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THE CONSTITUENT STRUCTURE BEARING TRIVALENT VERBS WITH

REFERENCE TO “SPECIAL DELIVERY” BY DANIELLE STEEL

NYOMAN ATITA YOGA ADIGUNA

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LETTER

Abstract

Penelitian ini berjudul “The Constituent Structure Bearing Trivalent Verbs with Reference to “Special Delivery” by Danielle Steel. Data diambil dari novel "Special Delivery" karya Danieele Steel. Kegiatan ini bertujuan untuk menyelesaikan kalimat/frase ke dalam komponen-komponen dan menggambarkannya secara gramatikal. Terdapat dua teori yang digunakan di penelitian ini. Teori pertama adalah teori tentang sintaksis, yaitu tentang penelitian struktur yang konstituen yang dibuat oleh Brown & Miller (1991) dan teori kedua adalah teori tentang valensi yang dibuat oleh Allerton (1982). Data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini terdiri dari kalimat-kalimat berbahasa inggris yang berstruktur kata kerja bervalensi tiga, yang diambil dari novel “Special Delivery” karya Danielle Steel. Dalam pengumpulan data, metode yang digunakan adalah penelitian kepustakaan. Setelah data terkumpul, data diklasifikasikan ke masing-masing tipe, dan akhirnya analisis tentang struktur yang konstituen dilakukan. Temuan analisis menunjukkan bahwa penggunaan teori sintaksis berhasil menganalisis struktur internal dari kalimat/frase dengan menggunakan diagram pohon.

Kata kunci: Valensi, struktur yang konstituen, diagram pohon.

  • 1.    Background of Study

Based on Syntax level, every sentence in every natural language has a specific syntactic (constituent) structure. It means that all phrases in a sentence, are headed by a lexical head. Every word in a sentence has their own syntactic function. However, verb is considered an important part that build up a sentence. Verb is the nucleus of the sentence of a clause, in the sense that the clause structure is determined by the nature of that verb used. To build a structure, a verb needs to be accompanied by one or more constituents. The constituents that usually follow a verb may be noun phrase, prepositional phrase, adjective phrase, and adverb phrase. Syntax also plays an important role in the stage of clause, whereas the verb binds the other elements in a sentence by forming a valency bound. In this case, a verb requires other constituents to build up the sentence.

The study of syntactic structure is mostly related to the morphological study. It means that this analysis concentrates on discussing valency specifically from the syntactical study point of view. It now seems worthwhile to ask what a notion like valency can contribute to our understanding of syntax. The description will cover all aspects connected to the constituent structure especially the trivalent verbs. The structural relations between the major constituents within a sentence will be represented in the form of tree diagram.

  • 2.    Problem of the Study

What types of trivalent verb of English sentences are found in the novel and how we can categorize them?

  • 3.    Aims of The Study

To analyze and describe the constituent structure of English sentences bearing trivalent verbs.

  • 4.    Research Method

The methodology in this research is concerned with three aspects, namely data source, data collection, and data analysis, each of which is further described below:

  • 4.1    Data Source

The data source of this study is the novel entitled “Special Delivery” written by Danielle Steel. Special Delivery is a romantic novel by Danielle Steel.

  • 4.2    Method and Technique of Collecting Data

The data were taken from the written sources containing constructions that relate to the topic of this writing. This was carried out through reading the data source, then some notes taking was done to record the information about relevant examples needed. Then the required data were quoted and collected.

  • 4.3    Method and technique of analyzing data

The data were classified in a systematic organization. Then, the sentence of each structure was analyzed into its constituent structures. The analysis of the constituent structure of English sentences with trivalent verbs was based on the theory of constituent structure proposed by Brown & Miller and was presented in tree diagram. After the analysis, the result was presented by descriptive method.

  • 5.    The Constituent Structure Analysis of English Sentences Bearing Trivalent Verbs

The analysis of the constituent structure of the sentences used the basis of a sentence ‘parser,’ as proposed by Keith & Brown. Every step of sentence parsing procedure or usually known as ‘sentence parsing rule,’ will be given below:

  • 1)    Determining from the lexicon the form class of every word and developed partial tree for each word where the form class label dominates the word.

  • 2)    Finding a grammar rule with X as the left-hand symbol and a category or categories as the right-hand symbol (s) (for example, X —►   Y

Z) and where the right-hand symbol(s) match some sequence of categories in the structure so far and developing a partial tree with X as the mother and the right-hand symbols as ordered daughters.

  • 3)    Continuing rule (2) until the tree is rooted in S and there are no unattached items.

(Keith & Brown, 1991: 47)

Consider, for example, the analysis of:

The cat frightened the bird

The lexicon assigns these words to the classes shown in Figure (1). Inspection of the constituent structure rules tells us that the sequence Art + N constitutes an NP. Incorporating the information, we get the structure of Figure (2).

Art   N V      Art   N

Il I Il

The   cat    frightened    the    bird

  • Figure (1)

NP                NP

The cat frightened the bird

  • Figure (2)

Repeating rules (2) and (3), we find that V + NP constitute a VP, and that NP + VP constitutes an S rule. Incorporating this information yields the tree diagram in Figure (3). Since this is rooted in S and there are no unattached items, the parse is concluded. Once again we have a labelled and bracketed analysis on a sentence, as shown in Figure (3).

The cat frightened the bird

In this analysis, the sentence parsing rules is not written. However, the completed tree diagram will be given to show the result of the sentence parsing rule. Besides, an analysis of every tree diagram is also given based on the projection of the S into phrase, phrase into words.

As explained above, there are eight types of sentences bearing trivalent verbs found in the novel. The following subchapter is the syntactic analysis of sentences bearing trivalent verbs based on the sentence parsing rules.

  • 6.    Conclusion

There are some conclusions that can be taken based on the analysis:

  • 1.    Trivalent verb is a verb that needs to be accompanied by three other constituents to build a structure in the sentence. A verb with three constituents, forms many combinations of trivalent structure. According to the combination of constituents that a trivalent verb requires, there are eight types of sentences bearing trivalent verbs found in the novel:

  • 1)    Sbj + V + Oi + O

  • 2)    Sbj + V + O + Oblique O

  • 3)    Sbj + V + Objoid i + Objoid

  • 4)    Sbj + V + O + Pred

  • 5)    Sbj + V + O + Prep O

  • 6)    Sbj + V + O + Prep Objoid

  • 7)    Sbj + V + O + Adverbial Elaborator

  • 8)    Sbj + V + O + Adverb Limiter

  • 2.    Constituent structure of English sentences bearing trivalent verb is determined by combination of elements in the sentence, which usually known as constituents. These constituents form a specific syntactic (constituent) structure.

Having analyzed the data, it was found that sentences bearing trivalent verbs have variation of syntactic (constituent) structures for each type. Mostly, all of the sentences, at first are projected into two constituents as their major constituents. However, we also found in some cases, the projection of the sentence has three constituents. It can be said that there are two variations of the S projection, as follows:

S----►   NP   VP  or

S----►   NP   aux  VP

From the analysis, we also found that there are some variations of the VP projection. These variations take a large number than the preceding one. It will be given in detail below:

VP

---►

V

NP

NP

VP

V

NP

PP

VP

---►

V

NP

AP

VP

---►

V

NP

Adv. P

VP

---►

V

NP

Adv. L

It shows the constituents that usually follow trivalent verbs, such us: NP, PP, AP, Adv. P, Adv. L. Among the others, NP is the most important as it’s occurs most frequently.

  • 7.    Bibliography

Allerton, D.J. 1982. Valency and the English Verb. London: Academic Press.

Brown, Keith & Miller, Jim. 1991. Syntax: A Linguistic Introduction to Sentence Structure. Second Edition. London: Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King’s Lynn Steel, Danielle. 1977. Special Delivery. United States