A pragmatic analysis: conversational implicatures in ‘Antigone’, a play by Sophocles and its application to teaching speaking in SMA

Oleh :
Dwi Lestariningsih - K2202022 - Fak. KIP

ABSTRACT This research is grounded on some reasons. They are: 1) drama as one of the genres in literature has dialogue or imitation of speech which is interesting to be analyzed linguistically, 2) the use of drama in teaching English in SMA is still limited, whereas in fact drama can be used as a useful and motivating material to improve students’ skill, especially speaking. Based on the problem statements, the objectives of this study are: 1) to know how the co-operative principle and context help the addressee to interpret the meanings which are implied in the dialogues of Antigone, 2) to know in what way Antigone is applied to teaching speaking in SMA. This research is conducted in descriptive qualitative method. The source of data is dialogues containing conversational implicatures spoken by the main characters – Antigone, Creon, and Choragos, which are especially perceived as figure of speech. The sampling technique used is purposive for the sample is chosen based on certain purpose in order to reach the objective of this research. The analysis of data was done in two steps. First, each datum was analyzed by ways of describing the context – the background knowledge and the relevant aspects of physical or social settings surrounding the dialogues. Second, each datum was analyzed based on Grice’s maxims of co-operative principle which include: (1) maxim of quality, (2) maxim of quantity, (3) maxim of relevant, and (4) maxim of manner. The result of this research describes that, by maxims of co-operative principle the addressee assume that the meaning of the utterances which do not seem to conform to maxims of co-operative principle has deeper meaning. The addressee, then, look for the implied message which is necessary based on the background knowledge or context surrounding the dialogue. The conclusion of the research is that the main characters in Antigone are able to work out implicatures for they perceive the dialogues as figure of speech. They take the dialogues as the deliberate violation or flouting to maxims of co-operative principle. The use of figure of speech is intended to add certain sense or feeling in order to produce a greater effect of communication. The way how the play entitled Antigone can be applied to teaching speaking in SMA is by using the drama text to create activities which helps students practice speaking in long turns, such as: retelling story and acting out the extract of the play. Of course, a teacher must simplify the structure, vocabulary, and story of the text to be adjusted to the students’ level of English mastery so that it will be easy to learn and handle. The principle is that the simplification of text should be relevant to the original one.