THE VIOLATION OF MAXIMS
IN “HANNAH MONTANA” TV SERIES
A THESIS
Submitted to Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
By:
NURUL CHAIRINA
Regristration Number 209220038
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
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ABSTRACT
Chairina, Nurul. 2013. The Violation of Maxims in Hannah Montana TV Series. A Thesis. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Alhamdulillah, the writer express her best gratitude to Allah SWT, for
giving the writer blessing, endless love and mercy, especially in the process of
accomplishing this thesis. In accomplishing this thesis, the writer was helped by so
many beloved people and the writer would like to express her gratitude to:
1. Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si. as the Rector of State
University of Medan
2. Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum. as the Dean of Faculty of Languages
and Arts
3. Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd. as the Head of English and Literature
Department and Dra. Meisuri, M.A. as the Head of Applied
Linguistics Program
4. Dra. Sri Juriaty Ownie, M.A. as her thesis adviser, for the advice,
guidance, comment, and precious time in supervising the draft of
writing during the completion of this thesis, Dra. Yunita Agnes
Sianipar, M.Hum. as her academic adviser, and all her beloved
lecturers in English and Literature Department
5. Her beloved family, her father, Drs.Chairul Rahman; her mother, Ir.
Reny Rosfiarty; and her dearest sisters Nurul Musfirah and Shofi
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prayer, love, motivation and financial while accomplished this
thesis.
6. Her beloved friends, SEMAK (Dewi, Hervina, Juniar, Putri,
Siswantia, and Vany), thanks for your love, happiness, and
friendship. Her special thanks also go to all friends in Applied
Linguistics A and B 2009 especially for her comrades; Murdianti,
Sisna, Suci, Conny, Astri, and many others that she cannot be
mentioned one by one.
7. Her best friends, Windy, Redny, and Tari, for their support
although they have separated in different university.
8. All others whose name cannot be mentioned one by one for their
help and support. Thanks for everything. May Allah bless us. Amin.
Finally, the writer admits that this thesis still far from being perfect.
Therefore, the writer would like to invite the readers to give suggestion for the
improvement of this thesis later on.
Medan, July 2013
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix A Identification of Violation of Maxim in the Main Characters’ Utterances of Hannah Montana in Season Three 44
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
In conversation, the speaker(s) and the hearer(s) can achieved an ideal
communication when they have a good interaction and try to cooperate to each
other so that they understand and there is a correlation to the current topic
which they talk. When the speaker(s) and the hearer(s) have given a good
contribution in a conversation and use the good language, it shows that they
have fulfilled the rule of language. As Yule (1996:37) said that in most
circumstances, the assumption of cooperation is so pervasive that it can be
stated as a cooperative principle of conversation and elaborated in four
sub-principles, called maxims. This principle is the best practices in
communication in order to facilitate the process of conversation to be smoother
for the participants. But in fact, there are many people who disobey this
principle. This is called as the violation of maxim.
The violation of maxim occurs in a condition where someone fails to
fulfill a maxim in conversation. There are times when meaning deliberate
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respect, to change the topic/subject and also for humor purpose (Cook,
1989:30-31).
Sometimes people express their opinion and ideas with concise,
humorous, dramatic, exaggerating and sarcastic method to achieve certain
effects, thereby people could feel content and funny, and even get
enlightenment and meditation (Pan, 2012:20). Recently, comedy cannot be
dismissed in social life. It can be occurred in daily conversation and also in
television programs to create humor. Humor is a mode of communication
which produces to entertain the hearer. A basic assumption which underlies the
following remarks is that a large number of jokes involve violations of one or
more of Grice’s maxims (Attardo, 1990: 355). It means that humor can violate
based on each type of violation of maxim, such as lying, irrelevant, or run out
from the topic.
The violation may exist not only in ordinary conversation but also in
dramatic conversation as in a television series. A television series is one of
television program which functions to entertain the audience. It is the media
instrument for human being and it is the one of the mass media orally delivered.
It used the scripts to present the story by the characters as well. In creating the
scripts that deal with social reality, the scriptwriter must be able to violate the
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Hannah Montana is one of the famous television series in America and
it is a drama comedy. Sometimes the characters do not speak clear, not relate
to each other as a usual conversation and use code or another word to replace
the word they mean, or even to make a humor/funny conversation for comedy
purpose so that there is a great chance that he/she repeatedly violates the
maxims.
The relevance studies of maxim violations inspires the writer to take a
study about violation of maxim, named Tarihoran (2010) entitled The Study in
the Violation of Maxim in the Play “The Boy Comes Home” by A.A Milne and
Hasibuan (2010) entitled Maxim Violation in the Movie of Pirates of The
Caribbean: At World’s End. The first study discovers that violation of maxim is
occurred in quantity, relevance and manner and the most dominant is maxim of
quantity. It proved that not always obeyed in conversation. In the second study
results show that all types of maxim were violated, and the most dominant
types of maxim which was violated are the maxim of quantity.
To distinguish this study with those previous explanations above, the
writer is interested in studying the violation of maxim of utterance used by the
characters on “Hannah Montana” because she wants to know more about
violation of maxims, especially in drama comedy, which have been learned in
Pragmatics class. Besides, the writer is also interested to take television series
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communication which is using written conversation and it is the one of the
famous television series which has been nominated for some Awards in
America.
B. Problem of Study
This study examines the following questions:
1. What type of violation of maxims is used in episodes of Hannah Montana
television series?
2. What effect do the violations provide to the comical situation in the series?
C. Objective of Study
The objectives of study are:
1. To discover the violation maxim which is used in episodes of Hannah
Montana television series.
2. To describe the effect of the violations provide to the comical situation in
the series.
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The discussion of study is limited to violation of maxim. The writer will
analyze the violation maxim occurred in main characters’ utterances in Hannah
Montana television series. There are six main characters in Hannah Montana
television series, they are: Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana, Lily Truscott/Lola
Luftnagle, Oliver Oken/Mike Standley III, Jackson Stewart, Robby Stewart,
and Rico Suave.
E. Significance of Study
The research finding is expected to be useful in theoretically and
practically. In theoretically, it is hoped to be useful for expand the knowledge
for other students who are attracted in learning Cooperative Principle and
Maxims. Practically, it can give idea for other students who want to do some
researches about Cooperative Principle and the violation of maxims.
Furthermore, this study hoped to give contribution for the student to be a
source for other researchers about Cooperative Principle and the violation of
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
Based on the analysis of the utterances in Hannah Montana
television series in the previous chapter, it can be concluded that:
1. The four types of maxim which are violated by six main
charaters in episode one until episode three in the third season
of Hannah Montana television series. There were 94 utterances
of violation of maxims which occur in this series, they were 17
to maxim of quality, 22 to maxim of quantity, 26 to maxim of
relation, and 29 to maxim of manner.
2. There are some effects of the violations provide to the comical
situation in the series which can be done. It is to give the lack
the evidence by using the sarcasm, irony, or metaphor utterance,
to lying to the other speaker in hiding the truth, to save face the
embarrassment, to present that the statement is the strongest
information that is needed for the speaker or most informative
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speaker’s mind, or evento trick the audience or the listener, even though for making a joke or not.
B. Suggestion
Having seen the result of the study, suggestions are staged as
follows.
1. For those who want to take the pragmatics study as the tool of their
research, especially on cooperative principle, they must understand and
learn more about this study. They may take the diferent object of the
research such as from movie, literary work like novels or short stories,
television show, radio program, or the others so that it will make the
research to be more interesting.
2. For those who want to be a scriptwriter, can learn this study to make
the joke or humor side in the script by creating the unusual utterance or
conversation, particularly in the drama comedy genre.
3. To every speaker is suggested to speak as clear as possible so that there
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