Zahrah Zahidah

180410200069

Syntactic Analysis of Clause Complex in Children’s Short Story “Five Little Pigs” by
Joseph Martin Kronheim

Abstract
Clause is important to study grammar and ideology of a message that is delivered whether in spoken language or
textual. Clauses as one of the materials of syntax, in the next level of complication structure, which are connected
logically with another clause, are called clause complex. Clause complex has two basic systems that are degree of
interdependence or taxis and the logico-semantic relations. The sequences that are realized grammatically in a
clause complex constructed an event that makes up a whole episode in a narrative. This paper shows type and its
analysis of clause complexes in a children’s short story.“Five Little Pigs” by Joseph Martin Kronheim is the source
of this research. The method used to do the research was descriptive qualitative. The results of this research are:
there are 77 clause complexes, and the clause complex that appears the most in the text is parataxis expansion.
Keyword: Clause complex, Interdependency, Logico-semantics relation, Syntax

I. INTRODUCTION
One of the branches of linguistics is syntax, which studies the form, positioning, and grouping of
the elements that go to make up sentences [2]. The term syntax is related to the way in which
words are combined into phrases, clauses, and sentences. That term is also related to the meaning
of syntax as the study of syntactic devices of a language. One of the important materials studied
in syntax is clauses because people do not speak in sentences, people speak in messages which
are realized grammatically in clause and clause complex.

When studying clause complexes, it means dealing with the ideational meaning. Clauses are
linked to one another by means of some kind of logico-semantic relation to form clause
complexes [3]. Besides logico-semantic relation, clause complex also has another basic system,
that is interdependency or taxis. It means that one of elements of logical meaning in the text can
be seen from clause complex. The effect of combining clauses into a clause complex is one of
tighter integration in meaning: the sequences that are realized grammatically in a clause complex
are construed as being sub-sequences within the total sequence of events that make up a whole
episode in a narrative [3]. Therefore, in this paper, the writer tries to analyze clause complex in a
short story, to be precise, from a children’s short story.

II. METHODOLOGY
The research method applied in this paper is descriptive qualitative research. Although the data
collected are qualitatively analyzed, some data are quantified simply to show the frequency of
clause complexes that are found on the children’s short story and identifying what kind of clause
complex is used, based on the type and function. The analysis follows steps: finding the clause
complex on the Children’s Short Story “Five Little Pigs” by Joseph Martin Kronheim,
identifying what kind of clause complex, counting the most frequently appear on the short story.
The data was collected from Children’s Short Story “Five Little Pigs” by Joseph Martin
Kronheim online at americanliterature.com.

III. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

After identifying and counting all the clause complexes found in Children’s Short Story “Five
Little Pigs” by Joseph Martin Kronheim, there are a total 77 clause complexes. Clause complex
has two basic systems, those are interdependency or taxis and logico-semantic relations. Taxis
are divided into parataxis and hypotaxis. Meanwhile logico-semantic relations are divided into
expansion (elaboration, extension and enhancement) and projection. Here the findings of clause
complexes in “Five Little Pigs” by Joseph Martin Kronheim:

Clause Elaboration Extension Enhancement Projection Total Percentage

Parataxis 14 33 7 1 55 71.5%

Hypotaxi 8 1 10 3 22 28.5%
s

From data collected, it is found that Parataxis extension is the most frequently appearing in the
short story. Overall from the data collected, it also found that parataxis appear more often than
hypotaxis. The most common word that is used in the short story as the indicator of the clause is
‘and’ and ‘but’. Here are the examples taken from the data collected:
1. (1)There was once a family of Five Little Pigs,
(+2) and Mrs. Pig, their mother, loved them all very dearly.
2. (1) He quickly dropped the fish,
(+2) but the farmer caught him
The data above are the examples of clause complex parataxis extension that found in the text.
The word ‘and’ is one of the indicator words of extension. The parataxis extension clauses above
tell the reader that there is an extending information from the previous clause. Like the
conjunction ‘and’ adding information that Mrs. Pig is one of the family members and loves all
the family.

The second clause complex that most frequently appeared in the text is Parataxis elaboration.
The elaboration involves some relationships, those are greater detail, restatement,
exemplification, and comment. Here are some data found in the text:
1. (+2) and while he was trying to carry it home,
(=3) Farmer Grumpey came running along with his great whip.
2. (+4) and when he could not find this out,
(=5) he began to cry.
The data above are the examples of clause complex parataxis elaboration. From the examples,
the second clause from number 1, “Farmer Grumpey came” is elaborating the greater detail when
‘he’ was doing something. And then the second example, the clause “he began to cry” also tells
the reader the greater detail from ‘he’ that when ‘he’ could not find out something, next action
from ‘he’ was begins to cry.

The third clause complex that most frequently appeared in the text is hypotaxis enhancement.
Enhancement actually is another type of expansion, but it involves circumstantial relationships
that could be temporal, conditional, causal, concessive, spatial, or manner. Here are the some
data found in the text:
1. (xβ) When he got there,
(α) he told Mrs. Pig his story,
2. (α) but Rusty, the donkey, began to show his bad temper
(xβ) before he had gone very far on the road.
The data above are the examples of clause complex hypotaxis enhancement. The first example
stated that when ‘he’ got there, ‘he’ told told Mrs. Pig his story, the word ‘when’ beside it is a
subordinating conjunction as the indication of a hypotaxis, it also explains the conditional
situation of ‘he’. In the second example, the word ‘before’ explains the temporal conditions of
‘he’ when Rusty began to show his bad temper.

Besides the collected data above, the writer also found mixed-taxis in the text. Mixed-Taxis is
found when one clause complex has a different interdependent relationship. The finding of
mixed-taxis is shown below.

Clause Total

Hypotaxis elaboration + parataxis extension 1

Hypotaxis enhancement + hypotaxis elaboration + parataxis enhancement 1

+ parataxis elaboration

Parataxis expansion + hypotaxis elaboration 1

Hypotaxis expansion + parataxis elaboration 1

Hypotaxis projection + parataxis enhancement + parataxis expansion + 1

hypotaxis enhancement

Hypotaxis enhancement + parataxis expansion 1

Hypotaxis enhancement + parataxis elaboration 1

 Parataxis expansion + hypotaxis projection 1

Parataxis expansion + hypotaxis enhancement 2

Hypotaxis enhancement + parataxis expansion 1

Hypotaxis elaboration + parataxis expansion + parataxis elaboration 1

Among the mixed-taxis, parataxis expansion + hypotaxis enhancement is dominant to the others.
Here is one example of the clause:

One day he went to market with his cart full of vegetables, but Rusty, the donkey, began to
show his bad temper before he had gone very far on the road.

The clause above is built by giving two types of conjunctions, the first one is ‘but’ as the
indicator of paratactic expansion. The second conjunction is a subordinating conjunction,,
‘before’ as the indicator of hypotactic enhancement condition.

IV. CONCLUSION
From the data collected and analyzed, there are 77 clause complexes found in children’s short
story “Five Little Pig” by Joseph Martin Kronheim, with 71.5% parataxis and 28.5% hypotaxis.
Clause complex that has the highest frequency that appears in the text is parataxis extension,
using two different words that are also the most common word that are used in the text, they are
‘and’ and ‘but’. The second clause complex that most frequently appears in the text is Parataxis
Elaboration which is found in 14 clauses in the text. The third is hypotaxis enhancement, which
found in total 10 clauses in the text. The least clause complexes that are rarely found in text are
parataxis projection and Hypotaxis Extension.
 References
[1] Kronheim. Joseph Martin, “Five Little Pig”, Americanliterature.com [Online], November 27,
2022. Available:
https://americanliterature.com/author/joseph-martin-kronheim/short-story/five-little-pigs
[2] Roberts. Noel Burton, (2011). Analyzing Sentences: An Introduction to English Syntax (Forth
edition) [Online]. Available:
https://www.pdfdrive.com/analysing-sentences-an-introduction-to-english-syntax-d1672666
11.html
[3] Halliday. M.A.K, (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (Third Edition) [Online].
Available:
http://www.uel.br/projetos/ppcat/pages/arquivos/RESOURCES/2004_HALLIDAY_MATTH
IESSEN_An_Introduction_to_Functional_Grammar.pdf
[4] Wulansari, Atsani. (2017). “The Analysis of Clause Complex in the Snow of Kilimanjaro: A
Systemic Functional Discourse Analysis” Conference on Language and Language Teaching
[Online]. Available:
https://semnas.untidar.ac.id/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/page-429-434-atsani.pdf