A study on euphemism used in headlines Of Kompas Newpaper

ABSTRACT

In this recent time, many interesting news show up both political and social phenomenon. Those news are served with an interesting language by mass media. Mass media have tried hard for the best service (o present actual and hot news that can be accepted very well by society and to avoid the loss face. Mass media use euphemism to make that. Euphemism is an instrument to keep the relationship between reader and writer or speaker and listener in good harmony.

This research focused on the types of euphemism used in headlines of Kompas newspaper and the functions of euphemism used.

The descriptive qualitative research is the research design of this study. The data are collected from the headlines of Kompas newspaper focuses on August Ist to August 3 Is،, 2003. They are analyzed through the process of categorizing, analyzing and finally the writer draw a conclusion. The key instrument is the writer her self; here the writer used field note to write some headlines from August 1 to August 31 2003

From collecting the data, the writer found 17 headlines related to euphemism. From those 17 headlines, the writer found that there are 9 types of euphemism; there are: acronym and abbreviation, jargon, hyperbole, metaphor, litotes, idiom, denial, metonymy and associative engineering. In terms of ftinctions of euphemism, the writer found 4 functions; they are: to convince, to evaluate, to promise and to order.

Finally, the writer hope the reader doesn’t catch the literal meaning only from the text, but also pay attention to the context of the text. By this way the reader does not just catch the main idea but also understand the real event behind the text. Furthermore, the writer hope that euphemism can be used for everyday life not only in a written form but also in spoken form in order to avoid the unpleasant thing.