THE ANALYSIS OF THE ADJECTIVE CLAUSES IN ALICE MUNRO’S THE OFFICE

Abstract

This thesis deals with syntax, because it concerns about the arrangement of sentence. This thesis tries to discuss the adjective clauses that are found in short story entitled The Office, written by Alice Munro. What will be discussed in this thesis are the form of the adjective clauses, the relative pronoun and relative adverb used, and also the total number of them. The source of data used in this thesis is gained from short story The Office, written by Alice Munro. The short story itself is taken from a book composed by Michael Timko, entitled 38 Short Stories. The Office is chosen as the source of data because it uses English that is simple, so that it is easier for the readers, even by the English learners, to know what Alice Munro tells in her short story. The other reason, this short story is considered unique, because the ending of this story is quite flat, and not really surprising. From this short story, any sentences that contain adjective clauses are collected. Then, the adjective clauses are analyzed through explaining how the adjective clauses are presented, what relative pronouns and relative adverbs are used, what nouns are denoted by relative pronouns and relative adverbs, and also defining what the functions of relative pronouns and relative adverbs are in the adjective clauses. Next, the total number of relative pronoun denoting subject, object, possession, as well as the total number of relative adverb denoting place, time, and reason will be counted. The total number of them will be presented in the form of percentage. After doing all of those steps, conclusion can be drawn at the end of the discussion. In conducting a research, this thesis applies library research. It means that the data and other informations are taken from books, because books are the main source to the elaboration of theoretical framework and problems that will be analyzed. This thesis uses descriptive analysis, and the types of data used are qualitative and quantitative data, because the data are in the form of sentences and numbers. Based on the results of the analysis and the discussion, there are 59 sentences containing 76 adjective clauses found. From those adjective clauses, seven are in the form of adjective phrases. In more detail, those 76 adjective clauses use 20 zero relative pronouns, 31 relative pronouns denoting subject, 7 relative pronouns denoting object, 2 relative pronouns denoting possession, 7 relative adverbs denoting place, 1 relative adverb denoting time, and 1 relative adverb denoting reason. Finally, the total number of the relative pronouns and the relative adverbs in the form of percentage is defined. The adjective phrases are categorized as adjective clauses that use relative pronouns denoting subject, while zero relative pronouns that are used in the adjective clauses are categorized as relative pronouns denoting object. Furthermore, from the 67 relative pronouns, there are 38 relative pronouns denoting subject (56. 7%), 27 relative pronouns denoting object (40. 3%), and 2 relative pronouns denoting possession (3%) found. Meanwhile, from the nine relative adverbs, there are 7 relative adverbs denoting place (77. 8%), 1 relative adverb denoting time (11. 1%), and 1 relative adverb denoting reason (11. 1%) found.