A descriptive study on the deixis used in opinion sections published by Tempo magazines

ABSTRACT

This research is focused on analyzing the magazines of Tempo using deixis theory proposed by Stephen c. Levinson. Deixis is a part of discourse analysis study and concerned with meaning inferred from an utterance or sentence. Deixis makes discourse easier and more effective in giving a means to pass more information in less time. The Opinion section is a part of sections which is available in Tempo Magazine covering belief or judgment about somebody or something not necessarily based on fact or knowledge and often conveyed implicitly. Based on that background, the research on deixis used in the opinion sections in Tempo magazine was conducted with the proposed problem ،،How is the deixis expressed in utterances on ،،Opinion sections” published by “Tempo magazines”?”

This research was conducted using descriptive qualitative method to get descriptive knowledge on how the deixis expressed in utterances on ،،Opinion sections” published by ،*Tempo magazines” based on Levinson theory. The data of this research were in the forms of utterances or words in die ،،Opinion sections” which were selected from the magazines published from March 1٥ to 30٩ 2006 which contain five types of deixis; person, place, time, discourse and social deixis. The data were explained descriptively.

Data analysis revealed the findings covering the proposed problems. The result of the research shows five kinds of debris, namely person, place, time, discourse and social deixis. The first person deixis is used when the journalist wants to show the speakers who produce the utterance in the opinion sections, while the tirird person debris is expressed when the journalist wants to show the people who do not refer to the speaker or addressee. Place deixis is expressed to describe a location relative to the location of participant in speech event, as well as have been shown in the context. Meanwhile, time debris is used to point the certain period of time when the joumahst shows the utterances used by the speaker and also the time of event. In addition, discourse deixis is used to refer to some portions of discourse that contain the utterance as a signal and its relation to surrounding text. Furthermore, social debris is expressed to indicate the distinction social roles among participants.

In accordance with those findings, it is suggested to the journalist to comprehend and consider the words or utterances that will be presented in tire opinion sections in order that the inference being conveyed is easily understood by the readers. In addition, it is also recommended for the future researchers to conduct tire research using deixis in other fields on the daily conversations and in any literary work.