The analysis of conversation structure on the comic strip The Born Loser - USD Repository

THE ANALYSIS OF CONVERSATION STRUCTURE ON THE COMIC STRIP THE BORN LOSER AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

  Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

  By

VIANA ANGGRAENI ROLOS

  Student Number: 064214065

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTEMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

THE ANALYSIS OF CONVERSATION STRUCTURE ON THE COMIC STRIP THE BORN LOSER AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

  Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

  By

VIANA ANGGRAENI ROLOS

  Student Number: 064214065

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTEMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS

  

  

  For My Beloved Father & Mother

  

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to The Almighty

  

God, Jesus Christ for His blessing and graces so that I can finish this

undergraduate thesis.

  My grateful also goes to my advisor, Anna Fitriati S.Pd., M.Hum., for her guidance and patience in supporting me during the writing process of this thesis. I would also like to express my gratitude to my co-advisor Dra.

  Bernardine Ria Lestari, M.S., for checking and giving advice on this thesis.

  I would also like to express my proper appreciation to all lecturers of

  

English Letters Department for giving me the best lesson and knowledge, to all

staff of Faculty of Letters and Sanata Dharma Library for their help and

  services since I studied and started writing this thesis.

  My deepest gratitude is also dedicated to my beloved parents: Walter

  

Rolos and Dortje Parante for their love, support, and prayer. I also thank my

brothers: Jossie A Rolos and Hendry Y Rolos for giving me spirit and support.

  I would also thank all my classmates of Sastra 2006 especially my best friends Siska Usmani, Lucia Eri, Sheila Putri, Indah Hayu, Elis Wahyu, and

  

Fabiola Sekar, thank you so much for the great friendship, care, and support for

  all these times. My sincere gratitude also goes to Ari Setiyono for his support, patience, and love. Finally, I would like to thank my friend Ellen, Gaby, Dewi

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ................................................................................................ i

APPROVAL PAGE ...................................................................................... ii

ACCEPTANCE PAGE ................................................................................ iii

MOTTO PAGE ............................................................................................. iv

DEDICATION PAGE .................................................................................. v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................... vi

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ............................................................. vii

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN .......................................................................... viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................. ix

ABSTRACT .................................................................................................. xii

ABSTRAK ..................................................................................................... xiii

  

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ................................................................ 1

A. Background of the Study ................................................................ 1 B. Problem Formulation ...................................................................... 6 C. Objectives of the Study .................................................................. 6 D. Definition of Terms ....................................................................... 7

CHAPTER II: THEORITICAL REVIEW ................................................ 8

A. Review of Related Study ................................................................ 8 B. Review of Related Theories ........................................................... 9 1. Conversation Analysis .............................................................. 10 a. Turn-taking ......................................................................... 10 b. Adjacency Pairs .................................................................. 12 c. Sequences ........................................................................... 14 2. Preference Structure ................................................................. 16 a. Preferred ............................................................................. 17 b. Dispreferred ........................................................................ 18 C. Theoretical Framework ................................................................... 18

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ............................................................ 20

A. Object of the Study ......................................................................... 20 B. Method of the Study ....................................................................... 21

  

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ......................................................................... 25

A. Analysis of Conversation Structure Used in the Comic Strips ........ 26 1. Turn-taking ............................................................................... 26 a. A – B ................................................................................... 27 b. A – B – A ............................................................................ 27 c. A – B – A – B ..................................................................... 28 d. A – B – A – B – A .............................................................. 28 e. A – B – A – B – A – B ....................................................... 29 f. A – B – A – B – A – B – A ................................................. 29 g. A – B – B ............................................................................ 30 h. A – B – C ............................................................................ 31 i. A – B – C – BC ................................................................... 31 j. A – B – A – C ..................................................................... 32 k. A – B – A – B – C .............................................................. 32 2. Adjacency Pairs ........................................................................ 33 a. Greeting – Greeting ............................................................ 33 b. Summon – Answer ............................................................. 34 c. Question – Answer ............................................................. 34 d. Compliment – Acceptance/Rejection ................................. 35 e. Complaint – Apology/Denial ............................................. 35 f. Offer – Accept/Reject ......................................................... 36 g. Request – Grant/Refusal ..................................................... 36 3. Sequences ................................................................................. 37 a. Pre-sequences ..................................................................... 37

  i. Pre-requests ..................................................................... 37 ii. Pre-announcements ........................................................ 38 b.

  Insertion Sequence .............................................................. 39 c. Opening Sequence .............................................................. 40 B. The Patterns of Dispreferred Response that Brutus Uses as the

  Response to the First Part ............................................................... 41 1.

  Giving an account ..................................................................... 42 2. Preface ...................................................................................... 44 3. Repetition ................................................................................. 46 4. Appeal for understanding ......................................................... 47 5. Delay/Hesitate .......................................................................... 49 6. Token yes .................................................................................. 49

  

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION .................................................................... 53

BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................... 55

APPENDICES .............................................................................................. 57

Appendix 1: Table Analysis of Conversation Structure ....................... 57 Appendix 2: Table Patterns of Dispreferred Response ......................... 58 Appendix 3: Comic Strips The Born Loser from July to December

  in 2011................................................................................................... 58

  

ABSTRACT

  VIANA ANGGRAENI ROLOS. The Analysis of Conversation Structure on

  

the Comic Strip The Born Loser. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters,

Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2013.

  Languages can be divided into two types: written language and spoken language. The example of spoken language once can be found in comic strip The

  

Born Loser by Chip Sansom. In the comic strips, there are some characters and

  one of them is Brutus Thornapple. There is a structure of conversation between Brutus and other characters that later will be examined by the writer.

  There are 2 problems that are formulated to be discussed in this thesis. The first problem is what kinds of conversation structure used in the comic strip. The second problem is what patterns of dispreferred response that Brutus uses as the response to the first pair.

  Comic strip used as the samples are taken from the comic strip between July to December 2011. In analyzing the problems, the writer uses the theory of conversation structure and the theory of preference structure. The writer begins the analysis of the conversation structure of the comic, and then the writer analyzes the preference structure of the conversation between Brutus and other characters.

  Based on the result of the analysis, there are 3 parts of conversation structure used in the comic strips, they are turn-taking, adjacency pairs, and sequences. Adjacency pair is the most dominant part in the first analysis. In the second analysis, the conversation structure of the comic strip mostly uses preference structure that is dominated by dispreferred response. From this result, Brutus is the one who use dispreferred response more often than other characters as the response to what others have said in the first part of the conversation. Brutus uses some patterns as indication of the action. These patterns are preface, repetition, appeal for understanding, delay/hesitate, token yes, and apology.

  

ABSTRAK

VIANA ANGGRAENI ROLOS. The Analysis of Conversation Structure on the . Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra,

  Comic Strip The Born Loser Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2013.

  Bahasa dapat dibagi menjadi dua jenis, bahasa tulis dan bahasa lisan. Salah satu

contoh bahasa lisan dapat ditemukan dalam komik strip The Born Loser oleh Chip

Sansom. Di dalam komik strip, terdapat beberapa karakter dan salah satunya adalah

Brutus Thornapple. Di dalam percakapan antara Brutus dan karakter lain, terdapat

struktur percakapan yang kemudian diteliti oleh penulis.

  Ada 2 rumusan masalah yang akan dibahas dalam tesis ini. Pertama, apa saja

jenis struktur percakapan yang digunakan dalam komik strip. Kedua, apa saja pola

tindakan sosial yang tidak disukai yang digunakan Brutus sebagai respon terhadap

pasangan pertama.

  Komik strip yang digunakan sebagai sampel diambil dari komik strip antara Juli

hingga Desember 2011. Dalam menganalisis rumusan masalah, penulis menggunakan

teori struktur percakapan dan teori struktur preferensi. Penulis memulai dengan

menganalisis struktur percakapan komik, dan kemudian penulis menganalisis struktur

preferensi dalam percakapan antara Brutus dan karakter lainnya.

  Berdasarkan hasil dari analisis, terdapat 3 bagian dalam struktur percakapan yang

digunakan dalam komik strip, ketiga bagian itu adalah pengambilan giliran, pasangan

berdampingan, dan urutan. Pasangan berdampingan merupakan bagian terbanyak yang

ditemukan dalam analisis pertama. Pada analisis kedua, struktur percakapan komik strip

sebagian besar menggunakan struktur preferensi yang didominasi oleh tindakan yang

tidak disukai. Dari hasil ini, Brutus adalah orang yang paling sering menggunakan

tindakan yang tidak disukai dibandingkan karakter lain sebagai respon terhadap apa yang

karakter lain katakan dalam bagian pertama percakapan. Brutus menggunakan beberapa

pola sebagai indikasi dalam tindakan tersebut. Pola-pola tersebut antara lain pembukaan,

  pengulangan, meminta pengertian, menunda/ragu-ragu, tanda ya, dan permintaan maaf .

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Language is one of the ways to communicate. Through language people

  can deliver message and information. In general, there are two kinds of language: first is the written language and second is the spoken language. Written language is a language that can be found in written texts, such as letters, documents, and books; and it is usually formal. On other side, spoken language is different from written language because it is spoken and usually informal. One thing that can be found in spoken language is what is called a conversation. We can say someone is having a conversation when he or she talks to others and the others reply by giving a feedback. Here, the participant may include two or more people.

  Conversation can happen when someone is talking to another and it continues when the other gives the answer or response. According to Cook, a talk may be classed as a conversation when it is not primarily necessitated by a practical task, any unequal power of participants is partially suspended, the number of the participants is small, and the turns are quite short. In other words, Cook said that a conversation happens naturally in a small number of participants and the duration of the participant taking their turn is quite short (Cutting, 2003:28).

  Some linguists do not agree with Cook’s opinion on “not primarily necessitated by a practical task”, they say that most of what we say is outcome oriented. It means that we talk to others with some purposes or we intend that other participants will know our intention. Other linguists, such as Fairclough, do not agree with Cook’s opinion on “any unequal power of participants is partially suspended”. Fairclough says that a conversation may occur when there are significant power differentials between participants. The conversation may continue when the participants have different power in talking. It means that the participants have different power when they take their turn. There is the one who dominates and takes control in the conversation and the other follows and gives their response in return (Cutting, 2003:29).

  In our daily life, we cannot avoid doing a conversation. Just like what Saint-Laurent said in his book The Art of Conversation (1951: 12), a conversation is as necessary to us as eating and drinking. Wiling or unwilling we devote a great deal of our time to a conversation. Not only in our daily life can we find conversations, we can also find it inside a written text, such as a story, a drama text, and even a comic strip. However a comic strip is different from a written story or a drama, a comic strip has pictures that show the attitude of the person who is talking and sometimes the place where the conversation takes place. It makes people easy to recog nize what the speaker’s feeling, whether he or she is happy or mad. The following are some examples of a conversation in a story, a In a story: “My name is Alice...”

  “It’s a stupid name enough!” Humpty Dumpty interrupted impat iently. “What does it mean?” “Must a name mean something?” Alice asked doubtfully.

  “Of course it must,” Humpty Dumpty said with a short laugh. “My name means the shape I am

• – and a good handsome shape is, too. With a name like yours, you might be any s hape almost.”

  (Fromkin, 2003: 185) In this example Alice talked to Humpty Dumpty. She introduced herself by saying her name. As the response to Alice, Humpty Dumpty said that her name was a stupid name but then he asked what the meaning of her name is. Here Alice could not answer the question. Instead of giving him an answer, she gave him another question by saying that “must a name mean something?”. Humpty Dumpty then explained that every name has their meaning, just like his name that showed his shap e which is a good handsome shape, he said Alice’s name must have meaning too which showed which shape she was.

  In a drama NATALYA STEPANOVNA: Excuse my interrupting you. You say, "my Oxen Meadows. ..." But are they yours? LOMOV: Yes, mine. NATALYA STEPANOVNA: What are you talking about? Oxen Meadows are ours, not yours! LOMOV: No, mine, honoured Natalya Stepanovna. NATALYA STEPANOVNA: Well, I never knew that before. How do you make that out? LOMOV: How? I'm speaking of those Oxen Meadows which are wedged in between your birchwoods and the Burnt Marsh. NATALYA STEPANOVNA: Yes, yes. ... They're ours. LOMOV: No, you're mistaken, honoured Natalya Stepanovna, they're

  NATALYA STEPANOVNA: Just think, Ivan Vassilevitch! How long have they been yours? LOMOV: How long? As long as I can remember. NATALYA STEPANOVNA: Really, you won't get me to believe that! (Taken from a play The Proposal by Anton Chekhov) (28 May 2013) In this example, the conversation happened between Natalya Stevanovna and Lomov. Here they both argued about the Oxen Meadows. Both Natalya and

  Lomov said that the Oxen Meadows was theirs, none of them was caving in. In a comic strip: (Taken from The Born Loser; The Jakarta Post, 01 March 2010)

  Brutus : “I’m freezing! Would you get me a hot cup of coffee?” Gladys : “Certainly – cream or sugar?” Brutus : “Don’t bother – I’m going to pour it on my feet!” Above is the example of comic strips that tells about Brutus who is asking for a drink from Gladys. From the conversation above, it is clear that Brutus feels cold and asks for a coffee. The situation is not clear yet because there is no description like in a short story that tells about the condition when the conversation takes place or the explanation about the gesture of the one who is talking. The situation can be seen from the picture that explains them. In the picture the setting of the conversation is clearly seen, it is outside their house

  In a story, a conversation takes only a few parts. The conversation is usually followed by descriptions of who is talking, how the person acts, and the feeling of the person. These descriptions are used as an explanation during the conversation. In drama, the conversation is the main content. A conversation in a drama is more like a conversation in daily life because a drama is made to be performed. There are also descriptions in a drama but it is lesser than in a story.

  Both a story and a drama contain description inside, while in a comic strip, it is almost nothing. Instead of the description, pictures are used to explain the situation.

  One of comic strips written by Art and Chip Sansom, The Born Loser is one of the examples of comic strip that tells about people’s daily life that contains conversation inside. The Born Loser is one of the comic strips that The Jakarta

  

Post chooses to publish inside their newspaper along with some other comic

  strips. This comic strip tells about Brutus Thornapple’s life. Brutus Thornapple is the main character in this comic strip. There are also other characters; they are Gladys Thornapple, Wilberforce Thornapple, Rancid W. Veeblefester, Ramona Gargle, and Hurricane Hattie O'Hara.

  In this paper, the writer intends to analyze the conversation in a comic strip. In order to analyze the conversation, a conversation analysis is needed to see how to analyze the preference structure used in the comic strip. The writer also intends to reveal the patterns of dispreferred response that Brutus uses as the wants to inform the readers about the preference structure of the comic strip The

  

Born Loser and what the patterns of dispreferred response that Brutus uses as the

response to the first part are.

  B. Problem Formulation

  Two problems are formulated to analyze the topic, they are: 1.

  What kinds of conversation structure are used in the comic strip? 2. What are the patterns of dispreferred response that Brutus uses as the response to the first part?

  C. Objectives of the Study

  Since the conversation analysis helped on the understanding of utterance meaning by showing how large proportion of the situated significance of utterances can be traced to their surrounding sequential environment, it is necessary to know the preference structure of the conversation in the comic strip to know how the characters react to certain utterance. Therefore, the first objective of the study is applied to identify the preference structure used in the comic strip

  The Born Loser .

  By finding the preference structure, the dispreferred response of the first

  part in conversation can be found. This finding may help to study the second objective of the study, the writer uses the series of optional elements of

D. Definition of Terms

  There are four definitions of terms used in this topic. They are conversation, conversation analysis, dispreferred, and comic strips. It is important to know the terms in order to avoid the misunderstanding.

  1. Conversation Conversation is discourse mutually constructed and negotiated in the time between speakers: it is usually informal and unplanned. (Cutting, 2003: 28)

  2. Conversation Analysis Conversation Analysis is an approach that studies the way that: what the speaker says dictates the type of answer expected, and that speakers take turns when they interact. (Cutting, 2003: 24)

  3. Dispreferred Dispreferred is the structurally unexpected response or next act. (Yule,

  1996: 79)

  4. Comic Strip Comic strip is a series of drawings inside boxes that tell a story and are often printed in newspapers. (Hornby, 2002: 253)

CHAPTER II THEORITICAL REVIEW This chapter is divided into three parts. The first part is Review of Related Studies. In this part there are two reviews given by two people. The second part is Review of Related Theories. This part discusses theories that are going to be used

  in this study. The third is Theoretical Framework. This part explains the use of the theories in order to solve the problem formulation.

A. Review of Related Study

  Miller in Conversation Analysis and the Book of Jonah:

  

A Conversation tried to analyze the conversation in Raymond Person's book In

Conversation with Jonah with Conversation Analysis. She found that Person

  succeeds in analyzing the conversation in Jonah, and Person also succeeds in highlighting that dialogue and the structure of biblical narrative is important.

  Nonetheless, the analysis of conversation in Jonah which Person has presented has been successful in a number of respects. He has highlighted the importance of dialogue and its structural significance for biblical narrative. He has shown how the first part of an adjacency pair produces the expectation of a relevant and acceptable response; where a response is absent, a gap is opened up which the reader must attempt to fill. He has shown that the linear order of narrative may be displaced chronologically in order to place the second part of an adjacency pair immediately after the first part (6

   September 2009). Miller tried to show how Person analyzed the narrative using Conversation Analysis that could help him in finding that in the narrative the order of the linear order can be changed from the second part of an adjacency pair immediately after the first part.

  The other related study comes from Andi Muhammad Yauri S. Koherensi dalam

  

wacana komik the born loser (Coherence in The Born Loser Comic Discourse). In

  his writing, he analyzed the coherence of the conversation in the comic The Born

  

Loser . He used linguistic tools such as reference, substitution, deletion,

  conjunctions and lexical. From his analysis, he found that the cohesive in discourse that is marked with a device is used to create the harmony of in the comic discourse (6 September 2009).

  Just like Miller and Yauri S., the writer also analyses conversation in a comic strip that is The Born Loser. The analysis that the writer is going to reveal is about the dispreferred response of the preference structure in the comic strips. It is similar to Miller analysis but the writer here wants to analyze the structure of the conversation in the comic in order to see the pattern of dispreferred response that Brutus uses as the response to the first part.

B. Review of Related Theories

  In this review of related theories, the writer will use two theories, they are writer will use to analyze the conversation in comic strip The Born Loser, they are turn-taking, adjacency pairs, and sequences. Second, the theory of Preference Structure, they are preferred and dispreferred.

1. Conversation Analysis

  Cutting in Pragmatics and Discourse: A resource book for students (2003: 27, 28) stated that Conversation Analysis takes a „bottom-up‟ approach: it begins with the conversation itself, and then leads to the structure of the conversation.

  Conversation Analysis looks the conversation as a process. It looks at the flow of the event little by little and what it implies from the conversation between speakers. Conversation itself is a discourse that formed by different speakers at a time that is unplanned and usually informal (2003: 28).

  In conversation analysis there are 3 parts, they are turn-taking, adjacency pairs, and sequences. Those three parts may help to find the structure of the conversation. Below are the explanations of those parts.

a. Turn-taking

  In most countries and cultures there is only one person speak at the time. It naturally happened when someone is speaking, the other is listening. The people take turns; when the first speaker finishes talking, another speaker begins to talk.

  “All cultures have their own preferences as to how long a speaker should hold the floor, how they indicate that they finished and another speaker should hold the floor, how they indicate that they have finished and another speaker can take the floor, when a new speaker can start, whether

  When the speaker finish talking the next speaker begins to talk, the moment of changing between the speakers is called a transition relevance place or TRP. In the conversation, the next speaker do not know exactly when the first speaker

  ‟s turn is complete, but they will end their turn by saying a word or sentence that indicates that their turn already complete. When the next speaker begins to talk while the first one is still taking, this called an interruption. The following is the example of the interruption. The interruption is indicated with a //, this sign is adapted from Gumperz (Cutting, 2003:29).

  B: well, I guess the meeting is // over for today.

  A: // umm. Um, can I speak first. The next speaker can predict when the turn is complete. The moment when they predict the turn of the current speaker almost finishes but they begin to talk is called overlap. The following the example of the overlap. The overlap begins indicated with a =. This sign is adapted from Schriffin (Cutting, 2003:29)

  A: No, she is in the hospital. Well =

  B: = What happened to her? It seems there is an unwritten agreement in each culture about the acceptable length of a pause between two turns. The pause is called an attributable silence (Cutting, 2003: 29). The following is the example of the attributable silence.

  A: Do you love me? B: (5) Uh-uh.

  A: So, would you marry me? B: Yes.

  From the above example, B pauses for five second, before her “uh-uh”. It indicated with number five which is in the brackets. The “uh-uh” is an attributable silence because it comes after the pause.

b. Adjacency pairs

  Adjacency pairs are a pair of utterances that occur in conversation. In a conversation the utterance of the first speaker may lead to particular response of the second speaker. The conversation then consists of a first part and a second part, that the first part may create an expectation of particular second part. These parts are produced by different speakers. According to Levinson (1984:303), adjacency pairs are sequences of two utterances that are adjacent; produce by different speaker; ordered as a first part and a second part; and typed, so that a particular first part requires a particular second (or range of second parts)

• – e.g. offers require acceptance or rejections, greetings require greetings and so on. The following is a few examples taken from Cutting (2003:30).

  a question has preferred response of an answer an offer an acceptance an invitation an acceptance an assessment an agreement a proposal an agreement a greeting a greeting

  In adjacency pairs, when the first speaker produces the utterance, it must be recognizable so the second speaker can produce a recognizable second part as the response of the first part. The following are some examples of adjacency pairs that have the first part and the second part. There are also some optional second parts for some examples.

  a. Greeting - Greeting A: Hi.

  B: Hi.

  b. Summons - Answer

  A: Barbie! B: Coming mother.

  c. Question - Answer

  A: Do you like those cookies? B: Yes, I do.

  d. Farewell - Farewell A: Ok, goodbye.

  B: Bye.

e. Compliment - Acceptance A: That‟s a nice watch.

  B: Thanks.

• Agreement B: It is quite nice, isn‟t it.
• Rejection B: Well, I think it makes my arm looks big.
• Shift B: My mother bought it yesterday.
• Return B: Thanks, I like yours too.

  f. Complaint - Apology

  A: You ate the pudding I left in the fridge! B: Sorry.

• Justify B: I was hungry. It was just a cup anyway.
• Challenge

  B: So what?

  g. Offer - Accept

  A: Would you like another cup of coffee? B: Yes please, that would be nice.

• Reject B: No thanks.

  h. Request - Grant

  A: Can you buy me a cup of coffee? B: Sure.

• Put off B: Sure, but I‟m busy right now.
• Challenge

  B: Why do you always ask me to buy you a cup of coffee?

• Refusal

B: Sorry, but I won‟t be near to the Coffee

  Shop?

c. Sequences

  In conversation the speakers tend to construct their conversation that leads to some particular sequences. These sequences can be pre-sequences, insertion sequence, and opening and closing sequence. Pre-sequences happen when the speaker is giving a ground for the further sequence and the type of utterance to follow (Cutting, 2003:30). Pre-sequences can be pre-invitations, pre-requests, and pre-announcements. The following are the example of pre-invitation, pre-request, and pre-announcement:

• Pre-invitation

  A: Do you know that Bona will hold a party this weekend?

  B: Yes?

  A: Do you want to go with me to the party?

  B: Sure, why not?

• Pre-request

  A: Celo are you busy now?

  B: No, why?

  A: Can you help me with my homework? B: Sure.

• Pre-announcement A: I can‟t wait to go home now.

  B: What happen?

  A: Mona will be home today and we are going to spend our weekend with the kids in Disney Land.

  B: That would be great, I guess. Insertion sequence happens when the first speaker asking question, the second speaker answers it by another question, and when the second speaker answers the question given by the first speaker, the first speaker answers the second speaker question (Q1, Q2, A2, A1). The following is the example of insertion sequence that is taken from Cutting (2003: 31).

A: You know that French film that‟s on in the Odeon?

  B: Yes?

  A: Do you want to go and see it tonight?

  B: What time does it start? A: Eight thirty-five.

  B: Yeah, why not? Opening sequence is opening of conversation that usually contains a greeting. The following is the example of opening sequence.

  Alan: Hi, Bob. Bob: Hi, Alan. Alan: How are you? Bob: Fine, how about you? Closing sequence is the end of conversation that usually contains a farewell. The following is the example of closing sequence.

  A: Sorry, I have to go now.

B: It‟s okay. See you.

  A: See you on Monday. Bye.

  B: Bye.

2. Preference Structure

  In adjacency pairs there is a correlation of content and format that the first called preference structure that consists of preferred and dispreferred respons. Preferred response is the expected response and dispreferred response is the unexpected response (Yule, 1996: 78-79).

  The participants can give response based on the request. The response can be preferred response by accepting the request or dispreferred response by refusing the response. The following is a table of correlation of content and format in adjacency pairs that is taken from Levinson‟s book Pragmatics (1984: 336).

  First Parts: Request Offer/Invite Assessment Question

  Blame

  Second Parts: Prefferred: Acceptance Acceptance Agreement Expected

  Denial

  answer Dispreferred: Refusal Refusal Disagreement Unexpected

  Admission

  answer or non-answer

a. Preferred response

  The preferred responses are usually agreements and acceptances. This response contains what the first speaker expects from the second speaker. The following is the example of preferred responses:

  A: Can we go to the pool now?

  B: Yes. Can you call the cab so we can go now?

  From the above conversation, A is asking whether he and B can go to the pool right now. The answer “yes” is the preferred response because it is considered as the expected answer from B. The conversation continues when B is asking whether A can call the cab so they can go, this first part leads to the second part that B will answer the question. A‟s answer “sure” is considered as preferred response since B expected A to answer with an acceptance.

b. Dispreferred response The dispreferred responses usually contain refusals and disagreements.

  This response happens when the first speaker does not expect the answer from the second speaker. There are also unusual responses that consider as meaningful or even rude. For example, the absence of response may consider as the hearer is not paying attention, refusing to cooperate, or not having heard. The following is the example of dispreferred response:

  A: Do you know wher e the doctor‟s room is?

B: I don‟t know.

  From the above example A is asking whether B know where the doctor‟s room is. B answers “I don‟t know” is a dispreferred answer since A does not expect that answer from B.

C. Theoretical Framework

  Theory of Conversation Analysis is applied to see the conversation structure used in comic strip. There are three parts of conversation analysis that conversation structure used in the comic strip. By finding the conversation structure, it may help in the second analysis to reveal the patterns of dispreferred response that Brutus uses as the response to the first part, here the series of optional elements of dispreferred response by Yule will be used as the guidance.

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY In this chapter, the writer will explain about the object of study and the

  method of the study that the writer used in analyzing the topic. In the object of the study, the writer will describe the object or data of the study, which include the description of the work analyzed and the information of its publication. In the method of study, the writer will explain the procedure taken in analyzing the comics.

A. Object of the Study

  The object of the study in this thesis is the comic strip The Born Loser which written by Art and Chip Sansom. The Born Loser is one of the examples of comic strip that tell about people’s daily life that contains conversation inside. The

  

Born Loser is one of the comic strips that The Jakarta Post chooses to publish

  inside their newspaper along with some other comic strips. This comic strip tells about Brutus Thornapple’s life. Brutus Thornapple is the main character in this comic strip. There are also other characters; they are Gladys Thornapple, Wilberforce Thornapple, Rancid W. Veeblefester, Ramona Gargle, and Hurricane Hattie O'Hara.

  Chip Sansom began to continue The Born Loser when he was 14 years old when his father, the late Art Sansom, first created the strip in 1965. After years of observing and assisting his father, he assumed that it was his destiny to be a cartoonist to continue what his father had done.

  “I am very happy that The Born Loser is still as appealing to readers, new and old, as it was when it first appeared 45 years ago,” Sansom said. “It is a tribute to the great characters my dad created and his universal and timeless premise that Brutus Thornapple is an everyman, taking the fall for the rest of us in the trials and tribulations we face everyday.” <http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2010/05/05/the-born-loser- celebrates-45-yea (7 July 2010) After all The Born Loser is one of the most popular comic strips in the world. It had readers of more than 1,300 in newspapers around the world and on the Web at www.gocomics.com. It appears daily in more than 35 countries and as the result it is also translated into nine languages. The Born Loser also gets into a six-time National Cartoonists Society award nominee for Best Humor Strip in 1991 and 1987. In the 1990, Topper Books published a compilation book The

  

Born Loser’s Guide to Life <http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2010/05/05/the-

born-loser-celebrates-45-years/> (7 July 2010).

B. Method of the Study

  The writer used library and internet research as the method of the study in analyzing this thesis. The materials were taken from newspapers, library, and

  The primary source of the study was the comic strip written by Art and Chip Sansom, The Born Loser. The secondary sources of this study were books and articles from internet and library; they included theories, references or any related topic.

  There were some steps that the writer did to analyze the comic strip. First, the writer collected all comics from July to December 2011. After all the comics were collected, the writer chose the comics that have Brutus Thornapple as the first speaker, second, or third speaker to be analyzed. Next, the writer began to analyze the comics using a conversation analysis and a preference structure view, this is the first analysis. After finishing the first analysis, the writer began the second analysis to see the patterns of dispreferred response that Brutus uses as the response to the first part in the comic strip.

1. Data Collection

  The writer collected the data manually from newspapers and websites. The data was collected during July to December 2011. Not all of the comic strips are sufficient for the research that is why the writer needs to analyze all the comic strips and collects the samples.

  Strategies that will be used in the manufacture of the sample are purposive sampling strategy. Based on the book written by Sudjana, Metoda Statistika, purposive sampling occurs when the sampling is based on personal considerations.

  In this case, the researcher who asked to collect data on something that has been fixed in advance, in practice he collects necessary data in accordance with the consideration and / or take advantage of all the information in a predetermined category. Thus, taking the sampling unit is determined by the researcher until it is adequate. (Sudjana, 1989: 168) Based on this technique, the writer decided to take a comic strip with the following criteria. First, the writer collected all comics that are published during

  2011. Next the writer took comics during six months from July to December 2011. After that the writer chose some comics that contain Brutus Thornapple as the first speaker, second, or third speaker. Finally the comics that have been selected were ready to be analyzed.

2. Data Analysis

  In analyzing the data there were several steps that the writer did. First of all, the writer started the study by analyzing the data. Then the writer developed a framework to simplify in writing this thesis. In addition, the author combines the data that have been collected to the competent writing. The following were steps undertaken by the writer in conducting the study of this thesis.