TRANSITIVITY IN BARRACK OBAMA’S SPEECHES
A THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
By
HENNY FAUZIAH HARAHAP
Register Number: 208222028
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
DECLARATION
Except where appropriately acknowledged, this thesis is my own work, has been expressed
in my own words and has not previously been submitted for assessment.
I understand that this paper may be screened electronically or otherwise for plagiarism.
Medan, September 2012
CURRICULUM VITAE
Henny Fauziah Harahap was born in Medan, on October 26th 1989, as the third child. After she finished her study in SD Negeri 101769 (2002), SMP Negeri 12 Medan (2005), and SMA Negeri 3 Medan (2008), she continued her study in State University of Medan, Faculty of Languages and Arts, majoring English and Literature.
i ABSTRACT
Harahap, Henny Fauziah. 208222028. Transitivity in Barrack Obama’s Speeches. A Thesis. Faculty of Languange and Arts, State University of Medan. 2012.
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim,Alhamdulillah, first and foremost the writer would like to express her praises to Allah SWT for the strengths, blessings, and guidance which have been given to her in completing this thesis. This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra (S-1) at the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan. This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and the help of several individuals who always contributed and extended their valuable assistances in the preparation and completion of this thesis. The writer’s special appreciation goes to:
Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si. as the Head of State University of Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum. as the Dean of Faculty of Languages and Arts State University of Medan and to all her staffs.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd. as the Head of English Department and as the writer’s Thesis Supervisor who always gave the encouragement, constant support, constructive comments, and suggestions to the writer in finishing this thesis, Dra. Rahmah, M.Hum. as the Secretary of English Department, Dra. Meisuri, MA. as the Head of Non-Educational English Program and Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed. as the Head of Educational English Program thanks for their administrative help during the writer’s study in English Department State University of Medan.
Dra. Nurhayati as the writer’s Academic Counselor who has given her support to the writer’s thesis topic.
Mam Endah and Mam Indri who have helped the writer in providing the academic administration.
iii
The writer’s best friends Wardah Al Munawaroh Daulay, S.S. Eulistia Kharismayanti and Nova Susanti who always support and motivates me in finishimg and completing this script and thak you so much for the friendship, hospitality, moral support, and for all the fun and happy memories they shared. She treasures them and will never forget.
The writer’s special colleagues: Unie, Atiqah, Giel, Judolz, Fina, and All of the writer’s friends in Applied Linguistics A and B 2008, for studying together in classroom, gossiping around and having delicious lunch under the ladder have motivated the writer to finish her study.
The people who direct or indirectly contributed in this research, your kindness means a lot to her. Thank you very much. May Allah bless us. Amin.
Medan, August 2012 The Writer,
iv
CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE ... 7
A. Theoretical Framework...7
B. Metafunction ... 7
C. Meanings: The clause as representation ... 8
v
1) Condition ... 24
2) Concession ... 24
3) Default ... 24
f. Accompaniment ... 25
g. Role ... 25
h. Matter ... 25
i. Angle ... 26
E. Barrack Obama’s Biography ... 26
F. Speech ... 29
CHAPTER III. METHOD OF RESEARCH ... 31
A. Research Design ... 31
B. Source of Data ... 32
C. The Technique of Collecting Data ... 32
D. The Technique of Analyzing Data ... 32
CHAPTER IV. DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS ... 34
A. The Data ... 34
B. Data Analysis ... 34
1.Election Night Victory ... 34
2.Obama Inaugural Address ... 38
C. Research Findings ... 41
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 45
A. Conclusions ... 45
B. Suggestions ... 46
vi
LIST OF TABLES
TABLES Page
2.1. The Principal Types of Relational process... 15
2.2. Types of Participants and Process... 19
2.3. Types of Circumstances... 20
2.4. The Circumstance of Extent... 21
4.1. The numbers of processes in Election Night Victory... 35
4.2. The numbers of participants in Election Night Victory ... 36
4.3. The numbers of circumstances in Election Night Victory... 37
4.4. The numbers of processes in Obama Inaugural Address... 38
4.5. The numbers of participants in Obama Inaugural Address... 39
4.6. The numbers of circumstances in Obama Inaugural Address... 40
4.7. The Total numbers of processes in Barrack Obama’s Speeches... 41
4.8. The Total numbers of participants in Barrack Obama’s Speeches... 41
vii
LIST OF APPENDICES
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Language is inseparable in human‟s life since no way to replace its role and
function to express what people think and feel. It conveys meaning from
someone‟s intention, emotion as well as feeling as stated by Bloor and Bloor
(1995: 1) language is a „system of meanings‟. When people communicate by
using language, their language acts are the expression of meaning. Of course
every single word we utter has meaning that can be understood and caught by the
listener, then there will be such interaction that we call as communication.
However the use of language doesn‟t direct from one person to another person
individually, but also to the public in globally.
Expressing language is influenced by the complex elements of situations. We
have to know where we are, whom we are talking to, how to say it in good order
and etc. It means that in doing communication using language we need to concern
to the situation and condition involved to convey what speaker‟s intention and
purpose in proper order precisely without having been misunderstood by the
listener. However it is related to the ethics of communication; no wonder that
language can change human‟s mood because its influence has been part of
human‟s life. People can be in bad temper, sorrow, as well as in happiness by
someone‟s language just because of the meaning caught is different from one
person to other persons; that‟s why we have perception in understanding human‟s
2
even be seen by human‟s part of body, but indeed it can be felt. Searle emphasizes
that Language is not seen as continuous with, nor as an extension of, the rest of
our specifically human biological inheritance. (Serle, 2006: 1)
Communication can be expressed and conveyed by two ways; they are written
and spoken. However language has interconnection with society that The key
connecting link between language and society is the notion of deontology, a
notion involving commitments of various kinds, about which I will say more later.
(Serle, 2006: 3). Through written the communication done by using the symbols
of letters combined together and produce meanings. The use of written language
recently has been booming and widespread; it can be seen through newspapers,
magazines, books and many other writings which are the collection of human
beings‟ inspiration. It is such a miracle that the information worldwide can be
informed and told through the media available. It is important to keep in mind that
written language is the representative or the replacement of human‟s intention, so
it is more easily to be analyzed and corrected. The term „written language‟ does
not only refer to language which is written down, likewise the term „spoken
language‟ does not only refer to language which is said aloud, Gerot and Wignel
(1994: 159) explains that „what is at issue here is not just the medium through
which language is transmitted but, more importantly, the way meanings are
encoded.‟
Spoken language is a communication done directly between a speaker and a
listener; it is a requirement that in spoken language there are two participants
3
two direction communications. Besides in language there are two kinds of
language which are called verbal and non-verbal language (body language) as
Pease says that the fascinating thing is that the human animal is rarely aware of
his postures, movements and gestures that can tell one story while his voice may
be telling another. (Pease, 1981: 10). This script focuses on the communication of
one direction in Barrack Obama‟s Speech. Both written language and spoken
language basically have the same purpose or goal, but they are served in different
ways; spoken language served through mouth, meanwhile written language served
through writing. Gerot & Wignel (1994: 158) say that spoken language is
typically more dependent on its context than written language is. And also they
are different from the language structure; usually written language is more formal
and grammatical than spoken language is. When we use written language there are
some criteria or requirements like structure, style, or kinds of writing to be
considered before being published for the sake of avoiding misunderstanding or
misperception; otherwise in the spoken language the speaker doesn‟t concern too
much on the criteria. Besides it is easy to capture the meaning of a text by finding
out the central meaning of a clause since as Trask (1997: 42) says that „clause is a
grammatical unit containing a subject and a predicate, every sentence at least has
one clause.‟
Human beings use language in order to fulfill three functions called
metafunction. Sinar (2002: 39) states “metafunction of language are inherent in
every language use in social contexts. Metafunction divided into three functions.
4
used to relate what it is said (or written) to the real world and to other linguistics
events. This involves the use of language to organize the text itself. This is known
as the textual function.
Transitivity represents the encoding of experiential meaning. A meaning is
about the world, about experience, about how we perceive and experience what is
going on. All these goings on are sorted out in the grammar of clause. Saragih
(2004: 5) says that realization of language as experience is seen in clause. A
clause is considered as unit of experience, which is constituted by three elements:
process, participants, circumstance.
Bloor (1995: 110) elaborates that the process centers on that part of that clause
is realized by the verbal group, but it can also be regarded as what “what goings
on” are represented in the whole clause. The participants are entities involved in
the process. Saragih (2004: 5) states that circumstances indicate situation or
surroundings in which the process occurs.
Actually the analysis of the research focuses on two aspects; they are process
and circumstance; since the participant is inseparable part in a context. Downing
(2002:111) says that the participant roles involved in the situation. So in this study
only two aspects will be discussed, there are process and circumstance in the
Barrack Obama‟s speech”.
Speech is an activity of speaking aloud to the audiences or listeners to give
information on purpose. It came long before written language, and writing is a
transcript of speech, not vice versa. (Turk, 1985:9). The message to be transmitted
5
tract, which in turn is a representation of the thoughts the speaker wishes to
convey to the listener. (Benesty, Mohan, & Huang, 2008: 1). Usually it happens in
formal situation where the listeners or the audiences are not allowed to speak but
the speaker who is as the source. As a president in United States, Barrack Obama
often delivers his speech to his people as well as to other countries. A speech is
usually done by a leader or a head of an organization to manage and orate to his
men or to public.
B. The Problems of the Study
The problems in this study are formulated as follows:
1. What types of processes, participants, and circumstances are found in
Barrack Obama‟s speeches?
2. Which types of processes, participants, and circumstances which are the
most dominant used in the Barrack Obama‟s speeches?
3. What is the implication of the most dominant process, participant, and
circumstance in Barrack Obama‟s Speeches?
C. The Scope of the Study
A clause considered as a unit of experience is constituted by three elements
namely process, participant, and circumstance. In this study it will be restricted to
analyze the type of the process, participants, and circumstances used in Barrack
6
D. The Objective of the Study The objectives of the study are:
1. To find out the types of processes, participants, and circumstances which
are used in the Barrack Obama‟s speeches.
2. To find out the most dominant of process, participants and circumstances
which are used in Barrack Obama‟s speeches.
3. Determined the most dominant of process, participant and circumstances
which are used in Barrack Obama‟s speeches.
E. The Significances of the Study
The finding of the study is expected to be useful for the researcher about the
use of transitivity and give some contribution to the students of English
Department and those who are interested in metafunction of using language in
terms of process, participant and circumstance. The finding also will give the
readers the ideas of the function of the three aspects of language in this case,
metalanguage, namely ideational, interpersonal, and textual function both in
written and spoken form. From this finding the students can improve his/her
ideas in which the language can be analyzed in term of process, participant, and
circumstance in written text; while in spoken one might use the language to
communicate his/her ideas to convey the meaning of the language being
expressed. The last, it is also expected to be beneficial for the teachers or lecturers
of functional grammar to apply transitivity in teaching process, participant and
45
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusion
After analyzing the transitivity involving process, participant, and
circumstance in Barack Obama’s Speeches which were representative by two
speeches namely “Election Night Victory Speech” and “Obama Inaugural
Address”, the research can be concluded as follows:
1) The six types of process were found in the speechess of Barrack Obama, they
are Material Process, Mental Process, Relational Process, Behavioral Process,
Verbal Process, and Existential Process. The nine types of participants that
were used in Barrack Obama’s speeches were Actor, Goal, Senser,
Phenomenon, Token, Value, Carrier, Attribute, Possessor, Possessed,
Behavior, Sayer, Verbiage, and Existent. The types of circumstances that
were found in Barrack Obama’s speeches were Extent, Location, Manner,
Cause, Contingency, Accompanimen, Role, and Matter
2) The most dominant process which was used in Barrack Obama’s speeches
was Material Process with the total numbers and percentage are 287 (54,6% ).
The most dominant participant was Actor which was 192 (31,1%). The last,
the most dominant circumstance found in this analysis is Location which was
94 (46,1%).
3) Material Process is the most dominant process because it indicates activities
that happen in the outside world of human beings. Furthermore, the speeches
of Barrack Obama told about many activities that can be done to make
46
as the representation of the physical experience of human beings as the
implication of the most dominant process. As the process controls the
participant so the most dominant participant which appeared in the analysis
was Actor which was 192 (31,1%). And the last, the most dominant
circumstance appeared in this analysis was Location with the numbers of
percentage was 94 (46,1%). It was caused Obama mentioned more both place
and time in his speeches as the implication of the most dominant participant
and circumstance.
B. Suggestions
Based on the conclusion above, the suggestions are as follows:
1) It is suggested that the students of English department should understand how
to analyze transitivity (process, participant and circumstance) in such kind of
research either in spoken or written, such as: speech, song, magazine,
newspaper, novel, poetry, etc.
2) It is suggested that the teachers can use Barrack Obama’s speeches as one of
the objects used in analyzing the transitivity system because it is a valuable
source of teaching material.
3) It is suggested that the readers can use the result of the research as the useful
information to have a better understanding about transitivity.
4) It is advised for other researchers who are concerned to this study to conduct
47
REFERENCES
Benesty, Jacob., Sondhi, M. Mohan., & Huang, Yiteng. 2008. Springer Handbook
of Speech Processing. Berlin: Springer-Verlag BerlinHeidelberg.
Bloor, T., and Bloor, M. 19995. The Functional Analysis of English. A Hallidayan
Approach. New York: Oxford University Press.
Halliday, M.A.K. 1985. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M.A.K. 1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar (Second
Edition). London: Edward Arnold.
Kothari, C.R. 2004. Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. Jaipur:
New Age International (P) Ltd., Publishers.
Martin, J.R. 1997. Working with Functional Grammar. London: J.W. Arrowsmith.
M. S, Mahsun. 2005. Metode Penelitian Bahasa. Jakarta: PT. Raja Grafindo Persada.
Pease, Allan. 1981. Body Language. North Sydney: Camel Publishing Company.
Price, Joann F.2008. Barack Obama: A Biography. Westport: An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
Saragih, A. 2006. Bahasa dalam Konteks Sosial. Medan: FBS. UNIMED.
Saragih, A. 2004. Introducing Systemic Functional Grammar. Medan: FBS.
UNIMED.
48
Silvana, Tengku, Sinar. 2002. An Introduction to a Systemic Functional
Linguistics Oriented Discourse Analysis. Singapore: DeeZed Consult
Singapore.
Silvana, Tengku, Sinar. 2007. Phasal and Experiential Realizations in Lecture
Discourse: A Systemic Functional Analysis. Sumut-NAD. Koordinasi Perguruan Tinggi Swasta Wilayah-I NAD-Sumut.
Trask, R.L. 1997. A Student’s Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. New York: Edward Arnold.
Turk, Christopher. 1985. Effective Speaking: Communicating in Speech. British: E & FN Spon, an imprint of Chapman & Hall.
http://obamaspeeches.com/2012/01/26
