AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
SURATININGSIH Student Number: 044214107
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMNET OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
i AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
SURATININGSIH
Student Number: 044214107
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMNET OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
iv
Your dream is your gold
v
For my husband Ståle Angen Rye
vi moment when I started to think that everything can be possible if I will. My greatest thanks to Allah SWT for His grace. This thesis would never be written without countless help and supports from wonderful persons. I very much thank Adventina Putranti S.S, M. Hum, my perfect advisor, for her guidance during the writing process and for giving me the opportunity to know about pragmatics and its fun. I also thank Dr. Francis Borgias Alip, M.Pd., M.A, for his comment and critic in order to make my writing even better. I also thank Sanata Dharma University of Yogyakarta and its staffs for every wonderful moment I have got during my study.
Thank you to my mother and grandmother who have through their life given me lot of opportunities to learn how life should be. Their words, attitude and behavior have influenced me and cheered me up to keep going on in this life. To my wonderful best friends Uke and Senny, I would say this moment is for the three of us. I want to say thanks to both of you for sharing laugh and tears during this last five years.
I send my gratitude to Frank Robert Haugan in the land of Norway for his kindness which made it possible for me to achieve this bachelor’s degree. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to understand the world of literature and linguistics. Without your support, I would never have written this acknowledgements. I also want to thank Ibu Kustati, that is how I call her, and Pak Kasyanto my teachers from high school. You were supporting me and did not let me down when I wanted to give up to learn language. I remembered your words when I should talk in front of my class from SMKN 4 Yogyakarta. “The most important is that you are not afraid to make a mistake, and just speak up!” Those words have meant a lot to me and your spirit to struggle for your goal has inspired me since then. You are wonderful.
To my “paijo” Ståle Angen Rye, I would say that there is no word to describe how much you mean to me. Thank you is just not enough. That is probably why it is difficult for me to say that words. Thank you for being there and helping me getting through all of difficult times, for you wonderful heart being very patient with me, and for all of your great support you have given to me. This thesis has taught me a lot much because of you.
Thank you to the “dolls” in A “Doll’s House”, “Fashion”, “Trifles”, and “The Flattering Words” for the beautiful moment we have shared together.
Finally to everyone, take time to write your thesis! It is just about having fun.
Suratiningsih
vii
a. Metaphorical Language ... 5
b. Headline Articles ... 6
a. Theory of Communication Concept ... 9
b. Theory of Speech Act and Events ... 12
c. Theory of Metaphor ... 13
d. Theory of Relevance ... 14
e. Theory of Linguistic Context ... 17
f. Theory of socio political influne of comix 18 C. Theoretical Framework ... 19
viii
b. Charlie Brown and His Baseball Team ... 27
c. Frieda in the Baseball Match ... 30
d. Charlie Brown and His Speech ... 33
e. Charlie Brown in the First Day of the Game ... 35
B. Metaphorical Language in Relation to the Headline in The Jakarta Post ... 38
a. Frieda and Snoopy ... 39
b. Charlie Brown and His Baseball Team ... 40
c. Frieda in the Baseball Match ... 43
d. Charlie Brown and His Speech ... 45
e. Charlie Brown in the First Day of the Game ... 47
f. Peanut Strips and Actual Events ... 48
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION ... 50
BIBLIOGRAPH ... 53
ix Suratiningsih. A Study Of Metaphorical Reference In Peanut Strips In Relation To Headline Articles Published InThe Jakarta Post.
Yogyakarta. Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2009.
This thesis analyses how comic strips, as a medium of communication, use and maintain metaphorical language and expressions. It is explored how such strips, particularly Peanuts which are published in The Jakarta Post newspaper, can contribute to convey the meaning of headline news of the same newspaper. Following McCloud, comics is considered a medium of communication used to portray social phenomenon as well as being human’s daily language.
Out from the above mentioned background, two problems were formulated. The first problem raises the question about what the conversations of Peanuts are about and how the metaphorical languages occur within these conversations. The second problem is related to how metaphorical languages occurring in Peanuts strip convey the meaning of The Jakarta Post’s headline articles.
Using the theory of speech acts, as suggested by Yale, the strips conversation were examined to explore what the speaker intends to say. This was done through determining the purpose of the utterances and related it to the idea of the basic shared of knowledge. Thereafter, by using the headline news of the newspaper as the context for the strips conversation, the aim is, based on Goatly’s theory of metaphor, to analyze how Peanuts is related to the issues discussed in the headline news. This analysis is done through exploring the similarity between the strips and the headline articles.
x Headline Articles Published In The Jakarta Post.
Yogyakarta. Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2009.
Dalam penelitian ini ditunjukkan bagaimana komik strip, sebagai salah satu alat komunikasi, mengaplikasikan penggunaan bahasa metafora. Dalam penelitian ini juga dijabarkan bagaimana komik-komik strip tersebut, khususnya Peanuts yang terbit setiap hari di harian The Jakarta Post, dapat menyiratkan makna dan isi tajuk utama surat kabar harian tersebut. Penelitian ini ditujukan untuk mengembangkan pendapat McCloud bahwa bahasa sehari-hari yang digunakan dalam komik menunjukkan bahwa komik sebagai alat komunikasi digunakan untuk memenyampaikan fenomena-fenomena yang terjadi di masyarakat.
Berdasarkan pada latar belakang tersebut, terdapat dua permasalahan yang timbul. Permasalahan yang pertama adalah apakah isi dari percakapan strip Peanut dan bagaimana penggunaan metaphor dalam percakapan-percakapan tersebut. Permasalahan yang kedua adalah bagaiamana penggunaan metaphor dalam strip Peanuts dapat menunjukkan makna dari isi tajuk utama harian The Jakarta Post. Dengan menggunakan teori speech acts yang di tawarkan oleh Yale, percakapan dalam strip Peanuts dipelajari untuk menjabarkan apa yang sebenarnya disampaikan oleh si pembicara. Peneltian ini dilakukan dengan menentukan tujuan dari setiap ucapan didasarkan pada basic shared knowledge. Selanjutnya, mengacu pada teory Goatly tentang metaphor dan dengan mengacukan pada kontek tajuk utama, tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk meneliti bagaimana Peanut bisa dihubungkan dengan tajuk utama harian The Jakarta Post. Dalam hal ini penelitian dilakukan melaui pencarian persamaan antara strip dan tajuk utama.
Dari penelitian ini dibuktikan bahwa komik strip Peanut tidak selalu menyiratkan isi dari tajuk utama. Namun, komik Peanut akan selalu menggunakan bahasa metafor apabila diterapkan pada kontek yang berbeda selain tajuk utama. Selanjutnya, dapat disimpulkan bahwa bagaimanapun metafora dapat ditemukan dalam setiap komik strip dengan berdasarkan pada kontek dimana pembaca meletakan komik strip tersebut.
CHAPTER
I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Comics is a popular and persuasive medium for communication.
Throughout the world, this form has been regarded a part of art and cultural
production (Varnum & Gibbon, 2001: xvii). Varnum and Gibbon say that comics
is a human artifact used to represent the reality to the understanding of an
observer and to mediate his or her experience of the world. Further, they explain
how comics itself has been developed in several forms. In modern life comics is
categorized into visual art production which is in form of comic books,
single-panel cartoons, wordless comic, and animated cartoons. Another form of comics
is a comic strip where images and words are important (Varnum & Gibbon, 2001:
xvii). Hence, it is reasonable to take comics as an object of this study and
specifically comic strip which involved words since this study is designed for
linguistic purposed.
A comic strip, as explained in encyclopedia Britannica, is series of
adjacent, drawn images that are designed to be read. It is essentially a mass
medium, printed in a magazine, newspaper or book (Encyclopedia Britannica,
2007). However, in daily life, comic strip readers are often trapped by the images
and words. They are typically attracted to see the surface of the strip only.
Consequently, the contents, which are more important than the figure, may be
accidentally ignored. Perhaps, they do not mean to ignore the message or criticism
the real context of the dialogue. This is also claimed by Wertham who said that
readers are provided with ready-made images so that comics encouraged laziness
and undermined the reading skills (Wertham, 1953:119-145).
On the other hand, understanding comic strip, in fact, is not an easy task
since we have to see both the image and the words. These two elements are
necessary for the completion of meaning. As suggested by McCloud, in comic
strip, words and pictures are like partners in a dance and each one takes turn
leading (McCloud, 1993:156). The reader has to analyze the text to understand the
image as well as understand the image to get the idea of the text. Consequently
there are several difficulties that appear when reading comic strips such as
determining the meaning of the vocabulary, understanding the context of the
conversation through the character’s expression, and last but not least
understanding the language of the dialogue.
Taken as an example, see the dialogue below:
Charlie Brown
Linus
: I have a suggestion, Linus. Why don’t you let me try to find sort of substitute for your blanket? May be I could get you a dishtowel or something…. : Would you give a starving dog a rubber bone?
(The Jakarta Post, 2008)
When readers are served the above dialogue which was taken from a
comic strips, they might only see it from the structure of the sentence. The
common understanding of the conversation is that Charlie Brown is offering
Linus a help. However, the question may be raised whether it is really true that he
intends to help Linus, or Charlie Brown is criticizing Linus.
actions are pretty much related to the utterances. This circumstance is in this
thesis called speech act.
Referring to McClauds who states that a comic is designed to be read and
Wertham who in a way says that a comics should be read deeper than what it
occurs, I can conclude that comic itself is designed with an implied meaning. This
argument also refers to one of concepts, that comics is often design to make a
critic (McCloud, 1993: 178). Hence, I further come up with an assumption that
comics uses metaphorical language since it implies other meaning to which I refer
Goatly’s idea that metaphor occurs when a unit of discourse is used to refer
unconventionally to an object, concept, or process (Goatly, 1997: 8)
In daily conversations, meanwhile, it is obvious to use metaphorical
language requires deep understanding between the speaker and the listener to
criticize or express something. It, however, should be seen from the context of the
language and the conversation when metaphorical language is intended to use in.
It is to follow Fein and Kasher who say “….we have some understanding of the
ways of words, of how to do things of certain kinds with words of suitable types
within appropriate contexts.” (Fein & Kasher, 1996: 1). Due to this background, I
use the pragmatic approach since pragmatic is the study of contextual meaning
(Yule, 1996: 3). Pragmatics also allows us to study what the speaker actually
means through the utterance.
To study the conversation in comic strip and how the metaphorical
language occurs in the conversation, I have narrowed down the study and focus on
newspaper using English to present accurate daily records of Indonesia today. It
covers economic, social, political issues and many more (Chandra, 1983: 1). This
newspaper publishes several kinds of comic strips daily. As the rest of the
newspaper’s articles, the strips are also published in English. These strips are
Grafield, Peanuts, The Born Looser, Rose is Rose, and Ferd’nand.
Unlike other strips, Peanuts is considered the most successful American
comic in the 20th century and the only semiautobiographical experiences. Peanuts
writer, Charles Schulz channeled what he had experienced in his army days and
the frustrations of everyday life into Charlie Brown, the main character of the
strip. Besides, Peanuts seems to be the most influential comic existing in modern
art proven by its adaptation in television, stage, and two-featured length animated
film written by its original writer Charles Schulz (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2007).
Among the five strips published in The Jakarta Post, Peanuts is the only strip whose characters Snoopy and Charlie Brown were brought to the outer space by
an astronaut in Apollo X. It shows that Peanuts has drawn a special attention from
the world which results in awards given to this strip such as the best humor strip
of the year in 1962. Due to the above reason, I have chosen Peanuts as the object
of this study.
I did not choose particular time of when the strips were published because
this study can basically be applied in any kind of strip and whenever it is
published. However, the strips that are used in this study were chosen due to
important events that portrayed in the headline articles such as the Beijing
Olympic, general election etc. Those events were at the time when this study was
Furthermore, this study was aimed to develop linguistic study especially in
pragmatic so that people, specifically students will encourage themselves to find
out and understand deeper a communication tool such as comic strip.
B. Problem Formulation
Using pragmatic approach, this study is done to answer problems
formulated as follow:
1. What are the conversations of Peanuts about and how do the metaphorical
languages occur within these conversations?
2. How do these metaphorical languages convey the meaning of The Jakarta Post headline articles?
C. Objectives of the Study
This study is to find out how conversations are governed following the
rule of conversation. Further, by using pragmatic approach I will find out how the
conversations contribute to the use of metaphorical language, so that the reader
will be able to understand the passage beyond the conversation. Later on, these
conversations are used to see what the implied meanings are by relating them to
The Jakarta Post articles.
D. Definition of Terms
a. Metaphorical Language
Since this study is about metaphorical language, it is very important to
define what metaphorical language is. To make it easier in understanding about
Goatly’s definition from his book The Language of Metaphor. In his book, Goatly says that metaphor occurs when a unit of discourse is used to refer
unconventionally an object, process or concept e.g. ‘The mind is an ocean' and
'the city is a jungle' are both metaphors. In the meantime, metaphorical is the
adjectival form of metaphor meaning describing language which contains
metaphor. It can be defined as not having real existence but symbolic and showing
some truth about a situation or other subject. Thus, metaphorical language can be
defined as a language which is metaphorically used (Goatly, 1997:1-5).
b. Headline Articles
According to Suhandang, headline in a newspaper is basically designed to
present the topic of an article (Suhandang, 2004). He further explains that a
headline news is usually written in a big letter to attract readers’ attention. The
form of a headline itself varies. Based on the importance of the news there are
four different kinds of headline, which are:
1. A banner headline which is used for the most important news or article. This
headline is written with the biggest and thickest letter in the newspaper.
2. A spread headline is purposed for important news but less important than the
banner headline. The size of the letter is smaller than banner headline but
bigger than secondary headline.
3. A secondary headline is used for the less important news. The size of the letter
is usually small but not the smallest.
4. A subordinated headline is for the news that is not important at all which
c. Comics
According to McCloud, comics is written in plural form, used with a
singular verb. It is juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence,
intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response to viewer
(McCloud 1999: 20). On the other hand, Grainger suggests most comics combine
words with images, often indicating speech in the form of word balloons
(Grainger, 2004: 66-67).
d. Comic strip
It is a format used in comics, a sequence of drawings that tells a story
CHAPTER
II
THEORETICAL
REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
According to Forceville, Lakoff and Johnson’s dictum that a metaphor is
primarily a matter of thought and action and only derivatively a matter of
language has given rise to numerous studies investigating how a metaphor’s
verbal manifestation relate to their cognitive origins (Forceville, 2001: 1). Refaie,
as an example, explores the grammar of visual metaphors. She argues that visual
metaphors cannot be described adequately in formal terms only. She further
argues that they must be considered as visual representations of metaphorical
thoughts or concepts. To give a clear explanation regarding her argument, she
uses political newspaper cartoon from an Austrian newspaper as the object of the
study. One of the drawings she discusses shows a family holding a Kurdistan flag.
In this matter, she emphasizes that even if we consider the drawing of the family
in isolation from the context of the rest of the cartoon, it still cannot really be
described as an iconic representation of a family. Refaie argues, that it is,
however, should be described without ignoring the whole drawing in the cartoon.
For example, it should be seen how the figure of the family is described, what
political interest of the creator might be applied, etc (Refaie, 2007).
At the end of her writing, Refaie concludes that her analysis of political
cartoon highlights the difficulty of distinguishing between literal and a
metaphorical depiction. The fuzziness of boundaries arises partly from the fact
processes and partly from the recognition that all visual signs are based on a
process of creating analogies. Because of this, the differentiation between a literal
image and a visual metaphor is never absolute but it will always depend on the
discourse context and on the degree to which particular metaphors have become
accepted the natural, commonsensical way of representing certain meanings
(Refaie, 2003: 90).
In this study, I follow Refaie’s conclusion regarding how to understand
metaphor by emphasizing contextual aspect. However, what also raises my
interest is her lack of analysis regarding verbal metaphors even though it is to
compare verbal and visual metaphors. This study, therefore, is a follow up of
Refaie’s study of ways of understanding metaphor by putting the focus on verbal
metaphor works in different cartoon, particularly comic strip. Since Refaie claims
that we should involve all elements in the cartoon, I emphasize that so it does on
verbal metaphors. The word used in comic strip dialogue should not only be
described as the word with its semantic feature supporting the idea, but it should
rather be described using the context of the dialogue.
B. Review of Related Theories
In studying and finding out what the Peanuts strip published in The Jakarta
Post and whether it has a relation to the headline news that is published in the
same date as the Peanuts strip, several theories are applied. Those theories are as
follows:
a. Theory of Communication Concept
As stated in the introduction, it is significant to understand important
applied such as by understanding when an expression is judged literally or
metaphorically.
It can be said that a metaphor is used in everyday language and it is
important to understand since it involves human thought in relation to social
context to which this study discusses about. Goatly states in his book The Language of Metaphor: “…. metaphor is something that can be easily confined, but indispensable basis of language and thought.” (Goatly, 1997: 1). He further
explains that studying metaphor demonstrates, in an exaggerate way, how all
linguistic classification constructs as representation of experience on the basis of
selective perception and selective aspects of world. Goatly argues that there is no
strict boundary between metaphor and literal expression and that the differences
between metaphors and literal expressions are only more or less tied to a
conventional meaning (Goatly, 1997: 14-15).
Hence, to understand and find out whether a conversation in a
communication system contains metaphorical language, we first have to identify
how the communication works. In brief, we have to find out how speaker’s
thought is delivered to hearer’s without any fatal wrong interpretation. In his book
The language of Metaphor Goatly suggests to begin with a simple provisional model of linguistic communication in five stages as seen in table 1.
Suppose a speaker wishes to describe something in the real world to a
hearer, the discourse process has a starting point (A), a physically observable state
of affairs which already exist in the actual world. By means of perception and
cognition (1) we pass to (B), which is the speaker’s thought, which is mental and
proceeds (2) to form the proposition, (C), which is the most relevant for
conveying his/her thought. In order to communicate this proposition, which is still
mental, she/he has to make it accessible to his/her speakmate, and he/she can
more or less achieve this by using the language code, (3). She uses conventional
linguistic signs to pair her meanings with physical forms in a text, (D). The hearer
can perceive the text, decode it in fill it out (4) to convey a full proposition, (C),
and then interpret it (5) by guessing what thought of the speaker it is most likely
to convey, (B). If this five-stages process is successful, then the hearer will be
entertaining thoughts resembling those the speaker originally entertained, and
thereby will receive a message about a state of affairs in the world which the
speaker experienced but which the hearer did not (Goatly, 1997: 14-15).
Table 1: Concept of linguistic communication
(Goatly, 1997: 14)
I can draw a conclusion that the process of delivering message is the
process of encoding and decoding similar to Stuart Hall (Hall, 1973). The process when the speaker is delivering the thought, is in this mater stage B, 2, and C may
be called encoding. This process is conducted to get the text; D of the thought which can be called code. The next is the process when the hearer collecting
A STATES OF AFFAIRS PHYSICAL |
1
↓
B THOUGHT MENTAL | ↑
2 5
↓ |
C PROPOSITION MENTAL | ↑
3 4
↓ |
information and knowledge in order to get what the speaker’s thought; stage 4, C,
and 5, can be called decoding.
According to Sperber and Wilson, the areas of the diagram which concern
us most are the relationship between the propositional form and the thought of the
speaker where they locate metaphorical process. Thus my main concern will be
approaching stage B, 2, and C.
b. Theory of Speech Act and Events
In the process of communication, people attempt to express their thought.
In his book entitled Pragmatics, Yule says that people do not only produce structured utterances which contain words, but also serve actions by the way of
those utterances (Yule, 1996: 47). In a work situation for example, a manager has
a power over his officers. Thus, his utterance may more than just a statement.
Actions performed via utterance, according to Yule, are generally called speech
acts which are labeled apology, complaint, compliment, promise or request.
In any circumstances, the action performed through the utterances will
consist of three related acts which are locutionary act, illocutionary act, and
perlocutionary act. An utterance belongs to locutionary act when it has a meaning. On the other hand, the utterance belongs to illocutionary act when it
requires purpose which what we normally do when we create an utterance.
Furthermore, we do not create an utterance only with a function, yet to have an
effect as well. Thus whenever an utterance affects the listener, it means the
utterance has a perlocutionary effect.
In regard to perlocutionary act, speech acts are classified into five different
1. Declarations: speech acts that change the world via utterance. It is typically
uttered by those who have power e.g. a priest, a referee, a teacher.
Specifically, declaration aims to change the world via words.
2. Representatives: speech acts that state what the speaker believes to be the case
or not e.g. statement of fact, assertion, conclusion, and description.
3. Expressives: speech acts that state what the speaker feels. This is related to
psychological states that can be statement of pleasure, pain, dislikes, likes, joy,
or sorrow.
4. Directives: speech acts that speakers use to get someone do something. They
can be commands, orders, requests, suggestions which can be either positive
or negative.
5. Commissives: speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves to some
future action. They express what the speakers intends.
Yule further explains how to distinguish the types of speech acts through
the basis of structure. He suggests that there is a recognized relationship between
the structural forms; declarative, interrogative, and imperative, and the general
communication function which are statements, question and command/request.
c. Theory of Metaphor
To understand when metaphorical language is applied, Goatly explains
several approaches to identify metaphor such as Vehicle, Topic, and Ground
terms or which he calls VTG-term. In this section I am going to explore what
VTG-terms is and how it works to identify metaphor. In VTG-terms several
aspects are involved such as root analogy, relevance, assumption, and implicature
First of all, it will be helpful to define what metaphor is. I will follow
Goatly who says in his book:
“Metaphor occurs when a unit of discourse is used to refer unconventionally to an object, process or concept, or colligates in an unconventional way. And when this unconventional act of reference or colligation is understood on the basis of similarity, matching or analogy involving the conventional referent or colligates of the unit and the actual unconventional referent or colligates” (Goatly, 1997: 8).
According to Goatly, the term “colligate” applies to one kind of collocate.
Collocation is any kind of co-occurrence of words in text, but colligation is a
syntactic relationship between the two words. Thus, Goatly adopts Richards’
(1965: 96-7) substituting the word Topic:
a. The conventional referent of the unit is the Vehicle
b. The actual unconventional referent is the Topic
c. The similarities and/or analogies involve are the Grounds
To a better understanding see an example below:
The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.
The concept ‘foreign country’ is the Vehicle, the concept ‘the past’ is the
Topic and the similarity, the Grounds, is the fact that in both foreign countries and
in the past ‘things are done differently’.
d. Theory of Relevance
In regard to the theory of speech act and events, offering whether an
utterance is a direct or indirect speech acts should be based on theoretical
perspective. The relation between a word and the word it refers to have to be
recognized. Here Goatly offers a perspective through the theory of relevance
“…metaphorical understanding depends on the process and principles involved in the interplay between knowledge and the language system, knowledge about the context: situation and co-text, and background of schematic knowledge: factual and socio cultural (Goatly, 1997: 137)”
In his book, The Language of Metaphor, Goatly further explains that in our real life, there is no limitation of existing metaphor which allows us to have
various contextual assumptions in our short term memory activated by the
situation and the co-text. In addition we have many of inactivated assumptions
stored in our long term memory as factual or socio-cultural knowledge. In
reaching the contextual implications of an utterance we have to choose from
among these assumptions whose which are most relevant (Goalty, 1997: 139). For
example:
I see a an ice cream shop and think
a. If I have money I will by a vanilla ice cream. b. I have my T-Shirt dirty
I check my wallet
There is Rp. 10.000,- bill.
We will choose which assumption, (a) or (b), to use in the interpretation of
“There is Rp. 10.000,- bill” on the basis of relevance. Thus, (a) will be more
relevant than (b). Therefore, we must recognize that not only is relevance
important in measuring contextual implication, but also in accessing existing
assumptions. Hereby, the assumption basically based on common sense and what
Tsui is called shared knowledge (Tsui, 1994)
Moreover, metaphors demand considerable interpretative work besides the
decoding of their semantics. Semantic decoding simply gives us the Vehicle
concept. To establish the Topic- what V term is referring to- and to explore the
Grounds- the similarities or analogies on which metaphor is based- we must
metaphorical understanding depends on the process and principles involved in the
interplay between knowledge of the language system (1), knowledge about the
context; situation and co-text (2), and background of schematic knowledge;
factual and socio cultural (Goalty, 1997:137).
Thus, we can draw the conclusion that metaphorical language in a way
should be seen from knowledge of surrounding text, and the physical and social
ground knowledge about the world, and the society of our language community.
Hence, this theory of relevance helps me to identify how the metaphor works in
Peanuts strip in the context of The Jakarta Post headline issues.
With regard to the theory of metaphor and theory of relevance suggested
by Goatly, I come up with a new mode which I call concept of metaphor as seen in the figure below:
Figure 1: The concept of understanding metaphor.
The figure above is a developed model of the model of linguistic
communication suggested by Goatly (figure 1) where it shows a speaker and
receiver/s in a communication process, as explained in the previous sub chapter.
Speaker Mental process Receiver
of decoding Context 1
Text with literal or metaphorical
meaning Mental process
of encoding
When analyzing the first problem stated in the problem formulation, the speaker
and the receiver are found within the strip, which are the characters of Peanuts.
Thus, the context used to analyze it is set to within the strip as well. In the figure
above, this context is described as Context I.
In the meantime, to answer the second problem, the speaker is set to the
newspaper (The Jakarta Post) and the receiver is the newspaper reader.
Furthermore, to find out the metaphorical language in relation to the social or
actual issue regarding the second problem formulation, the context is, in this
thesis, the headline news of The Jakarta Post. This context is in the figure labeled
in Context II.
Nonetheless, these two contexts do not close possibilities of any other
context/s. There may be context III which is seen from the receiver point of view.
In this thesis, however, I will just focus on contexts, I and II.
e. Theory of Linguistic Context
To understand how metaphorical language works in the headline news, I
follow Refaie, who adopts Roland Barthes’ theory suggesting that the meaning of
images is always related to a linguistic message. The most common function of
the linguistic message is what Barthes calls anchorage: because images are by
nature polysemous, implying a floating chain of signifies (Refaie, 2007: 86).
Barthes further suggests that Language is needed in order to fix both the denoted
and the connoted meaning of the visual by identifying and interpreting what the
image is showing.
To develop Barthes’ theory, I use Goatly to find how actually metaphor
construct a scientific reality. Thus we need to concentrate on the ways in which
metaphors are used to construct reality as a means of maintaining or challenging
power relations in society (Goatly, 1997: 155)
f. Theory of Sociopolitical Influence of Comics
Comics has often been described as a collection pictures drawn in small
box which has an easy and sometimes stupid story. However, this common
paradigm, as suggested by McCloud, is too narrow. In his book, The Language of
Comics, McCloud says that people often failed to understand the impact of
comics in the society. As any other media of communication, comics is also made
with a purpose. Typically there is a comics artist that want to tell something about
life through his work. A problem is that people are often not often aware of this
(McCloud, 1993:178)
Following this, as has been discussed in the introduction of this thesis,
comics, as a media of communication, is also used to give a comment or critics
toward what is happening in the society. The comics have long held a distorted
mirror to contemporary society, and almost from the very beginning have been
used for social and political comment. For this purpose, comics has to be placed
where it can reach a large part of their reading public, and has for a long period of
time been placed in newspaper (Walt, 1992). Walt gives an example of comics’
use to portray the society, which is Dilbert. Dilbert is sometimes found in the
business section of a newspaper instead of comics’ page because of the strip’s
C. Theoretical Framework
To follow up Refaie’s study about metaphorical language seen through
media of communication, this thesis aims to show how metaphorical language is
applied in everyday language as seen in comic strips such as Peanuts. Through
Peanuts this thesis also aims to highlight how the strip contributes to the
understanding of the headline news of The Jakarta Post where the strip is published in.
In analyzing Peanuts’ conversation and how it conveys the meaning of The Jakarta Post headline news, the theory of speech acts and event is used to find out what the conversation is about and what is implied through the conversation. In
analyzing what is implied through the conversation the theory of relevance, as
outlined by Goatly, is used. He suggests the idea of using the context to support
Yale’s theory of speech act and event. He argues that to understand the class of
speech acts, context of the text is needed.
Further, following Goatly’s theory of metaphor, when an utterance refers
to something else, this utterance can be said metaphorically. Thus, finding out the
classification of speech acts is also to find out how the utterances of the strip turn
to metaphorically. In the meantime, in the theory of metaphor Goatly is also used
to find out how the metaphorical language in Peanuts strip contributes to reveal
CHAPTER
III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object of the study is Peanuts, a popular comic strip created by
Charlez Schulz, an art teacher who felt loss, isolation, and a burning passion to be
a cartoonist (Hill, 2007:24). Through Peanuts, he portrays his pure emotion
touching social issues. Each of its dialogue is typically about daily phenomenon
and tells about human characteristics found in daily life. They are described
through the strip’s characters such as Charlie Brown who often loose, or Sally
who thinks she is always the right one (Inge, 2000: x).
Peanuts strips seem to be an important phenomenon in the art world
proven by winning several awards such as Emmy Award in 1975. Moreover,
Peanuts is published in more than 1000 newspapers. Schulz himself received
several awards such as Cartoonist of the Year by the International Pavillion of
Humor in Montreal (Inge, 2000: xiv)
In this study, I will not study all editions of the strip but those published in
The Jakarta Post during March 2008 and April 2008. Therefore, since this study is about metaphorical language in its social context, I will show how the dialogues
apply metaphorical language. Later on, this metaphorical language will be
B. Method of the Study
Studying metaphorical language used in a communication, like what I am
doing, is considered an empirical study since this study concerns about analyzing
a concrete comic strip, Peanuts, published in The Jakarta Post in relation to actual social context. In conducting this research a pragmatic approach is applied in
order to gain insight into how metaphorical language can convey meaning in the
context of daily conversation. So saying, Pragmatics is the study of meaning as
communicated by a speaker (writer) and interpreted by a listener (or reader). This
approach gives possibility to analyze what people mean by their utterances than
what the words or phrases used. A pragmatic study allows us to study
communication in relation to contextual meaning. (Yule, 1996: 3). In other words,
I consider pragmatics the most appropriate approach to use in this study of
metaphorical language.
In the meantime, in analyzing metaphorical language, semantic theories
should not be ignored. In doing so, I use the theory of metaphor suggested by
Goatly. Thus, Goatly’s The Language of Metaphor is my primary theoretical source, whereby the object of the study itself, Schulz’s Peanuts is as my empirical
source.
C. Research Procedure
a. Data Collection
In analyzing how metaphor works in Peanuts strip, I took several
English. This is based on the consideration that the study for this bachelor’s
degree is supposed to be an English linguistic or literature study.
Looking through the newspaper, I decided to choose the strip that found
there in regard to the reason that has been explained in the first chapter. When
collecting the data, I picked the data randomly as this study can be applied to any
kind of comics and to anything when it is published.
b. Data Analysis
First thing to do when analyzing the comic strips was of course by
understanding it. This step was done through careful reading the Peanuts strips. At
the same time, I put each utterance of the strips separately to find out what the
purpose of the utterance was. In doing this, I used the pragmatic approach, by
applying the theory of speech act to find out whether the structure of the utterance
had the same function as the purpose did. This analysis, then, was applied in the
form of a table.
In finding out the classification of the speech act, as explained previously
that indirect speech is automatically a metaphorical language, I as well had to find
out the possible implied meaning based on the context of the conversation. Hence,
I referred to the assumption which is allowed in pragmatics and based on the basic
shared of knowledge. This implied meaning was then served in the next table.
When this implied meaning is served in another table, it was then shown how
metaphorical language occurred by the use of the conversation.
When the conversation of the Peanuts strips were figured out, I then tried
to find out whether the strips had something to do with the current issue which
news as the context by applying Goatly’s approach that metaphorical language
can be seen from the similarity. Thus, I found out the similarity between the strips
and the headline news. If there were similarities then there was a relation between
CHAPTER
IV
ANALYSIS
A. Speech Acts Classification, Implied Meaning, and Metaphorical
Language.
It has been explained in the previous chapter that an utterance is produced
not only to perform thought but also actions. Through this understanding, it is
then possible to find out what actually a speaker intends to say and act. In
addition, when the structure of an utterance is not the same as the function, this
utterance is considered to imply something. In this way, by referring to something
different an utterance can be is said to be metaphorical. Below I will show this by
analyzing five Peanuts strips.
a. Frieda and Snoopy
It is probably agreed in a common culture that when one is sleeping during
working hour, he or she should be ashamed and be called lazy. However, we
probably also have to see the reason why he or she is sleeping. It might be
reasonable. In regard to this, let us have a look at the strip below.
Figure 2: Frieda and Snoopy – Peanuts strip 1
(Source: The Jakarta Post, April 15, 2008. Copyright of the strip belongs to United Media. Originally published on April 18, 1961)
From the strip above, it can be seen that the conversation is actually done
feed back to Frieda. The conversation is taken in a yard, perhaps in front of
Snoopy’s dog house. It is seen from some of the box of the strip shows Snoopy’s
dog house. The setting of the time might be during working hour as Frieda
mention that Snoopy should have gone out chasing rabbits rather than just
sleeping. It is assumed that Frieda considered it was working hour and she
presupposed Snoopy knew about it.
The conversation begins when Frieda finds out Snoopy is lying down on
the ground sleeping. As it is in the day time, Frieda presumes Snoopy knows that
it is not the time for sleeping. Frieda then says that Snoopy should be ashamed of
himself as he is wasting his time sleeping when he actually can go out chasing
rabbits. When Frieda has left, Snoopy raises and begins to say that some dogs are
born dogs while others rabbits. He then moves to his dog house and lay again on
the roof. He continues to say that when the chips are down his sympathy lies on
rabbits.
Further, the conversation can be analyzed based on the speech acts
classification as seen in Table 2.
Table 2: Speech acts – Peanuts strip 1
Nr. Speaker Utterance Speech act Classification Purpose
(1) Frida I really think you should be ashamed of yourself!
Indirect speech
Expressive To show that she does not like Snoopy’s action.
Representatives To criticize Snoopy’s sleeping during the work
Representatives To conclude that Snoopy does not understand why
From the table above, it is seen that the context of the conversation is that
Snoopy is sleeping when he could go out chasing rabbits.
Based on the context of the conversation Frieda criticizes Snoopy’s
attitude of wasting his time sleeping while according to Frieda he actually could
go out chasing rabbits. In the basic shared of knowledge, man should be ashamed
of himself when he is actually able to work, but not using his capability properly.
With regard to this, a man is considered lazy. Based on the shared knowledge as
well, those who are wasting time sleeping during the working hour, without any
reasonable background are considered lazy Thus Frieda’s critic can be interpreted
“Snoopy is lazy while he is supposed to work hunting”.. Thus, it is seen that the
implied meaning of Frieda’s statement is “You are lazy! You should have gone
out working”
On the other hand, Snoopy responds Frieda’s critic by saying that there are
some which are born dogs and rabbits. In common society, there are some dogs
which are trained as rabbit hunter. According to this, I presume that Snoopy
intends to say “Some dogs are born rabbit hunter”. . Snoopy’s following
statement saying when the chips are down which means at a time of crisis or
testing is used to emphasize that his sympathy lies on the rabbit. Hence, it is
shown that the implied meaning of Snoopy’s statement is at a time of crisis or
testing, he is not a rabbit hunter.
With regard to the analysis above, thus, the metaphorical language appears
through the discovery of the implied meanings of the utterances. This implied
Table 3: Metaphorical language – Peanuts strip 1
Nr. Utterance Purpose Basic shared knowledge Implied meaning
(1) I really think you
Based on the speech acts classification which lead to the finding of the use
of metaphorical language, it is then seen that the conversation is about Frieda does
not like to see Snoopy sleeping when he could have gone out chasing rabbits.
b. Charlie Brown and His Baseball Team
Someone who has a position as a manager usually controls or organizes
what his team should do. However, it seems not to be that kind of manager
Charlie Brown is dealing with. To look further what had happened between
Charlie Brown and his team, let us see the strip below:
Figure 3: Charlie Brown and his baseball team – Peanuts strip 2
The strip above shows that the conversation is done between Charlie
Brown and his baseball team, which are Lucy, Frieda, and another girl. Even
though Charlie Brown does not speak at all, he is considered a part of the
participants as the statements said by other participants are addressed to him.
They are talking in a yard, I assumed baseball yard which can be seen from the
grass and the context that they are going to play the game. The conversation itself
is set during the day time since they are about to play baseball. On the basic
shared knowledge, children are out playing during the day time after lunch until
dinner time.
The conversation begins when Frieda expresses her thought to Charlie
Brown that it is not fair of Charlie Brown asking his team to sacrifice, work hard
and be dedicated (1). Another girl agrees with Frieda by continuing Frieda’s
statement and saying that they did not want to suffer (2). Frieda, then, concluded
that all leaders are just the same, who are just stirring (7,8,9). Lucy who was also
there finally spoke up by agreeing her two friends and ending with a question
whether the leader was just making them nervous (10).
Table 4: Speech acts – Peanuts strip 2
No Speaker Utterance Speech act Classification Purpose
(5) Frieda It’s not fair for you to ask us to sacrifice, work hard and be dedicated
Indirect speech Expressive To show that she does not like what Charlie Brown has said
(6) A girl We just want to win ball games..we don’t want to suffer!
Indirect speech Directives To ask Charlie Brown to not making them (8) Frieda You’re always trying
to stir us up!
Indirect speech Directives To ask Charlie Brown to not stirring up. (9) Frieda Why don’t you just
lead us, and stop bothering us?
Indirect speech Directives To ask Charlie Brown to just lead the team without bothering them. (10) Lucy Yes, what are you
trying to do, make us nervous?!
To find out what the meaning and purpose of each utterance, in table 4 are
the categorization or classification of what function each utterance belongs to.
It can be assumed that Charlie Brown has previously told them to work
hard, sacrifice and dedicate themselves to win the game. In the basic shared of
knowledge, it is obvious that one has to work hard to achieve a goal. However, the
team seems to do not have the same basic shared knowledge. According to them,
they can win the ball without suffering. As a result, it caused the team to protest
against Charlie’s demand. If they have had the same knowledge, they would have
agreed to suffer to win the ball game. As a conclusion, the team considered
Charlie Brown a leader who just caused them into a trouble which is seen from
the statement no 8.
Table 5: Metaphorical language – Peanuts strip2
No. Utterance Purpose Basic shared knowledge Implied meaning
(5) It’s not fair for you win a game while a manager or a leader should have a to give order upon his team.
You always cause the team and decide what the team should do. the spirit of the team to keep working.
Do not make us nervous.
The conversation displays a situation when the member of the baseball
game shows their disagreement toward what Charlie Brown had asked them to
c. Frieda in the Baseball Match
For some people, sport is a way to keep the body fit, a hobby, or just for
having fun. Meanwhile, some people may say that sport is one of the good ways
to get an attention or to show that he or she has a unique value to show of.
Figure 4: Charlie Brown and Frieda – Peanuts strip 3
(Source: The Jakarta Post March 31, 2008. Copyright of the strip belongs to the United Media. Originally published: March 31, 1961)
The conversation in the strip above is done between Charlie Brown and
Frieda. Charlie Brown is practicing his playing baseball skill. Shown from the
grass and that Charlie Brown is playing with his ball, it can be assumed that the
conversation is taken place in a yard during the day time as children usually are
out playing in the yard in the day time. Based on the speech act classification,
each utterance in the conversation of the strip can be seen as follow:
Table 6: Speech acts – Peanuts strip 3
No Speaker Utterances Speech act Classification Purpose (11) Frieda Do you think anyone
will be watching our game, Charlie Brown?
Indirect speech
Directives To show that she expect many people will be
Representatives To show that he thinks there will be some
Directives To ask Charlie Brown to measure the distance
The conversation between Charlie Brown and Frieda begins when Frieda
questions Charlie Brown whether he has any idea about how many people who
will come to see the baseball game (11). Charlie Brown does not answer with
particular number, instead saying that he imagines they will have few spectators.
However, his statement does not mean that he literally is imagining there will be
some people coming to see the game. Instead, he expects some people will come.
In the basic shared of knowledge, when a sport group is going to have a game,
they are expecting as many supporters as possible coming to the game.
Frieda then continues asking if she is going to be in the center field and
finds out what Charlie Brown will say about the distance to the center field (14).
In this section, it is assumed that Charlie Brown and Frieda have the same shared
of knowledge about Frieda’s question regarding the distance of the center field.
Frieda assumes that Charlie Brown understands that her question is how far the
center field from the spectator is. Charlie Brown then answers that it is about a
hundred yards. The following utterance (16) shows that Frieda’s assumption is
correct. She is satisfied with Charlie Brown’s answer by continuing her question
regarding the distance. If Charlie Brown does not have the same shared of
knowledge, Charlie Brown would probably have asked Frieda back “how far the
center field is from what” for example. Or Frieda may respond Charlie Brown’s
answer by repeating her question and making it more specific.
In the meantime, when both Charlie Brown and Frieda got the idea of how
far the center field is, next respond was occurred from Charlie Brown. He
mentioned a particular number but he then wanted Frieda to tell him why she
the spectator will be able to see her natural curly hair from that distance.
However, Frieda’s question implied an intention that she actually wants to be
placed in a location where she can get most attention from the spectator.
From the conversation it can be concluded that Frieda was trying to find
out whether she will get attention from the spectators. Based on this context, let us
find out whether the conversation conveys metaphorical language through the
table bellow:
Table 7: Metaphorical language – Peanuts strip 3
No. Utterance Purpose Basic shared of knowledge Implied meaning
(11) Do you think anyone
Everyone want to have the exact location to make sure she will draw an attention
Tell me the
It is quite interesting when a particular number of
From the speech acts classification, it is seen that Frieda is trying to find
out whether the spectators will be able to see her naturally curly hair when she is
d. Charlie Brown and His Speech
As a manager of the team, Charlie Brown should be able to control and
organize what the team should do. How does he actually do his duty? The strip
below might give an answer:
Figure 5: Charlie Brown and his speech – Peanuts strip 4
(Source: The Jakarta Post, April 4, 2008. Copyright of the strip belongs to the United Media. Originally published in April 4, 1961)
In the strip above, we can only see Charlie Brown who a. It looks like he
is talking to himself. My assumption is, he is talking to his team since his
statements are addressed to the team.
Looking at the speech acts classification, below is table of each utterance
and the possible implied meaning:
Table 8: Speech acts – Peanuts strip 4
No Speaker Utterances Speech act Classification Purpose
(17) Charlie
Declarative To cause the team to pay attention (18) Charlie
Brown
We have a long hard season ahead of us!
I’m not offering you an easy task!
In the strip above, I assumed that Charlie Brown is talking in front of her
informing they are going to have a long hard season. When talking about long
hard season, Charlie Brown is actually talking about baseball games since he
plays as the manager of the team.
In the basic shared of knowledge, a manager is a person whose position is
to control and direct the team. With regard to this knowledge, , it is shown that
Charlie’s statement no 17 is to cause the team to listen to what he is going to say.
As a manager of the team, he said to the team that it would not be an easy task ().
He asked his team to sacrifice, work hard and dedication. He emphasized that he
is asking his team to work to the limits of endurance.
When opening his conversation, Charlie Brown seems to ask for an
attention. However, if we look at his position as the manager of the team, he
actually has a power to cause his team to do what he says. In the basic shared of
knowledge, a manager of a sport team has a power to control the training of a
sportsman or team. Hence, Charlie Brown uses his power to cause his team to
listen to what he is about to say (17). Were there a literal statement, would it has
been “Listen to me!”. In the following utterance Charlie Brown states that they
have a hard long season ahead. If we take it literary, this statement aims to inform
that they will have a hard long season ahead. However, supposed the team had
known about it, this statement indirectly aimed to use as a preface or background
to either command or suggest something. Thus, it can bee seen from utterance
(18), that Charlie Brown intendeds to make an effort to approach the season.
For the same basic shared of knowledge, that Charlie Brown is the
manager of the team, the following utterances, (19) may imply Charlie Brown’s
basic shared of knowledge, an offer may be either accepted or rejected. In case of
the strip above, Charlie Brown does not literary offer the team a difficult task, yet
intends to give the team a difficult task.
Meanwhile, Charlie Brown is a character whose role in the cartoon is not
as strong as his position. It is often seen that the other characters when it comes to
argue. Thus, he uses a en expression which shows that he is not giving comment,
yet begging (22). Through this basic shared of knowledge, below is how the
implied meanings are revealed:
Table 8: Metaphorical language – Peanuts strip 4
No. Utterances Purpose Basic Shared of knowledge Implied
meaning directs what the team is doing
listen to what I
From the speech acts classification that are displayed above, it is found out
that Charlie Brown as the manager of the baseball team begs the team to work
hard in order to win the approaching baseball game.
e. Charlie Brown in the First Day of the Game
In the first game day, Charlie did not really eager to be with. The strip
Figure 6: Charlie Brown in the first day of the game – Peanuts strip 5
(Source: The Jakarta Post April 7, 2008. Copyright of the strip belongs to the United Media. Originally published in April 7, 1961)
From the strip above, it is seen that the setting of time is in the morning of
the first game day. Charlie Brown was still lying down on his bed in his sleeping
room and did not really want to get up. In the beginning Charlie Brown talked to
himself but then in the end of the conversation Lucy appeared. To find out what
actually Charlie Brown meant when stating in the strip, we can see it from table 9.
Table 9: Speech acts – Peanuts strip 5
No. Speaker Utterance Speech act Classification Purpose (23) Charlie
Representatives To show that he feels he is not a good manager.
Representatives To show his feeling of failure as a team leader
Representatives To show that he believes he has failed as a manager
Expressive To show he feels sad that none listens to him (29) Charlie
Brown
They all hate me Indirect speech
Expressive To show he feels sad that none likes him as a
Commissives To show that he intends to stay in bed
(31) Charlie Brown
May be it’ll rain Indirect speech
Commissive To commit for not attending the game
Directives To show he expects no one will come.
Commissivive To show that he intends to just stay in bed
(34) Lucy Okay Manager! Raise and shine!
Indirect speech
The table of speech act classification above shows that Charlie Brown
wished if it were not the game day. Charlie Brown’s first statement saying “Good
grief! It’s morning already!” does not mean he was telling a particular time of a
day. If we look at the utterances following it seen in (24), we can see that he
actually expressed his dislike toward the day of the game day had come. The
reason why he regretted it was morning or the first game day was a feeling that he
was not a good manager and he had felt of failure in controlling the team. As a
manager of the team he felt no one listen to what he had said. In the basic shared
of knowledge, the point to be a manager of a sport team is to control and lead the
team, and on the other hand the team listens to the manager. If the team does not
listen to what the manager says, the manager is considered failed. For the reason
of a failure as a manager, Charlie Brown intended to just stay in bed even though
it was already morning. He wished it was raining so that no one would appear in
the game. However, Lucy appeared and commanded him to rise and shine. Even
though she called him out manager, Lucy seemed to have power to cause Charlie
Brown to get up and get the spirit.
Thus I can draw a conclusion that the context of the above strip is that
Charlie Brown wished if it were not the game day. From this context metaphorical
Table 10: Metaphorical language – Peanuts strip 5
From the speech acts classification it is known that Charlie Brown was
actually did not really eager to go to the game. He indeed wished if it were not the
game day.
B. Metaphorical Language in Relation to the Headline News in The Jakarta
Post
Metaphor gives expression which has important influence to meaning and
impact of particular thought. Using comic strip, it is suggested to differ metaphor
