Analysis of Conflict Caused By Non-Observance of The Maxims in 'Private Practice ' TV Series, Season 3, Episode I.

(1)

i _{Maranatha Christian University}

ABSTRACT

Dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, seringkali ditemui banyak sekali kesalahfahaman

yang terjadi dalam sebuah percakapan. Seringkali kesalahfahaman terjadi karena ujaran

para penutur yang melanggar aturan bidal. Dalam tugas akhir ini, saya akan membahas

tentang ketidaktaatan pada aturan-aturan bidal dalam dialog dalam sebuah serial

televisi Private Practice yaitu salahsatu serial televisi yang cukup terkenal.

Saya menggunakan teori H.P Grice yang terdapat dalam buku karangan Jenny

Thomas untuk menganalisis ketidaktaatan pada aturan bidal ini. Ketidak taatan muncul

dalam tindak tutur dalam karakter-karakter yang ada dalam serial televisi ini ketika

mereka berinteraksi satu sama lain. Saya menemukan bahwa ketidak taatan terjadi saat

satu karakter sedang menutupi sesuatu atau mereka sungkan untuk mengatakan sesuatu

secaralangsung. Ketidak taatan itu akan menimbulkan suatu kesalahfahaman yang akan

berakhir dengan konflik.

(4)

35 _{Maranatha Christian University}

APPENDICES

Types of Non-Observance of Gricean Maxims of

Private Practice Television Series

Scene DIALOGUE TYPE OF

NON-OBSERVANCE OF THE

not saying. It’s not your fault, it’s my fault. I couldn’t stop it. You didn’t know.(3)

Charlotte: I didn’t know? Your feeling? Cooper : I’m tired. (4)

Charlotte : It’s because of me?

Flouting maxim of quantity

Infringing the maxim

Flouting the maxim of manner

(5)

(6)

Flouting the maxim of relation

Flouting the maxim of quantity

Flouting the maxim of quantity

Flouting the maxim of quantity

(7)

38 _{Maranatha Christian University} feel bad for the kid too.(12)

Cooper : Do you? Because I really

can’t tell, because it’s like

nothing bothers you. It’s like you didn’t get fired, like Violete didn’t almost

Flouting the maxim of relation

(8)

39 _{Maranatha Christian University} Charlotte : What are you talking

Cooper : Well, with Addison you just walk away. With me you use sex.”(15)

Charlotte : Do you have a problem

with that?”

Cooper : Yes, we are engaged and having a discussion about children is important. And in my mind I ask you a pretty simple question that you don’t seem to want to answer.”(16)

Charlotte : What is big damn deal?”

about?”

Flouting the maxim of manner

(9)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

In daily life, people communicate with one another through conversation. Conversation is the communication between two persons or more thus, conversation should involve a speaker and a hearer. In a conversation the speaker and the hearer must be cooperative with each other. It means that the speaker delivers what he/she wants to say explicitly so that the hearer can catch the

intention of the speaker’s utterance correctly. As a result, there is no

misunderstanding between the hearer and the speaker.

(10)

2 _{Maranatha Christian University} states in his book theory of conflict ”conflict is the tension in a situation between

characters, or the actual opposition of character.” (Cuddon 188)

There is an area of linguistics that concerns the speaker’s utterance and the

meaning of the speaker’s utterance which is called Pragmatics. According to

George Yule, “Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as

communicated by the speaker and interpreted by the listener” (Grice 3). This

study relates with implicature “implicature is the aspect of meaning that a speaker

conveys, implies without directly expressing” (Grice 43). Therefore, pragmatics

deals with implicature. If there is an implicature in the speaker’s utterance, a hearer is supposed to understand what is behind it so that it will not cause any misunderstanding. To avoid potential misunderstandings, Grice, an English language philosopher, has established the Cooperative Principle which has the purpose of making the participants’ contribution in a conversation as is required

and the situation needed for the interlocutor. However, this principle can only be implemented if the participants of the conversation observe the maxims, which are the maxims of quantity, quality, relation, and manner.

When having conversation with others, people often break the rules of speaking, which are called non-observance of the maxim. There are various ways of non-observance of the maxims which are flouting, violating, infringing, opting out, and suspending the maxim. Those kinds of non-observance of the maxims can make conflicts between the speaker and the hearer.

(11)

3 _{Maranatha Christian University} why I am interested in doing an analysis about non-observance of maxims which leads to conflict.

In conducting my analysis, the source of data that I choose is Private

Practice drama TV series. The topic of my study is Analysis of Conflict Caused

by Non-observance of the Maxims in Private Practice TV series, Season 3

Episode 1.

I choose Private Practice as the source of my analysis because this television series has many conflicts among the characters that happen due to the non-observance of the maxims, which makes this series really interesting. The main characters are dr. Addison Montgomery, dr. Peter Wilder, dr. Samuel Bennett, dr. Naomi Bennett, dr. Violete Turner, dr. Cooper Freedman, dr. Charlotte King. There are many problems that they have to face as doctors. They have their own story is about their lives which are very colorful and make their lives so meaningful. Each of them has their own past. The story is not only about their partnership and their relationship with one another, but also about the love and friendship among them. Those aspects make this story suitable with the topic that I choose, because there are many conflicts between the characters, which make this story more complicated and interesting. However, in my analysis, I only focus on the significant characters who have a lot of conflicts between them as a couple. They are dr. Cooper Freedman and dr. Charlotte King. I choose the two of them because almost all of the conflicts between them happen because of the non-observance of the maxims in their conversation.

(12)

4 _{Maranatha Christian University} they will understand how to analyze conflict which is caused by non-observance of the maxims in their daily lives. It is also significant for people in general as it will help them understand how to avoid the conflict through observance of the maxims.

(770 words) 1.2 Statement of the Problem

There are three problems to be analyzed:

1. What type of maxim is not observed in the utterance? 2. What is the implicature of the utterance?

3. How does the non-observance of the maxim lead to conflict between the characters?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

By analyzing those problems in this thesis, I want to show: 1. The type of maxim which is not observed in the utterance. 2. The implicature of the utterance.

3. How the non-observance of maxims leads to conflict between the characters.

1.4 Method of Research

(13)

5 _{Maranatha Christian University} the non-observance of the maxims leads to conflict. Finally, I wrote the research report.

1.5 Organization of the Thesis

(14)

CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

After analysing the data that I have found, I would like to present some concluding points. Based on my findings, I find that there are four kinds of non- observance of the maxim done in the data. They are flouting, infringing and violating and opting out the maxims.

Mostly, flouting the maxim happens because the characters do not give clear and the right amount of information which is needed. This can be seen in Cooper’s utterances. Cooper always utters incomplete statements or asks incomplete questions. This leads to conflicts between him and Charlotte. In the four scenes that I analyze, I find that Cooper fails to observe the maxims more than Charlotte does.

(15)

30 _{Maranatha Christian University} shows infringing of the maxims. One utterance shows flouting the maxim of quality and one utterance shows violating of the maxims.

In data 1, 3, 9, 10, and 11, I find that the speakers flout the maxim of quantity in their utterance because they expect that the hearer understands their goal. Unfortunetly, the hearer does not get the point. As a result, it creates misunderstanding. In the analysis, I find that in the conversation, the speakers flout the maxim of relation many times. It can be seen in data 4, 7, 8, 13, 16, and 17. The speakers flout the maxim of relation since they give irrelevant responses to the other person’s utterances. The maxim of relation is the type of maxims which is mostly

flouted in the four scenes. The flouting of the maxim of relation is done when the speaker does not want to discuss the topic further.

In my data analysis the speaker flouts the maxim of manner because she/he is not straight to the point as in data 3, 12, 15, and 17. I can see that flouting the maxim of manner may occur at the same time with flouting of the maxim of quantity and relation like in data 3 and 17.

Meanwhile, there are two data showing opting out of the maxim. The speaker opts out of the maxim when he wants to stop the conversation as in data 4 and 5. Besides, opting out of the maxim may also occur together with flouting the maxim of relation, like in data 4.

(16)

31 _{Maranatha Christian University} One of the data in my analysis shows infringing the maxim as we see in data 2. The speaker infringes since the condition make him nervous and then stutter. I find one data showing violating the maxim. A speaker violates the maxim when the speaker wants to mislead the hearer.

Concerning the implicature, I find that in some data the hearer does not recognize the implicature. This happens because the hearer is not smart enough to catch it or simply because the hearer already has had different interpretation as in scene 1, 3, and 4. However, although the implicature is understood, sometimes the hearer keeps being non-observant of the maxim, especially when he or she makes satirical in respond to the speaker. This happens in scene 4. When the hearer gives a response in a sartical way, it may be assumed that the hearer does not care about the person he or she is talking to. As a result, the implicature is used to mislead each other.

In this thesis, the misunderstanding which happens in each scene is caused by the observance of the Gricean maxim between the characters. The non-observance creates misunderstanding and leads to a conflict.

After doing my analysis, I believe that the non-observance of the Gricean maxim is tricky to recognize. Sometimes people unintentionally fail to observe the maxim. This happpens when people do not have any implied meaning in their utterance, but their response to other person’s utterance does not seem to obey. Non

(17)

32 _{Maranatha Christian University} The awareness of the hearer may help him or her to interpret the speaker’s utterance. As a hearer, one has to understand what the speaker means first even if it is not explicitly stated. In other words, when the speaker tries to contribute a meaningful utterance in the conversation, it should be followed with the hearer’s proper response.

Thus in this way the speaker and the hearer can be cooperative.

However, a hearer does not always understand what the speaker means. It can be seen when the hearer fails to give a proper response to the speaker’s utterance.

When this happens, the conversation can end in a misunderstanding. Therefore, the ability to understand the implied meaning in an utterance is important to make people able to respond properly. As a result, it will not make misunderstanding which leads to a conflict.

The non-observance of the maxims can actually can be found not only in the dialogues of a film but also in daily situations. There some circumstances when the speaker or the hearer do not want to cooperate. This happens when the speakers involved in a conversation does not want to hurt each other’s feelings, intends to lie,

or mock each other.

Personally, I consider that my thesis is still imperfect. The study of the non-observance of Gricean maxims in Private Practice television series can be developed for better finding. I suggest that further researchers can make better analysis and can use another theory of conflict. I hope that my analysis can bring benefit to those who want to learn about non-observance of the maxims.

(18)

33 Maranatha Christian University

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Texts:

Schmidt Lauren Kindberg Ann. Private Practice. New York: Brander Wood Films, 2008.

References:

Bostic JQ, Prince JB. Child and adolescent psychiatric disorders. In: Stern TA, Rosenbaum. Massachusetts General Hospital Comprehensive Clinical

Psychiatry. 1st ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Mosby; 2008:chap 69.

Grice, H. Paul. Logic and Conversation. Berkeley: University of California, 2004. Print

Keats, John. Letter dated Dec.21st, 1817. Cited in The Penguin Dictionary of

Literary Terms and Literary Theory (1991) by J.A. Cuddon. New York:

Penguin.

Mey, Jacob L. Pragmatics: An introduction. Blackwell, 2001. Print

Thomas, Jenny. Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics. London and New York: Longman Group Limited, 1995. Print

Electronic Publications:

(19)

34 Maranatha Christian University Mooney, Annabelle. Co-operation, Violation and Making Sense. Journal of