Background of the Analysis

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Analysis

Pragmatics in general is the study of language to communicate more than it is said by the speakers. It deals with the ways we reach our goal in communication. Yule 1996:3 says, “Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker or writer and interpreted by a listener or reader.” It has, consequently, more to do with the analysis of what people mean by their utterances than what the words or phrases in those utterances might mean by themselves. Advertising is an important part of modern life. We can find it almost everywhere, such as on TV, radio, internet, magazines, newspaper, etc. Our modern lives more and less are influenced by so many advertisements around us. Advertisement is constructed to have the primary effect of selling products or services to the consumers. Advertisers have so many ways to catch people’s attention and persuade them to purchase the advertised products. In order to serve their purposes, they cannot ignore the role of language in advertising. Fryburger 1989:5 says, “Advertisements can be recognized as paid and nonpersonal communication forms used with persuasive intent by identified sources through various media.” In http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiSlogan, “Slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. While advertising slogans are short, often memorable phrases used in advertising campaigns. They are claimed to be the most effective means of drawing attention to one or more aspects of a product.” Presupposition has an important role in persuasive language, especially in advertising language. Usually, advertisers make indirect assertion in their products through presupposition. An advertisement works properly when the meaning not only have literal meaning but also implicit meaning in order to make the readers get the ideas of advertisement maximally. According to Hornby 1995:915, presupposition is a thing that is presupposed, while presupposes mean to assume something to be true before it is proved. In other words, presupposition is an assumption which is understood by someone before it is verified. The contents of any given presuppositional sentence will normally have to be assumed to be true “a prior” in order for the sentence to be even understood as meaningful “language”. Yule 1996: 25 says, “A presupposition is something the speaker assumes to be the case prior to make an utterance.Speakers, not sentences have presuppositions”. For Example: • Mary’s dog is cute The statement “Mary’s dog is cute” presupposes “Mary has a dog”. The reader will be expected to have the presuppositions that a person called Mary is exist and she has a dog. The reader may also hold the more specific presuppositions that Mary has only one dog and it is cute. Interestingly, when we produce the opposite of the statement by negating it Mary’s dog isn’t cute, we will find that the presupposition doesn’t change. Basically, it means that the presupposition of a statement remain constant i.e. still true even when that statement is negated. To analyze how speaker’s or writer’s assumptions are typically expressed, presupposition has been associated with the use of a large number of words, phrases and structures. The analysis is based on Yule’s 1996: 27-29 explanations: 1. The Existential Presupposition: the assumption that the entity related to the mentioned expression exist. E.g.: John sawdidn’t see the man with two heads There exists a man with two head 2. Factive Presupposition: the assumption that the event following a certain class of verb factive verb is a fact. E.g.: John realizeddidn’t realize that he was in debt John was in debt 3. Lexical Presupposition: the use of one from with is asserted meaning is conventionally interpreted with the presupposition that another non- asserted but closely related meaning is understood. E.g.: He is late again He was late before 4. Structural Presupposition: certain sentence structures have been analyzed as conventionally and regularly presupposing that part of the structures is already assumed to be true. E.g.: Where did you buy that book? You bought the book 5. Non-factive Presupposition: is one that is assumed not to be true. Verb like dream, imagine, and pretend are used with the presupposition that what follows is not true. E.g.: She dreamed that she was married She was not married 6. Counterfactual Presupposition: what is presupposed is not only not true, but also the opposite of what is true, or ‘contrary to facts’. E.g.: If you were my daughter, I would not allow you to do this You are not my daughter The writer chooses Newsweek magazines since they have different kind of product’s advertisements. Then, the advertised product in this magazine is also exists in Indonesia. Based on the previous explanations, the writer is interested in analyzing the type of presupposition and the presupposition of utterance in advertisement.

1.2 Problems of the Analysis