INTERPERSONAL METAFUNCTION ANALYSIS OF A LITERARY RESPONSE TEXT IN TERTIARY EDUCATION

Abstract

Many studies have been conducted in analyzing interpersonal meaning in a wide range of text genres. However, there are only a few studies focused on the response genre, especially literature response. This research paper aims to analyze the interpersonal meaning realized in a literary response written by Bintang (pseudonym), an English literature student. This study employs a qualitative case study in doing the text analysis. The text was analyzed using the Mood system in Hallidayan SFL to uncover the interpersonal meaning. The result of the analysis reveals that Bintang shows her awareness of the purpose of the response text, as well as the linguistic features needed to write the genre. In terms of Mood types, the declarative Mood is found as the major Mood type in her text, which is a typical Mood choice in academic texts. Adding on to this, she manifests some control of the use of the modality to show the degree of certainty and assertiveness. In addition, she includes the appraisal systems to show attitude, engagement, and graduation in her text. Nevertheless, the involvement of abstract and technical subject matter is still little. For future studies, it is recommended that young adolescent writers can be encouraged to instill more abstract and technical subject matters in the response genre.