Analysis of The Rise of Conflicts Due To The Non-Observance of The Gricean Maxims in The TV Series 'Suits' (Season 1-2).

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ABSTRACT

Dalam penulisan tugas akhir ini, saya akan menganalisis maxim atau dalam bahasa Indonesia bidal, yaitu studi dalam bertutur kata dan termasuk dalam ranah pragmatika. Data yang saya gunakan dalam penulisan tugas akhir ini berasal dari sebuah serial televisi yang berjudul Suits, sebuah serial drama televisi yang menceritakan kehidupan para pengacara hebat di New York.

Setelah menonton dan menganalisis percakapan dari serial televisi tersebut, saya mendapati bahwa para tokoh sering kali melakukan pelanggaran terhadap satu bidal tertentu yang berisikan suatu implikatur yang berbeda baik sengaja maupun tidak sengaja. Selain itu saya mengkaji percakapan-percakapan dari para tokoh yang berisi bidal-bidal yang berakhir dengan konflik.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

It is obvious that language is one of the vital elements in human life. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, language is “the use by humans of a system of sounds and words to communicate” (Hornby 843). Another element of language is to give some information to the hearer; yet, sometimes people tend to give less, more or even false information in order to make the hearer think of another plausible meaning. The plausible meaning itself is called implicature. “An implicature is generated intentionally by the speaker and may (or may not) be understood by the hearer” (Thomas 58). When one makes an implicature, he or she wants to hint or suggest something which is indirectly said.

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meaning to the level of implied meaning” (Thomas 56). Grice helps us to understand the process of how the hearer is able to perceive what the speaker means. When the Conversational Maxims are unobserved, it is said that the hearer fails to observe the maxim. In Pragmatics, it is called non-observance of the maxims. “People may fail to observe a maxim because, for example, they are incapable of speaking clearly, or because they deliberately choose to lie” (Thomas 64). There are many consequences from the failure of observing the maxim, such as rise of conflicts, occurrence of humour, suspense building. Those consequences can happen when the speaker gives less, more or false information, an unclear and ambiguous statement, or an irrelevant statement from the topic.

The topic of my thesis is Analysis of the Rise of Conflicts Due to the Non-Observance of the Gricean Maxims in the TV Series Suits Seasons 1-2. The reason why I choose this topic is because in daily conversation there are many occasions when people fail to observe the maxims, which results in conflicts. Thus, this particular topic is interesting to be chosen as a topic of my thesis.

The reason why I choose this topic is that in normal conversations, there are occasions when a conversation between a speaker and a hearer leads to conflicts. This thesis can help the readers to see how non-observance of the conversational maxim results in conflicts. Moreover, this thesis can also help the readers to prevent themselves from failing to observe the maxims. Thus, their conversation will not lead to conflicts.

Suits is a US drama television series. This television series was started to

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series; yet the main writer of this television series is Aaron Korsh. He also writes Everybody Loves Raymond, Just Shoot Me!, Love, and others.

The setting of place in this television series is New York City, New York, USA. This drama television series is about a story of several lawyers from the same and different firms. Mike Ross, a brilliant yet college-dropout man, is hired as a lawyer in an exclusive firm, Pearson Hardman. He is employed by Harvey Spector, one of New York City’s best legal closers. The employees in Pearson Hardman should be Harvard Law School graduates, but Mike is not. Harvey and Mike should keep their secret so that others will not know that Mike is not a Harvard Law School graduate.

I choose this television series because there are many speech events in the television series that I can analyse in terms of the non-observance of the Gricean Maxim. The speech events also lead to conflicts.

This thesis is significant as people will be able to understand the real intention of the speaker when they fail to observe the conversational maxims. People can also see how non-observance of maxims leads to conflict. I believe my thesis will help the reader to distinguish what type of maxim that the speaker fails to observe and to understand the process of how the non-observance of maxim can lead to conflicts.

(696 words)

Statement of the Problem

There are four problems that I would like to analyze in my thesis, namely: 1. What utterances in Suits Seasons 1 to 2 are classified as non-observance of the

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2. What type of non-observance of the Gricean maxims does the speaker in Suits Seasons 1 to 2 fail to observe?

3. What is the implicature generated from the non-observance of the Gricean maxims?

4. How does the non-observance of the Gricean maxims lead to conflicts?

Purpose of the Study

The purposes of the thesis are:

1. To show the utterances in Suits Seasons 1 to 2 classified as non-observance of the Gricean maxims.

2. To show the types of non-observance of the Gricean maxims that the speaker fails to observe in Suits Seasons 1 to 2

3. To show the implicature which is generated from the non-observance of the Gricean maxims

4. To show how the non-observance of the Gricean maxims leads to conflicts

Method of Research

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Organization in the Thesis

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

This chapter presents some findings regarding the rise of conflicts due to the non-observance of the Gricean maxims in the Suits television series seasons 1-2, as well as the conclusion of my analysis. At the end of this chapter, I also add some suggestions and advice for the further researchers who will choose this topic for their thesis.

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shows the least. Besides, there are also two types of non-observance of the Gricean maxim which do not exist in the television series. They are suspending the maxim and opting out the maxim.

The reason why violating the maxim is the type of non-observance of Gricean maxim which shows the most frequent in the television series is because this is the easiest and the most effective way to lead to a conflict. There are several occasions which lead the character to violate the maxim which result in a conflict. The first occasion that I have found in Suits seasons 1-2 is covering Louis’ mistake so that he will not be blamed which leads the characters to violate the maxim. Besides, the refusal of giving and accepting orders that Harvey gives can lead the characters to violate the maxim. Another occasion is when Louis is afraid of admitting his mistakes in order to save his own name can lead the characters to violate the maxim. In addition, avoidance of being cornered can also be one of the reasons for the characters to violate the maxim. This type is shown in eleven data and eight of them are Louis’ utterances. Thus, through the analysis of the rise of conflict due to the non-observance of Gricean maxims, we can conclude that the characteristics of Louis are cunning and arrogant.

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maxim of manner. The occasion which leads the speaker to flout the maxim of manner is the speaker’s wish to criticize the hearer, so that he/she will be aware of what he/she should do. Besides flouting the maxim of quantity, there is one data each from maxim of quality and relation that I have found in Suits seasons 1-2. The first occasion which leads the characters to flout the maxim of quality is the disagreement about the hearer’s statement in order to make the hearer realize that what he has done is totally wrong. And the last occasion that I have found in the television series is avoidance of being blamed, which can lead the characters to flout the maxim of relation.

In addition to flouting the maxim, there is infringing the maxim which is found in three data. These data are shown in the same speech event and it is actually Mike’s utterances. The reason why infringing the maxim is shown the least is because the Suits television series tells a story about some lawyers and their clients in New York City. As lawyers, their ability in speaking must be very well. In addition, in the television series, there are no children or foreigners who do not understand English. Thus, this kind of occasion is very rare to find in the television series.

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not cause a conflict. Thus, there is no data which is categorized as suspending the maxim or opting out of the maxim.

After analyzing the television series using the theory of the non-observance of the Gricean maxim, I conclude that the occasions which lead to fail in observing the maxim can also lead to conflicts.

To end my thesis, I notice that there are some branches of Applied Linguistics which can be used to analyze the television series Suits in addition to using the non-observance of the Gricean maxim. It is possible for further researcher to use the theory of Politeness Strategy, because the story of the television series is about lawyers and clients, while settings of place are mostly in courts and firms. There is also one possible result of television series which can be analyzed, namely suspense building. Although this thesis is far from excellent, I hope this thesis may be helpful for everyone to avoid conflict. Besides, Suit television series can be used as data for further researchers.

(997 words)

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, Laurence. “Plot.” Story and Structure. 4th ed. N.p.: Harcourt Brace

“Suits.” Nov. 2013.

duction to Pragmatics. New

Yule, G ord: Oxford UP, 1996. George Books. Web. 1 Nov.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Data

Korsh, Aaron. “Suits.” Suits. Prod. Gene Klein, Doug Liman, and Dave Bartis. New York, United States of America, 23 June 2011. Television.

References

Grice’s Cooperative Principle, Maxims, and Implicature. Romania: Universitatea

Din Bucuresti, n.d. PDF.

Hornby, Albert Sidney. “Language.” Def. 1b. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 8th ed. 2010. Print

Leech, Geoffrey. Principles of Pragmatics. New York: Longman Inc., 1983: Print. Perrine

Jovanovich, 1974. 1-552. Print. IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 2

Thomas, Jenny. Meaning in Interaction: An Intro York: Longman, 1995.