ISSN: 2302-920X

Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud

Vol 17.1 Oktober 2016: 224 - 228

Verbal And Nonverbal Signs In Early Pages Of Manga Deathnote

Putu Cahya Jaya Dirga1*, Ni Wayan Sukarini2, I Gede Budiasa3 123English Department Faculty Of Arts, Udayana University 1[cahyaj@gmail.com] 2[wayansukarini@yahoo.co.id] 3[budiasa.igede@yahoo.com] *Corresponding Author

Abstrak

Tanda dapat dibagi menjadi tanda verbal dan tanda non verbal. Tanda nonverbal meliputi gambar dan tanda verbal meliputi kata. Penerapan kedua tanda ini dapat ditemukan dalam manga atau komik. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui singifier dan signified dari tanda verbal dan tanda nonverbal dan hubungan kedua tanda tersebut dalam membentuk rangkaian cerita dalam manga. Signifier dan signified dari tanda verbal dan nonverbal dianalisa dengan menggunakan teori dari Saussure yang dikutip dari Chandler (2001), dan hubungan kedua tanda tersebut dalam membentuk cerita dianalisa menggunakan teori dari McCloud (1993). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa tanda nonverbal mengindikasikan latar dan tindakan karakter dan tanda verbal mengindikasikan aspek yang tidak dicakup oleh tanda nonverbal. Kedua tanda dalam membentuk rangkaian cerita menerapkan lima jenis hubungan,yaitu wordspecific, picture-specific, additive, parallel, dan interdependent.

Kata kunci: tanda verbal, tanda nonverbal, manga, semiotics

  • 1.    Background of Study

Signs can be found in many aspects of life that represent certain concept or meaning. Sign is not limited only to alphabet, but also symbol and picture. The study about sign and its meaning is known as Semiotics. Saussure (as cited in Chandler, 2001) defines semiotics as the science of signs in society. Semiotics focuses on something that can be considered as a sign. The sign can also be divided into verbal and nonverbal sign. Verbal sign involves words while nonverbal sign includes pictures. Therefore, sign

covers a wide scope of category ranging from a simple sign (symbol) to a more complicated one such as picture.

The application of verbal and nonverbal signs is also found in manga. Manga is a type comic book originally developed in Japan that is characterized by stylized art. The picture in manga is developed into more complex one and closely resemble the features of real world, including the illustration of the human (shape, gesture, expression), and the environment (landscape, architecture, animal, plant). The non verbal sign is represented by the picture or the drawing, and the verbal sign is indicated by the textual dialog or description of the setting. The meaning in the manga focuses on how the verbal and non verbal signs create an event within the manga because the manga is a story told in picture sequence of events. Therefore, it is important to understand the event to obtain the meaning.

  • 2.    Problems of Study

The problems can be formulated as follows:

  • 1)    What are the signifier and the signified of non verbal signs and verbal signs in Manga Deathnote?

  • 2)    What is the relation between the verbal and non verbal signs to create meaningful event in Manga Deathnote?

  • 3.    Aims of Study

The aims of this study are:

  • 1)    To explain the signifier and the signified of the non verbal signs and verbal signs depicted in Manga Deathnote

  • 2)    To analyze the relation between verbal and non verbal signs to create meaningful event in Manga Deathnote.

  • 4.    Research Method

The data used in this study was taken from manga entitled Deathnote written by Tsugumi Ohba and published in 2004. The manga was used because the study about

nonverbal and verbal signs in manga has not been conducted before. It consists of simple and interesting combination of verbal and nonverbal signs to create events in manga.

This study is library research. The technique of collecting data is taking notes. The technique followed several steps. First, the Manga Deathnote was downloaded to obtain the softcopy data from the internet. Second, reading the Manga to know the general story of the manga. Then, a chapter was chosen. This study used five pages from chapter one because the data is homogeny, consisting of text and pictures. Therefore, five pages are considered sufficient to represent the whole chapters. Then, taking notes of the verbal and non verbal signs found in the chosen chapter.

This study used qualitative descriptive method to analyze the data. The theories used are theory of semiotics from Saussure and theory of relationships in comic from McCloud. The verbal and nonverbal signs were analyzed by Saussure’s semiotic theory to find out the signifiers and signified of the verbal and non verbal signs. Then, theory of relationship in comic proposed by McCloud was applied to analyze the relation between the nonverbal and verbal signs in creating a meaningful event in the manga.

  • 5.    Result and Discussion

  • 1.1    Signifier and Signified of Verbal and Nonverbal Signs in Early Pages of Manga Deathnote

The nonverbal signs depicted in the manga are primarily signifying character’s motion and settings, mainly setting of place. These signs display how the characters’ actions are done, including sitting, walking, and reading, standing up, and resting. The actions are also supported by other nonverbal signs in order to make a comprehensible activity. Other nonverbal signs signify the environment by presenting some pictures of the corresponding setting, thus creating different settings of place such as classroom, house, and bedroom. Verbal signs support the nonverbal signs by signifying some aspects which are not covered by the nonverbal signs, such as character’s identity and the setting of time. The character’s identity is not illustrated by the images, but is described by the words. The identity includes the character’s name and age. This applies to the setting of time, which is also described by the words, not the pictures.

  • 1.2    The Relationship between Verbal and Nonverbal Signs to Create Meaningful Event in Manga Deathnote.

Verbal and nonverbal signs have various types of relationship to coexist within manga. The types of relationships used in the manga are as follows.

  • 1.    Word-Specific

Word-specific combination is the combination between words and pictures in which the pictures do not depict the whole aspect to the readers’ comprehension. The word tells the illustration more specifically than the picture does (McCloud, 1993:153). The example is the presence of the words Yagami Raito, 19 years old (Ohba, 2004:9) which explains specifically about the character’s identity. Thus, it explains more than the picture does.

  • 2.    Picture Specific

Picture-specific combination can be considered the opposite of the word-specific combination. Picture specific is the combination in which the words have fewer roles than the pictures. Words are not completely necessary because the pictures have clearly told the idea or event in comic (McCloud, 1993:153). The example is the presence of some panels which have no word or verbal sign, only showing the picture to tell the idea without involving any words.

  • 3.    Additive

Additive combination is the combination in which the words have the function to amplify or elaborate the meaning pictures and also vice versa (McCloud, 1993:154). The example is the presence of the words Deathnote followed by meaning book of death (Ohba, 2004:10) which gives more elaborate meaning about the illustration of the notebook.

  • 4.    Parallel

In parallel combination, the words and pictures do not have any correlation between each other. They run their course simultaneously without intersection (McCloud, 1993:154). The example is the illustration of a yard along with the presence of word huh? (Ohba, 2004:9). These two aspects stand separately to give two different ideas. Thus, they are not necessarily related.

  • 5.    Interdependent

In interdependent combination, the words and pictures have a balanced role in conveying an idea. In this combination, they are mutually dependent because the words explain the pictures and the pictures describe the words (McCloud, 1993:155). The example is the depiction of the main character’s greeting I’m home which is replied by someone saying welcome back (Ohba, 2004:13). Even though the one who gives replies is not shown, the reader can understand that there exists another character aside the main character by looking at the pictures and the words. Thus, both words and pictures are dependent.

  • 6.    Conclusion

It can be concluded the nonverbal signs depicted in the manga are primarily signifying character’s motion and settings and the verbal signs support the nonverbal signs by signifying some aspects which are not covered by the nonverbal signs. The relationship between verbal and nonverbal signs is an important factor to create a meaningful event in the manga. Both verbal and nonverbal signs have various types of relationship; Words-specific, Picture-specific, Additive, Parallel, and Interdependent combination.

  • 7.    Bibliography

Chandler, Daniel. 2001. Semiotics for Beginners. (Retrieved in April 4, 2015, from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html).

McCloud, Scott. 1993. Understanding Comics. (Retrieved in April 5, 2015, from http://www.jessethompsonart.com/artpage/Pre_C_drawing_Video_files/Understan ding%20Comics%20(The%20Invisible%20Art)%20By%20Scott%20McCloud.pd f).

Saussure, Ferdinand de. 1915. Course in General Linguistic. McGraw-Hill Book

Company: New York.

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