Download Chapter II Theoretical review 2.1 Grammar In this research, the

Chapter II
Theoretical review
2.1
Grammar
In this research, the writer wants to find out how the fourth semester students in
Bina Nusantara University use adjective clause to combine sentences. The adjective
clause as a part of grammar has a high relevance with English Language because it
linked each other between grammar
and English language which means to learned
adjective clause we must understand about grammar first.
2.1.1
Grammar definition
Batstone (1994, p 136) gave definition of grammar that it is an identification of
systematic regularities in language. In his book that entitled Grammar, Swan (2005, p 3)
gave some definitions of the word grammar from point of view of some people about
grammar. According to Swan (2005, p 3), grammar can be having different meaning for
different people and many of them have negative definition for grammar. For example
of it, the writer quotes some meanings written by Swan that describe the negative
definition of grammar:
• "Something that young people for today are not taught properly at school,
as a result of which the language is going to the dogs."
• "A collection of mysterious terminology: 'auxiliary', 'past participle',
'relative clause', 'complement'."
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• "A cluster of prohibitions that make people worry about whether they
speak their own language properly ('Don't say between you and I';
'Don't split infinitives'; 'Less people is wrong; You should say fewer
people'; and so on)
• "A galaxy of apparently arbitrary rules which make foreign languages
unnecessarily difficult
communication: for
and
seem
to
example, French
get
in
the way
of natural
gender; German word
order;
Russian case endings; honorific verb forms in Japanese."
• "A large dusty book full of any of the above."
Also Swan (2005, p 3) gave a statement that even if someone feels he/she knows
pretty well what grammar is, he or she might not be able to defme the definition of
'What is grammar?' easily. Now "What is Grammar?", Further Swan considered that
this question was a easy question, but if someone asked it to us we can not define clearly
the definition of grammar itself. Perhaps this means we can not find the meaning easily.
This also stated by Swan (2005, p 3) that although reference books are not a great deal
of help to find the clear definition about grammar in dictionary, most of it only give
incomplete definition and also gives no indication of the function of grammar. As an
illustration Swan (2005, p 3) described it as if one defined a bus as a 'large vehicle
constructed on one or two levels' without mentioning that it is used for a public
transport.
Swan (2005, p 4) said that to know what the real meaning and definition of
grammar is, someone need to know the purpose of grammar itsel£ Imagine that in our
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mind of the questions that have relation with grammar itself can be excellent starting
point for our enquiry such as "Why do we need 'rules for combining words into
sentences' anyway? Couldn't we manage well enough just by saying the words?" will
became a perfectly sensible question. Swan also stated that the best way to have clear
understanding of the meaning of grammar, the use of it, and the necessary what that
related with it , is in fact to try to imagine language without it.
2.1.2
Language without grammar
Batstone (1994, p 3) wrote in his book that language needs a grammar, because
without it language will became seriously handicapped. To do effective communication
in a language, someone must have an ability to put granunar to use in a variety of
situations.
Swan (2005, p 4-5) gave illustration of an experiment that illustrate human when
they invent a language. It starts from human baby that can only cries and grunts, use
facial expressions, gestures and then invent words. After that they can use words to
differentiate one with another thing. Not only that, they also realize that words is not
only for people and thing but also for characteristics, like 'big', 'delicious', 'red', 'cold',
and etc. Finally they can combine words to indicate events or states of affairs. This is an
illustration ofhow human invented language.
Further, Swan (2005, p 6) said that although humans already invented language
but they still have problems, they still has some limitation in using language. Swan also
added three particular problems:
1. Difficulties in specified exact meanings in situations that involve more
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meaning. Context will often remove the ambiguity, but this will not
always be the case.
2. Language can enable you to identify and talk about things but can not
clarify it and relationship between it.
3.
You cannot get beyond requests and affirmative statements, so we need a
way of saying what word goes with what, a way of expressing agency
and other relationships, and a way of indicating the communicative status
of your utterances, status, question, suggestion, negation, or etc.
Finally the need of grammar was established. Perhaps this is the reason why
language needs grammar.
2.1.3
Alternative in English grammar
Alternative in a language or a grammar cannot be considered as a mistake. Swan
(2005, p 63) said someone might use a familiar structure which they understood or
mastered as children. Most people, whose speech is characterized by non-standard
grammar, switch to more standard forms in writing. However, there is a great deal of
difference between written
and spoken
language. Sometimes non-standard grammar
appears in writing as a alternative but it still can be accepted and use in a speech. Further
Swan (2005, p 64) stated that a standard language is not linguistically better; it simplify
the variety for official purposes. However, Swan also said that each individual can have
his/her own way to express themselves in different language situation.
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2.2
Adjective clause
2.2.1
Definition of adjective clause
According to Medwell, Moore, Wray, Griffiths (2001, p 71) a clause is a set of
related
words containing a subject
and a verb.
Clauses can be categorized into
independent and dependent clause. And according to Roberts (1954, p 309) an adjective
clause is a clause used to modify a substantive or subordinate clause which regularly
follows the substantive it modifies.
In Fundamental of English grammar, Azar (1992, p 309) stated that independent
clause is a main clause and it can stand alone as a sentence and a dependent clause must
be connected to an independent clause because it can not stand alone as a sentences.
Almost the same with Azar, Medwell et a! (2001, p 71) also states that subordinate
clause is another term of dependent clause which means that subordinate to another
element (independent clause) and depend on that other element for its meaning.
In the Golden's Concise English grammar, Strumpf and Douglas (1994, p 341)
also explained that subordinate clause cannot stand alone because it depends on the main
clause for meaning. Strumpf and Douglas stated about complex sentence which is a
result from subordinate clause to a main clause by using a connecting word. From this
explanation we know that sentences that have adjective clauses was categorized as
complex sentences.
Also, Medwell et a! (2001, p 73) said that relative or adjective clause are
dependent clause that are introduced by a connecting word (that, which, who, whom,
whose, where, and when) and relative clause can be either restrictive or non restrictive.
According to Strumpf and Douglas (1994, p 342-347) relative clause are set up
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as who, whom and which, relative adverbs such as when and where and relative
determiners such as which and whose.
However Strumpf and Douglas (1994, p 343-346) said that a relative pronoun is
a complicated word, it introduces a relative clause, joins that clause to a main clause, but
it also stands for a noun. As a relative pronoun who have two forms depending on the
use in relative clause. It is used as nominative case usage then the form will be who, but
if it used as objective case usage then the form will be whom. Relative adverbs when and
where join relative clauses to main clause in the same way that relative pronoun do but
its functions as adverbials. The pronoun whose and which are two common examples of
relative determiners, these words modify the noun that follow them in the relative
clauses like an article. Strumpf
arid Douglas (1994, P 346) also explained that a
determiner would modify the nouus that follow them and also it is always preceded by a
preposition.
2.2.2
Structure in adjective clause
According to Yule (1998, p 240), adjectives typically come before noun, but
relative clauses come after noun.
He also adds that there is always close connection
between antecedent and the relative pronoun. Yule (1998, p 240) gave some example of
several different relative pronouns:
a. I'm kind of person who is always losing thing.
b. Right now, I can't find a book that I need for school.
c. It's a brand new book which I just bought last week.4.
d. It'd for s class with teacher whom I really like.
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Moreover, Yule (1998, p 241) also stated that relative pronouns (who, whom,
whose, which, and that) are used in different grammatical roles within relative clause,
those are roles of subject, object and after-preposition and possessive relatives.
Yule (1998, p
241-243) also
gave
some explanation and
example for
grammatical roles within the relative clause:
I. Subject relatives
In subject relative the relative pronoun that used are that, who and which. Here is
some example in subject relatives:
[1] a. Did you see the man? The man was here.
b. Did you see the man who was here?
In this example the man is replaced by relative pronoun who as subject relative.
[2] a. Did you take the book? The book was on the desk.
b. Did you take the book which was on the desk.
In this example the book is replaced by relative pronoun which as subject
relative.
[3] a. I didn't see the man that was here
b. And I didn't take the book that was on the desk.
Yule also said that that found being used as a subject relative as shown in [3]
and in contemporary spoken English that is found more often than which in this
construction.
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2. Object relatives
In object relative the relative pronouns used are that, whom and which. Here is
example in object relatives:
[4] a. Did you like the woman? You met the woman.
b. Did you like the woman whom you met? [5]
a. Did you enjoy the film? You saw the film. B
Did you enjoy the film which you saw?
In example [6] whom is replaced the woman and in example [7] which is
replaced the film. Although the woman
and the film are after verb, as objects,
but the relative pronouns are still placed at the beginning of the adjective clause.
In addition to whom and which, the relative pronoun that is frequently used as an
object relative. According to Yule, in casual conversational speech, beside
using that there is often no relative pronoun or known as a zero relative
[6] a. I didn't like the woman that I met.
b. I didn't like the film that I saw.
c. I don't want to talk about the woman
rJ
I met
The forms whom and which are usually used in formal language than the forms
of that and
fi1 (zero
relative).
3. After-Preposition relatives
The forms whom and which are also used when relative pronoun come directly
after prepositions, for example:
[7] a. Where is the person? You talked to the person
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[8] a. Where is the hotel? You stayed in the hotel.
b. Where is the hotel in which you stayed?
Yule also gave explanation that in this position, that cannot be used instead of
whom
or which. However, that can be used if the preposition is placed at the end
of the clause.
[9] a. Can I meet the person that you talked to?
b. Can we find the hotel that you stayed in?
Zero relative also can use in this form, according to Yule (1998, P 243) it more
common than using that if the preposition is placed at the end of sentence.
[10] a. Mary knows the person 0 I talked to.
b. And she'll remember the hotel0 we stayed in.
However, even these structure with
stranded prepositions are much more
frequent in contemporary English usage but those with fronted prepositions (to
whom, in which) are sounds more formal.
4. Possessive relative
The possessive form whose is used to introduce possessive relatives.
[11] a. Did you talk to the girl? Her bag was stolen.
b. Did you talk to the girl whose bag was stolen?
Others alternative for possessive relatives are of which, usually it use after the
noun. For example:
[12] a. Have you ever lived in a house? The house's roof was leaking.
b. Have you ever lived in a house the roof of which was leaking?
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Further Yule in his book (1998, p 244) summarizes these different forms of
relative pronouns in a Table.
Subject relatives
Object relatives
After-Preposition
Possessive
relative
relatives
Fronted
stranded
Who
0
(to) which
0...(to)
whose
That
that
(to)whom
that ...(to)
of which
Which
which
who...(to)
whom
which...(to)
Table 1. Uses of relative pronouns.
2.2.3
Basic meaning in adjective clause
In his book Explaining English Grammar, Yule (1998, p 250) also explained
about theory of basic meanings in adjective clause. The most obvious meaning
distinction in relative clause is between human and non-human referents. Usually who,
whom, whose forms are related with human or human-like entities and which tends to
related with non-human entities.
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In Advanced Learner's Grammar, Foley and Hall (2003, p 300) explain about
relative pronoun and adverbs and sununarized how to use it by using a table.
Pronouns
Used for
Used as
Subject
1 Who
Whom
object
-v
People, animals
People
X
'1/
Objects, animals
'1/
'1/
which
Ideas
'1/
'1/
3
That
People, objects, animals
-v
-v
4
Whose
Relationships, possessions
'1/
'1/
5 where
places
v
v
6 when
times
'1/
'1/
2 Which
Adverb
Table 2 . How to use relative pronoun.
Having discussed the necessary theoretical framework, the writer will next
analyze the data which he took with using theory in this chapter as a reference. The
theory in this chapter also became a basic structure which will strengthen the analysis.