The Cooperative Principle from Character Utterance in Paper Towns Movie (2015)

e-Journal of Linguistics

Available online at https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/eol/index

Vol. 16, No. 1, January 2022, pages: 145—155 Print ISSN: 2541-5514 Online ISSN: 2442-7586 https://doi.org/10.24843/e-jl.2022.v16.i01.p15

The Cooperative Principle from Character Utterance in Paper Towns Movie (2015)

¹ Glorya Samosir Universitas Putera Batam, Batam, Indonesia [email protected]

² Ambalegin

Universitas Putera Batam, Batam, Indonesia [email protected]

Article info

Received Date: 4 Oktober 2021

Accepted Date: 15 Oktober 2021

Published Date: 31 January 2022

Keywords:*

Cooperative principle, movie, pragmatic, types of Maxims

Abstract

The movie's utterances were studied in a practical study based on Grice's cooperative principles theory (1989). The researchers took the date source from Paper Town movies that directed by Jake Schreier. In collecting of data, the researchers used observational data and nonparticipant technique (Sugiyono, 2010). The methodology that used by the researchers in analyze this research is descriptive-qualities (Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, 2017). The researchers put a lot of information about the theory such as, definition, explanation and also example. The outputs of this research are 15 utterances that identified as cooperative principle and the 4 four maxims of cooperative branches: In (1) Maxim Quality, the researchers found 2 data. Next, in the (2) Maxim Quantity the researchers found 5 data. After that, in the (3) Maxim Relation the researchers found 6 data. And in the last (4) Maxim Manner, the researchers found 2 data.

• 1.    Introduction

Conversation is the activity of human interaction (Brennan, 2005). In conversation, human use language as a tool that help to understand about the things that they talk about (Yule, 1985). The phenomena that were found in the talk show called The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on September 29, 2018.

Jimmy Fallon: “You got to speak up in UNICEF, what was that like”

RM BTS: “I was so nervous”

The question mentioned in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that was at the minute of 02:55 and the answer at the minute of 03:02. Related to the explanation about communication and language above, the phenomenon was included as conversation example. Based on (Grice, 1989) in communication, when speaker and hearer cooperate to build a good communication that called cooperative principle.

In cooperative principle, the participants of the communication understand about the utterance meaning. The studies that learn about understand context of utterance is pragmatic

(Yule, 1985). Participants of communication have to understand about the context of the speaker or writer (addresser) utterance and the hearer or reader (addressee) can get the meaning that is the goal of pragmatic. Cooperative have four maxims (Grice, 1989). First maxim is Maxim quantity. Maxim quantity is straight to the point and don’t waste so much word. Next is Maxim Quality. Maxim quality is about telling the truth or a fact. Then there is maxim of relation. Maxim of relation means the interpretation must relevant to the context. The last is maxim of manner. Maxim of manner is about stating a clear statement and its must unambiguous.

Below is the example of maxims of quantity that was found in Paper Towns movie:

Quentin: “What happens now? The things will different tomorrow?”

Margo: “I hope so”

The utterance was in 27:42 until 27:55. The way of addressee response to the addresser is related to the maxim of quantity because the addressee agrees and don’t say too much words.

Previous researchers had analyzed about cooperative principle from ‘About time’ movie (Sari, Y. W., & Afriana, 2020). The researchers put a lot of information about the theory such as, definition, explanation and also example. The point of researchers writing same as this writing is about cooperative principle theory. There were 14 (38%) data maxims of quantity, 14 (38%) data maxims of relation, 7 (19%) data maxims of quality, and 2 (5% ) data maxims of method, according to the findings. In conclusion, the most often found facts were in the maxims of quantity and connection. The smallest amount of data was discovered in the most efficient method.

The next researchers had same structure of previous researchers. In the introduction, the researchers put information about definition. And then put Grice statement(Fang & Xin, 2017). Next, researchers write about maxims that are about kind and explanation. This research was produced a study that help readers in identifying the characteristics of the characters and the plot's progression. In each of kind, the researchers were not forgetting to write the example. In all of 3 journals, the most important is about understanding the meaning of pragmatics.

The aimed of 3 journals above are same, is about to analyze utterance in movie. The output of reading journal is definition of cooperative principle. And the researchers put information about data source and also the example. The theory is from (Grice, 1989). The results of this journal are 15 utterances that identified as cooperative principle and the 4 four maxims of cooperative branches: In (1) Maxim Quality, the researchers found 2 data. Next, in the (2) Maxim

Quantity the researchers found 5 data. After that, in the (3) Maxim Relation the researchers found

6 data. And in the last (4) Maxim Manner, the researchers found 2 data.

• 2.    Literature Review

Conversation would be effective if the participants make a good connection, which mean the purpose or direction from the speaker understand easily by the listener (Yule, 1985). To guide the conversation, (Grice, 1989) called the rules maxims of conversation.

• 2.1    Maxim of Quality

As stated above, (Grice, 1989) said that maxim of quality is about say only what you have reason to believe is true

Ali: ‘’When is physics exam?’’

Jordan: ‘’This Saturday’’

Example above was taken from (Sari & Afriana, 2020) that described about cooperative principle.

• 2.2    Maxim of Quantity

(Grice, 1989) stated that Say enough, but don’t say too much is the point of maxim quantity. For further explanation, below is the example:

• A:    “How many people in your family?”

• B:    “There are five people.”

The example above was take from (Andy, A., & Ambalegin, 2019) journal, whereby the researchers was describe about the violation of maxims. In relation to the example, as previously said, the maxim quantity point is all about making a direct message.

• 2.3    Maxim of Relation

(Grice, 1989) stated that maxim of relation was about say only what was relevant. Below was the example of maxim relation.

A: “Is there a doctor in the house?”

B: “I'm a doctor”.

The example above was taken from (Sinaga, R., & Handayani, 2020) journal. It was included to maxim of relation example because the addresser was asked about someone that worked as a doctor and the addressee respond is related with the addresser question.

• 2.4    Maxim of Manner

(Grice, 1989) stated that maxim of manner was about Be brief, clear and unambiguous. Below was the example of maxim manner:

• A:    “I heard that you went to the theater last night, what did you see?”

• B:    “I watch the drama performance.”

From example that was cite from (Sinaga, R., & Handayani, 2020) journal. The respond of addressee was showed of a good manner because the addressee rejects the addresser indirectly with politely to prevent the addresser disappointed.

• 3.    Research Method

This study was qualitative descriptive. The objective of qualitative descriptive research is to provide a detailed summary of specific events experienced by individuals or groups of persons in daily language. Researchers utilized (Sugiyono, 2010) observational approaches and non-participatory strategies in the data collection procedure. That is, the researchers observed the data through viewing and listening Jake Schreier's film Paper Towns (2015), but the researchers did not participate or act in the film. The researchers use the pragmatic identity approach developed by in order to analyze the data (Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, 2017). To put it another way, this approach analyzes data through the use of context. This approach is used in this study to determine the context and meaning of the actors' utterances in the film Paper Towns. The movie's utterances were studied in a practical study based on Grice's cooperative principles theory (1989). Finally, this study was carried out by describing the facts with words and phrases.

Table 1

4. Finding and Discussion

4.1 Finding

There are 15 data’s found from the research from the character utterance in movie entitled

Paper Towns. The utterance describes terms cooperative principle; (1) Maxim Quality, (2) Maxim Quantity, (3) Maxim Relation, (4), Maxim Manners.

Table 4.1 Cooperative principle in Paper Town movie

No	TYPES OF COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE	UTTERANCE FROM THE MOVIE	FREQUENCY
1.	Maxim Quality	Quentin : Has Lacey been naughty or nice? Margo : Lacey has been distinctly naughty	2
2.	Maxim Quantity	Ben: I'd feed her grapes, take her to Paris. Treat her like the princess she is. What is that wrong? Radar: It's weird.	5
3	Maxim Relation	Q : How do you know all this? M : I'm doing an investigation. Are you in?	6
4	Maxim Manner	M : I can get us in. Come on! Q : I don't wanna get in trouble.	2
	Total Number of Data		15

4.2 Discussion

Maxim Quality.

DATA 1

Margo: I need to borrow your car.

Quentin: What?

Margo: Your car.

Quentin: I don't have a car.

In the night when Quentin was going to sleep suddenly Margo came into Quentin room and asks for rent Quentin car. Quentin was very shocked.

DATA 2

Quentin: Has Lacey been naughty or nice?

Margo: Lacey has been distinctly naughty.

In this scene, Margo and Quetin next to Lacey’s house after did the revenge for Becca. Quentin was curious about Lacey’s personalities because she was including in Margo’s list revenge.

Maxim Quantity.

DATA 1

Ben: I'd feed her grapes, take her to Paris. Treat her like the princess she is. What is that wrong?

Radar: It's weird.

The scene was started when Quentin on the car and were going to school. And after they arrived at the school, Radar and Ben had been waiting in front of the school. Next, they were going into the class Ben always talked about want to date Quentin mom. In the half of the way, Radar was a bit tired of Ben word, so Radar responds Ben so simple and straight to the point.

DATA 2.

Margo: I'm doing an investigation. Are you in?

Quentin: Sure.

In this scene, Margo was curious about the death man that they were found in the streets when they were going around with bicycles.

DATA 3

Quentin: And your boyfriend's one of them?

Margo: Ex-boyfriend.

This scene was on the car and they were going to buy some stuff for doing Margo plans. In the way, Margo and Quentin talked something and at that moment Quentin felt so happy.

DATA 4

Quentin: It's not as weird as it looks.

Cashier: Still weird.

In this scene, Margo and Quentin were shopping in the grocery. They bought some stuff, and one of them is body lotion. The cashier was stared at them.

DATA 5

Quentin: Who lives here?

Margo: Chuck Parson.

After Lacey’s house, Margo and Quentin went to another house but Quentin didn’t know whose house that Margo and Quentin Came in.

Maxim Relation.

DATA 1.

Quentin: How do you know all this?

Margo: I'm doing an investigation. Are you in?

At this particular conversation related to previous example in the maxim quality.

DATA 2

Becca: I really like him, Dad!

Becca’s Father: He does not love you!

In this scene, Margo and Quentin was doing the revenge for Margo’s ex-boyfriend Jess and her best friend Becca for cheating on her. Margo was called Becca’s father when Becca and Jess having sex on the Becca’s basement.

DATA 3

Quentin: Oh, my God, it's so late.

Margo: If you're tired, we can go home.

Quentin and Margo arrived at Lacey’s home and did the revenge. They wrap Lacey’s car with the plastic wrapping.

DATA 4

Quentin: It's the SunTrust building. There's gotta be a guard or something.

Margo: Well, of course there is. His name's Gus.

After finish the revenge, Margo asked Quentin to folloeing Margo entering the big building that called Sun Trust building. But Quentin was not as brave as Margo to do it. He was new for these things.

DATA 5

Detective: So you don't wanna file a missing persons report?

Margo’s mom: She's not missing. She's gone. There's a difference.

In this scene, Margo was gone after did the revenge with Quentin. The detective asked to Quentin, did he saw Margo and Marg’s parents seemed like that was not a big deal that Margo gone.

DATA 6

Quentin: Your parents aren't home, are they?

Ruthie: No, they went to the mall.

After Margo gone, Quentin was really curious about Margo like where she was and where she lived or with whom. So Quentin did the search to found Margo clue and he saw the poster in Margo window and went to her house.

Maxim Manner.

DATA 1

Margo: His wife works at SeaWorld. I bet there's a clue.

Quentin: Margo... we can't go to SeaWorld. It's almost 11:00.

In this scene, Margo was very excited to do investigation about the death man that they were found in the street at the afternoon.

DATA 2

Margo: I can get us in. Come on!

Quentin: I don't wanna get in trouble.

Still same in the previous example, this scene was taken in the night after they were found the death men in the street.

5. Conclusion

The research was identified the type of cooperative principles using Grice’s (1985) theory. This research showed four types of maxims that were developed by Grice’s theory that taken from the character utterance.

From the four types of maxims, there are some data that analyzed by the researchers. There were 5 data from maxim quantity. Next, the researches got 2 data for maxim quality. And then, the researchers got 6 data from maxims relation and last 2 data for maxims manner.

From these findings and conclusions, it can be said that it is very important to know the meaning of the speaker's utterance in conversation. This was helpful in preventing misunderstandings between the speaker and the listener while delivering information. In addition, the important of cooperation principle is not to waste too much time so that there are not many words wasted and can be shortened.

References

Andy, A., & Ambalegin, A. (2019). Maxims violation on “night at the museum” Movie. Jurnal Basis, 6.

Brennan, S. E. (2005). How conversation is shaped by visual and spoken evidence. Approaches to studying world-situated language use: Bridging the language-as-product and language-as-action traditions.

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.

Fang, G., & Xin, L. (2017). An analysis of conversational implicature in nirvana in fire. 06(07).

Grice, P. (1989). Logic and Conversation. In his studies in the way of words. In Logic and Conversation.

Sari, Y. W., & Afriana, A. (2020). The cooperative principle analysis in about time movie.

Linguistic,     English Education     and Art     (LEEA)     Journal,     4(1).

https://doi.org/10.31539/leea.v4i1.1369

Sinaga, R., & Handayani, N. D. (2020). Flouting maxims in “White House Down” movie. JEE (Journal of English Education), 6(1).

Sugiyono, P. D. (2010). Metode penelitian kuantitatif dan kualitatif. Bandung: CV Alfabeta.

Yule, G. (1985). The study of language: an introduction.

Biography of Authors

	Glorya Samosir. was born in Batam 1st August, 1998. She is an undergraduate student in English Literature Departement Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities in Putera Batam University. Email: [email protected]
	Ambalegin, S.Pd., M.Pd. is an active lecturer in English Literature Departement Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities in Putera Batam University. Email: [email protected]