An analysis of the flouting maxims in “princess diaries 2: royal engagement” film based on grice’s cooperative principle (a pragmatics study)

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Tety Ratna Artanti - C1304046 - Fak. Sastra dan Seni Rupa

ABSTRAK The research entitled An Analysis of Flouting Maxims in “Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement” Film Based on Grice’s Cooperative Principle is a descriptive research using Pragmatics approach, particularly, the cooperative principle. The Cooperative Principles is four basic maxims of conversation that specify what the participants have to do in order to converse in maximally efficient, rational, cooperative way where they should speak sincerely, relevantly, orderly, informatively, and clearly, while providing sufficient information. The four conversational maxims which are proposed by Grice namely: maxim of Quality, Quantity, Relation, and Manner. The technique of collecting data was based on Purposive Sampling or criterion based on the purpose of the research. The samples of this research are the character’s dialogues that employ the flouting of four conversational maxims in the conversations of “Princess Diaries Movie 2: Royal Engagement” film. The research took seventeen conversations employing the flouting of four conversational maxims as the data. This research was aimed to (1) describe how the Cooperative Principle is employed by the characters in “Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement” film, (2) find out what kind of the flouting maxims are employed by the characters in the film. The results of the analysis can be seen as follows: First, since there are flouting maxims in “Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement” film, Grice’s Cooperative Principle is not perfectly fulfilled by the characters in its dialog. The analysis of the maxim of Quality indicates that almost all statements uttered by the characters in the dialogs are dominated by the true fact. It can be seen from the utterances they use to prove or support that what they’re saying are true. There are 9 dialogs which fulfill the maxim. In the analysis of the maxim of Quantity, there are merely 8 dialogs which fulfill the maxim. It can be said that there are only few characters involved in the dialogs who have shared the sufficient information required by others. From the analysis of the maxim of Relation, all the characters in the dialogs tend to follow the principle. This evidence shows either that the characters have uttered the statements which are relevant to the situation required or that they have given the relevant information inquired by their partners in the dialogs. The maxim of Manner analyzed in the dialogs mostly has been fulfilled by the characters. There are 10 dialogs which fulfill the maxim. This proves that the characters have orderly and clearly constructed their utterances which, of course, will minimize the misunderstanding in the dialogs they involved in. Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that the Cooperative Principle have been generally fulfilled by the characters in the dialogs. In order to make the conversation runs smoothly, almost the characters involved in a conversation has taken part in cooperative interaction with others by providing an appropriate amount of information, telling the truth, being relevant, and trying to be as clear as they can. Second, based on the analysis of the flouting maxims in “Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement” film, it could be discovered that there are three kinds of the flouting maxims employed by the characters in the dialogs, namely the flouting maxim of Quality, Quantity, and Manner. Those flouting maxims have their own implicatures related to the context of each dialog which shows the reason why the character flouts a maxim. The employment of the flouting maxim of Quality by the characters in 8 dialogs can be seen from their utterances which are blatantly untrue or for which they lack adequate evidence. The flouting maxim of Quantity is mostly employed by the characters in 9 dialogs. Most of their utterances tend to give more information than the situation requires which are used to support their first utterance or give new information to others. Meanwhile, there is no dialog which employs the flouting maxim of Relation. It means that all of the characters have observed the maxim of Relation in 17 dialogs where the second person has directly addressed the first person’s goal in asking a question. The employment of the flouting maxim of Manner by the characters in 7 dialogs can be seen from their lengthy and unclear utterances. Besides finding the three kinds of the flouting maxims, the researcher also found that there are two phenomena in the data analyzed. The first, the researcher found that the most flouted maxims in the data have low information content and high affective content. It shows that the characters tend to express the affective (the implicatures of their utterances) rather than the information of their utterances (their utterances / what is actually said by the characters). The second, the researcher also found two overlapping incidence. The first overlap is between the flouting maxim of Quality and Quantity at the data 3. It happens since the characters blatantly give more information than required which is untrue. Hence, besides flouting the maxim of Quantity, the characters also flout the maxim of Quality. The second overlap is between the flouting maxim of Quantity and Manner. They are found at the data 8, 9, 12 and 13. It happens since the characters flout the maxim of Quantity by giving more information than required. Furthermore, the information which is given through their utterances is lengthy and unclear. Hence, besides flouting the maxim of Quantity, the characters also flout the maxim of Manner. In conclusion, it is expected that this research will be useful for future researchers who are interested in studying more about non-observance of the Grice’s maxims, but they may look at it from a different angle e.g. the analysis of Violating, Infringing, Opting Out, or Suspending maxims.