POLITENESS MAXIMS APPLIED BY CHARACTERS IN MOVIE “MY WEEK WITH MARILYN”
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POLITENESS MAXIMS APPLIED BY CHARACTERS IN MOVIE “MY
WEEK WITH MARILYN”
By:
I WAYAN ARI DYATMAWAN
ENGLISH DEPARTEMENT FACULTY OF LETTERS AND CULTURE
UDAYANA UNIVERSITY
abstrak
Skripsi yang berjudul “The Politeness Maxims Applied by Characters in Movie “My Week with Marilyn” bertujuan untuk mencari tipe politeness maxim dan untuk menganalisa faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi politeness maxim yang diaplikasikan oleh karakter-karakter dalam film “My Week with Marilyn”.
Dalam menganalisis data, ada 2 teori yang diaplikasikan. Pertama adalah politeness principle dalam teori pragmatic yang diajukan oleh Geoffrey Leech (1983). Politeness principle mempunyai maxim yang mana mempunyai 6 maxim bernama politeness maxim. Maxim-maximnya adalah tact maxim, generosity maxim, approbation maxim, modesty maxim, agreement maxim, dan sympathy maxim. Yang kedua adalah beberapa factor dalam teori sosiolinguistic yang diajukan oleh Janet Holmes. Factor-faktornya yaitu age, gender, dan context of situation (participant, setting, topic, dan function). Teori-teori tersebut diaplikasikan dalam film “My Week with Marilyn” yang telah dipilih karena film ini mengandung banyak percakapan antar karakter yang mengaplikasikan politeness maxim.
Kata kunci : Communication, Politeness Maxim, Sociolinguistic factors.
In daily life, people usually communicate one another in order to convey their message. People do the communication through conversation. Conversation is an informal talk involving a small group of people or only two. The goal of conversation can be reached if the speaker can deliver the message of the conversation to the hearer. In some conversation, the speaker uses politeness to avoid an offense from hearer. In order to apply politeness in conversation Geoffrey Leech proposed the politeness principle as a way of explaining how politeness operates in conversational exchanges. Politeness maxim is the maxim of politeness principle. Politeness should be determined by relevant social factors and dimensions in all societies such as social status of speaker, hearer and social distance. Thus, this study was focused on the application of the maxims of
politeness principle by all characters in the movie “My Week with Marilyn”. It was also focused on the factors influence the maxims of politeness principle applied by the characters in movie “My Week with Marilyn”.
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1. What types of politeness maxim are applied by the characters in the movie “My Week with Marilyn”?
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2. What factors influence the politeness maxims applied by the characters in the movie “My Week with Marilyn”?
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1. To find out the type of politeness maxim applied by the characters in the movie “My Week with Marilyn”.
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2. To analyze the factors influencethe politeness maxim applied by the charactersin the movie “My Week with Marilyn”.
4.Research Method
The procedure of implementing research has a very crucial role to determine the success of the study. In this study the research method can be divided into three parts:
In order to get the conversation in which the Politeness maxim is being applied, the writer uses the primary data source and does not need to conduct interview or field observation. The primary data in this study are the movie “My Week with Marilyn” and the transcription of the movie which is downloaded from internet. The reason for selecting the movie “My Week with Marilyn” to be analyzed is because it contains many conversations among characters which applied politeness maxims.
The data was collected from the movie entitled “My Week with Marilyn” by using the documentation method. This method was assisted by some techniques. Firstly, reading the transcription of the movie which was downloaded from internet in order to find out the politeness maxim in the conversation of the characters and the factors influence the politeness maxims. Secondly, watching the movie in order to find out the context of situation especially the setting of the movie that influence the conversation, and listening the conversation of the characters in order to know the intention of the character in conveying the utterance.Thirdly, noting down the conversation which contained the politeness maxim.
The data was analyzed by using descriptive method which kind of researches that classifying the data which has been collected. After classifying the data, the next step was to analyze them. The data was collected from the script of the movie “My Week with Marilyn”.The data analysis was limited to the conversation of the characters. Then, the data was analyzed to find out the type of the Politeness Maxims and the factors influence the politeness maxim applied by the characters.
Based on Geoffrey Leech (1983) Politeness maximsare divided into seven types:tact maxim, generosity maxim, approbation maxim, modesty maxim, agreement maxim, and sympathy maxim and sociolinguistic factors are divided into six factor such as: age, gender, context of situation (participant, setting, topic, and function).
Sybil : How kind of you, Colin. Yes, whydon't we all sit down?
Analysis:
The conversation between Colin and Sybil took place in the Pinewood Studio the place where The Prince and the showgirl film was took its picture. The shooting had not started yet. The actors and actress were waiting for the preparation that was prepared by the crews. Dame Sybil who was the oldest actress in the film looked like a bit bored. Colin who was the third assistant director was offering a chair to Dame Sybil. By saying “Would you like to sit down, Dame Sybil?” Colin applied the tact maxim which minimizes cost to hearer and maximizes benefit to hearer. It can consider that Colin offered a chair in polite way and implied that sitting down is a benefit to Sybil. Age is the factor that determines Colin to use politeness maxim. Dame Sybil was the oldest actress in the film so that one should behave politely to her in order to show a respect. Therefore, Colin offered a chair politely to her because his age is so younger than Dame Sybil even he should say grandmother to Dame Sybil.
Sybil : Perhaps we could practice our lines together later. You'd be doing me such a kindness. At my great age it's just so hard to make them stick! Why don’t you come for tea tomorrow?
Marilyn : Can I?
Analysis:
The conversation took place between Sybil and Marilyn after disappointing act by Marilyn at her first shooting. She missed a lot of lines on her script. She could not act well because of nervous that could not solve by her. Sybil as a senior actress tried to help her by inviting to practice their lines together. It maximized cost to self because Sybil as a senior actress was willing to teach Marilyn how to improve the acting skill and confidence by practicing their lines together. Besides, the benefit would be for Marilyn. It can consider that she applied the generosity maxim. The factor influences Sybil’s utterance is context of situation
(participant). Beside of practicing line together, she implicated that she wanted to be closer with Marilyn Monroe by sharing together.
Vanessa : Are you going to sit there all day?
Colin : If I have to.
Vanessa : You're very determined.
Colin : I'd do anything to be in the film business.
Analysis:
The conversation took place in the office of the Laurence Olivier Production where Colin was waiting for the job. He would like to work in the film industry. However, there was no job yet at Laurence Olivier Productions because the film would be started in 8 months later. So, he should wait at that time in case there was a job came. Seeing Colin’s determination to get a job in Laurence Olivier Productions, Vanessa who was the secretary of the office applied approbation maxim by saying “you’re very determined”. She maximized praise to Colin by saying pleasant thing about his determination. The factor influences Vanessa’s utterance is context of situation (function). Vanessa impressed with Colin’s determination that he would do anything to be in the film business. By giving that praise, she also implied that she wanted to give Colin more spirit in waiting a job.
Olivier : Welcome dear Marilyn, to ourlittle fraternity.
Analysis:
Marilyn Monroe came into the pinewood studios where the shooting of The Prince and the Showgirl was taken. She was welcomed by Olivier who was the director in the film The Prince and the Showgirl in front of the crews, actresses and actors in the film production. Welcoming modestly, Olivier was saying “little fraternity” in his utterance. It can consider as the Modesty Maxim. All of people involved in the film production represent as a fraternity. He maximized dispraise of self and minimized praise of self by saying that the fraternity in the film production was a little fraternity. The factor influences that utterance is the context of situation (participant). He expected Marilyn would feel that she got a
warm welcome from him and the fraternity. He wanted Marilyn to get closer with all the people in the fraternity.
Vivien : Isn't he gorgeous, Vanessa?
Vanessa : I suppose he's all right.
Analysis:
The conversation took place between Vivien and Vanessa in the office of the Laurence Olivier Production. Vivien who was the wife of the director of the film The Prince and the Showgirl gave an opinion that Colin was gorgeous. Then, she asked Vanessa who was the secretary of the office whether Colin was gorgeous or not. By saying “I suppose he’s all right”, Vanessa minimized disagreement to Vivien and considered that she agreed about Vivien’s opinion. It can consider that the agreement maxim had applied in that utterance. The factor influences Vanessa’s utterance is the context of situation (topic). They were talking about how gorgeous Colin was and Vanessa responded in polite way to say her agreement.
Vivien : I didn’t think she would be so beautiful. She shines on that screen. Olivier : Oh,you shouldn’t upset yourself.
Analysis:
Vivien who had played a role as Elsie before replaced by Marilyn and Olivier who was the director were watching the act of Marilyn Monroe in the viewing theatre at Pinewood Studios. Olivier and Vivien were a husband and wife. Vivien was really in jealous after looking how beautiful and shinny Marilyn on the screen. Olivier showed his sympathy to his wife by saying “Oh, you shouldn’t upset
yourself”. He maximized sympathy and suggested his wife to do not upset herself because of jealousy to Marilyn. It can consider that the Sympathy maxim was applied. The factor that influences Olivier’s utterance is the context of situation (participant). Their relationship is very close. However, Olivier still delivered an utterance in polite way to nurture his relationship with Vivien.
Based on the analysis in the previous chapter, the conclusion can be drawn in a few points. The maxims in the politeness principle named as the politeness maxim. It is used to explain how politeness operates in conversational exchanges. All of the types of maxims in the politeness maxim are applied by the characters in the movie “My week with Marilyn”. Those are: the tact maxim, the generosity maxim, the approbation maxim, the modesty maxim, the agreement maxim, and the sympathy maxim. The tact maxim is minimizing cost to other and maximizing benefit to other. The generosity maxim is minimizing benefit to self and maximizing cost to self. The approbation maxim is minimizing dispraise to other and maximizing praise to other. The modesty maxim is minimizing praise to self and maximizing dispraise to self. The agreement maxim is minimizing disagreement to other and maximizing agreement to other. The sympathy maxim is minimizing antipathy to other and maximizing sympathy to other. This film involves a lot of praising word. Especially Marilyn Monroe, the main character in the film amazed many other characters by her beauty and her talent. It raised an appreciation from other characters by saying a praise word.
The factors influenced the politeness maxims by characters in the movie “My Week with Marilyn” are determined by some factors in the sociolinguistic factor such as: Age, gender, and context of situation (the participants, the setting or social context of the interaction, the topic, and the function). Age means that the younger speakers have to speak politely to the old speaker. Gender means that women and men have different way of talking in which most women enjoy talking and regarding talking as an important means of keeping in touch, especially with friends and intimates. Context of situation (participant) means thatwho is speaking and who are they speaking to. Context of situation (the setting
or social context of the interaction) means that where are they speaking. Context of situation (the topic) means that what is being talked about. Context of situation (the function) means that why are they speaking. Most of the utterances that applied politeness maxims by the characters are used for keeping and developing relation each other.
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