THE FLOUTING OF CONVERSATIONAL MAXIMS
BY THE MAIN CHARACTERS
IN TITANIC MOVIE
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION1.1 The Background of the Study
Language is a system to transfer and to inform something through a communication. People usually use language to inform, to express their idea, and to build up their social relationship so that language is important thing for human being to maintain their life. Besides, language is related to communication, and communication is, among other, speaking which is done by having a conversation. Conversation needs someone to be a speaker and a hearer. They have to be cooperative and have contribution or message, which can be understood by a listener/hearer in order that the communication success.
Based on Grice (1975), people will have a successful conversation if they fulfill the Cooperative Principles that are related in the four maxims of conversation. The four maxims are Maxim of Quantity, Maxim of Quality, Maxim of Relevance, and Maxim of Manner. These principles can make the conversation work effectively and run smoothly.
On the other hand, people sometimes speak without fulfilling the maxims. They flout them because they have certain reasons. For example, a child is lying about his/her bad mark in school in order to avoid the punishment from his/her parents. Here, a child flouts the maxim of quality, which requires him/her to say something that is untrue or false. Another example, Andy meets his friend whom dislikes, and his friend makes a conversation firstly, such as “how are you?” nevertheless, Andy does not like him/ her, so he answers the question like “oh the weather is not good today” here, this answer is not hoped by a listener. Clearly, Andy does not want to give a good respond to the speaker. So he changes the topic. These situations already proved that Andy flouted his conversation because of some reasons even though the flouting of maxim can cause the conversational unsuccessful.
The consequence flouting of maxim can be seen on the occurrence of understanding or misunderstanding of the listener through verbal or nonverbal clues refer to either writer or spoken language. Nevertheless, nonverbal clues are not written in spoken, they are eyes expression, body language, touching, voice. For example, A goes to restaurant, and the waiter offers him/her either coffee or tea. Yet, he/she gives clues by waving his/her hand. This message means that A wants to drink neither coffee nor tea. In this case, A does not speak, but he/she has already given a signal to the waiter. Automatically, the waiter understands that his/ her customer does not need any drinks. Second example, Aiko is Japanese. He is visiting Australia. He can speak English fluently. Then, he goes to a bookstore, and he buys some books. He asks the bookkeeper the total of them. Both of the clues are types of human understanding communication. “how much are all of them?” Aiko asked. Then, the bookkeeper said “all of them are one thousand and two hundred dollars”. In this case, Aiko understand what the bookkeeper said because she/he is giving verbal communication. Both of them are the types of human understanding communication.
Titanic is not only great in terms of action, effects, and visuals, but it also provides excellent commentary on the issue of a dramatic story.
James Cameron, who is director of Titanic, mixed between true story and romantic fiction. Titanic has become an enormously popular movie catching the world’s imagination in 1997 and up to now. When the writer was watching this film, he noticed that there were many maxims flouted in their conversation. Besides, the romantic of Jack and Rose many people have a deep impression especially in their utterances. Because of that particular reason , the writer is interested in analyzing their utterances.
To sum up, with regard that in reality Cooperative Principles can be flouted in daily conversations. Titanic is a famous movie whose two leading characters have given deep impression to the viewers. Then , misunderstanding may occur when a maxim is flouted and given non verbal clues. Therefore, the writer is interested in doing “ The Flouting of Conversational Maxims by the Main Characters in Titanic movie”.
1.2 The Statement of the Problem
In conducting the study, the writer wants to finds out whether flouting of maxim can make the communication unsucesfull. To find out the problem, the writer will formulate three research questions.
What types of maxims are flouted by Jack and Rose?
What are the reasons of the flouts of maxims?
what are the consequences of the flouting?
1.3 The Purpose of the Study
By the research questions in the statements of the problem, the writer hopes that she can find out the types of maxims which are flouted by the main characters. She also wants to learn why the main characters flouted the maxims. Finally, she wants to find out the consequences of the flouting, in lieu of the presence of misunderstanding in the conversation.
1.4 The Significance of the Study
Hopefully, this study help the readers understand about Grice’s maxim. They may learn about the flouting of maxims through this study, and the consequences that may exist. Besides, readers can know the probable reasons why the maxims are flouted. He hopes that this study can give them inspirations as their further study in this field.
1.5 The Scope and Limitation
This study concerns with Discourse Analysis. The writer only analyses the main characters’ conversation. Since he only analyses the main characters’ conversation which contains the flouted maxims. In analyzing, the writer uses Paul Grice’s theory of conversational maxims as her basic theory to analyze the conversation. In addition, the writer wants to find out the reasons why the main characters flouted the maxims for answering the research question number two. He gets the answer based on the addressee’s responds and facial expression when she/he is speaking to the addressor. Then, as to answer research question number three, to see the consequence, namely the occurrence of the misunderstanding, the writer analyzed both the verbal and non verbal clues of the addressee such as body language, face expression, voice and clothing.
1.6 The Definition of Key Term
- Conversational maxims : General principles to underline the efficient use of language and which together identify general cooperative principles (Crystal. D, 1977)
- Cooperative Principles: the cooperation between speakers in using the maxims (Kridalaksana. H, 1993)
- Maxim: a sentence giving a general truth or rule of conduct (Soanes. C, 2001)
- Nonverbal: not using words (Summers. D, 1992)
- To flout Maxim: to deliberately disobey some maxims with the intention that hearer recognizes that the speaker has some purposes in his / her flouting. In other words, the hearer assumes that while the speaker is disobeying a maxim, she is still fulfilling the other three maxims. From which the purpose is recognized (Attardo. S, 1993)
- Utterance: What is said by any one person before or after another person begins to speak (Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics, 1985)
- Verbal: Spoken, not written (Summers. D, 1992)
1.7 The Organization of the Study
The writer organizes his study in the following order. First, he begins chapter one with the introduction. It consist of the background of the study, the statement of the problem, the research objective, the scope and limitation, the definition of key term, the significance, and the organization. Chapter two is review of related literature. The writer will write the theory of Grice Maxims as their basic knowledge in his research. Furthermore, chapter three is methodology, to prepare how to answer his research question. Chapter four, the finding describes detail the result of his research based on the previous chapter. Finally, chapter five, conclusion, summarizes all of his research from the beginning up to ending.
