"This study is aimed to explore a construction in Indonesian that contains clause relations linked without any conjunction. The construction is traditionally called asyndetic construction. The discussions about clause relations in Indonesian have been generally emphasized on the use of conjunctions as clause relation markers. Some grammarians have actually also discussed the use of asyndetic construction in Indonesian, such as Mees (1949), Fokker (1951), Lapoliwa (1999), Kridalaksana (l985 and 1999), and Baryadi (2000). However, the discussions were only some parts of the wider topics. It should also be noted that the term of asyndetic construction has not been sharpened during the discussions. This study, therefore, is expected to sharpen the concept.
By applying the Systemic Functional Grammar by Halliday (1994), which underlies the theoretical framework of this study, this study is focused on three discussions- Those are (i) the features of asyndetic construction in Indonesian, (ii) the production rules of asyndetic construction, and (ii) the relation between the use of asyndetic construction and certain language styles, especially journalistic style, which productively use the construction. As the lindings of this study, related to the features of the asyndetic construction, it is found that there are three types of asyndetic construction in Indonesian, which are (i) paratactic-asyndetic construction, (ii) hypotactic-asyndetic construction, and (iii) embedded-asyndetic construction. There are two main rules of the construction production, namely the clause joining and the logical meaning of clause relations. The clause joining shows a strategy of asyndetic construction forming based on the syntactical core functions. The logical meaning of clause relations shows a strategy of clause relation composing between main clause and main clause, dependent clause and dependent clause, and embedded clause and nominal group.
Concerning the features of asyndetic construction in Indonesian, the paratactic-asyndetic construction is formed by three ways, which are linking, juxtaposition, and juxtaposition-linking. The hypotactic-asyndetic construction is formed by subordination. The embedded-asyndetic construction is formed by rank-shifting.
Meanwhile, the logical meaning of clause relations can also be identified. The logical meanings of clause relations in paratactic-asyndetic construction are divided into two groups, which are expansion and projection. The expansion can be divided into (i) elaboration, which covers exposition, exemplitication, and clarification, (ii) extension, which covers addition and polar alternation, and (iii) enhancement, which covers temporal, causal, and conditional relations. The projection can be divided into locution and idea projection. The logical meanings of clause relations in hypotactic-asyndetic construction are also divided into two groups, which are expansion and projection. The expansion is only found in the form of enhancement, which covers temporal, causal, manner, purposive, conditional, and concessive relations. The projection covers both locution and idea projection. The logical meanings of clause relations in embedded-asyndetic construction are divided into expansion an projection. The expansion can be divided into elaboration, which is only found in the fonn exemplification, and enhancement, which is only in the form of purposive relation. The projection is only in the form of idea proj ection, which covers sense and cognition relations.
Related to the language style, this study explores data that is not limited to a certain style. The large ntunber of data obtained from joumalistic style, especially hom printed mass media, shows at least that the asyndetic construction becomes one of the special characteristics of the journalistic style. The high frequency of the construction use in the journalistic style is mainly caused by literal translation, e.g. literal translation from participial construction in English, as the source language, into hypotactic-asyndetic construction in Indonesian, as the target language."
Depok: Fakultas Ilmu Pengetahuan dan Budaya Universitas Indonesia, 2004
