ISSN: 2302-920X

Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud

Vol 18.2 Pebruari 2017: 269-277

The Nominal Group Structure of Barack Obama’s Speech in Indonesia

I Gusti Bagus Narabhumi1*, I Nyoman Aryawibawa2, Ni Luh Ketut Mas Indrawati3

[123]English Department, Faculty of Arts – Udayana University [Email: [email protected]] [Email: [email protected]] [Email: [email protected]]

*Corresponding Author

Abstrak

Skripsi ini berjudul " Struktur Grup Nominal dalam Pidato Barack Obama di Indonesia" dan utamanya ditujukan untuk menganalisis elemen tertentu dalam struktur grup nominal yang terdapat dalam pidato tersebut serta frekuensi kemunculannya.

Dalam menganalisis struktur grup nominal, peneliti menerapkan teori Functional Grammar yang diusulkan oleh Halliday sebagai dasar teori dan metode deskriptif kualitatif sebagai metode penelitian. Menurut teori Functional Grammar, grup nominal terdiri dari struktur experiential dan logical. Struktur experiential terdiri dari enam elemen termasuk: Thing, Deictic, Numerative, Epithet, Classifier dan Qualifier. Sedangkan dalam struktur logical, terdapat elemen Head dan Modifier (Premodifier dan Postmodifier).

Sumber data dalam penelitian ini diambil dari transkrip pidato Barack Obama di Universitas Indonesia pada tahun 2010. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa semua jenis elemen experiential dan logical muncul dalam struktur grup nominal pidato Barack Obama di Indonesia. Thing, Deictic, dan Qualifier adalah tiga unsur yang paling sering digunakan oleh Barack Obama dalam membangun struktur kelompok nominal nya, diikuti oleh elemen Classifier, Epithet, dan Numerative. Kedua, tidak setiap elemen Head di struktur logical muncul bertepatan dengan elemen Thing di struktur experiential. Selain itu, grup nominal Barack Obama pada umumnya memiliki konstruksi yang relatif sederhana.

Kata kunci; functional Grammar , Pidato, Grup Nominal.

  • 1.    Background of the Study

An effective communication is made possible with the help of language; therefore, a language becomes a vital aspect in human daily life. For the purpose of communication, a language can be used in two ways; it can be oral or written (Shikha Shukla, 2009; 8). A speech, a formal talk that a person gives to an audience, is one form of communications where the language is used orally.

In analyzing a speech, there are some appropriate theories or point of views to be used in analyzing it. However, the Theory of Functional Grammar by Halliday is relatively rare to be used in analyzing a speech; only ten percent of previous functional grammar studies use speeches as their data source.

According to the Theory of Functional Grammar, every clause or sentence is formed by groups. A group is a combination of words built up on the basis of a particular logical relation. The characteristic of groups can be divided into five types; nominal group, verbal group, adverbial group, preposition group, and conjunction group.

Relatively speaking of Functional Grammar, in Obama’s speech at the University of Indonesia in 2010, those five types of group were found. Particularly, Barack Obama used many nominal groups to form his statements and the nominal group is the broadest among all groups in Functional Grammar Theory.

Therefore, as a researcher, I am interested in applying the Functional Grammar Theory to analyze the particular speech. Especially in English Department, Faculty of Arts Udayana University, previous studies on this topic done by English department students are mostly using written text as the data source; meanwhile this study uses data source in spoken form and has the political theme and, therefore, is expected to deepen the research in this topic.

  • 2.    Problems of the Study

From the background above, the writer tries to propose several problems formulated in this study, those are;

  • 1.    What kind of experiential elements occur in the structure of nominal group

in Barack Obama’s Speech?

  • 2.    What kind of logical elements occur in the structure of nominal group in Barack Obama’s Speech?

  • 3.    What is the occurrence frequency of each nominal group’s experiential and logical element in Barack Obama’s Speech?

  • 3.    Aims of the Study

The specific aims of this study are to analyze the particular experiential and logical elements of nominal group structure in Barack Obama’s speech in Indonesia, and to find out their frequency of occurrences.

The academic aims of this study is to give a contribution to the English Department, Faculty of Arts, Udayana University as the reference for the research done by the students focusing on the topic related to this study.

  • 4.    Research Method

The method that was used in collecting the data in this study was documentation method. The use of documentation method means that the data were taken from written material and therefore, there was no respondent or informant involved in this study. This documentation method was applied to the transcript of Barack Obama’s speech in Indonesia, which had been taken from the official USA’s government website. Meanwhile, in analyzing the data, the descriptive qualitative method was used. The analyzing process was based on Halliday's theory of Functional Grammar especially on nominal group. Besides, there was an addition of a basic mathematical formula in presenting the percentage of the occurrence frequency.

  • 5.    Findings and Discussions

In the data source, there are 809 nominal groups found and analyzed. However, in presenting the data, only several nominal groups that contain or represent the particular experiential and logical elements are shown.

  • 5.1    Experiential Structure Element

The analysis of each experiential structure element is explained below;

  • 5.1.1    Nominal Group with Deictic

the                     people                 [of Jakarta ]

Deictic

Thing

Qualifier

Premodifier

Head

Postmodifier

This nominal group is from the sentence (7) Thank you to the people of Jakarta… It is consisting of one Thing element being referred by a Deictic and Qualifier. People as the Thing and the Head of this nominal group is being modified by the demonstrative Deictic the as Premodifier that indicates the Thing element is identifiable in the context by an additional information [of Jakarta].

  • 5.1.2    Nominal Group with Numerative

Four                years

Numerative

Thing

Premodifier

Head

This nominal group with Numerative element four is from sentence (40) Now, I stayed here for four years…Here, the Numerative element acts as the Premodifier of the Head element years. Four is a definite quantifying Numerative that indicates the quantity of the Thing years.

  • 5.1.3    Nominal Group with Epithet

the                old                men

Deictic

Epithet

Thing

Premodifier

Head

This nominal group is from sentence (36) But most of all, I remember the people -the old men…Here, the Thing men is accompanied by two experiential elements before it; Deictic the and Epithet old. Old is considered experiential Epithet in this nominal group because it indicates the quality of the subset and is an objective property of the Thing itself.

  • 5.1.4    Nominal Group with Classifier

water               buffalo

Classifier

Thing

Premodifier

Head

Sentence (47) While my Indonesian friends and I used to run in fields with water buffalo and goats… consists of the nominal group water buffalo where water acts as the

Classifier of the Thing buffalo. Water is classified as a Classifier because it indicates a particular subclass of the Thing element buffalo in questions (classifying its species).

  • 5.1.5    Nominal Group with Qualifier

some

folks               [from Menteng Dalam ]

Deictic

Thing

Qualifier

Premodifier

Head

Postmodifier

This nominal group with Qualifier [from Menteng Dalam] is from sentence (28)… hey, some folks from Menteng Dalam right here. [from Menteng Dalam] is classified as a Qualifier because it adds additional information and follows the Thing folks. This Qualifier is an embedded prepositional phrase.

  • 5.1.6    Nominal Group with Thing

You

Thing

Head

This nominal group with Thing You is from sentence (1) Terima kasih. Terima kasih, thank you so much…Here, Thing is the only element in the nominal group, therefore it also functions as the Head element in the nominal group’s logical structure. The Thing you is a personal pronoun. According to Halliday (2014; 384), pronouns and proper names usually occur without any other elements of the nominal group. With pronouns, the referent is defined interpersonally by the speech situation. Here, the Thing you is a speech roles for the listeners of the speech.

  • 5.2    Logical Structure Element

    • 5.2.1    Nominal Group with Head

Michelle

Thing

Head

This nominal group that consists of only one element is from sentence (9) …Michelle was able to join me. Here, even though this nominal group only consists of Thing in experiential element which is Michelle, this is still considered a perfect nominal group since it already has the Head in logical element; the most essential element in the English nominal group. The Head of this nominal group is a proper name.

  • 5.2.2    Nominal Group with Premodifier

religious             faith

Classifier

Thing

Premodifier

Head

This nominal group with religious as the Premodifier is from the sentence (68) I will focus on three areas that are closely related, and fundamental to human progress -development, democracy and religious faith. This Premodifier, which is a Classifier in experiential structure modifies the Thing faith as the Head of the nominal group. Religious is classified as a Classifier in this nominal group because it indicates a particular subclass of the Thing in question (the scope); this nominal group means ‘a faith in religious matters’.

  • 5.2.3    Nominal Group with Postmodifier

collaboration        [among our scientists and researchers]

Thing

Qualifier

Head

Postmodifier

This nominal group with Postmodifier [among our scientists and researchers] is from sentence (83) And that is exactly what we’re doing -- by increasing collaboration among our scientists and researchers. This Postmodifier is an embedded prepositional phrase that answers the Head in questions (where/location). Furthermore, since the prepositional phrase is adding additional information and following the Thing element collaboration, it is classified as the Qualifier of this nominal group.

  • 5.3    The Occurrence Frequency

In this section, the number of each experiential and logical elements in the nominal group structures that occur in Barack Obama’s speech in Indonesia is counted. Furthermore, their occurrence frequencies are calculated using a basic mathematical formula on relative frequency. It is calculated by dividing the absolute frequency by the total number of values for the variable.

  • 5.3.1    Experiential Structure Element Occurrence Frequency

The Deictic element occurred 381 times in the 809 nominal groups. Therefore, the relative occurrence frequency of Deictic element is (382 : 809) x 100 = 47%. The Numerative element occurred 27 times in the 809 nominal groups. Therefore, the relative occurrence frequency of the Numerative element is (28 : 809) x 100 = 3.3 %. The Epithet element occurred 62 times in the 809 nominal groups. Therefore, the relative occurrence frequency of Epithet element is (62 : 809) x 100 = 7.6 %. The Classifier element occurred 83 times in the 809 nominal groups. Therefore, the relative occurrence frequency of Classifier element is (87 : 809) x 100 = 10.3%. The Thing element occurred 750 times in the 809 nominal groups. Therefore, the relative occurrence frequency of the Thing element is; (749: 809) x 100 = 92.7%. The Qualifier element occurred 208 times in the 809 nominal groups. Therefore, the relative occurrence frequency of the Qualifier element is (215: 809) x 100 = 25.7%

  • 5.3.2    Logical Structure Element Occurrence Frequency

The Head element occurred 809 times in the 809 nominal groups. Therefore, the relative occurrence frequency of the Head element is 100%. The Premodifier element occurred 392 times in the 809 nominal groups. Therefore, the relative occurrence frequency of the Premodifier element is (409: 809) x 100 = 48.4 %. Postmodifier element occurred 212 times in the 809 nominal group. Therefore, the relative occurrence frequency of the Postmodifier element is (213: 809) x 100 = 26.2%

Speaking of occurrence frequencies that have been counted, there are several implications that can be drawn from those findings. Those implications are explained below;

First, in Barack Obama’s speech, Thing, Deictic, and Qualifier are the three most dominant elements in the experiential structure of the nominal groups. The Thing element that occurs 92.7% in the nominal group structures shows that common nouns, proper names, and personal pronouns are the most frequent items that become the key or the Head of a nominal group. It is implicated from Halliday’s statement that “the element we are calling Thing is the semantic core of the nominal group” (Halliday, 2014; 383).

The use of Deictic by Barack Obama is also potentially giving a more interactive sense for his speech since Deictic has the ability to intend a nominal group by modifying the Head element with personal type of deixis including the interactant and the non-interactant. The interactant consist of my, our, and your. Meanwhile the noninteractant consists of its, her, his, and their (Halliday, 2014; 366).

Meanwhile in the logical structure, Head element has 100% of occurrence frequency. It means that Head element is the most dominant logical element in the nominal group structure of the data source. In contrast, the Modifier, which only occurs in 48.4% (Premodifier) 26.2% (Postmodifier) of the nominal groups shows the low level of the nominal group’s complexity. It implies that this speech of Barack Obama (a spoken language) has a relatively simple nominal group construction in general.

  • 6.    Conclusion

After analyzing 809 nominal groups found in the transcript of Barack Obama Speech in Indonesia based on the Theory of Functional Grammar by Halliday, it can be concluded several points. First, all kinds of experiential and logical elements occurred. Second, in the experiential structure, the Thing element becomes the most frequent element that occurs, followed by Deictic and Qualifier. Meanwhile in the logical structure, the most frequent element that occurs is Head, followed by Premodifier and Postmodifer. Furthermore, Barrack Obama’s nominal group structures have a relatively simple construction in general.

  • 7.    Bibliography

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Halliday, M.A.K (2014). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Fourth Edition. London: Routledge.

Hornby, A.S. (2010). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th Edition. London: Oxford University Press.

Liyanti, N. M. A. (2010). “Structure of Nominal Group in Three Tourism Brochures” (undergraduate thesis). Denpasar: Udayana University.

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