GRAMMATICAL INTRICACY IN NOVELS
THE COLOR PURPLE AND WHERE SHE WENT
A THESIS
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of Magister Humaniora
By:
MARIANA NATALIA SIBURIAN Registration Number: 8126111020
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
ABSTRACT
ABSTRAK
Mariana Natalia Siburian. NIM: 8126111020. Grammatical Intricacy in Novels The Color Purple And Where She Went. Tesis. Linguistik Terapan Bahasa Inggris. Sekolah Pascasarjana Universitas Negeri Medan (UNIMED) 2015.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to God, the Lord of the universe who has given me the opportunity to accomplish this thesis. Thanks so much my dear God. It is also impossible to be accomplished without guidance, support and valuable knowledge from many people whose names cannot be mentioned all.
First, the writer would like to express her sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd as her first adviser and Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd as her second adviser, for their valuable advice, guidance, constructive comments and previous time spent on supervising and commenting the process of writing until it comes to its present form. Second her special gratitude goes to the head of English applied linguistics, Dr. Rahmad Husein, M.Ed who has generously encouraged her in completing this study, all lecturers, for her valuable knowledge and instruction they have implemented to her during the years studying and librarians of the State University of Medan for leading some useful books and other sources that are needed in writing this thesis.
The writer also would like to sincerely thank to anonymous participants who contributed suggestions, critics and advises to this study. My deepest gratitude goes to Prof. Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S , Dr. Zainuddin, M.Hum , Dr. Didik Santoso, M.Pd , without their excellent academic guidance and support, this thesis would not have been possible.
Simatupang, Pdt. Dont Lastaria Simatupang, S.Th, and Tikno Simatupang for their full love, support, care and prayers. The writer would like to say that this thesis is a special gift to her mom in Heaven who passed way on August,2015. Mom, I do love you, I do miss you, and this is for you. It’s all because of your love. And also, her gratitude goes to her aunt and uncle, Herta Fransiska Purba and Jonggi Situmorang for their love and support to me.
Finally, a special debt of gratitude is addressed to all her beloved best friends especially Idawati Situmorang, S.S, M.Si for her unconditional love, care, support for the writers. She is my beloved friend. She always encourages the writer in all things. All her classmates LTBI A1, moreover Roikestina Silaban, S.S, M.Hum, Halimah M.Hum, Ricky Barus, S.Pd, Fenny Sormin, Irma, Rosi, Adinda, Kak Yulita, Kak Neny, Sir Giat GLC, Kak Anne, Nelly, Dortama, and many others for their close friendship and encouragement in finishing this thesis. For her special man, her future husband, Budiman Raden Barita Silalahi, S.E, for his unlimited love and time, so the writer could finish her thesis.
Last but not least, she must confess that she has done her most to accomplish this thesis but she realized it is still far from being perfect. Therefore, any constructive, criticisms, suggestions or comments will be highly appreciated.
Medan, 11 February 2016 The writer
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.5The Significance of the Study ………... 7
CHA
PTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE ………
.
………
... 8
2.1 Theoretical Framework………..………..…..8
2.1.1 Grammatical Intricacy. ……….…………..………...…..8
2.1.2 Clause Complexes..………..……….….11
2.1.3 Embedded and Non Embedded Clauses……..……….…..16
3.3The Instrument of Data Collection.. ……….31
3.4 The Technique of Data Collection ………..………….31
3.5 The Technique of Data Analysis ………..………..………..….32
3.6 The Trustworthiness………...33
CHAPTER IV DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS, AND
DISCUSS
ION………36
4.1 Data Analysis……….…….….………36
4.2 Findings ………..……….…..…..50 4.3 Discussion……….……….……..…………50
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS...
…………54
5.1 Conclusions………..………54
5.2 Suggestions………..………54
REFERENCES
………
.
………
.
…
.
……
..55
APPEND
IX 1.………
.
………..
.58
APPEN
DIX 2………
.
………....66
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1The Background of the Study
Language is the human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of
communication. It is needed to help people communicate each other. It enables
people to exchange knowledge, beliefs, opinions, wishes, threats, commands, thanks,
promises, declarations, feelings and many others. English, as one of the languages in
the world, is one of the most important languages which should be known by people.
It is acknowledged that learning at least one foreign language is a must. English is the
most spoken one all around the world. Therefore, English is taught in Indonesia even
though its status is as foreign language. In addition, due to its important function,
most of the jobs requirement now is being able to communicate in English. Many
schools now are applying English as a tool of communication in the classroom.
Therefore, it is a must to know English whether in spoken or written form.
Written discourse is more structurally complex and more elaborate than
spoken discourse. In other words, sentence in spoken discourse is short and simple,
whereas it is longer and more complex in written discourse. Both spoken and written
discourses have relation to grammatical intricacy which is the focus of this research.
Halliday argues that spoken discourse is not less organized. He claims that
spoken discourse has its own kind of complexity. In spoken, discourses are long and
The topic of grammatical intricacy (GI) is quiet interesting and important to
be analyzed because it deals with the way people understand a text especially text
which consists of many complex clauses. While reading an English text, sometimes
people find it so hard to understand its content. Written text deals with grammatical
intricacy. Grammatical intricacy refers to how often clause complexes appear in a text
in comparison with simple clauses. Grammatical intricacy also refers to the number
and depth of clause in a text. The grammatical intricacy in the text influences the way
people analyzing a text. Eggins (2004: 255) defines clause complexes as a
grammatical and semantic unit formed when two or more clauses are linked together
in certain systematic and meaningful way. So it can be said that the existence of
intricacy in a text arises when the amount of clause complexes is more than simple
clauses.
The difficulties increase especially when the readers want to process complex
clauses than simple ones. Complex clause is the reflection of intricacy as defined by
transformational grammar (Slobin, 1979: 5).
Related to the simplicity of a novel, it is true that people will find it easier to
understand novel with simple clauses than that with complex clauses. Long sentence
in a novel can make people who read it get bored and this also can influence reader to
stop reading that novel. Although, there is a time when complex clauses should be
inserted in a novel in order to investigate an idea more thoroughly, give vivid
description, and develop tension. So, novelists have to consider their target readers in
The novels which were analyzed in this thesis come from different time. First
is The Color Purple by Alice Walker in 1982 and second is Where She Went by
Gayle Forman in 2011. The researcher already had these two novels. When the
researcher was reading these two novels at glance, she was eager to know why these
novels were written in different type. There are some examples which show that in
novel The Color Purple can be found many simple clauses.
Example of simple clause:
“She cuss at me. I’m big. He took it. I don’t have nothing. She scared. I felt
sorry for mama. I don’t bleed no more. He twelve. They scream”
The sentences of She cuss at me, I’m big, and He took it have only one clause
in each sentence. They consist of one subject and one predicate/adjective. These
sentences are quite easy to be understood. So, this is the preliminary observation of
novel The Color Purple. It can be assumed that whoever reads this novel, will find it
easier to understand the content of the novel.
There are also some examples which show that in novel Where She Went can
be found many complex clauses. Example of complex clause:
“This morning, after my daily prodding, I glance at the minimalist digital
clock on the hotel nightstand. I finish my coffee, get dressed, and make my way down
the service elevator and out the side entrance- the guest-relations manager has kindly
provided me with special access keys so I can avoid the scenester parade in the
lobby. I was supposed to be on the same flight as them until I realized that today was
The sentence I was supposed to be on the same flight as them until I realized
that today was Friday the thirteenth, and I was like no fucking way! has four clauses.
This sentence is quite long. This is the preliminary observation of novel Where She
Went. It can be assumed that whoever reads this novel, will find it difficult to
understand the content of the novel.
After making a simple preliminary observation, the researcher made an
assumption towards the two novels. The first novel, The Color Purple, consists of
many simple clauses. It was written by Alice Walker. Since this novel tells about the
life of Black American, maybe this is the reason of Alice to compose many simple
sentences in this novel. Maybe, she wants to represent the way Black American speak
and write sentences at that time, in which, most of them were uneducated yet. It is
different with the second novel, Where She Went. Gayle Forman tells about the love
story of the ‘today adult’. So, since she wants to describe the love story which
happens today, in this modern era, then the researcher assumes that this is the reason
of Gayle made her novel by composing many complex clauses.
This research was done by thinking over some steps; they are observation,
questioning, exploring, association, and communication. In observation, the
researcher decided to focus on grammatical intricacy of the two novels. The
researcher decided to analyze the two novels because the researcher saw different
type of writing especially about making clauses in sentences. In questioning, the
researcher decided to make three research problems to be solved. The three problems
should be solved well in order to get rich answer. In exploring, the researcher decided
relates the sentences to the subordinate clause in it. In communication, the researcher
knew which novel has low and high level of grammatical intricacy.
Finally, the researcher analyzed the grammatical intricacy of the two novels.
Knowing about grammatical intricacy is important to know whether that novel is a
good novel to read or not by considering the level of intricacy and the target readers
of the novels. It is important to know the grammatical intricacy of a novel in its
relation to how a book should be designed and how sentences should be composed.
By learning grammatical intricacy, it helps readers to find easy way to comprehend a
novel as a whole. Grammatical intricacy leads readers to know clause by clause in
novel sentences which helps readers to follow the novel story. Next, the researcher
also wants to know the meaning of index grammatical intricacy in the two novels.
And the last, the researcher wants to know the importance of analyzing grammatical
intricacy.
1.2The Problems of the Study
In accordance with the background of the study, the problems of the study
were formulated as follows.
1. How does the Grammatical Intricacy occur in novels The Color Purple and
Where She Went?
2. What can be inferred from the Grammatical Intricacy Index (GII) of the two
novels?
1.3The Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the study were described as follows.
1. To investigate the way Grammatical Intricacy occurs in novels The Color
Purple and Where She Went.
2. To know what can be inferred from the Grammatical Intricacy Index (GII) of
the two novels.
3. To know the reason why grammatical intricacy is important to be analyzed.
1.4The Scope of the Study
This study analyzes the text in novels The Color Purple and Where She Went.
This study will only focus on the grammatical intricacy of the text, that is by knowing
the type of clauses used in the two novels and the GII (Grammatical Intricacy Index)
of the two novels. And according to the purpose of the study, knowing the
grammatical intricacy of the two novels, the researcher will only choose some
chapters from the two novels randomly, not the whole chapters, because the
researcher is not going to know the story of the novels. Some chapters which will be
chosen from the two novels are enough to represent the using of clauses in the two
novels. Moreover, in qualitative, it is not the case of the amount of samples to be
shown, but as long as some samples which have been shown can answer the research
1.5 The Significances of the Study
The findings of this study are expected to be useful theoretically and
practically. Theoretically, Grammatical Intricacy (GI) refers to the complexity of
sentence patterns that are employed in the text. A compound complex sentence is
more difficult to understand than simple clauses in its grammatical intricacy. It is
hopefully to be a source to help next researcher who wants to investigate the
grammatical intricacy. In this research, the index of grammatical intricacy is also
discussed along with the meaning of different index of grammatical intricacy of each
chapters.
Practically, the findings are expected to be useful for:
1. Novel writers, to consider their simple and common language in novel so
readers can get the message of novel easier.
2. Students of English literature, to learn more about grammatical intricacy in
order to enable them understand a text with the high level of grammatical
intricacy.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
After analyzing the data in novel The Color Purple and Where She Went so far, the researcher draws the conclusions as follows:
1. The Grammatical Intricacy Index ( GII ) in novel The Color Purple is lower than the grammatical intricacy index ( GII ) in novel Where She Went.
2. In novel Where She Went, chapter 4 has the highest GII and in novel The Color Purple, letter 16 has the lowest GII.
3. Grammatical intricacy is important to define the information contained because the more grammatical intricacy index, the more informative the novel is.
5.2 Suggestions
With reference to the conclusions, suggestions are formed as follows:
1. It is suggested for lecturers teaching English, that this study can be conducted and elaborated more in the class.
2. It is suggested for writers to consider their language and their way in composing sentences in order to make readers understand and enjoy their works.
3. It is suggested for other researchers who want to analyze about grammatical intricacy, to make further research about this.
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