ISSN: 2302-920X

Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud

2017: Vol 19.1 Mei 2017: 165-172

Syntactic Structure of Ditransitive Verbs Found in the Sentences Used in Eugene O’neill’s One-Act Play: A Wife For A Life

Riana Lie1*, I Gede Putu Sudana.2, Ni Made Ayu Widiastuti3 [123]English Department, Faculty of Arts, Udayana University 1[[email protected]] 2[[email protected]] 3[[email protected]]

*

Corresponding Author

Abstrak

Skripsi ini berjudul Struktur Sintaksis dari Kata Kerja Ditransitif yang Ditemukan di Kalimat-Kalimat Yang Digunakan Dalam Naskah Lakon Satu Babak Oleh Eugene O'neill: Seorang Istri Untuk Satu Kehidupan. Penelitian ini dilakukan karena menganalisis kata kerja adalah hal yang menarik, oleh karena setiap kalimat memiliki predikat, dan setiap predikat adalah frase verba, maka setiap kalimat akhirnya disusun oleh kata kerja. Verba atau kata kerja adalah kelas kata yang penting dan menjadi bagian-bagian dasar dari kalimat bahasa Inggris yang biasanya menunjukkan tindakan, kejadian, atau keadaan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi kata kerja yang diklasifikasikan ke dalam kata kerja ditransitif dan juga menganalisis struktur sintaksis kalimat-kalimat yang mengandung kata kerja ditransitif dalam data.

Sumber data dari penelitian ini diambil dari naskah lakon satu babak oleh Eugene O'Neill yang berjudul Seorang Istri Untuk Satu Kehidupan. Metode yang digunakan untuk mengumpulkan data adalah metode dokumentasi melalui teknik pencatatan. Metode deskriptif kualitatif digunakan untuk menganalisis dan menyajikan data. Penelitian ini menggunakan teori yang dikemukakan oleh Quirk (1973) untuk menganalisis konstruksi verba ditransitif dalam kalimat dan struktur sintaksis kalimatkalimat yang mengandung verba ditransitif berdasarkan teori yang diusulkan oleh Brown dan Miller (1991).

Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa dua jenis verba ditransitif ditemukan dalam data, yaitu verba ditransitif yang diikuti oleh frasa benda, (seperti: bercerita, menuangkan, memberikan, menulis, menelgram, dan berjanji) dan kata kerja ditransitif yang memungkinkan objek tidak langsung dihilangkan dan diganti dengan frasa preposisi; (memberikan kepada, membawa untuk, menemukan untuk, mengirim ke, dan mewakili untuk). Kedua jenis verba ditransitif tersebut juga disajikan dalam analisis sintaksis menggunakan diagram pohon untuk menggambarkan jenis verba ditransitif dengan rumus; (1) S [NP VP]; VP [V NP NP]; NP [Det N]; (2) S [NP VP]; VP [V NP PP]; NP [Det N]; PP [P N]. Kesimpulannya, hanya ada dua jenis verba ditransitive yang ditemukan dalam sumber data sementara verba ditransitif yang memungkinkan objek lain untuk dihilangkan tidak ditemukan dalam sumber data.

Kata kunci: struktur sintaksis, verba, diagram pohon, naskah lakon satu babak

  • 1.    Background of the Study

Language linguistically deals with word, clause, and sentence. According to Agnes (2005) we order the words into well-structured unit before we utter the expressions that

our mind speak firstly in order to have a clear meaning and to make it easier for listener to interpret what we have said. A sentence is a linguistic unit consisting of group of words which is usually a grammatically complete statement. In the book entitled An Introduction to English Syntax (2002) Miiler states that the traditional definition of sentence talk of grammatical unit is built up from smaller units. The network of relation among the words in a sentence is called structure. In linguistics, the study about the sentence structure of languages is syntax. Latief (1995:1) stated that syntax is the system of pattern by which words are used to make the expression of the meaning into phrases and sentences. There are a large number of lexical items in every language. In English, these lexical items can be classified based on their categories. However, these categorical classifications are limited such as noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, etc. This study analyzed one type of verb that exists in the linguistic system. Verb becomes the reason why this study was conducted because every sentence has a predicate, and every predicate is a verb phrase, meaning that every sentence is ultimately structured around a verb. Verb is an important class and it belongs to the part of speech that usually denotes an action, an occurrence, or state of being. Ditransitive verbs complementation proposed by Quirk and syntactical structure proposed by Brown and Miller were used to analyze the data taken from one-act play script entitled “A Wife for a Life” by Eugene O’Neill.

  • 2.    Problems of the Study

There are two problems formulated in this study based on the background:

  • 1.    What types of ditransitive verbs are found in the Eugene O’Neill’s One Act Play Script: A Wife for A Life?

  • 2.    What are the syntactic structures of sentences bearing ditransitive verbs analyzed in the data?

  • 3.    Aims of the Study

After formulating the problems of the study, the aims of the research are:

  • a.    To identify verbs classified into ditransitive verbs in the data.

  • b.    To analyze the syntactic structures of sentences bearing ditransitive verbs analyzed in the data

  • 4.    Research Method

The data for this study were taken from the sentences in Eugene O’Neill’s One Act Play Script: A Wife for A Life. In collecting the data, the documentation method was applied. The method was applied to obtain the data of the one-act play script. The documentary method which was divided into finding and underlining techniques was applied to collect the data from one-act play script. The collected data were analyzed and presented using the qualitative and descriptive method.

  • 5.    Analysis of the Types of Ditransitive Verbs in the Data

This analysis presents two types of ditransitive verbs, (1) ditransitive verb immediately followed by NPs and (2) ditransitive verb allowing the indirect object to be omitted and replaced by a prepositional phrase.

  • 5.1.    Data 1

Sentence: He hands Jack the letter.

The sentence He hands Jack the letter is categorized into a sentence that contains ditransitive verbs followed by NPs. In the sentence above, the node S dominates two daughter nodes labeled NP and VP. The NP consists of terminal node Pron (He) and VP expands into; V (hands), NP (Jack), and NP (the letter). The NP the letter consists of terminal nodes Det (the) and N (letter). The verb handed acts as a ditransitive verb followed by NPs (Jack and the letter) since its verb has the structure rule VP [V NP NP]. The phrasal structure is defined below:

S -----* NP VP

NP ------* Pron

VP -----► V NP NP

NP -----► PN

NP ------► Det N

  • 5.2.    Data 2

Sentence: She did give me an address of person she might meets

Dinsjrani

The sentence She did give me an address of person she might meets is categorized into a sentence that contains ditransitive verbs followed by NPs. This sentence contains three major constituents; NP (She), Aux (did), and VP (give me an address of person she might meets). The node S has two branches and expands as two daughter nodes labeled NP and VP. This sentence also contains two intermediate level categories of NP and VP. The NP consists of terminal node Pron (She) and the VP dominates V (give), NP (me), NP (an address of person she might meet). The article an combines with the topmost NP projection to form the maximal projection NP (an address of person she might calls). The NP (an address of person she might calls) dominates N (address), PP (of person) and NP (person she might meets) which consist of S (she might meets) as adjunct that projects into NP (she) and VP (might meets). The VP consists of terminal node Aux (might) and V (meets).

The verb give acts as ditransitive verb followed by NPs (me and an address of person she might meets) since its verb has the structure rule VP [V NP NP]. The phrasal structure is defined as follows:

S    -----► NP Aux VP

VP

NP

NP

NP

PP

NP

S

NP

VP


  • ■ * V NP NP

  • ♦    Pron

  • ■ * Art NP

  • - ⅜ N PP

  • ♦    P NP

+ Pron S

  • ♦    NP VP

  • ♦    Pron

  • +    Spec V

  • 5.3.    Data 3

    Sentence: I’ll bring the letter for you


The sentence I’ll bring the letter for you is categorized into a sentence that contains ditransitive verbs which allow the indirect object to be omitted and replaced by a prepositional phrase. The sentence has three constituents; NP (I), Aux (will), and VP (bring the letter for you). The node S has two branches and expands as two daughter nodes labeled NP and VP. The auxiliary has only one constituent will. The VP (bring the letter for you) has three constituents V (bring), NP (the letter), and PP (for you). The NP contains terminal nodes Det (the) and N (letter). The PP dominates P (to) and N (you) as the terminal nodes. The verb gives acts as a ditransitive verb followed by NP (the letter) and PP (for you), where PP was omitted and allowed to replace the indirect

object. The ditransitive verb has the structure rule VP [V NP PP]. The phrasal structure

is defined as follows:

S -----► NP Aux VP

NP ------► Pron

VP -----► V NP PP

NP ------* Det N

PP -----*P N

  • 5.4.    Data 4

Sentence: He hands the letter to the Older Man

The sentence He hands the letter to the Older Man is categorized into a sentence that contains ditransitive verbs which allow the indirect object to be omitted and replaced by a prepositional phrase. In the sentence above, the node S dominates two daughter nodes labeled NP and VP. The NP consists of terminal node Pron (He) and VP (hands the letter to the Older Man) expands into; V (hands), NP (the letter), and NP (to the Older Man). The NP (the letter) consists of terminal nodes Det (the) and N (letter) followed by PP (to the Older Man) that consists of P (to) and NP (the Older Man). The lowest NP (the Older Man) consists of terminal nodes Det (the), A (older), and N (man). The verb hands acts as a ditransitive verb followed by NP (the letter) and PP, where PP (to the Older Man) was omitted and allowed to replace the indirect object. The ditransitive verb has the structure rule VP [V NP PP]. The phrasal structure is defined as follows:

S -----► NP VP

NP ------► Pron

VP -----► V NP PP

NP ------► Det N

PP ------► P NP

NP -----► Det A N

  • 6.    Conclusion

Based on the discussion, there were two types of ditransitive verbs found in the data source; (1) the ditransitive verb is immediately followed by NPs with previous example in the data: hand and give, and (2) ditransitive verb which allows the indirect object to be omitted and replaced by a prepositional phrase; the preposition concerned being indicated, with previous example in the data: bring for and hand to.

In addition, it was found that the sentences bearing ditransitive verbs have the structure for each type:

  • a.    Ditansitive verbs are immediately followed by NPs

S -----► NP VP

VP -----► V NP NP

NP ------► Det N

  • b.    Ditransitive verb which allows the indirect object to be omitted and replaced by a prepositional phrase

S -----► NP VP

VP -----► V NP PP

NP ------► Det N

PP ------►P N

  • 7.    Bibliography

Brown, Keith and Jim Miller. 1991. Syntax: A Linguistic Introduction to Sentence Structure. London: Routledge.

Miller, Jim. 2002. An Introduction to English Syntax. Edinburgh: University Press Edinburgh

Morley, G. David. 2000. Syntax in Functional Grammar. Continuum. Great Britain: Biddles, Ltd.

Quirk, Randolph, et al. 1973. A University Grammar of English. London: Longman

Group and English Language Book Society.

Van Valin, Robert D., Jr. 2001. An Introduction to Syntax. Cambridge: University Press

Cambridge.

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