The Language Play Of Newspaper Headlines in 'The Jakarta Post'.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE................................................................................................................i
TABLE OF CONTENTS......................................................................................ii
LIST OF SYMBOLS............................................................................................iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................v
ABSTRACT...........................................................................................................vi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study................................................................................1
Statement of the Problem................................................................................4
Purpose of the Study.......................................................................................5
Methods of Research......................................................................................5
Organization of the Thesis..............................................................................5
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............................................7
CHAPTER III: ANALYSIS OF THE LANGUAGE PLAY............................11
OF NEWSPAPER HEADLINES IN
THE JAKARTA POST
CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION.........................................................................36
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...............................................................................................40
ii
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APPENDICES:
List of the data............................................................................................43
Table of data...............................................................................................45
Newspaper articles.....................................................................................47
iii
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LIST OF SYMBOLS
❥ Minimal pair
¤ Blending
Clipping
Graphology
♫ Rhyming pair
Compound
y Allusion
T Word spelling
Suffixation
iv
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
RP: Rhyming Pair
MP: Minimal Pair
Bl: Blending
Cp: Compound
Al: Allusion
Cl: Clipping
Gl: Graphology
Pn: Punning
Sf: Suffixation
v
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ABSTRACT
Permainan kata adalah suatu permainan yang menggunakan bahasa sebagai
medianya. Pada saat ini, kita dapat menemukan permainan kata dalam kehidupan kita
sehari-hari. Permainan kata dapat dijumpai dalam bahasa lisan ataupun tulisan.
Permainan kata dalam bentuk lisan dapat berupa ucapan-ucapan baik yang disadari atau
tidak. Permainan kata dalam bentuk tulisan dapat berupa hasil karya tulis seperti puisi,
cerita, novel, judul-judul iklan dan judul berita koran.
Dalam skripsi saya yang berjudul The Language Play of Newspaper Headlines in
The Jakarta Post, saya membahas mengenai permainan kata yang terdapat pada judul
berita koran The Jakarta Post. Pada judul berita The Jakarta Post terdapat banyak sekali
permainan kata dalam berbagai jenis variasi.
Ada berbagai macam tujuan penggunaan permainan kata pada judul berita koran
The Jakarta Post, memberikan hiburan kepada para pembaca, permainan kata pada judul
berita koran dapat menarik minat para pembaca agar mereka membaca keseluruhan isi
berita, dan memberikan kata kunci secara tidak langsung kepada para pembaca mengenai
isi dari berita tersebut. Untuk tujuan terakhir, para pembaca mempunyai pengetahuan
mengenai kata-kata yang digunakan dalam permainan kata.
vi
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APPENDICES
Appendix 1
List of data
1. Pakistan’s free lampoons “Mush and Bush’.
2. Singapore goes high-tech to promote ‘NEWater’.
3. An Africar in every garage? Good idea but consumers lukewarm.
4. Where’s the ‘party-warty’? Briton masters Indian English.
5. After Hollywood and Bollywood, comes ‘Riverwood’.
6. Jiabao-Manmohon summit: Will China am-Bush India?
7. Are you in ‘Mudical’ mood?
8. So, what’s up with naked ducks, doc?
9. Oops, he Diddy it again.
10. To feed or not to feed homeless people.
11. Me, myself and the dog.
12. Bouncing to it with wallyball.
13. Kartini Day ‘taekwonrobic’ performance.
14. ‘Rockumentaries’: should we take them more seriously?
15. Like chalk and cheese: when opposites are alike.
16. It’s time for hydrosolidarity.
43
44
17. School of hard rocks “Rock 101”.
18. Teana hopes to shed hulky image of Nissan.
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
There are a lot of things that happen in this world; those concerning
crimes, wars, political situations, economic matters, sports and entertainment
events. In order to know those various pieces of information, one of the ways
people do is by reading a newspaper.
When we read a newspaper to find out some news, the first thing we do is
look at the headlines. From the headlines we can figure out what the news will be
about, or else, we become curious about the news.
In making a headline for a piece of news, a news writer makes the most
use of language. Language itself is a means of communication for human beings
in giving information to others. The information can be defined as concepts, facts,
opinions, or other information.
1
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2
Some people play with language and respond to language play. And they
get pleasure and enjoyment from it. People play with language when they
manipulate the language; they break the rule of the language. The language play
gives enjoyment for those who do it and others (Crystal, 1998: 105).
People, consciously or unconsciously, come across language play every
day. People who always read newspapers every day, for instance, will find
language play in the headlines and the news. There are a lot of newspaper
headlines which consist of language play to attract the readers to read the news.
The news writers will make their newspaper headlines as interestingly as
possible. They sometimes use language play in writing newspaper headlines for
the purpose of catching the readers’ attention. According to Crystal (1998:101),
the language play in newspaper headlines is often used in the readers’ favorite
sections, such as sports and entertainment.
In making the headlines which consist of language play, the writers
manipulate literally, which means that they “… take some linguistic feature – such
as a word, a phrase, a sentence, a part of word, a group of sounds, a series of
letters – and make it do things it does not normally do” (Crystal,1998: 1).
The language play in the newspaper headlines is effective if the readers
know the rules of the language and know which part of the language rules that are
being broken. The readers who have learned a foreign language, which in this case
is English, and have achieved a higher level of education are more likely to
understand the language play in the newspaper headlines.
Maranatha Christian University
3
The language play in the newspaper headline is to catch the
readers’ attention – and apparently one of the best ways of doing
this (in addition to using the conventional methods of increasing
the size of the type, summarizing the content of the piece in a
succinct, telegraphic style) is to introduce an element of language
play. (Crystal, 1998:101)
We must have a certain level of language competence in order to
understand the language play in the newspaper headlines because the language in
the headlines are sometimes the language which we rarely hear or which we have
even never heard before.
The writers need the readers’ language ability and knowledge in
understanding the newspaper headlines (Crystal, 1998:104). And in
understanding the language play we need to have some background knowledge
to spot the language play and to know the purpose of the language play used in
the headlines. When we expect news by reading the newspaper, the headlines
which consist of language play are bonus for us which give us enjoyment of
news imagination by reading the headlines (Crystal, 1998:105).
In doing language play the news writers generalize the readers’
education and background knowledge in understanding the newspaper
headlines which consist of language play. The news writers disregard the sex,
age, social background, or level of intelligence. The writers demand the readers
to understand the newspaper headlines (Crystal, 1998:9).
I am interested in analyzing The Jakarta Post newspaper headlines because
The Jakarta Post is in English and there is a lot of language play of various types
in the headlines.
Maranatha Christian University
4
Therefore, the topic of my thesis is language play of the newspaper
headlines in The Jakarta Post. I choose this topic because I would like to find out
the language play used in newspaper headlines and the role of the readers’
background knowledge in understanding the language play and the article content.
I choose language play because I notice that almost everyone plays with language,
whether consciously or unconsciously. When we have a conversation or write
something sometimes, we play with language. The reason why we do language
play might be on purpose or just for fun, and we get pleasure from playing with
language.
The significance of my thesis is to find out the use of language play in
newspaper headlines and to show some good newspaper headlines which attract
the readers to read the news. I intend to analyze the language play of newspaper
headlines based on linguistic theories. I use the theory of Pragmatics,
Morphology, Semantics and Graphology as the approaches, and I also use the
theory of language play in my thesis.
Statement of the Problem
In this thesis I would like to analyze the following problems:
1. What kind of language play is used?
2. How does the readers’ background knowledge help them relate the language
play and the article content?
3. What is the significance of language play in relation to the article content?
Maranatha Christian University
5
Purpose of the Study
This thesis is done to show:
1. The kind of language play in the newspaper headlines.
2. The readers’ background knowledge which help them relate the language play
and the article content.
3. The significance of language play in relation to the article content.
Method of Research
I use seven steps in gathering the data. First, I find and collect some
newspaper headlines in The Jakarta Post. Second, I choose some newspaper
headlines which consist of language play. Third, I find out the part of each
newspaper headline in which the language play occurs. Fourth, I analyze the kind
of language play in the headlines. Fifth, I find out the background knowledge
which helps interpret the language play in the headlines. Sixth, I find out the
significance of language play in relation to the article content. Last, I draw
conclusion based on the analysis.
Organization of the Thesis
Chapter I is the Introduction, which consists of the Background of the
Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of Research,
Organization of the Thesis. Chapter II contains the theories which are used to
analyze the thesis. Chapter III is the analysis of the data. Chapter IV is the
conclusion of the thesis. The next part is the Bibliography, which consists of the
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references used and the last is the Appendices, which consist of the list of data,
table of data and the newspaper articles.
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CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION
Having analyzed the data of my thesis, in this chapter I would like to draw some
conclusions. There are a lot of newspaper headlines in The Jakarta Post which consist of
a variety of language play. The language play in the newspaper headlines is used in
some popular sections, such as politics, sports, entertainment, and opinion.
For this thesis, I choose to analyze The Jakarta Post, a newspaper in Indonesia
which uses English as its medium. The readers must have the ability in the English
language to understand the language play used in the newspaper headlines because
sometimes the language play in the newspaper headlines creates some new words or
terms that have never been heard before. The readers also must have a certain level of
language competence to understand the newspaper headlines.
The newspaper headlines in The Jakarta Post that I use contain various kinds of
language play. The kinds of language play used in The Jakarta Post newspaper headlines
that I have found are rhyming pairs, minimal pairs, blending, allusion, graphology, and
affixation.
36
Maranatha Christian University
37
In addition to a certain level of English competence, in order to understand those
kinds of language play in The Jakarta Post newspaper headlines, the readers need to
have some background knowledge or pre-existing knowledge to capture the significance
of the language play. From their background knowledge or pre-existing knowledge, they
can expect and have some ideas what the news will be about.
The language play in the newspaper headlines also has the significance which
helps the readers to relate the language play to the article content. The language play in
the newspaper headline can give a clue to the readers about the content of the article.
The kinds of articles containing language play which has significance in relation
to the article content are the articles which contain serious issues, such as politics,
economic problems, today’s events, sports events and global issues.
However, after having analyzed the language play in The Jakarta Post newspaper
headlines, I find that some of the language play in the newspaper headlines have no
significance or just have little significance in relation to the article content. The purpose
of the language play in the newspaper headlines which have no significance or just have
little significance in relation to the article content is merely for entertainment purpose or
just for fun. I believe it is used to attract the readers to read the whole news.
This type of language play is found in headlines of which the content is about
entertainment issues such as folk gossip and the stories of some people.
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38
The language play which have no significance in relation to the article content
can result in misunderstanding and misinterpretation in the readers’ part. They may also
get wrong expectations in terms of what the news will be about because the language
play in the headline is not related to the article content, as can be seen in data 8 and 11.
After all the analysis process, I would like to say that the language play in The
Jakarta Post newspaper headlines are very various. The writers of The Jakarta Post
articles and headlines are very creative in creating some new words and terms or play
with some idioms and expressions.
The language play in the newspaper headlines also gives the readers some new
knowledge about new words or phrases and terms. Besides, the language play in the
newspaper headlines makes me realize that language play is not only combining or
blending two words but also manipulating all things.
The use of language play in The Jakarta Post newspaper headlines can be for
entertainment purpose or fun, which can give some enjoyment to the readers when
reading the newspaper headlines. The readers also can be curious about what the
meaning of language play is and can be attracted to read the whole news.
The use of the language play in The Jakarta Post newspaper headlines which can
give some ideas and clues to the readers also makes me realize that the readers really
need to know the part of language play in the newspaper headlines and they really need
their background knowledge in understanding the meaning of it.
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On the other hand, in the writing process of this thesis, I went to The Jakarta Post
head office to conduct some interviews with the reporters who wrote the articles I have
analyzed. During the interview, I found an interesting factor. It turns out that most of the
writers I interviewed have no knowledge at all about language play. They have never
heard of language play, let alone realizing what they are doing.
When I asked them what their purpose was in inventing strange and new terms,
they said that it was only to make the headlines more interesting, so that, people will
want to read the articles. And they do not realize that the readers need to have some
background knowledge in understanding the meaning of language play they have made,
because they do not expect the readers to have some background knowledge in
understanding it. This is in line with what I have mentioned in the previous chapter.
Finally, I conclude that a headline is not only for entertainment in the world of
press, but it is also one of the important parts in delivering news. Another point is that
language play can give additional effects on the readers, especially those who can spot it
as they will be amused and entertained. This, of course, will encourage them to read the
particular article and maybe even all the articles in the newspaper. What is more, if they
are happy with it, they will keep buying The Jakarta Post. In the long run, this will affect
the selling.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bauer, Laurie. Introduction to the Theory of Word−Structure. Edinburg: Edinburg
University Press. 1988
Brown, Gillian and George Yule. Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. 1983
Crystal, David. An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Language and Languages. London:
Penguin. 1992
---. Language Play. London: Penguin. 1998
Hornby, A.S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. New York: Oxford University
Press. 1995
Katamba, Francis. An Introduction of Phonology. New York: Longman. 1989
Leech, Geoffrey N. and Michael H. Short. Style in Fiction: A Linguistics Introduction to
English Fictional Phrase. Essex: Longman. 1981
Matthews, P.H. An Introduction to the Theory of Word−Structure. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.1974
Nash, Walter. The Language of Humour. New York: Longman.1994
Yule, George. Pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press. 1996
40
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Abbugao, Martin. “Singapore goes high-tech to promote ‘NEWater’. Jakarta Post 19
Sept. 2005
Anonymous. “Kartini day ‘taekwonrobic’ performance”. Jakarta Post 13 May. 2007
Anonymous. “Teana hopes to shed hulky image of Nissan”. Jakarta Post 02 Sept. 2004
Anonymous. “So what’s up with naked ducks, Doc?”. Jakarta Post 07 June. 2006
Cameron-Moore,Simon.”Pakistan’s free press lampoons ‘Mush & Bush’”. Jakarta Post
30 March. 2003
Diani, Hera. ”Bouncing to it with wallyball”. Jakarta Post 16 June. 2002
E.Kruger, Rafl. “An Africar in every garage? Good idea but consumers lukewarm”.
Jakarta Post 18 June. 2005
Hee Hui, Tan.” Me,myself and the dog”. Jakarta Post 22 Jan. 2006
Hernawati, Eva. “School of hard rocks ‘Rock 101’”. Jakarta Post 23 June. 2006
Lewan, Todd. “ To feed or not to feed homeless people”. Jakarta Post 04 Dec. 2006
Macrae, Penny. “Where’s the ‘party-warty’? Briton masters Indian English”. Jakarta
Post 08 Apr. 2005
Marahimin, Mandy. “ ‘Rockumentaries’: should we take them more seriously?”. Jakarta
Post 26 Nov. 2004
Sassy. “Oops, he Diddy it again”. Jakarta Post 19 Feb. 2006
Srivastava, Siddarth. “Jiabao-Manmohan summit, will China am-Bush India?”. Jakarta
Post 15 Apr. 2005
Sukardi, Gandhi. “Are you in ‘mudical’ mood?”. Jakarta Post 04 Dec.2003
Maranatha Christian University
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Suryakusuma, Julia. “Like chalk and cheese: when opposites are alike”. Jakarta Post 09
Aug. 2006
Widianarko, Budi. “It’s time for hydrosolidarity”. Jakarta Post 22 March. 2007
Maranatha Christian University
PREFACE................................................................................................................i
TABLE OF CONTENTS......................................................................................ii
LIST OF SYMBOLS............................................................................................iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................v
ABSTRACT...........................................................................................................vi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study................................................................................1
Statement of the Problem................................................................................4
Purpose of the Study.......................................................................................5
Methods of Research......................................................................................5
Organization of the Thesis..............................................................................5
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ............................................7
CHAPTER III: ANALYSIS OF THE LANGUAGE PLAY............................11
OF NEWSPAPER HEADLINES IN
THE JAKARTA POST
CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION.........................................................................36
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...............................................................................................40
ii
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APPENDICES:
List of the data............................................................................................43
Table of data...............................................................................................45
Newspaper articles.....................................................................................47
iii
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LIST OF SYMBOLS
❥ Minimal pair
¤ Blending
Clipping
Graphology
♫ Rhyming pair
Compound
y Allusion
T Word spelling
Suffixation
iv
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
RP: Rhyming Pair
MP: Minimal Pair
Bl: Blending
Cp: Compound
Al: Allusion
Cl: Clipping
Gl: Graphology
Pn: Punning
Sf: Suffixation
v
Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Permainan kata adalah suatu permainan yang menggunakan bahasa sebagai
medianya. Pada saat ini, kita dapat menemukan permainan kata dalam kehidupan kita
sehari-hari. Permainan kata dapat dijumpai dalam bahasa lisan ataupun tulisan.
Permainan kata dalam bentuk lisan dapat berupa ucapan-ucapan baik yang disadari atau
tidak. Permainan kata dalam bentuk tulisan dapat berupa hasil karya tulis seperti puisi,
cerita, novel, judul-judul iklan dan judul berita koran.
Dalam skripsi saya yang berjudul The Language Play of Newspaper Headlines in
The Jakarta Post, saya membahas mengenai permainan kata yang terdapat pada judul
berita koran The Jakarta Post. Pada judul berita The Jakarta Post terdapat banyak sekali
permainan kata dalam berbagai jenis variasi.
Ada berbagai macam tujuan penggunaan permainan kata pada judul berita koran
The Jakarta Post, memberikan hiburan kepada para pembaca, permainan kata pada judul
berita koran dapat menarik minat para pembaca agar mereka membaca keseluruhan isi
berita, dan memberikan kata kunci secara tidak langsung kepada para pembaca mengenai
isi dari berita tersebut. Untuk tujuan terakhir, para pembaca mempunyai pengetahuan
mengenai kata-kata yang digunakan dalam permainan kata.
vi
Maranatha Christian University
APPENDICES
Appendix 1
List of data
1. Pakistan’s free lampoons “Mush and Bush’.
2. Singapore goes high-tech to promote ‘NEWater’.
3. An Africar in every garage? Good idea but consumers lukewarm.
4. Where’s the ‘party-warty’? Briton masters Indian English.
5. After Hollywood and Bollywood, comes ‘Riverwood’.
6. Jiabao-Manmohon summit: Will China am-Bush India?
7. Are you in ‘Mudical’ mood?
8. So, what’s up with naked ducks, doc?
9. Oops, he Diddy it again.
10. To feed or not to feed homeless people.
11. Me, myself and the dog.
12. Bouncing to it with wallyball.
13. Kartini Day ‘taekwonrobic’ performance.
14. ‘Rockumentaries’: should we take them more seriously?
15. Like chalk and cheese: when opposites are alike.
16. It’s time for hydrosolidarity.
43
44
17. School of hard rocks “Rock 101”.
18. Teana hopes to shed hulky image of Nissan.
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
There are a lot of things that happen in this world; those concerning
crimes, wars, political situations, economic matters, sports and entertainment
events. In order to know those various pieces of information, one of the ways
people do is by reading a newspaper.
When we read a newspaper to find out some news, the first thing we do is
look at the headlines. From the headlines we can figure out what the news will be
about, or else, we become curious about the news.
In making a headline for a piece of news, a news writer makes the most
use of language. Language itself is a means of communication for human beings
in giving information to others. The information can be defined as concepts, facts,
opinions, or other information.
1
Maranatha Christian University
2
Some people play with language and respond to language play. And they
get pleasure and enjoyment from it. People play with language when they
manipulate the language; they break the rule of the language. The language play
gives enjoyment for those who do it and others (Crystal, 1998: 105).
People, consciously or unconsciously, come across language play every
day. People who always read newspapers every day, for instance, will find
language play in the headlines and the news. There are a lot of newspaper
headlines which consist of language play to attract the readers to read the news.
The news writers will make their newspaper headlines as interestingly as
possible. They sometimes use language play in writing newspaper headlines for
the purpose of catching the readers’ attention. According to Crystal (1998:101),
the language play in newspaper headlines is often used in the readers’ favorite
sections, such as sports and entertainment.
In making the headlines which consist of language play, the writers
manipulate literally, which means that they “… take some linguistic feature – such
as a word, a phrase, a sentence, a part of word, a group of sounds, a series of
letters – and make it do things it does not normally do” (Crystal,1998: 1).
The language play in the newspaper headlines is effective if the readers
know the rules of the language and know which part of the language rules that are
being broken. The readers who have learned a foreign language, which in this case
is English, and have achieved a higher level of education are more likely to
understand the language play in the newspaper headlines.
Maranatha Christian University
3
The language play in the newspaper headline is to catch the
readers’ attention – and apparently one of the best ways of doing
this (in addition to using the conventional methods of increasing
the size of the type, summarizing the content of the piece in a
succinct, telegraphic style) is to introduce an element of language
play. (Crystal, 1998:101)
We must have a certain level of language competence in order to
understand the language play in the newspaper headlines because the language in
the headlines are sometimes the language which we rarely hear or which we have
even never heard before.
The writers need the readers’ language ability and knowledge in
understanding the newspaper headlines (Crystal, 1998:104). And in
understanding the language play we need to have some background knowledge
to spot the language play and to know the purpose of the language play used in
the headlines. When we expect news by reading the newspaper, the headlines
which consist of language play are bonus for us which give us enjoyment of
news imagination by reading the headlines (Crystal, 1998:105).
In doing language play the news writers generalize the readers’
education and background knowledge in understanding the newspaper
headlines which consist of language play. The news writers disregard the sex,
age, social background, or level of intelligence. The writers demand the readers
to understand the newspaper headlines (Crystal, 1998:9).
I am interested in analyzing The Jakarta Post newspaper headlines because
The Jakarta Post is in English and there is a lot of language play of various types
in the headlines.
Maranatha Christian University
4
Therefore, the topic of my thesis is language play of the newspaper
headlines in The Jakarta Post. I choose this topic because I would like to find out
the language play used in newspaper headlines and the role of the readers’
background knowledge in understanding the language play and the article content.
I choose language play because I notice that almost everyone plays with language,
whether consciously or unconsciously. When we have a conversation or write
something sometimes, we play with language. The reason why we do language
play might be on purpose or just for fun, and we get pleasure from playing with
language.
The significance of my thesis is to find out the use of language play in
newspaper headlines and to show some good newspaper headlines which attract
the readers to read the news. I intend to analyze the language play of newspaper
headlines based on linguistic theories. I use the theory of Pragmatics,
Morphology, Semantics and Graphology as the approaches, and I also use the
theory of language play in my thesis.
Statement of the Problem
In this thesis I would like to analyze the following problems:
1. What kind of language play is used?
2. How does the readers’ background knowledge help them relate the language
play and the article content?
3. What is the significance of language play in relation to the article content?
Maranatha Christian University
5
Purpose of the Study
This thesis is done to show:
1. The kind of language play in the newspaper headlines.
2. The readers’ background knowledge which help them relate the language play
and the article content.
3. The significance of language play in relation to the article content.
Method of Research
I use seven steps in gathering the data. First, I find and collect some
newspaper headlines in The Jakarta Post. Second, I choose some newspaper
headlines which consist of language play. Third, I find out the part of each
newspaper headline in which the language play occurs. Fourth, I analyze the kind
of language play in the headlines. Fifth, I find out the background knowledge
which helps interpret the language play in the headlines. Sixth, I find out the
significance of language play in relation to the article content. Last, I draw
conclusion based on the analysis.
Organization of the Thesis
Chapter I is the Introduction, which consists of the Background of the
Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of Research,
Organization of the Thesis. Chapter II contains the theories which are used to
analyze the thesis. Chapter III is the analysis of the data. Chapter IV is the
conclusion of the thesis. The next part is the Bibliography, which consists of the
Maranatha Christian University
6
references used and the last is the Appendices, which consist of the list of data,
table of data and the newspaper articles.
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION
Having analyzed the data of my thesis, in this chapter I would like to draw some
conclusions. There are a lot of newspaper headlines in The Jakarta Post which consist of
a variety of language play. The language play in the newspaper headlines is used in
some popular sections, such as politics, sports, entertainment, and opinion.
For this thesis, I choose to analyze The Jakarta Post, a newspaper in Indonesia
which uses English as its medium. The readers must have the ability in the English
language to understand the language play used in the newspaper headlines because
sometimes the language play in the newspaper headlines creates some new words or
terms that have never been heard before. The readers also must have a certain level of
language competence to understand the newspaper headlines.
The newspaper headlines in The Jakarta Post that I use contain various kinds of
language play. The kinds of language play used in The Jakarta Post newspaper headlines
that I have found are rhyming pairs, minimal pairs, blending, allusion, graphology, and
affixation.
36
Maranatha Christian University
37
In addition to a certain level of English competence, in order to understand those
kinds of language play in The Jakarta Post newspaper headlines, the readers need to
have some background knowledge or pre-existing knowledge to capture the significance
of the language play. From their background knowledge or pre-existing knowledge, they
can expect and have some ideas what the news will be about.
The language play in the newspaper headlines also has the significance which
helps the readers to relate the language play to the article content. The language play in
the newspaper headline can give a clue to the readers about the content of the article.
The kinds of articles containing language play which has significance in relation
to the article content are the articles which contain serious issues, such as politics,
economic problems, today’s events, sports events and global issues.
However, after having analyzed the language play in The Jakarta Post newspaper
headlines, I find that some of the language play in the newspaper headlines have no
significance or just have little significance in relation to the article content. The purpose
of the language play in the newspaper headlines which have no significance or just have
little significance in relation to the article content is merely for entertainment purpose or
just for fun. I believe it is used to attract the readers to read the whole news.
This type of language play is found in headlines of which the content is about
entertainment issues such as folk gossip and the stories of some people.
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The language play which have no significance in relation to the article content
can result in misunderstanding and misinterpretation in the readers’ part. They may also
get wrong expectations in terms of what the news will be about because the language
play in the headline is not related to the article content, as can be seen in data 8 and 11.
After all the analysis process, I would like to say that the language play in The
Jakarta Post newspaper headlines are very various. The writers of The Jakarta Post
articles and headlines are very creative in creating some new words and terms or play
with some idioms and expressions.
The language play in the newspaper headlines also gives the readers some new
knowledge about new words or phrases and terms. Besides, the language play in the
newspaper headlines makes me realize that language play is not only combining or
blending two words but also manipulating all things.
The use of language play in The Jakarta Post newspaper headlines can be for
entertainment purpose or fun, which can give some enjoyment to the readers when
reading the newspaper headlines. The readers also can be curious about what the
meaning of language play is and can be attracted to read the whole news.
The use of the language play in The Jakarta Post newspaper headlines which can
give some ideas and clues to the readers also makes me realize that the readers really
need to know the part of language play in the newspaper headlines and they really need
their background knowledge in understanding the meaning of it.
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On the other hand, in the writing process of this thesis, I went to The Jakarta Post
head office to conduct some interviews with the reporters who wrote the articles I have
analyzed. During the interview, I found an interesting factor. It turns out that most of the
writers I interviewed have no knowledge at all about language play. They have never
heard of language play, let alone realizing what they are doing.
When I asked them what their purpose was in inventing strange and new terms,
they said that it was only to make the headlines more interesting, so that, people will
want to read the articles. And they do not realize that the readers need to have some
background knowledge in understanding the meaning of language play they have made,
because they do not expect the readers to have some background knowledge in
understanding it. This is in line with what I have mentioned in the previous chapter.
Finally, I conclude that a headline is not only for entertainment in the world of
press, but it is also one of the important parts in delivering news. Another point is that
language play can give additional effects on the readers, especially those who can spot it
as they will be amused and entertained. This, of course, will encourage them to read the
particular article and maybe even all the articles in the newspaper. What is more, if they
are happy with it, they will keep buying The Jakarta Post. In the long run, this will affect
the selling.
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