ABSTRACT
Dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, ketika kita berkomunikasi dengan sesama
dalam percakapan maupun tulisan, tanpa sadar kita mengaplikasikan suatu unsur
bahasa yang disebut metafor. Kita telah mengenal metafor sebagai gaya bahasa
yang digunakan dalam karya sastra seperti puisi. Namun dalam pengertian lain,
metafor dimengerti sebagai sebuah fenomena yang lazim terjadi dalam kehidupan
kita sehari-hari tanpa kita menyadarinya. Ini berarti bahwa kita cenderung
mengartikan setiap peristiwa berdasarkan pengalaman satu peristiwa yang lain.
Pikiran seorang manusia merupakan sebuah sistem yang bekerja untuk memahami
dan membentuk karakteristik dari sebuah konsep. Lalu, konsep tersebut
diterapkan ke dalam konsep yang lain dan akhirnya, tanpa disadari, manusia
mengaplikasikannya ke dalam komunikasi sehari-hari.
Dalam tugas akhir ini, saya membahas fenomena tersebut yang dalam
istilah linguistik dikenal dengan sebutan Kognitif Metafor. Kognitif Metafor
dimengerti sebagai pemahaman kita mengenai arti dari sebuah kata atau kalimat
yang digunakan secara kognitif. Saya membahas bagaimana metafor tersebut
dengan jelas teraplikasi dalam kehidupan sehari-hari lalu bagaimana proses yang
terjadi dalam pikiran manusia untuk mengerti metafor tersebut sehingga ia dapat
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menggunakannya dalam komunikasi dan tentunya tujuan dan maksud apa yang
ingin dicapainya. Saya mengambil beberapa tajuk artikel dari surat kabar The
Jakarta Post sebagai data representatif yang menunjukkan keberadaan metafor
tersebut. Adapun teori yang akan saya aplikasikan dicetuskan oleh dua orang
profesor linguistik yaitu George Lakoff dan Mark Johnson.
Adapun tujuan yang ingin dicapai melalui penulisan tugas akhir yang
bertajuk ” The Application of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s account of
metaphors in the headlines of The Jakarta Post” ini ialah untuk membuat kita
peka bahwa cara kita memahami suatu peristiwa yang terjadi adalah berdasar dari
suatu perisitiwa lain yang telah terjadi. Kita akhirnya memahami bahwa metafor
yang kita kenal adalah suatu fenomena yang tidak sekedar gaya bahasa namun
juga dimengerti sebagai bagian dari kehidupan yang dekat dan berkembang
seiring dengan kehidupan manusia itu sendiri.
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APPENDICES
NO Data Type of Metaphors
1 Big oil firms win new exploration rights Structural Metaphor
2 Refugees plead for help as aid trickles in Container Metaphor
3 Brazil tries to clean up corrupt system Orientational Metaphor
4 Top envoys head to Beijing for talks on North Korea Orientational Metaphor
5 Japan to pour millions into South Sulawesi development Metonymy and Container Metaphor
6 Shariá laws could hurt investment, EU MP's say Personification
7 Chaka Khan: Big hair, big voice…big heart Structural Metaphor
8 Floods put dwindling lakes under the spotlight Personification and Entity Metaphor
9 Banten council seeks review of Jakarta administrative law
Entity Metaphor and Personification 10 India's first woman president savors victory Structural Metaphor
11 Airbus to axe 10,000 jobs in four years under crisis plan Structural Metaphor
12 After 61 years, House's images still tarnished Entity Metaphor and Personification 13 Babies, toddlers given best shot at good health Structural Metaphor
14 Beach resort starts to breathe again Personification
15 Fresh faces for China's Congress Metonymy and Entity Metaphor
16 Trade Ministry enters new world of electronics licensing Container Metaphor
17 No end in sight to China floods Container Metaphor
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
One can obtain information about current issues from a lot of media provided.
Newspapers appear to be one of the mass media that people mostly tend to subscribe to
fulfill their information needs. Moreover, reading newspapers will satisfy people as they
easily gain a lot of information just from one single medium. It is true to state that
language with its element that a journalist often uses can attract readers, even impel
them to read the article of the newspapers.
Metaphors can be one of the choices for the journalist to make eye-catching
headlines and also compose a good article to be read. We are aware that metaphors are
usually used to show something different from the literal meaning and also link them
with a device of poetic expression (Lakoff and Johnson 3).
Nevertheless, two professors of cognitive linguistics at the University of
California, Berkeley, named George Lakoff and Mark Johnson bring a new different
concept to the metaphors. They boost an opinion that metaphors are pervasive in
everyday life, not just in language but also in thought and action.
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Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is
fundamentally metaphorical in nature (Lakoff and Johnson 3).
According to Lakoff and Johnson, the metaphors are the systems formed by
understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. It means that
whether consciously or unconsciously, we tend to impose the character of one concept
onto the element of another concept. Although both concepts are different kinds of
things, we structure, understand, perform, express even talk about the things in one
experience in terms of another concept. As a result, a new concept will emerge
naturally. Thus, the process is called metaphorical concept which indicates a process
which happens without our being normally aware of and can happen pervasively in our
everyday lives. To illustrate this theory, we examine the orientational metaphor Up
and Down. Many people cognitively interpret Up is Good and Down is Less Good,
which is reflected in the sentences: She is feeling down today gives a meaning that she
is feeling sad today, whereas, in the sentence She is feeling up already gives a meaning
she is feeling happy today. The two opposite sides up and down metaphors emerge from
our experience in understanding that the falling posture naturally deals with negative
emotional state such as sadness, depression, unhappiness, whereas, straight posture has
something to do with positive emotional state such as gladness, happiness and
joyfulness.
The metaphors can be built into the conceptual system of the culture in which
we live by. In a metaphorical concept, Time is Money; we find that there are some
cultures where time is not viewed in terms of money. In such a culture, people would
view time differently and experience time differently.
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As it comes from Western and Japanese cultures, linguistic expressions such as
You are wasting my time and You need to budget your time give us an understanding
that people use their everyday experiences with money to conceptualize time.
Language appears to be an evidence on how the metaphors is exist for the
reason that language is a communication based on the same conceptual system (Lakoff
and Johnson 3). To see and understand the metaphors exist, we would find it from the
headlines of the newspapers. The Jakarta Post seems to be a significant newspaper in
Indonesia since it is the only English newspaper. People would look for The Jakarta
Post if they want to gain information in the English language. In this newspaper, we
read and understand about the headlines and also are familiar with the meaning; yet,
without our realizing it, the headlines go through a metaphorical process.
I consider headlines as examples of this kind of metaphors because they are the
first thing for people to consider when they want to buy the newspapers. Furthermore,
newspaper headlines are one of the reflections of what the account of metaphors are
formed. That is why I would like to discuss “The Application of George Lakoff and
Mark Johnson’s account of metaphors in the headlines of The Jakarta Post“ in my
thesis for the purpose of assisting the readers in finding and comprehending the real
meaning behind the metaphors that the journalists want to reveal.
From the explanation above, it is obvious that metaphors do exist in our daily
communication either in daily conversation or particularly in headlines. Therefore, in
writing this thesis, I hope to make people aware that the way they understand their
experiences are precisely metaphorical in nature. The readers should have an awareness
to interpret the meanings behind the metaphors and relate them to Lakoff and Johnson’s
theory that I apply here together with the data analyzed as examples. Finally, the readers
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will be able to study the nature of metaphorical concepts and also gain an understanding
of the metaphorical nature of our activities.
1.2 Statement of the Problems
In this thesis I would like to analyze:
1. Which of the headlines contain Lakoff and Johnson’s account of metaphors?
2. How are the processes of metaphorical concepts formed in the metaphors of The
Jakarta Post?
2. To explain the metaphorical concept that is structured in the metaphors.
3. To understand the journalist’s intention of using the metaphors in the headlines.
1.4 Methods of research
The first step in writing this thesis is that I browse and select headlines of The
Jakarta Post which contain the metaphors. I also read the article to find the relation
between the headlines and the contents. Then I discuss the headlines by applying Lakoff
and Johnson’s account of metaphors. Finally I conclude my discussion.
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1.5 Organization of the Thesis
This thesis consists of four chapters. The first chapter is the Introduction,
containing the Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the
Study, Method of Research and Organization of the Thesis. The second chapter contains
the Theoretical Framework. Then the third chapter is The Application of George Lakoff
and Mark Johnson’s account of metaphors in the headlines of The Jakarta Post. The
fourth chapter contains the conclusion of the thesis. The thesis ends with Bibliography
and Appendices.
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, I would like to draw some conclusions related to both the
theories and data. First of all, I discover that it is proven there are cognitive metaphors
in the media like newspaper as it is reflected in most of the headlines. We are living by
the metaphors as we do in our culture. We tend not to view them as metaphors at all as
we use them in lives without ever noticing them. Having analyzed the data, the
metaphors applied in the newspaper of Jakarta Post published in months of November
2006, March 2007 and July 2007 covers Pragmatics and Cognitive Semantics as its
linguistics fields. Cognitive semantics comprise of some categories of metaphors. They
are Orientational Metaphors, Structural Metaphors, Container Metaphors,
Metonymy, and Ontological Metaphors which consists of Entity and Substance Metaphors and Personification.
I find that our experiences and activities that are structured by the metaphorical
concept turn out to create similarities. It happens on account of inducing one concept to
another concept. For example, it is based from the data, we find Business is a Game as
structural metaphors, where people experience the
activity of business and games, and the rule of those actions are perceived as winning or
losing. Hence, this metaphor merely emphasizes on the experiential similarity.
An experience is accurately conceptual and is defined in terms of another
experience. Both domains of experiences are established by our connections with
natural kinds of experiences such as our bodies, physical environment and even with
other people. Orientational metaphors as a result of our connection with our body relate
to spatial orientation. Ontological metaphors and container metaphors are as the results
of our connection with physical environment both objects and our everyday activity
surrounds us. Besides, structural metaphors can be as a result of people relationship with
other people within culture, for example, a value “Time is Money” and “Significant is
Big” that are grounded in cultures.
The using of account of metaphors have different purposes. First, metonymy is
understood to be a concept as a part of our ordinary lives where we are using one entity
to refer to another related to it. It is inferred from our experiences when to indicate a
person; we tend to know first what and how the person’s face looks like. Therefore,
when the journalist wants to reveal something wholly, he represents it with a part from
its whole. By using metonymy, it would make us easy to communicate to another people
without giving a long description to refer to the complete entity. Moreover, it is to make
the readers easy to interpret the journalist’s intention concerning the name, product or
organization because of certain names applied has already been familiar to us. For
example, Hollywood produces a new film this month, we can directly refer to it to artists
since we know that Hollywood is a place which is purely popular as the center of
entertainment worldwide.
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Aside from it, I find the purpose of using other accounts of metaphor such as
orientational metaphors, ontological metaphors, container metaphors and structural
metaphors. By understanding one kind of thing in terms of another thing, we have a
tendency to transfer the basic concept of a thing. A certain concept is expressed in our
language to emphasize on the points which indicate the same sense. Example from the
data is After 61 years, House’s images still tarnished. The journalist emphasizes on the
sense of dirtiness by imposing “tarnish” on accounts of having the experience with it
then seeing correlation between “images” (good name) and “taints”. In addition, we
typically view something dirty is tarnished; accordingly, we unconsciously transfer this
concept to understand “images” so people can directly see the points in both concepts.
In general, I will find that the journalists use the accounts of metaphors in their
writing headlines to emphasize on the situation so that the readers can find the relation
between the headlines and the articles also interpret the meaning that the journalists
want to reveal.
We cannot primarily find the concept of metaphor from a standard account of
meaning such as a dictionary. A dictionary deliberately can give the common and
normal meaning based on our accepting the thing that is inherent in the concept itself.
Yet, it cannot present the meaning about the way in which we understand our experience
in terms of metaphors. We take Money is Water metaphorical concept, when we look
up the meaning of “money” in a dictionary, we find that it tells us about to borrow, save,
spend and earn money, but it does not mention about the way we understand “money” in
terms of “water”. We would not find “pouring” in the sense of money because
“pouring” comes from how we understand our experience “money” and “water”. That is
why such a concern serves a different concept of definition from the dictionary.
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The accounts of metaphor reflected in sentences are assumed to be true
upon our understanding. Truth is understood as “experiential” and this means that
people finds the idea of truth in a conceptual system that is defined by metaphor and
next consider it to be true. For example, in the headline Airbus to axe 10,000 jobs in
four years under crisis plan, we view the activity to axe jobs to be true since we
transfer experience of axing the solid object, which is typically we take to be true onto
it. Then we see similarity between them. While the objectivists view the activity of
axing is only matched to explain the activity of cutting a solid object, not an abstract
thing like job.
Finally, my last conclusion is that Lakoff and Johnson’s invention on
cognitive metaphor can actually enrich our knowledge about how to understand the
complex meaning in our world.
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II Primary Text
Hornby A S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th
Edition . New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Lakoff G, Johnson M. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.
Yule. George. Pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
