MINI RESEARCH OF AN ANALYSIS OF SYNTAX TREE

DIAGRAM IN POETRY

Lecture : Vieny Nazrillah Siregar, M. Hum

Written By:
Anggi Anggraini Nasution
PBI 4/SEM. VI
0304162080

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHERS TRAINING
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF NORTH SUMATERA
MEDAN
2019
 AN ANALYSIS OF SYNTAX TREE DIAGRAM IN POETRY

By:
Anggi Anggraini Nasution
PBI-4 Semester V

Bachelor Program of Educational English Department

Islamic State University of North Sumatera

Students number: 0304162080

Email: anggianstt@gmail.com

Abstract

This research was conducted to analyze the tree diagram of syntax in poetry. The title
of the poetry is “Be Mine” by Ralphealia J. James. The research was conducted by using
qualitative research method to gain the data analysis and some experts theory. The data in this
research were the types of expressive speech acts. From the result of analysis of the use of
Tree Diagram from the poetry is Noun are fifteen words, Verb are ten words, Determinant are
six words, Conjunction are four words, Auxilary is one words, Adverb are two words,
Pronoun are two words, Preposition is one word, Verb Phrase are seven words, Noun Phrase
are three words, Adverb Phrase is one. The most word in this poetry is Noun, and the least
words are Auxilary, Preposition and Adverb Phrase. Based on the findings obtained, The
poetry that titled “Be Mine” can make four tree diagram. It is a short poetry but still has much
class words in syntax.

Key Words: Syntax, Tree Diagram, Poetry.

INTRODUCTION

Based on the experts, Syntax is a central component of human language. Language has often
been characterized as a systematic correlation between certain types of gestures and meaning.
It is not the case that every possible meaning that can be expressed is correlated with a
unique, unanalyzable gesture, be it oral or manual. Rather, each language has stock of
meaning-bearing elements and different ways of combining them to express different
meaning, and these ways of combining them are themselves meaningful.(Robert and Valin,
2001). Syntax can thus be given the following characterization, taken from Matthews
(1982:1) the term ‘syntax’ is from the Ancient Greek syntaxis, a verbal noun which literally
means ‘arrangement’ or ‘setting out together’. Traditionally, it refers to the branch of
grammar dealing with the ways in which words, with or without appropriate inflections, are
arranged to show connections of meaning within the sentence. Similar to the explanation of
Matthew, Robert and Van Valin (2001) expresses the essence of itself as the following
syntax: “First and foremost, syntax deals with how sentences are constructed, and users of
human language employ a striking variety of possible arrangements of the element in
sentences”.

Syntax is the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in
particular languages. Syntactic investigation of a given language has as its goal the
construction of a grammar that can be viewed as a device of some sort for producing the
sentences of the language under analysis.   (Chomsky, 2002)
The study of syntax is the study of how words combine to from phrases and ultimately
sentences in languages. Because it consists of phrases that are put together in a particular
way, a sentences has a structure. The structure consists of way in which the words are
organized into phrases and the phrases are organized into larger phrases. The study of phrases
and sentences structure is sometimes called grammar. (Tserdanelis and Wong, 2004)
The syntax of a language is the set of properties which determine the construction of
sentences in that language. If a sentence is constructed according to those properties it is well
formed or grammatical. If a sentence is constructed  in violation of those properties it is ill-
formed or ungrammatical. The study of syntax involves uncovering those properties of
language which are involved in the construction of grammatical sentence in particular
languages. (Hawkins, 2001)
Syntax is the system of rules and categories that allows words to be combined to the form of
sentence. The data that linguists use to study syntax consists primarily of judgments about
grammaticality of individual sentence. Roughly speaking, a sentence is considered
grammatical if speakers judge it to be a possible sentence of their language. (O’grady, at
all.,1989)
                 Syntax is that part of our linguistics knowledge which concerns the structure of
sentences. Knowing a language also means being able to put words together to form
sentences to express our thoughts. (Fromkin and Rodman,1983)
                 From the experts’ explanation above we can conclude that syntax is the study of
internal structure of sentences. In this case, it explains how words are arranged become
phrases and clauses for constructing sentence. It is commonly we call structure. Structure
manages how words can be combined with another for creating good sentence.
 One of the most common ways to create a visual representation of syntactic structure
is through tree diagrams. Symbols (Art=article, N = noun, NP = noun phrase) are used to
label the parts of the tree to capture the hierarchical organization of those parts in the
underlying structure of phrases and sentences.

Baker (1998) defines tree diagrams in these words: “Tree diagrams are used quite
widely in scholarly works and textbooks. Their major justification is that they provide quick
and efficient representations of some important organizational properties of individual
sentences”.

There are symbols that are used as abbreviations for syntactic categories. Examples
are “S” (= sentence), “NP” (= noun phrase), “N” (= noun), “Art” (= article), “V” (= verb) and
“VP” (= verb phrase), “PP” (= prepositional phrase). There are three more symbols that are
commonly used in syntactic description. Yule (2010) gives detail of these symbols as:

i. The first is in the form of an arrow →. It can be interpreted as “consists of”. For
example, NP → Art N
ii. The second symbol is a pair of round brackets ( ). Whatever occurs inside these round
brackets will be treated as an optional constituent. For example NP → Art (Adj) N
iii. The third symbol is in the form of curly brackets { }.These indicate that only one of
the elements enclosed within the curly brackets must be selected. We use these types
of brackets when we want to indicate that there is a choice from two or more
constituents.

List of symbols used in tree diagram is given below.

S = Sentence, NP = Noun phrase, PN = Proper noun N = Noun, VP = Verb phrase, Adv =

Adverb V = Verb, Adj = Adjective, Prep = Preposition Art = Article, Pro = Pronoun, PP =
Prepositional phrase

DISCUSSION

In this analysis, researcher will use one poetry that taken from the internet. The title of
the poetry is “Be Mine” by Ralphealia J. James. Here is the poetry:

BE MINE

You told me that you needed me

 and that it was for real

you say that you love me

and that you care

I told you that i love you true

and baby that I do

and you said Be Mine

Here are the analysis of tree diagram in the poetry:

You told me that you needed me and that it was for real

N VP D N VP CONJ D N Aux AP

V Pro V N PREP Adv

You told me that you needed me and that it was for real

you say that you love me and that you care

NP D N VP CONJ D VP

N V V N N V

You say that you love me and that you care

I told you that I love you true and baby that I do

N VP D N VP Adv CONJ N D NP

V N V N N V

I told you that I love you true and baby that I do

and you said Be Mine

CONJ NP VP

N V V Pro

And you said Be Mine

Information:

N = Noun

VP = Verb Phrase

D = Determinant

CONJ = Conjunction

Aux = Auxilary

AP = Adverb Phrase

NP = Noun Phrase

Adv = Adverb

Pro = Pronoun

V = Verb

PREP = Preposition

As the analysis above, the result of use Tree Diagram from the poetry is Noun are
fifteen words, Verb are ten words, Determinant are six words, Conjunction are four words,
Auxilary is one words, Adverb are two words, Pronoun are two words, Preposition is one
word, Verb Phrase are seven words, Noun Phrase are three words, Adverb Phrase is one. The
most word in this poetry is Noun, and the least words are Auxilary, Preposition and Adverb
Phrase.
CONCLUSION

The poetry that titled “Be Mine” can make four tree diagram. It is a short poetry but
still has much class words in syntax. As the result of the analysis, the use of Tree Diagram
from the poetry is Noun are fifteen words, Verb are ten words, Determinant are six words,
Conjunction are four words, Auxilary is one words, Adverb are two words, Pronoun are two
words, Preposition is one word, Verb Phrase are seven words, Noun Phrase are three words,
Adverb Phrase is one. The most word in this poetry is Noun, and the least words are
Auxilary, Preposition and Adverb Phrase.

REFERENCES

Robert, D. and Van Valin,J.R. (2001). An Introdution to Linguistic. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Chomsky, N. (1957 & 2002). Syntactic Structures. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmBH.

Tserdanelis,G. and Wai Yi Peggy Wong. (Eds.). (2004). Language File: Material for an
Introduction to Language & Linguistics (9th ed.). Columbus: Department of
Linguistics, The Ohio State University Press.
Hawkins, R. (2001). Second Language Syntax: A Generative Introduction. Massachusetts:
Blackwell Publishers 

O''grady,William,Michael Dobrovolsky,Mark Aronoff. (1989). Contemporary Linguistics An

introduction. New York: Martin's Press.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman. (1983). An Introduction to Language. New York: CBS
college publising.

Baker, L. (1998). English Syntax. London: The MIT Press.