AN ANALYSIS OF THE VIOLATING MAXIMS
IN MATA NAJWA TALK SHOW
A THESIS
Submitted to Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Sarjana
Sastra
By:
DEWI SARTIKA
209220008
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Alhamdulillah, the writer express her best gratitude to Allah SWT, for giving the
writer blessing, endless love and mercy, especially in the process of accomplishing this
thesis. In accomplishing this thesis, the writer was helped by so many beloved people
and the writer would like to express her gratitude to:
Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si. as the Rector of State University of
Medan
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum. as the Dean of Faculty of Languages and Arts
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd. as the Head of English and Literature
Department and Dra. Meisuri, M.A. as the Head of Applied Linguistics
Program
Drs. Willem Saragih, Dipl.Appl. M.Pd. as her thesis adviser, for the advice,
guidance, comment, and precious time in supervising the draft of writing during
the completion of this thesis, Dra. Sri Juriaty Ownie, M.A as her academic
adviser, and all her beloved lecturers in English and Literature Department.
Mam Eis, Mam Enda and Mam Indri for their kind help in providing
academic administrations to the writer.
Her beloved family, her father, Supardi her mother, Satini, her dearest sisters
Mujiani and Wiji, and also her brothers Haryanto and Sutrisno S.T. thank you
for the understanding and the big support in prayer, love, motivation and
financial while accomplished this thesis.
Her beloved friends, SEMAK (very special thanks to help the writer to Nurul,
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friendship that we have been through together. And to all her friends in Applied
Linguistics A and B 2009 especially for her comrades Nonik, Vey, Vika and
many others that she cannot be mentioned one by one.
Her best friends, Imeh, Wita, and Tina toon, for their support, love and
friendship.
All others whose name cannot be mentioned one by one for their help and
support. Thanks for everything. May Allah bless us. Amin.
Finally, the writer admits that this thesis still far from being perfect. Therefore,
the writer would like to invite the readers to give suggestion for the improvement of this
thesis later on.
Medan, December 2013
The writer
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ABSTRACT
Sartika, Dewi.2013. An Analysis of the Violating Maxim in Mata Najwa Talk Show. A Thesis, Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan.
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B. Conversational Implicature ... 8
1. Generalized Conversational Implicature ...9
E. Television and Television Program ... 18
F. Talk Show ... 18
G. Metro TV ...20
1. Program on Metro TV ...22
H. Biography of Najwa Shihab ...23
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A. Research Design ... 25
B. The Source of Data ... 25
C. The Technique of Collecting Data ... 26
D. The Technique of Analyzing Data ... 27
CHAPTER IV : DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS ... 28
A. Data ... 28
B. Data Analysis ... 28
C. Research Findings ... 41
CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ... 43
A. Conclusion ... 43
B. Suggestion ... 43
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix A Identification of Violation of Maxim in the speaker’s utterances in
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language to express their thoughts and feelings. Lewis and Slade (1994:27) state
that language is a system which gives resource for people to assign meanings to
words, sentences, and discourse structures, by virtue of being used in interaction.
One of the functions of language is an instrument in communication.
According to Lewis and Slade (1994:4), communication is the sharing of ideas,
knowledge or feeling. To get an effective communication, the listeners should
understand the exact information or idea that the speaker intends. In a
conversation, we often do not speak in complete sentence and rarely say what we
mean literally so the listeners could interpret the meaning differently. The
phenomena in the conversation may be elaborated deeply in pragmatics; it
concerns with the use of language in social contexts and the ways in which people
produce and comprehend meanings through language.
Pragmatics is a study of contextual meaning. Yule (1996:3) said that
pragmatics necessarily involves the interpretation of what people mean in
particular context and how the context influences what is said. It means that how
speaker organizes what s/he wants to say appropriately with whom s/he talking to,
when, where, and what the circumstance. Conversational implicature is one of the
what the speaker intend to communicate more than what is asked the speaker in a
conversation.
Implicature can be investigated from sentence based on three things; first
the usual linguistic meaning of what is said, second contextual information
(general knowledge) and third the assumption that speaker is obeying the
cooperative principle. This basically sums what implicature is all about and how
speakers and hearers of a language get along cooperatively and politely(Laston
Mukaro,et al, 2013:162). The cooperative principle is the principles of
communication when they manage to achieve a successful and ideal
communication. Yule (1996:35) said that speakers and listeners involved in
conversation are generally cooperating with each other. According to the
philosopher H.P. Grice there are four conversational maxims; maxim of quantity
(be as informative as is required), maxim of quality (be truthful) maxim of
relation (be relevant), and maxim of manner (be clear and avoid ambiguity).
A conversation not only depends on the speaker, who is trying to deliver a
message, but also on the listeners who draw a conclusion from the implication of
the utterance, depending on the context in which it occurs. The conversation,
itself, as a reciprocal act, retains spesific rules and regulation.(Parvaneh and
Nikan,2011:122) It consists of two kinds; written such as movie script and spoken
such as talk show or interviews in television. A talk show is a television program
or radio in which people, especially distinguishes people, and is invited to talk in
informal way about various topics. Sometimes, talk show prioritizes a panel of
experiences which still relate to the issues which is discussed on the show for that
episode.
Mata Najwa is one of the television talk shows in Indonesia. It tends talk
about the political issues and political events in Indonesia; Mata Najwa is
presented by Najwa Shihab, who is also known as “Best TV Anchor/Reporter” by
an Indonesia journalist association for her work in 2005. Her best reminded
performance may be while Najwa Shihab reported in Aceh after Tsunami in 2005,
Jakarta Governor Election, and the first news anchor who successfully
interviewed Indonesian President; Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono shortly after his
inauguration. (http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Najwa_Shihab)
There have been some previous researches related on the violation of
maxims. One of them is Types of Cooperative Principles in Kick Andy Talk Show
by Mariana Desy Elfrida Saragih (2010). Her study is intended to describe the
types of cooperative principles, violation and the purpose of cooperative
principles that is used in Kick Andy Talk Show. The study of Saragih inspires the
writer in establishing the procedure of the data analysis.
The writer is interested in conducting this research on Mata Najwa Talk
Show because generally a talk show gives entertainment or inspiration to the
audiences but in Mata Najwa the speakers tend to talk about the political issue and
some events that happened in Indonesia. The writer chooses three episodes which
invited the president candidates such as; Mahfud M.D (Chairman of the
Constitutional Court), Anies Baswedan (Rector of Paramadina of University),
TNI) and the talk show is recently invited Rhoma Irama, an artist or dai who will
candidate himself to be a president for the next election, as we know that there
will be a presidential election in Indonesia in 2014.
Based on the rules that states by Grice, the speakers may obey the maxim
if they give appropriate contribution. In our daily life, we consciously or
unconsciously break the rule of cooperative principle, with no exception in a talk
show or interviews in television. Sometimes the speakers consciously or
unconsciously may violate the rule to reach a certain goal such as try to hide the
truth of any information, give incorrect information or just to entertain. So the
writer wants to analyze it to discover the maxims which are violated by the
speakers in the talk show.
By doing this research, it is expected to understand how the politicians
speak and to be useful to the public especially for Indonesian people to be more
aware of what the politicians say. The writer expects that Indonesian people will
be more selective in the election for the regent, governor and president.
B. The Problem of the Study
The problem of the study can be state as the following:
1. What kinds of maxims are violated in the utterance of the speakers in Mata
Najwa Talk show?
2. Which maxim is dominantly violated in the utterance of the speakers in
3. Why is it dominantly violated by the speakers in Mata Najwa Talk show?
C. The Objectives of the Study
In the relation to the problems of study, the objectives of study are:
1. To describe the violated maxim in the utterance of the speakers in Mata
Najwa Talk show.
2. To discover the most dominant violated maxim in the utterance of the
speakers in Mata Najwa Talk show.
3. To describe the reason of the dominant maxim which is violated in Mata
Najwa Talk show.
D. The Scope of the Study
In this research, the study is limited on the violation of maxims as found
in the utterances of the speakers in Mata Najwa talk show based on Grice’s theory
(maxim of relation, maxim of quantity, maxim of quality and maxim of manner).
The data are taken from three episodes of Mata Najwa talk show that invited some
presidential candidates, the data are“ Kuda Hitam 2014” (July, 4th 2012)“Perang
E. The Significance of the Study
The finding of this study is expected to give both theoretical and practical
contribution in discourse studies, especially in analyzing the violating maxims
used by some people in their communication.
Theoretically, the finding of the research is expected to be one of the
sources in discourse studies, particularly on the analyzing the violating maxims
used by some people in their communication.
Practically, it is expected to be more practical. The students who learn
English are expected to be able to recognize and to analyze the violating maxims
used in spoken language. In addition, to the teachers, the result of the research
will be an additional material in studying and understanding the types of
Cooperative Principles. Also the result of the study is expected to be a
contribution to others who are interested in doing similar field of the research as a
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
Based on the analysis of the utterances in Mata Najwa talk show in the
previous chapter, it can be concluded that:
1. There are four types of maxims which are violated by the speakers in
Mata Najwa talk show in three selected episodes which topic is
presented about President candidates i.e. maxim of quality, quantity,
relation, and manner in responding the question given by the host. It
caused by some factors such as the speakers use hyperbole words, say
the utterances which have lack evidences, give more or less
information than is required, make unrelated respond with the topic
and say an obscurity expression.
2. The maxim which is dominantly violated in Mata Najwa talk show is
maxim of quantity (27 utterances, 56,25%) because all of the speakers
give some additional information or less information than is required,
then it followed by maxim of manner (10 utterances, 20,8%), relation
(9 utterances, 18,75%) and quality (2 utterances, 4,2%).
3. The reason that they dominantly violate maxim of quantity is to make
clearly information to be understood with clarify and present the
strongest information in the talk show. It indicates that the politicians
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to respond to the host’s question. They want to create good image in
public speaking with talk too much and say the good words. They did it
to get sympathy from audiences so they will be chosen in the
presidential election in 2014.
B.Suggestions
By considering the research findings and the conclusion there are some
suggestions which are presented as follow:
1. The students who learn Pragmatics need to comprehend cooperative
principle so that they know the rule of communication to make ideal and
successful communication.
2. The readers especially the student of English Department can choose the
violation of maxims as the object of research, because many interesting
aspects can be analyzed especially in the television program.
