Jurnal 4 :

Title : Stylistic Analysis of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter

Journal : Stylistic Analysis
Volume/page :
Journal Number: -
Email :-
Address : Central Mindanao University, Philippines
Year :-
Author : Rene Marquez Bonifacio
Published :-
Reveiwer : Dara Dwi mei Nanda
Keywords : Style, Transformational Grammar, Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling
Scope : J. K. Rowling mostly used compound complex, declarative, simple
past, and active voice.
The problem raised :
The study sought to analyze the writing style of J. K. Rowling in her Harry Potter
series using Noam Chomsky’s Transformational Grammar Theory. Specifically, the study
sought to find out the writing style of J. K. Rowling in her Harry Potter in terms of
sentence structure, tense of the verb, and voice of the verb; and examine the deep
structure writing style of J. K. Rowling in her Harry Potter in terms of number of kernel
sentences in transformed sentences, connectives used, and reductions used.

Research purposes :
The study aimed to analyze the writing style of J. K. Rowling in her Harry Potter
series using Noam Chomsky’s Transformational Grammar Theory. Specifically, the study
sought to find out the writing style of J. K. Rowling in her Harry Potter series in terms of
sentence structure, tense of the verb, and voice of the verb; and examine the deep
structure writing style of J. K. Rowling in her Harry Potter series in terms of number of
kernel sentences in transformed sentences, connectives used, and reductions used.

Research Method :
This presents the step-by-step procedure on how the researcher analyzed and came up
with J. K. Rowling’s writing style in her Harry Potter.
In choosing the instruments of the study, Judgment Sampling was used. The
researcher read first the seven books intensively. While reading, the researcher focused
on the dialogues and narrations, especially the long sentences and with common
connectives and reductions to create a stronger pattern of the author’s writing style. Two
paragraphs from each first two chapters served as samples.

Research result :
This chapter presents the paragraphs and sentences analyzed in J.K. Rowling’s Harry
Potter. The analysis of sentence structure, tense of the verb, and voice of the verb; and the
deep structure: number of kernel sentences, connectives, and reductions are presented.

Sentence Structure, Tense, and Voice in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter

 In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, two paragraphs were extracted and analyzed
in the first two chapters. The paragraph was taken in page 17. There were four sentences.
The sentence structures were complex, simple, and two compound complex. All the
sentences were declarative. The tense of the verbs was simple past. The voice of the verbs
was active.

Table 1. Sentence Structure, Tense, and Voice in chapter 1 of Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer’s Stone

Sentence Sentence Structure Sentence Structure Tense of the Verb Voice of the Verb
Number (Content) (Form)

1 Complex Declarative Simple Past Active

2 Simple Declarative Simple Past Active
3. Compound Complex Declarative Simple Past Active
4 Compound Complex Declarative Simple Past Active
The second sample paragraph was taken in page 18. This paragraph had five
sentences. Three were compound complex, one simple, and one compound sentence. All
were declarative. Three were past perfect and two were simple past. Three were passive
and two were active.

Deep Structure Writing Style of J.K. Rowling

In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, transformations and reductions were done
in the chosen paragraphs. In sentence 1, three kernel sentences were connected by which
and a comma while it was omitted. Sentence 2 had one kernel. Sentence 3 had seven
kernel sentences connected by and, three not knowing’s, as and that. Sentence 4 had four
kernel sentences connected by that, and, a semicolon, and a quotation mark; they and this
were omitted.

Summary, Conclusion, and Recommendation

This section shows the summary of findings, drawing of conclusions based on the
findings, and recommendations for further study. Of 65 sentences, 35 were compound
complex, 12 compound, 12 complex, and 6 simple sentences. This implied that Rowling’s
writing style were combinations of various dependent and independent clauses which
were strung by connectives, with some reductions as the author writes her novel.
Moreover, 60 sentences were declarative, 3 interrogative, 2 exclamatory sentences.
Rowling used declarative because the genre is a novel and it is narrative in nature. Most
of the verbs fall under past aspect, where 38 were simple present, 23 past perfect, and 4
past progressive. This implied that the way Rowling narrated the story was more of
actions or events that happened in the past. In terms of voice, 36 were active, 24 passive,
and 5 with no voice of the verb. This showed that Rowling focused on the
characters/doers of the action in writing her novel.
Journal of Excellence :
In this journal the material presented is complete as well as the example given. very
easy for readers to type in reading this journal. and immediately cite what is meant in this
journal

Journal of Loss :
This journal also has a weakness, including this journal, which is unfortunate that it
does not have conclusions, so the reader does not know the end or conclusion of this
journal

Conclusion :
In terms of the number of kernel sentences in transformed sentences, it ranged
between 1 to 10 kernels. The highest is 2 kernel sentences which occurred in twenty
sample sentences, 4 kernels in ten sentences, 3 and 6 kernels in eight sentences, 1 kernel
in seven sentences, 5 kernels in four sentences, 7 kernels in two sentences, and 10 kernels
in one sentence, with neither eight nor nine kernels.
Various connectives were used like punctuation marks: commas appeared 62 times,
semicolon 7 times, dash 4 times, colon thrice, and quotation marks twice; demonstrative
pronouns: that 19 times, which and what 4 times, and who twice; adverbs: when 4 times,
not knowing thrice, why twice, and probably once; conjunctions: and 32 times, but 7
times, as 6 times, so that and as though thrice, or twice, while, since, before, because,
whether or not, as if, and not because appeared once; and prepositions without and about
appeared twice and once respectively. Several reductions were omitted as well. Third
personal pronouns: he was omitted 34 times, it 22 times, they 5 times, and she 4 times;
and determiners: this and there were also dropped, twice and once respectively.
Overall, sentence structure determines the number of kernel sentences, connectives,
and reductions. She might be unaware, but it was explicitly shown in her novel.
Based on the results and limitations of the study, further researches were
recommended: studies on the writing style of J. K. Rowling using other stylistic theories;
studies on other novels using Chomsky’s Transformational Grammar; studies on the other
elements of novel like plot and characters; comparative studies of the book version and
movie version of Harry Potter; and studies on Harry Potter using other literary
approaches.