A Comparative Analysis of Appraisal on Letter of Reader Column in The Jakarta Post Exposing The Scandal of Gayus’ Vacation (Based on Systemic Functional Linguistics Approach)

Oleh :
Ika Mauliana Astuti - C0307004 - Fak. Sastra dan Seni Rupa

2011. Thesis: English Department. Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts. Sebelas Maret University This research was conducted to analyze appraisal system in letter to editor column exposing issue of scandal of Gayus’vacation, taken from Jakarta Post website. The source of this research was two texts entitled Should We Thank Gayus? and Shocked by Gayus Vacation. The objectives of this research are to find out attitudes employed in the texts of exposing the scandal of Gayus’ vacation, to find out the influence of the attitudes toward the texts, to find out the similarities and differences of the texts and to find out why the attitudes are employed. This research applied a descriptive qualitative method with total sampling technique. This research used primary and secondary data. The primary data of this research consisted of linguistic phenomenon about the types of attitude: affect (personal emotion), judgement (human behaviour), and appreciation (evaluation of phenomenon). Meanwhile, the secondary data of this research were the profile of the Jakarta Post as the daily online newspaper for public and the information about the column of letter to editor and it functions for the reader. The result of the data analysis shows that both texts employ three kinds of attitude: affect, judgement, and appreciation. The first text written by Ferril Irham Muzaki implies 21,2% positive appreciation and 21,2 % negative appreciation, 39,4% positive judgement and 12,3% negative judgement and 6,1% positive affect. Meanwhile, the second text written by Guntur Sutriyono puts 9,4% positive appreciation and 62,5% negative appreciation, 12,5% positive judgement and 12,5% negative judgement, and 3,1% positive affect. In addition, both texts’ writers employ force: raise and focus: sharpening graduation with one voice (monogloss). The use of attitude influences the register, prosody, genre and ideology. From three kinds of attitudes used in the texts indicate that the language in both text are dominated by behavioral and carrier–attribute.Moreover, in the level of nominal group is dominated by epithet-thing. The analysis of engagement shows that the prosody used by the texts’ writer is subjective, since they use their own opinion in evaluating the issue. From the issue exposed in both texts show that genre used is analytical exposition. The prosody and genre determine the ideology of the writers. The first, the ideology of Ferril’s text is antagonist-right. Meanwhile, the second text’s writer, Guntur, implies antagonist-left as his ideology. This research also explains that both of texts’ writers want to convey their argument toward the issue. Both of the texts are dominated by judgement and appreciation. In the first text shows that in evaluating the issue the writer gives his positive argument since he wants to show his appreciation toward Gayus for his success in exposing the tax scandal in Indonesia. Meanwhile, the second text’s writer puts his negative side in evaluating the case. In this case he is in the position of challenging the issue. This research is expected to have a significant contribution to develop Systemic Functional Study, especially in the appraisal analysis. The result of this research can be used as a reference to conduct a further research related to the study of appraisal in the case of analyzing affect, judgement and appreciation. This research is expected to be useful to the English Department students as an additional input and reference to be widen their knowledge of appraisal.