An Analysis of Presupposition Used in Oedipus Rex

Abstract

Presupposition is one of the topics in semantic study and Pragmatics. In this paper the researcher is more concerned about the discussion presupposition in pragmatic studies, where presupposition is in one's mind about everything that exists in the world. The researcher expected that this paper can be useful in learning as an additional science in learning pragmatics, especially presupposition. The researcher used descriptive research method, because all the data comes from the novel and the data is reviewed based on theory of presuppositions. Presuppositions in Oedipus Rex are taken from the conversations of characters in the novel, and then analyzed by the theory proposed by Yule (1996) about the type Presuppositions to find out what types are often used in Oedipus Rex. The researcher has found five types of presupposition which applied in Oedipus Rex, they are 14 existential (27%), 5 lexical (9%), 16 structural (30%), 8factive (15%) and 10 counterfactual (19%). The type of presupposition mostly used is Structural Presupposition and the less is Factive Presupposition because structural is the assumption that part of a structure contains information being treated as already known and its mark by WH-questions. In Oedipus Rex, most of the conversation and utterances are stated by the form of WH-questions