VIOLATION OF CONVERSATIONAL MAXIMS IN THE AVENGERS MOVIE.
VIOLATION OF CONVERSATIONAL MAXIMS IN
THE AVENGERS MOVIE
A THESIS
Submitted as the Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
By:
DAVID HAMONANGAN SIHITE
Registration Number 2113220004
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTEMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2015
DECLARATION
I have familiarized myself with the University’s Policy on Academic Integrity.
Except where appropriately acknowledged, this thesis is my own work, has been
expressed in my own words and has not previously been submitted for
assessment.
I understand that his paper may be screened electronically or otherwise for
plagiarism.
Medan,
September 2015
David Hamonangan Sihite
NIM. 2113220004
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Great thanks and praise to the Almighty God who has blessed and given
the ability to the writer to complete his thesis as the partial fulfillment of the
requirements for degree of Sarjana Sastra at the English and Literature
Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and the
help of several individuals who always contributed and extended their valuable
assistances in the preparation and completion of this thesis. The writer’s special
appreciation goes to:
Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., the Rector of State University of
Medan.
State University of Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean Faculty of Language and Arts,
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature
Department, Dra. Meisuri, MA., the Secretary of English and Literature
Department, Syamsul Bahri, S.S., M.Hum., the Head of English
Literature Program and Nora Ronita Dewi, S.Pd., S.S., M.Hum., the
Head of English Education Program, Faculty of Languages and Arts,
State University of Medan.
Dra. Sri Juriaty Ownie, M.A., as his Thesis Supervisor.
Drs. Lidiman Sahat Martua Sinaga, M.Hum., as his Academic
Supervisor and Thesis Examiner, Dr. Rahmad Husein, M.Ed., and Neni
Afrida Sari Harapan, S.Pd., M.Hum as his Thesis Examiners.
All Lecturers of English and Literature Department for the lessons,
advices, and useful knowledge.
Eis Sri Wahyuni, M.Pd., as the Administration Staff of English
Department for helping the writer in preparing all the fulfillment in
conducting this thesis.
Beloved parents, S. Sihite and D. Sinaga for the patience, affection,
prayer, financial support and taught the writer many worth things in
ii
facing the life. Thanks also given to his brothers and sister for all their
supports.
All his beloved friends in English Literature A and B 2011, thanks for
their support, kindness, great love and care to the writer, also warm
hearted encouragement friendship in finishing this thesis to the writer.
The people who direct or indirectly contributed in this study, your
kindness means a lot to him.
Medan,
September 2015
The writer,
David Hamonangan Sihite
NIM. 2113220004
iii
ABSTRACT
Sihite, David Hamonangan, 2113220004. Violation of Conversational Maxims
in The Avengers Movie. A Thesis, English, Department, Faculty of Languages
and Arts, State University of Medan, 2015.
The study deals with the types of maxims violation in The Avengers movie’s
script. The objectives of the study were to discover the types of maxims violation,
the most dominant maxim violation, and to explain the implication of the most
dominant maxim violation in The Avengers movie. The source of the data was the
conversations in The Avengers movie. The data was the script of The Avengers
movie. There were 55 maxim violations in this research. The descriptive
qualitative design was used to analyze the data. The results showed that all types
of maxim were violated; 34 utterances (68%) maxim violation of relation, 8
utterances (16%) maxim violation of quality, 5 utterances (10%) maxim violation
of quantity, 3 utterances (6%) maxim violation of manner. The most dominant
type of maxim violation was the maxim violation of relation. The implication of
maxim violation of relation as the dominant type of maxims in the script of The
Avengers movie was a strategy from the speakers to hide something, to hide the
truth, and to create humor by giving irrelevant answer or changing the topic.
Keywords: Pragmatics, Cooperative Principle, Maxims Violation, Movie.
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLE ................................................................................................ vi
LIST OF APPENDICES ................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study ............................................................................ 1
B. The Problem of the Study .................................................................................. 4
C. The Objective of the Study ..........................................................................5
D. The Scope of the Study ................................................................................5
E. The Significance of the Study ......................................................................5
CHAPTER II : REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Pragmatics ............................................................................................................ 7
1. Definition of Pragmatics ....................................................................... 7
2. Cooperative Principles .......................................................................... 9
B. Conversational Maxims .................................................................................... 10
1. Concept of Maxim................................................................................ 11
2. Maxim Violation .................................................................................. 12
3. The Types of Maxim and Its Violation ............................................. 13
a. Maxim of Quantity................................................................. 13
b. Maxim of Quality ................................................................... 14
c. Maxim of Relation ................................................................. 15
d. Maxim of Manner .................................................................. 16
C. Movies ................................................................................................................ 17
D. The Avengers Movie ........................................................................................ 18
1. Biography the Writer .................................................................................. 20
2. Summary of The Avengers Movie ........................................................... 24
CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Design ............................................................................................... 28
B. Data and Source of Data.................................................................................. 28
C. The Technique of Data Collection ................................................................. 28
D. The Technique of Analyzing Data ................................................................. 29
CHAPTER IV : DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS
A. The Data ............................................................................................................ 30
B. The Data Analysis ............................................................................................ 30
1. Discussions on Each of the Maxim ......................................................... 32
C. Research Findings ............................................................................................ 39
iv
CHAPTER V : CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions ....................................................................................................... 41
B. Suggestions ....................................................................................................... 41
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 43
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 45
v
LIST OF TABLE
Pages
Table 4.1 The percentage overview of maxims violation ......................................31
vi
LIST OF APPENDICES
Pages
APPENDIX A. Analyzing maxims violation.........................................................45
APPENDIX B. The script ......................................................................................58
vii
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A.
The Background of the Study
People express their intentions to others by communication. In
communication, conversation is the most common. Conversation is the most basic
form of the activities did by humans in communicating information between two
or more persons involved. In phenomenon of pragmatics, it always works.
In conversation what the speaker literally say, sometimes, is different from
what they actually mean. So, the hearer should be able to understand what a
speaker means if he says something implicitly. To understand what the speaker
says, there is a set of rules including conversational maxims in order to make
language users do effective communication.
Successful conversation depends upon the various speakers‟ approach to
interaction. The way to make successful conversations is called the cooperative
principle which is stated by Grice (1975). Philosopher Grice (1975) proposes four
conversational maxims that involve in the pragmatics of natural language. The
maxims are based on his cooperative principle, which states, „Make your
conversational contribution such as it is required, at the stage at which it occurs,
by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are
engaged‟. The principle describes how effective communication in conversation is
achieved in common social situations and is further broken down into the four
1
maxims, namely Maxim of Quality, Quantity, Relevance and Manner (Grice in
Yule 1996:37).
From many forms of conversations that happen in daily life, the speaker
sometimes disobey or violate the maxims (maxims violation) that finally lead to
misunderstandings and even conflict among the actors of the conversations. This
is because some factors, such as they can not catch the information properly from
their partner in conversation and sometimes they have an intention to lie or hide
the truth. For example:
Neymar
Messi
: How do I look?
: Well, your shoes are nice!
In this case Messi‟s answer breaks the cooperative principle because he
does not give the information as Neymar expected. Messi just comment Neymar
shoes, he does not say that the shirt and jeans do not look nice but from his answer
he knew that Neymar will understand the implication.
Another example from the conversations on the movie that the writer will
analyzed:
Setting: Somewhere out in the European mountains, Thor throws Loki into
the side of the mountain. He raises the mighty hammer, Mjölnir.
He looks down at his brother, who he thought to be dead and is
angry to see him alive in this fashion.
Thor:
Where is the Tesseract?
Loki:
(laughs) I missed you too.
From the dialogue above it can be seen Loki did not give a relevant
response to Thor‟s question about where the Tesseract was. He instead laughed
and said “I miss you too”. It means that Loki did not want to show Thor the
2
3
Teserract. He violated the maxim of relation by changing the topic and giving the
irrelevant response or answer to Thor. Loki‟s missing in not apparently relevant to
the discussion about where the Teserract is.
The reason why the writer chooses conversational maxims was because
the writer also finds the same situations in a movie titled The Avengers (2012)
with the explanation above. This movie caught the writer intention while some of
their conversations on the movie showed conversations that needed a context
understanding to get the meaning of the conversations. The writer later on did
library research and read some pragmatics books. And the writer finally got a
pragmatics study concerned with conversations. The pragmatics concept is
cooperative principle proposed by Paul Grice (1975). This movie has many
interesting conversations to analyze in the scope of pragmatics study especially in
conversational maxims. That‟s why the writer is interested to find out and learn
more why the actors do the misunderstanding or implicit and ambiguous meaning
of their conversations. These explanations also become the reason why the writer
chose The Avengers movie as the object of the study.
The previous researcher related to the Conversational Maxim Violation
has been done by Roya Friskila (2011). In her research, she analyzed maxim
violation in a movie titled “An Analysis of Violated Maxim in Sherlock Holmes
Movie”. This research discovered the kinds of maxims and the dominant maxim
and explained the implication of the dominant maxim. She has found three types
maxim violated by Sherlock Holmes in “Sherlock Holmes 2009” movie. They are
4
Maxim of quantity, Maxim of quality and Maxim of relation. Maxim of Quantity
is violated dominantly.
Another previous research related to the conversational maxim violation,
Indah Sari Lubis in 2012 researched Conversational Implicatures of Indonesia
Lawyers Club Program on TV ONE. She found that all types of maxims occurred
in Indonesia Lawyers Club program. Maxim of quantity is dominantly cause
conversational implicatures of Indonesia Lawyers Club program on TV One. She
found three contexts deal with this as, (1) to show up pain and core of the problem
to the audiences, (2) to save ones face, (3) to defend certain group and blame the
government.
Therefore, based on the explanation, reason and previous researches that
support this study, the writer decided to analyze one of box office movie, an
action superhero movie in 2012 The Avengers. The explanation above makes the
writer curious to discover whether the phenomena of conversational maxims
occur in The Avengers movie.
B.
The Problems of the Study
In accordance with the background of the study, the problems of the study
are formulated as follows.
1.
What maxims are violated in the conversations of The Avengers movie?
2.
What maxims are dominantly violated in the conversations of The
Avengers movie?
5
3.
What is the implication of the dominant maxim which is violated in the
conversations of The Avengers movie?
C.
The Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the study are described as follows.
1. To find out the types of maxims which are violated in the conversations of
The Avengers movie,
2. To find out the most dominant type of maxims which is violated the
conversations of The Avengers movie,
3. To describe the implication of the dominant maxims violated in the
conversations of The Avengers movie.
D.
The Scope of the Study
Conversational maxims occur not only in real daily conversation but also
in the movie conversations. The writer limited the analysis of the four types of
conversational maxims based on Grice‟s theory (1975), they are maxims of
quality, maxims of quantity, maxims of relation, and maxims of manner. Thus, the
writer will focus on the superheroes and enemy‟s conversations or utterances in
The Avengers movie script.
E.
The Significances of the Study
The findings of this study have two general significances, theoretical and
practical significances.
6
Theoretically, the results of this study are useful for:
1. The enrichment of knowledge in theory of pragmatics especially in
maxims violations.
2. The further studies as the references.
Practically, the results of this study are useful for:
1. The students of English Department
This study will help their understanding about the maxims violations. It
will be able to help them to avoid having wrong interpretation.
2. The lecturers of English Department
This study will be helpful for the lectures as their teaching material.
3. The other researchers
This study will be used as their inspiration to make the next research.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A.
Conclusions
Having collected and analyzing the data, some conclusions were given
below:
1. There were four types maxims violation in The Avengers (2012) movie.
There were 34 utterances (68%) maxim violation of relation, 8 utterances
(16%) maxim violation of quality, 5 utterances (10%) maxim violation of
quantity, 3 utterances (6%) maxim violation of manner.
2. The result showed that the most dominant type of maxims which was
violated in The Avengers movie was the maxim violation of relation.
3. The implication of maxim violation of relation as the dominant type of
maxims in the script of The Avengers movie was a strategy from the
speakers to hide the truth and to create humor by giving irrelevant answer
or changing the topic.
B.
Suggestions
Having conducted a research about an analysis of maxim violation, it is
useful to consider the following suggestions:
1. It is advisable for readers to understand the cooperative principle with its
maxims, especially the four types of maxim violation in order to avoid
misunderstaning among the participants and to get the speaker`s intention
40
41
through his utterances on the conversation. Breaking the maxim or
violating the maxim can make the wrong perception for the listener.
2. It is suggested to other researchers and the students of English and
Literature who are taking pragmatics, start to analyzing and understanding
further research in order to master the maxim violation deeply.
3. It is suggested for the readers should have a good knowledge of the use of
maxim, and avoid the maxim violation because not every person knows
the implication of the maxim violation.
REFERENCES
Cook, Guy. 1989. Discourse. “Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher
Education”. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cutting, Joan. 2002. “Pragmatics and Discourse: A Resource Book for Student”.
Florence, KY, USA: Routledge.
Dawson, Catherine. 2002. “Practical Research Methods”. Oxford, United
Kingdom
Grundy, Peter. 2000. “Doing Pragmatics”. London, Oxford University Press
Horn, Laurence R., Ward, Gregory. 2004. “The Handbook of pragmatics” UK,
Blackwell Publishing.
Leech, G. 1983. “Principles of Pragmatics”. London: Longman.
Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. “Pragmatics”. United Kingdom, Cambridge
University Press.
Mey, Jacob L. 2009. “Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics” Denmark, University
of Denmark.
Mukaro L, Mugari V, & Dhumukwa A. 2013. Violation of Conversational
Maxims in Shona. Journal of Comparative Literature and Culture (JCLC),
II (4) 161-168.
Peccei, Jean Stilwell.1999. “Pragmatics Language Worksbooks”. London, Taylor
and Francis Routledge
Sobhani & Saghebi. 2014. The Violation of Cooperative Principles and Four
Maxims in
Iranian Psychological Consultation. Open Journal of
Modern Linguistics, (4) 91-99
Tupan A.H. & Natalia H. 2008. The Multiple Violations of Conversational
Maxims in Lying Done by the Characters in Some Episodes of Desperate
Housewives. Journal of English Department, Faculty of Letters, Petra
Christian University, X (1) 63-78
Yule, George. 1996. “Pragmatics”. New York: Oxford University Press.
Yule, George. 1985. “The Study of Language: An Introduction”. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_principle). Retrieved on
04 March 2015
43
44
(http://www.biography.com/people/joss-whedon-17181746#work-in-film).
Retrieved on 04 March 2015
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avengers_(2012_film)). Retrieved on
25 February 2015
(http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movie). Retrieved on 25 February 2015
THE AVENGERS MOVIE
A THESIS
Submitted as the Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
By:
DAVID HAMONANGAN SIHITE
Registration Number 2113220004
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTEMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2015
DECLARATION
I have familiarized myself with the University’s Policy on Academic Integrity.
Except where appropriately acknowledged, this thesis is my own work, has been
expressed in my own words and has not previously been submitted for
assessment.
I understand that his paper may be screened electronically or otherwise for
plagiarism.
Medan,
September 2015
David Hamonangan Sihite
NIM. 2113220004
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Great thanks and praise to the Almighty God who has blessed and given
the ability to the writer to complete his thesis as the partial fulfillment of the
requirements for degree of Sarjana Sastra at the English and Literature
Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and the
help of several individuals who always contributed and extended their valuable
assistances in the preparation and completion of this thesis. The writer’s special
appreciation goes to:
Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., the Rector of State University of
Medan.
State University of Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean Faculty of Language and Arts,
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature
Department, Dra. Meisuri, MA., the Secretary of English and Literature
Department, Syamsul Bahri, S.S., M.Hum., the Head of English
Literature Program and Nora Ronita Dewi, S.Pd., S.S., M.Hum., the
Head of English Education Program, Faculty of Languages and Arts,
State University of Medan.
Dra. Sri Juriaty Ownie, M.A., as his Thesis Supervisor.
Drs. Lidiman Sahat Martua Sinaga, M.Hum., as his Academic
Supervisor and Thesis Examiner, Dr. Rahmad Husein, M.Ed., and Neni
Afrida Sari Harapan, S.Pd., M.Hum as his Thesis Examiners.
All Lecturers of English and Literature Department for the lessons,
advices, and useful knowledge.
Eis Sri Wahyuni, M.Pd., as the Administration Staff of English
Department for helping the writer in preparing all the fulfillment in
conducting this thesis.
Beloved parents, S. Sihite and D. Sinaga for the patience, affection,
prayer, financial support and taught the writer many worth things in
ii
facing the life. Thanks also given to his brothers and sister for all their
supports.
All his beloved friends in English Literature A and B 2011, thanks for
their support, kindness, great love and care to the writer, also warm
hearted encouragement friendship in finishing this thesis to the writer.
The people who direct or indirectly contributed in this study, your
kindness means a lot to him.
Medan,
September 2015
The writer,
David Hamonangan Sihite
NIM. 2113220004
iii
ABSTRACT
Sihite, David Hamonangan, 2113220004. Violation of Conversational Maxims
in The Avengers Movie. A Thesis, English, Department, Faculty of Languages
and Arts, State University of Medan, 2015.
The study deals with the types of maxims violation in The Avengers movie’s
script. The objectives of the study were to discover the types of maxims violation,
the most dominant maxim violation, and to explain the implication of the most
dominant maxim violation in The Avengers movie. The source of the data was the
conversations in The Avengers movie. The data was the script of The Avengers
movie. There were 55 maxim violations in this research. The descriptive
qualitative design was used to analyze the data. The results showed that all types
of maxim were violated; 34 utterances (68%) maxim violation of relation, 8
utterances (16%) maxim violation of quality, 5 utterances (10%) maxim violation
of quantity, 3 utterances (6%) maxim violation of manner. The most dominant
type of maxim violation was the maxim violation of relation. The implication of
maxim violation of relation as the dominant type of maxims in the script of The
Avengers movie was a strategy from the speakers to hide something, to hide the
truth, and to create humor by giving irrelevant answer or changing the topic.
Keywords: Pragmatics, Cooperative Principle, Maxims Violation, Movie.
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLE ................................................................................................ vi
LIST OF APPENDICES ................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study ............................................................................ 1
B. The Problem of the Study .................................................................................. 4
C. The Objective of the Study ..........................................................................5
D. The Scope of the Study ................................................................................5
E. The Significance of the Study ......................................................................5
CHAPTER II : REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Pragmatics ............................................................................................................ 7
1. Definition of Pragmatics ....................................................................... 7
2. Cooperative Principles .......................................................................... 9
B. Conversational Maxims .................................................................................... 10
1. Concept of Maxim................................................................................ 11
2. Maxim Violation .................................................................................. 12
3. The Types of Maxim and Its Violation ............................................. 13
a. Maxim of Quantity................................................................. 13
b. Maxim of Quality ................................................................... 14
c. Maxim of Relation ................................................................. 15
d. Maxim of Manner .................................................................. 16
C. Movies ................................................................................................................ 17
D. The Avengers Movie ........................................................................................ 18
1. Biography the Writer .................................................................................. 20
2. Summary of The Avengers Movie ........................................................... 24
CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Design ............................................................................................... 28
B. Data and Source of Data.................................................................................. 28
C. The Technique of Data Collection ................................................................. 28
D. The Technique of Analyzing Data ................................................................. 29
CHAPTER IV : DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS
A. The Data ............................................................................................................ 30
B. The Data Analysis ............................................................................................ 30
1. Discussions on Each of the Maxim ......................................................... 32
C. Research Findings ............................................................................................ 39
iv
CHAPTER V : CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions ....................................................................................................... 41
B. Suggestions ....................................................................................................... 41
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 43
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 45
v
LIST OF TABLE
Pages
Table 4.1 The percentage overview of maxims violation ......................................31
vi
LIST OF APPENDICES
Pages
APPENDIX A. Analyzing maxims violation.........................................................45
APPENDIX B. The script ......................................................................................58
vii
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A.
The Background of the Study
People express their intentions to others by communication. In
communication, conversation is the most common. Conversation is the most basic
form of the activities did by humans in communicating information between two
or more persons involved. In phenomenon of pragmatics, it always works.
In conversation what the speaker literally say, sometimes, is different from
what they actually mean. So, the hearer should be able to understand what a
speaker means if he says something implicitly. To understand what the speaker
says, there is a set of rules including conversational maxims in order to make
language users do effective communication.
Successful conversation depends upon the various speakers‟ approach to
interaction. The way to make successful conversations is called the cooperative
principle which is stated by Grice (1975). Philosopher Grice (1975) proposes four
conversational maxims that involve in the pragmatics of natural language. The
maxims are based on his cooperative principle, which states, „Make your
conversational contribution such as it is required, at the stage at which it occurs,
by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are
engaged‟. The principle describes how effective communication in conversation is
achieved in common social situations and is further broken down into the four
1
maxims, namely Maxim of Quality, Quantity, Relevance and Manner (Grice in
Yule 1996:37).
From many forms of conversations that happen in daily life, the speaker
sometimes disobey or violate the maxims (maxims violation) that finally lead to
misunderstandings and even conflict among the actors of the conversations. This
is because some factors, such as they can not catch the information properly from
their partner in conversation and sometimes they have an intention to lie or hide
the truth. For example:
Neymar
Messi
: How do I look?
: Well, your shoes are nice!
In this case Messi‟s answer breaks the cooperative principle because he
does not give the information as Neymar expected. Messi just comment Neymar
shoes, he does not say that the shirt and jeans do not look nice but from his answer
he knew that Neymar will understand the implication.
Another example from the conversations on the movie that the writer will
analyzed:
Setting: Somewhere out in the European mountains, Thor throws Loki into
the side of the mountain. He raises the mighty hammer, Mjölnir.
He looks down at his brother, who he thought to be dead and is
angry to see him alive in this fashion.
Thor:
Where is the Tesseract?
Loki:
(laughs) I missed you too.
From the dialogue above it can be seen Loki did not give a relevant
response to Thor‟s question about where the Tesseract was. He instead laughed
and said “I miss you too”. It means that Loki did not want to show Thor the
2
3
Teserract. He violated the maxim of relation by changing the topic and giving the
irrelevant response or answer to Thor. Loki‟s missing in not apparently relevant to
the discussion about where the Teserract is.
The reason why the writer chooses conversational maxims was because
the writer also finds the same situations in a movie titled The Avengers (2012)
with the explanation above. This movie caught the writer intention while some of
their conversations on the movie showed conversations that needed a context
understanding to get the meaning of the conversations. The writer later on did
library research and read some pragmatics books. And the writer finally got a
pragmatics study concerned with conversations. The pragmatics concept is
cooperative principle proposed by Paul Grice (1975). This movie has many
interesting conversations to analyze in the scope of pragmatics study especially in
conversational maxims. That‟s why the writer is interested to find out and learn
more why the actors do the misunderstanding or implicit and ambiguous meaning
of their conversations. These explanations also become the reason why the writer
chose The Avengers movie as the object of the study.
The previous researcher related to the Conversational Maxim Violation
has been done by Roya Friskila (2011). In her research, she analyzed maxim
violation in a movie titled “An Analysis of Violated Maxim in Sherlock Holmes
Movie”. This research discovered the kinds of maxims and the dominant maxim
and explained the implication of the dominant maxim. She has found three types
maxim violated by Sherlock Holmes in “Sherlock Holmes 2009” movie. They are
4
Maxim of quantity, Maxim of quality and Maxim of relation. Maxim of Quantity
is violated dominantly.
Another previous research related to the conversational maxim violation,
Indah Sari Lubis in 2012 researched Conversational Implicatures of Indonesia
Lawyers Club Program on TV ONE. She found that all types of maxims occurred
in Indonesia Lawyers Club program. Maxim of quantity is dominantly cause
conversational implicatures of Indonesia Lawyers Club program on TV One. She
found three contexts deal with this as, (1) to show up pain and core of the problem
to the audiences, (2) to save ones face, (3) to defend certain group and blame the
government.
Therefore, based on the explanation, reason and previous researches that
support this study, the writer decided to analyze one of box office movie, an
action superhero movie in 2012 The Avengers. The explanation above makes the
writer curious to discover whether the phenomena of conversational maxims
occur in The Avengers movie.
B.
The Problems of the Study
In accordance with the background of the study, the problems of the study
are formulated as follows.
1.
What maxims are violated in the conversations of The Avengers movie?
2.
What maxims are dominantly violated in the conversations of The
Avengers movie?
5
3.
What is the implication of the dominant maxim which is violated in the
conversations of The Avengers movie?
C.
The Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the study are described as follows.
1. To find out the types of maxims which are violated in the conversations of
The Avengers movie,
2. To find out the most dominant type of maxims which is violated the
conversations of The Avengers movie,
3. To describe the implication of the dominant maxims violated in the
conversations of The Avengers movie.
D.
The Scope of the Study
Conversational maxims occur not only in real daily conversation but also
in the movie conversations. The writer limited the analysis of the four types of
conversational maxims based on Grice‟s theory (1975), they are maxims of
quality, maxims of quantity, maxims of relation, and maxims of manner. Thus, the
writer will focus on the superheroes and enemy‟s conversations or utterances in
The Avengers movie script.
E.
The Significances of the Study
The findings of this study have two general significances, theoretical and
practical significances.
6
Theoretically, the results of this study are useful for:
1. The enrichment of knowledge in theory of pragmatics especially in
maxims violations.
2. The further studies as the references.
Practically, the results of this study are useful for:
1. The students of English Department
This study will help their understanding about the maxims violations. It
will be able to help them to avoid having wrong interpretation.
2. The lecturers of English Department
This study will be helpful for the lectures as their teaching material.
3. The other researchers
This study will be used as their inspiration to make the next research.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A.
Conclusions
Having collected and analyzing the data, some conclusions were given
below:
1. There were four types maxims violation in The Avengers (2012) movie.
There were 34 utterances (68%) maxim violation of relation, 8 utterances
(16%) maxim violation of quality, 5 utterances (10%) maxim violation of
quantity, 3 utterances (6%) maxim violation of manner.
2. The result showed that the most dominant type of maxims which was
violated in The Avengers movie was the maxim violation of relation.
3. The implication of maxim violation of relation as the dominant type of
maxims in the script of The Avengers movie was a strategy from the
speakers to hide the truth and to create humor by giving irrelevant answer
or changing the topic.
B.
Suggestions
Having conducted a research about an analysis of maxim violation, it is
useful to consider the following suggestions:
1. It is advisable for readers to understand the cooperative principle with its
maxims, especially the four types of maxim violation in order to avoid
misunderstaning among the participants and to get the speaker`s intention
40
41
through his utterances on the conversation. Breaking the maxim or
violating the maxim can make the wrong perception for the listener.
2. It is suggested to other researchers and the students of English and
Literature who are taking pragmatics, start to analyzing and understanding
further research in order to master the maxim violation deeply.
3. It is suggested for the readers should have a good knowledge of the use of
maxim, and avoid the maxim violation because not every person knows
the implication of the maxim violation.
REFERENCES
Cook, Guy. 1989. Discourse. “Language Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher
Education”. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cutting, Joan. 2002. “Pragmatics and Discourse: A Resource Book for Student”.
Florence, KY, USA: Routledge.
Dawson, Catherine. 2002. “Practical Research Methods”. Oxford, United
Kingdom
Grundy, Peter. 2000. “Doing Pragmatics”. London, Oxford University Press
Horn, Laurence R., Ward, Gregory. 2004. “The Handbook of pragmatics” UK,
Blackwell Publishing.
Leech, G. 1983. “Principles of Pragmatics”. London: Longman.
Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. “Pragmatics”. United Kingdom, Cambridge
University Press.
Mey, Jacob L. 2009. “Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics” Denmark, University
of Denmark.
Mukaro L, Mugari V, & Dhumukwa A. 2013. Violation of Conversational
Maxims in Shona. Journal of Comparative Literature and Culture (JCLC),
II (4) 161-168.
Peccei, Jean Stilwell.1999. “Pragmatics Language Worksbooks”. London, Taylor
and Francis Routledge
Sobhani & Saghebi. 2014. The Violation of Cooperative Principles and Four
Maxims in
Iranian Psychological Consultation. Open Journal of
Modern Linguistics, (4) 91-99
Tupan A.H. & Natalia H. 2008. The Multiple Violations of Conversational
Maxims in Lying Done by the Characters in Some Episodes of Desperate
Housewives. Journal of English Department, Faculty of Letters, Petra
Christian University, X (1) 63-78
Yule, George. 1996. “Pragmatics”. New York: Oxford University Press.
Yule, George. 1985. “The Study of Language: An Introduction”. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_principle). Retrieved on
04 March 2015
43
44
(http://www.biography.com/people/joss-whedon-17181746#work-in-film).
Retrieved on 04 March 2015
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Avengers_(2012_film)). Retrieved on
25 February 2015
(http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movie). Retrieved on 25 February 2015