CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Background of Study Language
plays an important role in human life. It is said so because language serves many functions. Some of them are to
give information, to deliver message(s), to express feeling, to persuade people to do
something or to believe us, to entertain others, to share opinion of the world and to share
one's thought. Considering those various functions of language mentioned above, in a
simple way it can be concluded that language
functions as a tool of communication. According to Clark & Clark (1977:25),
the fundamental function of language is
means communication. According to Hornby (2000:225), communication itself is the
activity or process of expressing ideas and feelings or giving information. Giving
information involves transferring knowledge, facts or news by the speakers as the doers to
the listeners as the receivers.
When human being interacts in
community, they perform interpersonal function of language. Interpersonal function is
realized by MOOD and MODALITY. MOOD shows
what role the speaker selects in the speech situation and what role he assigns
to the addressee. If the speaker selects
the imperative mood, he assumes the role of one giving commands and puts the addressee in the
role of one expected to obey orders.
MODALITY specifies if the speaker
is expressing his judgment or making a prediction.
(Halliday, 1985).
The interpersonal function is
realized at two levels namely at the level of (discourse) semantics and lexicogrammar. At
the level of semantics, human being performs
two roles namely Giving and Demanding. The commodity exchange may be either information or Goods & Services.
When the roles and commodities are cross classified, four specific activities or speech
functions are derived. Based on Halliday (1994:30) states that speech functions are
realized in four types, namely: statement, question, offer and command. Thompson
(2003:12) emphasizes the important point that use of language lies at the very heart of
social life. In general, it is noted that Universitas Sumatera Utara communication and
language are important components of social life; expressing thought and felling, conveying ideas, making
request giving command, and so on.
The previous statement shows that
in communicating with others, one can express
what s/he knows and s/he feels and also gives information to other people.
Basically, communication takes
two forms, namely spoken and written communication.
At present, due to the
sophisticated advance of technology, spoken and written communications are often combined in
transferring information.
Many things can be communicated
through mass media. Advertising is the promotion
of goods, services, companies, and ideas, ally performed by an identified sponsor. Marketers see advertising as part of
an overall promotion strategy.
(http://www.wikipedia.org/). In
the advertisement, the interaction is between the copywriters to the viewers as the receivers.
From this perspective, advertising exist “to help to sell things” (White, 2000:5), which is
limited to giving utilitarian information about the product with the objective of
informing the consumer about the necessity and the importance of the commodity advertised.
Today, as the technology become
increasing, advertisement also increased in number and in modernity. But sometimes, the
viewer of the advertisement doesn’t realize
there something that the advertiser wants to tell to the viewer. For example in
cigarette advertisement that show
adventurer, the viewer only enjoy the picture shown without aware about the message in it. It is
the same with cosmetic advertisement aimed to male and female. The viewers doesn’t
realize that the language used is differs in the way of expressing it both advertisement to
male or to female viewer. It can be seen from the diction (choice of word). However, many
people do not realize this difference. Thus, the writer is interested in observing the
advertisement aimed to male and female.
Universitas Sumatera Utara 1.2
The Problems of the Study Through the background of the study, the problems are
listed below: 1. What kinds of speech functions are
linguistically coded in male and female language
in cosmetic advertisement? 2. What is
the dominant type of speech functions used in cosmetic advertisement aimed to male and female? 3. How are the different types of speech
functions uttered the ways they are in male and female language in cosmetic advertisement?
1.3 The Objectives of the study In relation to the problems, the objectives of
the study are: 1. To describe how the speech functions in male
and female language in cosmetic’s advertisement.
2. To investigate the dominant types of speech
functions used in male and female language
in cosmetic’s advertisement.
3. To describe what the different types of
speech functions are uttered the ways they
are in male and female language in cosmetic’s advertisement.
1.4 The Scope of the Study This
study deals with the interpersonal functions of language in which it is used in advertisement that is specialized for male
or female audiences. When human being interact
with people in social life, they perform interpersonal function of language.
The interpersonal functions are realized
at two levels of semantics and lexicogrammar which is termed mood. At the levels of semantics,
human being performs two roles that is Universitas
Sumatera Utara Giving and Demanding. The commodity exchange may be either
information or Goods & Services.
When the roles commodities are cross classified, four primary specific activities or speech functions are derived.
The researcher focuses the study in evaluating the four primary speech functions that is
statement, question, command, and offer. Here the writer focused the study in male and
females cosmetic advertisement in mass media and limiting in hair and facial wash
advertisement for male and female that advertised on mass media.
1.5 The Significance of the Study
It is expected that findings of the study will be useful and relevant
theoretically and practically. The
result of this study are relevant to the needs of the students who want to understand more about speech function,
to enable and enrich their knowledge to communicate
better than before. For teachers, it can provide some input in teaching speech functions. For readers, the findings of
this research can be used as a guide to understand
the language and gender in advertisement. In addition, this study might be significant as and additional reference for
the copywriters to help them in making good advertisement. Particularly, the findings are
also expected to assist those who are really interested in advertising including the
English Department students to comprehend and become more skillful in composing a writing
specifically in advertisement for the advertising
world, in fact, can not be separated from writing activities.
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