Analysis of Conflicts Caused By Non-Observance of The Maxims in 'Desperate Housewives' Television Series Season 8.

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Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Dalam tugas akhir ini, saya akan mengkaji berbagai macam pelanggaran

bidal dalam percakapan yang dilakukan sejumlah penutur dalam film drama

Amerika berjudul Desperate Housewives seri ke-8. Kajian ini pun mencakup

implikatur dari kata-kata yang menunjukkan pelanggaran prinsip kerjasama Grice

(Gricean cooperative principles), serta bagaimana pelanggaran prinsip tersebut

dapat berujung pada munculnya konflik. Pelanggaran-pelanggaran tersebut terdiri

dari flouting a maxim, violating a maxim, infringing a maxim, suspending a

maxim, dan opting out of a maxim.

Kajian ini termasuk dalam kajian pragmatik, karena berkaitan dengan

implikatur di dalamnya. Salah satu temuan yang saya peroleh dari penelitian saya

ini adalah bahwa violating a maxim merupakan jenis bidal yang paling sering

ditemukan. Hal ini terjadi karena kebohongan yang nyata akan terlihat janggal

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Bree: (looks offended) Actually, Karen... I think she does. (Reverend Sikes gives Bree her clutch bag, and Bree takes it) (to everyone who is looking at her) Now, I know you are all anxious to dig into delicious gossip I provided for you. And I can really use drinks. (tut-tutting Greg, then leaving the church)

flouting the maxim

Jason: Hey! I thought that was you. Wow! (pick Gabrielle in his arm)

Gabrielle: Hi! Oh!

Carlos: (feeling annoyed) Whoa! Who are you?

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this is Carlos, my… brother. (1) Jason: Oh, hey, man. Nice to meet you.

Jason reaches his hand at Carlos. Carlos gets up and shakes Jason’s hand, unhappy.

Gabrielle: Grab a chair. Join us. (slips her wedding ring to Carlos)

Jason: Thanks. (grabs a chair and sit down close to Gabrielle) So, uh, your sister here is quite the little saleswoman. You believe she talked me into a $4,000 suit today? I mean…

Carlos: That is so… sis. (2)

Gabrielle: Carlos, maybe you should go to the bar and get us some drinks. (3)

Carlos: Nah. I'm not thirsty. (4)

Jason: So, uh, I'm wearing one of the shirts you picked out. What do you think?

Gabrielle: Oh. I can't tell you what I think in front of my brother.

Jason: (whispering to Gabrielle) You're so funny. (normal voice, to Carlos) Hey, Carlos, how is it possible that someone as awesome as your sister hasn't been scooped up already? Carlos: My guess is it's the herpes.(5)

Jason and Gabrielle are awkwardly shocked.

Gabrielle: Sibling humor. (gives Carlos a playful punch) (6)

Carlos: You're right. All those trips to the free clinic could've been for anything. (7) Gabrielle: Seriously, Carlos, some drinks for the

table would be really good. (8)

Jason: You know, what the hell? I'll take a scotch on the rocks. Uh, a single malt.

Carlos: Actually, you're gonna have to get that one yourself. (grabbing his jacket) I am going

home to my wife. I'm married. (showing

his wedding ring and then leaving) (9) Outside the restaurant.

Gabrielle: I can't believe you just did that. That guy's one of my best customers.

Carlos: Oh, are we talking about that "nerd" you sell to?

Gabrielle: Okay, maybe he's a little better-looking than the others, but it's my job, Carlos. (10)

Carlos: Fine. Whatever. Let's just get out of here. (11)

Gabrielle: You are such a hypocrite. How many

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times did you tell me to show a little cleavage when meeting your out-of-town clients? My breasts were practically a tourist stop. (12)

Carlos: This is different, and I don't like it.

Gabrielle: Well, too bad. We need this job. I'm the breadwinner now. (13)

Carlos: Yep. Throw that in my face again. Gabrielle: What?

Carlos: "Make me dinner, Carlos." "Get me drinks." "Bring me the check.”

Gabrielle: Yeah, Carlos, I did offer to treat. And you know what I was thinking? How good it felt, how for the first time in 19 years I was able to treat you, and I can't believe that would bother you.

Carlos: Well, it does. It's driving me crazy that you're the one making all the money and calling all the shots.

Gabrielle: Well, get used to it, because I did all this for you. This is what you wanted.

A valet arrives with Carlos’ car key.

Carlos: Uh, give 'em to her. She's driving now.

of quantity

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Human beings are social creatures that cannot live without others.

Therefore, the role of communication is vital in daily life as a tool to make people

understand each other. Most people cannot stand living without communication.

In the communication process, people express their thoughts, principles,

emotions, attitudes, beliefs, and plans. People can interact with others to

exchange ideas, share feelings, and solve problems through communication.

“Humans put into words information through a variety of methods: speaking,

telephones, email, blogs, TV, art, hand gestures, facial expressions, body language

and even social contexts” (“What is Communication? The Definition of

Communication”).

Communication is a social activity. What is important in communication is

it needs two or more people involved in discussing a topic. Through the

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Maranatha Christian University way is that the speaker says what she/he wants to say directly. This kind of

process is when the speaker gives his/her idea explicitly, plainly, straight to the

point, without any intention to imply something behind his/her utterance. In other

words, it is aimed to make the hearer have no difficulties in receiving the message

from the speaker. The second way to express ideas in what the speaker is saying is

actually not what she/he really means.

Grice suggested that there is a fundamental principle that “determines the

way in which language is used with maximum efficiency and affectively” (Huang

25). This fundamental principle is called cooperative principles. The principles

rule the human interaction, make the conversation have the accurate information

and are “conducted with truthful, relevant, and perspicuous manner” (Huang, 25).

The cooperative principles are divided into four rules which are called maxims.

The four maxims are quality, quantity, relation, and manner (Huang 25). By

following the maxims, people will be able to send and receive a clear and

understandable message.

The speaker, however, may fail to observe or comply with the maxim.

This occurrence is called the non-observance of maxim as what Grice claims in

Meaning in Interaction (1995) by Jenny Thomas. There are five ways for failing

to observe a maxim: flouting a maxim, violating a maxim, infringing a maxim,

suspending a maxim, and opting out a maxim.

There are so many reasons why people fail to observe a maxim or to break

the rule of the cooperative principles. Some may intend to hide a thing or reveal a

thing, some may be determined to mock or to save a face. When a person fails to

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Maranatha Christian University results leads to a conflict between the speaker and the hearer. This issue is what I

am going to analyze in this study.

This study will highlight some examples of non-observance of the maxim

in conversations that lead to conflict in a drama series Desperate Housewives

Season 8. It is observed that in the film there are numerous occasions when

different characters fail to observe a maxim which generates a conflict. The

purpose of this study is to look for the various types of non-observance of the

maxim in the film which lead to the conflict.

Desperate Housewives is a drama-comedy TV series created by Marc

Cherry and produced by one of the national television channels in America, ABC.

The eighth season of this film began to be broadcasted in the United States on

September 25, 2011 and concluded on May 13, 2012. The film is about the life of

a group of women living in a fictional American suburb, Wisteria Lane. They are

Susan Mayer, Lynette Scavo, Bree Van De Kamp, and Gabrielle Solis. The story

exposes their domestic struggles, crimes, hidden deadly secrets which contrast to

their lives that seem perfect and beautiful on the surface. This film is popular and

has been nominated and won a lot of awards, such as the Emmy Awards, Golden

Globe Awards and People’s Choice Awards (“Desperate Housewives”). Those

records appeal to me as such that I decide to make this film my source of data in

my study.

This study will be beneficial for students at the English Department,

Faculty of Letters, Maranatha Christian University because after reading my

study, they will understand how the non-observance of the Gricean maxim

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Maranatha Christian University English Department so they will understand conflicts which occur in daily life

because of the non-observance of maxims.

(739 words)

1.2 Statement of the Problem

1. What types of non-observance of the Gricean conversational maxim occur

in the utterance?

2. What are the implicatures generated from the non-observance of the

Gricean conversational maxim?

3. How does the non-observance of the Gricean conversational maxim

contribute to the conflict in the film?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

1. This study seeks for the types of non-observance of Gricean

conversational maxim that occur in Desperate Housewives Season 8.

2. This study finds the implicatures that are generated from the

non-observance of the Gricean conversational maxim in the film.

3. This study also searches for how the non-observance of the Gricean

conversational maxim contributes to the conflict in the film.

1.4 Method of Research

To analyze the data, first I watched Desperate Housewives Season 8

several times to understand the story. I transcribed the conversation in the film

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Maranatha Christian University not clear to me. Next, I analyzed the transcription and selected the conversations

which contain the non-observance of Gricean maxim that leads to the conflict.

This step includes the reason of implicature implied in the speech events. Finally,

I draw some conclusions based on the analysis of the data.

1.5 Organization of the Thesis

This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One is Introduction, which

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

Study, Method of Research and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two is

Theoretical Framework, which discusses the theory and approaches used in this

study. Chapter Three is my analysis of the data. Chapter Four is Conclusion,

which conclude the study and offers suggestion for any researchers who intend to

analyze the same topic as I do. Then the last is Bibliography, which records the

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

This chapter provides a summary of the findings of the non-observance of

maxims in Desperate Housewives season 8, which lead to a conflict between the

characters in the film. Besides, it is followed by some suggestions for any

researchers who intend to analyze the same topic.

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

Desperate Housewives season 8, which lead to a conflict between the characters in

the film and the reason behind their utterances. It is revealed that the characters

use various types of observance of maxims. Some of the types of

non-observance of maxims occur more often than the others. I will explain in details

from the most common to the least types of non-observance of maxims which

lead to a conflict that occurs in the film.

The first major type of non-observance of maxims which leads to a

conflict is violating a maxim. From the data that have been analyzed, it is shown

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Maranatha Christian University maxim. I conclude that all in all, violation of a maxim is used for conflicts related

to truth concealment. Violation of a maxim is done in Desperate Housewives

when a speaker is inclined to mislead the hearer for the sake of the truth about a

thing which is hidden behind their utterance, so the hearer will not know about the

whole fact. Sometimes, when a speaker deliberately lies, his/her utterances sound

somewhat ridiculous that makes the hearer know that it is untrue. This kind of

phenomenon is likely to generate a conflict because the hearer does not like being

deceived.

The second major type of non-observance of maxims is flouting the

maxim of quantity. It is found that flouting the maxim of quantity occurs six

times. I conclude that flouting the maxim of quantity is related to the lack of

information in an utterance because the real message that the speaker wants to

deliver through his/her utterance is not entirely delivered or given too much. By

doing so, the speaker unintentionally evokes the hearer’s suspicion that something

is hidden behind what the speaker is actually has said, which raises the hearer’s

emotion and initiates a conflict between the speaker and the hearer.

Besides flouting the maxim of quantity, flouting the maxim of manner

also happens to be the second major type of non-observance of maxim which

leads to a conflict. The data show that flouting the maxim of manner occurs six

times, the same amount as flouting the maxim of quantity. I conclude that flouting

the maxim of manner occurs because a speaker’s utterance is too wordy. When an

utterance is produced very long without bluntly stating the actual message, it

actually makes the real point become vague. This phenomenon may create a

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Maranatha Christian University The third major type of non-observance of maxims in the film is flouting

the maxim of quality. There are at least four times when the characters of the

film are flouting the maxim of quality. I conclude that flouting the maxim of

quality may initiate a conflict because the utterance that the speaker is saying is

actually untrue, or the speaker uses figurative word, but it is not meant to mislead

the hearer. It can occur when the speakers hint at something indirectly or uses

figurative word which contains a negative meaning to the hearer, such as an insult.

When the speaker lies through flouting the maxim of quality, it causes the hearer

to be annoyed and so initiates a conflict.

The fourth major type of non-observance of maxims is opting out of a

maxim. The data show two occurrences of opting out of a maxim that lead to a

conflict. It can be inferred that opting out a maxim happens when a

character/speaker gives a response which indicates that he/she refuses to

cooperate with the situation. In fact, he/she does not want to give false implicature

or appear uncooperative. Opting out a maxim may generate conflicts when it is

used by a speaker in a situation when a truthful response is demanded.

Suspending a maxim happen to be the least types of non-observance of

maxims which lead to a conflict. It is found that there are only one occurrence of

suspending a maxim which lead to a conflict. I conclude that when a speaker

suspends a maxim, the code or term that she/he uses in a conversation may

generate a conflict in terms that both the speaker and the hearer know the code. It

happens when the suspended word contains a negative meaning to the hearer, such

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Maranatha Christian University There is no infringing a maxim-type of non-observance of maxims in the

data since all of the characters are American native speakers and all of them have

perfect linguistic performances.

The data shows at least two different causes of conflict. The first is a

conflict which occurs because of dishonesty of the characters. In my opinion,

opting out a maxim is effective to create this kind of conflict. It is because by

opting out the maxim, the speaker hides the actual truth by deliberately showing

unwillingness to cooperate through the utterances with the hearer. Then, it will be

easy for the hearer to recognize that there is something hidden from him/her so a

conflict is inevitable.

The second is a conflict which occurs because of disagreement between

characters. In my opinion, flouting a maxim by means of any kinds of flouting

the maxim is effective to create this kind of conflict. It is because when the

speaker does so, he/she is in fact, wants the hearer to comprehend what is actually

mean by the utterance without having any expectation to mislead the hearer.

When an utterance in an argument is added, reduced, or irrelevant to the topic in

hand, the hearer will feel annoyed and a conflict may occur afterwards.

This study has revealed the conflicts caused by the non-observance of

maxims in Desperate Housewives season 8. I am in the opinion that this study is

worth-developing in the future. Besides conflict, another result that I find in the

film when the characters fail to observe the maxim is humor. It is recommended to

be taken in consideration for a plausible topic for future researchers since there are

plenty of examples.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Source

Desperate Housewives: The Complete Eighth Season. Dir. John David Coles,

Fred Gerber, David Grossman. Perf.Tery Hatcher, Marcia Cross, James

Denton and Jonathan Cake.Cherry Production, 2011.DVD.

References

“Desperate Housewives”. Desperate Housewives – Wiksteria Lane. N.p. n.d.

Web. 24 October 2012.

Huang, Yan. Pragmatics. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. 2007. Print.

Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press, 2012.Web. 13 November 2012.

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th ed. 2009. Print.

Thomas, Jenny. Meaning In Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics. New

York: Longman Publishing.1995. Print.

“What is Communication? The Definition of Communication”. Communication

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Maranatha Christian University “What is Conversational Implicature?”. SIL International, 2004. Web. 21