1
1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of Study
Language is a medium of communication. It is an important thing in
human life, since without language, we cannot make interaction. By using
language someone could make statements, explain or report something and keep
social relations among the other person. Many ways are used to report something
such as by radio, television, newspaper and magazine. Language in magazine is
called journalism language. According to Anwar (1991:1), “Bahasa pers adalah
salah satu ragam bahasa yang memiliki sifat-sifat khas yaitu: singkat, padat,
sederhana, lancar, jelas, lugas, dan menarik. Bahasa Jurnalistik harus
didasarkan pada bahasa baku”. ( The language of the press is one of variety of
languages that have specific characteristic: short, dense, smooth, clear, simple,
straightforward, and interesting. The language of journalism must be established
on a standard language).
So, to make good sentences in magazine which are established on a
standard language, the grammar is needed. Grammar (Hancock, 2005:6) is the
natural, inherent, meaning making system of the language, and a system that
governs the ways word come together to form meanings. Grammar is also the
study of that system, the various theories or perspectives that attempt to
understand and describe it.
According to Frank (1990:1), “Traditionally, word can be classified into
eight parts of speech such as noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, conjunction,
preposition, and interjection”.
2
Conjunction as one of the parts of speech is very important in
writing, because it is used to join words, phrases or clauses. It is divided into two
types: coordinating and subordinating conjunction. The coordinate conjunctions
(Woods, 2010:61) give equal emphasis to the elements they join (for, but, yet, so,
nor, and, and or).
Woods (2010:64) says, “The conjunctions joining independent
clause and subordinate clause give some information about the relationship
between the two ideas are called subordinate conjunctions. They are while,
because, although, since, when, where, if, whether, before, until, than, as, as if, in
order that, so that, whenever, and wherever.”
Conjunctions are used dominantly in Reader’s Digest Magazine.
Reader’s Digest Magazine is one of the English magazines in Indonesia which is
published monthly. Reader’s Digest magazine contains of various articles, such as
advertisement, adventure, humor, healthy, kitchen, and animals. In this magazine,
the writer chooses article about adventure because in this article the writer finds
out a lot of conjunctions used. For examples:
1. Ben and Jildou in no rush to return to Australia after their year-long teaching
contract ended.
2. Jim, an Australian geologist who discovered the human ancestor Mungo man
and Mungo woman in New Shout Wales.
3. I learned that charity is a pillar of Islam.
4. Men of all ages would stay in temple for a few days or even months.
5. We couldn’t have been treated any better if we were royalty.
3
From the sentences above, the coordinating conjunctions are “and” used
to join the compound subjects and the two objects phrases in sentence (1) and (2),
“or” used to join two objects phrases in sentence (4). While the subordinating
conjunctions are “after” used to combine two clauses in sentence (1), “who” used
to link independent clause and dependent clause in sentence (2). “that” used to
join two clauses in sentence (3), and “if” used to combine two clauses in sentence
(5).
Based on the above explanation, the writer is interested in analyzing the
conjunction used in Reader’s Digest magazine that is published in March 2013 as
the data source in this study. Besides, sentences (Wishon and Burks, 1980:134)
that are related to each other in meaning may be combined by using connectors
that indicate the relationship between two sentences.
1.2 Problem of the Study
The problems of this study are:
1. What types of conjunction are found in the article “The Faith Dealer”?
2. What type of conjunction is dominantly used in the article “The Faith Dealer”?
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The purposes of the study are:
1. To find out the types of conjunction used in the article “The Faith Dealer”.
2. To find out the dominant type of conjunctions used in the article “ The Faith
Dealer”.
4 1.4 Scope of Study
This study is focused on conjunctions, especially coordinating
conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions used in the Reader’s Digest’s article
“The Faith Dealer”.
1.5 Significance of the Study
There are some significance of the study. Theoretically it will enrich
knowledge in analyzing the grammar, especially the conjunctions. Practically it
will be a reference for the next research who is interested in analyzing the
conjunctions.
