DOWNTONERS IN JOURNALISTIC ARTICLES

The paper discusses the exploitation of euphemistic expressions in printed media to soften words or phrases considered to be vulgar or profane or negative. Several texts from The Jakarta Post were taken as the data source and all expressions in such texts downtoning the other negative ones were taken as the data for the analysis. The results show that the softening expressions in the forms of euphemistic expressions are created through two types of process, namely semantic shift and metaphorical transfer. Meanwhile, the motive behind the usage of the expressions is only one,  i.e. because of the fear of causing psychic pain to the other participant(s). Having  seen the types of and the motive behind of the euphemistic expressions exploited in  journalistic articles, the writer as well as the readers of such texts can expectedly  understand the message accommodated by the texts easily. Keywords: downtoner, euphemism, expressions, journalism, texts.