THE ANALYSIS OF OPRAH WINFREY TALK SHOW “DONALD TRUMP AND FAMILY”
on
THE ANALYSIS OF OPRAH WINFREY TALK SHOW
“DONALD TRUMP AND FAMILY”
By
NI LUH YUNIARTI
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS UDAYANA UNIVERSITY
ABSTRAK
Talk show adalah sebuah program televisi atau program radio di mana satu orang (atau sekelompok orang) membahas berbagai topik. Dalam percakapan, terutama dalam program talk show televisi, pepatah percakapan penting untuk mencapai tujuan komunikatif dan sosial, karena dalam percakapan nyata pembicara tidak selalu menerapkan teori Grice’s Maxims. Ada tiga tujuan dalam penelitian, untuk mengidentifikasi karakteristik dari bahasa yang digunakan oleh Oprah Winfrey dalam Talk Show, untuk menggambarkan struktur Talk Show Oprah Winfrey, dan untuk mengetahui dan menganalisis empat maxim yang digunakan dalam percakapan di talk show Oprah Winfrey tersebut.
Kata Kunci: Bahasa, Maxim, Talk Show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person (or group of people) discusses various topics put forth by a talk show host. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_show). The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show that runs nationally for more than 25 seasons from 1986 until now. It becomes the most favorite and popular talk show television program in the world.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheOprahWinfreyShow).
In a conversation, especially in the talk show television program, conversational maxim is important to reach the communicative and social objective, because sometimes in the real conversation the speakers do not always apply the theory of Conversational maxim. The talk or conversation between Oprah Winfrey as the host and the guest, Donald Trump, becomes the focus of the research. The Oprah Winfrey Show on the episode January 16th 2012 entitled “Donald Trump and Family” was chosen as specific research object.
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2. Problems of the Study
Based on the background above, the research problems can be formulated
as follows:
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1. What are the characteristics of the language used by Oprah Winfrey in the Talk Show?
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2. What is the structure of Oprah Winfrey Talk Show?
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3. How are the four Gricean Maxims used in the Oprah Winfrey Talk Show?
Based on the problems above, the aims of the study are as follows:
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1. To identify the characteristics of the language used by Oprah Winfrey in the Talk Show.
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2. To describe the structure of Oprah Winfrey Talk Show.
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3. To find out and analyze the four Gricean maxim used in the Oprah
Winfrey Talk Show.
The data in this writing were in the form of spoken and primary data. The Oprah Winfrey Show in the episode of “Donald Trump and family”, was used as the data source because the show is very popular and it has many interesting topics and interviews. It was taken from January 16th, 2012 to do this research.
The methods used in collected the data in this writing were observation and documentation method. There were three forms of data: video, transcription, and classifying.
The methods used in analyzing data were qualitative and descriptive based on the theory of Cohesion in English that proposed by M.A.K. Halliday and R. Hasan (1975), theory of kinds of sentences proposed by David H. Deterding and Gloria R. Poedjosoedarmo (2001). Theory of Generic Structure Potential
proposed by R. Hasan (1985) and the last is the theory of Conversational Maxims proposed by Grice (1975: 26).
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5. The Analysis of Oprah Winfrey Talk Show “Donald Trump and Family”
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5.1 Analysis of the Characteristics of Language used by Oprah Winfrey in the Talk Show
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5.1.1 Cohesion in English
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The data were classified into five components of language use; they are Ellipsis, Substitution, Reference, Lexical Cohesion, and Conjunction, which were then analyzed by using language use theory by M.A.K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan in their book Cohesion in English.
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a. Ellipsis : Ellipsis is the omission of elements normally required by the grammar which the speaker/writer assumes obvious from the context and; therefore, it needs not be raised. There are three types of ellipsis; nominal, verbal, and clausal ellipsis. There is an analysis of Oprah’s utterance and it would be analyzed:
O: it’s so you have been married six years now, I know you were getting married. So what is it you doing different in this marriage third marriage did you know better. That you could do in this marriage that you didn’t do in the other two? (3/14/O)
Analysis: the third clause was ellipsis, if seen from the sentence “That you could do in this marriage that you didn’t do in the other two?” ‘the other two’ it should be ‘the other two marriages’. It means, she asked what he can do in the third marriage and what he did not do in his first and second marriages. Therefore, the sentence was nominal ellipsis.
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b. Substitution : Substitution is a word that is not omitted, as in ellipsis, but it is substituted for another and more general word. There are three general ways of substituting in a sentence: nominal, verbal, and clausal. In nominal substitution, the most typical substitution words are “one and ones”. There is analysis of Oprah’s utterance and it would be analyzed:
O : Was that one of the best in your life? (7/49/O)
Analysis: From the sentence “Was that one of the best in your life?” the word ‘one’ refers to the Ivanka’s marriage, because the conversation before discussed about Ivanka’s marriage. Therefore, Oprah’s utterance is substitution especially in nominal substitution.
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c. Reference : Reference refers to the relationship between two linguistic expressions. It is used in semantics to define the relationship between a word and what it points to in the real world. There is analysis of Oprah’s language in the talk show:
O : what you can take from that moment when Donald Trump came up to you and tell us what did he was for what he is said? (9/67/O)
Analysis: this sentence was reference because the subject ‘Donald Trump’ replace with ‘he’, it through the situation using pronoun ‘he’. Therefore, the sentence was personal references.
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d. Conjunctions can be classified into four main categories: additive, adversative, causal and temporal. There is analysis of Oprah’s language in the talk show:
O : so you looking to be married at the time Donald? (9/73/O)
Analysis: the sentence above was conjunction, and if seen from the word ‘at the time’. It is linked by signaling the time. Oprah wants to ask that he looking to be married when Donald Jr. and Vanessa met at the first time in fashion show. Therefore, the sentence was temporal conjunction.
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e. Lexical Cohesion: There are two types of lexical cohesion; reiteration and collocation. In Oprah Winfrey talk show in episode Donald Trump and family, Donald Trump did not use the language of lexical cohesion.
The data were classified into five components of language use proposed by David H. Deterding and Gloria R. Poedjosoedarmo (2001); Declarative, Yes-No Interrogative, Wh Interrogative, Imperative, and Exclamative, which were then used to analyze the language used by Oprah Winfrey in the Talk Show.
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a. Declarative : Declarative is making a statement and it ends with a period. The purposes of this language are to make a statement of the sentences and give the information to the audiences about Donald Trump and his family. There is analysis of Oprah’s utterance and it would be analyzed:
O : So, when you see everything that we’ve seen and heard about you, we don’t think of you as you know we think of you as a power house, we think of you as a visionary, we think of you as billionaire tycoon and all of that, we don’t think of you as a family man. (1/3/O)
Analysis: In this utterance, Oprah gave the information to the audiences about Donald Trump, that he is power house, visionary, billionaire and Oprah make statement that she did not think about Donald as a relative.
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b. Yes-No interrogative: Yes-No interrogative is asking a question and ends with a question mark. The purpose is to find out if something is true. There is analysis of Oprah’s utterance and it would be analyzed:
O : is it true Melania that he is home every night for dinner? (2/12/O)
Analysis: The utterance above was Yes-No Interrogative, it seen from the first sentence Oprah used Yes-No Interrogative starting with ‘is’. Oprah want the audiences to know the truth even though he is a businessman, he is almost at home every night for dinner.
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c. WH-Interrogative: WH-Interrogative has the same definition as yes-no interrogative but it has different purposes and in this case it used WH question mark. The purpose of WH-Interrogative is to elicit a piece of information. There are some analyses of Oprah’s utterance as follows:
O : How does its feel now having been next generation of little trump. (8/63/O) Analysis: It was wh-interrogative, since the sentence above used question mark ‘how’. The purpose of the sentence was to know the feeling of Donald Trump that has the third grandchildren. Therefore, with this utterance that used question word ‘how’, Oprah could share the information to the audiences.
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d. Imperative : Imperative is giving a command to someone, and the purpose
is to get someone to do something or stop doing something. It means giving instruction to other people to do what it was told. In Oprah Winfrey talk show there was not imperative sentence used by Oprah Winfrey in her talk show on the episode Donald Trump and Family.
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e. Exclamative : Exclamative shows strong feeling and it ends with an exclamation mark. The purpose is to exclaim or express emotion.
O : so, how don’t you like being a grandpa? This will be the third right? (8/53/O)
Analysis: The utterance above was exclamative sentence, because the utterance shows the expression of having next generation, Donald’s third grandchildren. Whether he had grandchildren, he did not want his grandchildren to call him ‘grandpa’. But he loves all his grandchildren, because they are very funny to him.
The first structure is orientation or how the opening of the talk shows or how it is started. The orientation of this show is to introduce the entire family of Donald Trump, she called all of Trump’s Family, introduce the members of the family.
The second structure is the content of the talk show or what is the content of the Show. The content of the show is over the duration of a show (between the opening and the final of the show). It was organized into three structures; talk, performance, and inserts. In the middle of the conversation between Oprah, Donald, and Melania there was the component of inserts. Oprah inserts a video of Donald Trump when he asked his employees to works. She was applied the third components show, she inserted the video before one of the family came into the show and performance components like musical performances before or after she inserted the video.
The last stage is conclusion (resolution) or how the talk show is ended. In this stage Oprah gave the resolution of the end of the Talk Show. The duration of the show in the episode Donald Trump and family was 42.26 minutes. This show pointed what was outside Donald trump family; besides, he is a successful businessman, but he always cares about his employees and he could manage his family in the middle of his busy time.
In a conversation there are four Conversational Maxim proposed by Grice (1975), they are; Maxim of Quantity, maxim of Quality, Maxim of Relevance, and Maxim of Manner. In the real conversation there are the successes of conversational maxims and flouted of conversational maxims.
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a. Maxim of Quantity
There are two rules in this maxim; make the contribution as informative as is required for the current purpose of the exchange, and do not make our contribution more informative than is required. There is analysis of the success Maxim of Quantity.
O : Was that one of the best in your life? (7/49/O)
I : absolutely, and truthfully though each subsequent day just continues to get better sound. I’d love being married and I’m very fortunate to have found that right now. (7/50/I)
Analysis: In this conversation, what Ivanka said was informative for what Oprah asked about the best things in her life. She answered the question as informative as required, because she loves his husband and thought that herself lucky to married with her husband b. Maxim of Quality
There are two rules in this maxim, they are: do not say what you believe to be false and do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. There is analysis of the success Maxim of Quality.
O : Was that one of the best in your life? (7/49/O)
I : absolutely, and truthfully though each subsequent day just continues to get better sound. I’d love being married and I’m very fortunate to have found that right now. (7/50/I)
Analysis: Ivanka’s statement fulfilled the maxim of Quality because she gives utterance that she believes and feels that it is true by saying absolutely…. It shows that she says something that clearly believes to be true. Therefore, when Oprah asks about her feeling, Ivanka can answer it truthfully because he can prove it.
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c. Maxim of Relevance
The rule of this maxim is being relevant. There is analysis of the success Maxim of Relevance.
O : Was that one of the best in your life? (7/49/O)
I : absolutely, and truthfully though each subsequent day just continues to
get better sound. I’d love being married and I’m very fortunate to have found that right now. (7/50/I)
Analysis: She says something that is related to the question. She answered the question without saying something out of the topic brought by the host. She gave
relevant answer and explains that she feels happy with her married and fortunate married with his husband.
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d. Maxim of Manner
The rules of the Maxim of Manner are: avoid obscurity of expression, avoid ambiguity, be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity), and be orderly. There is analysis of the success Maxim of Manner.
O : Was that one of the best in your life? (7/49/O)
I : absolutely, and truthfully though each subsequent day just continues to get better sound. I’d love being married and I’m very fortunate to have found that right now. (7/50/I)
Analysis: She answered orderly by giving the answer to the question firstly and then supported with some explanations. The message given is clear and easy understood and it does not create ambiguity.
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a. Flouting Maxim of Quantity
O : did they like you immediately? (4/24/O)
M : well, I don’t know, did they? (4/25/M)
D : you know we were helped by the fact that I never left anyone for Melania. You know that I was a single guy I met Melania. The kids liked her right away right from beginning, they really love Melania. (4/26/D)
Analysis: In this conversation, Donald Trump told that his children like Melania and they really love Melania. Therefore, he flouted the Maxim of Quantity, because the question was yes/no question, and he gave information more informative than is required.
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b. Flouting Maxim of Quality
O : Melania, you described Barron as the boss of the house in what way? (15/111/O)
M : well, he is a little boss in the house, it’s a schedule you know it’s school, it’s learning, it’s lunch time, it’s shower time, it’s play time, it’s a schedule you know he is kind of a little boss. (15/112/M)
Analysis: She did not answer the question of Oprah Winfrey, she doubtful to answer her question. Therefore, she did not get the point of the question and it was not explanation about in what way Barron as the boss.
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c. Flouting Maxim of Relevance
O : is it true Melania that he is home every night for dinner? (2/12/O)
M : almost every night not while we cannot be home every night with our schedule you know we like to have a just me and him a date night, go to the concert, movies, go out for dinner but we like to spend time with the bareness well. (2/13/M)
Analysis: Melania utterance was irrelevance to the situation, she did not answer Oprah’s question well and she gave the explanation outside by the topic.
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d. Flouting Maxim of Manner
O : did they like you immediately? (4/24/O)
M : well, I don’t know, did they? (4/25/M)
D : you know we were helped by the fact that I never left anyone for Melania. You know that I was a single guy I met Melania. The kids liked her right away right from beginning, they really love Melania. (4/26/D)
Analysis: From the conversation, it shows that Melania try to avoid answer Oprah’s question, she looked like doubtful and afraid of the question. Therefore, she asked her husband’s argument. It means that Melania flouted the Maxim of Manner.
Based on the analysis and discussion, there are three conclusions for each of the problems. First, the analysis of the characteristics of the language used by Oprah Winfrey in the Talk Show on episode Donald Trump and family, which used two theories. First is Cohesion in English, in this analysis Oprah Winfrey used four characteristics of language from five categories. Ellipsis, substitution, reference, conjunction, and lexical cohesion but in the talk show Oprah did not use lexical cohesion. The second theory is kinds of sentences, in the talk show there were four kinds of sentences used by Oprah; declarative, yes-no interrogative, wh-interrogative, and exclamative. The last kind of sentence is imperative, but this talk showed that she did not use this kind of sentence.
Second is the structure of Oprah Winfrey Talk show which was divided into three parts. First is orientation or the opening of the talk show, in the orientation of the talk show the entire family of Donald Trump is introduced. Second structure is content, the duration of a show in this part between the opening and the ending of the show. The last structure is conclusion (resolution), how the talk show is ended. The duration of the show in the episode Donald Trump and family was 42.26 minutes.
Third is the applications of Gricean Maxim in the talk show were success and flouted of conversational maxims. From the flouting of the Conversational Maxim, it could be concluded that the speaker flouted the Maxim of Quantity because the speaker gave too much explanation. The speaker flouted the Maxim of Quality because the speaker tried to hide the truth of their family. The speaker flouted the Maxim of Relevance because the speaker did not want to deliver their message directly. The last is speaker flouted the Maxim of Manner because the speaker did not have much time to organize their talk.
Anonim. 2012a. definition of talk show. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Talk_show/ (on online on June 2nd, 2012)
Anonim. 2012b. definition of Oprah Winfrey Show. http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/The_Oprah_Winfrey_Show (online on June 4th, 2012)
David H. Deterding and Gloria R. Poedjosoedarmo. 2001. The Grammar of English. Prentice Hall: Singapore.
Grice, H. P. 1975. Syntax and Semiotics. Logic and Conversation Vol. 3.
Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan. 1976. Cohesion in English: Language use.
Haliiday and Ruqaiya Hasan. 1985. Language, Context, and Text: Aspects of language in Social – Semiotic perspective.
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