A Syntactic Analysis of Sentence Structure on Debate among Three Indonesian Presidential Candidates in 2024

Abstract

Language is an essential communication means enabling individuals to transfer messages from the speaker to the listener. It is also employed in political communication to effectively convey meaning to the public by organizing each sentence in a more structured manner, as seen in presidential candidates' debates in Indonesia. This research aimed to analyze structured sentences using syntactic analysis and represent them through tree diagrams. This study employed a descriptive qualitative approach with content analysis as the research design. The data collection device employed was a document of a YouTube video titled "Debat Perdana Calon Presiden 2024 Edisi Full Tanpa Iklan". This analysis unveiled that during the discussion among the three Indonesian presidential candidates, Anies Rasyid Baswedan's speech consisted of 45 simple sentences, 20 compound sentences, 60 complicated sentences, and 48 compound-complex sentences. Prabowo Djojohadikusumo Subianto's speech consisted of 48 simple sentences, 32 compound sentences, 24 complex sentences, and 21 compound-complex sentences. Ganjar Pranowo's speech consisted of 34 simple sentences, 16 compound sentences, 42 complex sentences, and 32 compound-complex sentences. Other researchers are advised to analyze the sentence structure of previous debate presidents and vice presidents to enhance their understanding of sentence form in political communication.