinion article, there are 18
common nouns, 6 compound nouns, and 5 collective nouns.
Table 4.3 The Type, Form, and Marker of Frequency 1 Nouns used by the Indonesian Writer
singular before the verb (as a subject)
common abstract 2 air
uncountable
singular determiner (the)
common abstract 3 climate
uncountable
singular after the verb phrase (as a complement)
common abstract 4 conservation
uncountable
singular determiner (neither)
collective abstract 5 ecosystem
countable
singular determiner (the)
collective abstract 6 ecosystems
countable
plural preposition (of)
common abstract 7 erosion
uncountable
singular after the object (as an object
singular after the object (as an object
plural determiner (the)
compound abstract 10 photosynthesis
uncountable
singular preposition (through)
common concrete 11 plant
countable
singular preposition (of)
common concrete 12 plants
countable
39
plural preposition (from)
common abstract 14 reforestation
uncountable
singular before the verb (as a subject)
common abstract 15 sciences
countable
plural preposition (for)
common abstract 16 technologies
countable
plural preposition (with)
common concrete 17 water
uncountable
singular preposition (of)
Table 4.3 shows, from 17 nouns in Frequency 1, there are 12 common
nouns, 3 compound nouns, and 2 collective nouns. The common nouns are
afforestation, air, climate, conservation, erosion, lands, plant, plants, reforestation, sciences, technologies, and water. The compound nouns are
global warming, photosynthesis, and power plants. The collective nouns are
ecosystem and ecosystems. Meanwhile, from the form, there are 12 singular nouns and 5 plural nouns. Furthermore, from the marker, the researcher found 2
Table 4.4 The Type, Form, and Marker of Frequency 2 Nouns used by the
singular determiner (the)
common abstract 2 atmosphere
uncountable
singular determiner (the)
collective abstract 3 biomass
uncountable
singular determiner (the)
collective abstract 4 biomass
uncountable
singular determiner (the)
collective abstract 5 forest
countable
singular after the subject and the verb phrase
singular determiner (neither)
collective abstract 7 forests
countable
plural before the verb (as a subject)
collective abstract 8 forests
countable
plural determiner (the)
common concrete 9 land
uncountable
singular after the subject and the verb phrase
singular preposition (of)
common abstract 11 nitrogen
uncountable
singular determiner (the)
common abstract 12 nitrogen
uncountable
singular preposition (of)
common concrete 13 trees
countable
plural determiner (the)
common concrete 14 trees
countable
41
Table 4.4 shows 7 nouns that occur twice in the opinion article so there
are 14 total nouns analyzed based on different sentences. Most of them have
similarities in type and form, but not in the marker. From those 7 nouns, there are
4 common nouns (atmosphere, land, nitrogen, and trees), 3 collective nouns (biomass, forest, and forests), and no compound noun. 5 nouns are considered singular and 2 nouns are plural. Otherwise, from 14 nouns, there is no new
determiner or preposition found in Table 4.4. Moreover, there are nouns
positioned after verb (as an object).
Table 4.5 The Type, Form, and Marker of Frequency 3 Nouns used by the Indonesian Writer
singular preposition (to)
compound abstract 2 climate change
uncountable
singular after the verb phrase (as a complement)
compound abstract 3 climate change
uncountable
singular preposition (on)
common abstract 4 emission
uncountable
singular preposition (of)
common abstract 5 emission
uncountable
singular preposition (of)
common abstract 6 emission
uncountable
singular after the subject and the verb phrase (as an object)
Table 4.6 The Type, Form, and Marker of Frequency 4 Nouns used by the
singular before the verb (as a subject)
compound abstract 2 CO2
uncountable
singular after the object (as an object
singular after the verb phrase (as a complement)
compound abstract 4 CO2
uncountable
singular after the verb phrase (as a complement)
compound concrete 5 farmland
uncountable
singular before the verb (as a subject)
compound concrete 6 farmland
uncountable
singular preposition (of)
compound concrete 7 farmland
uncountable
singular preposition (of)
compound concrete 8 farmland
uncountable
singular determiner (their)
From Table 4.6, it shows that CO2 and farmland are found 4 times in the opinion article. These nouns are compound nouns and in singular form. In
43
Table 4.7 The Type, Form, and Marker of Frequency ≥5 Nouns used by the non-Indonesian Writer
singular before the verb (as a subject)
common abstract 2 carbon
uncountable
singular preposition (of)
common abstract 3 carbon
uncountable
singular determiner (these)
common abstract 4 carbon
uncountable
singular preposition (of)
common abstract 5 carbon
uncountable
singular preposition (of)
common abstract 6 carbon
uncountable
singular before the verb (as a subject)
common abstract 7 carbon
uncountable
singular preposition (as)
common abstract 8 carbon
uncountable
singular determiner (a)
common abstract 9 carbon
uncountable
singular before the verb (as a subject)
common abstract 10 carbon
uncountable
singular determiner (a)
common abstract 11 carbon
uncountable
singular preposition (of)
common abstract 12 carbon
uncountable
singular preposition (as)
common abstract 13 carbon
uncountable
singular determiner (a)
common abstract 14 carbon
uncountable
No. Noun Type Form Marker
common abstract 15 carbon
uncountable
singular determiner (a)
common abstract 16 carbon
uncountable
singular after the subject and the verb phrase
singular determiner (a)
common abstract 18 carbon
uncountable
singular before the verb (as a subject)
common abstract 19 carbon
uncountable
singular preposition (down)
common abstract 20 carbon
uncountable
singular before the verb (as a subject)
common abstract 21 carbon
uncountable
singular after the subject (as a subject
singular preposition (to)
common abstract 23 carbon
uncountable
singular determiner (more)
common abstract 24 carbon
uncountable
singular determiner (an)
common abstract 25 carbon
uncountable
singular preposition (of)
common abstract 26 carbon
uncountable
singular preposition (of)
common abstract 27 carbon
uncountable
singular after the verb phrase (as a complement)
common abstract 28 carbon
uncountable
45
singular preposition (of)
common abstract 30 carbon
uncountable
singular determiner (the)
common abstract 31 carbon
uncountable
singular preposition (of)
common abstract 32 carbon
uncountable
singular preposition (of)
common abstract 33 carbon
uncountable
singular preposition (to)
common abstract 34 carbon
uncountable
singular determiner (neither)
Table 4.7 shows us new determiners found in the non-Indonesian opinion
article. They are these, a, more, and an. There are also two new prepositions found in this frequency. They are as and down. Meanwhile, here, the researcher can find noun marked after subject (as a subject complement).
From all data presentation above, the researcher takes a deep analysis on
nouns with frequency band below 2 in the dictionary. These nouns are considered
to be unfamiliar to be used in common texts but important in a text with such
topic like Global Warming. It is because although, the writer knew that the noun
is unusual, he kept writing such noun to indicate that his writing is a specific text
with specific topic. Furthermore, the researcher continues to emphasize more on
these nouns. The nouns that are found in frequency band two and less but found in
CO2, emission, ecosystem, ecosystems, erosion, farmland, global warming,
nitrogen, photosynthesis,power plants,and reforestation.
There are total 15 important nouns found in the Indonesian opinion article.
From this number, there are 6 common nouns (afforestation, conservation, emission, erosion, nitrogen, reforestation), 6 compound nouns (climate change, CO2, farmland, global warming, photosynthesis, power plants,), and 3 collective nouns (ecosystem, ecosystems, biomass).
2. NON-INDONESIAN WRITER
The title of the opinion article : “What the Big 16 Emitters Can Do on Global
Warming” | September 27, 2007 by Michael Richardson.
a. Frequency
From 23 total nouns found in the non-Indonesian opinion article,
there are 18 nouns having Low Frequency, 4 nouns having Medium
Frequency, and 1 noun having High Frequency.
47
No. Noun Frequency in
Dictionary
12 technologies 4
13 weather 4
The table shows 13 nouns with 1 time appearance. The nouns like Earth,
gases, ice, science, technology, technologies, and weather have 4 bands in the dictionary. One noun with 2 bands is for emission and one noun with no entry in the dictionary is for emitters. The rest of the nouns such as fossil fuels, glaciers,
power plants, and sea levels have 1 band in the dictionary.
As presented in the Indonesian writer section, there are also other nouns
found to have Low Frequency and presented in the following table along with
Medium and High Frequency nouns.