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TYPES OF INFORMATION PACKAGING CONSTRUCTIONS

WITHIN CLAUSES IN AVATAR MOVIE SCRIPT

By:

KADEK ARSINI

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LETTERS AND CULTURE, UDAYANA UNIVERSITY

Abstrak

Penelitian dengan judul Types of Information Packaging Constructions within clauses in Avatar movie script bertujuan untuk menemukan tipe konstruksi pengemasan informasi dalam klausa-klausa yang terdapat dalam naskah film Avatar dan mengidentifikasi konstruksi yang paling banyak digunakan dalam naskah film tersebut.

Data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini dikumpulkan dari naskah film berjudul Avatar yang disutradarai oleh James Cameron. Di dalam penelitian ini, peneliti menggunakan kajian pustaka dalam proses pengumpulan data dan metode kualitatif dalam proses menganalisis data. Adapun langkah-langkahnya yaitu (1) membaca naskah film, (2) mencatat semua klausa yang termasuk ke dalam tipe konstruksi pengemasan informasi, (3) menganalisis data berdasarkan tipenya dengan menerapkan teori tipe konstruksi pengemasan informasi yang dikemukakan oleh Rodney Huddleston dan Geoffrey K. Pullum (2005) dalam bukunya yang berjudul A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar, dan (4) menghitung data untuk mengetahui konstruksi yang paling banyak digunakan dalam naskah film Avatar.

Hasil penelitian yang diperoleh menyatakan bahwa (1) ditemukan sembilan tipe konstruksi pengemasan informasi di dalam naskah film Avatar, yaitu konstruksi preposing, postposing, inversion, existential, extraposition, cleft, passive, dislocation dan reduction, (2) konstruksi yang paling banyak digunakan dalam naskah film Avatar adalah konstruksi reduction dengan 99 klausa atau 55.3% dari semua data yang digunakan sebagai sumber data. Faktor utama yang menyebabkan perbedaan antara konstruksi dengan kontruksi dasarnya adalah perubahan fungsi sintak atau posisi elemen dalam klausa, namun inti makna konstruksi tersebut sama.

Kata kunci: pengemasan informasi, konstruksi, klausa

  • 1.    Background of the Study

Everybody tends to have different way when he or she wants to say information about something. It is influenced by part of information that he or she wants to emphasize. Some ways to form some different sentences which generally have the same core meaning as their basic counterpart in order to deliver information are called information packaging constructions.

This topic is very interesting to be analyzed because basically these constructions have been used in many aspects of language, covering written and oral communication. Besides, it is very important for English learners to have a clear knowledge of how to organize the sentence or clause in well-structured unit. The choice of movie as data source is because movie can represent how communication in human happens. One of the important points to make the viewers interested in the movie is caused by how the actors or the actresses can deliver the story of the movie to the viewers by choosing the appropriate ways to emphasize the important point of the movie story, and as the result, the viewers can be easier to understand it. Avatar movie was chosen as data source of this study is due to its popularity in present time. Therefore, it will be interesting to know what types of information packaging constructions used in that phenomenal movie.

  • 2.    Problems of the Study

  • 1.    What are types of information packaging constructions found within clauses in Avatar movie script?

  • 2.    What is the construction mostly used in Avatar movie script?

  • 3.    Aims of the Study

  • 1.    To find out types of information packaging constructions within clauses in Avatar movie script by applying the theories which have been learned.

  • 2.    To investigate the construction mostly used in Avatar movie script.

  • 4.    Research Method

Methodology is a system of procedures used by the researcher in a scientific research to approach the problem and to find answers through finding, collecting and analyzing data (Wiratha, 2010: 4). Research method is the ways or procedures of understanding objects that become the target of subject. To know the research method that is applied in a research is important in order to help the reader to know how the data were collected because the method applied will affect the result of the research. In this study, the research method includes data source, method and technique of collecting data, and method and technique of analyzing data.

  • 4.1.    Data Source

The data, which were described and analyzed in this study, were taken from movie script between actors and actress in Avatar movie. Therefore, Avatar movie script was used as a primary data source. The movie and the movie script were downloaded from website http://www.youtube.com/ on Monday, April 8th, 2013 at 10.30 a.m. This movie was selected because it is one of the world’s greatest movie and it has a good story. Moreover, a lot of relevant data were available there. Avatar is the 2009 science fiction adventure movie. It was directed by James Cameron.

  • 4.2.    Method and Technique of Collecting Data

In this study, the library research seems to be the appropriate method of collecting data. According to Suharsimi (2010: 274), library research is a research to find out data concerning a subject or a variable from notebook, transcript, book, newspaper, magazine, ancient inscription, notes of a meeting, lengger, agenda, etc.

In collecting data, data were collected through some steps. Firstly, data were selected by reading the movie script of Avatar movie. Then, all clauses that belong to types of information packaging constructions were noted down. There were 179 clauses used as data in this research. Finally, data were put in a table in order to make easier when analyzing process.

  • 4.3.    Method and Technique of Analyzing Data

In this study, the data were analyzed using deductive-inductive method, as it is qualitative study. This process started from applying a theory and then explaining the research using clearly description.

The data collected from the sources were analyzed by doing several steps. Firstly, the data were categorized based on their types using the types of information packaging constructions’ theory proposed by Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum (2005). Then, the data were explained by choosing some clauses randomly which were considered representations of each type of information packaging constructions that were analyzed. The choice of some clauses as representative clauses of each type of information packaging constructions aimed to prevent repetition in explaining the clauses that have the similar analysis. After that, the syntactic features (e.g. the presence of there, dummy pronoun it, etc.) and syntactic functions (e.g. subject, predicate, object, complement and adjunct) of clauses used as representations were analyzed deeply. Lastly, the data were calculated in order to find out the most constructions used within clauses in Avatar movie script.

  • 5.    Analysis of Types of Information Packaging Constructions within Clauses in Avatar Movie Script

    • 5.1    Types of Information Packaging Constructions Found Within Clauses in Avatar Movie Script

In this analysis, the data obtained were analyzed by applying a theory proposed by Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum (2005) in their book entitled A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar. They divided types of information packaging constructions into nine types, such as: preposing, postposing, inversion, existential, extraposition, cleft, passive, dislocation and reduction constructions.

Below is a sample of analysis of one type of information packaging constructions found within clauses in Avatar movie script:

  • 5.1.1.    Preposing Construction

According to Huddleston and Pullum, preposing involves inserting an element before the subject of a clause when its basic position would be after the verb (2005: 256). It is intended to emphasize the truth or some part of information.

Data 1

Preposing Construction : … A marine we could use. … (Pre.14) Basic Order               : We could use a marine.

The Analysis:

In its basic order of data above, we is the subject of the clause and has position in front of the clause, could use is the predicate of the clause and has position after the subject, and a marine is the complement of the clause and has position at the end of the clause. However, in the preposing construction, the complement a marine has different position from its basic order. It is put in front of the subject of the clause. It showed that by putting complement a marine in front of the clause, the speaker wanted the hearer to pay more attention to the complement a marine rather than subject we or predicate could use, therefore she/he emphasized it by changing its position to in front of the clause. Although its position is different, its syntactic function did not change. A marine still functions as the complement of the clause, not the subject of the clause, and the meaning between preposing construction and its basic construction are same.

  • 5.2 . The Construction Mostly Used in Avatar Movie Script

Based on the analysis above, it was found nine types of information packaging constructions with total clauses which belong to each type as follows:

NO.

TYPE OF CONSTRUCTIONS

TOTAL CLAUSES

PERCENTAGE (%)

1.

Preposing

24

13.4

2.

Postposing

1

0.6

3.

Inversion

4

2.2

4.

Existential

19

10.6

5.

Extraposition

5

2.8

6.

Cleft

4

2.2

7.

Passive

19

10.6

8.

Dislocation

4

2.2

9.

Reduction

99

55.3

Total

179

Types of information packaging constructions mostly used in Avatar movie script is Reduction Construction with ninety nine clauses or 55.3% from all clauses in the data source. The least constructions found in the data source is Postposing Construction with one clause or 0.6 % from all clauses in the data source.

  • 6.    Conclusion

Based on the problems of the study that have been formulated and the analysis, the following points can be drawn as conclusion.

There are one hundred seventy nine data found in the data source. They are classified into nine types of information packaging constructions, such as preposing, postposing, inversion, existential, extraposition, cleft, passive, dislocation and reduction constructions.

In preposing, postposing and inversion constructions, the changes of canonical or basic constructions into their non-canonical constructions are mostly caused by the shift of element positions in the clauses grammatically. The shift of complements mostly occurs in comparison with the shift of adjuncts in those constructions. In existential, extraposition, cleft, passive, dislocation, and reduction constructions, the changes of canonical or basic constructions into their non-canonical constructions are mostly caused by the changes in syntactic functions in the clauses, like the addition of the dummy there in existential constructions, the addition of the dummy pronoun it in extraposition and cleft constructions, the addition of auxiliary verb be and the preposition by in passive

constructions, the addition of pronoun in dislocation constructions and reduction of NPs, clauses, PPs, locative PPs and VPs in reduction constructions. The changes in syntactic functions or positions in those constructions made those constructions have different constructions from their basic constructions syntactically. However, those constructions and their basic constructions have the same meaning.

Types of information packaging constructions which are found mostly in Avatar movie script are reduction constructions with ninety nine clauses or 55.3% from all clauses that used as data source.

  • 7.    Bibliography

Arikunto, Suharsimi. 2010. Prosedur Penelitian: Suatu Pendekatan Praktik. Jakarta: PT Rineka Cipta.

Hornby, A.S. 2005. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Seventh Edition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hussleston, Rodney and Pullum, Geoffrey K. 2005. A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wiratha, Nyoman.2010. The Analysis of Noun Phras in Complex Sentence with Reference to Novel Peter Pan by James Matthew Barrie (thesis). Denpasar: Udayana University.