Analysis of the Non-Observance of the Gricean Maxims which Help Build the Conflict in House Season 1 & 2.

(1)

ABSTRACT

Dalam tugas akhir ini saya mengambil topik Analysis of the

Non-Observance of the Gricean Maxims which Helps Build the Conflict in House

Seasons 1 & 2. Saya menganalisis pelanggaran-pelanggaran yang terjadi dalam

sebuah percakapan dalam serial televisi House musim 1 dan 2 dengan

menggunakan teori bidal dari Grice. Pelanggaran tersebut biasanya memiliki

implikatur yang dapat menyebabkan sejumlah konflik di antara para tokoh dalam

serial televisi ini.

Analisis yang dilakukan adalah analisis mengenai jenis bidal yang

dilanggar, alasan pelanggaran, dan juga bagaimana pelanggaran tersebut menjadi

pemicu yang mengakibatkan terjadinya konflik. Dari dua puluh satu data yang

dianalisis, saya menemukan bentuk pelanggaran yang terbanyak adalah flouting,

dan bidal yang paling sering dilanggar adalah bidal hubungan karena penutur

memberikan respon yang tidak berkaitan dengan apa yang sedang dibicarakan

oleh lawan bicara. Dalam serial televisi House ditemukan banyak pelanggaran

aturan percakapan Grice yang menimbulkan konflik, dan hal ini membuat serial

(2)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

As social beings, we need to interact with others. One of the many kinds of

interaction is through communicaton. Communication is the act of giving

information from one person to another through verbal and non-verbal messages.

There are two types of verbal messages: oral (face-to-face, telephone,

radio, television, and other media) and written (letters, e-mails, books, magazines,

newspapers, etc.). In non-verbal messages, there are body language, gestures,

facial expression, etc.

With communication, we use language to deliver the message or make a

conversation and it is one of the important things that humans do to get

information. Yet, sometimes the utterance we use to deliver the message may

have a hidden or implied meaning. We sometimes do not say what we want to say

or we often say less or more than what we need to say to others.

The hidden or implied meaning that is contained in the utterance can

(4)

differently to others because there is something behind it. From that, we have to

try to guess what the speaker is actually saying. For example:

A : How are we getting there?

B : Well, we’re getting there in Dave’s car.

(Thomas 69)

From the conversation, we can see there might be an additional or implied

meaning which is known as an implicature. The word we in B’s utterance does not

include A. The answer has an implied meaning. The implicature from this

utterance is B does not want A to come together with him or her.

The topic of implicature belongs to Pragmatics. Pragmatics is the study of

speaker meaning (Thomas 1). Hence, through Pragmatics, people can learn to

know the meaning of others’ utterances.

The reason why I choose Pragmatics is because I am interested in learning

more about how communication runs in a conversation, which, of course, depends

on context and it is important to understand the rules of communication.

I choose the non-observance of the Gricean maxims because from H. P.

Grice’s theory, which is written in Jenny Thomas’ book, I finally understand there

are implied meanings contained in utterances. Therefore, by using his theory, I

hope I will understand the implicature used in utterances or conversations.

I also choose to analyze the non-observance of the Gricean maxims

leading to conflict because I want to know how communication can make people

have conflict with others. Besides, I realize nowadays people often fail to say

(5)

point but they choose not to. Therefore, they fail to observe the maxims.

Sometimes, failing to observe the maxims leads to conflict.

The data is taken from House series Seasons 1 and 2. I choose to take the

data from a television series because I like watching movies and analyzing their

conversations. I choose this series because in this series there are many conflicts

that take place not only because of people’s attitudes but also their utterances.

Their attitudes lead them to a conflict and through their utterances they may end

up with a worse conflict.

In House series, the main character, Dr. Gregory House, is a critical,

stubborn, risk-tasking and antisocial man. Yet, he is a smart doctor who leads a

team of diagnostics at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH)

consisting of Dr. Allison Cameron, Dr. Robert Chase, and Dr. Eric Foreman.

He also good at making diagnoses and loves the challenges of his patients’

medical problems he must solve in order to save lives. His behavior shows he is

an antisocial. He also has an unconventional thinking and flawless instincts which

make other people respect him. He often diagnoses his patients’ illnesses based on

his controversial thought which sometimes do not make sense. He also breaks

many hospital rules and frequently leads him into conflicts with his boss, Dr. Lisa

Cuddy, other doctors, and some patients. Because of that, in this movie, Dr.

House is involved in many conflicts. Still, he has a very good friend, Dr. James

Wilson, who will help him solve his problems. (House TV Show)

By reading this thesis, people will learn about how to choose critically the

(6)

not just caused by physical action but also verbal action. Therefore, I believe this

thesis is significant.

Words : 734 words

1.2 Statement of the Problem

In my thesis, I would like to answer the following questions:

1. Which utterance in the movie does not observe the Gricean maxim?

2. What kind of non-observance of the maxim is it?

3. What is the implicature?

4. How does the non-observance of Gricean maxim help build the conflict?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purposes of the study are:

1. To find out the utterance that does not observe the Gricean maxim.

2. To classify the type of non-observance of the maxim.

3. To find out the implicature of the utterance.

4. To show how the non-observance of the Gricean maxim helps build the

conflict.

1.4 Method of Research

The first step to get the data is finding the movie I would like to analyze.

After that I started to watch it and collected the data. I analyzed the data by

(7)

1.5 Organization of the Thesis

The thesis consists of four chapters. Background of the Study, Statement

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

the Thesis are presented in Chapter One, which is Introduction. Theoretical

Framework is presented in Chapter Two. The analysis of the data is in Chapter

Three. Chapter Four states the conclusion. Bibliography and Appendix are

(8)

CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter I would like to give my personal comments on the findings

about the conflicts caused by the observance of the maxims. The only

non-observance type found is flouting a maxim. Throughout the analysis, there are

some utterances violating a maxim or opting out of a maxim in the television

series, but the data are not significant and they do not lead to conflict. Therefore, I

do not put them as my data in this thesis.

This study has pointed out the use of the non-observance of maxims in

House seasons 1 and 2, which leads to a conflict between the characters in the

television series and the meaning behind their utterances. It is revealed that the

characters use various types of non-observance of maxims. Some of the types of

non-observance of maxims occur more often than the others.

In total, I analyze twenty-three data, which come from five scenes. The

major type of non-observance of maxims which leads to conflicts is flouting the

maxim of relation. From all the data, there are seventeen data of the flouting of the

(9)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Text

Shore, David. “House.” Unaired Pilot. 16 November. 2004. DVD-ROM. NBC

Universal Television Studio. 2004-2012

References

American Cancer Society. “What is Rhabdomyosarcome?” 21 November 2014.

Web. 2 September 2015.

Chen, Yi-Bin. “Blood Clots”. U.S. National Library of Medicine. 29 May 2014.

Web. 2 September 2015.

Gerster, Todd. “Do-not-resuscitate order”. Patient Instructions. U.S. National

Library of Medicine. 5 July 2014. Web. 9 February 2015.

House. House TV Show, n.d. Web. 30 April 2015

Jones, James H., “Tuskegee Syphilis Study”. Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis

Experiment. New York: Free Press. 5 December. 1992. Web. 23 April

2014.

(10)

Today. MNT Knowledge Center. 26 September 2014. Web. 9 February

2015.

Leech, Geoffrey. Principles of Pragmatics. London and New York: Longman.

1993. Web. 23 April. 2014.

McMahon, Mary. “What is Exploratory Surgery?” wiseGEEK Health. 7 August

2015. Web. 2 September 2015.

MVA & Trauma Recovery. Mills Psychology. 2000. Web. 27 August 2015.

Raceanu, Marina Alexandra. “Speech Acts in Professional English”. 3 October

2013. Web. 30 September 2015.

Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. McGraw-Hill. 1976. Print.

Swierzewski, Stanley J.. “What Is a Neurologist?” Remedy’s Health Communitites.

31 December 1999. Web. 2 September 2015.

The ALS Foundation. “What is ALS?” The ALS Association. 2010. Web. 9

February 2015.

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

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

WebMD Home. Heart Disease Health Center. “Angiogram”. 9 September 2014. Web.