Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Human are social beings. In order to communicate each other, they need a language. Language was an important tool in communication. As we know that language is any system of formalized symbols, signs, sounds, gestures, or the like used or conceived as a means of communicating thought, emotion, etc. 1 While, communication is passing of information or exchange of ideas from the sender to the receiver using a language. So then, between a language and a communication are correlated each other. Furthermore, in the communication, there are verbal and non-verbal communications. Both verbal and non-verbal have an important role in an advertisement. It is because in the advertisement consists a written language as the example of verbal communication, and the symbols or pictures as the example of non-verbal communication. Moreover in the process of communication between the sender and the receiver, there are ways: direct and indirect communication. Direct communication is when the true intentions are revealed in the verbal messages, or it is the communication between two people or more without any media or the meaning of the message is communicated mainly via words. For instance is the conversation between two people. Meanwhile, indirect communication is when the true intentions are hidden, or communication using 1 http:dictionary.reference.combrowselanguage. acessed on Monday, 28 April 2014, 1.25.p.m. media to convey the message or idea to recipients. 2 For example, a soap company shares its products through an advertisement in television, radio, or social media. In this era, there are many ways for the advertisement creators to make an advertisement. They always make it as good as they able to create. The choosing of words, colors, and images become the main point as the tool to persuade the listeners and the readers to buy their product or to use their service. For instance, the advertisement of cigarette, the advertisement creator will choose the simple and ease words as their tag line which represents the product. So they put the suitable picture and color to make the advertisement is more attractive to persuade the reader or the listener. So then, they can get the point massage that delivered by the advertisement creator. In order to get the meaning, analyzing, and understanding about the advertisement language is not as easy as we predict, but we can use semiotic approach. Semiotics is the study of sign or the science that study about the sign in human beings. It means, every exist things in our life is looked as the sign, that is something that we should give them meaning. 3 The advertisement can be studied through semiotics approach because in an advertisement consists of many signs such images, words, comparisons, brand names, and visual logos. Many approach of semiotics, one of them is Charles Sander Peirce’s semiotics theory. Peirce argued that sign can be forms through his triadic relation are called 2 Sarah Griffith, “Intercultural Business Communication: Direct and Indirect Communication”, in http:sarahgriffith.hubpages.comhubIntercultural-Communication-The-difference-between- Direct-and-Indirect-Communication . accessed on Friday, 7 march 2014, 1.20 p.m 3 Benny H. Hoed. Semiotik dan Dinamika Sosial Budaya. Second Edition, Depok: Komunitas Bambu, 2011, p.3 representament, objec t, and interpretant. The example of it is such as the symbol of the red lamp in the traffic lamp. The red lamp in the traffic lamp is as the representatement , and the object is the lamp which has red color, and interpretant of it is the meaning of the red lamp on the traffic lamp is all the vehicles must stop at that time. In a semiotic sense, signs take the form of words, images, sounds, gestures and objects. 4 In general, semiotics theories take signs or sign systems as their object of study. 5 Because of language can be formulized from a signal or symbol, then, language is also can be studied through semiotics. This case is found in the advertisement of Samsung Galaxy cellular phone too. It is interesting to be analyzed because in all these advertisements, the advertisement creator uses the unique and attractive words, picture, and color as the symbols or icons. The object of this thesis is Samsung Galaxy Series because from 2013 Samsung Company by its Android System has been standing out from the other companies of mobile phone especially BlackBerry Company which was the popular and sophisticate mobile phone on that time by its BBM system. So this thesis tries to analyze the semiosis process that occurs and the meaning of the object by the semiotics approach by Charles Sander Peirce’s theory. 4 Daniel Chandler. Semiotics: The Basics. Second Edition New York: Taylor Francis, 2007, p.2 5 Steven C. Hamel , “Preface” in Steven C. Hamel ed Semiotics Theory and Applications. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc. 2011, p.vii

B. Focus of the study