Rhoma Iramaâs Use of Non-Observance of the Gricean Maxims to Build a Good Image of Himself in the Media as One of the Candidates of the Seventh President of Indonesia.

(1)

ii Universitas Kristen Maranatha

ABSTRACT

Dalam skripsi ini, saya akan membahas pelanggaran bidal yang

merupakan salah satu dari kajian Pragmatik. Saya akan menerapkan teori tersebut

ke dalam acara bincang-bincang antara Rhoma Irama dan Najwa Shihab pada

tanggal 28 November 2012. Dalam hal ini, beliau menjadi salah satu kandidat

calon Presiden Republik Indonesia untuk periode tahun 2014/2019.

Teori pelanggaran bidal yang saya gunakan dalam skripsi ini merupakan

gagasan dari Herbert Paul Grice. Menurut Grice, pelanggaran bidal dapat

dikategorikan menjadi lima macam, terdiri atas: flouting a maxim, violating a

maxim, opting out of a maxim, infringing a maxim and suspending a maxim.

Salah satu penemuan yang saya peroleh dari analisis skripsi saya adalah

Rhoma Irama sering melakukan flouting the maxim of relation. Hal ini terjadi

karena flouting the maxim of relation adalah cara yang paling efektif untuk

Rhoma menjawab pertanyaan yang bersifat langsung dan terbuka dengan beralih

ke topik baru dan menyiratkan pesan tambahan bertujuan untuk membangun

pencitraan yang baik tentang dirinya khususnya dalam menjadi kandidat calon

(2)

i Universitas Kristen Maranatha

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

As a member of social community people need to comunicate with other

humans. D. Hewett (2011, p. 7) also indicates that communication is one of the

essential elements for human beings since communication can satisfy their social

needs. For that reason, humans need a succesful comunication in order to make

the communication which they conduct run well and effectively.

According to Thomas (1995, p. 63) a successful communication can be

achieved if the participants of the conversation follow the four basic

conversational maxims, which are, maxim of quantity, maxim of quality, maxim

of manner and maxim of relation. These four basic principles of conversation can

help people to achieve a successful communication.

In reality, when we look around us, sometimes people have a conversation

without fulfilling the four maxims of conversation. Thomas says that people do

not usually say what they really mean. “Speakers frequently mean much more

(4)

2 Universitas Kristen Maranatha People break the rules of the Gricean maxims for several purposes such as

to mislead the hearer or purposefuly to assert an additional meaning. As an

example, A is asking B about a mutual friend’s new boyfriend, A: “Is he nice?”

and B responds: “She seems to like him.” In this example, B gives a less

informative response than is required. Thus, B’s utterance generates an implied

meaning which implies that B does not like the boy. By giving such an answer, B

is trying to prompt A to look for an additional meaning. (Thomas, 1995, p. 66)

Based on Thomas (1995, p. 63) in order to understand the implied

meaning(s) or message(s) that is not stated clearly in the speaker’s utterances, the

hearer must assume or even understand the situation and condition of the

conversation or else the hearer will fail to unveil the real meaning of the speaker.

Non-observance of the Gricean maxims can be found in a real

conversation. A talkshow is also a source to find people’s failure to observe the

Gricean maxims in a real conversation. I choose a talkshow as the source to find

out people’s failure of observing the Gricean maxims because it is interesting and

suitable for my topic. In addition, a real conversation occurs in talkshows during

an interview session.

In interview sessions, sometimes an interviewee speaks without following

the rules of the Gricean maxims. One of the examples is Rhoma Irama as an

interviewee in a talkshow who tends to break the four basic rules of conversation

when he is being interviewed about his intention to become the next president of

(5)

3 Universitas Kristen Maranatha The reasons why I choose Rhoma Irama as the subject or the doer of

breaking the Gricean maxims is because he is often interviewed by the media,

especially in relation to his intention to become the next president of Indonesia. In

addition, he also frequently asserts an implied meaning within his utterances

during his interview sessions in media.

Furthermore, Rhoma Irama’s utterances are suitable as the subject for my

study because he is a controversial figure who shocked the public with his

intention to join the presidential election in 2014. In addition, he is more known

for his contributions in the world of music than in politics. Thus, his responses

toward some questions which he should be able to respond effectively and

appropriately as a president are interesting to be analyzed.

During his lifetime, he is also famous for being “raja dangdut” in the

music industry who often inserts religious values through his songs in his

concerts. This is also interesting to study because as an Indonesian citizen, I want

to know his vision and mission for Indonesia and whether he has the

qualifications to become a president or not.

From the reasons above, I come up with my topic thesis, which is Rhoma

(6)

1.2 Statement of the Problem

In doing the research, I want to focus on this following issues:

1. What are the types of non-observance of the Gricean maxims in his

utterances?

2. What are the implicatures generated from Rhoma Irama’s utterances?

3. What is Rhoma Irama’s intention of using the non-observance of the

Gricean maxims?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

By stating the statement of the problem above, I hope to:

1. Identify the types of non-observance of the Gricean maxims in his

utterances.

2. Identify the implicatures that are generated from Rhoma Irama’s utterances.

3. Reveal Rhoma Irama’s intention of using the non-observance of the Gricean

maxims.

1.4 Method of Research

I start my research by choosing the linguistic area to discuss which is

Pragmatics and the specific topic that I want to analyze. After that, I tried to find a

relevant data on the Internet mainly Youtube as my source of data. After finding

the data, I analyze the data which break the rules of the Gricean maxims based on

the statement of the problem. In analyzing the data, I use the theory of the

non-observance of maxims proposed by H.P. Grice that I have learned from books or

(7)

1.5 Organization of the Thesis

This thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter is Introduction,

which contains Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of

the Study, Method of Research and Organization of the Thesis. The second

chapter is Theoretical Framework, which discusses the related theories that I use

to support my study. Chapter Three is the analysis of the data, which is taken from

several interview sessions of Rhoma Irama in becoming the seventh president of

Indonesia. Chapter Four is Conclusion, which includes my personal comments on

the analysis and suggestions for further researches. The last in this thesis is

(8)

44 _{Universitas Kristen Maranatha}

CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I would like to point out my conclusion based on my

analysis in the previous chapter to sum up the findings of my study. In my study,

there are thirteen dialogues of Rhoma and Najwa which mainly discuss Rhoma’s

intention to become the next president of Indonesia. These data have the presence

of the non-observance of the Gricean maxims in their conversation.

Based on the data that I analyze, I find out that out of thirteen utterances,

ten of his utterances are flouting a maxim and three utterances are opting out of a

maxim. The reason is logical, because as the person who has already announced

that he wants to become the next president of Indonesia, he needs to make his

image looks good in the media. In addition, by flouting a maxim, he can

purposely communicate an “additional meaning” or implicature that can support

his intention to build a good image of himself in the media. In other words,

(9)

45 _{Universitas Kristen Maranatha} According to my analysis, by opting out of a maxim, Rhoma can also

avoid the question by not giving the requested information that might put him in

danger. In this case, his intention to build a good image of himself in the media.

Rhoma opts out of a maxim for self-defence. It is also to conceal his weaknesses

by showing his unwillingness to cooperate in the discussion of particular topics.

In other words, it is either to flout or opt out of a maxim, his main

intention is to make a good image of himself in the media. It is proved in each

data that I analyze that he uses non-observance of the Gricean maxims to support

his main intention. In my opinion, these are all parts of his strategy that is useful

for him to build his good image that he presents in the media.

Furthermore, my data shows that the maxim of relation is the most flouted

maxim by Rhoma. I find out that there are eight utterances that breaks the maxim

of relation. The reason is, Rhoma wants to make Najwa’s questions leave

hanging, and he is too occupied in giving additional meanings that leads to his

intention to build a good image. As a results, he provides unrelated information.

This also happens because he does not have any idea about specific topics and

disregards the real essence of the question. In my opinion, instead of being caught

by the media that he is unable to give any response, he prefers to overtly change

the topic to lead Najwa to discuss different topics. By doing so, the hearer will

pay attention to the different topics and the implicature generated from his

utterance.

Based on my analysis, the maxim of quality and manner is also commonly

flouted by Rhoma. For example, when Najwa asks question, Rhoma tends to

(10)

46 _{Universitas Kristen Maranatha} representative of Islam which he cannot provide the proof, and once he responds,

he tends to give a long-winded answer. In my opinion, he flouts maxim of quality

because he wants to say something good for his image but in the reality he cannot

provide the proof to support his statements. He also flouts the maxim of manner

because he does not want to provide any direct answer which can harm his

intention to build a good image of himself in media.

I also find out that when Rhoma is being asked about his knowledge of

public issues in Indonesia, he opts out of the maxim or is unwilling to respond in

the conversation to conceal his lack of knowledge about the public issue which

can harm his intention to build his good image as the next president. This is

because, as the candidate, he does not want to be publicly seen by people that he

is unable to answer.

Moreover, the data shows that Rhoma does not infringe a maxim because I

think that they are both native Indonesians. It enables them to speak bahasa

Indonesia well. Rhoma also does not violate a maxim simply because he does not

have an intention to fool anyone. Last but not least, suspending a maxim is not

used by Rhoma. It is because perhaps Najwa and Rhoma does not come from the

same social environment. Moreover, those tools are not really useful and effective

for Rhoma to fulfiil his intention by conducting this interview which is to build a

good image of himself in the media.

Another finding from my analysis is, when Najwa asks about his intention

to become the next president of Indonesia, he often flouts the maxim of relation,

quality and manner to prompt the hearer to look for an implicature. Data 1 to 10

(11)

47 _{Universitas Kristen Maranatha} maxim which is Rhoma is the representative of Islam, Rhoma is a caring

candidates who listens to other people’s opinion specifically Moslems, Rhoma is a

religious and a well-experienced leader. Last but not least, Rhoma is the only

figure needed for Indonesia, and he is not racist, which is not succesfull as he does

not provide specific and clear evidence. In addition, I find out that in data 11,12

and 13 the image which he builds within his utterance is that he wants to conceal

his lack of knowledge of the public issue and his personal life by not giving the

requested information that can harm his intention to build a good image of

himself.

In my opinion, Rhoma opts out of the maxim and flouts the maxim

because as a politician who wants to be the next president, he thinks that he must

be really careful in saying something and uttering his ideas. It is because he

becomes the centre of attention as the result of him announcing his intention to be

the next president. This is logical because during that period he needs supports not

only from his supporters but also from people, groups other than his supporters.

He tries to avoid everything that might harm his intention to build a good image

of himself which can be obstacles for him to become the next president of

lack of knowledge. All the tools above are used by Rhoma only to build his good

(12)

48 _{Universitas Kristen Maranatha} Last but not least, I want to put forward my suggestion for further

researchers who are interested in using this data source. This data source can be

analyzed by using one of the tools in Pragmatics which is the politeness strategy.

(13)

49 _{Universitas Kristen Maranatha}

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary text

Toto, A. (2012, November, 28). Mata Najwa Rhoma Irama Mendadak Capres

Capres.flv [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

0hL503g2G71

References

Dornerus, E. “Breaking maxims in conversation.” A comparative study of how

scriptwriters break maxims in Desperate Housewives and That 70's Show

(2006): 7.

Hewett, Dave. The Nature of Human Communication. (2011): 7.

Thomas, J. (1995), Meaning in Interaction. An Introduction to Pragmatics.

Rhoma Iramaâs Use of Non-Observance of the Gricean Maxims to Build a Good Image of Himself in the Media as One of the Candidates of the Seventh President of Indonesia.