Experiental Function in Al-Muddatstsir Verses

Experiental Function in Al-Muddatstsir Verses 

Written by Ari Julianto

1.1 The Background of the Study
Language plays a great part in our life because language is a tool of communication and interaction. Language is purely human and non- instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotion, and desires by means of voluntary produce symbols. We use language in order to communicate one to another, to express our personal reactions, to stimulate a response with someone else, and for the sake of thinking of something.

Halliday (1994: 10) says “There are three function of language in human life: ideational, interpersonal, and textual function. Interpersonal divides into the experiential and logical function”. These are known as metafunction. Thus, the experiential function is the use of language as the representation of experience. The user of language is representing the experience by using a clause. A clause is constituted by three elements: process, participants and circumstances.

Here, again the clause plays a central role, because it embodies a general principle for modeling- namely the principle that reality is made up of process. The process is representation of experience language is grammatically structured in configuration known as transitivity. The transitivity system construes the world of experience into a manageable set of process types. The types of process are divides into six types namely material, relational, behavioral, verbal, mental and existential processes.

Imagine that we are out in the open air and that there is movement overhead perceptually the phenomenon is all of a piece; but when we talk about it we analyze it as a semantic configuration, something which we express as linguistic structures in relation to this, experiential function as a part of language is used in written form such as letters, books, newspapers, magazines, holy books, etc. The holy book especially holy Qur’an for Moslem society contains the command of God that conveyed to the last messenger of God, Muhammad SAW.

Al-Qur’an has a good language. The language of original message was Arabic, but it has been translated into many other language included English. Al-Muddatstsir, one of surah in holy Qur’an has interesting meaning. Al-Muddatstsir means one wrapped up. As a great line at Al-Muddatstsir verses contain some command to do religious proselytizing by believing of Allah SWT, cleaning their cloths, avoiding immoral and giving something to the others sincerely and also be patient in doing command and avoiding prohibition of Allah SWT.

The message of Al-Qur’an has deep meanings and the sentences in Al-Qur’an portray the entities in specific roles. The reader has to appreciate how the sentences or clause come to have from that it does. Clause plays a central role, because it embodies a general principle for modeling experience. Our most powerful impression of experience is that is consist of going-on, happening, doing, sensing, meaning, being and becoming. This entire goings on is found in the grammar of the clause. The grammatical system by which this is achieved is experiential function.

Halliday (1994: 16) states that experiential function is realized by transitivity system. The transitivity system construes the word of experience into a manageable set a process type, Participants types and ircumstances types. In transitivity, language is described as experience. In this sense, clause, phrase, words are interpreted as functional with respect to the whole. The realization of language experience is seen in clause. A clause is considered as unit of experience, which is constituted by three elements: Process, Participants, and Circumstances. Process centers on the part of clause that realized by verbal group, but it can also be regarded as what ‘going-on’ are represented in whole clause. The participant is entitle involved in the process. Circumstances essentially encode the ground against which the process takes place. In this thesis, there will only discuss because participants are involved in a process and wherever process takes place, participants must be there.

Al-Qur’an has its own characteristic and different used. Therefore, it makes the curiosity for this study whether this phenomenon can be applied in same text with different aim like in Al-Qur’an verse. Al-Qur’an has commands which are related toward human being. Moreover, Al-Qur’an as a daily human command can be linked by the system of transitivity, because when a personal read it and its meaning experience about what going on is.

The reason for choosing this topic to be discussed because the researcher got little trouble about process and circumstances and also to find out what types of process and circumstances and the dominant types of process and circumstances are used in the holy Al-Qur’an on Al-Muddatstsir verses.

1.2 The Problems of the Study
Based on the background of the study, the problems of this research are formulated as the following
a.    What are the types of participants, processes and circumstances in the Al-Muddatstsir verses?
b.    What are the dominant types of participants, processes and circumstances in the Al-Muddatstsir verses?

1.3 Objective of the Study
In relation to the problems, the objectives of the study are
a.    to describe the types of participants, processes and circumstances in the Al-Muddatstsir verses, and
b.    to derive the dominant types of participants, processes and circumstances in the Al-Muddatstsir verses

1.4 The Scope of the Study
This study is devoted and restricted to study the participants, the six types of process and the nine types of circumstance and the most dominant types of participants, process and circumstances in Al-Qur’an. As the limitation, this analysis is limited on the Al-Muddatstsir. And the data are taken from the verse one to fifty six.

1.5 The Significance of the Study
The findings of this research are expected to be relevant and useful for English department who are interest in learning experiential function, especially transitivity system or experiential meaning in Al-Qur’an. Then, the researcher also expected to give the contribution for the religion and people who want to observe the participants, process and circumstances in Al-Qur’an. The findings of the study will give information to English student to find further research about experiential function in another text whether it has similar or different result with this research, especially in Al-Qur’an so that students are motivated to dig experiential meaning up more clearly.

REFERENCE
Al-quran.com. 2010. The Meaning of Al-Qur’an. (online). http://www.alquran.coom/the_
meaning_of_quran.htm. Retrieved on 4 June 2010.

Halliday, M.A.K., and Matthiessen, C.M.I.M., 2004. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. (Third Edition). London: Arnold.