A discourse analysis on the reference found in the advertisements published in Jakarta Post

Language is the most important means of communication. Moreover, advertisement is one form of communication that develops, at the same time, the advance of technology. The development of technology allows people to communicate each other in many ways, whether it is in oral or written ways. Advertisements can be found on television, radio, newspaper, etc. Advertisements that can be found in Jakarta Post are kinds of text. Therefore, it constitutes a discourse.

This study is aimed at analyzing reference as one among five types of cohesion. According to the background, this research is conducted to answer the following research problem, they are what the types and the functions of references found in the advertisements published in the Jakarta Post. This research gives both a valuable finding to the field of discourse studies, especially about references and a valuable input for the advertisers in their attempt to create more qualified advertisement that can invite the audience to read and understand it easily. However, the results of the study is expected to give more factual information to the researcher about the utilization of reference.

This study uses descriptive qualitative as the research design because the data are in the form of words or sentences from the advertisements published in the Jakarta Post. After the data have been collected, they are presented, analyzed by using Halliday and Hasan theory, and concluded based on their categories which are in accordance with the number of articles used as the data sources.

The results of this study show that the types of reference used in the advertisement published in Jakarta Post are personal reference, demonstrative reference, and comparative reference. Personal references consist of personal pronoun and possessive determiner. They usually use the pronoun “it, its, they, their” to show the product and service. They also use the pronoun “you” to represent to the reader. At last, the researcher concludes that authors have their own way in presenting their idea.

Based on the results of the study, the researcher suggests to the advertisers, readers, and consumers be more attention to the use of reference, especially in personal reference because the researcher has found it is almost used in the advertisements articles that show more difficult than another types of reference, whether they use anaphoric reference or cataphoric reference in order to find the interpretation of the item. The future researchers are suggested that they conduct similar theme of a study with more complete data and discussion.