Thematic Realization in University Students’ Narrative Text:

Systemic Functional Perspective

T. Thyrhaya Zein

, T. Silvana Sinar

, Nurlela

and Muhammad Yusuf

English Literature Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Thematic Realization, Textual Function, Narrative, Systemic Functional.

Abstract: This study deals aims at investigating thematic realization in university students’ narrative texts based on

systemic functional perspective and its pedagogical implementation in teaching writing. The research design

employed in this study was qualitative content analysis. The research instrument used in this study was writing

sheet. The data were taken from narrative text written by 20 second-year students of English Literature study

program of Universitas Sumatera Utara. Then, the data were in the form of clause and analyzed by using

textual function realized by Theme and Rheme. The finding shows that there are 20 different titles of narrative

text comprising of 1086 Theme occurrences. The occurrences of Theme types successively are topical (725

or 66.76%), textual (336 or 30.94%), and interpersonal Theme (25 or 2.30%). It leads to the conclusion that

those three types of Theme appear in the data, and topical Theme is the dominant Theme characterizing

university students’ narrative texts. The pedagogical implementation is some university students failed to

present the interaction among characters in their narrative text so that the lecturers should give more materials

on the use of interpersonal Theme markers in writing course.

1 INTRODUCTION

Writing is considered as productive skill along with

speaking. Harmer (2004) clearly states that this skill

should be acquired by the students due to its existence

in the syllabus. At university level, some academic

genres should be mastered by students which one of

them is narrative. To produce a good text is not easy

since there are many aspects to be considered such as

cohesion and coherence.

Each type of text is unique based on its

characteristics namely lexicogrammatical features,

schematic structure and social function. Anderson

and Anderson (2004) state that narrative genre

possesses schematic structure namely orientation ^

complication ^ evaluation ^ resolution ^ coda. The

function of this genre is used to entertain the readers

(Gerot & Wignell 1994). The fulfilment of those

characteristics is a compulsory in order to produce a

good narrative text (Zein, Sinar & Nurlela 2017). The

investigation of the lexico-grammatical stratum of

language reveals the kinds of internal patterns of

clause structures which are highly favoured for

interpreting experience (Halliday 1994). If students

can consistently use all of the language features and

schematic structure in their writing, they will produce

a good organization of a text.

Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is beneficial

to evaluate students’ writing (Tshotsho 2014). The

analysis in SFL is more stressing on a clause analysis

rather than a sentence analysis (Hanafiah, Yusuf &

Aswani 2018). In SFL, language has three kinds of

meaning simultaneously regarded as metafunctions

covering ideational, interpersonal, and textual

function. This is inherent in every language use in

social contexts and relevant at any linguistic level

(Sinar 2007).

Textual function (clause as message) is realized

through the use of Theme and rheme in a clause. The

departure point of the message is defined as ‘the

Theme’. This is differentiated into textual,

interpersonal, and topical Theme (Halliday &

Matthiessen 2014). When the Theme is identified, the

Rheme is just a piece of cake to be identified since it

is the rest part of the clause (Martin & Rose 2008).

The example of the use of Theme in a clause is

presented as the following:

Zein, T., Sinar, T., Nurlela, . and Yusuf, M.

Thematic Realization in University Students’ Narrative Text: Systemic Functional Perspective.

DOI: 10.5220/0010071212611266

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

1261-1266

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

1261

Table 1: Theme realization in a clause.

Unfortunately,

broke his

promises

interpersonal

topical:

unmarked

Rheme

Theme

The example in advance presents that there are

two types of Theme in that clause, there are topical

and interpersonal Themes. The existence of Theme in

a text is very prominent since it is used to signal the

connection of the messages (textual theme). Then, the

speakers’ position and their interaction can be

observed through interpersonal Theme. Meanwhile,

topical Theme is utilized to show who is experiencing

or what is being experienced (Butt et al. 2006). In

narrative text, the use of Theme is very important

such as textual Theme to connect the chronological

actions. Narrative text has complication part

containing the conflict and interaction and it can be

signaled by the use of interpersonal Theme. It makes

sense that the study of thematic realization in

narrative text is urgent to be conducted.

There are a number of previous studies focusing

on the analysis of thematic realization. Wang (2007)

conducted a study which is focused on the Theme-

Rheme relation in order to enhance cohesion. Then, it

presents that Theme and Rheme patterning is

applicable in teaching writing in classrooms to

diagnose students’ weaknesses in thematic

progression, selection, or even both. The other

experts, Correa and Domínguez (2014) in their

research attempt to explore narrative text by using

SFL specifically the realization of metafunction in

text. The previous studies are obviously different

from this research in some aspects such as the objects

of analysis, the theories used, and the genres.

Students are required to be capable of

comprehending and producing a well-written

narrative text in order to pass the course. Belmonte

and McCabe (cited in Ebrahimi & Ebrahimi 2012)

state that the production of well-organized and

cohesive text is possible to be attained through

thematic patterning. Therefore, this study is aimed to

investigate thematic realization in university

students’ narrative texts based on systemic functional

perspective and see its pedagogical implementation.

The findings of this study are hoped to be beneficial

as a reference for educators (lecturers and teachers) in

teaching writing, and students to improve the quality

of narrative text product.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)

Language is used constantly in our daily activities.

Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is one of the

frameworks to analyze and interpret language. This

theory is always related to the context and utilized for

construing human experiences and looking into the

working of language within social context (Naz, Alvi

& Baseer 2012). Then, the structure of language or

the text is chosen by the function or purpose set by its

speakers in using the language (Saragih 2016).

Meaning is structured at three different levels covered

in metafunctions namely ideational, interpersonal,

and textual function.

2.2 Textual Function

Halliday (1985) asserts that the textual function

(realized through the use of Theme-Rheme) is that of

constructing a message. In text organization, the

Theme is regarded as a prominent part since it is the

departure of the message (McCabe & Heilman 2007).

Moreover, in a clause, there is also the structure of

Theme-Rheme, or given-new information. The

Theme often presents given information while the

Rheme often presents new information (De Oliveira

2015). Theme comprises of three categories i.e.

topical, interpersonal, and textual.

Eggins (2004) provides the explanation of

categories of Theme as the followings:

 Topical Theme: in a clause, it is normally an

element which is able to be assigned as

transitivity label placed in the first position.

A prominent thing is each clause must have

only one topical Theme. Topical Theme also

comprises of marked Theme (MT) and

unmarked Theme (UMT)

 Interpersonal Theme: It happens when at the

beginning of a clause, a constituent called as

a Mood label appears (not a transitivity

label). The constituents consist of unfused

finite, Mood adjunct, vocative, polarity

adjunct, and comment adjunct.

 Textual Theme: it deals with building the

cohesion in text, and this kind of Theme is

also defined as any elements which do not

belong to any experiential and interpersonal

meaning.

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2.3 Writing

Writing is a complicated process with a number of

activities happening simultaneously and comprises of

some steps namely planning, drafting, editing, and

final version (Harmer, cited in Yusuf & Saragih

2014). Then, Richards and Renandya (cited in Eliya

2015) add that writing is applicable in generating and

scrutinizing the ideas as well as language. The

effective way to learn how to write is to go at it as a

process. As the conclusion, writing is the way to

convey the idea, message, and thought in written form

involving complicated process.

2.4 Genre

Genre has close relationship to text and context.

Pardiyono (2007) states that genre is elucidated as

text type which has a function as frame of reference

so that one text can be written effectively and

precisely. In conclusion, genre is a frame of reference

which covers a staged, and goal-oriented in a

particular society of culture.

2.5 Narrative Text

Zaimar and Harahap (2009) argue that narrative text

is signed by the chronological use of time. Anderson

and Anderson (cited in Agusta 2015) assert that this

text is a kind of text used to tell a story. Zein (2009)

also adds that narrative text provides relation between

characters especially between human being and

nature, between human being, and between human

being and non human. Moreover, values and moral

aspects can be found in narrative text. Specifically, it

also has communicative purpose to amuse the readers

or listeners. Furthermore, Joyce and Feez (2000) also

hold that this genre possesses lexicogrammatical

features as listed below:

 Specific participant such as human or animal

with human’s characteristic.

 The dominant use of action to describe what

actually occurs. This can be explored

through transitivity analysis.

 Simple past tense is generally used

 The existence of dialogue realized by saying

verb or verbal process.

 The use of descriptive language in order to

improve and expand the story.

 The use of first or third person is possible.

Rustipa (2011) argues that generic structures of

narrative text are as the following:

 Orientation

 Complication

 Evaluation

 Resolution

 Coda

3 METHOD

This research utilized qualitative content analysis as

the research design. This method is explained as a

step to summarizing and report written data. The

research was conducted at English literature

department of Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan,

Indonesia. The number of participants involved as

sample was 20 second-year students. The reason of

the selection is they have acquired the materials about

narrative text and the method used in teaching writing

is genre-based approach. The source of the data was

collected from narrative text which the length of the

text is 250-400 words. The main instrument used was

the writing sheets.

The content analysis carried out data collection

and data analysis steps. Some steps proposed by Ezzy

(2002) to analyze the data are presented as the

followings:

 Recognizing the segments of the texts

 Identifying and separating the sentences into

clauses

 Identifying and grouping the types of Theme

 Inference making.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Results

The analysis presents that 20 different titles are

discovered in students’ narrative texts. There are

1086 occurrences of Theme comprising of topical,

interpersonal, and textual Themes. The dominant type

of Theme is topical Theme (725 or 66.76%). Overall,

text 3 has the highest number of Theme occurrences

totalling to 81 while the lowest one is text 8 totalling

33 occurrences. Text 3 has 81 occurrences of Theme

which is the highest number among all the texts. In

terms of topical Theme, text 16 has the highest

number of occurrences (54) and the lowest one is text

8 (22). Interpersonal Theme does not appear in some

texts namely text 3, 5, 9, 11, and 15.Then, text 7 and

text 12 have 3 occurrences of interpersonal as the

highest occurrences. Then, for textual Theme, text 3

has 35 occurrences as the highest frequency

occurrences while text 8 is the lowest with 9

Thematic Realization in University Students’ Narrative Text: Systemic Functional Perspective

1263

occurrences. The description of thematic occurrences

and its distribution are illustrated as the following.

Table 2: Thematic occurrences in students’ narrative texts.

Theme

Total

Topical

Interpersonal

Textual

Total

725

336

1086

Percen

tage

66.76

2.30

30.94

100

The example of the realization of topical,

interpersonal, and topical Theme is illustrated as the

followings:

Table 3: Topical theme (taken from text 17).

stayed at Berastagi for 3 days

Topical:

unmarked

Theme

Rheme

The clause in table 3 consists of one Theme

namely topical Theme specifically unmarked Theme.

Since the clause is in the form of declarative and

started with a subject, this is grouped into topical

theme.

Table 4: Interpersonal theme (taken from text 18).

Fortunately,

our class

won the

second prize

Interpersonal

Topical:unmarked

Theme

Rheme

The example in table 4 presents that the clause has

two Themes namely interpersonal and topical theme.

Interpersonal Theme is realized by the use of

comment adjunct (fortunately).

Table 5: Textual theme (taken from text 6).

and

she

Lived only with her step

mother and step sisters

Textual

Topical

Theme

Rheme

In table 5, the data present that there are 2 clauses

comprising of multiple Theme (topical and textual).

Textual Theme is realized through the use of

conjunctive adjuncts which have the function to link

clauses together.

4.2 Discussion

Thematic realization in a text has important role. The

use of textual Theme is used to signal the connection

of the messages, interpersonal Theme is used to signal

interaction among speakers or the positions which

they are taking, and topical Theme is used to signal

who is experiencing or what is being experienced.

The dominant type of Theme found in this research is

topical Theme. It is also relevant that topical Theme

is used to signal who and what is experiencing and

every clause must have topical Theme even though it

is possible that a clause does not have interpersonal

and textual Theme.

The use of textual Theme is very important since

it is to signal the connection between messages to the

previous ones and link it. Narrative text is a text

which contains of chronological use of time and this

absolutely can be described by the use of conjunction

which is considered as conjunctive adjunct in textual

function analysis. All students understand in writing

chronological story through the existence and the

distribution of conjunctive adjuncts in their narrative

texts.

Based on the data analysis, interpersonal Theme

is not found in some texts (3, 5, 9, 11, and 15).

Narrative text has complication part as the main

section of a narrative in which the writer normally

presents the conflicts or the problem among the

characters. The conflicts or problem is the result of

the interaction among the characters and it can be

signalled by the use of interpersonal Theme. In this

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case, some students failed to illustrate the interaction

and conflict among the characters. This finding is also

in line with the research from Correa and Domínguez

(2014) clarifying that problem of the use of the

Theme is also experienced by their student. In

addition, there are only two interpersonal Themes

discovered in the text namely sometimes and

suddenly.

The pedagogical implementation related to the

findings is the lecturers should give materials about

vocative use and adjunct to the university students in

writing class. The vocative use such as my darling,

my father, Toba, Cinderella, and also comment

adjuncts such as surprisingly, and fortunately, are

possible to be placed in the text to have a better set

for the events or conflicts to be told.

5 CONCLUSION AND

SUGGESTIONS

After the data have been analyzed, the conclusion can

be drawn that all three types of Theme (topical,

interpersonal, and textual) appear in the data and

topical Theme is the dominant Theme (725 or

66.76%) characterizing university students’ narrative

texts. The pedagogical implementation is some

students are not successful in presenting the

interaction among characters so that the lecturers

should give more materials on the use of interpersonal

theme markers such as vocative and comment

adjuncts in teaching narrative text.

It is also suggested that the lecturers give extra

material and practice to students in writing this genre

specifically in thematic realization. Then, students

should pay attention more on the use of Theme in

their writing since it affects their quality of writing.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The writers would like to express their gratitude to

Research Institute of Universitas Sumatera Utara for

2018 TALENTA research grant no:

2590/UN5.1.R/PPM/2017 on 16th March 2018.

Then, the thankfulness is also addressed to English

literature department, faculty of cultural sciences,

Universitas Sumatera Utara which provided so much

help and kindness during the accomplishment of this

research.

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