Conventional Implicature used in the politics article of The Jakarta Globe Online Newspaper

ABSTRACT

This study analyzes on the conventional implicature based on the Christopher Potts’ theory. Conventional implicature is derived from the conventional meaning of the words and “non-truth-conditional inferences and simply attached by convention to particular lexical items or expressions. This study focuses on conventional implicature used in the Politics Article of the Jakarta Globe Online Newspaper. This area is significant to be studied because by understanding the intended meaning of the speaker, the communication runs successfully. Based on the background of the study, the research problems are: (1) what kinds of conventional implicatures found in the Politics Article of the Jakarta Globe Online Newspaper? (2) How are conventional implicatures used in the Politics Article of the Jakarta Globe Online Newspaper?

The aim of this study is to find out the kinds of conventional implicatures and to understand how the conventional implicatures are used in the Politics Article of the Jakarta Globe Online Newspaper. The method used in this study is a descriptive qualitative method because the data are in the form of words or utterances rather than number. This study is included to documentary study because it analyzes the written materials based on the context.

The researcher finds two types of conventional implicatures in this newspaper; they are non-restrictive clause and nominal appositive which is characterized into supplemental expressions. Both these conventional implicatures, then are analyzed by the Potts’ four essential points, namely: (a) Conventional implicatures (Cls) are part of the conventional meaning of words, (b) Cls are commitments, and thus give rise to entailments, (c) These commitments are made by the speaker of the utterance ‘by virtue of the meaning of’ the words he chooses, and (d) Cls are logically and compositionally independent of what is ‘said (in the favored sense)’, i.e. independent of the at-issue entailments. It is conducted to know how conventional implicatures are used in the newspaper.

Finally, the researcher suggests to the next researchers who are interested in doing research in the same area, to find the other unique and interesting themes, and also with the more specific themes and fresh subjects such as magazines, poetry, and song lyrics.