AN
ANALYSIS OF DISCOURSE MEANING IN THE ARTICLE WRITTEN BY SINGGIH TRI SULISTIYONO
“HIGHER EDUCATION REFORM IN INDONESIA AT
CROSSROAD”
By
Retno Indriyani
Abstract: Semantics has
crucial in determining the meaning. Meaning can be analyzing based three
aspects. Those are lexical meaning, sentential meaning, and discourse meaning.
The aim of this paper is to analyze the semantic meaning of an article which
focuses on the discourse meaning. In this context, the analysis is based on the
cohesion and the coherence of among sentence or paragraph.
INTRODUCTION
Before analyzing the semantic discourse meaning, let
define what semantic is and what meaning is. According to Crystal (1991:310) in
Ahmadin, semantic is one the branches of linguistic studying about the meaning,
and it is considered as a major branch of linguistics devoted to the study of
meaning in language. In general sense, semantics is a component theory of
semiotic theory about meaningful, symbolic, and behavior. Whereas, according to
theory of semantics, meanings are ideas or concepts that can be transferred
from the mind of speaker to the mind of the hearer by embodying them, as it
were, in the form of one language or another (Ahmadin: 2012: 16).
Moreover, meaning may be categorized into
three level, they are lexical meaning, sentential meaning and discourse meaning
(Ahmadin: 2012: 16). It means that the meaning can be analyzed using lexical
meaning, sentential meaning, and discourse meaning. According to Bowles (2008:
2) lexical meaning is concern with the meaning of the words. Whereas,
sentential meaning concern with the meaning of a sentence that is the sum of its parts. In
other words, we can judge the truth of the sentence based on the existence of
its referents in the world.Meanwhile, according to Crystal (1991) in
Ahmadin, discourse meaning is a term used in linguistic to refer to a
continuous stretch of language larger than a sentence. It focused on the
cohesion and the coherence of the sentence or utterance.
In this study, the researcher focused on analysis of
discourse meaning of an article. The title of the article is higher education
reform in Indonesia at crossroad which is written by Singgih Tri Sulistiyono.
In the analyzing, the researcher will analyze each
paragraph of the article. The analysis is based on the cohesion and coherence. Cohesion
refers to the connections which have their manifestation in discourse itself.
It includes both grammatical cohesion such as substitutions, ellipsis,
references, and conjunctions; and lexical cohesion such as synonymy, antonymy,
hyponymy, metonymy, collocation, and repetition. In other hand, coherence is
the situation and condition that connect and stand each other. It includes the
additive relation and causal relation. The additive relation can be traced back
to a conjunction and as such is related to various types of coordination. In
contrast, the causal relation can be traced back to an implication, and is as
such related to subordinating. There are seven types of the causal
relationship: cause, reason, means, consequence, purpose, condition, and
concession.
THE ANALYSIS OF DISCOURSE MEANING
The original article under the title is “Higher
Education Reform In Indonesia At Crossroad” by Singgih Tri Sulistiyono is stated below:
HIGHER EDUCATION REFORM
IN INDONESIA AT CROSSROAD
Singgih Tri
Sulistiyono
|
Indonesia
is possibly one of the most dynamics countries in the world in the sense that the government endeavor to
implement higher education reform is facing serious resistance from various
groups in the society. Waves of student demonstrations occurred not only
at universities which have already had legal status as the BHMN (Badan
Hukum Milik Negara/ State-owned Legal
Entity) but also
at non-BHMN universities. Some issues which were raised during the demonstrations and orations are
amongst others: government is not responsible for public educations, poor
people will suffer with the new system, intervention of foreign capital in
education (IMF, World Bank, WTO, etc), commercialization of education by
neo-liberalism regime, rejecting the BHMN, amending the SISDIKNAS (Sistem
Pendidikan Nasional/ National Education System) Law, rejecting the draft of BHP
(Badan Hukum Pedidikan/ Education Legal Institution) Law.
Rejections are also coming from Indonesian
authoritative experts on education such as those of HAR Tilaar and Winarno
Surakhmad. HAR Tilaar proposes that
the BHMN and the draft of
BHP are violation against the spirit of Indonesian constitution. The system has
completed the wound of the poor by closing their access to higher education. It will
also change public universities to profit-oriented enterprises. In the
meantime, Winarno Surakhmad states the new system hinders democracy and
education development in Indonesia.
He
suggests for reviewing the draft of BHP. Former rector of Diponegoro
University Semarang and former president of the Forum Rektor (Rector Forum),
Eko Budihardjo, states that:
|
Such
kind of public reactions are driving the recent Indonesian government is very
careful. Until the present day, the draft of BHP Law which completed about
three years ago has not yet been signed by president SBY (Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono). However, the MONE (Ministry of
National Education) has targeted that at least 50 percent of public
universities and 40 percent of private universities will gain status of BHP in
2009. Even the DGHE (Directorate General of Higher Education) of the MONE
expects that by 2010 Indonesia will have a competitive leverage due to
the existence of highly reputable higher education institutions leading to a
nation’s competitiveness. If the government is
not able to ensure to the public, the higher education reform in Indonesia will
find a dead end.
|
During
the pre-colonial period, education in Indonesia was very much influenced by religious teaching: Buddhism, Hinduism, and
Islam. Secular higher education was firstly introduced by the Dutch since
the early of the 20th century. At that time the development of
higher education in colony Indonesia
had close connection with “global market” demands on technician and professional
which had to be trained at higher education institutions. This tightly
connected with the fact that since the 19th century the Dutch colony
in the Indonesian archipelago had been opened for modern business investments
in the field of plantation (coffee, tea, rubber, tobacco, sugar cane, cacao, etc.), industry (sugar, cigarette, cement,
etc.), mining (gold, coal, oil, tin, etc),
transportation (railways
and shipping), etc. In this context, the Dutch colonial
administration in the Indonesian archipelago had to provide not only infrastructures and facilities but also skilled human resources who had to be educated at
schools and higher education institutions. This means that from the early time
of its development, higher education had close connection with the interacting
process between local needs and global market demands. For this reason the
early of the 20th century witnessed the significant development of
higher education institutions.
The
STOVIA (School tot Opleiding van Inlansche Artsen) or medical school for
indigenous doctors was established by the Dutch colonial government in 1902 by
using the Dutch as medium of instruction. It was
the first higher education institution in colony Indonesia
which was actually
metamorphosis of secondary Javanese medical school
of Batavia (present-day Jakarta) which was established by the
Dutch colonial administration in 1851. In 1902 the STOVIA only received
graduates from ELS (Europeesche
Lagere School),
basic school with Dutch language as medium of instruction) with the length of
study was seven years. But then it required the graduates from MULO (Meer
Uitgebreid Lagere Onderwijs) or advanced basic school (lower secondary school)
with the same length of study. In 1913 the government also established the NIAS
(Nederlandsch Indische
Artsen School)
or Netherlands Indies doctor school in Surabaya
(East Java) which had same requirement with
the STOVIA. In the next period the government also established Geneeskundige
Hooge School or advanced school for medical science in Batavia (in 1927) which
required graduates from upper secondary school with the length of study six
years.
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Although
one may be amazed by the institutional development of higher education in the
Netherlands Indies, the proportion of Indonesian students were low. In the
1920s, more than 96 percent of population of the Dutch colony in the Indonesian
archipelago were Indonesians (indigenous people), 1.5 percent were the Dutch
(and Eurasian classified as Europeans), and about 2.5 percent were
Chinese. But the total
number of students in all colleges between 1920 and 1940 were only 45 percent
for Indonesians, whereas 32 percent were
Europeans and 23 percent were Chinese. Discriminative measures had colored the
Dutch policy on education in the colony. Besides,
one of the most obvious characteristics of the Dutch education system was that
the universities were not designed to produce large masses of graduates but
only a highly select intellect and professional elites.
During
the Japanese occupation (1942-45) all formal education in Indonesia came
to a halt. Immediately after seizing Dutch colony of Indonesia, the Japanese military
power closed all higher education institutions. But
in April 1943, advance school for medical science was reopened by adding it
with a department of pharmacology. The students of the former NIAS in Surabaya were transferred to Jakarta. In the meantime, former Dutch
secondary school for dentists was upgraded to be a college with three years
length of study. This college was named Ika Daigaku Shika Igakubu. In 1944, the
Japanese military government reopened Technische Hooge School of Bandung (Kagyo
Daigaku) and set up new advanced institute for civil administrator called
Kenkoku Gakuin in Jakarta. The Japanese military legacy which gave significant
to the next period was the spirit of “education for all”. Besides,
the Japanese also ordered the use of Indonesian language as the medium of
instruction and the prohibiting of Dutch language.
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Some
problems that were faced by Indonesian government to develop higher education
in Yogyakarta: lack of lecturer, poor
infrastructure and facility, incomplete curriculum, etc. The problem of poor
infrastructures and facilities could be overcome by benefiting pre-war building
and facilities and/ or hired proper buildings. During the time, the most
serious problem faced by Indonesian universities was lack of faculty members.
This connected with the fact that there were only limited numbers of Indonesian
graduates during the Dutch colonial period. After
independence war, such kind of problem was solved by appointing university’s
own most promising graduates to be the staff or by sending them abroad for
continuing their advanced study. In the early 1950s some of these staff members
were financed by Indonesian government, whereas
others were supported by foreign governments and foundations. In line with the deteriorating
process of Indonesian economy since the end of the 1950s, Indonesian staffs who
wanted to continue their study abroad had to apply scholarship from foreign
countries and funding agencies.
From the article above,
the researcher would like to analyze discourse meaning of the text. It would be
analyzed based on the discourse connection among the sentence or paragraph. The
research finding is stated below.
In the first paragraph,
the researcher found the phrase “not only…but also…”. in the second sentence of
the first paragraph ─ Waves
of student demonstrations occurred not only at
universities which have already had legal status as the BHMN (Badan Hukum Milik Negara/ State-owned Legal Entity) but also at non-BHMN universities.
This phrase refers to conjunction that is correlative
conjunctive which connect the sentence element which have the same kind. In
this case, this conjunction connect the phrase “at universities which have
already had legal status as the BHMN (Badan Hukum Milik Negara/ State-owned Legal Entity)” and
the phrase “ at non-BHMN universities”
which both of those phrases are noun phrase. Therefore, this conjunction can
include in discourse meaning of the text in term of grammatical cohesion.
The other discourse meaning in second paragraph is ellipsis
which is found in the first sentence” Rejections
are also coming from Indonesian authoritative experts on education such as
those of HAR Tilaar and Winarno Surakhmad.”. In this
sentence, there is omission after the word “Rejections”
which refers to phrase” Some issues” in
third sentence of the first paragraph. Others are references. The first
reference is found in the fourth sentence “It will also change public universities to
profit-oriented enterprises. In the meantime, Winarno Surakhmad states the new
system hinders democracy and education development in Indonesia”. The
pronoun “It” refers to the phrase
“the system” in the previous sentence.
The second is found in the fifth sentences “He suggests for reviewing the draft of BHP”
the word “He” refers to “Winarno Surakhmad”.
From the analysis of the third paragraph, the
researcher found the discourse meaning that is conjunction. It can be
found in the second sentence “However, the MONE (Ministry of National Education) has
targeted that at least 50 percent of public universities and 40 percent of
private universities will gain status of BHP in 2009”. The word “However” is one of conjunction which
indicates the opposition. The other is found in the third sentence “Even the DGHE (Directorate General of
Higher Education) of the MONE expects that by 2010 Indonesia will have a
competitive leverage due to the existence of
highly reputable higher education institutions leading to a nation’s
competitiveness.” The word “due to”
is one of conjunction which indicates the showing cause and effect. The last is
found in the last sentence “If the government is not able to ensure to the public,
the higher education reform in Indonesia will find a dead end”. The word “If” is the conjunction to connect
subordinate clause to main clause which is showing the condition. Therefore,
those conjunctions can include in discourse meaning.
In the next paragraph, the researcher found the
discourse meaning which is included in both grammatical cohesion and lexical
cohesion. Grammatical cohesion can be found in the second sentence “Although Indonesia has long education
history, there is no truly Indonesian university in origin” which is in
term of conjunction. The word “Although” is one of conjunction which is
showing the opposition. On the other hand, the lexical cohesion is found in
second and third sentence “Although Indonesia has long education history, there is no
truly Indonesian university in origin. As in other Asian
countries, almost all higher education institutions are based on
European academic models and traditions.” There is a connection between the
word “Indonesia” and “Asian countries”. In this case,
Indonesia is part of Asian countries so that both of them have connection which
called meronymy (part vs. whole). Therefore, those words can be
included in discourse meaning in term of lexical cohesion that is meronymy.
Similarly, the researcher found lexical cohesion and
grammatical cohesion in fifth paragraph which are called “hyponymy” and “conjunction”.
Hyponymy is stated in the first sentence “During
the pre-colonial period, education in Indonesia was very much influenced by religious teaching: Buddhism,
Hinduism, and Islam”. The word “Buddhism,
Hinduism, and Islam” is super-ordinate “religion
teaching”. The other hyponymy is in
the third sentence “This tightly
connected with the fact that since the 19th century the Dutch colony
in the Indonesian archipelago had been opened for modern business investments
in the field of plantation (coffee, tea, rubber,
tobacco, sugar cane, cacao, etc.), industry (sugar,
cigarette, cement, etc.), mining (gold, coal,
oil, tin, etc), transportation (railways and
shipping), etc”. In this case, words”coffee, tea, rubber, tobacco, sugar cane, cacao” are super-ordinate
“plantation” ; words “sugar, cigarette, cement” are super-ordinate “industry” ; and words “gold,
coal, oil, tin” are super-ordinate “mining”.
In contrast, the conjunction is found in the fourth sentence “In this context, the Dutch colonial
administration in the Indonesian archipelago had to provide not only infrastructures and facilities but also skilled human resources who had to be educated at
schools and higher education institutions”. Phrase “not only…but also…”refers to conjunction that is correlative
conjunctive which connect the sentence element which have the same kind. In
this case, this conjunction connect the phrase “infrastructures and facilities” and the phrase “skilled human resources who had to be
educated at school and higher education”.
Of analysis the sixth paragraph, the researcher
found the grammatical cohesion in term of reference. It was found in the second
sentence “”. The word “It” refers to
the word “STOVIA” in the previous sentence.
From the analysis of eighth paragraph, the
researcher found the discourse meaning in term of grammatical cohesion that is conjunction.
The first finding is in the first sentence “Although one may be amazed by the institutional
development of higher education in the Netherlands Indies, the proportion of
Indonesian students were low”. In this case, word “although” connected to previous paragraph which is showing the
opposition. The similar finding is found in the third sentence “But the total number of students in all colleges between 1920 and
1940 were only 45 percent for Indonesians, whereas
32 percent were Europeans and 23 percent were Chinese”. The word “whereas” also showed the opposition, but
it connected to the main clause of the sentence. The next finding of this
paragraph is in the last sentences “Besides, one of the most obvious characteristics of
the Dutch education system was that the universities were not designed to
produce large masses of graduates but only a highly select intellect and
professional elites.”. In this sentence, the researcher found the
conjunction. It is “Beside” which is used to add the additional idea.
The next finding in ninth paragraph is about coherence.
It was found in the second sentence “But in April 1943, advance school for medical science
was reopened by adding it with a department of pharmacology”. The word
“but” refers to a causal relation of coherence. It showed the relation of condition.
Similarly, the coherence was found in the next
paragraph. It was found in second and third sentence “Besides fighting against
the Dutch who wanted to re-colonize, Indonesian
people had to solve socio-cultural problems stemming from colonialisms and wars
including those in higher education. Most part
of the independence war period (1945-49) witnessed almost all big cities such
as Jakarta, Bandung, Bogor and Surabaya (where higher education institutions
formerly existed) were seized by the Dutch”. Those sentences indicated
a consequence that is outside the domain of volition. Therefore, it can be
include n a causal relation in term of cause.
From the analysis of the eleventh paragraph, the
findings are about grammatical cohesion in term of conjunction. The first
finding is in the fifth sentence “After independence war, such kind of problem was
solved by appointing university’s own most promising graduates to be the staff
or by sending them abroad for continuing their advanced study”. The word “after” refers to conjunction which
showing the time. The other is in the sixth sentence “In the early 1950s some of these staff members were financed by
Indonesian government, whereas others were
supported by foreign governments and foundations”. The word “whereas” refers to conjunction which
shows the opposition. It connected to the main clause of the sentence.
CONCLUSION
Indeed, the researcher found both cohesion and
coherence in analyzing of this article. The first finding is about coherence.
There are two type of causal relation in coherence that is found. Those are
cause and condition.
The next finding is cohesion. Both grammatical
cohesion and lexical cohesion can be found in this article. The grammatical
cohesion that is found is about conjunction, ellipsis, and references. The
conjunctions are not only …but also… , however, if, although, whereas, besides,
after, and due to. Moreover, the references are it and he. In other hand, the
lexical cohesion that is found are meronymy and hyponymy.
REFERENCE
Ahmadin,
Dimjati. 2012. Course Material for
English Semantic. Malang: UNISMA
Bowles, Hugo. 2008. Modulo Meaning and Discourse in English. www.Uniroma2.it/didattica/english2/…/Modulo2.Summaries1-17.doc
Sulistiyono, Singgih. Higher Education Reform in Indonesia at Crossroad. Article. www.dikti.go.id/files/atur/bhp/HEReform-Singgih.doc
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