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IMPLICATURE FOUND IN THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN LARRY KING

AND ELLEN DEGENERES

BY

I Gde Agoes Caskara Surya Putra

English Department, Faculty of Letters and Culture, Udayana University

Abstrak

Studi yang berjudul The Implicature Found in the Conversation between Larry King and Ellen Degeneres” ini difokuskan pada identifikasi dan analisa terhadap implikatur yang terjadi di percakapan antara Larry King dan Ellen Degeneres.

Studi ini menggunakan metode kuantitatif dan metode dokumentasi. Data yang digunakan dalam studi ini berupa naskah dari percakapan antara Larry King dan Ellen Degeneres. Teori yang digunakan untuk menganalisa data adalah teori dari Paul Grice tentang implikatur(1975).Grice menyatakan dalam teorinya bahwa terdapat dua jenis implikatur; Konvensionil dan Konversasional. Grice mengajukan prinsip-prinsip koperatif yang terdiri dari maxim kuantitas, maxim kualitas, maxim sikap dan maxim hubungan.

Temuan dari studi ini menyatakan bahwa terdapat implikatur-implikatur dalam percakapan antara Larry King dan Ellen Degeneres. Dalam implikatur konvensionil ditemukan dua item leksikal, yaitu tapi dan bahkan. Dalam implicature konversasional terdapat 59 kasus di mana terjadi implikatur yang berkaitan dengan empat maxim dari Grice. Terdapat 24 kasus implikatur konversasional berdasar maxim kuantitas, 6 kasus berdasar maxim kualitas, 11 kasus berdasar maxim hubungan dan 18 berdasar maxim sikap.

Keyword: Implikatur Konvensional, Implikatur Konversasional, Maxim.

  • 1.    Background of the Study

Communication has big roles in every single human life. It helps people share their knowledge, curiosity and information. It has a tool called language which helps people communicate with each others. Language is used to express what we want, need and feel in a conversation. Conversation itself is a way for people to share their

knowledge, curiosity and information to others. Talk show is one of the ways where a lot of communication takes place. Talk shows are television programs in which a host — and sometimes a sidekick — sits down with entertainers, newsmakers, and other people, to talk. Some incorporate additional segments, like cooking demonstrations or sketches, but others focus on a discussion between the host and the guest. An interview from Larry King talk show was chosen as the primary data which is one of the most famous talk show in America. Larry King as the host was interviewing Ellen Degeneres which is also a host in another talk shows program. This writing investigated the implicature and maxims used in the conversation between the two of them. These were investigated because in real conversation sometimes the meaning behind an implicature is hardly understood by the hearer and the theory of maxims is not always applied.

  • 2.    Problems

Referring to the background illustrated previously, two research questions are the focus of current study:

  • a)    What kinds of implicature are used by Larry King and Ellen in the interview?

  • b)    How do the implicatures appear in the conversation between Larry King and Ellen?

  • 3.    Aims

  • a)    To understand the implicature which is said by Larry King and Ellen in the interview.

  • b)    To analyze what are the reasons behind the utterances.

  • 4.    Research Method

The primary data in this undergraduate paper was an interview in Larry King talk show between Larry King himself as the host and Ellen Degeneres as the guest. The method and technique used in collecting data is observation method and note taking technique. The data in this study were analyzed qualitatively based on the theory of implicature by Grice (1975).

  • 5.    Result and Discussion

This part deals with the result and discussion of the data. The data analysis is divided into three parts; analysis of conventional implicature, conversational implicature and flouting maxims.

  • a)    Conventional Implicature with Lexical Item But

Conventional implicature is the conventional meaning of the words used will determine what is implicated, besides helping what is said. The conventional interpretion of but will always create an implicature in the sense of contrastive ideas. Here is one of the conventional implicature but found in the conversation between Larry King and Ellen Degeneres.

  • 1.    KING: Most new daytime talk shows fail.

DEGENERES: Yes, but most people fail in this business.

Ellen was asked by King about daytime talk shows nowadays as she is one of daytime hosts which succeeded. She said that most people who fail in the talk show business are mostly comedian, therefore she is not like most people in this case comedians.

  • b)    Conventional Implicature with Lexical Item Even

Even is another example that has been suggested to explicitly demonstrate the difference between what is said and what is implicated. It is considered having a conventional implicature inside it. It shows a contrast toward what the speaker is expected to happen in a certain

situation. This is one of the conventional implicature even that have been found in the conversation between Larry King and Ellen Degeneres.

  • 1.    DEGENERES: I think, they would be shocked to see how far I've come. I mean, everyone that new me growing -- I didn't seem like -- I wasn't the class clown. I wasn't popular. I wasn't outgoing. And this is fluke to me even. I hadn't -- I could never have imagine in my life doing this.

She did not believe that her life would be successful. Ellen made a statement about her life.

  • c)    Conversational Implicature Based on Maxim of Quantity

Maxim of Quantity needs the speaker to be as informative as required, which means the speaker has to give exact amount of information. The speaker must avoid information that is not needed by the hearer.

  • 1.    KING: What's as serious as you get?

DEGENERES: I don't know. We don't really -- I don't talk about anything...

It can be seen from the example above that Ellen gave no more or less information to the question asked. In the example above it can be seen that Larry King asked Ellen about the topic of her show, whether it ever asked the guest about serious topic or not. And Ellen responded was very simple “I don't know. We don't really -- I don't talk about anything...”, it shows that Ellen never have any serious topic of her show. From the utterance it can be seen that Ellen was sure that she never said or asked something serious to her guests at her show.

  • d)    Conversational Implicature Based on Maxim of Quality

Maxim of quality requires the speaker to speak the truth. The speaker must not say something that the speaker believes would be false or unjustified. If the speaker says something that the speaker lacks of prove or not true it means that the speaker flouted maxim of quality.

  • 1.    KING: Could be another one?

DEGENERES: I don't think Disney and Pixar can come to an agreement. So, since they can't I don't think there be a...

When the questioner (Larry) asked a question about another animation movie that Ellen might be involved in again, Ellen answered to what happened between Pixar and Disney that those two film production were not very close. From that utterance it can be seen that Ellen implicated that before those two companies could get along, she would never be in another animation movie.

  • e)    Conversational Implicature Based on Maxim of Relevance

Maxim of relevance requires the speaker to speak something that is relevant to what was the hearer wants to hear. Therefore if the speaker says something that irrelevant it would flout the maxim of relevance.

  • 1.    KING: So far, it's just you, right, is that what you're saying? DEGENERES: All right. It's not going to happen, Larry.

When the questioner (Larry) asked about the people involved in the movie to Ellen “So far, it's just you, right, is that what you're saying?”, Ellen answered “All right. It's not going to happen, Larry.”, it shows that Ellen jokily admitted that the movie would never happen. Ellen could simply just say yes to the question and she just said something that seems irrelevant to the situation. However, Ellen’s answer was still relevant to the

situation because it has the meaning that if it’s only one person the shows would never be made.

  • f)    Conversational Implicature Based on Maxim of Manner

This Maxim requires the speaker to be as clear, as brief and as orderly as one in what one says and avoids obscurity and ambiguity.

  • 1.    KING: So it's the personality of the guest? The guest drives it rather than the subject driving it?

DEGENERES: It's whoever's on. We -- you know, Pamela Anderson was on today, which will air tomorrow and she has a new clothing line and she brought out, like, a teddy, a skimpy kind of brassiered teddy thing and I put it on over my clothes. And whatever's happening, I just go with it, or I try do something different than what they would do on another show.

The sentence above is a conversational implicature based on maxim of manner. It is because the speaker gives the information clearly and briefly.

  • 6.    Conclusion

The implicature found in the conversation shows that almost all the time implicature happens in the conversation. In terms of conventional implicature there are two lexical items that have been found in the conversation, which are but and even. There are 30 cases of conventional implicature that have been found, 25 for lexical item but and 5 for lexical item even.

In terms of conversational implicature there are 59 cases that have been found in the conversation. There are 24 cases for conversational implicature based on maxim of quantity, 6 conversational implicature based on maxim of quality, 11 conversational implicature based on maxim of relevance and 18 conversational implicature based on maxim of manner. In the conversation has also been found some

utterances that leading to flouting maxims. There are 9 cases of the flouting maxim that can be found in the conversation. There are 6 flouting maxim based on maxim of quantity, 2 flouting maxim based on maxim of manner and 1 flouting maxim based on maxim of relevance. In the conversation, Ellen as the speaker mostly flouted the maxims because she wanted people to know her more and because she likes to talk a lot. Those things have led into the cases of flouting maxim in the conversation.

  • 7.    Bibliography

Grice, Paul. 1975. Logic and Conversation. London. Oxford University Press.

Implicature. 2014. Conventional, Conversational and Sentence Implicature. .

Resources: www.plato.stanford.edu/entries/implicature/#CCSI