The Floutings of Cooperative Principle Maxims in the Humor Movie

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Research Background
People are naturally given the attitude to express their feeling and emotion.
The expression is always influenced by the condition and it needs stimuli to make
it happen. One of the stimuli can emerge from funny things which affect
humorous condition. Sometimes visual and audio effect can cause people to laugh
or smile. Apte explains that in any case, the researcher recognizes the intimate
connection between humor and laughter; the two seem to have a cause – effect or
a stimulus – response relationship in many social situations. Not every instance
laughter, however, results from humor, nor does every humorous event necessary
produce laughter (1985:239).
Definition of humor based on Collins English Dictionary (1994:757) says
that Humour or humor is the quality of being funny or the ability to appreciate
things, situations, or people that are comic. Thus, we can conclude that humor is
an effort to make situation become laughter as it is a means to entertain. For many
long times, scientists are not able to explain exactly what humor is. Based on the
reality, Ritchie (2004:1) regards that humor as “universal phenomenon” for it
emerges in every area and culture around the world, covering all aspects of human
life, relationship and communications. As phenomenon, humor holds a significant
role in human life. It is not highly valued in interaction between people, but
humor also gives contribution for human being that is to entertain, to educate in
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purpose to increase their life quality as well (Wijana, 2004:3). Thus, besides as a
means to entertain, humor begins to broaden its function as means to educate
society so that they are able to increase their life quality as well.
Ritchie distinguishes two types of humor, the first is referential humor and
the second one is verbal humor. The verbal humor is humor that is more expressed
by means of a linguistic system while referential (also known as situational)
humor is humor whose amusing substance is in what the joke says, such as the
events described, the characters and the situations, rather than the details of the
language used (2004:13). Thus, situational humor can be affected by event
described, the characters and the situations as it will make the humor become
more interesting in which the amusing substance leads humor to the multidimension comic situation.
In addition, the content of humor can be in our daily life and has become a
central part of human culture worldwide. Recently the object of humor has spread
around our society. It can be found from the presence of novel, story,
advertisement and magazine, even the film has become media in recognizing the
humor as entertainment and education aspect of human life. The development of
humor movie reaches top rank of audiences. The amusing action can make
audience more interested when they look for alternative for entertainment.
As an example of situational humor, the movie Hitch has become central
part of humor movie around the world. The movie is directed by Andy Tennant
and takes the plotting in the U.S. The movie tells about Alex Hitchen. He is a
successful relationship consultant in New York and coaches his clients about the
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art of wooing their lovely woman. The story begins Hitch (Will Smith) trains
Albert Brennaman (Kevin James) who falls in love with a famous celebrity
Allegra Cole (Amber Valletta). Then Hitch also feels something special with a
gossip columnist named Sara Melas (Eva Mendes). Finally, Hitch and Albert
Brennaman pursuit their love and make sure that their love is pure.
There are some reasons when I choose Hitch as the source of data. The
first reason is because the conversations of movie represent the common dialogue
in U.S. The second reason because the movie is classified as humor and it is very
interesting to be observed as it has implied meaning in dialogue. Thus, I decide to
conduct a research entitled: The Floutings of Cooperative Principle Maxims in
the Humor Movie Entitled Hitch (A Pragmatics Approach).
B. Problem Statement
Based on the research background, the problem statements are proposed as
follows:
1. How do the speakers flout the Cooperative Principles (CP)?
2. In what situation do the speakers flout the Cooperative Principles (CP)?
3. What is the intention of the speakers in flouting the maxims?
C. Scope of Research
This research focuses on Grice’s cooperative principles especially flouting
of maxim in the film entitled Hitch directed by Andy Tenant. The problem is
limited on the conversations performed by the speakers when they flout the
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cooperative maxim. The dialogue of humor conversations will be dominantly
employed to signify the usage of flouting maxim.
D. Research Objectives
The research is conducted to answer the problems explained previously in
research problem, i.e.:
1. To describe the strategies of flouting the maxims used by the speakers in the
film entitled Hitch.
2. To find out the situation when the maxims are flouted in conversation.
3. To explain the intention of the speaker in flouting the maxims in their
utterance in the film entitled Hitch.
E. Research Benefits
This research is expected give benefits as follows:
1. English Department Students
The research will contribute to English Department students who are
interested in Pragmatics. The analysis of the research is expected to give more
understanding for the student that humor activity can be the interesting object
when it results many floutings of Cooperative Principle.
2. Other Researcher
The research will give more references when other researchers just know
the application of flouting the maxims in daily conversations. The flouted
maxim’s research of humor movie can stimulate them.
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3. The Public
The research is expected to make the public awareness with flouted
maxims in conversation, especially in humor activities so they understand the
conversation in humor activities.
F. Research Methodology
This research uses a descriptive qualitative research. It covers several steps
such as collecting the data, analyzing the data, interpreting the data and drawing
the conclusion. Moleong explains more that the research of descriptive qualitative
itself is a research intended to comprehend the phenomenon of what is
experienced by the research subject, for instance the behavior, perception,
motivation, action, etc (2012:6). Bodgan & Taylor in Moleong say that the type of
research uses the qualitative method as the research procedure resulting
descriptive data; those are the expressed and implied meaning from the people and
their behavior (2012:4).
G. Thesis Organization
The thesis is systematically organized by some chapters and items which
are arranged as follows:
Chapter I
: INTRODUCTION contains Research Background, Problem
Statement, Scope of Research, Research Objectives, Research Benefit, Research
Methodology, and Thesis Organization.
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Chapter II
: LITERATURE REVIEW contains Pragmatics, Cooperative
Principles, The Four Conversational Maxims, The Flouting of Maxims,
Conversational Implicature, Context, Review of Related Study, Synopsis of the
Film, and the Characters in the Film.
Chapter III
: METHODOLOGY contains Research Methodology, Data and
Source of Data, Technique of Collecting Data, Technique of Coding Data, and
Technique of Analyzing Data.
Chapter IV
: ANALYSIS and DISCUSSION contains Introduction, Data
Analysis, and Discussion.
Chapter V
: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
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