CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, background of
the study, problems of the study, objectives of the study, scope and limitation
of the study, significance of the study and definition of the key terms are
discussed.
1.1 Background of the Study Language
is a means of transferring thoughts from one to another.
Language is a system of oral or
written expression and communication of ideas and emotions or the process,
style and vocabulary of such system. Language is one of the main defining
features of the human species and such has been of interest to and studied by
thinkers for at least several millennia (http/id.wikipedia.org/wiki/definitions
of language).
Sociolinguistics is the study of
language in relation to society. Wardhaugh (1986:12) states that
sociolinguistics is concerned with investigating the relationship between
language and society with the goal being a better understanding of the
structure of language and how languages function in communication. In
sociolinguistics, we study society in order to find out as much as we can about
what kind of thing language is.
Language is a part of society; linguistic
phenomena are social phenomena of a special sort, and social phenomena are in
the part of linguistic phenomena. In social phenomena including politic,
economy, culture, etcetera. Most of them have their own language and it is not
easy to understand for the whole circle of society. One of them is political
language. Language and society have close relationship; language is what
members of particular society speak (Wardaugh, 1986:1). Mainly, language
besides as a tool to communicate with others it is also as a tool in
establishing and maintaining relationship with other people. One of parts of
the language custom is euphemism. Every generation and every culture develops
its euphemisms.
Euphemism is a word or phrase that replaces a
taboo word or serves to avoid unpleasant subjects. Euphemism is used to create
harmony and make conversations pleasant and smooth. In social communication,
euphemism is important to create harmonious interaction. Euphemisms are found
in most of our society, the result of dressing up certain areas in life to make
them more presentable (http/id.wikipedia.org/wiki/euphemism and
dysphemism).Euphemistic words and expression allows us to talk about unpleasant
things and neutralize the unpleasantness. Euphemism is endemic in our society;
the glorification of the common place and the elevation of the trivial
(Wardaugh, 1986:231).
Euphemism is used widely by
people, through which they can deliver their real information in a mild way
without any harshness (http/id.wikipedia.org/wiki/euphemism).So, it is
interesting to be discussed. The implementation of taboo makes euphemism
endemic and prominent in our society. Societies feel too offensive or
embarrassed to speak their taboo without a sort of “cover-up” their language.
In English society, euphemism usually occurs not only in oral communication but
also in written text like headline and column of newspaper and magazine. In
this recent time, many interesting news show up both political and social
phenomenon. Mass media is trying too hard for the best service to present
actual news that can be accepted very well by society. However, so many kinds
of mass media such as Kompas, Jawa Pos, Republika, Jakarta Post, Tempo, Time,
etcetera. Furthermore, those mass media often use euphemism.
One of the principles of
euphemism is that the disprefered expressions should be replaced by the
preferred expressions to execute user’s communicative intention on a given
context and to avoid possible loss of face (Mazidah, 2007: 04).
The use of euphemism is one of real example of
sociolinguistics applications. Wardhaugh (1986: 231) states that euphemism is
endemic in society: we are constantly renaming things and repackaging them to
make them sound ‘better’. With euphemism we make the meaning of words more
polite. Based on the form and meaning, Indonesian euphemism differ in terms of
culture specific connotation, for example in Indonesia ³bodoh” is euphemized as
“kurang pandai” where as in American English euphemism, it is called “less
thoughtful”.
There are some reasons why euphemism is
studied. First, it is often concerned with politeness. In certain situations
using euphemism instead of saying things directly is considered with
politeness. For instance; do you drink? The phrase “do you drink?” is a
euphemism, instead of “do you take a bribe?” So, euphemism is very effective in
substituting words and phrases with negative connotations by using words or
phrases more polite. Second, euphemism is the instrument of keeping the
relationship in good harmony between reader and writer or speaker and listener
(Allan and Burridge, 1991: 07).
Brown and Yule (1983: 326) devices the use of
political euphemism is achieved through many sources, such as denial,
hyperbole, acronym, litotes (understatement) and metaphor.
In this study, there are four reasons to adopt
the theories of Allan and Burridge, and Brown and Yule’s in discussing and
interpreting euphemism. First, their theories are appropriate to the
comprehension of euphemism. To a certain extent, it is more specific in
classifying the euphemistic expressions. Second, it covers three devices, which
are the most appropriate in interpreting the fixed political expressions,
namely co-text, mental model, topical framework, knowledge of the world. Third,
it has been used by many discourse analysis researchers and proved to be
appropriate for analyzing the euphemistic expressions. Fourth, their theories
are decided to be appropriate in interpreting some sources of euphemisms in
this study, it is due to the fact that euphemisms much depend upon the context.
The writer chooses the Jakarta
Post as the source of data for some reasons.
First, Jakarta Post Newspaper
uses euphemism in its news bravely. The Jakarta Post as the first local daily
newspaper presenting news in foreign language, which is English language. Here,
the writer took national section of the Jakarta Post to get the data. Second,
national section is the place where reports some actual issues including
political affairs dealing with the context of government policy.
Furthermore, in this column, we
will find much information about hot issues in Indonesia, which consists of
many types and functions of euphemism. Third, political articles are chosen
because through politics, we will know about the condition of our country,
Indonesia. It contains the condition of economic, social, education,
government, and etcetera. Euphemism in most events has become an instrument in
a political activity as well including politicians in Indonesia grow up using
euphemism in a political discussion and campaign.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar