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DERIVED NOUNS WITH REFERENCE TO

JOHN GRISHAM’S NOVEL “THEODORE BOONE”

BY

Ni Komang ayu Sri Wahyuni

English Departement, Faculty of Letters and Culture, Udayana University

Abstrak

Judul dari studi ini adalah Derived Nouns with Reference to John Grisham’s Novel “Theodore Boone”. Studi ini difokuskan dalam menganalisis afiksasi kata benda. Adapun tujuan-tujuan dari studi ini adalah untuk mengidentifikasi bentuk-bentuk dasar dari kata benda perolehan, untuk menjelaskan arti dari afiksasi kata benda dan juga untuk menganalisis struktur kata dari kata benda perolehan. Teori pokok dari studi ini diambil dari Bauer (1983) mengenai proses morfologi. Untuk tambahan terhadap teori ini, studi ini juga menggunakan teori terkait yang dikemukakan oleh Quirk (1973), teori yang dikemukakan oleh Frank (1972) dan teori yang dikemukakan oleh Spencer (1991). Data dari studi ini diambil dari sebuah novel yang ditulis oleh John Grisham, yang berjudul Theodore boone, yang telah dipublikasikan di Britania Agung oleh Hodder dan Stoughton pada tahun 2010. Data-data pada studi ini dikumpulkan dengan membaca novel tersebut kemudian data yang terkumpul dianalisis secara deskriptif dan secara kualitatif.

Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa ada satu kelas awalan tetap yang ditemukan dalam novel, yaitu awalan step-. Selanjutnya, ada empat kelas akhiran tetap yang ditemukan dalam novel ini seperti: -ship, -er, -ist dan –hood. Sedangkan tidak ada satupun kelas awalan ganti yang ditemukan dalam novel. Akan tetapi, ada empat belas kelas akhiran ganti yang ditemukan, yaitu: -ation, -al, -er/-or, -ment, -ure, -ant, -ion, -age, -ence/-ance, -ness, -cy, -ity, -dom, and –th.

Kata kunci : kata benda perolehan, struktur kata, afiksasi kata benda

  • 1.    Background of the Study

Word is the basic unit of a language. The development of a language is influenced by how the words are developed. Languages organize their parts of speech into classes according to their functions. English words are alive. They can grow, change and move from one class into another. The study about word

formations is called morphology. Many people are unconscious that a lot of words are comprised of morphemes and cause the classes of the words changed. This study concerns with the analysis of derivational affixation particularly, in the derived nouns to find out which word classes can be changed into noun. From those categories of words, a noun is chosen since it has three hundred thousand members, the largest numbers in English word classes. The data is obtained from a novel, entitled Theodore Boone written by John Grisham. The reason for choosing the topic is the unconsciousness to the alteration in English words that change the word class of the word itself since the additional process of morpheme.

  • 2.    Problems

In order to understand the derivational affixation, mainly in derived nouns formation, the problems that appear in this study as follows:

  • 1.    What are the base forms of the derived nouns found in the novel entitled Theodore Boone by John Grisham?

  • 2.    What are the meanings of the nominalizing affixes of nouns found in the novel written by John Grisham entitled Theodore Boone?

  • 3.    How are the word structures of the derived nouns found in novel written by John Grisham entitled Theodore Boone can be represented in terms of treediagrams analysis?

  • 3.    Aims

In order to answer the previous problems, the aims of this study are:

  • 1.    To identify the base forms of the derived nouns in the novel entitled Theodore Boone by John Grisham.

  • 2.    To explain the meanings of the nominalizing affixes of nouns found in a novel written by John Grisham entitled Theodore Boone.

  • 3.    To analyze the word structures of the derived nouns found in a novel written by John Grisham entitled Theodore Boone using tree-diagrams analysis.

  • 4.    Research Method

The data were taken from a novel written by John Grisham, entitled Theodore Boone, which consists of 22 chapters which were collected by using library research with some supporting techniques. Those data were analyzed by using qualitative-descriptive method by applying the theory proposed by Bauer (1983) as the main theory. In its application is supported by other theories, they are: theory proposed by Quirk (1973), theory proposed by Frank (1972) and theory proposed by Spencer (1991).

  • 5.    Result and Discussion

In order to analyze derivational morpheme of the collected data, there are two classes of derivational morpheme used in this study. They are class changing derivational morpheme and class maintaining derivational morpheme. In the class changing derivational morpheme, it is only class changing suffixes used here, which consists of de-verbal and de-adjectival noun. Meanwhile, the class maintaining derivational morpheme consists of class maintaining prefixes and class maintaining suffixes in which both of them form derived nouns from noun bases. In addition, those derivational processes are also represented by using treediagram analysis as below.

  • 1.    De-verbal Noun

  • a) Suffix –er (-or)

Data 6: The lead prosecutor is jack Hogan, who’s also known as the district attorney, or DA. (Grisham, 2010:21)

Data 7: James Woods, the actor. (Grisham, 2010:28)

Data 8: She needed someone outside of her family to confide in, and Theo was her listener. (Grisham, 2010:8)

Data 9: She was not the typical teacher at the middle school, far from it. (Grisham, 2010:17)

Data 10: Theo continued, “The reporter sits here…..” (Grisham, 2010:22)

Data 11: The owner gives the police a name, they investigate and find some dude with a history of stealing bikes. (Grisham, 2010:25)

Data 12: If that’s the case, then the real killer is still out there. (Grisham, 2010:48)

All the underlined and the bold words above as in prosecutor, actor, listener, teacher, reporter, owner and killer are the new lexemes, which are

produced through derivational processes. Those new lexemes derived from the verb classes prosecute, act, listen, teach, report, own and kill that added by suffix –er and -or. The attachment of suffix –er and -or bring an alteration in the grammatical classes of the bases from verbs become nouns.

According to Quirk (1973) the base that attached by suffix –or usually means agentive or instrumental. Based on the previous data, the words prosecutor, actor, listener, teacher, reporter, owner and killer have meaning agentive. In order to know the constituent structures of those derived nouns it can be seen from the tree diagrams below:

The Structure of New Lexemes by Tree Diagram

  • a.    prosecutor (noun)

-or (suffix)

prosecute (verb)

  • b.    actor (noun)

-or (suffix)

act (verb)

  • e.    reporter (noun)

-er (suffix)

report (verb)

g. killer (noun)

-er (suffix)

  • c.    listener (noun)

-er (suffix)

listen (verb)

  • d.    teacher (noun)

-er (suffix)

teach (verb)

  • f.    owner (noun)

-er (suffix)

own (verb)




kill (verb)

  • 2.    De-adjectival nouns

  • b) Suffix -ness

Data 1: The next day he dreamed of being a great judge, noted for his wisdom and fairness. (Grisham, 2010:6)

Data 2: Mr. Boone was not exactly concerned with fitness. (Grisham, 2010:29)

Data 3: Mr. Boone cared nothing for fashion and even less for neatness.

(Grisham, 2010:34)

Data 4: “Ten seconds of firm pressure in just the right place and you lose consciousness,”… (Grisham, 2010:61)

Data 5: Julio disappeared into the darkness. (Grisham, 2010:166)

Data 6: …their friends, and planning and enduring the funeral and burial. The loneliness. (Grisham, 2010:208)

Based on the data above, it can be seen that the underlined and the bold words as in fairness, fitness, neatness, consciousness, darkness and loneliness, can be formed because of derivational process. They are new lexemes which come from the adjective bases fair, fit, neat, conscious, dark and lonely which attached by suffix –ness. These processes of attachment alter the grammatical classes of the bases from adjectives become nouns.

Suffix –ness forms noun which is derived from adjective. The meaning of this suffix is state, quality or measure of the idea (Quirk: 1973). The derived nouns fairness and neatness have meaning quality of. While the words fitness, consciousness, darkness and loneliness mean state. The word structures of those

derived nouns can be seen from tree diagrams below: The Structure of New Lexemes by Tree Diagram

a. fairness (noun)

-ness (suffix)


d. consciousness (noun)


-ness (suffix)


fair (adjective)


conscious (adjective)


b. fitness (noun)


e. darkness (noun)


-ness (suffix)


-ness (suffix)


fit (adjective)


dark (adjective)


c. neatness (noun)


f. loneliness (noun)


-ness (suffix)

-ness (suffix)


neat (adjective)


lonely (adjective)

  • 3.    Class Maintaining Prefixes with a Noun Base

  • c) Suffix –ist

Data 6: Chase was the mad scientist who was always a threat to blow up the lab. (Grisham, 2010:27)

Data 7: She was the receptionist, secretary, office manager, and paralegal when needed. (Grisham, 2010:27)

Data 8: Ike wanted Theo to be an architect or an artist, something creative. (Grisham, 2010:52)

Data 9: “Yes, sir. And, as you know, the pathologist put the time of death at approximately eleven forty-five.” (Grisham, 2010:250)

All the underlined and the bold words above such as scientist, receptionist, artist and pathologist are new lexemes. They are formed through derivational processes by adding suffix –ist after the bases which belong to nouns such as science, reception, art, and pathology. The attachment of suffix –ist does not cause an alteration in the grammatical category of the bases.

This suffix has function in order to form personal noun which derived from noun. This suffix means “member of party or occupation”. From the data, the words scientist, receptionist, artist and pathologist have meaning occupation and the constituent structures of those words can be seen from tree diagrams below:

The Structure of New Lexemes by Tree Diagram

  • a.    scientist (noun)                                    c. artist (noun)

-ist (suffix)                                            -ist (suffix)

science (noun)

art (noun)


b. receptionist (noun)


d. pathologist (noun)


-ist (suffix)


reception (noun)


-ist (suffix)

pathology (noun)

  • 6.    Conclusion

Based on the previous analysis, it can be concluded that there are three categories of nouns that are found from the novel. The first category is de-verbal noun, it is noun derived from verb bases. Second category is de-adjectival noun, it is noun that derived from adjective bases and third category is class maintaining with a noun base. Here, the attachment of affixes does not influence the grammatical class of the words. Each of the derivational affixes has their own meaning; suffix –er (-or) means agentive and instrumental, suffix –ness means state, quality or measure of the idea and suffix –ist means member of party or occupation. Moreover, the form of derived noun in a structure is also needed. This way is used in order to clarify what components that forms the words which categorized as derived noun. This structure is shown by tree diagrams as in the previous analysis.

  • 7.    Bibliography

Grisham, John. 2010. Theodore Boone. Great Britain: Belfry Holdings, Inc

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S. 1973.A University Grammar of English. Sydney: Longman

Spencer, Andrew & Zwicky, M. Arnold, (1998). The Handbook of Morphology.

Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.