The Non-Observance of Gricean Maxims in The Dialogues of 'Ace Ventura: Pet Detective'.

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iii Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Di dalam skripsi ini, saya menganalisis pelanggaran maxim dalam percakapan

dari sebuah film berjudul Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Film ini merupakan film

komedi Amerika yang dibuat pada tahun 1994 dan dibintangi aktor komedi

ternama Amerika, Jim Carey.

Guna melakukan analisis tersebut, saya menggunakan teori yang

dikemukakan oleh H. P. Grice mengenai aturan-aturan dalam percakapan

sehari-hari yang disebut Conversational Maxims. Teori ini mengatur mengenai

bagaimana seharusnya seorang penutur menciptakan suatu percakapan yang baik.

Analisis yang dilakukan adalah analisis jenis maxim yang dilanggar, alasan

pelanggaran. Grice memperkenalkan lima pelanggaran, yaitu, flouting, violating,

infringing, opting out, dan suspending a maxim.

Saya menyimpulkan bahwa dalam film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

terdapat banyak pelanggaran aturan percakapan, seperti menutupi maksud

sebenarnya dari percakapan yang ada. Hal ini menjadikan film tersebut sangat

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ii Maranatha Christian University

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Language is the main means of communication. It is used to express our

intentions or messages, both verbally and non-verbally. That makes language

something important in our life. In our daily life, the speaker, the hearer, and the

message will determine whether an oral communication will run smoothly or not.

In communicating with others, we try to build a good conversation. A

good conversation is based on the cooperative principle. The cooperative principle

here means that a speaker and a hearer should talk cooperatively and with good

intention.

However, a conversation can sometimes fail, which may cause the hearer

to misunderstand what the speaker means. This may happen because some of the

factors are not fulfilled according to what the speaker or hearer wants. If the

speaker tries to make a good conversation but the hearer does not, the

communication will fail. Therefore, the speaker and the hearer must work together

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2 Maranatha Christian University conversation, for example irrelevant answers, ambiguous meanings, unwillingness

to answer questions, or lack of information.

There are conversations that do not run smoothly in our daily life. Those

unsuccessful conversations happen because of some factors between the speaker

and the hearer. Therefore, I take this topic because it is interesting to know more

deeply why conversations fail. It helps us understand the people’s characters and

interpretations of what people means in communicating with others in our daily

life. In this study, I use a film to represent the conversation in daily life.

In analyzing the thesis, I use a theory by H. P. Grice. Grice is one of the

founders of a modern study in Pragmatics. He introduces maxims, the rules of

speaking in conversation. Some rules that are stated by Grice need to be used to

make the conversation run smoothly. In other words, a conversation is successful

when both the speaker and hearer obey the rules, or in Grice’s terms, observe the

maxims. On the other hand, a conversation fails if the speaker and hearer do not

obey the rules; in other words, they fail to observe the maxims.

In this thesis, I would like to focus my research on the non-observance of

the Gricean maxims applied by the major characters in the film Ace Ventura: Pet

Detective. I choose this film instead of other films as the source of my data

because the characters in this film, especially Ace Ventura, often fail to observe

the maxims. I will analyze the types of the non-observance of Gricean maxims

which contains the implied meanings of the speaker’s utterances in this film, and

find out the reasons why the Gricean maxims are not observed in the utterances of

the major characters of this film. Thus the title of my thesis is “The Non

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3 Maranatha Christian University To collect the data, I watched Ace Ventura: Pet Detective in DVD and

wrote down the conversations in that film. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is a 1994

American comedy film written by Tom Shadyac and Jim Carey and directed by

Tom Shadyac. Jim Carey is also the main actor of this film. This film is about a

goofy detective named Ace Ventura, who really loves animals. He specializes in

captivating and taming animals. Ventura’s behavior is like that of a mischievous

animal. In this film, Ventura is hired by the Miami Dolphin, a place for taking

care of dolphins. Ventura is hired to find the Miami Dolphin’s missing mascot

named Snowflake. Snowflake is stolen just before the Super Bowl (name of a

local event of sport). Ventura is put on the case. He attempts to find the people

who have stolen the dolphin and the reasons why they did it.

Considering that the non-observance of Gricean maxims in the dialogues

of this film contains the implied meanings, I am of the opinion that this research is

worth analyzing. The purpose of my thesis is to show and make people interested

to know further about the speaker’s meanings in the non-observance of the

Gricean maxims in the conversations and be concerned about them, so that they

can react properly to the others without causing negative effect, such as

misunderstanding. In other words, with good understanding about the speaker’s

meanings, people are expected to enjoy their conversations with others in their

daily life.

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4 Maranatha Christian University Statement of the Problem

In my thesis, there are three problems to be analyzed:

1. Which type of the non-observances of the Gricean maxims do the speakers

fail to observe in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective?

2. Why do the speakers fail to observe the Gricean maxims in Ace Ventura:

Pet Detective?

Purpose of the Study

This study is done

1. to show the type of the non-observances of the Gricean maxims that the

speakers fail to observe in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

2. to explain why the speakers fail to observe the Gricean maxims in Ace

Ventura: Pet Detective.

Methods of Research

In this thesis, I took several steps to collect my data. After the library

research, I watched the Ace Ventura: Pet Detective from a DVD and wrote down

the conversation data in this film. Then, I chose the conversations which apply the

non-observance of the Gricean maxims and, as the final step; I analyzed each of

them based on the non-observance of the Gricean maxims and the reasons why

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5 Maranatha Christian University Organization of the Thesis

My thesis consists of four chapters, which are Introduction, Theoretical

Framework, Data Analysis, and Conclusion, preceded by the Abstract. The first

chapter is the Introduction, which contains Background of the Study, Statement of

the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Methods of Research, and Organization of the

Thesis. The second chapter is the Theoretical Framework, in which I explain the

Gricean Maxim theory. The third chapter is the Data Analysis. The fourth chapter,

or the last chapter of my thesis, is the Conclusion. At the end of my thesis, I

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I will conclude my findings based on the analysis of all the

data that I have written in Chapter Three. Basically, Grice states that people must

obey the Gricean maxims to make a conversation go well (Thomas 62).

Nevertheless, Grice realizes that in reality people do not always obey the maxims.

The important thing is the speaker and the addressee can catch the real intention

and the sense of the conversation. However, in my thesis, I analyze the speakers

and the addressees who fail to observe the maxim rules in their conversation.

I have obtained some findings after searching for and analyzing the

conversations which fail to observe the Gricean maxims in Ace Ventura: Pet

Detective. The findings contain the type of the non-observance of the Gricean

maxims that the speakers do, the reasons why the speakers fail to observe the

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33 Maranatha Christian University In total, I analyze eleven data, which come from ten scenes. There are ten

data which belong to flouting the maxim, two data which belong to violating the

maxim, two data which belong to opting out of the maxim, and one datum which

belongs to infringing the maxim. However, I cannot find any data that shows

suspending the maxim.

Many characters in the film do not observe the maxims. First, I find

flouting the maxim is the type of non-observance which the characters commit the

most in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Flouting the maxim can be found in data 1, 2,

3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11.

There are six data that contain flouting the maxim of Manner by answering

someone’s question irrelevantly in data 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9. There are also five data

that show flouting the maxim of Quality, namely, data 1, 2, 7, 8, and 11. Some

characters in the film lie because they have hidden intentions in their

conversation.

Moreover, I find two data that contain flouting the maxim of Quantity,

namely data 7 and 9. In other words, some of the characters in this film give more

or less information than is needed in their conversation. In addition, flouting the

maxim of Relation can be found in four data: data 3, 5, 6, and 7. An addressee

gives an unclear answer which is irrelevant. People in this film usually do this

flouting because they want to divert someone’s attention or to cover some

mistakes that they have done.

Second, I find that violating a maxim is the type of non-observance of the

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36 Maranatha Christian University they have an intention to mislead or to trick someone. This is found in data 1,

when Ventura violates a maxim by bending down and talking to the dog, which

makes the big guy think he is friendly. In fact, Ventura does so to take the dog and

change it with a stuffed dog that looks similar to the real dog. Afterward, he keeps

the dog inside his uniform and goes quickly away from the big guy’s apartment.

In my opinion, Ventura’s violating a maxim in this scene creates humor because

he does so to trick that big guy and save the dog by pretending as an HDS man. In

reality, however, to make a good conversation, people should avoid misleading

the other participant(s).

Third, I find two data that show opting out of a maxim, which the

characters do in data 7 and 10. When the characters opt out of a maxim, it is

because the speaker has a strong reason for not giving information or answering

the question. This behavior is not desired by the hearer, who wants to get

feedback from the speaker.

Fourth, I find one datum that contains infringing a maxim, which is data 1.

The speaker may infringe a maxim when they are nervous, drunk, or excited. In

data 1, Ventura infringes a maxim by speaking in a hurry because he is nervous

and afraid that the big guy will know that he has already exchanged the dog.

In the data of my thesis, I cannot find any data that shows suspending a

maxim. I think it is due to the source of the data. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is an

American comedy genre film about a pet detective named Ace Ventura, who is an

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37 Maranatha Christian University circumstances, events, or cultural reasons for the characters to suspend the

maxims.

From some of the data that I have analyzed in my thesis, many

non-observances of the maxims happen when many people fail to obey the Gricean

maxims. In order to avoid non-observance of maxims in conversations, people

should speak as informatively as is required, honestly, and straight to the point.

In addition, Gricean maxims help people understand the real meaning

behind the speakers’ utterance. In my study I found a strong point that flouting a

maxim really makes Ace Ventura: Pet Detective become a successful comedy

film. In my opinion, a film can be successful if the audience can understand what

the story is about through the acts and the words which are uttered. Most of the

conversations which contain non-observance maxims make this film more

interesting, because they make the audience realize the implied meanings behind

the characters’ utterances. The script writers of this film, Tom Shadyac and Jim

Carey, deserve praise for the success of this film because these two writers have

written a great script by applying non-observance of maxims through

conversations. Thus, I conclude that by being aware of the non-observance of the

Gricean maxims in the conversations, people can understand and enjoy this film

more.

Finally, for the readers of this thesis, I hope this thesis can help them to

understand more about the theory of Gricean maxims that are reflected through

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38 Maranatha Christian University researcher should use the data (containing non-observance of maxims) that belong

to different types of genre, such as drama, thriller, or children’s films.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Text:

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Dir. Tom Shadyac. Prod. James. G. Robinson,

Morgan Creek Productions. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1994. DVD.

References:

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. 1994. Web. 14 Sept. 2011.

Thomas, Jenny. Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics. London

and New York: Longman Group Limited, 1995. Print.

Yule, George. “Pragmatics.” 4shared. Oxford University Press (1996): 3. Web. 18