Vol. 7 No. 2 December 2020. Elite ; English and Literature Journal

A Multimodal Analysis Of Wardah Lipstick Advertisement Aning Rustanti Raharjo et.al

research can be used to examine student's performance in the class, student's
identity, examination, and official curriculum. The existence of multimodal
educators/teachers allows us to approve different student needs in a language
learning environment. The study is expected to contribute to the academic field,
especially on the discourse analysis of multimodal analysis in advertisement
language. The study is also expected to give additional information for further
research studies on the same topic. Further research studies are suggested to analyze
both printed and electronic advertisements to apply the semiotics and multimodal
analysis comprehensively.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Amatullah, F., Rosa, R. N., & Padang, U. N. (2019). An Analysis of Multimodal In
Beauty Product. 8(1).

Anstey, M., & Bull, G. (2010). Helping teachers to explore multimodal texts".
Curriculum and Leadership. vol 8 (16), 11.

Birner, A. (2015). Review of Painter, C., J. R. Martin & L. Unsworth (2013) Reading
Visual Narratives: Image Analysis of Children’s Picture Books . Australian
Review of Applied Linguistics, 38(1), 85–88.
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.38.1.05bir

Bo, X. (2018). Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the Movie Argo. English Language
Teaching, 11(4), 132. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v11n4p132

Eynullaeva, E. (2018). Relational Designs in Literature and the Arts. Relational
Designs in Literature and the Arts, January 2012.
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401208567

Farias, Miguel, Oblinovic katica, O. R. (2007). Implications of Multimodal Learning
Models for foreign language teaching and learning 1. Colombian Applied
Linguistics Journal, 9, 2–3.

Feng, D., & O’Halloran, K. L. (2012). Representing emotive meaning in visual
images: A social semiotic approach. Journal of Pragmatics, 44(14), 2067–2084.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2012.10.003

Hidayat, D. N., Abrizal, A., & Alek, A. (2017). A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of
the Interpersonal Meaning of a Television Advertisement in Indonesia.
Indonesian Journal of English Education, 5(2), 119–126.

Hidayat, D. N., Septiawan, Y., & Sufyan, Y. (2020). Critical Discourse Analysis and
Its Potential for English Language Teaching: A study on Beauty Advertisement
Products in Indonesia. Asian ESP Journal, 16(2.2), 271–297.

Hu, C., & Luo, M. (2016). A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Tmall’s Double
Eleven Advertisement. English Language Teaching, 9(8), 156.

158 Elite Journal Volume 7 Nomor 2, December 2020

Aning Rustanti Raharjo et.al A Multimodal Analysis Of Wardah Lipstick Advertisement

https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v9n8p156

Koçyiğit, M. (2018). A literature review on the viral advertising narrative structure.
In Brand Culture and Identity: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and
Applications (Vol. 3, pp. 1363–1379). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-
5225-7116-2.ch073

Lim-fei, V., Tan, S., & Yin, K. (2017). Multimodal Translational Research: Teaching
Visual Texts. New Studies in Multimodality : Conceptual and Methodological
Elaborations, December 2016. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350026544.0014

Machin, D., & Mayr, A. (2012). How to do Critical Discourse Analysis - A
Multimodal Introduction. London SAGE, 4, 12.

Mohajan, H. K. (2018). Qualitative Research Methodology in Social Sciences and
Related Subjects. Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People,
7(1), 23. https://doi.org/10.26458/jedep.v7i1.571

Nashihah. (2016). Discourse analysis of Rexona advertising (Thesis). State Islamic
University Sunan Kalijaga. Yogyakarta.

Pettinger, R. (2013). Organizational Behaviour. In Organizational Behaviour.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203857595

Ping, K. (2018). A Visual Grammar Analysis of Lesaffre’s Website. Advances in
Language and Literary Studies, 9(6), 38.
https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.9n.6p.38

Shamini Periasamy, M., Gruba, P., & Subramaniam, G. (n.d.). A Multimodal Literary
Analysis of a Television Commercial. In The Southeast Asian Journal of English
Language Studies (Vol. 3, Issue 3).

Stenglin, M. (2008). Binding: A resource for exploring interpersonal meaning in
three-dimensional space. Social Semiotics, 18(4), 425–447.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330802469904

Suprakisno. (2010). Analisis Multimodal Iklan “ Indomie ” Suprakisno Fakultas
Bahasa dan Seni Universitas Negeri Medan.

Turhan, B. (2017). Critical Discourse Analysis of Advertising: Implications for
Language Teacher Education. International Journal of Languages’ Education,
1(Volume 5 Issue 4), 213–226. https://doi.org/10.18298/ijlet.2301

Walia, R. (2016). A Saga of Qualitative Research. Sociology and Criminology-Open
Access, 04(01), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.4172/2375-4435.1000124

Elite Journal Volume 7 Nomor 2, December 2020 159

Implementing of Polytechnic Students’ Ability Masrul Huda, Gozali

IMPLEMENTING OF POLYTECHNIC STUDENTS’ ABILITY OF WRITING
APPLICATION LETTERS

Masrul Huda1, Gozali2
Jl Sukarno Hatta, State Polytechnic of Balikpapan. Balikpapan Utara,

Kalimantan Timur, Indonesia
[email protected], [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Writing an English application letter is one of ‘Job Getting’ materials. The writing results can measure
the students’ writing ability in English. This study aims to describe the writing quality of English
application letters made by State Polytechnic of Balikpapan students. It also tries to explain frequent
errors in the application letter. The research method used is descriptive qualitative. The data obtained
were assessed based on a scoring rubric. There are four criteria assessed including content,
organization, grammar, and mechanic. The data results are presented in the tables, graphs, and
description. The results show (1) Most of the students' abilities are at Scale 4 and none has the ability
at Scale 1. The average number of each component is Content 3,95; Organization 3,89; Grammar 3,38;
and Mechanic 3,30. (2) Errors made in writing application letters can be found in all components. Most
mistakes were made by students in all components, respectively, mechanics, grammar, organization,
and content.

Keywords: Error Analysis, Job Application Letter, Writing Ability.

ABSTRAK

Menulis surat lamaran pekerjaan dalam Bahasa Inggris menjadi salah satu materi di Materi ‘Job
Getting’. Hasil tulisan tersebut dapat mengukur kemampuan menulis mahasiswa dalam Bahasa
Inggris. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan kualitas surat lamaran pekerjaan yang dibuat
oleh mahasiswa Politeknik Negeri Balikpapan. Penelitian ini menjelaskan kesalahan dalam penulisan
surat lamaran pekerjaan. Metode penelitian yang dilakukan adalah deskriptif kualitatif. Data yang
diperoleh dinilai berdasarkan rubrik penilaian. Terdapat empat kriteria yang dinilai meliputi content,
organization, grammar, dan mechanic. Hasil dari analisis data dipaparkan dalam bentuk tabel, grafik
dan pemaparan secara deskriptif. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa (1) Kemampuan mahasiswa
sebagian besar di Skala 4 dan tidak ada satupun yang mempunyai kemampuan di Skala 1. Angka rata-
rata tiap komponen adalah Content 3,95; Organization 3,89; Grammar 3,38; dan Mechanic 3,30 (2)
Kesalahan yang dilakukan dalam penulisan surat lamaran terdapat di semua komponen. Kesalahan
terbanyak dilakukan mahasiswa pada komponen berturut-turut mechanic, grammar, organization dan
content.

Kata Kunci: Analisis Kesalahan, Surat Lamaran Pekerjaan, Kemampuan Menulis.

INTRODUCTION

State Polytechnic of Balikpapan is a vocational college having the vision to
produce graduates with global competitiveness. The polytechnic is required to equip
its graduates with qualified foreign language skills. Various attempts have been made.
One of them is by designing a curriculum to produce work-ready graduates. The
English curriculum at State Polytechnic of Balikpapan is divided into several parts,
such as reading, speaking, writing and job getting. Job getting material is given to all

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Sixth-semester students. It is intended its students will be ready to enter the work
world. It means the polytechnic does not only equip graduates with engineering skills
but also language skill.

Nowadays, many companies require their job applicants to write an
application letter in English. It is done to determine the job applicants' initial ability
to express their ideas in English. Based on the explanation above, the researchers
need to know the State Polytechnic of Balikpapan students' mastery in English
writing. The research can be used as a basis for English lecturers to maximize their
teaching method and the material. It is expected that the researchers can find the
appropriate strategy given to students to improve their English language skills,
especially writing. Based on the background of the study, the researchers came up
with the following problems: how is the ability of State Polytechnic of Balikpapan
students in writing an English job application letters?, and what are writing errors
made during producing an English job application letter?

LITERATURE REVIEW

Application letter

In English, the term of the job application letter is also known as a cover
letter. A job application letter is intended to provide detailed information along with
the reasons why the prospective worker becomes a candidate who meets the
requirements for the job vacancy offered. The job application letter is usually sent
along with a resume functioning as an additional information document about the
applicant's skill and experience (Doyle, 2019). Doyle (2019) states the ideal job
application letter includes three parts:

1. Introduction. This section covers where a job applicant gets information about
the job vacancy, the position applied for and the reasons why an applicant is
interested to apply for a job.

2. Body. This section describes the qualifications possessed by a job applicant. It
contains certain abilities or skills required in carrying out the work applied. It
usually highlights the main reasons why an applicant is worthy.

3. Closing. This section contains gratitude and appreciation to the job recipient
for taking the time to read and consider an applicant's letter. It serves a piece
of information for the recipient to contact a job applicant as a follow-up in the
recruitment process. It is usually completed with the applicant's signature and
full name.

Writing Assessment

According to Nurgiyantoro (2001), writing is a productive activity to

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Implementing of Polytechnic Students’ Ability Masrul Huda, Gozali

produce language. In general, writing is an activity to express ideas through language
media. It can be concluded that an important element of writing is the element of
language and its ideas. The writing competency assessment considers the elements of
language and ideas, so the appropriate writing assignment is an essay in the text form.
According to Nurgiyantoro (2001), the writing assessment types are: arranging
paragraphs: objective tests, writing based on visual stimuli, writing based on sound
stimuli, writing based on book stimuli, writing reports, writing letters, and writing
based on certain topics.

Error Analysis (EA)

Dulay, Burt and Krashen (1982) state Error Analysis (EA) is a method for
analysing errors made by EFL (English Foreign Learner) when they learn a language.
The method helps to reveal further strategies based on the studies conducted. The
method helps teachers determine better teaching materials to improve the language
learner ability because it reveals the difficulties faced by learners in receiving
learning. James (1998) explains error analysis is an analysis of the learners’ mistakes
by comparing what learners learned to what they have. Crystal (1999) adds Error
Analysis (EA) is a language study in which language learners make mistakes from the
target language being learned.

Classification of Errors

Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982) categorize errors into six different
categories: omission of grammatical morphemes, double signs of semantic features,
irregular use of rules, use of wrong tenses, alternating use of two or more forms, and
wrong use. James (1998) proposes five categories of errors including grammatical
errors (adjectives, adverbs, articles, nouns, possessions, pronouns, prepositions, and
verbs), substance errors (capitalization, punctuation and spelling), lexical errors
(word formation and word selection), syntactic errors (coordination/subordination,
sentence structure and ordering), and semantic errors (ambiguous communication and
miscommunication)

RESEARCH METHOD
Types of Research Method

(Lambert V. & Lambert C, 2012) state qualitative descriptive method is the
most theoretical of all approaches to qualitative research. (Nassaji, 2015) explains the
method objective is to describe the phenomenon and its characteristics. Qualitative
research is more holistic because it involves data from multiple sources to gain a

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deeper understanding from an individual including perspectives and attitudes.

This research was conducted using a qualitative-descriptive method because it
focuses on the analysis obtained from the Sixth-semester student assignments who
are taking a Job Getting course. In short, the researchers analysed based on the data
obtained and explained in descriptive form. The data are obtained from 63 students’
results in writing English job application letters. The students took English 3: Job
Getting course. The data analysis was begun by collecting 63 assignments to write an
English job application letter. Scenarios for data analysis techniques are as follows:
Collecting data: the data is retrieved through writing assignments. After the data is
collected, the results are printed using a writing rubric. Classifying or identifying
errors: the researcher identifies what types of errors students made in grammar and
vocabulary used. Data were analysed based on Content, Organization, Grammar, and
Mechanics using a scoring rubric adapted from Cohen (1994).

Component Scale Indicator

of writing

Content 5 Main ideas are stated clearly and accurately

4 Main ideas are stated fairly, clearly, and accurately

3 Main ideas are stated somewhat unclear or

inaccurate

2 Main ideas are stated not clear or accurate

1 Main ideas are stated not all clear or accurate

Organization 5 Well organized and perfectly coherent

4 Fairly well organized and generally coherent

3 Loosely organized but main ideas clear, logical, but

2 incomplete sequencing

1 Ideas disconnected and lacks logical sequencing

No organization, incoherent

Grammar 5 No errors, full control of the complex structure

4 Almost no errors, good control of the structure

3 Some errors, fair control of the structure

2 Many errors, poor control of the structure

1 Dominated by errors, no control of the structure

Mechanic 5 Mastery of spelling

4 Few errors in spelling and punctuation

3 Fair number of spelling and punctuation errors

2 Frequent errors in spelling and punctuation

1 No control over spelling and punctuation

Table 1. Writing Assessment Rubric adapted from Cohen (1994)

How to calculate the value:

1. Job application letters are assessed based on a specified scale

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Implementing of Polytechnic Students’ Ability Masrul Huda, Gozali

2. The number of scores obtained from 4 components (Content, Organization,
Grammar, and Mechanic)

3. The result is the average of each component

The next step is to describe the results of the assessment in the form of content errors,
organizational errors, grammar errors, and mechanical errors.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

FINDINGS

The section describes the distribution results of the five predefined scales. The
results of data analysis are presented in tables and graphs. The tables are used as
distribution recapitulation of 63 written results obtained from the research samples.
The graphs are used as an illustration from recapitulation results. There are four
writing components which are analysed, namely (1) Content, (2) Organization, (3)
Grammar and (4) Mechanic.

1. Content

In this component, an assessment is carried out by looking at the main idea of each
paragraph including opening, body, and closing. The results are distributed in the
table below:

Table 2. The recapitulation of ‘Content’ assessment

Scale Total
5 16
4 30
3 15
2 2
1 0

50 Content 5

0 234
1

Graph 1. The results of the 'Content' assessment
2. Organization

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The assessment made on this component includes coherence between
paragraphs and regularity in producing a paragraph that is interrelated and related.
The results are distributed in the table below:

Table 3. The recapitulation of ‘Organization’ assessment

Scale Total
5 13
4 33
3 14
2 3
1 0

50 Organization 5

0 234
1

Graph 2. The results of ‘Organization’ assessment

3. Grammar

This component is crucial because in English, grammar functions as grammar
and becomes an internal component affecting the coherence and sequence between
paragraphs. Grammar components can cause other components to have no connection
if the grammar is used incorrectly. The results are distributed in the table below:

Table 4. The recapitulation of ‘Grammar’ assessment

Scale Total
5 1
4 31
3 22
2 9
1 0

500 0 Grammar 5
1
9 22 31

234

Graph 3. The results of ‘Grammar’ assessment

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Implementing of Polytechnic Students’ Ability Masrul Huda, Gozali

4. Mechanic

This component acts as a supporting factor for the neatness of a written result.
There are two important things used as a benchmark in determining the scale:
spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. The results are distributed in the table
below:

Table 5. The recapitulation of ‘Mechanic’ assessment

Scale Total
5 1
4 31
3 17
2 14
1 0

50 Mechanic 5
0
234
1

Graph 4. The results of ‘Mechanic’ assessment

DISCUSSION

This section describes the description of the errors obtained from the 63-job
application letters assessed.

1. Content

Analysis of this component is carried out by looking at the main idea of each
paragraph including opening, body, and closing.

Opening. The analysis is carried out by looking at the completeness of items such as
job application source information which includes the website/company address and
the time the company advertises job vacancies, the position the applicant wishes to
apply for, and the applicant's interest in the position. The results showed that students
can apply the use of salutation which is useful as an opening greeting. In this section,
students can also write about sources of job applications obtained both online and
offline. The results showed that students can apply the idea in the opening. In
practice, the positions listed in job application letters are customer service, teller,

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back office, and finance.

Body. In this section, an analysis is carried out on the student's ability to reveal the
qualifications and reasons the applicant deserves to be considered along with the
experience possessed by the applicant. In this section, students share a lot of
experiences and knowledge gained during the OJT (on the job training) program at
banks and pawnshops. Students also tell about the skills they have and the application
of these skills in the world of work.

Closing. The ability of students in writing the closing section shows various abilities.
The use of several sentences used as gratitude to readers of job applications for the
time given and the hope of the applicant to be called back is very satisfying.

2. Organization

The analysis carried out in this section includes the student's ability to make
coherent writing between paragraphs. This coherence is seen by linking the continuity
between paragraphs. In general, students have succeeded in making coherent
paragraphs because students already understand the parts of each paragraph and can
use conjunctions that are useful to form writing into a unified whole.

3. Grammar

The results of the analysis show that several mistakes were made by students
in making job application letters.

Modal

The error occurs in the usage of the verb after the modal. The expected verb is the
infinitive (V1), but in practice, there are several verbs in the Ving, V2, V3 and to
infinitive forms.

Example:

(1) I can reached at
(2) I can operateing
(3) … will freely see my CV or to contact …

Tenses

The mismatch between the subject and the verb is a frequent occurrence. This
error becomes quite crucial because the form of the verb can affect the timing of a
particular event. The form of tense that is often wrong is the Present Perfect Tense.
The verb after have / has, which should be a past participle (V3), is instead in V1, V-s
and V2.

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Implementing of Polytechnic Students’ Ability Masrul Huda, Gozali

Example:
(1) My financial strength includes ….
(2) … background has providesd …
(3) I have graduated …
(4) I have completesd

Tobe

In nominal sentences, to be (is, am, are, was were) is used as an auxiliary verb. This
is because all sentences in English must have a verb. The absence of tobe often
occurs in nominal sentences that include an adjective (adjective) and a noun (noun)
after the subject.

Example:

(1) I am confident
(2) … there is a job
(3) I am eager

Prepositions

There are many mis conformances between words using prepositions such as at, on,
in, etc. Students are less able to see the function and use of each preposition used.

Example:
(1) I graduated at from Polytechnic …
(2) …after graduating of from …

4. Mechanic

Items that are taken into consideration in granting this component are spelling,
punctuation and capitalization.

Spelling. Errors occur in the writing of spelling, including spelling that has not been
translated into English, the addition of letters both vowels and consonants in words,
missing letters, both vowels and consonants, and inverted letter positions.

Example:
(1) … PolytechnicNegeri State Polytechnic - Not translated
(2) I alaso also writing - Addition of letters
(3) 3 months trainingas training - Addition of letters
(4) I can eplain explain - Missing consonant letter

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(5) …details rgreding regarding- Missing vowel letter

Punctuation. The use of punctuation marks that indicate multiple errors is a period
and a comma.

Example:

(1) Mr.AlfizarBaihaqi - Mr. Alfizar Baihaqi - Missing space
(2) … company.Previous … company. Previous … - Missing space
(3) … staff position,considering …- Missing space
(4) Dear Aditya (,) - No comma after name

Capitalization. This item is an additional item used to analyses Mechanic
components. The analysis results show that the use of capital letters is often used to
pronounce me 'I' which should be capital but written in small letter.

Example:

(1) i I am writing …
(2) after i I graduated
(3) bBalikapapan sState pPolytechnic
(4) … curriculum vitae Wwhich shows …
(5) I am writing to Yyou

CONCLUSION

The study concludes (1) the analysis result of 4 components (content,
organization, grammar, and mechanics), most of the students' abilities were on Scale
4 and none of them had the ability on Scale 1. The average score for each component
is Content 3, 95; Organization 3, 89; Grammar 3, 38; and Mechanic 3, 30. (2) Errors
made in writing a cover letter can be found in all components. Most mistakes were
made by students in the components, respectively, mechanics, grammar, organization,
and content.

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Brown, H. D. (2004). Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices.
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Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language
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Dulay, H. C., Burt, M.K., & Krashen, S.D. (1982). Language Two. New York:
Oxford University Press

Doyle, Alison. 2019. Sample Cover Letter for a Job Application.

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/job-application-letter-sample-2062548
accessed April 8, 2020

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Teacher Self-Development and Methodology Guide. Ann Arbor: The
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Lightbown, P. M. and Spada, Nina. (1999). How Languages are Learned. 2nd
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Nurgiyantoro, Burhan. (2001). Penilaian dalam Pengajaran Bahasa dan Sastra.
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Sugiyono. (2008). Metode Penelitian, Pendekatan Kuantitatif, Kualitatif, dan R&D.
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Elite Journal Volume 7 Nomor 2, December 2020 171

“constant, zig-zag linear, or multiple?" Merina Devira at al

“CONSTANT, ZIG-ZAG LINEAR, OR MULTIPLE?”: THEMATIC
PROGRESSION PATTERNS ON EFL STUDENTS’ RECOUNT TEXTS

Merina Devira1, Makhroji2, Allif Syahputra Bania3, Novia Sari4
Department of English Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education,

Universitas Samudra, Langsa, Aceh. Indonesia
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

The main problem faced by EFL students in writing English texts includes the difficulties to produce a
cohesive and coherent text that it seems necessary to show how the tools of Theme and Rheme can be
used to help construct the students' good English writing. This study aimed to find out the types of
thematic progression patterns in each clause of the recount texts written by students and the dominant
pattern of thematic progression revealed from the texts. The research design of this study is a
qualitative method which employed the study instrument of the students' recount texts at class IX of
SMAN 2 Langsa, Aceh. A content analysis approach by using a Theme and Rheme framework
generated from a theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) was used to analyze the thematic
progression patterns on the students' recount texts, which included several steps: reading the student's
texts, identifying the theme and rheme of every clause of the student's text, describing the thematic
progression patterns of student's text and drawing the thematic progression pattern on student's text.
The findings of the analysis indicated that there are three (3) thematic progression patterns found on
the students' recount texts: the Theme Constant, the Theme Zig Zag Linear pattern and Theme
Multiple patterns. The dominant type of thematic progression patterns constructed by the students into
their recount texts was revealed mostly on 123 constant or reiteration patterns (76.8%), followed by
zig-zag patterns of 35 times (21.8%) and 9 times (1.25%) of multiple patterns. The results of this
study will be facilitative as the tools for English language teaching and learning classrooms
particularly for writing English texts.

Keywords: theme-rheme, thematic progression pattern, students' writing, recount text

ABSTRAK

Masalah utama yang dihadapi oleh para siswa dengan Bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa asing yaitu
termasuk kesulitan dalam menuliskan sebuah teks yang kohesif dan koheren sehingga dirasakan
penting untuk memaparkan alat Theme dan Rheme yang dapat digunakan untuk membantu para siswa
dalam menulis teks Bahasa Inggris yang bagus. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan jenis-jenis
pola tematik progresi pada setiap klause teks recount yang dituliskan oleh para siswa dan jenis pola
progresi tematik yang paling sering muncul dalam teks mereka. Pendekatan penelitian yang
digunakan pada studi ini adalah metode kualitatif yang menggunakan instrumen penelitian berupa
teks recount siswa pada kelas IX SMAN 2 Langsa, Aceh. Pendekatan analisis isi dengan menggunakan
kerangka Theme dan Rheme yang diturunkan dari Sistemik Fungsional Linguistik digunakan untuk
menganalisa pola progresi tematik yang terdapat pada teks recount siswa, yang termasuk beberapa
langkah: membaca teks siswa, mengidentifikasi theme dan rheme dari setiap klausa teks para siswa,
memaparkan pola-pola progresi tematik pada teks siswa dan menggambarkan pola progresi tematik
pada teks siswa. Hasil dari analisis menunjukkan bahwa ada tiga (3) pola progresi tematik yang
terdapat pada teks recount para siswa: pola konstan, pola zig zag, dan pola ganda. Jenis pola
progresi tematik yang paling dominan digunakan oleh para siswa pada teks recount mereka adalah
berjumlah 123 untuk pola konstan (76.8%), pola zig zag dengan jumlah 35 kali (21.8%) dan 9 kali
(1.25%) untuk pola ganda. Hasil dari penelitian ini akan menjadi fasilitasi untuk kelas pengajaran
dan pembelajaran bahasa Inggris terutama untuk penulisan teks dalam bahasa Inggris.

Kata kunci: theme-rheme, pola progresi tematik, penulisan siswa, teks recount

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INTRODUCTION

The skill of writing an English text plays an important role for students who
are in the process of learning a language when the skill itself is considered to the
difficult subject for many students. This is supported by (Harmer, 2004) stating that
writing is an integral skill as like the other English language skills, such as reading,
speaking, and listening. (Younes & Albalawi, 2015) further mentioned that writing an
English text has been considered as a difficult subject for most language learners with
English as a foreign language or second language. Therefore, it can be assumed that
English writing skill is quite difficult for most English foreign language students with
the conditions that require the solutions to the students' difficulties in writing English
texts.

According to (Pertiwi, Ngadiso, & Drajati, 2018), in writing English texts, the
students should understand clearly about the ways on how to create, build, express,
and organize clear ideas into sentences and paragraphs. Also, to construct a robust
paragraph, the students should strongly be encouraged to require adequate knowledge
about creating and organizing the ideas into the meaningful language which aim to
help the students express and manage the flow of ideas in an effective paragraph to
the readers.

In addition to the organization of the ideas, the students also should deepen
their understanding of the coherence of the text. Coherence means as a credible and
obvious connection between one parts to other parts of a sentence connected in a
smooth and rational order (Butt, Fahey, Feez, Spinks, & Yallop, 2000). (Lock, 1996)
argued that students' text analysis should be performed by English teachers to assess
the students' ability in writing and to analyze the students' obstacles in writing. The
teachers can help students' difficulties in English writing by knowing the students'
difficulties and their capability in writing a text so that their written texts can be
understood by the readers. One of the ways that can be performed by the teachers is
by giving feedback to the students‟ writing through a textual analysis of the students‟
thematic progression writing.

(Eggins, 2004) stated that "the significance of cohesion and coherence from a
text is made by thematic progressions". It means that cohesion and coherence are
important parts of the thematic progressions related to each other. The thematic
progression shows several kinds of pattern of Theme and Rheme constructed in the
students' writing.

(Wang, 2007) explained that in delivering the information through sentences,
a knowledge of the theme and rheme of texts is needed. (Halliday & Matthiessen,
2014) also mentioned that the theme is a significant part in delivering the message
that provides information about the topic or clause. Rheme can be understood as part
of the clause produced by Theme. The theme addresses the main content of the text
(clause) while the rheme explains the rest of the information in the content. The
interactions of these two parts of theme and rheme organize how the information of
each clause in the text is constructed (Eggins, 1994, p.275). Hence, the knowledge of

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organizing Theme and Rheme is significant to be introduced and promoted by
English teachers to create good writing by the students.

Moreover, main problems faced by EFL students in writing English texts
including the difficulties in cohesion and coherence of writing, such as creating the
ideas and managing the flow of ideas into organized sentences (Pertiwi et al., 2018).
As also explained by (Lengsfeld et al. 2004) and (Devira, 2017), the cohesion in
writing can be highlighted as the main problem faced by the students when they are
learning to write English texts. This problem should be a focus of attention to be
resolved since the cohesion and coherence are mainly required for paragraph writing.
Therefore, it is needed to conduct a study focusing on the use of the salient tools of
Theme and Rheme of Systemic Functional Linguistics in both studying the students‟
writing thematic progression patterns and showing its knowledge functions in
writing.

Regarding the text type being focused in this present study, there are two main
reasons: (1) there was no previous study about the analysis of senior high school students'
recount text in Aceh school context by using the Thematic Progression analysis; (2) the
recount text was the genre frequently introduced to the students at the high school level but
the tools of Theme-Rheme on SFL theory had been never exposed to the writing skill
teaching approach in Aceh school context

Based on the explanation above, the following questions are formulated as the
research questions of this study: what kinds of thematic progression patterns are
found in the recount texts written by EFL students at grade XI of senior high school?
And what is the dominant pattern of the thematic progressions revealed in EFL
students' recount texts at grade XI of senior high school?

LITERATURE REVIEW

Writing

According to (Brown, 2001), the writing skill comprises two processes that need to
be undertaken by the writers. In the first process, the writers should learn how to comprehend
the meaning and secondly, they are expected to transfer their meaning and understanding into
language. Regarding the students' English writing skill learning, it means that the students
should require the capability of ideas organisation and sufficient knowledge of mechanics
writing and writing production.

Moreover, at present, the demand for writing assignments (projects) in academic
areas is increasing due to the impact of globalization. As a consequence, EFL students
become more motivated to own a capacity of good writing to continue their education in
offshore universities, to participate in the academic world, and to apply for a good job.
Considering the fact that the majority of Indonesian students' skill in English writing is still
low, encouraging the students to learn how to build and manage a good English paragraph
should take precedence.

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Turning to the definition of writing, it can be defined as a skill for writing sentences
and paragraphs correctly based on the proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. It is also
understood as the process of converting ideas coherently and cohesively into a written text.
Hence, the ability of students in understanding the ways about how to manage and combine
the meaning of ideas into the coherent and cohesion of paragraphs is quite significant in the
writing process.

Cohesion exists between two or more linguistic units in a piece of discourse that
refers to the formal grammatical and lexical relations. According to (Halliday and Hasan,
1976) define "cohesion as a part of meaning relations between elements in discourse that are
fundamental to the interpretation in a text". Cohesion can be said as an organization process
like aim that helps to connect sentences, paragraphs and sections coherently in writing a text.
According to (Tarnyikova, 2009) "the cohesion presents a beginning structure linkage
between elements of a text". It can be said that grammatical and lexical connect in a text or
sentence that keep a text together and gives the meaning or purpose of a text. It is related to
the significant concept of coherence.

Coherence is achieved when sentences and ideas are connected and flow together
smoothly and it allows the reader to move easily throughout the essay from one idea to the
next, from one sentence to the next, and from one paragraph to the next. According to
(Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004:309) "coherence is the eternal resource for structuring the
clause as a message, including the notions of theme and information". Writing without
coherence can inhibit a reader's understanding of the ideas and main points of the writing.
Coherence means a clear and reasonable connection between parts and all the parts in a
sentence are connected in a smooth and logical order.
Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) Theory

Systemic Functional Grammar or Linguistics (SFL) was firstly introduced by
Michael Halliday and also deployed by (Matthiessen, 2004). Halliday's theory views the
language is part of a semiotic system (structure) organized systematically as a significant
resource of meaning for the utters, then can be produced in a written form. This theory has
enabled the writers to use textual tools which included both Theme and Rheme in creating a
meaningful written text.

(Gerot and Wignell, 1994) explains that the purpose of a language is mostly
described in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), a text-based theory of language. The
origin of this theory is achieved from a deliberate analysis of oral and written language and
its use to the contexts. Regarding the contexts, therefore, the concern of SFL theory focused
more on the notion of the language functions rather than on the description of the language
structures which were composed (Matthiessen & Halliday, 1997).

Theme and Rheme

Theme and rheme are functional linguistic tools generated from the theory of
Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) that mostly analysed the purpose of the language use.

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According to Halliday and Mathiessen (2004), the thematic structure of the sentence consists
of two parts: Theme and Rheme. The theme, in English text, can be defined as the first
position of the clause while rheme is the remaining development of the clause, as the second
position (Halliday, 2004). (Butt et al, 2001) states that Theme is as part of the sentence
signifying the main point of the message and Rheme is the other part conveying the
temporary purpose of the message.

In addition to the nature of Theme and Rheme definitions, Theme as the first position
of the clause can be divided into three elements: (1) topical (experiential or ideational), (2)
textual, and (3) interpersonal (Halliday, 1985; Astuti, Suryani, & Kurniati, 2010). Firstly, a
topical theme acts as participant, process, or circumstance standing as a constituent of the
clause. A textual theme refers to the creators or any of their combinations constructing the
meanings of the text itself, consisting of continuatives, conjunctions, and conjunctive adjunct.
The position of the textual theme also can be found before the topical theme. Further, the
interpersonal theme is a part that may include the finite before the subject in interrogative
clauses, vocatives, modal adjunct, and polarity adjunct. Lastly, Rheme position is also as
important as the function of the Theme tool which works consistently to create a meaningful
clause or sentence (Halliday, 1985; Marfuaty & Wahyudi, 2015).

Thematic Progression

The theory of a Theme/thematic Progression was first proposed by Frantisek Danes
in 1974, who described the limited borders within a paragraph referring to the paragraph's
boundaries and its coherence on the contents (Marfuaty & Wahyudi, 2015). According to
Eggins (2004), Thematic progression theory focuses on tracking the development of ideas
presented by the writers into a text so that it discusses how the part of Theme is developed in
a clause and can be repeated from the similar meaning of the previous theme and rheme.
Hence, (Paltridge, 2006) argued that the theory of thematic progression based on the Theme-
Rheme can be used as an approach to develop the flow of continuous information for
maintaining a coherence and cohesion of the writing system of the text.

According to (Paltridge, 2006) there are three kinds of thematic progression patterns :
(1) a Theme reiteration (constant theme pattern), (2) a zig-zag linear theme pattern, and (3) a
multiple themes (split rheme pattern). In theme reiteration (constant theme pattern), Theme 1
is picked up and repeated at the beginning of the next clause. The merit of applying this first
type of thematic progression is to allow the writers to create a straight point of the text
purpose. In the zig-zag linear theme pattern, the Theme of the second and further clause or
sentence Theme 2, 3, and… was borrowed from the content of the previous Rheme. Lastly,
multiple themes (split rheme pattern) covers varied meanings contained within a Rheme in
the first clause (sentence), then picked to be the main idea in each Theme of next clauses.

Previous Studies in Thematic Progression

While the previous sections focused on the nature of theory, this review considers
previous studies on thematic progression undertaken to analyse written texts by EFL students.

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For example, the study by (Yunita, 2018), it investigated the Theme and Thematic
progression patterns of recount texts written by vocational students, the patterns‟ dominance
constructed by the students in their writing, and the representation of the Theme elements to
the relation of students‟ writing ability. Furthermore, another study about the Thematic
Progression was also conducted by (Rakhman, 2013) on High School students‟ exposition
texts. The purposes of his study were to investigate the process of the students with different
level writing skill achievement in managing their writings into the exposition texts and to
what level their writings were in line with argumentative language features as described in
the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL).

Meanwhile, (Safitra, 2013) focused on a narrative text and applied a similar concern
of Thematic progression in exploring the types of Theme realized in the Thematic patterns of
the students' narrative texts. The findings showed that three elements of Themes: Topical,
Textual, and Interpersonal were incorporated in their writings with the topical Theme as the
most frequently used one. Besides, through a longer written text from an undergraduate
university students' thesis, a previous study was also conducted by Astuti, Suryani, and
Kurniati (2010). Their study focused on an analysis of coherence in the English Education
students' thesis section of background by using the tools of Theme-Rheme of Thematic
Progression. The study's findings showed that a lack of coherence was revealed on their
background theses and the theory of the system of Theme-Rheme should be provided for
students to improve their thesis writing quality.

RESEARCH METHOD

The research design employed in this study was a qualitative method by applying a
content analysis approach. The approach was used to analyze the thematic progression
patterns on the students' writings of recount text. The texts, as the data of the present study,
were taken from the class of XI of SMAN 2 Langsa, Aceh. Based on the theoretical
perspectives of Thematic Progressions Theme-Rheme of SFL previously described, it is
appropriate to use the theory to examine the types of the thematic progression patterns on
recount text incorporated by twenty-four (24) participant students.

Using the theories above and a content analysis approach (Cohen, Manion, &
Morrison, 2007), the researchers studied the thematic progression patterns on students' texts
by involving several steps. Firstly, the researchers formally asked permission for the school
and the English class teacher. After getting permission, all the students' texts on recount texts
were collected and read to do further analysis. Further, the sentences within a paragraph were
divided into clauses. Then, each of the clauses was identified in terms of Theme and Rheme
which aimed to describe the thematic progression patterns within the students' paragraph.
Finally, the types of pattern were classified to find the number of frequently used patterns on
the students' texts.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

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After analyzing twenty-four (24) students' texts, there are three thematic progression
patterns found in their recount texts. The thematic progression patterns revealed consist of:
(1) the constant or reiteration theme pattern, (2) the zig-zag linear pattern, and (3) the
multiple or split theme pattern.

The types of thematic progression patterns used by the students are presented in the
table below:

Table 1. Types of thematic progression patterns on the students‟ texts

Text Constant theme Thematic Pattern (TP) Multiple (Split)
Zig-zag Linear Theme
1 2 Theme -
2 4 2 -
3 3 1 -
4 6 5 -
5 7 - -
6 11 3 -
7 6 1 2
8 - - -
9 4 6 -
10 3 - -
11 4 - -
12 6 2 -
13 12 - -
14 2 2 -
15 4 4 -
16 6 1 -
17 8 - -
18 5 - -
19 9 - -
20 6 - -
21 - - -
22 4 5 -
23 4 1 -
24 7 2 -
Total 123 - 2
35

From the table above, the findings showed that one or two Theme patterns (TP) were
constructed by the students in their recount texts to manage the ideas and there was no text
produced by the student including all three types of Theme pattern (TP). Based on these
findings, clearly, the most dominant TP occurred in the students' recount text of the eleventh
grade in SMAN 2 Langsa is constant theme pattern (123 or 76.8% of the total), followed by
zig-zag linear theme pattern with a frequency of 35 or 21.8%, and the multiple (split) theme

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pattern as the least frequent (2 or 1.25%).

Based on the results presented above, three points will be discussed in the following
section:

1. The more unconnected the links are from the Rheme of one clause to the Theme of
the next clause, the more incoherent the paragraph is. Text 1 presented some
instances of unconnected theme resulting in a less coherent paragraph among the
other students' recount texts which were analyzed.

Image 1. Text 1 by the student

Table 2. Theme and rheme pattern of Text 1

Claus Theme Rheme
e
1 I went to market yesterday with my sister
2 My sister told me to write down any vegetables
3 I want to buy
4 I did it then gave it to her
5 We were ready to go ten minutes after that
6 My sister told me everything about things in the market
7 She told me which one is the fresh one of the vegetables
8 We bought some vegetables
9 I was so happy to be with my sister in the market
10 She told me everything until I understand how to buy
vegetables in the market

Thematic progression pattern of text 1: 179
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Theme 1 Rheme 1

Theme 2 Rheme 2

Theme 3 Rheme 3

Theme 4 Rheme 4

Theme 5 Rheme 5

Theme 6 Rheme 6

Theme 7 Rheme 7

Theme 8 Rheme 8

Theme 9 Rheme 9

Theme 10 Rheme 10

From the analysis of text 1 above, the thematic patterns revealed low incidence with
a few of unconnected links of rheme to theme. The patterns resulted included the constant
theme pattern (2) and the zig zag linear pattern (2). There were not relations among a few of
Rheme (R) units to the Theme (T) units. Several T units jumped to another new T unit. For
example, the T-3 „I‟ has no relation to the T-2 „My sister‟ or R-2 „any vegetables‟. It also
occurred in T-5, 8, and 9 which had no relations to the Rheme and Theme of their previous
clauses. Therefore, there were some clauses within the paragraph that were not really
correlated to the ideas in previous sentences, such as in the clause (C) 4, 5 and 6.

According to (Marfuaty & Wahyudi, 2015), one of the reasons determining the level
of coherence of the text is the frequency of new themes found in the text, which means that
the lower the new themes are found in the text, the higher coherence of the text is. Also, the
higher the new themes “a lack of derived theme” (Marfuaty & Wahyudi, p.119), the lower
coherence of the text is. Further they argued that a high frequency of unconnected links
through the themes within a paragraph will be related to the characteristics of a spoken text.
Following this argumentation, through the text 1, it can be seen from C-3 and C-4 which look
attributed to the nature of spoken text.

2. The more consistent the thematic patterns are used, the more coherent of the paragraph
is. This finding can be seen from the results presented through Table 1 and from an
analysis through the students‟ recount texts in each of the clauses. The highest majority
of thematic patterns which were consistently constructed by the students was the constant
theme pattern (76.8%), and then followed by the zig zag theme pattern at only around a
third of the constant percentage (21.8%).

As an evidence of all, it can be observed through the Text 13 below showing how a
clear focus of the paragraph was constructed by the students through the constant theme
pattern and how a consistence of the thematic pattern was used and crossed from the Rheme
of one clause to the Theme of next clause.

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Image 2. Text 13 by the student

Table 3. Theme and rheme pattern of Text 13

Clause Theme Rheme
1 Last holiday I Went to Banda Aceh together with my
family
2 I Went to Banda use bus
3 My family Bring very stuff
4 My name is Piki Mulani
5 I Loved Banda Aceh city because
interesting, beautiful, and there was
6 First day I very beautiful scenery.
7 I Went to beach on Ulele
Feel very happy because air very cold
8 And I and fresh air
9 Second day I Stay in hotel during four days
10 In museum tsunami Went to museum tsunami
Very sad, afraid because this place
11 In the last day I people death
12 I Went to my house in Langsa city
13 I Can‟t forget experience very interesting
14 I Am very happy in Banda Aceh
15 I Loved Banda Aceh
Want to go to Banda Aceh next year

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Thematic progression pattern of Text 13 :

Th1 Rh1

Th2 Rh2

Th3 Rh3

Th4 Rh4

Th5 Rh5

Th6 Rh6

Th7 Rh7

Th8 Rh8

Th9 Rh9

Th10 Rh10

Th11 Rh11

Th12 Rh12

Th13 Rh13

Th14 Rh14

Th15 Rh15

Through Text 13 above, it can be seen as a representative which is similar with other
texts presenting the dominant consistency of the constant theme and the linked relations from
the Rheme of C-4 and C-10 to the next of their clauses. As explained by McCabe (1999 cited
in Marfuaty and Wahyudi, 2015), the constant (linear) theme is the basic kind of theme which
frequently appears in the thematic patterns of writing. However, crossing the links from the
Rheme to the next Theme was also considered significant as a nature of the academic text
types despite the importance of thematic pattern consistently constructed in the texts
(Marfuaty and Wahyudi, 2015).

3. The thematic patterns which revealed in the findings of the students' written texts
support the character as coherent texts even though there were some unconnected
relations among themes and rhemes within the paragraph.

It can be seen from a clear focus of all the students' texts involving the constant
theme as the highest thematic pattern. This finding is also following Abed (2010 cited in
Marfuaty & Wahyudi, 2015) and (Paltridge, 2006) explanation describing the reason of high
occurrence of the constant theme as a writing technique by the writers to describe and give a
simple explanation. Referring to their opinion, it can be understood that the constant theme
mostly preferred by the students within their recount texts has able reflected them as a
beginner in English writing texts. Further, the finding of this present study regarding the
constant theme as the most dominantly used within the students' texts is in line with other
results' studies as conducted by other previous researchers (Sugijarto, 2010) and (Yunita,

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2018). (Yunita, 2018) confirms that this high incidence reflected the students' higher ability
in strengthening and maintaining a focus of the text consistently by referring to the previous
rheme for the next theme of the clauses, mostly found in the middle achiever category of the
students' texts.

CONCLUSION

Based on the analysis on twenty-four of the students' recount texts at the eleventh
grade of SMAN 2 Langsa, the findings show that there are three types of thematic patterns
(progression) revealed, comprising: the constant theme, the zigzag linear theme, and multiple
(split) theme. The constant theme has resulted dominantly with 123 frequencies (76.8% of the
total), followed by the zigzag linear theme (35 times or 21.8%) and the multiple/split theme
(2 times or 1.25%). Although the dominant pattern found in the students' texts of this present
study look monotonous, the students can write the texts coherently and consistently by using
the constant theme without exposing a lot of new (unconnected) themes. It is suggested to
English teachers to understand and apply the concept of thematic patterns in Systemic
Functional Linguistics at their English writing teaching and learning classrooms. The concept
will help the students to write a cohesive and coherent English text and guide the teachers to
assess the coherence of students' writings. The future researchers are recommended to
continue this study into a deeper analysis of thematic patterns by exploring the types of
Themes and their representation into the students' writing ability.

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Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7 (3), 524-530.

https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/IJAL/article/view/9797

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Sarcasm: Mock Politeness Performed In The Big Bang Theory Nico Harared, Siti Nurani

SARCASM: MOCK POLITENESS PERFORMED
IN THE BIG BANG THEORY

Nico Harared1, Siti Nurani2
Tanjung Barat Jagakarsa English Education Department

Universitas Indraprasta PGRI, Jakarta. Indonesia

[email protected], [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Sarcasm has become an uncommon way to treat other’s faces in communication. However, the study
of sarcasm has not yet been investigated thoroughly in the case of such daily illocutionary acts of the
conversations. One of the sarcasm phenomena is mostly seen in the comedy situation of The Big Bang
Theory. This research aims at analyzing mock politeness or sarcasm in the utterances of each
character. The analysis focuses on describing the use of mock politeness in pragmatics context. The
data was obtained from informal speech acts’ situations. The research carries out the descriptive
qualitative method. The data was analyzed by using politeness strategy in examining the functions of
mock politeness. The results show that sarcasm caused by the violation of pragmatic aspects in The
Big Bang Theory releases in several types of utterances, they are: declarative, representative, and
expressive. The function of sarcasm in this comedy situation mostly to create humors which are
divided into several functions such as humor as a means of social critics, humor to satirize, and humor
to mock.

Keywords: illocutionary act, politeness strategy, pragmatics sarcasm, speech act,

ABSTRAK

Sarkasme menjadi cara yang tidak biasa dalam berkomunikasi. Namun belum ada penelitian
sarkasme dalam percakapan tindak ilokusi. Salah satu fenomena sarkasme terdapat dalam serial
komedi The Big Bang Theory. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis sarkasme yang dilakukan
oleh para karakter. Data diambil dari percakapan informal dalam serial komedi. Penelitian ini
dilakukan menggunakan metode deskriptif kualitatif. Data yang dianalisis dengan pendekatan
pragmatik. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan sarkasme dalam serial komedi The Big Bang Theory dibagi
menjadi beberapa tipe yaitu deklaratif, representatif, dan ekspresif. Fungsi sarkasme dalam serial ini
adalah jelas untuk menciptakan humor seperti humor kritik sosial, humor satire dan humor untuk
mengolok-olok.

Kata Kunci: sarkasme, tindak tutur, tindak ilokusi, kesopanan, pragmatik

INTRODUCTION

In every context of communication, speakers may deliver a speech in such
ways. The language people use needs to be appropriate to the context of the situation
being used, whether formal or in the informal situation of talk. Context of speech in
every interaction has to be as speakers' consideration as they will meet the interaction
that is properly communicated. The context of speech being used determines the
speaker's attitude in conveying ideas or messages of communication. Speaker's

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behavior plays significant roles in shaping the way the interaction communicated
with each other. This will release two folds of responses that are polite and impolite.
Impoliteness is behaviour that is face-aggravating in a particular context (Bousfield,
D. & Locher, 2008). This implies that impoliteness is a kind of attitude within the
language that may threaten one's face. This is in line that an impolite utterance
contains the possibility of insulting and making others offensive. This impoliteness
cannot be seen only in the speech act but also in other aspects, such as the attitude
which is of great possibility to threaten other's faces.

Moreover, (Culpeper, 1996) divides impoliteness into two different categories:
inherent impoliteness and mock politeness or banter. (Culpeper, 1996) "There are
actions which attack one's face innately irrespective of the meaning of the act, which
is known as inherent impolite. In addition the impolite which remains on the surface
and is not intended to offend anyone is called mock impoliteness.‖ This Culpeper’s is
also developed by (Brown & Levinson, 1983) who differentiate impoliteness super-
strategies and politeness super-strategies. Instead of enhancing or supporting face,
impoliteness super-strategies are a means of attacking face.

Culpeper in (Ratri & Ardi, 2019) describes five super-strategies, namely: 1)
bald on record impoliteness, 2) positive impoliteness, 3) negative impoliteness, 4)
sarcasm or mock politeness, and 5) withhold politeness. First, bald on record
impoliteness happens when FTA is performed in a direct, clear, unambiguous and
concise way in circumstances where the face is not irrelevant or minimized. In a
certain respect, it is important to distinguish this strategy from Brown and Levinson's
bald on record as for Brown and Levinson, this strategy is considered as a politeness
strategy in fairly specific circumstances. For example, when face concerns are
suspended in an emergency, when the threat to the hearer's face is very small (e.g.
"Come in" or "Do sit down"), or when the speaker is much more powerful than the
hearer (e.g. "Stop complaining" said by a parent to a child). In all these cases little
face is at stake, and, more importantly, it is not the intention of the speaker to attack
the face of the hearer.

Second, the use of tactics to harm a positive face is known as positive
impolitely. Positive impolitancy. In addition, the use of tactics intended to harm the
adjacent negative face refers to negative impolitely. In addition, when FTA is carried
out using politics that are insincere, sarcasm or mock politicization occurs, thereby
remaining surfacts. Lastly, preservation of elected political status determines the lack
of political work to be expected. For instance, it may be considered deliberate
impolitism not to thank anyone for a gift.

Mock politeness or sarcasm uttered in the various context of speech act that

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commonly function to show solidarity among speakers. (Yule, 2006) proposes that
speech acts are acted in the form of utterance. It can be said that the speech act is a
theory which analyses the role of utterance concerning the behavior of the speaker
and listener in interpersonal communication. In brief when speakers are saying words,
they not only produce utterance containing words and grammatical structure, but they
also perform an action in those utterances.

Austin in (Yule, 2006) Describes speech acts of a kind like locutionary act,
illustrative act and perlocutionary act. Language act is the fundamental concept of
utterance that creates a significant language word. A speaker uses a recognizable
word in the execution of a speech act consisting of a phrase, a sentence or a fragment,
of the language. In the meantime it is an act of action; the speaker talks that is not
only to say anything or to say something but is usually used to request something
from someone else. In the voice, the speaker performs a speechless act in the use of a
specific address. The statement has the force of a statement, a confirmation, a
rejection, a forecast, a commitment, a request etc. that is not speaking about the word.
The perlocutionary act is an act which affects the listener. The listener is also
influenced by an utterance spoken by another. The impact the speaker has produced
may be anticipated or unforeseen. In other words, a perlocution is the reaction of the
listener to the context of the utterance and not necessarily physically or verbally.

The study of sarcasm has become an important aspect of the pragmatics field
because it is always appearing in daily life. Sarcasm is identified as ironic or
sarcastically which is intended to insult, mock or amuse. Sarcasm is directed to insult
the hearer and give the opposite meaning in the conversation. To respond to several
things with the true meaning but the meaning in contrast with the real meaning.
Therefore, the present research is aimed to analyze more about the use of mock
politeness related to the speech act’s functions as both of the addresser and the
addressee comprehend those functions thoroughly.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The analysis on the use of mock politeness or sarcasm in this research is based
on the theory of impoliteness strategy as developed by (Culpeper, 1996) altogether
with the correlation of the illocutionary acts on its types of utterances of speech act as
affirmed by (Yule, 2006). The analysis of the use of mock politeness or sarcasm
found in such stretches of speech uttered by characters describes some types of
utterances, such as declarative, representative, expressive, directive, and commissive.

Many researchers have conducted sarcasm and politeness analysis in some

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particular research. Some of them are (Riloff et al., 2013), (Kantara, 2010), (Cheang
& Pell, 2008), (Sulis, Irazú Hernández Farías, Rosso, Patti, & Ruffo, 2016), (Sulis et
al., 2016), (Rakov & Rosenberg, 2013) and (Bouazizi & Otsuki, 2016). These
researchers analyzed and investigated sarcasm and politeness analysis in such
discussions, such the Sarcasm as Contrast between a Positive Sentiment and Negative
Situation by, Impoliteness Strategies In ‗House M.D by (Kantara, 2010), The sound
of sarcasm by (Cheang & Pell, 2008), Figurative messages and affect in Twitter:
Differences between irony, sarcasm and not by (Sulis et al., 2016), ―Sure, I Did The
Right Thing‖: A System for Sarcasm Detection in Speech by (Rakov & Rosenberg,
2013) and A Pattern-Based Approach for Sarcasm Detection on Twitter by (Bouazizi
& Otsuki, 2016).

(Rakov & Rosenberg, 2013) find out sarcasm is a complex and rich linguistic
phenomenon. Their work identifies just one type of sarcasm that is common in
tweets: the contrast between a positive sentiment and negative situation. For example,
many sarcastic tweets include a positive sentiment, such as ―love‖ or ―enjoy‖,
followed by an expression that describes an undesirable activity or state (e.g., ―taking
exams‖ or ―being ignored‖). They have developed a sarcasm recognizer to identify
this type of sarcasm in tweets. They present a novel bootstrapping algorithm that
automatically learns lists of positive sentiment phrases and negative situation phrases
from sarcastic tweets. They show that identifying contrasting contexts using the
phrases learned through bootstrapping yields improved recall for sarcasm recognition.

(Kantara, 2010) conducted the focus of the research on the tactics impolitely of
the principal character in television show —House, M.D. Ton, and its responses, and
the possible reasons/intentions behind impolitism, as set out in (Culpeper, 1996) and
(Culpeper, Bousfield & Wichman 2003). The figures included transcripts from
Season 1, episodes 1-20 broadcast from http:/twiztv.com/scripts/house on Fox
Television 2004-2005. This paper argues that following the conception of (Leech,
1993), which is the same as Culpeper's conception of sarcasm, the latter being an
important characteristic of Dr. House's conversational style, he does not openly
conflict with the Idea of Politeness but aims to be interesting, memorable and to align
with the listener according to (Partington, 2007). He seems to be trying to maintain
social peace in some way, by not harming the face of his partner but by allowing
him/her to hit the offensive point of his remark by inference. In addition, while he is
approved by rights and the competent authority, in the sense of the hospital setting, in
(SpencerOatey, 2000) circumstances, it is right that he elects indirectness. Regarding
his motives, his use of impolitity in relation to his apprentices may be contrasted with
training in the military (Culpeper, 1996) (Lakoff, 1989). Finally, Dr House responds

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to the implications of the uncompromising workplace mainly his trainees, who
steadily escalated in impolitism (Anderson and Pearson 1999).

(Cheang & Pell, 2008) Also carried out to classify potential sarcasm acoustic
signals. Mother-of-law English speakers have created several simple terms that
express four attitudes: sarcasm, satire, seriousness and neutrality. The reported speech
was subjected to acoustic analysis after validation by a separate natives group of
native speakers in English for the following characteristics: median fundamental
frequency (F0), standard F0, mean amplitude, amplitude, speech rate, harmonical-to-
noise ratio (HNR) and one third spectral value of the octave were examined (to probe
resonance changes). Results of the analysis showed that sarcasm was reliably marked
by several prosodium signals, while one acoustic trait seemed especially robust in
sarcastic utterances. The overall reduction in the normal HNR and F0 variance also
consistently separated the sarcasm from sincerity. In such language environments,
both the speaking rate and the F0 spectrum of sarcasms could be distinguished from
seriousness and humor. The findings also indicated an important role in sarcasm and
honesty in the language spoken by speakers. It was concluded that the language used
by the speaker could influence sarcasm through speech by a certain pattern of
prosodic indices in addition to textual indications.

(Sulis, et al., 2016) The open research problem explored how irony and
sarcasm are differentiated from the figurative lingual phenomena and the function of
features related to the multi-faceted affectionate knowledge conveyed in such texts
was especially focused. The tweets labeled irony and sarcasm and even not were
taken into consideration, which had not been extensively studied before. A
distribution and correlation analysis of a number of features including a wide range of
psycholinguistic and emotional features indicates that irony and sarcasm can be
distinguished. The effect is a new set of emotions, systemic and psychological
characteristics assessed during binary classification experiments. They commented on
a previously used corpus for irony vs. sarcasm classification tests. You surpass the
cutting-edge results of this data collection in terms of F measurements. All in all, our
findings affirm the complexity of the challenge but add new reasons based on
evidence to distinguish #irony from sarcasm. Of course, it is not a straightforward
phenomenon that arises.

(Rakov & Rosenberg, 2013) conducted an automated sarcasm detection
device report. They look at a variety of features suggesting sarcasm using a new
acting speech corpus, which is annotated for cynical and sincere speech. The first
collection of characteristics explores a basis of fundamental acoustic features which
aid in the identification of human sarcasm. They have an efficient modeling system

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for the automatic detection of sarcasm and the application of prosody contours. This
approach applies sequential modeling to the categorical pitch and strength contour
representations achieved by clustering k-means. We can predict sarcasm with 81,57
percent accuracy using a classifier for Simple Logistics (LogitBoost). This finding
indicates a predictive of sarcastic speech on some pitch and volume contours.

(Bouazizi & Otsuki, 2016) suggested a new Twitter sarcasm detection tool.
The approach suggested uses the various parts of the tweet. They use part-of-speech
tags in order to extract patterns that define the sarcasm level of tweets. The method
showed good results, but it could also have better results if a wider training set were
used as it could not cover all potential sarcastic trends from the patterns derived from
the current one. They also suggested an effective way to enrich our collection with
more sarcastic trends using an initial training set of 6000 Tweets and the hashtag
"#sarcasm"'.

This research conducted sarcasm as the main core of this study. The object of
the data is to differentiate this present research with the previous studies which relate
in the utterances of each character containing mock politeness or sarcasm in the
comedy situation entitled The Big Bang Theory. The analysis focuses on describing
the use of mock politeness in pragmatics context.

The research aims at analyzing mock politeness utterances or sarcasm used
from the Pragmatic point of view in a situation comedy series The Big Bang Theory.
The data are qualitatively analyzed and defined by analyzing the connection between
the impoliteness strategy and the types of pronouncement of the illocutionary actions.

RESEARCH METHOD

The data from this research consists of mock politeness or sarcasm expressions
used in formal and informal discussions, specifically those which are present in each
type of speech act (i.e. declarative, representative, expressive and directive). The data
source is face-to-face dialogs between physicists and one friend who works as a
waitress. The data was extracted from discussions conducted in the 17 three-season
series of The Big Bang Theory situational comedy series.

This study starts with a discussion of the parameters of impolitely, in this case a
conversation between characters with representative appropriate bodies to explain
each mock political utterance, subdivided into several forms of utterance of a word,
namely: declarative, representative, exp. The analysis will start with a discussion
about the parameters of impoliteness.

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FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This research found several utterances that used mock politeness in the episode
of the Big Bang Theory; here is one example of them:

Example 1:

REPRESENTATIVE

The participants in the dialogue are Sheldon (Physicist), Leonard (Physicist)
and Penny (Waiter). They are discussing Leonard's deception toward Sheldon's data
in the Arctic expedition. The conversation happens at Penny’s Apartment when
Leonard comes by to say hello to Penny after coming back for three months in the
Arctic expedition.

REP/DES/04:14-04:36/IF

(1) Sheldon: Wolowitz has
informed me of your grand deception.
Do you have anything to say for yourself?

Leonard: Yes, I feel terrible about it. =
Penny : Can someone please

tell me. What's going on here?
Sheldon : I was making

groundbreaking strides in
science, when in fact, I was
being fed false data.
Penny : Is that true?
Leonard : It was the only way to
make him happy. =
Sheldon : [[That seems like a bit of an overreaction.
Leonard : [[The overreaction
was the plan to tie your limbs
Leonard : We kept the original
data. You can still publish the
actual results.
Sheldon : Yes, but the actual
results are unsuccessful (.) and I've already sent an e-mail to everyone
at the university explaining that I have confirmed string theory and
forever changed man's understanding of the universe.
Leonard : [[Aw, see, yeah, you
probably shouldn't have done that. So write another e-mail. Set the
record straight. No big deal ((Pause))
Sheldon : ((pause)) You're

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right, Leonard. It's not a big deal. All you did was lie to me, destroy
my dream and humiliate me in front of the whole university.
((Sheldon Convinced To Leonard))
That, FYI, was sarcasm. I, in fact, believe it is a big deal.

Dialogue (1) is called mock politeness to mock Leonard's utterances about his
grand deception about lying to Sheldon. The statement was said by Sheldon since he
realized when Leonard said that his grand deception was not a big deal.

The mock politeness above is classified as a speech act function into a
representative. Here, the sentence “You're right, Leonard. It's not a big deal. All you
did was lie to me, destroy my dream and humiliate me in front of the whole
university.” is identified as a speech act function as describing and that can be seen in
his utterance such as destroy and humiliate.

The mock politeness in the conversation was categorized as humour to mock
Leonard's utterances about what his grand deception in the expedition was not a big
deal. It is a big deal for Sheldon which caused him to be informed of the false data.
Even in the last utterances, Sheldon emphasizes that the utterance is sarcasm.

DECLARATIVE

Example 2:

The participants in the dialogue are Howard (Engineering) and Leonard
(Physicist). In this episode Howard and friend have an idea to throw Leonard a kick-
ass birthday party. Here, Howard needs to get rid of Leonard for about 2 hour.

DEC/CON/10:43-11:10/IF
(2) Howard : - Oo… oo…..

Leonard : - What's the matter?
Howard : - This granola bar has peanuts in it! ((Shout))
Leonard : - Oh, my God. Why did you eat it?
Howard : - I don't know. It was just there! ((Shout))
Leonard : If I had a gun there, would you have shot yourself?
Howard : Don't yell at me! I've got to go to the emergency room! ((Shout))
Leonard : - Now?!
Howard : - No, after my tongue has swollen to the size of a brisket!

((Shout))
Leonard : All right, just let me get my keys.

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This conversation is between Howard and Leonard in Leonard’s apartment.
Howard and friends are throwing Leonard a surprise party and he is supposed to keep
him out of his apartments for 2 hours. The only way Howard could get him to leave
was to tell him that he ate a peanut because he’s allergic to peanuts. Howard asks
Leonard to get him to hospital in time, but then Leonard asks Howard with rhetorical
question “now?” Howard replied with sarcasm.

This kind of mock politeness is categorized as speech act function into
declarative. Here, the sentence ―No, after my tongue has swollen to the size of a
brisket!” is identified as a speech act function as confirming. That sarcasm is
classified into confirming because it can be seen in his utterance as follows “No, after
my tongue has swollen to the size of a brisket!”. The reaction from Leonard reveals
that Leonard knows that the answer was sarcasm by saying ―All right, just let me get
my keys”. Howard's utterance in this dialogue is called mock politeness because he
wants to mock the rhetorical question from Leonard. The function of sarcasm in this
conversation to create humor as humor satire.

Example 3:

DEC/CON/04:14-04:36/IF
(3) Leonard : How do I look?

Sheldon : Could you be more specific?
Leonard : Can you tell I’m perspiring a little?
Sheldon : No. The dark crescent-shaped patterns under your arms conceal

it nicely

The conversation (3) between Leonard and Sheldon was taking place in the
apartment. In this section, Leonard planned to go dinner with the new beautiful
female neighborhood across the hall named Penny. He asked Sheldon as his friends
about his appearance for dating. Sheldon's statement is classified as sarcasm. The
utterances proceeded with “No. The dark crescent-shaped patterns under your arms
conceal it nicely‖. Then when Sheldon saw that condition, sarcasm is identified as a
speech act function as confirmed from Leonard’s question which can be seen in his
utterance. This kind of sarcasm was conveyed by Sheldon. He means is different from
the real condition but he preceded his statement with No. The function of sarcasm in
this dialogue to create humor as humor satire.

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EXPRESSIVE

Example 4:

In this dialogue, the participants are Sheldon (Physicist) and Leonard
(Physicist). They are talking about Leonard’s lying to Penny. Leonard conveys his
premise about social protocol about when you have a friend who's proud of
something they suck at. Since Sheldon is aware of that premise, Sheldon gives a
statement that relates to that premise to Leonard.

EXP/COM/04:14-04:36/IF

(4) Leonard : What is it?
Sheldon : I'm uncomfortable having been included in your lie to Penny.
Leonard : What was I supposed to say?
Sheldon : You could have told her the truth.
Leonard : That would have hurt her feelings.
Sheldon : (.) Is that a relevant factor? Then I suppose you could've agreed to
go.
Leonard : And what would I have said afterwards?
Sheldon : I would suggest something to the effect of =
Leonard : I couldn't say that. I would have to say, "You were terrific and I
can't wait to hear you sing again."
Sheldon : Why?
Leonard : That's the social protocol. It's what you do when you have a friend
who's proud of something they really suck at.
Sheldon : ((pause))) I was not aware of that.
Leonard : Well, now you are.
Sheldon : All right. Leonard? When we played chess earlier, you were
terrific, and I can't wait to play you again. Good night.

Conversation (4) is called mock politeness faces to mock Leonard’s utterances
about his social protocol about lying to Penny. Leonard cannot tell the truth to Penny
because it will hurt her feelings. Afterwards, Sheldon replied with sarcasm to
Leonard since he realized Leonard’s social protocol about when you have a friend
who's proud of something they suck at. Sheldon's utterance in this dialogue is called
mock politeness because he wants to mock Leonard's statement about his social
protocol premise. This kind of mock politeness is identified as speech act function
into expressive for the compliment, but in fact Here, the sentence “….you were
terrific and I can’t wait to play you again” is identified as speech act function as
complementing and that can be seen in his utterance such as terrific which is
classified as complement. The function of sarcasm in this conversation is to create
humor as humor social critics.

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Example 5:

EXP/DEP/02:06-00:01/IF
(5) Leonard speech in front of the students but he makes an accident after

demonstrate the experimental physics because he accidentally spilt peach
Snapple into a Helium neon laser and burned.
Leonard : You are considering going into experimental physics,

my door is always open.
Once again, I'm sorry that the demonstration
didn't quite work out,
but now we know what happens when you accidentally spill
Snapple into a helium neon laser.
Short answer is... don't. And now to tell you about the
theoretical physics department
is Dr. Sheldon Cooper.
((SILENT))
Dr. Cooper?
Sheldon : Forget it.((from the backdoor))
Leonard : Excuse me. ((close to the backdoor))
Sheldon, we both agreed to do this. ((whisper))
Sheldon : It's a waste of time. I might as well explain
the laws of thermodynamics to a bunch of labradoodles.
Leonard : If you don't do this, I won't take you
to the comic book store.

Sheldon : ((Sheldon appear)) Hello.
((Sheldon walked to the podium and looked at Leo’s

experiment))

Nice work with the laser by the way

The conversation above between Leonard (Physicist) and Sheldon (Physicist)
was taking place in the class. In this section Leonard played his part to demonstrate
his experimental physics in front of the students, but that demonstration didn't quite

work out because he accidentally split peach Snapple into a Helium-neon laser and
burned. Then when Sheldon saw that condition, sarcasm is identified as a speech act
function as deploring which can be seen in his utterance as follows “Nice work with
the laser by the way”. This kind of sarcasm was conveyed by Sheldon in front of the

students. The students here know that what Sheldon means is different from the real
condition. The function of sarcasm in this dialogue to create humor as humor to mock
Leonard’s.

Example 6:

EXP/PRA/01:06-00:36/IF

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(6) Leonard : We'll just bring it up ourselves.
Sheldon : I hardly think so.
Leonard : Why not?
Sheldon : Well, we don't have a dolly or lifting belts
or any measurable upper-body strength.
Leonard : We don't need strength—
we're physicists.
We are the intellectual
descendants of Archimedes.
((hold the box))
Give me a fulcrum and a lever and I can move the Earth.
It's just a matter of...
((the box is fallen))…..
Sheldon : ((helped Leonard))
Archimedes would be so proud.

The conversation above between Leonard (Physicist) and Sheldon (Physicist)

was taking place in the base of the apartment. Leonard insists on picking up the thing

to the fifth floor since the elevator was broken, meanwhile, Sheldon refused to bring
the thing upstairs by saying “I hardly think so, well, we don't have a dolly or lifting
belts or any measurable upper-body strength”. In this section, Leonard stated he as
the descendants of Archimedes could handle the problem that he had by saying “We
don't need strength— we're physicists. We are the intellectual descendants of
Archimedes” but he didn’t make it out and the box fell. Then Sheldon replied by
saying Archimedes would be so proud”. Sarcasm is identified in his utterance. Speech

act function for that sarcasm as praising which can be seen in his utterance that it is

fake praising or mocking. This kind of sarcasm was conveyed by Sheldon to mock
Leo’s statement about descendants of Archimedes. The function of sarcasm is to
create humour as humour to mock Leonard’s statements.

Example 7:

EXP/PRA/01:1-17:36/IF
(7) Leonard : Hi, I'm Leonard, this is Sheldon.</i>

We're here to pick up Penny's TV.
Intercom : Get lost.</i>
Sheldon : Okay, thanks for your time.
Leonard : We're not going to give up just like that.
Sheldon : Leonard, the TV's in the building.

We've been denied access
to the building, ergo, we are done.
Leonard : Excuse me. If I were to give up
on the first little hitch,

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I never would have identified
the fingerprints of string theory
in the aftermath of the Big Bang.(Pause)
Sheldon : My apologies. What's your plan?
Leonard : ((get close to the door and do useless thing and nothing happened))
Sheldon : It’s just a privilege to watch your mind at work.

The dialogue between Leonard (Physicist) and Sheldon (Physicist) was taking
place in front of the apartment Penny’s boyfriend. Leonard helped Penny to pick up

her TV from her ex-boyfriend. The problem is Leonard had no access to the building.
Leo was trying to boast by saying ―Excuse me. If I were to give up on the first little

hitch, I never would have identified the fingerprints of string theory in the aftermath
of the Big Bang‖ and he did something useless by shaking the door and nothing
happened. Sheldon watched that kind of ridiculous act; he said: "It’s just a privilege
to watch your mind at work‖. The utterance is sarcasm when the word privilege

contrasts with the negative situation done by Leonard. Speech act function for that

sarcasm as praising it is also fake praising or mocking. This kind of sarcasm was
conveyed by Sheldon also to mock Leo’s statement. The function of sarcasm to create

a humour as humour to mock Leonard's statements

CONCLUSION

The results show that sarcasm caused by the violation of pragmatic aspects in
The Big Bang Theory has several types of utterances; they are declarative,
representative, and expressive. The function of sarcasm in this series mostly to create
humor which is divided into several functions such as 1) humor as a means of social
criticism, 2) humor to satirize, 3) humor to disrupt reader's understanding and 4)
humor to mock. For the next researchers, especially for those who intend to carry out
further research in relation with the findings of this research, further studies can be
applied in different approaches e.g., discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, humor and
other approaches.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research was supported by Universitas Indraprasta PGRI through the
Research and Community Services Institution. We are thanks to The Rector of
Universitas Indraprasta PGRI, The Head of Research and Community Services
Institution and The Dean of the Faculty of Humanities who have to provide us with
the research funding.

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Nico Harared, Siti Nurani Sarcasm: Mock Politeness Performed In The Big Bang Theory

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bouazizi, M., & Otsuki, T. (2016). A Pattern-Based Approach for Sarcasm Detection
on Twitter. IEEE Access, 4, 5477–5488.
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2016.2594194

Bousfield, D. & Locher, M. A. (2008). Impoliteness in Language. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter.

Cheang, H. S., & Pell, M. D. (2008). The sound of sarcasm. Speech Communication,
50(5), 366–381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2007.11.003

Culpeper, J. (1996). Towards an anatomy of impoliteness. Journal of Pragmatics,
25(3), 349–367.

Kantara, A. (2010). Impoliteness Strategies in ―House M.D.‖ Lodz Papers in
Pragmatics, 6(2), 305–339. https://doi.org/10.2478/v10016-010-0015-9

Rakov, R., & Rosenberg, A. (2013). " Sure, I Did The Right Thing ": A System for
Sarcasm Detection in Speech Linguistics Department , The Graduate Center
CUNY , New York , USA Computer Science Department , Queens College
CUNY , New York , USA, (August), 842–846.

Ratri, A., & Ardi, P. (2019). Power and impoliteness in the devil wears prada movies.
Elite Journal, 6(1), 33–50. Retrieved from http://journal.uin-
alauddin.ac.id/index.php/elite/article/view/7923/6668

Riloff, E., Qadir, A., Surve, P., Silva, L. De, Gilbert, N., & Huang, R. (2013).
Sarcasm as Contrast between a Positive Sentiment and Negative Situation. In
Emnlp (pp. 704–714).

Sulis, E., Irazú Hernández Farías, D., Rosso, P., Patti, V., & Ruffo, G. (2016).
Figurative messages and affect in Twitter: Differences between #irony, #sarcasm
and #not. Knowledge-Based Systems, 108, 132–143.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knosys.2016.05.035

Yule, G. (2006). The Study of Language (third). UK: Cambridge University Press.

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The Narrator’s Motives Concerning Juliana’s Letters Ahmad

THE NARRATOR’S MOTIVES CONCERNING JULIANA’S LETTERS
IN HENRY JAMES’S THE ASPERN PAPERS

Ahmad
Jln. H.M Yasin Limpo, Romang Polong. English and Literature Department.

Universitas Islam Negeri Alauddin Makassar. Indonesia
[email protected]

ABSTRACT

This study questions how the narrative voice of Henry James‘s The Aspern Papers shapes the reader's
understanding of the narrator‘s motives concerning Juliana‘s letters received from Jeffrey Aspern. This
is qualitative analytical research in which ‗unreliable narrator‘ theory was used to analyze and discuss
the data from primary and secondary resources. This paper also links Booth‘s idea to Schneider‘s
critics about unreliable narrator theory. Although The Aspern Papers‘ narrator is unreliable due to his
unpredictable and unstable actions, the researcher argues that The Aspern Papers‘ narrator who also
becomes the main character of the story wants to possess Juliana‘s letters for his benefits. Should he
get the letters, he would be able to ―sell‖ Aspern‘s life to the public, and thus he could get financial
profit or personal profit for his career as a journalist, a writer, or a publisher.

Keywords: unreliable narrator, motive, Henry James, Aspern papers

ABSTRAK

Penelitian ini mendiskusikan bagaimana sudut pandang penceritaan The Aspern Papers karya Henry
James melahirkan pemahaman pembaca terhadap motif narator terhadap surat-surat Juliana yang
diterima dari Jeffrey Aspern. Ini adalah penelitian kualitatif analisis dimana teori ‘unreliable
narrator’ digunakan untuk menganalisis dan mendiskusikan objek utama dan sumber lain. Tulisan ini
juga mengaitkan pendapat Booth terhadap konsep unreliable narrator. Meskipun narator The Aspern
Papers tidak bisa dipercaya karena tindakannya yang tidak bisa diprediksi dan tidak stabil, peneliti
berpendapat bahwa narrator The Aspern Papers yang juga merupakan tokoh utama cerita
menginginkan surat-surat Juliana untuk kepentingan pribadinya. Jika ia mendapatkan surat-surat
tersebut, maka ia dapat menjual kehidupan Aspern kepada publik, sehingga ia bisa mendapatkan
keuntungan finansial atau pribadi untuk karirnya baik sebagai seorang wartawan, penulis, ataupun
penerbit.

Kata Kunci: narator yang tidak dipercaya, motif, Henry James, makalah Aspern

INTRODUCTION

Every story was created by someone namely the author and every story are
also told by someone namely the narrator. Narrator, according to Walsh, can create
significant effects for readers‘ understanding of literary work (Walsh, 1997).
However, the author is not the narrator. Henry James, an American author, wrote The
Aspern Papers, but he does not narrate the story; it is the narrator who also becomes
the characters of the story that narrates the story. In other words, James used the first
person-points of view in its narrative technique.

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Henry James lived from the mid-nineteenth century until the early twentieth
century. Yet, he remains popular until today, not just because of his works, but also
because of his life. Even his private life recently became the subject or materials of
fiction by other authors (Hannah, 2007). As an author, James has a great contribution
to literature. His writing varies from play, short story, novel, to novels; and The
Aspern Papers is his great novella, published in 1888 in the first place.

Subsequently, since its first publication, The Aspern Papers has been revised
several times, and to a greater extent, it also has been adapted into films, plays, and
operas since 1947 and played in some countries. Recently in 2018, another film
adaptation of The Aspern Papers was released. It, indeed, proves the popularity of the
work until nowadays. However, this research focuses on written work or novella
published in 2009 as the main research object.

In a few words, The Aspern Papers is the story about a journalist, whose
name is unrevealed, who looks for the precious letters from a poet named Jeffrey
Aspern to a girl named Juliana. The journalist is extremely obsessed with those
papers and does anything to have them. Interestingly, the journalist also becomes the
narrator of the story. In other words, the story is told from the first-person narrator.

However it is fun but also unsettling to read the Aspern Documents. Readers
would probably appreciate the tragic suspense at the opening Chapter in which the
narrator appears to be a heroic character in criminal detective fiction, unveiling the
mystery of Jeffrey Aspern. But the way the narrator tells the story and the narrator
himself irritated me as a lecturer as it goes on reading. It is unexpected and irritant.
He is fascinating and puzzling. Russell also responds that we are asked to think about
the same question when pursuing the narrator's hunt for papers and letters written by
Jeffrey Aspern, the great late poet (Russel, 2015).

Therefore, this research examined how the narrative voice of The Aspern
Papers shapes the reader's understanding of the narrator‘s motives concerning
Juliana‘s letters. The researcher used Booth‘s theory of unreliable narrator as well as
various related critical analysis from some scholars explained below.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Narrative voice means from which perspective or which point-of-view the
story is being told. There are many theories about this, such as ‗external‘ and
‗internal‘ viewpoint (Barry, 2009). The other idea comes from Sylvan Barnet and his
friends in An Introduction to Literature: Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (2008). They

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divided the narrative voice into two main types: participant or first-person point of
view, and non-participant or third-person point of view.

The first-person point of view means that the story is told by one of its
characters. Yet, sometimes a first-person narrator who narrates a story focuses on
another character — ‗the narrator still says ―I‖ (thus the point of view is the first-
person), but the reader feels that the story is not chiefly about this ―I‖ but is about
some other figure‘ (Barnet, 2008). That is reflected in James‘s The Aspern Papers in
which the story is narrated by the narrator whose name is never revealed until the end
of the story, but the story is not mainly about him but about Juliana, Miss Tina, and
possibly the documents he obsessed over.

Furthermore, the way in which the narrator tells the story from the first-
person perspective has a crucial effect on the response of the readers. What the
narrator says can be reliable if the readers can logically accept it, or it can be
unreliable if the narrator ‗have an ax to grind, perhaps because they are not perceptive
enough to grasp the full implications of what they report, or perhaps because they are
mentally impaired, even insane‘ (Barnet, 2008).

Wayne C. Booth firstly used the ‗unreliable narrator‘ term in 1961 in his
book The Rhetoric of Fiction. He used this theory in examining the credibility of the
first-person narrators in fiction, in which he used James‘s The Aspern Papers as the
object. The unreliable narrator then becomes very popular until nowadays — scholars
use this theory to examine either classic or modern literature. It also can be used to
look at the second and third-person narrators. Even, it becomes a tool that examines
the context of film and television.

However, Booth‘s influential theory of unreliable narrator also provokes
disagreement from other scholars. Daniel J. Schneider is one of them. He indicates
that Booth‘s concept of the unreliable narrator is ‗based on unsound assumptions
concerning the means by which meaning is established in fiction‘ (Schneider, 1976).
Furthermore, Schneider argues that fiction must be examined closely and intensively
because ‗the way in which [readers] read fiction affects everything we are likely to
say about stories and novels‘ (Schneider, 1976). This Schneider research is indeed
highly impactful to this research.

Finally, it is also important to mention other previous studies of The Aspern
Papers that contribute meaningful to the discussion of this paper. They are (Brown,
1991) who discusses how Henry James‘s revision to his work creates the narrative
spaces from his original idea — the original taken from James‘s notebooks; (Scholl,
2013) that studies the ‗secret paternity and questions the mysterious letter; (Miller,

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Ahmad The Narrator’s Motives Concerning Juliana’s Letters

2015) who analyses the historical narratives of The Aspern Papers applying the
speech act theory; (Hewish, 2016) that examines the ‗cryptic relations‘ between
among the characters, including the narrator and Miss Tina; and other books and

articles acknowledged in the bibliography.

RESEARCH METHOD

In order to determine the main research problem, close reading is essential
and becomes ―primary methodologies‖ in most of the literary studies (Smith, 2016).
During this study, the researcher read The Aspern Papers at least two times. The first
reading helped the researcher to understand the story‘s intrinsic elements: characters
and their characterization, settings, plots, and most importantly, the conflicts. All the
way through this first reading, it was noteworthy jotting down some problems and
interesting topics before going on with one final matter. The researcher, then, looked
for an appropriate theory to examine the topic and found that Wayne C. Booth‘s The
Rhetoric of Fiction is the most suitable one. Interestingly, he also discussed the
unreliable narrator of The Aspern Papers in his book. Besides that, other related
studies to Henry James‘s works from reliable resources were highly impactful to this
research — those helped me create more elaborative and detailed ideas and
arguments. The second reading, which was a more intense reading, was used to notice
and mark the important quotations in The Aspern Papers related to the analysis.
Indeed, some critical annotations to those quotations were also helpful. Finally, the
researcher came up to the analytical step, which was a descriptive qualitative method:
analyzing, describing, elaborating, and discussing the data from both main and
secondary resources by applying the narrative theory, specifically the unreliable
narrator theory (Booth, 1961).

FINDING AND DISCUSSION

One issue arouses an argument from scholars: what actually is the notion
discussed in The Aspern Papers? Wayne C. Booth identifies two different
possibilities for the purpose of the story: the narrator's thoroughness and utter
resentment of the manuscripts and the recuperating of the visited history' (Booth,
1961). The second subject evokes a difference of opinion from Daniel J. Schneider;
he goes on to argue that Booth may make another over on it. For Schneider, the real
subject is simply ‗life and liberty versus death and enslavement‘ (Schneider, 1976)
(Schneider, 1976). On the one hand, the researcher agrees with Schneider that the
topic is not the Visible Past, in reality this is beyond the meaning of the tale. This

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second object, however, Booth points to be focused on the preface of the New York
Edition (1907-9) that is not yet available in the initial text (1888). Somehow reading
the preface can make the reader more puzzled as James seems to talk about another
problem and complexity that is still related but not part of the text. According to
Gerard Genette, the preface is simply a paratext, and, he argues, a paratex, does not
always come into play, but simply "surrounds it and extends it, precisely to present it
to the reader (Genette & Maclean, 1991). However the researcher argues that the
preface should also be highly considered in reading and examining the novel because
it certainly can be about the subject of the novel at once as long the preface was
written by the author.

This report, on the other hand, reveals distinct factors in Schneider's chosen
theme, free and enslavement, owing to its attention on the relationship between the
actor and Juliana as well as Tina. He puts aside the relation between the narrator and
the Aspern papers which should be highly conceived. I believe the first theme is more
useful since he may cover the whole theme of the compelling investigation of
information related to the private life of Aspern through his papers of the narrator.

It's reasonable enough if James' unequivocal description of the topic is
apparent not only in the Aspern Papers, but also in several late writings by James
from the reader's various interpretations of it as it is actually used by narrators who
with the original topic, transmutate one interpretation in another but in a different
way" (Booth, 1961). Another cause, Hazel Hutchison explained, is the developments
in the language style of James: 'complex syntactic and complicated physics demands
great attention and open mind to mature James writing' (Hutchison, 2006). Thus the
Aspern Papers are unparalleled because of his illustrative language, for example
because he represents his character Aspern with a 'God' and can see literature in the
heavens all over the world. And that's where you're hanging in the sky. He is, and that
is where he belongs (James, 2009). Likewise, if Ms Tina says that Juliana is 100 and
50 years old, the reader is uncertain whether she is her age, literally, or 'hyperbole'
(Korg, 1962).

James introduced complexities to the narrator too. He used the narrator who
plays the role as the principal character. But the narrator is mysterious, unnamed and
his true identity is unknown. He says little about himself and lets readers explore for
themselves. He is like a' chameleon' variable and unstable here and there depending
on his conditions, unique in his name. He introduced himself in the early chapter to
Ms. Prest as a writer and a curious researcher, but comes to the house of Ms.
Bordereau and sets out as an American pilgrim who loves gardening. Then he
confessed himself to himself "in a little way as a critic, commentator, a historian"

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(James, 2009). He assures Mrs. Prest, too, that he will do all he can to achieve his
goal, even if he can make love for Juliana, the niece, yet again he seems to break his
own commitment. When he has an opportunity to marry Ms. Tina to have a letter
from Aspern, he does not. It won't say until previous papers are taken down.

Such an unsteady characterization of the narrator involves distinctive
narrational voices classified by Booth into three notions: "the self-traitorial of the
narrator, evident to every wary reader; his efforts to evocate the past, which had been
removed from context, could be undifferentiated from the voice of James; and the
moving passages as it were that lie between" (Booth, 1961). The narrator should not
be trusted entirely. Since the early story, we ought to have realized his ambition
telling the reader: "Hypocrisy, double standing is my only chance. I'm sorry about it
but for Jeffrey Aspern's sake, there are no basses I wouldn't commit" (James, 2006).
Throughout the story he can become naive or the liar.

But the narrator had to choose between two other equally disadvantageous
options: marrying an old woman, although he did not love to get the papers or ignore
the proposal for marriage, but he finally lost the precious papers he was obsessed
with. He spent a long day in confusion asking what decisions should be taken until he
arrived at one decision. I can't marry a ridiculous old provincial woman for a bundle
of tattered papers (James, 2006). He didn't think that he needed the Aspern papers,
because without them he had enough stuff to write. His plan to leave Venice, he said
as well. However, he changed his mind after a few thoughts on the financial issue and
the value of the documents. He returned to the house of Ms Tina and found her with
sweetness and forgiveness in a different image. He thought of her as a lovely,
younger and not ridiculous lady. Ms Tina told him she had destroyed the great papers,
and his view of her again was different, saying that she'd become a simple dingy old
man" (James, 2006). This means that Ms Tina is never loved by the narrator but
rather because she had papers of Aspern. He loved her.

The narrator earns nothing, his effort and money and time commitment are
needless. He has something of a shame" (Scholl, 2013). This irony is reflected in the
last line: "I can't bore my loss when I look at it (aspern photo) (James, 2006). James
revised this closing sentence of the novel from It makes my sorry for the missing
letters unbearable' in the first edition. I can scarcely bear my loss when I look at it —
I am speaking of the precious articles' in the edition in New York. The changes "shed
light on the evolving self-absorption and fragile egotism of the narrator," says Ellen
Brown (Brown, 1991).

Moreover, Brown retains the uncertainty of the use of dash symbol,

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whatever kind of "loss" the narrator really implies. In effect, it is not just a precious
text, but what he sacrificed in playing games: integrity, ethics, dignity, honesty and
compassion" to save the face and prevent the author from learning (Scholl, 2013).

The confusion of the subject and the essence of the oral comments react to
the interpretation of the audience regarding the narrator. J. Hillis Miller suggests that
the narrator is "homosocial if not directly gay" because he sees Jeffrey as the narrator
and Jeffrey's envy to the women (Miller, 2005). I agree with Miller when he assesses
the motivations of the narrator, which he does not base on Henry James' biography.
While James has never been married and remained unable to give birth to romance
(Hutchison, 2012), this does not mean that he presents himself as a narrator.

Therefore this narrator reflects Captain Silsbee, who is an American
collector who attempted, along with Aspern and Juliana, to take the precious letters of
Shelley and Byron. The rejection of Juliana's niece by the narrator is not the
reflection of James, who rejected marriage, but the reflection of Silsbee, who refused
to marry Shelley's niece. In comparison, the narrator is over-interpretation when he
judges him as being homosexual, since he merely admires Aspern's letters, not
admires him in intimate, romantic relationships. If the narrator was suspected by
Miller, the narrator would have had to suspect his relatives, John Cumnor, because
Jeffrey's documents were both haunted.

The motive for the narrator is pointed out in the early chapter in which he
states that he is coming to Venice to find the Aspern papers that he considers 'the
bigger boon' (James, 2006). However, I believe that the big boon, for financial gain or
for personal benefit for the sake of his lifetime, sounds vague and more political. It
would be very useful for his writing if he can catch the details from Juliana's letters.
If he is able to publish the writing, it would mark a landmark for his writing career.
Writing about Jeffrey Aspern is a fascinating topic to be sold in public, since he was a
popular author, he was accepted by the world and his words were enjoyed by many
women. The narrator said to Ms Tina, "The letters of Aspern are very important to
expose, because they will have such great interest in the public as an incredible
contribution to the history of Jeffrey Aspern' (James, 2006).

I wonder why the narrator spends incredibly high sums only on rent – 'a
thousand francs a month' for over three months – if nothing is bigger and promising?
In publicizing Aspern's story or Aspern's association with Juliana on the basis of the
details given, I think it will provide him a boost by selling the paper publicly,
covering his expenses and safeguarding his life in Venice.

The narrator, like an author, editor, and/or writer, has spent many years

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trying to study the life of Aspern from those in some nations who may have a link to
Aspern. He is really excited to chat about Aspern, searching for more fascinating new
literary topics. His ambition sometimes causes him to take unethical steps in some
way. He sneaked into her room the night following Juliana's critical condition. He
opened Juliana's secretary to scan the documents like a thief when he had a chance.
This narrator persuades readers that his meaning was not accurate, that his goal was
not bad.

The narrator, as seen in his critique of the first New York edition, Henry
James purposely depicted immorality, for example 'I could seize her document' so I
could pounce on her belongings and sack her drawers,' and I had never said it to Tita
Bordereau.' The revisions 'ironically accept the terms of the prospective claim, which
demonstrates that the innocence of [narrator] is only partial and his words have been
terribly open to errors' There was a mistake (Horne, 1990). The result of these
changes reveals the sense of James's narrator's "moral deterioration" which definitely
enhances the readers' knowledge of the narrator's bad behavior (Booth, 1961).

It is also worth noting that the narrator is labeled by Juliana as a publisher of
his immorality." It is mocking to ridicule the authors, journalist, publisher or anyone
relevant to modern media who used to disclose the personal interests of someone's
privacy: to reveal a person's life to make a difference. In addition, as a writer who
introduced Silsbee into the Aspern Journals, it is also ironic about himself. In fact,
James realized that this is improper: 'James understood that as an author, he often
lived out the lives of others and he didn't very differ from the reporter and critic in
many ways (Hutchison, 2012). He still does it, though.

CONCLUSION

The first-person narrative voice used by Henry James in The Aspern Papers
has successfully provoked multi-interpretations and various critics from readers and
scholars, specifically regarding the motives of the narrator who also becomes the
main character of the story. The unreliable narrator is highly ambitious to possess
Juliana‘s letters from Jeffrey Aspern for his own good either as a journalist, a writer,
or publisher. If he succeeds to get the precious letters, he would know Aspern‘s life
and Aspern‘s life is valuable to be sold to the public.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barnet, S. et al. (2008). An Introduction to Literature: Fiction, Poetry, and Drama.

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