SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF THE SIMPSONS MEMES IN MEMES.COM INSTAGRAM A THESIS BY VIVIAN SAVENIA SUMEISEY REG. NO.150705005 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA MEDAN 2019 UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA AUTHOR’S DECLARATION I, VIVIAN SAVENIA SUMEISEY DECLARE THAT I AM THE SOLE AUTHOR OF THIS THESIS EXCEPT WHERE REFERENCE IS MADE IN THE TEXT OF THIS THESIS. THIS THESIS CONTAINS NO MATERIAL PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE OR EXTRACTED IN WHOLE OR IN PART FROM A THESIS BY WHICH I HAVE QUALIFIED FOR OR AWARDED ANOTHER DEGREE. NO OTHER PERSON’S WORK HAS BEEN USED WITHOUT DUE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IN THE MAIN TEXT OF THIS THESIS. THIS THESIS HAS NOT BEEN SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF ANOTHER DEGREE IN ANY TERTIARY EDUCATION. Signed : Date : February 1, 2019 v UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA COPYRIGHT DECLARATION NAME : VIVIAN SAVENIA SUMEISEY TITLE OF THESIS :SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF THE SIMPSONS MEMES IN MEMES.COM INSTAGRAM QUALIFICATION : S1/SARJANA SASTRA DEPARTMENT : ENGLISH I AM WILLING THAT MY THESIS SHOULD BE AVAILABLE FOR REPRODUCTION AT THE DISCRETION OF THE LIBRARIAN OF DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA ON THE UNDERSTANDING THAT USERS ARE MADE AWARE OF THEIR OBLIGATION UNDER THE LAW OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA. Signed : Date : February 1, 2019 vi UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA ACKNOWLEDGMENT My greatest gratitude is to God for His grace, love and blessings in every step of my life especially in this thesis writing. I may reach up this point because Lord has blessed and kept me in every page of my life. “The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.” (Proverbs 10:22) In the process of completing this thesis, a lot of advices, suggestions, comments and supports have been contributed by many people. It is not possible to mention all of them, but some deserve to be written. My very special gratitude is for my beloved parents, Sam Senduk Sumeisey and Nurmala Dewi for their never ending prayer, support, care and love to encourage me to learn and work hard in order to finish my study in Faculty of Cultural Studies, University of North Sumatera. Thank you for my sister, Yosevin Yovenia and my brother, Graciello Bennedicto for their prayer, encouragement and suggestion in my thesis writing. I love you all. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis supervisor, RahmadsyahRangkuti, M.A., Ph.D., who is also the Secretary of English Department, for his great care, patience, advices and also his precious time in guiding me in the process of preparing this thesis until it is finished. May God give you long life in your right hand and in your left hand are riches and honor. God bless you. I would like to thank my co-supervisor, Dr. RohaniGanie, M.Hum. for her kindness, patience and advices to help me to write and finish this thesis. Thank you for the prayer when I was a new student for wishing me to earn cum laude. Wishing you always stay healthy and happy. God bless you. My gratitude also goes to the Head and Secretary of English Department, Prof. T. SilvanaSinar, M.A., Ph.D. and all of the lecturers and the staff of English Department for the knowledge, experiences, facilities and opportunities given during my study in this faculty. I would also like to give much appreciation to Mr. Sukirno (Bang Kibot) as the administrator of English Department who has helped me much. vii UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA I dedicate my deepest gratitude to my beloved friends, Annisa Siti Harlizanti Pulungan ,Sinta Putri Amelia Ginting and Yolla Yaumul Faroh who have beenbeing such a great friend in going through the lecture period.Thanks for your support and love.I also would like to give my special thanks for my best partner, Jeffry Kurniawan, S.Ak. for being my supporting system. Thank you for accompanying me in every step of my thesis making. My greatest gratitude to all of English Literature students especially for the students of class A who always support me during the process of writing this thesis. Thank you for all the support you have shown me, especially during the college process. Finally, I would like to thank everybody who is important to the successful of this research. This research is far from perfect, but it is expected that will be useful for all the readers. Therefore, the constructive thought full suggestions and criticism are very welcome. Medan, February 1, 2019 Vivian Savenia Sumeisey Reg. No. 150705005 viii UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA ABSTRACT Meme is one of the ways in communicating with others through social media; one of them is the Simpsons Meme. The Simpsons Meme is category of meme with picture and caption on it. By using visual semiotic analysis, this research aimed to identify the sign found in the Simpsons memes and how it is interpreted. The Simpsons memes as the data of the research is collected by using qualitative audio and visual materials from memes.com instagram as the source of the data. It is fourteen data analyzed by using visual semiotic with the theory proposed by Charles Sanders Peirce. This research use qualitative data analysis as the method of the study. Each data of this research consists of the sign and meaning. The signs identified based on Charles Sanders Peirce triadic sign (Representamen, Object and Interpretant) and there are three steps in interpreting the sign namely, non-verbal communication legisign, framing techniques and communicative act. Keywords: The Simpsons Memes, Visual Semiotic, Peirce, Sign, Meaning ix UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA ABSTRAK Meme adalah salah satu cara dalam berkomunikasi dengan yang lain di sosial media; salah satunya meme the Simpsons . Meme the Simpsons adalah kategori meme dengan gambar dan keterangan di dalamnya. Dengan menggunakan analisis semiotika visual, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi tanda yang terdapat dalam meme the Simpsons dan bagaimana tanda itu diinterpretasikan. Meme the Simpsons sebagai data penelitian diambil dengan menggunakan materi audio dan visual kualitatif dari instagram memes.com sebagai sumber data. Empat belas data dianalisis menggunakan semiotic visual dengan teori yang dikemukakan oleh Charles Sanders Peirce. Penelitian ini menggunakan analisis kualitatif sebagai metode penelitian. Setiap data penelitian ini terdiri dari tanda dan arti. Tanda diidentifikasi berdasarkan triadic sign dari Charles Sanders Peirce (Representamen, Object and Interpretant) dan ada tiga langkah dalam menginterpretasikan tanda tersebut, yaitu non-verbal communication legisign, framing techniques and communicative act. Kata Kunci: Meme the Simpsons, Semiotika Visual, Peirce, Tanda, Arti x UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA TABLE OF CONTENT AUTHOR’S DECLARATION ............................................................................... v COPYRIGHT DECLARATION .......................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................... vii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ ix ABSTRAK ............................................................................................................... x TABLE OF CONTENT ......................................................................................... xi LIST OF TABLE .................................................................................................. xiii LIST OF FIGURE ................................................................................................ xiv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study ........................................................... 1 1.2 Problems of the Study ................................................................ 9 1.3 Objectives of the Study ................................................................. 9 1.4 Scope of the Study .................................................................... 10 1.5 Significances of the Study ........................................................ 10 1.5.1 Theoretical Significance ........................................................... 10 1.5.2 Practical Significance ............................................................... 10 CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Research Design .......................................................................... 11 2.1.1 Semiotics in Brief ..................................................................... 11 2.1.2 The Founder of Semiotic Analysis ........................................... 12 2.1.2.1 Ferdinand De Saussure Dyadic Theory ................................. 12 2.1.2.2 Charles Sanders Peirce Triadic Theory ................................. 13 2.2 Semiotics and Visual Semiotic .................................................... 18 2.3 Review of Related Studies ........................................................... 20 2.4 Theoretical framework ................................................................. 22 CHAPTER III RESEARCH OF METHODOLOGY 3.1 Method of the Study .................................................................. 24 3.2 Data and Source of Data ............................................................ 24 xi UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA 3.3 Data Collection Method ............................................................. 25 3.4Technique of Data Analysis .......................................................... 26 3.4.1 Data Condensation ...................................................................