The implicatures of the opinions used in the Jakarta Post

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the opinions section using Grice’s theory of implicature. Implicature is part discourse analysis study and concerns with anything that is inferred from an utterance or sentence. In written text such as Newspaper, the language used is often contextual and interpretable. Besides, it has implied and intended meaning, particularly on its opinions section. Based on this background, the study about the Implicature was conducted with the following problems: (1) What are the implicatures used in the opinions of Jakarta Post? (2) How are the implicature expressed on the opinions of Jakarta Post ?

This research was conducted using descriptive qualitative method based on the Grice’s theory of implicature. The data were selected from May Ist to May IQih 2005, which were published by Jakarta Post in the forms of sentences.

Data analysis revealed some findings covering the formulated research questions. First, the implicatures used in the titles of the implicatures of the opinions Used in the Jakarta Post could be categorized into generalized implicature and particularized implicature. Generalized implicature was used when the information being conveyed was clear, brief, in chronological order and no context was required by readers to understand the information in it. In addition, particularized was used when the clarity, brevity and sufficiency of information was not be given by the journalist to the readers. So, the context was required by the readers to understand the journalist’s intended message. Second, the cooperative principle, in particular the maxim of quantity and manner also being considered or abided by journalists in conveying the information on the opinion. The information being conveyed is not less and more informative than is required, written in short but has conveyed the whole information, written in chronological order, clear and not obscure.

Finally, the writer suggests to next researcher to use the finding as the additional reference and comparative pragmatic research as the implicature is the aspect of pragmatic study. In addition, the researcher suggests to next research to use Grice’s theory of implicature to conduct the daily utterances, which occur naturally in certain society, it is also, can be used to investigate on literary works. The next researcher also can use another theory of implicature as Wilson and Sperber’s theory of implicature or semantic approach to investigate the same area.