CHAPTER I Introduction

This chapter presents background of the study, research problems, objectives of the study, significances of the study, and also scope and limitation of the study. 1.1 Background of the Study In daily conversation, people share idea, thoughts, information, and feeling through language. When giving and receiving information, they can understand each other. If they successfully fulfill the rules of smooth communication, it means that both speaker and hearer should obey the rules that arrange how to communicate effectively. Grice in Brown and Yule (1988: 31) proposes a general principle of conversation which is called cooperative principles. According to him, effective communication requires cooperative situation between the speaker and the hearer. A conversation not only depends on the speaker who is trying to deliver a message, but also on the hearer who draws a conclusion from the implication of the utterance, depending on the context in which it occurs. Thus, cooperative principle functions as a principle that gives an idea about what should be said in conversation and how should be said. Grices concept of this principle is: Make your conversational contribution what is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged. (Brown and Yule, 1988: 31) This principle is supported by a number of maxims. They are maxim of quality, maxim of quantity, maxim of relevant, and maxim of manner (Yule, 1996: 37). Maxim of quality regulates that a speaker has to speak the truth. The speakers may not say something that is believed to be false and lack adequate evidence. Maxim of quantity means that in having a conversation. A speaker is supposed to make the contribution as informative as is required and not supposed to make the contribution more informative than is required. In addition, maxim of relevance means that a speaker has to be relevant with the topic in discussion. Furthermore, maxim of manner is defined that a speaker should avoid obscurity of expression, avoid ambiguity, be brief, and be orderly. Whereas, a hedge is bringing down device used to reduce the impact of an utterance. It could be adjectives, adverbs, and also can consist of clauses. In term of hedging maxim, it is

a way to obey the Gricean Maxims in which the speaker wants to cooperate with the hearer. The speakers give to the addressee is not completely accurate but seems informative and usually the speakers are quoted from other persons opinion. Goody (2000:169-170) said that quality hedges may suggest that the speaker is not talking full responsibility for the truth of his utterance. The speaker sometimes uses some expression such as I think, I absolutely, they say, It seems, as I remember, as you and I both know, well, by the way, all I know, etc. There is a language strategy which supposed by Grice that is called cooperative principles. By obeying the cooperative principles; it can make a smooth conversation between a speaker and a hearer. But, not only by obeying those principles, by breaking the principles also could make a smooth and well conversation. This strategy can be called by flouting and hedging of the conversational maxims. This strategy does not mean that both speaker and hearer are not being cooperative in a conversation, but they try to imply something. When flouting a maxim, the speaker does not intend to mislead the hearer but wants the hearer to look for the conversational implicature, that is, the meaning of the utterances not directly stated in the words uttered, but is hidden. In some conversations, this flouting is manipulated by a speaker to produce a negative pragmatic effect such sarcasm and irony, to avoid unpleasant thing, and to emphasize a message. For example, the Gricean maxims are often purposefully flouted by comedians and writers, who may hide the truth and manipulate their words for the effect of the story and the sake of the readers experience. When the speakers flout Grices conversational maxims, it cannot be said by not disobeying the rules of Grices maxims and their conversation is not as good as well. But, sometimes the speakers have a purpose when she or he utters an utterance. As stated by Cook (1989) that is flouting the cooperative principles or Gricean maxims have three functions. Those are the quantity maxim is violated in both directions; are creating prolixity if we say too much, and terseness if we are too brief. Second, we often say more than we need, perhaps to mark a sense of occasion, or respect; and we often say less than we need, perhaps to be rude, or forthright. Sometimes we flout deliberately the charge to be relevant, to signal embarrassment or a desire to change the subject. The last, the maxims of manner is violated either for humor (Cook, 1989: 31-32). With regard to the flouting, hedges may intentionally or unintentionally be employed in both spoken and written language since they are crucially important in communication. Hedging is necessary in several ways as stated by Brown and Levinson. First, by hedging; speakers can avoid commitment to the assumptions they make.

Second, hedging helps indicate approximate ranges, where detailed accuracy is not necessary or over precision is unexpected. (Brown & Levinson 1987) Literary works are the first media in written communication. There are many types of literary works; novel, poem, drama, short story, folktales, ballads and so on. One of the examples of printed media in literary work that is novel, novel is one of literary works that is in text form. As a text form, novel has many complex words which uttered by the characters in its story. The communication in the form of conversation among its characters may occur the flouting and hedging of Grices conversational maxims. The basic reason of choosing this novel is that it is a classic novel which written and published in 1873. This is appropriate novel which contains many flouting and hedging maxims in the characters conversations such as changing the topic of conversation or being irrelevant and being ambiguous because of two different cultures of both characters. In addition, in this novel have many conversations that could be interesting to be analyzed by seeing intercultural aspects of the characters utterances. Therefore, the researcher wants to reveal and classify flouting and hedging of Grices maxims in intercultural conversation; in order to provide a clear explanation of the characters utterances in the novel by using Grices theory of conversational maxims. Related to the discussion that is about flouting and hedging maxims, there are several researchers who observed about this topic. Lailatul Mukarromah (2008), in her study she used Grices theory of conversational maxims. She found that the speakers are hedged maxims when the utterances are not clearly stated and ambiguity without knowing the context. Another researcher observing this topic is Maria Helmi (2010). She found that the maxims flout when the speakers are delivering and maintaining their opinions, by producing the utterances in the form of rhetorical strategies. Besides, she also said in her finding research that the speaker uses the words not in the real condition but uses symbolic, and the speaker hedged the maxims by using or saying opening word, and produce utterances are irrelevance. The third is Fahmi Nur Aini (2011). She found that the speaker of the movie uses metaphor that flout quality maxim to compare the object of discussion to another thing. It is done by the speaker as one of politeness strategies to avoid FTA. And also these flouting give rise to implicit meaning. The characters hedge the quality maxim by quoting someones statement. In addition, it happens when the characters are not responsible completely to the truth of the statement and when the characters express the assertion by using degree of probability such as

probably, perhaps, etc. The latest study is by Dian Agustianingsih (2011). She found that the speakers flout maxims of relation, maxims of quality, maxims of quantity, and maxims of manner. Besides, her finding research is the humorous effect created when the speakers said something irrelevant, something roguishness or lied to hide the truth, said something less informative and said something obscurity. Regarding to the previous studies, the writer of this study thinks that it is important to continue their studies on the same topic, the flouting and hedging maxims. The writer here uses Grice theory on conversational maxims, the same theory as other researchers. But, there are a few differences, first is in the research problems. Next is in term of the data source. Although some previous studies had used novel as the data source, another used newspaper and script of movie, the writer here uses the classic novel that has many complex words in conversation of its story. The writer technically uses different novel genre, it is classical adventure novel while the other researcher were romance novel and analyzes it with different theory. The writer uses the theory of implicature when analyzing the flouting maxim since the flouting maxims give rise to a certain conversational implicature. So, the writer looks for the hidden meaning when the characters in the novel flout the maxims. Besides, the researcher also analyzes the data using and seeing intercultural aspects of the characters in the novel story. So, it generates different result from others. 1.2 Research Problems Based on the background of the study, the writer formulates the research problems as follows: 1. What maxims are flouted in novel Around the World in 80 Days? 2. How are the characters utterances hedged in novel Around the World in 80 Days based on Grices maxims? 1.3 Objectives of the Study Based on the focuses mentioned above, the objectives of the study are: 1. To describe what maxims are flouted in novel Around the World in 80 Days 2. To describe how are the characters utterances hedged in novel Around the World in 80 Days based on Grices maxims?

1.4 Significances of the Study Hopefully, the findings of this study are expected to give valuable contribution. First is the contribution for the students. By seeing this study, the students will know that by violating the rules of maxims in conversation, it does not mean that the conversation is miscommunication or misunderstanding. The researcher expects that with this finding of the study may help the students who loves so much in literature can understand Grices conversational maxims through literary works. So, the students do not just read literary works. But, they can criticize the content of works by using Grices theory. In practically, it is expected that this study can be a text reading for the students, especially the students of English Department to learn more about flouting and hedging maxims in intercultural communication. The last, this study is expected to be able to give empirical proof about how people do flouting and hedging in cross-culture. Further, the finding of this study hopefully give the contribution for the teachers or lectures of discourse analysis. The findings are expected to give other knowledge in discourse issue particularly language research about flouting and hedging of Grices conversational maxims. And, it is expected that this study can be an additional source or reference in teaching of flouting and hedging maxims. And this finding is expected to be empirical data related to the flouting and hedging of conversational maxims theory which proposed by Paul Grice that used in novel. The last, the researcher also expects this research and the finding can give contribution and a starting point for the future researchers who are interested in doing research on flouting and hedging Grices conversational maxims more deeply. Furthermore, this study can be a comparison for the future research, especially in analyzing flouting and hedging of Grices maxims theory. 1.5 Scope and Limitation of the Study This study focuses on the utterances that uttered by all characters in the novel Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. More specially, this study focuses only on the characters utterances containing flouting and hedging in Grices conversational maxims.

Flouting and hedging of conversational maxims in novel Around the World in 80 Days

Thesis Proposal By: Zulkarnain (07320038)

ENGLISH LETTERS AND LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND CULTURE THE STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MAULANA MALIK IBRAHIM MALANG 2011