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STRATEGIES OF POLITENESS AND COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLES

WITH REFERENCE TO BJORNSTJERNE BJORNSON'S DRAMA

THE NEWLY MARRIED COUPLE

BY

I Putu Ari Wiweka Nanda

English Department, Faculty of Letters and Culture, Udayana University

Abstrak

Studi ini membahas tentang penggunaan bahasa khususnya ujaran maupun kalimat dalam sebuah ungkapan yang biasanya terdapat dalam komunikasi. Dalam sebuah komunikasi terdapat dua orang partisipan yaitu pembicara dan pendengar yang mengujarkan ujaran maupun kalimat dalam sebuah komunikasi. Ujaran maupun kalimat tersebut tentunya mengandung strategi kesopanan dan prinsip kerjasama untuk mencapai tujuan dari komunikasi yang bila dikaji berdasarkan efeknya akan memberikan dampak terjaganya hubungan sosial antara pembicara dan pendengarnya. Istilah strategi kesopanan dan prinsip kerjasama tersebut tidak hanya diterapkan dalam percakapan dalam kehidupan sehari-hari tetapi juga dapat ditemukan dalam percakapan yang terdapat pada karya sastra yang disebut drama. Jenis ujaran atau kalimat dalam percakapan antar karakter dalam sebuah drama berjudul The Newly Married Couple karya Bjornstjerne Bjornson diklasifikasikan dan dianalisis berdasarkan kategorinya masing-masing berdasarkan jenis dan kategori strategi kesopanan dan prinsip kerjasama untuk mengetahui bagaimana karakter-karakter dalam drama menerapkan istilah tersebut beserta dengan ekspresinya. Dalam memperkuat analisis, terdapat dua teori yang digunakan, antara lain teori strategi kesopanan oleh Brown dan Levinson (1987) dan teori prinsip kerjasama oleh Grice (1975).

Hasil analisis dalam studi ini menunjukkan terdapat 2 kategori strategi kesopanan dan 2 prinsip kerjasama yang diterapkan oleh karakter-karakter dalam drama tersebut. Karakter dalam drama ini menerapkan strategi kesopanan dengan menggunakan kata-kata efisien dalam intonasi tinggi dan kata ganti (penanda identitas) yang menunjukkan keakraban antar karakter dalam statusnya sebagai keluarga. Di sisi lain, prinsip kerjasama diekspresikan dengan hanya menggunakan sebuah kata dan pernyataan perasaan oleh karakter dari drama tersebut didukung dengan bukti dan motivasi yang diungkapkan oleh karakter dalam drama tersebut.

Kata kunci : strategi kesopanan, prinsip kerjasama, percakapan

  • 1.    Background of the Study

Language is a part of human life that mediates communication. Communication is a process when humans transfer, deliver, and receive signs, writing, speech or information from someone to another. There are certainly speaker and hearer who have a vital part in communication. Furthermore, the speaker and hearer deliver information and receive information, they have another responsibility in order to maintain and keep their social relationship with politeness. Besides, their utterances usually contain cooperative principle. Those terms are used with a purpose to gain the purpose or the aim of communication itself. Therefore politeness especially politeness strategy and cooperative principle are important things in communication especially in a conversation, for example conversation in a literary works called drama. “The Newly Married Couple” drama by Bjornstjerne Bjornson was used as the data source of this study. Since this drama consists of the dialogues and conversations that politeness strategy and cooperative principle according to the daily conversation between the characters as a family. Besides, it can make readers and audience obtain an interesting story that describes daily activities and daily phenomena in a family and a marriage life.

  • 2.    Problems of the Study

Based on the phenomena of communication in the background above, the problems are:

  • a.    What types of politeness strategies and cooperative principles are used by the characters in the drama entitled The Newly Married Couple?, and

  • b.    How types of politeness strategies and cooperative principles are expressed by the characters in the drama entitled The Newly Married Couple?

  • 3.    Aims of the Study

As the answer to the problems, the aims of this study can be formulated as

follows:

  • a)    To find out and identify types of politeness strategies and cooperative principles used by the characters in the drama entitled The Newly Married Couple

  • b)    To explain how many types of politeness strategies and cooperative principles are expressed by the characters in the drama entitled The Newly Married Couple

  • 4.    Research Method

This study used the data from some dialogues and conversations between the characters in the drama entitled The Newly Married Couple by Bjornstjerne Bjornson which were collected by applying with observation method and note taking technique. The data were analyzed descriptively according to scope of discussion and the theory bald on record politeness strategy and positive politeness strategy of politeness strategies theory by Brown and Levinson (1987) and the theory maxim of quantity and the maxim of quality of cooperative principles theory by Grice (1975).

  • 5.    Result and Discussion

    • 5.1    Politeness strategies in The Newly Married Couple drama

According to scope of discussion, two types of politeness strategies, were found in the script of drama entitled The Newly Married Couple. The utterance and conversation of the characters based on its categorization are presented as follows:

  • a.    Bald on record politeness strategy

Bald on record politeness strategy is used by the characters of this drama in the situations where a character knows each other well or in a situation of urgency. Whenever the Speaker (a character) wants to do Face Threatening Act with maximum efficiency the Speaker certainly will choose the Bald on Record strategy in his or her utterance. The data are presented as below:

Data

Father


: Thanks, I have no appetite left now

Mother : There, you see!--Axel, Axel!

Laura        : For shame, Axel!

Mother : Sit down, dear, sit down! My goodness, how hot you are! Father : It is so warm in here.

This condition started when Axel as the husband of Laura make a conversation in high tension. Axel in this condition told his opinion about his willing that he wanted to be a lawyer, it can be seen from his statement in the previous dialogue “Is a lawyer’s profession a dishonorable one, then?”. Axel’s statement made the contradiction between him and the Laura’s father. The setting was in Laura's house.

In this data, S (Laura's mother) said "Sit down, dear, sit down!. According to the condition in the drama in that time, the urgent condition was happening when Axel and Laura's was in contradiction. When the situation reached the highest tension, Laura's father told that he did not have appetite left in that time, and then he was standing from his seat because he has lost his appetite. That situation was followed by the anger of Laura to Axel that makes her stand from her seat. As a wise mother, S (Laura's mother) in this great urgency case communicated to H (Laura's father) to sit down because she also thought his husband in high tension condition because of the contradiction between his husband and his son in law. Therefore the utterance from S (Laura's mother) is categorized as strategy of maximum efficiency. She expressed it using efficient words.

  • b.    Positive Politeness Strategy

Positive politeness strategy has a usage in order to minimize the threat to the positive face of the hearer (a character). This can be done by making offers and promises, hedging or indirectness, attending to the hearer’s (character's) needs, avoiding disagreement, invoking equality and feelings of belonging to the group, and using humor and optimism. Therefore positive politeness is very useful in maintaining social relationship between the characters in this drama. The data are presented below:

Data

Laura


: Good morning, mother! (Kisses her.)

Mother : Good morning, dear. Have you slept well?

This conversation occurred at Laura's house. The situation of this conversation happened in the morning and between the characters of this drama who greeted each other as the normal activity in the morning.

The usage of use in-group identity markers strategy was found in the sentence that was produced by the mother "Good morning, dear." When she spoke to her daughter and vice versa. Both S (Laura) and H (Laura's mother) were the members of family in this drama. As the theory of this strategy was written before, this strategy showed the identity using a marker or familiar pronoun that only will be used for a certain community to express the status of them. H (Laura's mother) expressed it with familiar pronoun "dear" after she replies the greeting of her daughter. S (Laura) also expressed it with familiar pronoun between them "mother" that showed status between them in this drama.

  • 5.2    Cooperative Principles in The Newly Married Couple drama

According to scope of discussion, two types of cooperative principles, maxim of quantity and maxim of quality that were proposed by Grice (1975:4546) were found in the script of drama entitled The Newly Married Couple. The utterance and conversation of the characters based on its categorization are presented below.

  • a.    Maxim of quantity

According to the theory of this maxim proposed by Grice (1975), the characters in this drama have made contribution to the conversation as informative as necessary and they do not make the conversation more informative than necessary. In the conversation of drama entitled The Newly Married Couple, the data of maxim of quantity is presented as follows:

Data

Father : Good morning, little one, good morning. Happy and in good spirits?

Laura : Very. (Passes in front of AXEL) Good morning, Axel! (Sits down at the table, opposite her mother.)

The condition when this conversation happened was in a stable and good condition because it was in the morning and there was no conflict between those characters yet. The setting of place of this conversation was in Laura's house.

Laura in the conversation above produced an answer to her father that can be categorized as maxim of quantity. Laura's answer is categorized as maxim of quantity because in the conversation above Laura made the contribution to the conversation as informative as necessary and she did not make contribution to the conversation more informative than necessary. The conversation above happened when Laura woke up in the morning. After she woke up in the morning, she saw some people like her husband and her parents. Before she greeted her father, she greeted her mother and then greeted her father. When her father replied the greeting from Laura, he asked a question to know the condition of his daughter, therefore Laura answered "very" to her father. Laura expressed it by saying only a word and that is "very".

  • b.    Maxim of quality

In this drama, the characters of this drama do not say what they believe to be false and do not say that for which they lack adequate evidence. It can be seen from the utterance and sentence produced and uttered by the characters of this drama. The data of maxim of quality is presented below:

Data

Laura : Oh dear!-- and is all this my fault?

Axel : No, it is my own fault. I have been deluding myself with flattering hopes. I thought it would be so easy a matter for my love to awaken yours; but I cannot make you understand me. Every way I have tried has failed. So I must call up my courage and try the last chance.

There was a conflict between Axel and Laura in the Laura's house in

the morning. They talked about the ball and it was the problem that appeared between them in their life as newly married couple. This conversation was happened in Laura’s house.

The Axel's sentence in the conversation above is categorized as the maxim of quality. The conversation above happened between Axel and Laura, Laura's parents have a different opinion about the presence and of an event, that is, the ball. The conversation between them continued to the private conversation between Axel and Laura. When Axel told about his feeling and then followed by Laura, Laura asked a question about that her fault that is related to the problem between them then Axel said no. Axel did not say what he believed to be false. Axel's answer in the conversation above contained with the truth that told about his fault because he had been deluding herself with flattering hopes. Axel expressed this maxim by saying his feeling with the evidence included with his motivation.

  • 6.    Conclusion

From all of the analysis above, it can be concluded that two types politeness strategies and cooperative principles were found in the drama entitled The Newly Married Couple. They are bald on record politeness strategy and positive politeness strategy in politeness strategies discussion and maxim of quantity and maxim of quality in cooperative principles discussion. The characters applied those strategies with different expressions. In politeness strategies, the characters expressed it by using efficient word in high intonation to do a request in urgency situation and identity markers to show the status between the characters. On the other hand, in cooperative principles, the characters expressed it by using a word that showed an efficiency answer and saying the feeling of the characters with evidence and included with the motivation.

  • 7.    Bibliography

Brown, Penelope and Stephen C. Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Grice, H.P. (1975). Logic and conversation. New York: Academic Press.

The Newly Married Couple, Resources :

http://www.readbookonline.net/title/2037/