Pragmatic Study of presuppositions in Prabowo Subianto's UN Speech

Abstract

This study investigates the use of presuppositions in President Prabowo Subianto’s speech delivered at the 80th United Nations General Assembly. Language in political discourse functions not only to convey explicit messages but also to construct implicit meanings that influence audience perception. Presupposition, as a pragmatic device, allows speakers to embed assumptions and shared beliefs without stating them directly. This research aims to identify the types of presuppositions employed in the speech and to interpret their pragmatic functions within the context of international political discourse. A qualitative descriptive research design was employed in this study. The data consisted of selected segments from the official transcript of President Prabowo Subianto's speech, obtained from the United Nations' official sources. The analysis was guided by Yule's (1996) theory of presupposition, which categorizes presuppositions into existential, factive, lexical, structural, and non-factive types. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis involving data condensation, data display,and conclusion drawing.T he findings reveal that President Prabowo strategically employed various types of presuppositions to convey implicit messages related tom oral responsibility, global challenges, humanitarian values, andI ndonesia's diplomatic positioning. Existential and factive presuppositionsw ere the most dominant, emphasizing the existence of global issues ands hared realities. Lexical, structural, and non-factive presuppositionsf urther reinforced persuasive and motivational elements within thes peech. Overall, presuppositions functioned as effective rhetorical tools tos trengthen persuasion, construct shared understanding, and subtly guidea udience interpretation in international political communication.