Pragmatics Analysis of Presupposition as Found in The Tagline of Horror Movie Posters

Abstract

This research is about pragmatics analysis of presupposition as found in the tagline of horror movie posters. This research aimed to discover presupposition triggers and type of presupposition in the tagline of horror movie posters. In this research, the data were collected by downloading 14 taglines in horror movie posters. Then, the data downloaded were divided according to the presupposition triggers and the types of presuppositions. The data were analyzed using two theories, presupposition triggers by Kartunnen (1973) and Yule’s presupposition types (1996). The result of the analysis shows an argument and a table. The results show that from 42 presupposition triggers found in the tagline of horror movie posters, definite descriptions are the most dominant presupposition triggers. Other presupposition triggers are the change of state verbs, factive verb, and counterfactual conditional. Meanwhile, out of 6 types of presuppositions, there are only four types of presuppositions found in the tagline of horror movie posters: existential presupposition, lexical presupposition, factive presupposition, and counterfactual presupposition.