AN ANALYSIS OF THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLES IN
RELATION TO THE TENSE SITUATION IN THE ACTION
COMIC
SUPERMAN
BY J. SIEGEL
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
CAECILIA SISKA USMANI Student Number: 064214058
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA 2011
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
AN ANALYSIS OF THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLES IN
RELATION TO THE TENSE SITUATION IN THE ACTION
COMIC
SUPERMAN
BY J. SIEGEL
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
CAECILIA SISKA USMANI Student Number: 064214058
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
It is not in the stars to hold our
destiny but in ourselves.
Shakespeare
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
LEMBAR PUBLIKASI PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma Yogyakarta:
Nama : Caecilia Siska Usmani NIM : 06 4214 058
Demi perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma Yogyakarta, karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul An Analysis of the Cooperative Principles in Relation to the Tense Situation in the Action Comic Superman By J. Siegel beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (jika ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan yang saya buat dengan sebenar-benarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal: 29 Juli 2011 Yang menyatakan,
Caecilia Siska Usmani
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would address my greatest gratitude to Lord Jesus Christ for His blessing so that I am able to finish this undergraduate thesis. I thank Him for giving me spirit and light in my life. I realize that it will be difficult to pass this one of the important steps in my life without His mercy.
My sincere gratitude goes to my advisor Anna Fitriati S. Pd., M. Hum. for her guidance and patience in the process of writing this undergraduate thesis. I also would like to dedicate my gratitude to my co-advisor Dra. B. Ria Lestari, M.S. who has checked and given me suggestion in finishing this undergraduate thesis.
I would like to express my grateful appreciation to all lecturers of English Letters Department of Sanata Dharma University who have given me valuable knowledge and meaningful lessons; to all the staff of English Letters Department and Sanata Dharma Library, who have provided me their best services since I studied and then started writing this undergraduate thesis.
My deepest gratitude is dedicated to my beloved parents Us Joko Widodo S.H., M.H. and Asri Nurya Ismani, S.E. for their support, understanding and never ending love, and also my brothers and sister: Johannes Dori Suryausman S.T., Mikael Astrido Gusman, and Elisabeth Yuaninda Usmani for their great love to me. I always miss them when they are not around.
shown their support to finish my undergraduate thesis and for four incredible years together. I thank Anggoro Aji Wibowo who has given his countless encouragement day by day. Thanks to Rewo Group, Realino Group, Seven Community, Smoephyska Gank, Daleman Group, and Marsud Community as my motivators to finish my study. I also thank Lina, Ste, Cesil, Rita, Alven, Nono and Uno who have shown their stupidity to help me laugh in my worst time during the completion of this thesis. I love you all!
Caecilia Siska Usmani
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ... i
APPROVAL PAGE ... ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE ... iii
MOTTO PAGE ... iv
DEDICATION PAGE ... v
LEMBAR PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ... vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... ix
ABSTRACT ... xi
ABSTRAK ... xii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ... 1
A. Background of the Study ... 1
B. Problem Formulation ... 5
C. Objectives of the Study ... 5
D. Definition of Terms ... 6
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ... 8
A. Review of Related Studies ... 8
B. Review of Related Theories ... 10
1. Grice’s Cooperative Principle ... 10
2. Lakoff’s Politeness Rule ... 15
C. Theoretical Framework ... 17
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ... 18
A. Object of the Study ... 18
B. Approach of the Study ... 19
C. Method of the Study ... 22
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ... 24
A. The Violation of Cooperative Principle ... 24
1. Violation in the 1st Scene ... 25
2. Violation in the 2nd Scene ... 26
3. Violation in the 3rd Scene ... 30
4. Violation in the 4th Scene ... 33
5. Violation in the 5th Scene ... 36
6. Violation in the 6th Scene ... 37
1. The Tense Situation ... 42
a. Tense Situation in the 1st Scene ... 42
b. Tense Situation in the 2nd Scene ... 43
c. Tense Situation in the 3rd Scene ... 46
d. Tense Situation in the 4th Scene ... 49
e. Tense Situation in the 5th Scene ... 52
f. Tense Situation in the 6th Scene ... 52
2. How the Violation of Cooperative Principle Reveals the- Tense Situation ... 54
a. Violation of Quantity Maxim ... 54
b. Violation of Formality Rule ... 56
c. Violation of Hesitancy Rule ... 57
d. Violation of Manner Maxim ... 58
e. Violation of Equality Rule ... 59
f. Violation of Quality Maxim ... 60
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ... 63
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 65
APPENDICES ... 67
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ABSTRACT
CAECILIA SISKA USMANI. An Analysis of the Cooperative Principles in Relation to the Tense Situation in the Action Comic Superman By J. Siegel. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2011.
Language is used as one of the instruments to entertain people. The writer in this study focuses on analyzing spoken language in conversation that is written in the comic book Superman. The reader who reads this comic book experienced the tense situation inside the story. The writer finds that the analysis of the violation of cooperative principle becomes the aspect of the occurrence of the tense situation. In fact, people who read comic book in common usually feel the funny things that come from its conversation. Based on the study of Pragmatics, the violation of maxims in cooperative principle gives contribution to make the conversation in comic books commonly sound funny. In the comic book
Superman, it gives contribution to make the tense situation.
The writer focuses on two problems in this study. First is the analysis of how the conversation in the comic book Superman violates the cooperative principle. Second is the analysis how the violation of cooperative principle reveals the tense situation in the comic book Superman.
In analyzing the first and second problem, the writer uses two theories of cooperative principle from Grice’s maxim and Lakoff’s politeness rule. The writer uses library research method. Many books and other sources from internet are used to help the writer in analyzing the topic.
The writer finds that the violation of cooperative principle that makes the tense situation only exist at the time when the reader reads the dialogue in one by one in orderly. The factors of cooperative principles’ violation are: too much or too little information, the information of the speaker is not stated briefly and orderly, there is an obscurity in the information, the speaker gives wrong information to the addressee, the speaker imposes the addressee, the addressee interrupts the speaker’s speech, the speaker embarrassed the addressee, the speaker gives an offense to the addressee, the speaker does not let the addressee decide something, the speaker does not leave the addressee free to believe or not believe something, and last the unequal treatment from the speaker to the addressee. Those factors are the causes of all occurrence of the friction in conversation, and it leads into the appearance of the tense situation in the story and last it influences the readers to experience the tense situation.
ABSTRAK
CAECILIA SISKA USMANI. An Analysis of the Cooperative Principles in Relation to the Tense Situation in the Action Comic Superman By J. Siegel. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2011.
Bahasa digunakan sebagai salah satu sarana untuk menghibur orang. Dalam penelitian ini penulis fokus menganalisis bahasa lisan percakapan yang tertulis di buku komik Superman. Pembaca yang membaca buku komik ini mengalami perasaan tegang di dalam cerita tersebut. Penulis menemukan bahwa analisis dalam pelanggaran prinsip kooperatif menjadi aspek kemunculan situasi tegang. Kenyataannya, orang yang membaca buku komik pada umumnya, biasanya merasakan sesuatu yang lucu yang berasal dari percakapannya. Berdasarkan penelitian Pragmatik, pelanggaran-pelanggaran prinsip kooperatif memberikan kontribusi untuk membuat suatu percakapan di dalam buku komik menjadi terdengar lucu. Dalam buku komik Superman, hal itu memberikan kontribusi situasi yang tegang.
Penulis fokus terhadap dua permasalahan dalam penelitian ini. Pertama, analisis bagaimana percakapan dalam buku komik Superman melanggar prinsip kooperatif. Kedua adalah analisis bagaimana pelanggaran-pelanggaran prinsip kooperatif tersebut mengungkap situasi yang tegang di dalam buku komik tersebut.
Dalam menganalisis permasalahan yang pertama dan kedua, penulis menggunakan dua teori prinsip kooperatif yaitu dari maksim-maksim Grice dan prinsip-prinsip kesopanan Lakoff. Penulis menggunakan metode penelitian kepustakaan. Buku-buku dan sumber-sumber lain dari internet digunakan untuk membantu penulis dalam menganalisa permasalahan-permasalahan.
Penulis menemukan bahwa pelanggaran prinsip pragmatik hanya terjadi pada saat pembaca membaca dialog secara urut satu per satu. Faktor-faktor pelanggaran prinsip kooperatif yaitu: terlalu banyak/sedikit informasi, informasi yang tidak jelas dan urut yang diberikan oleh penutur, terdapat informasi yang kabur/samar, penutur memberikan informasi yang salah, penutur memaksa pendengar, pendengar menginterupsi penutur, penutur mempermalukan pendengar, penutur tidak memberikan pilihan kepada pendengar, penutur tidak membiarkan pendengar memutuskan sesuatu, penutur tidak membiarkan pendengar percaya/tidak percaya terhadap sesuatu, dan terakhir perlakukan tidak sejajar dari penutur terhadap pendengar. Seluruh faktor tersebut yang menyebabkan terjadinya pergesekan dalam percakapan, dan menyebabkan munculnya situasi yang tegang di dalam cerita dan pada akhirnya mempengaruhi pembaca merasakan ketegangan.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Language is a medium needed by human beings to communicate with people. Language is a symbolic communication system that is mostly used every day by human beings besides the other medium like picture, sign, or body language. Language has an important role in human communication because it can be used in many purposes, for example to tell one another about feeling and idea in human’s mind. Jean Aitchison in the book entitled Linguistics stated that the common purpose of using language is to communicate, besides language also has another purpose, for example: to express people’s feeling, to maintain social contact and to entertain people (Aitchison, 1978: 29).
2
In the case of using language in many purposes, there are two forms of language; they are the written language and the spoken language. There is other form of language besides the two of written and spoken languange. It is spoken language which is written, for example the language that is used in chatting in the computer, the written dialogue in the script of film or movie, and conversation between characters in the comic books. Those examples of language are physically written in a computer screen or paper, but they have spoken language form or it is called a dialogue.
In this study, the writer focuses on analyzing spoken language in a conversation that is written in the comic strips. Comic strips in Columbia Encyclopedia Online means combination of cartoon with a story line, laid out in a series of pictorial panels across a page and concerning a continuous character or set of characters, whose thoughts and dialogues are indicated by means of "balloons" containing written speech <http://www.answers.com/topic/comic-strip> (7 Maret 2010). From the word “cartoon” itself, comic strip commonly has funny or humorous as one of the characteristics in its story. The main components of comic strips are series of pictures, story, character or set of characters, and dialogues.
The Action Comic Superman is one kind of comic strips that was released in 20th-century. This is the comic-strip superhero that first appeared in 1938. The conversation in this comic has different characteristic from conversation in comic-strips in common. This is the example of conversation in The Action Comic
Superman:
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
(http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug02/yeung/actioncomics/page2.html)
The reader who reads that comic experienced different feeling, like tense situation inside the story. In fact, people who read comic strips in common usually found funny things that come from its conversation. This is the example:
(http://www.riddlesbunnybarn.com/AFORD/comicstrips.html)
4
Based on Yule’s statement in his book Pragmatics, one aspect of the idea that people involved in a conversation is cooperation with each other. It is called a cooperative principle of conversation (Yule, 1996: 36). The cooperative principle is elaborated in four sub-principles called maxims. The maxims are: quality maxim, quantity maxim, manner maxim, and relation maxim.
The conversation in the comic strip above violates quantity maxim. Quantity maxim is a rule in conversation where people should make a contribution with enough information. Turtle’s speech in the conversation has too much information and he takes the important part of the information that Robin is eating mothballs in the last of his speech so that Robin is too late to know the truth. In this conversation, Robin also does not give a good response to Turtle’s speech. This conversation breaks the rule of quantity maxim because Turtle gives too much information in the beginning of his speech, and Robin gives no information or answer to Turtle, it means there is no information from Robin to make a response of Turtle’s speech. Those two aspects give a contribution into a funny situation because if Turtle’s speech comes directly to the point that Robin eats mothballs, Robin will not eat those mothballs too much and the situation of the conversation between them is not as funny as if Turtle does not give the point directly like what was written in that comic strip.
The violation of maxims in cooperative principle gives contribution to make the conversation in comic strips commonly sound funny. How about the action comic Superman? Is the idea of cooperative principle in conversation also
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
influenced the tense situation like the idea of cooperative principle influences the funny situation in comic strips?
B. Problem Formulation
There are two questions that used for guiding to analyze the topic. They are:
1. How does the conversation in the action comic Superman violate the cooperative principle?
2. How does the violation of cooperative principle reveal the tense situation in the action comic Superman?
C. Objectives of the Study
6
D. Definition of Terms
In order to avoid the confusion of words used to express the ideas in this study, the writer wants to give the definition of the following words:
1. Pragmatics
Pragmatics is the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker or writer and interpreted by a listener or reader (Yule, 1996: 3).
2. Cooperative Principles
Cooperative Principles are principles to make your conversational contribution such as are required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged (Grice 1975 in Yule, 1996: 63).
3. Action Comic Superman
Action Comic Superman is 20th-century American comic-strip superhero that first appeared in Action Comicsin June 1938 and in a newspaper strip in January of the following year (Encyclopedia Britannica Online, 2009). 4. Tense Situation
Tense (of a situation, an event, a period of time, etc) means the situation in which people have strong feelings such as worry, anger, etc that often cannot be expressed openly (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2002).
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
5. Violation
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
Lanoke Intan Paradita in her undergraduate thesis entitled “The Analysis of Grice’s Non-Observance Conversational Maxims Operating in Shrek” discusses whether the Grice’s maxims are violated in Shrek’s conversation and the participants in Shrek’s conversation violate the maxims. This thesis is aiming at the analysis of Grice’s cooperative principles which are constituted in a conversation. The conclusion of this study is the writer found that the possible reasons to reveal the participants of Shrek’s conversation violate the maxims are: to control the other participants’ feeling by creating fear, to plead the other participants, to repair what has been said by the participant, to cover or keep the truth a secret, and last to persuade someone doing something. The focus in this study is the application of Grice’s maxim in Shrek’s conversation and later on this study revealed that there are certain purposes why the participants of Shrek’s conversation violate Grice’s maxims as mentioned above.
In his undergraduate thesis entitled “Analysis of Article Effectiveness through Grice’s Maxims”, Agus Y. Supriyanto wants to investigate the sample article taken from The Indonesian Quarterly in fulfilling the maxims of quantity and relation: whether the articles in Finance Development are as effective as those
in The Indonesian Quarterly, and which one of the two sets of maxims is mostly
violated the development of the main idea. The result of this study is both articles
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
chosen by the writer are ineffective because they are not developed and organized according to the principles are assumed in Grice’s maxims. As a result, the ideas of both articles are difficult to gasp and the writers of both articles fail to transfer their idea to the reader. By using Grice’s maxims, the writer of this undergraduate thesis tries to reveal whether the writers of those articles (The Indonesian Quarterly and Finance Development) are to succeed in transferring her or his idea or not.
The undergraduate thesis entitled “The Role of the Obedience to Maxims of Cooperative Principles of Car Advertisements in Motor Trend, Editions August 1997, February 1998 and June 1998 in Evoking Audience-Buying-Interest” written by Dessy Natalia Djajasaputra is another undergraduate thesis that uses Grice’s maxim in order to evoke audience-buying-interest in car advertisement. This study aims to reveal whether the car advertisement which was chosen by the writer obeys Grice’s maxims and the relation whether the obedience of car advertisement toward Grice’s maxims will influence audience-buying-interest or not. The advertisement obedience to Grice’s maxims could influence the level of the audience-buying-interest (Djajasaputra, 1993: 65). In other words, Grice’s maxims will help the writer in finding the audience-buying-interest in those car advertisements, and the level of that audience-buying-interest is also influenced by the obedience of Grice’s maxims.
10
is that writer tries to apply Grice’s maxims not in film, articles and advertisement as in previous undergraduate theses, but in the action comic Superman’s conversation to find out the influence of cooperative principle’s violation toward the tense situation in its conversation. By using Grice’s maxims in analyzing discourse in the different object of study, later on this study will discover a different result from those three undergraduate theses.
B. Review of Related Theories
Some theories related to cooperative principle are needed to answer problem formulation as mentioned in the first chapter. As this object of this study is conversation in comic, the writer uses Grice’s maxims and Lakoff’s theory of politeness to analyze the first and second problem formulation.
1. Grice’s Cooperative Principle
As mentioned in the definition of terms, Cooperative Principle means a principle to make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged (Grice 1975 in Yule, 1996: 37). Cooperative principle is needed by people in order to make or to build a good conversation and to avoid offense. If people fail to build a good conversation because of the unclearness intentions for example, it will make a conflict among people.
People have assumed that speakers and listeners involved in conversation are generally cooperating with each other. For example, for reference to be successful, it was proposed that collaboration was a necessary factor. The sense of cooperation is simply one in which people having a conversation
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
are not normally assumed to be trying to confuse, trick, or withhold relevant information from each other (Yule, 1996: 26).
The quotation above means if people intend to build a conversation; it should be in a good collaboration in order to make the same understanding in communication. The good collaboration between the speaker and the hearer in communication happens when they follow cooperative principle. Cooperative principle regulated the process of communication into a good communication. The successful or good communication happens when there are no confusion, irrelevant information, or tricky statement in conversation.
A good collaboration in a conversation should show the maxims of cooperative principle. Cooperative principle has four major maxims; they are relation, quality, quantity and manner, which Grice proposes as what is formulated below:
1. Relation Be relevant 2. Quality
a. Do not say what you believe to be false
b. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence 3. Quantity
a. Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange)
b. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required 4. Manner
a. Avoid obscurity of expression b. Avoid ambiguity
c. Be brief d. Be orderly (Leech, 1985: 31)
The first maxim of Grice is Relation. Leech in his book Principles of
12
people should have a relation. When the first person says something, the answer of the second person is commonly used to make a reaction in the utterance of the first person, and the reaction contains any relevant information that should be given to the first person. The second maxim of Grice is Quality. Maxim of quality means people should say only what they believe to be true. The true contribution will lead people into a good conversation. The third maxim of Grice is Quantity. Maxim of quantity means people should make their contribution in communication with enough information. More information is not always beneficial in communication, because sometimes it will lead people into confusion. The last maxim of Grice is Manner. Maxim of manner means people should be able to make their conversation briefly and orderly in communication. When people say many words and cannot arrange those words orderly, it leads listener to be bored and confused.
The four sub-principles of cooperative principles can also be flouted and/or violated. In a conversation, a person being cooperative means a person trying to make a good communication by trying to be polite. Politeness happens when the speaker also gives her/his attention to hearer’s “face”. (Allan in Rahardi, 2005: 52). Remember that when people talk, they talk to someone. Between the speaker and the hearer, they should respect each other. The hearer should pay attention when the speaker says something, and the speaker also should say something that is not lead into the anger of the hearer’s feeling. This condition is called “face” of a speaker and a hearer.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Flouting the maxims means speakers try to make a conversation more polite. For example, people might prefer not to say to a shop assistant when they hand back a dress, “This looks awful on; I don’t want it after all”, but rather “I’ll go away and think about it and maybe come back later.” The maxims are flouted when the speakers are expecting that the listeners will understand the implied meanings. The speakers are not trying to mislead the listeners; instead they are assuming that the listeners know that their words should not be taken as a face value and that they can infer the implicit meaning (Cutting, 2002: 37).
Next, violating the maxims means the speaker deliberately supplies insufficient information, says something that is insincere, irrelevant or ambiguous and the hearer wrongly assumes that they are cooperating. A speaker can be said to violate a maxim when they know that the hearer will not know the truth and will only understand the surface meaning of the words (Yule, 1996: 32). Violating the maxims happen in certain purpose not to show cooperativeness, a speaker does not want to give direct answer to a listener.
Since this study focuses on the violation of cooperative principle, the flout of maxims are not used. This is the further explanation about violation of maxims by Grice that are used to analyze the conversation of action comic Superman. First is violating maxim of relation. Violating maxim of relation means there is no relation about information between the speaker and the hearer in the conversation. For example:
14
It is clear that the above conversation breaks the maxim of relation or violates relation maxim because the information of B’s answer is not related with the question of A about hobby. Hobby is an activity that people do for pleasure when people are not working, for example swimming or gardening, but B’s answer is the information about how B will go somewhere.
Second violation is violating maxim of quality. Violating maxim of quality means the speaker gives the hearer the wrong information. This is the example: A: Who is the president of Indonesia?
B: Obama is the president of Indonesia.
The conversation between A and B violates quality maxim because B gives the wrong information to A’s question. The fact is that the president of Indonesia is SBY, but B said Obama is the president of Indonesia.
Third violation is violating maxim of quantity means the speaker does not give the hearer enough information or too much information given to know what is being talked about. Let see the example:
A: Do you like my orange juice?
B: Yes, I like it because this is made from the fresh orange that will be great to support our health. Orange is also one of my favorite fruit. I usually buy this kind of fruit for my children too.
This conversation violates maxim of quantity because although B gives the answer to A’s question, the answer of B is too long. There is too much information given by B. The answer “Yes, I like it” is enough to answer A’s question. This condition sometimes will lead the hearer be bored to listen to the
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
speaker’s speech because there are much information that is not really needed by the hearer.
The last violation is violating maxim of manner. Violating maxim of manner means the speaker says everything or gives information except what the addressee wants to know. This is the example:
A: How much does your car cost?
B: I am sure you cannot buy it with your own money.
Based on manner maxim, the above conversation violates this kind of maxim. A wants to know the price of B’s car, but B gives statement which is different from A’s expectation. There is a relation between A’s question and B’s anwer, but B does not give the right information that is needed or wanted by A.
2. Lakoff’s Politeness Rule
Robin Lakoff in Fillmore’s Berkeley Studies in Syntax and Semantics
Volume I states that the rules of politeness have the same rules of conversation.
The rule of politeness and the rule of conversation are designed in order to avoid friction so that people will go to a good collaboration in a communication (1974: 19).
There are three rules of politeness by Lakoff that are designed to get people through cooperative conversation with minimal amount of friction, they are:
1. Formality: do not impose; remain aloof 2. Hesitancy: allow the addressee his options
16
Politeness rule of formality is followed when in a conversation the first person maintains distance from the second person (speaker and addressee). The speaker should not impose the addressee to tell something which is related to personal affairs or some information that will lead the addressee to be embarrassed. The speaker also tries not to tell her or his own personal affairs. The aloofness is needed to keep or maintain distance between the speaker and the addressee because if someone shows too much interest in people, it will lead into an uncomfortable conversation.
This is also rule that people also should use correct table manners to make other comfortable around your presence, not interrupt, not cough or sneeze without an attempt at concealment, mark distance between speaker and addressee, and give no offense (Lakoff in Fillmore 1974: 20).
Those rules of formality politeness above are used in a conversation in order to minimize some frictions. The friction will appear and bother a conversation if the speaker or the addressee does not aware of the use of table manners, interrupts the speaker’s speech, disturbs the concentration of the speaker by coughing or sneezing, too much asks in friend’s personal affairs, and gives offense to the addresse while doing a conversation because, for example, the speaker imposes the addresse to tell his or her secret.
Politeness rule of Hesitancy is followed to give options between a speaker and addressee in order to let them decide. This rule leads a speaker and addressee not into a clumsy conversation but natural conversation. People can use the words like “suppose” and “guess” to soften a declaration in a conversation and leave the addressee free to believe or not, and use the word “please” to instruct somebody (1974: 24). All of those words are used to avoid the emotional atmosphere and
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
remove some of embarrasing connotations in a conversation to decrease the appearance of frictions in a conversation.
The last is politeness rule of Equality. Politeness rule of equality is sometimes called camaraderie (1974: 19). Politeness rule of equality is followed to make the position between speaker and addressee equal and makes them feel good and comfortable doing a conversation. People should show a natural interest in other person’s problem and give a compliment on their taste or personal success. It is impolite when the speaker says something that placed his position superior or more powerful than the addressee because later it will lead the conversation into the uncomfortable condition of the addressee.
C. Theoretical Framework
This study intends to find out the influence of cooperative principle’s violation in revealing the tense situation in action comic Superman. In this analysis, the writer provides some theories in order to answer two problem formulations above. The theories that used in this analysis are Grice’s cooperative principle with their four maxims and Lakoff’s theory of politeness.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
Literary work that is used in this analysis is the action comic Superman. This comic tells about a superhero named Superman. He comes from Krypton planet. He was adopted by a family in Smallville, Kansas. In the original series, he works as a newspaper reporter. Kent works as a reporter at the Daily Planet, a major newspaper in Metropolis. Lois Lane, also a reporter, is the target of Kent's/Superman's romantic affection. When Superman is needed, Kent quickly changes into Superman to help people.
This comic is written by Jerry Siegel and first published in 1938 in the first June. The special things of Action Comic Superman publication are: it becomes first super-hero comic, first issue of DC's highest numbered series, second-highest numbered comic series of all time (Dell's Four Color Comics number over 1,000), second-oldest continuously published DC comic, (Detective Comics is a year older), and the most valuable comic in the world (A copy in "Good" condition is worth at least $50,000). <http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/features/action comics1/default.asp> (11 May 2010). The popularity of Superman led to super-heroes being the most popular and most published aspect of the comic book industry. This comic is famous with its own characteristic as first super-hero comic and the main character, Superman, became the idol for many people all around the world.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
The age of Action Comic Superman is very old, but the recent news from Reuters’ article Superman Comic Fetches Record $1 Million on Monday February 22, 2010 stated that the first edition Superman comic book in top condition sold on Monday for a record $1 million in a public sale held by website ComicConnect.com. Stephen Fishler, ComicConnect.com founder, said the comic is one of only around 100 in existence and that a scant two or three are in a similar unrestored, high-grade condition. The $1 million is more than three times the previous record of $317,000 that ComicConnect fetched for a lower-grade Action Comics #1 book last year. Back in 1938, the comic sold for 10 cents. <http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61L55G20100222> (12 May 2010). The early edition of these comics in top condition has a high price because from the journey of the existence of the action comic Superman, this comic got many achievements from the publication, valuation and the popularity. It can be said that in the world of comic book industry, the action comic Superman becomes the super-hero comic legend.
B. Approach of the Study
20
particular context and how the context influences what is said. Second, pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated than is said. It means that pragmatics explores how a great deal of what is unsaid is recognized as part of what is communicated. Third, pragmatics is the study of the expression of relative distance. This perspective raises the question of what determines the choice between the said and the unsaid. On the assumption of how close or distant the listener is, speakers determine how much needs to be said. Last, pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning (1996: 3-4).
The definition of pragmatics as the study of speaker meaning is the most appropriate one to explore the topic of this thesis, related with the conversation in action comic Superman. Pragmatics as the study of speaker meaning is a study which is more to do with the analysis of what people mean by their utterances than what the words or phrases in those utterances might mean by themselves. As stated in the first chapter, Pragmatic approach is the approach that studied about meaning as communicated by a speaker or writer and interpreted by a listener or reader (Yule, 2003: 3). The interpretation from reader of the tense situation when reading the action comic Superman will be analyzed, especially from its conversation through Pragmatic approach.
Like many approaches of study, pragmatics has its own advantages and disadvantages. In language analysis, the distinction among pragmatics, syntax, and semantics is that only pragmatics allows human into the analysis.
The advantage of studying language via pragmatics is that one can talk about people’s intended meanings, their assumptions, their purposes or goals, and the kinds of actions (for example, requests) that they are performing when they speak. The big disadvantage is that all these very
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
human concepts are extremely difficult to analyze in a consistent and objective way. (Yule 2003: 4)
The advantage of using pragmatic approach especially in this analysis is it talks about human concepts. The intended meanings, the assumptions, the purposes, and the kinds of actions of characters in the story of comic Superman through speech as the data to be analyzed are used to reveal the tense situation through violation of cooperative principle. The disadvantage of the pragmatic approach becomes the obstacle in this analysis, because the aspects of those human concepts require this analysis to make sense of people and what they have in mind. It is difficult because sense of people and what people have in mind are invisibly seen by others. This analysis’ interpretation comes from the conversation in the comic Superman through theories of cooperative principle. The theories that are used are theories of cooperative by Grice and Lakoff as the branch theories of pragmatic approach.
22
C. Method of the Study
In conducting the analysis of this thesis, the writer employed a library research method that was done by studying and analyzing some written sources from related books and some related articles.
The sources used for supporting the thesis were primary and secondary sources. The primary source of this study was The Action Comic Superman itself that was written by Jerry Siegel. The secondary sources were some books related to this study, some articles about the booming of Superman Comic to complete the information, and also some references from dictionaries and encyclopedias.
There were some steps taken in this study. As the first step, the writer carefully read all the conversation in the action comic Superman in order to understand the work. While reading, the writer also focused on the dialogue among the characters in this comic and underlined the important parts that are related to the topic of the analysis about the cooperative principle’s violation and the tense situation of the conversation. The second step was answering the question stated in the problem formulation one by one.
For the first problem formulation, the writer tried to find out the violation of cooperative principle by using Grice’s maxims and Lakoff’s politeness rule in all dialogue on the comic. The writer tried to divide the conversation of action comic Superman into six scenes. The aim of those division is to help the writer in analyzing the data, because there are so many dialogues in the Superman comic first edition. Those six scenes are: Superman saves a girl (first scene), Superman tries to save Ms. Curry (second scene), Wife-beating case (third scene), Clark
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Kent’s dating (fourth scene), Superman saves Lois (fifth scene), and last Kent finds a problem of Senator Barrows (sixth scene).
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
This chapter is divided into two main parts. The first part of this analysis is to find out how the conversation in the action comic Superman violates the cooperative principle. The second part of this analysis is to find out how the violation of cooperative principle reveals the tense situation in action comic
Superman.
A. The Violation of Cooperative Principle
Cooperative principles are principles to make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged (Grice 1975 in Yule, 1996: 63). In order to make a good conversation, people should follow the rule of cooperative principle. This study uses two theories which are related to cooperative principle; they are theory of maxims by Grice and theory of politeness by Lakoff.
Cooperative Principle by Grice consists of four specific maxims; they are maxim of quality, maxim of quantity, maxim of relation, and maxim of manner. The theory of politeness by Lakoff also has three specific rules; they are formality rule of politeness, hesitancy rule of politeness and equality rule of politeness.
In a conversation, a person being cooperative means a person trying to make a good communication by trying to be polite. Politeness happens when the speaker also gives her/his attention to hearer’s “face”. (Allan in Rahardi, 2005:
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
52). Flouting the maxims means speakers try to make a conversation more polite, so in this first analysis, the writer does not use flouting maxims and focuses only in violation of maxims and violation of politeness rule because if a conversation has flouting maxim, it means that a conversation already followed the cooperative principle and there is no misunderstanding between the speaker and addressee.
In the beginning of the story, there is a short narration about the arrival of a baby boy from the distant planet in earth. His name is Clark Kent. When maturity was reached, he uses his amazing strength to help those in need, and people called him Superman. First of all, the dialogues in Superman Comic will be divided into six scenes based on the cases happen in the story, they are: 1st Scene: Superman saves a girl, 2nd Scene: Superman tries to save Ms. Curry, 3rd Scene: Wife-beating case, 4th Scene: Clark Kent’s dating, 5th Scene: Superman saves Lois, and last 6th Scene: Clark Kent finds a problem of senator Barrows. 1. Violation in the 1st Scene
The 1st scene begins when Superman saved a girl and placed the girl into a secure place. He says to the girl:
Superman : make yourself comfortable! I haven’t time to attend to it. The girl : ... (p. 2)
26
surprised she saved by Superman, but still the girl does not give an answer to respond Superman’s speech so the real intention about what the girl has in her mind is not stated there. This condition also violates manner maxim. The girl says nothing to Superman although she saved by Superman. Normally, people will say “thank you” when somebody help them.
2. Violation in the 2nd Scene
In this scene, Superman reaches the governor estate and tries to meet the governor, but the servant holds him up. This is the quotation of the dialogues from the comic:
Servant : What do you mean by knocking this hour of the night? Superman : I must see the governor. It’s a matter of life and death! Servant : See him in the morning!
Superman : I’ll see him now!
Servant : This is illegal entry! I’ll have you arrested!
Superman : Answer my question! Are you going to take me to the governor?
Servant : No! I won’t!
Superman : Then I’ll take you to him! Servant : help! help!
IN FRONT OF GOVERNOR’S SLEEPING ROOM
Servant : Yes, this is the governor’s sleeping room. Don’t think you’re going to get away with this outrage!
Superman : It’s locked!
Servant : Yes! And made of steel! Try and knock this door down! Superman : It was your idea!
Servant : ...
IN THE GOVERNOR’S SLEEPING ROOM Governor : What’s the meaning of this?
Superman : Evelyn Curry is to be electrocuted in 15minutes for murder. I have proof here of her innocence—a signed confession!
SERVANT COMES WITH A GUN ON HIS HAND Servant : reach for the ceiling, quick!
Superman : Put that toy away!
Servant : I warn you! Take another step and I shoot!
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Servant : ...
Superman : Don’t you realize? I’ve proof she’s innocent and you alone can save her!
Governor : Let me see those papers. GOVERNOR CALLS SOMEBODY
Governor : hurry! – connect me with the penitentiary! Executor : stop! The governor has pardoned her! People : ...
E. Curry : Thank God! I told you I was innocent! Governor : He’s gone—disappeared!
Servant : Yes... but here’s a note he left, Sir. – “You’ll find the real murderess bound and delivered on the lawn of your estate.” Man 1 : Have you heard? The Curry girl is innocent!
Clark : Let’s see the paper! Good! I’m not mentioned! OFFICE IN THE MORNING
Governor : Gentlemen, I still can’t believe my senses! He’s not human! – thank heaven he’s apparently on the side of law and order! (pp. 2-4)
28
to understand by the servant. The servant will not understand what the relation between the governor and a matter of life and death is.
The next dialogue between Superman and the servant also violates the politeness rule of Lakoff especially hesitancy rule. Superman gives no options to the servant to decide whether the servant allows him to see the governor or not by saying “I must see the governor”. The use of the word “must” means Superman lets the servant not to make the choices whether the servant gives permission or not to see the governor.
The next dialog is when the servant wants Superman to see the governor in the morning, Superman says “I’ll see him now!”. This dialogue violates the rule of politeness by Lakoff, especially the rule of formality; do not give offense. Superman forces the servant to take him to the governor’s room, although the servant then says “This is illegal entry! I’ll have you arrested!” Superman forces the servant to take him to the room of governor by says “Then I’ll take you to him!”. This condition also violates the rule of hesitancy because both of them, Superman and the servant, do not give option to their listener. Superman still wants to see the governor, and the servant still wants Superman to see the governor in the morning.
The addition of the information from the servant “I’ll have you arrested!” also violates maxim of quantity because the servant gives too much information. When Superman forces the servant to let him see the governor, the servant gives a warning that this is an illegal entry. The sentence “This is illegal entry!” actually is enough, but the servant wants to scare Superman by adding the information ‘I’ll
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
have you arrested!”. At the same time, Superman also breaks the rule of Equality because he pushes the servant with his strength to take himself to the governor and this condition makes the servant feels uncomfortable because the power position of the servant is not equal with Superman.
Superman and the servant come to the governor room. The servant makes a statement “Yes, this is the governor’s sleeping room. Don’t think you’re going to get away with this outrage!”. The first sentence is actually enough to give information to Superman, but the servant adds other information that makes the dialog violates quantity maxim; too much information. That additional information also breaks the formality and hesitancy rule of politeness. The point of formality violation is when the servant wants to impose or underestimate Superman, that Superman is only a criminal and will run away after that outrage. The speech of the servant “Don’t think you’re going to get away with this outrage” also has a meaning that the servant judges Superman immediately that he is the person who has no responsibility doing that kind of act (entering the governor’s house without permission). In fact, Superman doing that kind of act to give the proof to the governor about the innocence of Ms. Curry, but Superman has no choice to tell the truth to the servant. It will lead that conversation into violation of the hesitancy rule.
30
down. This is like the servant gives a defiant statement which is not important at all and only makes the worse situation. That dialogue also violates formality rule because the servant adds the command to mock and to impose Superman. Then, when Superman really did what the servant says to him, the servant says nothing. It means this dialogue breaks the rule of quantity maxim because there is no information said by the servant.
After Superman sees the governor and explains he has a proof about the innocence of Ms. Curry, suddenly the servant comes with a gun on his hand and says:
Servant : reach for the ceiling, quick! Superman : Put that toy away!
Servant : I warn you! Take another step and I shoot! Superman : This is no time for horseplay!
Servant : ... (pp. 3-4)
Those dialogues above break the politeness rule of formality and hesitancy at the same time because they give offense and they force each other, give no options except what they ask to their hearer. The servant wants Superman to surrender and obey him not to disturb the governor, but Superman has the same thought that the servant should obey him to take himself to the governor. So, this dialogue has a bad cooperation in communication.
3. Violation in the 3rd Scene
Scene 3 begins with a wife-beating case that should be solved by Superman. These are the dialogues:
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Clark Kent : You wanted to see me? Editor : Yes, be seated.
Editor : Did you ever hear of superman? Clark Kent : What!
Editor : Reports have been streaming in that a fellow with gigantic strength named superman actually exists. I’m making it your steady assignment to cover these reports. Think you can handle it, Kent?
Clark Kent : Listen, Chief, if I can’t find out anything about this Superman, no one can!
KENT’S OFFICE ROOM
Man2 : Hurry, Kent—a phoned tip... wife-beating at 211 court ave!
Clark Kent : I’m on my way! 211 COURT AVE
Superman : Hold it!
Husband : What d’you want? don’t get tough!
Superman : Tough is putting mildly the treatment your going to get! You’re not fighting a woman, now!
Husband : Y’ asked for it!
Superman : And now you’re going to get a lesson you’ll never forget! Fainted!
POLICE COMES TO 211 COURT AVE
Superman : It would be just too bad if they searched me! Police : What are you doing here?
Clark Kent : Hello captain! I arrived to find the place like this! Looks as tho our friend superman had dropped in to pay a visit! (pp. 5-6)
32
existence of Superman. Clark Kent answered “Listen, Chief, if I can’t find out anything about this Superman, no one can!”. This answer breaks Maxim of Quality because Clark Kent does not say the truth to the editor. He says he cannot find any report about Superman and also no one can, although in fact he really knows who Superman is. At the same time, this dialogue also breaks formality and hesitancy rules of politeness. The answer of Clark Kent makes the embarrassment of the editor. Clark Kent’s answer makes the editor feels offended and he has no choice to believe Clark Kent’s answer or not by the words “no one can.
Next, when Clark Kent gets information about a wife-beating case, he changes himself to be Superman and comes to the 211 court ave to help the wife. The dialogue between Superman and the husband violates Manner maxim, formality rule of politeness, and equality rule of politeness. The husband asks “What do you want? Don’t get tough!”, and Superman says “Tough is putting mildly the treatment you’re going to get! You’re not fighting a woman, now!”. Superman’s speech in this case not briefly and clearly answers Husband’s question because Superman does not say what he really wants but he tells what the meaning of the word “tough” to Husband and also gives him a warning. This dialogue also violates Formality rule of politeness because when Superman explains the word “tough” to the husband, actually Superman is imposing the husband to win this battle, Superman only puts mildly treatment to the husband and the husband will be a looser. It means this dialogue also violates equality rule of politeness at the same time because Superman’s speech to the husband implies
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
that he and the husband’s positions are not equal. Superman is more powerful than the husband. In the last part of the conversation between Superman and the husband, Superman wins the battle and he says “fainted!”, means that this speech also supports the violation of formality rule.
The last conversation of the third scene is Police comes to 211 court ave to help the woman. Superman hears police sirens then he hurriedly changes his clothes. Police sees Clark Kent there and asks “What are you doing here?”, and Clark Kent says “Hello captain! I arrived to find the place like this! Looks as our friend superman had dropped in to pay a visit!”. This dialogue breaks the Quality maxim because Clark Kent lies to Police. He says as if Superman is not him, but other man, and Superman was gone somewhere.
4. Violation in the 4th Scene
This scene starts with a conversation between Clark Kent and his girlfriend, Lois, to make a date. This is the conversation:
Kent : w-what do you say to a –er—date tonight, Lois? Lois : I suppose I’ll give you a break... for a change. THAT NIGHT
Kent : Why is it you always avoid me at the office?
Lois : Please Clark! I’vee been scribbling “sob stories” all day long. Don’t ask me to dish out another. (p. 6)
34
be honest and is not trying to be briefly answers Kent’s question. The word “why” is the question to ask about reason or purpose of somebody’s action, but Lois does not give her reason why she avoid Kent in the office.
While Clark Kent and Lois dance together on the floor, there are some men talking to each other in the corner of the same room. Later there will be some problems between Clark Kent, Lois and one of the man named Butch. Here are the dialogues:
IN THE CORNER
Butch : Nice-lookin’ dame there, eh? Guess I’ll cut in! Man4 : Wait Butch! Suppose her escort don’t like it? Butch : So what? If he gets nasty I’ll push his face in! Man5 : This is goin’ to be good!
BUTCH COMES TO KENT AND LOIS Butch : I said run along, I’m cuttin’ in! Kent : But this is not a robber’s dance.
Butch : Tryin’ t’get flip? Move quick if y’know what’s good for ya! Lois : Clark! Are you going to stand for this?
Kent : Be reasonable, Lois. Dance with the fellow and then we’ll leave right away.
Lois : You can stay and dance with him if you wish but I’m leaving now!
Butch : Yeah? You’ll dance with me and like it! Lois : ...
Butch : Why, you--!
Kent : (good for you, Lois!) Lois—don’t! Butch : Fight... you weak—livered pole-cat! Kent : Really—I have no desire to do so! KENT FOLLOWS LOIS
Kent : Wait, Lois! Lois : ... Kent : But Lois--?
Lois : You asked me earlier in the evening. Why I avoid you. I’ll tell you why now: because you’re a spineless, unbearable coward! Butch : Let’s get out of here! I’ll show that skirt she can’t make a fool out
of Butch Matson! Man4,5: ... (pp. 6-7)
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Butch tries to cut in Lois and Kent’s dance. The dialogues of Butch violate the three of politeness rules by Lakoff. First, Butch says to Kent to run along because Butch wants to dance with Lois. This dialogue violates formality rule of politeness because this is the first time Butch and Clark Kent met, but Butch interrupts Kent’s dance suddenly. He embarrassed Clark Kent in front of Lois and other people around there. Second, this condition automatically also violates Equality rule of politeness because Butch does not take himself and Clark Kent equally. Clark Kent is Lois’s boyfriend so if Butch wants to dance with Lois, he should asks Kent politely. But he rudely asks Kent to run along so Butch can dance with Lois. Third, this dialogue violates Hesitancy rule of politeness because Butch gives no options to Clark Kent to allow Lois to dance with him. Butch forces Kent to go away and leaves Lois with Butch.
Clark Kent then asks Lois to dance with Butch, but Lois does not want to do that. Butch says to Lois “You’ll dance with me and like it!”. Then, Lois goes away from that room, leaves Kent with Butch with no words to say. The statement of Butch violates Quality maxim because he does not say the truth. In fact, Lois goes away from that room and it means she does not like to dance with Butch. So, there is no evidence that Lois will like to dance with Butch. Lois also leaves Butch with no words to say, it means it breaks the Quantity maxim and formality rule of politeness. Lois gives no information and suddenly goes away.
36
formality and equality rules of politeness. By saying “you weak” to Kent, it shows that Butch tries to embarrass Kent in the public place.
Next, Clark Kent tries to chase Lois and shouts “Wait, Lois!”, but Lois just keeps quiet. This dialogue breaks the Maxim of Quantity because Lois gives no information to Kent when Kent wants her to wait for him. Lois feels angry and mad so that she just keeps quiet and tries to leave Kent. So, Kent asks for more, tries to get explanation from Lois. He asks “But Lois--?”, and Lois suddenly interrupts Kent’s question and says “You asked me earlier in the evening. Why I avoid you. I’ll tell you why now: because you’re a spineless, unbearable coward!”. This dialogue breaks the formality rule of politeness because Lois’s explanation will impose Kent as Lois’s boyfriend that should take care of her, but Lois feels Kent cannot do what he should do as his duty to protect her.
In the last part of 4th scene, Butch gives command to his entire friend to get out from there. He says “I’ll show that skirt she can’t make a fool out of Butch Manson!” and their friends give no respond. This dialogue violates Quantity maxim, because there is no information back from Butch’s friend after Butch gives a statement to them.
5. Violation in the 5th Scene
Butch Manson has an idea to kidnap Lois when she goes home alone. He wants to take revenge. He and his friends follow Lois when she walks in the street and suddenly catch her and push her to get in Butch’s car. Lois says “Let me go!”, and Butch says “Get in that car and shut up!” (p. 8). This dialogue between Lois
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
and Butch violates Hesitancy rules of politeness. Butch pushes Lois to go with them and there is no choice for Lois to refuse it.
6. Violation in the 6th Scene
First 6th scene begins with the attendance of Clark Kent to report the congress in the capitol city. In the corner of a room, Kent sees a furtive man speaks to Senator Barrows. This is the dialogues:
Furtive man : When can I see you?
Senator : I told you never to speak to me in public! ...uh... my home... tonight at 8:30.
CLARK ASKS HIS FRIEND
Clark : Who’s the chap speaking to senator Barrows? Friend : Why. That’s Alex Greer, the slickest lobbyist in
Washington. No one knows what interests back him. (p. 11)
The dialogue above violates Quantity maxim because Senator Barrows gives additional information to furtive man, but that additional information is not related with the question. The first sentence “I told you never to speak to me in public!” is not related with the question “When can I see you?”. These sentences also have a contradictory and confuse meaning. So, this conversation also breaks the manner maxim at the same time because Senator does not briefly and orderly answer Furtive man’s question.
Next, Superman spies Senator Barrows and Alex Greer to find some information related to their suspicious activity. After Alex Greer leaves Senator Barrow’s home, Superman comes to him and asks:
38
Superman : So you’re one of these silent men,eh? We’ll see, whether you’ll talk!
Greer : Let go of my hand!
Superman : Your foot will do just as well! Greer : Stop! Stop! We’ll be electrocuted!
Superman : No, we won’t! Birds sit on telephone wires and they aren’t electrocuted— not unless they touch a telephone-pole and are grounded! Oops! – Almost touched that pole!
Greer : Ye—eow!
Superman : Look! – the capitol! Let’s pay it a visit! Greer : Take me down! Take me down! Superman : What a magnificent view! Greer : Help! Help!
Superman : I wonder if we could jump all the way to that building? Greer : No! Don’t! (pp. 12-13)
Superman asks “Who is behind you in corrupting senator Barrows?”, but Greer says “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”. This dialogue violates Quality maxim because Greer lies to Superman. Then, when Greer feels scary because Superman brings them into a high place near telephone wires, Superman says “No, we won’t! Birds sit on telephone wires and they aren’t electrocuted— not unless they touch a telephone-pole and are grounded! Oops! – Almost touched that pole!”. This dialogue violates quantity maxim, too much information is given by Superman. The fact is that Superman does not really want to electrocute themselves, so the sentence “No, we won’t!” is enough to answer Greer’s statement. The rest of Superman’s sentences in the above analysis is not necessarily needed in their conversation, because the important part of Superman’s statement “No, we won’t!” is clear enough to answer Greer’s statement. Besides, they are some reasons why those violations of those conversation analyses above are placed there. The reason of addition information
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
in Superman’s dialogue is Superman wants to scare Greer to say the truth about who behind the corrupting of Senator Barrows is.
Those analyses from the first until the sixth scene are the explanation of violation of cooperative principles at the time the reader reads the dialogue one by one from up to above. It feels like the action comic Superman has many violation of cooperative principle in the whole dialogues. The factors of cooperative principle’s violation are: too many or too little information from a speaker, the information of the speaker is not stated briefly and orderly, there is an obscurity in information, and last the speaker gives wrong information to the addressee. From the politeness rule in a conversation, the causes of friction’s occurrence are: the speaker imposes the addressee, the addressee interrupts the speaker’s speech, the speaker embarrassed the addressee (he does not produce emotional distance), the speaker gives an offense to the addressee, the speaker does not let the addressee decide something, the speaker does not leave the addressee free to believe or not believe something, and last the speaker treats the addressee into the unequal position in a conversation.
40
“violation” itself: the speaker or listener will only understand the surface meaning of the words.
B. How the Violation of Cooperative Principle Reveals the Tense Situation
In this second part, the writer intends to find out how the violation of cooperative principle in the first analysis above reveals the tense situation by analyzing one by one the dialogue itself. The theories from pragmatic approach, Grice’s maxims and Lakoff’s politeness rule, are still used to analyze the action comic Superman’s conversation.
Before the analysis goes to its step, the writer wants to show the relationship between the work of literature, in this case is the action comic
Superman, and the tense situation.
Reading fiction is a spectator sport, like watching a football game, chess match, or many other human process that moves from event to event in time. It touches on something that happens to all of us: we want to know what’s going to happen next and how it will all come out. But watching a game need not to be a passive, mindless experience. It is anticipatory and, if vicariously, participatory, and the more you know and understand, the more you think, the more you are engaged. When ... In part the satisfaction of guessing right or the excitement of being surprised, but also to participate more, to become engaged, not only intellectually but emotionally. (Beaty, 1973: 15)
Based on Beaty’s statement, when people read a fiction or literary work, it touches on something that happens to them. People will be curious what will happen next and will deeply participate on the story of literary work. It will come to the engagement between the literary work and the reader. This engagement is
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
not only intellectually (mind) but emotionally (feel). Tense is one of the emotional aspects that occur in the action comic Superman that later will be analyzed. The occurrence of the tense situation in this case will be analyzed from the conversation of literary work that also engaged the feeling of the reader.
Tense situation in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary means situation, an event, a period of time in which people have strong feelings such as worry, anger, etc that often cannot be expressed openly. The tense situation appears in action comic Superman’s conversation. This is different from the conversation in comic-strips commonly that have funny situation on its conversation. This is the example of conversation that has funny situation taken from the book entitled
Pragmatics by George Yule:
Man : Does your dog bite?
Woman : No.
(The man reaches down to pet the dog. The dog bites the man’s hand.) Man : Ouch! Hey! You said your dog does not bite.
Woman : He does not. But that’s not my dog.
From the man’s perspective, the woman’s answer provide less information than expected. The woman might be expected to provide the information stated in the last line. Ofcourse, if she had mentioned this information earlier, the story would not be as funny. For the event to be funny, the woman has to give less information than is expected.( 1996: 36)
42
the man does not want to pet the dog. In fact, the dog in the man’s assumption is different from the dog in the woman’s assumption.
Next, the writer analyzes the action comic Superman’s conversation using the cooperative principle rules to dig up the tense situation on it:
1. The Tense Situation
In this part, the writer wants to analyze the tense situation per scene. As in the first part of the analysis above, the conversation of the action comic Superman is divided into 6 scenes. The writer still used the pragmatics theories from Grice and Lakoff to analyze this conversation.
a. The Tense Situation in the 1st Scene
The 1st scene begins when Superman saved a girl and placed the girl into a secure place. He says to the girl:
Superman : make yourself comfortable! I haven’t time to attend to it. The girl : ... (p. 2)
Based on the study of Pragmatics, this dialog violates maxim of quantity. The violation of quantity leads to tense situation because when superman says “I haven’t time to attend to it.”, he has no time and in a hurry to do something else, so that the violation supports the dialogue of Superman and it makes the occurrence of the emotional aspect on the dialogue. If Superman says that he wants to save other people, the girl will not feel so confused and will understand why Superman leaves her in hurry.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
b. The Tense Situation in the 2nd Scene
In this scene, Superman reaches the governor estate and tries to meet the governor, but the servant holds him up. This is the quotation of the dialogues from the comic:
Servant : What do you mean by knocking this hour of the night? Superman : I must see the governor. It’s a matter of life and death! Servant : See him in the morning!
Superman : I’ll see him now!
Servant : This is illegal entry! I’ll have you arrested!
Superman : Answer my question! Are you going to take me to the governor?
Servant : No! I won’t!
Superman : Then I’ll take you to him! Servant : help! help!
IN FRONT OF GOVERNOR’S SLEEPING ROOM
Servant : Yes, this is the governor’s sleeping room. Don’t think you’re going to get away with this outrage!
Superman : It’s locked!
Servant : Yes! And made of steel! Try and knock this door down! Superman : It was your idea!
Servant : ...
IN THE GOVERNOR’S SLEEPING ROOM Governor : What’s the meaning of this?
Superman : Evelyn Curry is to be electrocuted in 15minutes for murder. I have proof here of her innocence—a signed confession!
SERVANT COMES WITH A GUN ON HIS HAND Servant : reach for the ceiling, quick!
Superman : Put that toy away!
Servant : I warn you! Take another step and I shoot! Superman : This is no time for horseplay!
Servant : ...
Superman : Do
