FORMAL LINKS APPROACH TO GRAMMAR AND LEXICON USED IN BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH “PULANG KAMPUNG NIH”
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FORMAL LINKS APPROACH TO GRAMMAR AND LEXICON USED IN BARACK OBAMA’S SPEECH
“PULANG KAMPUNG NIH”
By:
Risna Cahyani
English Department
Faculty of Letters, Udayana University
Abstrak
Kata penghubung formal merupakan bagian dari analisis sebuah wacana yang berfungsi menghubungkan kalimat dan kalimat juga klausa dan klausa. Hubungan tersebut juga dikenal sebagai keterpaduan yang menunjukan satu kesatuan makna antar konteks dan isi dari suatu wacana. Dalam hal ini, terdapat dua pendekatan yang digunakan untuk mengetahui seberapa jauh kesesuaian dan kelogisan dari suatu wacana agar makna dapat tersampaikan dengan baik, yaitu pendekatan grammatikal dan pendekatan leksikon. Dalam sebuah pidato presiden Barak Obama yang di sampaikan di Universitas Indonesia pada tanggal 9November 2010, terdapat kata penghubung formal yang dianalisis melalui teori dari Guy Cook (1989). Adapun tujuan dari penelitian ini yaitu untuk mengidentifikasi kata penghubung sebagai pendekatan grammatikal dan leksikon yang terdapat pada pidato “Pulang Kampung Nih”. Sehingga dari penelitian ini dapat diketahui adanya kesesuaian dan kelogisan konteks dan isi dari pidato presiden agar makna yang ingin disampaikan oleh pembicara dapat tersampaikan dengan baik.
Kata kunci: kata penghubung formal, grammatikal, leksikon
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1. Background of the Study
Speech as public address is a type of spoken discourse. Therefore discourse analysis is required in speech. Analysis of discourse examines how stretches of language, considered in their full textual, social and psychological context become meaningful and unified for their users (Guy Cook, 1989: ix). Because of that, there is an approach to show the stretches of language in speech text named Formal Links. . Formal links between sentences and between clauses are known as cohesive device.
The formality of speech can be found in presidential speech, especially in Obama’s speech entitled “Pulang Kampung Nih” which delivered in University of Indonesia on November 9, 2010. This speech is to express his gratitude in relation to his childhood in Indonesia. Formal Link as an approach to grammar and lexicon will influence the content of speech can be clearly understood by the audience.
To what extent do the Formal Links are used in Barack Obama’s speech “Pulang Kampung Nih” as an approach to grammar and lexicon?
To describe to what extent formal links are used in Barack Obama’s speech “Pulang Kampung Nih” as an approach to grammar. In addition, to find out what formal links are used in the speech as an approach to lexicon.
The data of this study were taken from the text of Barrack Obama’s speech addressed to Indonesian people on November 9, 2010 at the University of Indonesia as a sign of good relation between Indonesia and America. This speech is for expressing his gratitude to Indonesia because of his bright childhood in Indonesia. The reason for choosing this text speech of Barack Obama as the data source of this study is because this speech used formal English.
The method applied in this study was documentation method. This was done by downloading the speech of President Barack Obama “Pulang Kampung Nih” from the internet.
In analyzing the data, the methods used were qualitative. After getting the valid and relevant data, the data were descriptively analyzed based on the theory of Formal Links taken from the discourse theory by Guy Cook (1989) and the grammar theory by Thomson and Martinet (1986). The data was analyzed descriptively using the theory of formal links as an approach to grammar and lexicon. Each data was analyzed from its form. Then, all of selected data in the sentences consisting of formal English in the speech text and their approaches to discourse and grammar were concluded to emphasize the formal links in the text of speech.
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5. Formal links approach to grammar and lexicon used in Barack Obama’ s speech “Pulang Kampung Nih”
The grammar of formal links that consists of verb form, referring expressions, substitution, ellipsis, and conjunction were analyzed from each paragraph of the text of Barrack Obama’s speech.
The first analysis based on the use of correct tenses according to the times of events being spoken and some impressions appear.
3rd paragraph
Pulang kampung nih (1). I am so glad that I made it back to Indonesia and that Michelle was able to join me (2). We had a couple of false starts this year, but I was determined to visit a country that’s meant so much to me (3). And unfortunately, this visit is too short, but I look forward to coming back a year from now when Indonesia hosts the East Asia Summit.
Bahasa Indonesia was used in first sentence, in the second sentence there is a combination of simple present and simple past tense
I am so glad (simple present) that I made (simple past) it back to Indonesia and that Michelle was able to join me (2nd sentence). Was able to join me indicates the past ability. The relation of those tenses, can be expressed Obama’s happiness to visit Indonesia with his wife Michelle and they wanted to come back again to Indonesia in East Asia Summit.
Referring expression are the words whose meaning can only be discovered by referring to other words or to elements of the context which clear to both sender and receiver.
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(1) …..But I was determined to visit a country that’s meant so much to me. (Data 3:3)
I refers to the speaker, Barack Obama. The usage of I has the purpose that the speaker wants to declare himself as someone who delivered the speech. Me is object pronoun which is related to the subject. Both subject and object pronouns belong to personal reference.
Another kind of formal link is Substitution. Whereas reference is a relation between meanings, substitution is defined as grammatically relationship. In English, the substitution functions as a noun, a verb, and a clause.
(1)…those who loves ones (data 4:1)
Ones is indicated to substitute for Indonesian who are affected by the recent tsunami and the volcanic eruption related to the previous sentence. Ones is to substitute the plural nouns.
Ellipsis is the omitted part of sentences on the assumption that an earlier sentence or the context will make the meaning clear (cook, 1989:20).
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(1) Now, I stayed here for four years, a time that helped shape my childhood; a time that saw the birth of my wonderful sister, Maya; a time that made such an impression on my mother that she kept returning to Indonesia over the next 20 years to live and to work and to travel.(data 9:1)
There is an omitted part in this paragraph after the semicolon, four years as a subject is not mentioned anymore. The purpose is to make the meaning clearer.
Conjunctions are the words to join sentence elements such as words, phrases, or clauses, or even sentences.
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(1) The story of Indonesia and America should make us optimistic,..(data 49:2)
In this paragraph, and is used to join words Indonesia and America. It is also used for adding some information or words in the speech text.
The lexicon of formal links that consist of parallelism, repetition, and lexical chains were analyzed from each paragraph of the text of Barack Obama’s speech.
Parallelism is a balance of two or more similar words, phrases, or clauses. It is divided into three categories: parallelism of words, parallelism of phrases and parallelism of clauses.
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(1) Symbolized in mosques and churches and temples standing along each other;…(data 15:1)
The application of parallelism of words in this paragraph construction improves writing style of the speech text clearness and readability. The parallelism was found as the object of a sentence.
Repetition is the simple repeated word, within the sentence or a poetical line, with no particular placement of the words, in order to emphasize. There were some repetitions of words found in the speech of Barack Obama such as America, Indonesia, government, change, prosperity, responsibility, power, effort and country.
Lexical chains mean the use of Antonym (the words that are opposite in meanings) and Super ordinate (the various words that represent narrower categories).
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(1) The old men and women who welcomed us….(data 7:8)
Men and women are antonyms. Both of them contrast to express gender of human and in plural form. At that time Obama delivered his gratitude to Indonesian who welcomed him at that time.
According to the analysis of Obama’s speech “Pulang Kampung Nih” , some points can be presented as conclusion. All of the tenses used in the text of Barack Obama’s speech are appropriate with the time of the events and actions being spoken, because all the formal links that indicate formal connection as formal English are found in the speech text. The most tenses used in the text are simple present, simple past and simple future because Obama tells about his childhood in Indonesia. And also simple future tense is used to indicate the speaker’s hope and what he is going to do. The additive
conjunction “and” is used in most paragraphs and there is only causal conjunction found in the text. The referring expressions consist of personal reference, comparative reference, and demonstrative reference. In the personal references, the first person (I, me, my, mine) only refer to one person, the President of America, Barack Hussein Obama. On the other hand, the second person plural (you, we, our, us, ours) refer to the American and Indonesian, meanwhile the third person plural (they, them, their, and theirs) refer to every child born in Indonesia and also Southeast Asia People. The third person singular refers to a word or phrase depending on the content. There were also some repetitions of words (America, Indonesia, government, change, prosperity, responsibility, power, effort and country) found in speech. All of the formal links were found in the text, except the super ordinate (the various words that represent narrower categories).
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