LOGICO-SEMANTIC RELATIONS IN A UNIVERSITY STUDENT'S ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY: CONTENT ANALYSIS OF CLAUSE COMPLEXES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24127/pj.v15i1.10584Keywords:
Argumentative essay, Logico-semantic, SFLAbstract
An argumentative essay is one of the most difficult types of writing for university students, especially in constructing sentences that are logical, cohesive, and coherent, which is called a logico-semantic relation in systematics functional linguistics (SFL). Thus, the objective of this research was to find out the logico-semantic relations manifest in the argumentative essays crafted by university students and a teacher's perspectives on the use of logico-semantic relations in students’ writing. The analysis showed that the essay comprised 10 clause complexes and exhibited logico-semantic relations, as evidenced by the identification of expansion and projection relations. The data on expansion relation revealed that out of 10 clause complexes, 5 clauses 50% had elaboration relations, 3 clauses 30% had enhancement relations, and 2 clauses 20% had extension relations. Among 10 clauses, 3 belonged to the category of idea projection marked by words such as “debate, find out, thinking, based onâ€, while 2 belonged to the category of locution projection marked by words “tell, sayâ€, and the remaining two clauses did not belong to any category of projection. Concerning the interview, the teacher possessed a solid comprehension of the concept of logico-semantic relations, which are the techniques of linking clauses or sentences to convey the logical and semantic meanings of the text. The teacher also emphasized the importance of logico-semantic relations for attaining cohesion and coherence in academic writing.
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