THE INVESTIGATION OF LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS FOUND IN LINE WEBTOON COMIC ENTITLED “SAVE ME”

This research aimed to investigate language functions and the most dominant
language function category in the LINE Webtoon comic entitled “Save Me.” The
language functions analyzed in this research were the utterances by the central
character namely as Kim Seokjin. This research used a descriptive quantitative
method. The data sources were utterances in the LINE Webtoon comic, "Save
Me,” which was taken using the documentation method. The number of the
utterances analyzed in this comic was 116. The data were analyzed using the
taxonomy of Guy Cook namely emotive function, directive function, phatic
function, poetic function, referential function, metalinguistic function, and
contextual function. The results showed five language functions in the LINE
Webtoon comic entitled “Save Me” namely emotive function, directive function
phatic function, referential function, and metalinguistic function. Moreover, the
most dominant one was the referential function. In conclusion, the central
character of this comic uses interactive communication. The central character
expresses utterances orally without using sign language. It makes the
communication in the story more interactive and communicative. Further research
is suggested to investigate language functions used by all characters in the comic.
Keywords: comic, language functions, LINE Webtoon comic, the central
character.