CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE IN FACE2FACE WITH
DESI ANWAR ON METRO TV
A THESIS
Submitted to Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
By:
CHRISTINA SITORUS
Registration Number. 209220006
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
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ABSTRACT
Sitorus, Christina. 209220006. Conversational Implicature in Face2Face with Desi Anwar on Metro TV. A Thesis. The Faculty of Languange and Art (FBS). State University of Medan (UNIMED). Medan. 2014.
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CHAPTER I Introduction ... 1
A. Background of the Study ... 1
B. The Problem of the Study ... 5
C. The Objective of the Study ... 5
D. The Scope of the Study ... 5
E. The Significance of the Study ... 6
CHAPTER II Review of Literature ... 7
A. Pragmatics ... 7
B. Cooperative Principle and Implicature... 9
1. Conventional Implicature ... 13
2. Conversational Implicature ... 14
a. Generalized Conversational Implicature ... 16
b. Particularized Conversational Implicature ... 17
C. Metro TV ... 19
D. Face2Face with Desi Anwar ... 20
CHAPTER III Research Method ... 21
A. The Research Design ... 21
B. The Source of Data ... 21
C. The Technique of Data Collection ... 22
D. The Technique of Analyzing Data ... 22
CHAPTER IV Data and Analysis ... 24
A. Data ... 24
B. Data Analysis ... 24
1. Face2Face with Desi Anwar episode Robin Lim ... 25
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3. Face2Face with Desi Anwar episode John H. McGlynn ... 31
4. Face2Face with Desi Anwar episode Tony Fernandes ... 34
C. Research Findings ... 37
D. Discussion ... 38
CHAPTER V Conclusion and Suggestion ... 39
A. Conclusion ... 39
B. Suggestion ... 40
REFERENCES ... 41
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LIST OF FIGURE
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LIST OF APPENDIX
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Communication is the process of transferring information from a sender to
a receiver with the use of a medium in which the communicated information is
understood by both sender and receiver. It is the activity of conveying information
through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, visuals,
signals, writing, or behavior between two or a group of person. Communication is
one of the essential aspects which cannot be separated from human beings.
One means of communication is language. So, language is one system of
communication which enables human to cooperate. People cannot do the
interaction and understand each other without language. We use language to
inform people around us about what we feel, what we desire or what we think. We
communicate effectively with our words, gestures, and tone in kinds of situation.
Therefore, language is the essential aspect in our life.
Communication is a two-way street, with the recipient of the message
playing a role as important as the sender. Therefore, both speaking and listening
are important for communication to take place. When a person listening to
someone else speaking, he/she must put together what is being said with how it is
being said. In every interaction that happens in society, communication is the
basis of formation of successful human societies. Communication is a bridge
among people. Our relationship, whether it is thrive or wither depending on the
The writer realizes that communication is effective if the purpose of the
communication can be gained well, both speaker and hearer have the same
perception of the thing they are talking about. Sometimes people fail in their
communication because they cannot catch what others say in their words or
utterances that may lead people to misunderstanding or misinterpretation with
others. The understanding of the utterances semantically is not enough because
the messages are not only conveyed directly but also implicitly. Look at the
example below, the conversation between a man and his lover:
Frank: Ice cream?
Chris: There must be 20.000 calories there.
We will not catch what exactly Chris intends if we do not have a
background knowledge about ice cream and its calories. The assumption that we
can interpret from the Chris statement is that she is on diet so she always counting
the calories of food that she wants to eat. So the implication is she refuses the
Frank’s offering. The event like the example above is happened frequently in our
daily life especially when we speak to the foreigners because they frequently use
hinted answers in their conversation. We will raise a misperception if we do not
catch the additional conveyed meaning from the utterances. This is what Grice
called as conversational implicature.
Conversational implicature was proposed by Grice in 1975. Implicature is
additional conveyed meaning. The concept of implicature is needed to interpret
what the speaker suggests or means which is different with what he said.
different with what is suggested or hinted at by an utterance of the same string of
words. According to him, there are two types of conversational implicature, they
are generalized implicature and particularized implicature. To get the conveyed
meaning which is suggested implicitly, both speaker and recipient must have the
same background knowledge in which they are involved.
As the implicature leading to meaning, when they are occurred, the
meaning will not be clear. The gap will be happened when the meaning is
deceptive or when the listener cannot get the idea directly from the speaker’s
utterance. So, the understanding of implicature is needed absolutely to understand
the implicit meaning in utterances. This way attracted the writer’s eagerness in
doing the research about conversational implicature.
According to Sedivy (2007:476), Grice never explicitly connected his
ideas to theories of real-time language production and processing. Consider to this
relevance study, this research intends to apply the Grice theory about
conversational implcature in real conversation through the utterances in the talk
show.
Another relevance study, Irma’s thesis (2012) entitled “An Analysis of
Conversational Implicature in Smart FM’s Radio Talk Show” also one of the
inspiring research to this further research. This study discovers that the two types
of conversational implicature were occurred in the talk show and the most
dominant implicature was Generalized Conversational Implicature.
To distinguish this paper with the previous researchers above, this research
the interviewees in Face2Face with Desi Anwar talk show then to find out the
implication of the most dominant implicature that is used in the talk show. This
exclusive program interviews the prominent figures and personalities around the
world, such as presidents from many countries, prime ministers or many
prominent figures who have a great image and reputation. In this case, the types of
conversational implicatures that used by the interviewees are important to be
analyzed so that the listeners may get the message or the meaning of their
utterances. This is becoming the motive to this research because they are the
inspiring people in which people catch much inspiration from their statement and
their life story.
The writer chooses a talk show to represent the utterances that are usually
used in people life as the object of research. Talk show is one of television or
radio programming in which a host interviews one person or a group of people
and discusses various topics. Television talk show is a program that talking about
the guest’s jobs, their personal lives or their spiritual experience.
One of the exclusive and high class talk shows in Indonesian Television
programs is Face2Face with Desi Anwar. It is a talk show hosted by Desi Anwar,
senior journalist of Metro TV. It is exclusive because this program interviews the
prominent figures and personalities around the world, such as presidents from
many countries, prime ministers or many prominent figures who have a great
image and reputation. Desi Anwar interviews them in many aspects, from their
personality, spirituality, global and political issues until bilateral aspect with
talk show raise the writer eagerness to analyze their pragmatic language. So the
researcher chooses four episodes which present the international figures who give
the contribution to the development of Indonesia for instance its education, health,
business, or even Indonesian culture.
In this case, the writer wishes to find out the types of conversational
implicature that used by the interviewees so that the listeners may get the message
or the meaning of their utterances. This is becoming the motive to the writer to
conduct this research because they are the inspiring people in which people catch
much inspiration from their statement and their life story. These figures are
famous for their pragmatic language. They usually use implicature when they
speak and that is the reason that encourages the writer in doing a study on the
conversational implicature. The writer also wants to study whether the
conversational implicature theory is also applicable towards this talk show.
The fact that figures who are interviewed in this talk show are prominent
and inspiring people from around the world raises the writer’s eagerness in
analyzing their utterances based on conversational implicature. English that they
use as lingua franca facilitate the writer to analyze the implicature. Those facts
raise the writer eagerness to give input to the enlargement of the study of
B. The Problems of the Study
1. What types of conversational implicature are found in Face2Face with
Desi Anwar?
2. What is the most dominant conversational implicature that used by
interviewee in Face2Face with Desi Anwar?
3. What is the implication of the most dominant implicature which is found in Face2Face with Desi Anwar?
C. The Objectives of the Study The objectives of this study are:
1) to find out the types of conversational implicature that is used in
Face2Face with Desi Anwar.
2) to find out the most dominant type of conversational implicature that is used in Face2Face with Desi Anwar.
3) to find out the implication of the most dominant implicature that is
used in Face2Face with Desi Anwar.
D. The Scope of the Study
The writer focuses this study on the scope of conversational implicature
types in Face2Face with Desi Anwar talk show. As previously mentioned,
Face2Face with Desi Anwar is one of the Metro TV’s top program. The study is
limited to the purpose of finding out the types of conversational implicature that
used by the interviewees. The writer does not put the cultural, social, and other
types of conversational implicature of the interviewees’ utterances, neglecting
other aspects of utterances.
The data are limited by take the data from four episodes of Face2Face
with Desi Anwar’s talk show. They are Face2Face with Desi Anwar episode
Robin Lim, Face2Face with Desi Anwar episode Tony Fernandes, Face2Face
with Desi Anwar episode John H. McGlynn, and the last Face2Face with Desi Anwar episode Kal Muller.
E. The Significance of the Study
Theoretically, the findings of the study are expected to give information
and knowledge to students and viewers about conversational implicature. This
study is expected to enrich the knowledge of pragmatics and be useful for the
viewers and those who would like to know more about conversational implicature,
especially students who are majoring English and interested in analyzing language
on TV.
Practically, the findings of this study also expected to be useful for English
teachers who want to use conversational implicature as the materials for teaching
pragmatics and to expand knowledge on pragmatics. And the students are familiar
with and interested to conduct a further research in mass media. By knowing the
conversational implicature, the students can understand the implicit meaning in a
conversation. It will be very useful when the students meet the foreigners as they
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions
Through considering the analysis and determining the types of
conversational implicature in the transcript of the four episodes in Face2face with
Desi Anwar on Metro TV, the conclusions are presented as follows:
1. The two types of conversational implicature were occurred in the four
episodes of Face2face with Desi Anwar on Metro TV. They were
Generalized Conversational Implicature (94) and Particularized
Conversational Implicature (64).
2. The most dominant type of conversational implicature was Generalized
Conversational Implicature.
3. The interviewees used the clear and orderly answers to make the
interviewer and the listeners understood what he/she is talking about.
According to this dominant type, it means that what the expectation of the
interviewer to find an interested and inspiring talk show to the people has
done. People can understand easily what they are talking about because the
B. Suggestions
By considering the research findings and the conclusions, there are some
suggestions which are presented as follows:
1. The students are suggested to comprehend the conversational implicature
in Pragmatics class so that they can get the meaning in a conversation,
whether it’s explicitly or implicitly.
2. English teachers are suggested to enrich their teaching materials by using
some of television program to improve the students’ ability and to grow
the students’ interest in conversational implicature.
3. Other researchers are suggested to make a more depth analysis of
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