Background of the Study

ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Human being and communication are two related items. Human being as social creature can’t live alone without another human. Then, he needs communication to interact with other meanwhile communication only can take place if the people are involved in. “Communication itself means a process by which information is exchange between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior”. 1 Toward the definition, the writer assumes at least two summaries. First, communication is a process by which information is exchanged between individuals. Then, there are two persons or more involved in communication. The person who utters his idea or information is called the speaker and the person who hears the speaker’s idea or information is called the hearer. Second, communication between individuals can be done through some media such a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior. It can be suggested that the media are language, gestures, the visual arts - painting and sculpture, etc. Although there are some media can be used, but language is the primary and most sophisticated media means in communication between people because the people can’t communicate in any real sense without language. Thus, the essence of language which argued by the Danish linguistics philosopher Otto Jespersen in his book Philosophy of Grammar that is a human activity -activity in the part of one 1 A. Chaedar Alwasilah, Sosiologi Bahasa Bandung:Angkasa, 1986, p. 9. x individual to make him self understood by another and activity on the part of that other to understand what was in the mind of the first. 2 Therefore, when the people use language, they are obviously engaged in communication activity to make themselves understood by another and hope the other understand the idea they want to inform. To have the communication gone well, the speaker and the hearer have to expect that there are principles in communication which manage their act, their using language, and the interpretation of their act and speech. They are responsible for their act and for the violation to the communication principles 3 . Therefore, they have to adhere to the rule of communication, which are clarity, consciousness, and directness, by giving their contribution to communication as informative and effective as it is required and going in line with the context. Communication, furthermore, requires them to cooperate because the communication only comes alive in mutually accepted and pragmatically determined context. For the example, the person asks for help by uttering “help” and “can you help me?” for different purpose and condition. He tends to utter “help” if he is in an emergency condition meanwhile he tends to utter “can you help me? ” if he is not in an emergency situation. The situation will be strange if the burned house victim asks for help by uttering “help” and the person whose pen fell asks for help by uttering “can you help me?” in the same intonation with the burned house victim. 2 Jan Renkema, Discorse Studies. Amsterdam: John Benyamins Publishing Company, 1993, p. 8. 3 I Dewa Putu Wijana, Dasar-dasar Pragmatik Yogyakarta : Andi offset, 1996, p. 45 xi Toward the explanation above, then, it can be assumed that there is underlying principle which determines the way in which language is used with a maximum efficiency and effectiveness. The principle is called cooperative principle introduced by Herbert Paul Grice who classified it into four maxims to have the communication gone well 4 . If the speaker violates to the cooperative principle, it can be suggested that there are some possibilities why he violates it, such as he aims to imply his utterances and conveys more than literal meaning which is called implicature, or he is not cooperative, or he tries to create humor. Humor is any creative works of human intended to lead the comic effect. Humor is friendly, insulting, aggressive, cheerful, and also fun. The work of humor is not easy because sometimes it will be useless if it is performed before the people don’t have any sense of humor or doesn’t recognize at least one of the universal character of humor such absurdity, superiority, liberation, incongruity, etc. The creative work of humor can be a picture, discourse, or other created materials produced to make laughter for those catching them through the senses, such as comic, cartoon, poetry, drama, and dialog of film. 5 One of the dialog of film which can be involved to the creative works of humor is dialog of Kung Fu Panda movie. Kung Fu Panda movie is a 2008 American animated comedy released on 6 June 2008 and produced by DreamWorks Animations studio. Initially, the idea for the film was to make it a parody and spoof, but John Stevenson, the co-director of Kung Fu Panda movie, 4 Ibid, p. 25. 5 George E. Riday, The anatomy of Humor. Redlands: The Fortnightly Club. Accessed on November 22, 2008. www.redlandsfortnightly.orgridayhum.htm. xii was not particularly keen on the idea so instead chose the direction of simplistic comedy. 6 Kung fu panda has been nominated in some awards such in golden trailer award for best animation, teen choice award for choice summer movie: comedy, and win in Annie Award for ten categories that one of them is best script. 7 Kung Fu Panda opened in 4,114 theaters resulting in the number one position at the box office. The film held its worldwide premiere at the 61st Cannes Film Festival, where it received massive and sustained applause at the end of the films screening. Since its release, Kung Fu Panda has received very positive and favorable reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 88 of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 156 reviews. The film has an approval rating of 74 from a select group of critics and an approval rating of 92 from users of the site and The Chicago Tribune called the film one of the few comedies of 2008 in any style or genre that knows what its doing. 8 Opened in many theaters, Kung Fu Panda movie is easier to be analyzed because it presented universal humor which every one can has the sense of it. Toward the explanation above, the writer is interested in analyzing the violation of cooperative principle in dialog of Kung Fu Panda movie, the incongruous homur in those dialog, and the implicature of those dialog. The writer is interested to analyze this topic because there are many humor researches based 6 Tom O’ neil, Kung Fu Panda, March 19, 2009. http:goldderby.latimes.comawards_ goldderby200901kung-fu-panda-d.html . 7 Dominic Von Ruedemann, Kung Fu Panda dropkicks Wall-E at Annie Awards’, suite101, March 19, 2009. http:hollywoodanimatedfilms.suite101.comarticle.cfmkung_fu_ panda_wins_annie_ award, p. 2. 8 Pete Hammond, Reception and performance of Kung Fu Panda, March 19, 2009. http:goldderby.latimes.comawards_goldderby200901kung-fu-panda-d.html. xiii on psychology theory meanwhile humor actually can be analyzed through its language using semantics or pragmatics theory.

B. Focus of the Study