EXPERIENTIAL FUNCTION IN MICROECONOMICS TEXTS
OF DIFFERENT GENRE
A THESIS
Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan
By:
CHOMS GARY GANDA TUA SIBARANI
Registration Number: 208121036
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
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ABSTRACT
Sibarani, Choms, G. GT. 208121036. Experiential Functions in Microeconomics Texts of Different Genre.A Thesis, English Departement, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan 2015.
This study was intended to describe the types and the ways how experiential functions are used in Microeconomics texts of different genre. For this purpose, economic texts Microeconomics and Financial Accounting Theory were taken as the sources of the data. To achieve the first goal, 270 clauses were randomly taken from the Microeconomics texts and 250 clauses from the Financial Accounting material, behavioral, verbal, mental and existential processes were used in the microeconomic texts, but only five of them were used in the Financial Accounting Theory; existential process was not used; (2) both of the narrative and descriptive paragraphs of the two economic texts use experiential functions in three ways. Firstly, what to describe and/or what to narrate were taken into account, secondly, the result of this account was used to select the types of experiential functions appropriate to accommodate the intention and finally the selected type of the experiential functions was used in the first clause of the paragraphs to initiate the narration or description. Based on these results, it was concluded that (1) Microeconomics and Financial Accounting Theory may not be considered as two different social genre since they use almost the same types of experiential functions considered to be one of the lexicogrammar aspects regarded as one of the distinctive features of different social genre; (2) there is no difference between narration and description of the two texts in the ways how the experiential Economics, and (3) further researches focusing on different discoursal aspects are suggested.
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A. Systemic Functional Linguistics……… 9
B. Experiential Function ……… 8
b. Underlying Reason of Using Types of Experiential Function in Narrative and Descriptive Text of Different Types……….. 24
D. Microeconomics Text ……….. 26
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CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ………... 32
A. Research Design ……….. 32
B. Data and Data Sources ………. 32
C. Data Collection ……… 33
D. Data Analysis ……….. 34
CHAPTER IV: THE DATA AND RESEARCH FINDINGS………. 35
A. Data Analysis ………... 35
1. Types of Experiential Function in Microeconomics Texts……….. 35
B. The Ways of Using Experiential Functions in Microeconomics and Financial Accountings Texts Of Different Genres ………. 43
1. Ways of Using Experiential Functions in Narrative Paragraphs of Financial Accounting Theory and Microeconomics and Texts ……… 44
2. Ways of Using Experiential Functions in Descriptive Paragraphs of Financial Accounting Theory and Microeconomics and Texts ……… 54
C. Research Findings ………. 63
D. Discussion ………. 64
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS……….. 68
A. Conclusion ………. 68
B. Suggestion ………. 69
REFERENCES……….. 71
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LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 2.1 Martin’s Model of Language (1992)………. 9
Table 2.2 Participants in Experiential Function ………. 11
Table 2.3 Circumstances in Experiential Function ………. 14
Table 4.1 Occurrences of Experiential Types on Descriptive
Microeconomics and Financial Accounting Texts ……….. 43
Table 4.2 The ways of Using Experiential Function Types in Relational
Process Initiated Narrative Paragraphs ……….. 48
Table 4.3 Comparison of the Use of Experiential Functions in Behavioral
Process Initiated Paragraphs ………... 51
Table 4.4 Experiential Function Used in the First Clause of Narrative
Paragraph as Narration Initiation ………... 53
Table 4.5 The Uses of Experiential Function Types in Descriptive
Paragraphs of The Financial Accounting Theory and
Microeconomics Texts ………... 60
Table 4.6 Experiential Function Used in the First Clause of Descriptive
Paragraphs of The Financial Accounting Theory and
Microeconomics Texts ………... 61
Table 4.7 Experiential Functions Used in the First Clause of
Narrative and Descriptive Paragraphs of the Financial
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LIST OF PICTURES
Page
Picture 2.1 Freytag’s Pyramid. Parts of Story in Narrative Text ………… 18
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Page
APPENDIX A The identification of Experiential Functions in the Clauses
Of Foundation of Microeconomics Textbook ……….73
APPENDIX B The identification of Experiential Functions in the Clauses
Of Financial Accounting Theory Textbook ………... 94
APPENDIX C Texts of Foundations of Microeconomics Textbook ……. 117
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Genre is defined as language use in conventionalized communicative
setting in order to achieve communicative goals of a disciplinary or social
institutions, which give rise to a stable structure forms by imposing constrains on
the use of lexico-grammatical and discourse resources (Bhatia, 2014:27). This
definition according to Bruce (2008) matches with one of the two types of genre
he put forwarded, namely social genre. According to Bruce (2008) personal
letters, novels, academic articles, etc belong to this social genre. The other type of
genre put forwarded by Bruce (2008) is cognitive genre, that is defined as overall
cognitive orientation of a piece of writing in terms of its realization on particular
rhetorical purpose, and narrative, expository, descriptive, argumentative, etc.
belong to this type of genre. These two types of genre occur at the same time in a
text. Scientific report that is classified as social genre for example, may have a
range of cognitive genres, such as descriptive, argumentative, and expository, etc.
This happens because a text may have more than one rhetorical purpose.
Based on the two theories put forwarded by both Bruce (2008) and
Bhatia (2014), texts discussing microeconomics, which belongs to the field of
economy (Besanko, 2014), is classified as social genre in which one or two types
of cognitive genre, like narration, description, etc. may be found.
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In his further elaboration of genre, Bhatia (2014) stated that genre is not
static, but dynamic. The rhetorical structures of genre may be manipulated
according to the condition of its use. Such manipulation causes minor change of
the genre rhetorical structure that may be needed by a text writer to convey his
private intention. For this purpose, a writer may exploit the generic resources such
as lexico-grammatical and discourse forms.
In responding to the theory that genre is not static but dynamic, many
researches have been conducted with the topic of genre in economy or in its
subtopics as social genre. Garces (1996) conducted a research on English
economics texts. The research was intended to find out if the economics text
writer’s cultural background affects the genre of economics text. In other words
Graces (1996) wanted to see if there was a change in economics genre caused by
the different cultural background of its writers. To achieve this goal, Graces
(1996) collected texts of economics written in English by English writers and
those written in English by Spanish writers. These writers were chosen to ensure
that the cultural backgrounds had been included in the research. Texts of these
articles were analyzed from the perspectives of the metatexts the articles used.
The results of the research showed that there was a variation of the use of the
metatexts in the economics articles that was caused by the cultural differences of
the writers. Santos (2002) did a research on business letters of negation. This
research was meant to find out if the theory proposed by Swales (1990) saying
that members of specific discourse community shared the same generic structure
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there are similarities in terms of generic structure among writers of business
letters of negotiation. To achieve this purpose Santos (2002) collected 117
consisting of letters of business negotiation written by Brazilian writer from
Brazilian companies sent by fax to European companies and of letters of business
negotiation written by European writers from European companies faxed to
Brazilian companies. These letters were analyzed and found out that there were
similarities in terms of generic structure among the business letters writers. These
similarities were proved by the evidence that all writers use the same four moves,
they are (1) establishing negotiation chain, (2) providing information or answer,
(3) requesting information, action, or favor and (4) ending. In each of the four
moves, all the writers also show the same steps they went through. Flowerdew
(2010) conducted a research on the texts of company audit report. The purpose of
this research was to find out how the schematic structure and linguistic patterns
were used in the genre to realize the communicative purpose of the genre. For this
purpose, Flowerdew (2010) collected 25 authentic auditors’ reports that were
produced for the public and private company directors. These reports were
analyzed from the perspective of the structure move the reports used. The results
of the data analysis showed that the texts of company audit reports for both public
and private companies used five moves with the same structure. The five moves
were (1) heading with no opening salutation, (2) summary of credible action
taken, (3) address of responsibilities, (4) statement of opinion consisting of
unqualified opinion, or qualified opinion, or disclaimer, or adverse opinion, and
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grammar as stated by Bhatia (2014). This theory leads to the idea that the generic
structure of microeconomics may be different from that of macro economic from
the perspective of the lexes they use. Lexes or vocabulary consist of many types
of words and experiential function, according to Morley (2003) is verb
classification used express process. In line with the above argument,
microeconomic generic structure may be different from other subtopics of
economy, such as macroeconomics, audit report, etc in terms of experiential
functions they used.
There are some data’s about descriptive in textbooks of Microeconomics,
for example: Our inability to satisfy all our wants is called scarcity. The ability of
each of us to satisfy our wants is limited by the time we have, the incomes we
earn, and the prices we pay for the things we buy. These limits mean that
everyone has unsatisfied wants. The ability of all of us as a society to satisfy our
wants is limited by the productive resources that exist. These resources include
the gifts of nature, our labor and ingenuity, and the tools and equipment that we
have made. And also There are some data’s about narrative in textbooks of
Financial Accounting Theory, for example: Accounting has a long history. The
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in 1494, authored by Luca paciolo, an Italian monk/mathematician. Paciolo did
not invent this system, it had developed over a long period of time. Segments
that developed first included, for example, the collection of an account receivable
"Both sides" of such a transaction that were easy to see.
To find the empirical evidences to see how this theory occurs in the
other subtopic of economy, which is in the case the sub topic of microeconomics,
this research will be conducted from the perspective of its
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B. The Problem of the Study
The problems of the study are formulated as follows
1. What experiential functions are used in microeconomic texts of different
genre?
2. How are experiential functions used in the microeconomics text of different
genre?
C. The Objective of the Study
Related to the problems stated above, this study is intended to describe
1. Types of experiential functions used in microeconomics texts of different
genre.
2. The ways how the types of experiential functions are used in microeconomics
texts of different genre between narratives and descriptive.
D. The Scope of the Study
There are five major texts types of genre: narrative, descriptive,
instructive, explanative, and argumentative. And in this study, types of narrative
and descriptive microeconomics and financial accounting theory texts will be
analyzed. This study will focus on analyzing the six types of experiential process,
which are material, mental, relational, verbal, behavioral and existential process in
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E. The Significance of the Study
The findings of this study are expected to be useful theoretically and
practically.
a. Practically, the research findings will be expected to be useful for the English
teachers in developing the teaching materials to be used in the teaching of
English to the students of Economics departments. It will be also useful for
the writer of English teaching book for the students of Economics department
in organizing the material and focus giving to the use and exercises of the
experiential functions in microeconomic texts of different genre.
b. Theoretically, the research findings will be expected to provide more
empirical evidences for strengthening the theory of Functional Linguistics,
CHAPTER V
the Financial Accounting Theory of descriptive and narrative texts are
almost the same. All types of experiential functions are used in
Microeconomics while in the Financial Accounting only five of the types
of experiential functions are used, namely material, behavioral, relational,
verbal, and mental processes; existential process is not used. The
existential process is not used. This slight difference may due to writing
style of the writer, while the most similarities between them are due to the
similarity in their social genre type, namely, they both belong to the social
genre of economy.
2. The ways how the experiential types are used in narrative and descriptive
paragraphs of Microeconomics and Financial Accounting Theory are by
firstly taking the nature of what to narrate or describe then select the
relevant types of experiential functions to initiate the narration and
description that is realized in the first clause of each narrative and
descriptive paragraph. If the texts want to narrate or describe information
or concepts found in the two textbooks related to what is done to the object
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of narration and description, then the material process is chosen to be used in
their first clauses of the paragraphs to initiate narration or description, in the
same way - behavioral process was chosen in their first clauses of paragraphs
to initiate narration or description if they want narrate or describe what the
object of narration or description does. Finally, still with the same way,
relational process was used in the first clauses of the paragraphs when they
want to describe the quality or characteristics of what to narrate or describe.
B. Suggestion
Based on the research findings and the conclusions drawn, suggestions
are drawn as follows.
1. Based on the finding that both Microeconomics and Financial Accounting
Theory use the same types of experiential functions, it is suggested that the
teaching of English, especially to the students of Economics department or
teaching English in the area of ESP (English for a Specific Purpose) the use of
experiential functions should not provide special emphasis.
2. Based on the finding on the ways how experiential functions are used in
narrative and descriptive paragraphs of Microeconomics and Financial
Accounting Theory, it is suggested that the teaching of English, especially to
the students of Economics department or teaching English in the area of ESP
(English for a Specific Purpose), should pay a special attention to the use of
the three types of experiential functions, namely material process, relational
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paragraphs of narration and description. The teaching should make the
students aware that the first thing to consider developing paragraphs of
narration and description is what to narrate or describe before selecting the
appropriate types of experiential functions. In the teaching, the concept of
each experiential function should also be made clear to the students in order
enable them to choose the appropriate type of experiential functions.
3. Based on the research findings, it is also suggested that these two types of
texts in Microeconomics and Financial Accounting Theory should be
replicated by taking other linguistics or lexico grammar aspect, such as word,
sentence structure choices, etc. Such researches are important to find empirical
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Halliday, M.A.K. 1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.
Knapp, P.2005. Genre, Text, Grammar. Australia: University of New South Wales Press Ltd.
Miles, M.B. and Huberman, A.M. 1994. Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expended Source Book, Second Edition. Thousand Oaks Saga.
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Margono, S. 1996. Metodologi Penelitian Pendidikan. Jakarta: Rineka Cipta.
Morley, D.G. 2000. Syntax in Functional Grammar. London: Continum.
Nazir, M. 1983. Metode Penelitian. Jakarta: Ghalia Indonesia.
Samuels, W.J. 1990. Economics as Discourse: An Analysis of the Language of Economist. New York: Springer.
Santos, D.P. 2002. Genre Analysis of Business Letters of Negotiation. English for a Specific Purposes. 21; p.167-199. London: Pergamon.
Scott, R. William. 2003. Financial Accounting Theory: Third Edition. New York: Springer.
