CONFLICTING MAXIMS IN IMPLICATURE IN PYGMALION
on
CONFLICTING MAXIMS IN IMPLICATURE IN PYGMALION
By
I NYOMAN TEGES TRIGUNA
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS UDAYANA UNIVERSITY
Abstrak
Satu ujaran tidak hanya mengandung satu makna saja, terkadang ujaran-ujaran tersebut memiliki makna lain yang tersirat. Grice (1975) menyebut makna tersirat tersebut sebagai Implikatur. Implikatur timbul karena adanya pelanggaran prinsip kerja sama yang lebih khusus terjadi pada bidal: (1) kuantitas, (2) kualitas, (3) relevansi, dan (4) cara. Dari keempat bidal tersebut, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mencari tahu bidal yang bertentangan yang ditemukan di setiap implikatur yang ada di drama Pygmalion.
Sumber data dalam penelitian ini adalah drama Pygmalion yang ditulis oleh George Bernard Shaw dan data diambil dengan metode riset pustaka. Data kemudian dianalisis dengan metode kualitatif. Teori yang menjadi landasan di dalam penelitian kualitatif ini adalah teori pragmatik tentang Implikatur. Schiffirn (1994: 194) menyatakan bahwa Implikatur adalah sesuatu yang tersirat yang berbeda dari apa yang disampaikan. Grice (di Levinson, 1983) menyebutkan bahwa penutur cenderung bekeinginan untuk memenuhi dua bidal yang bertentangan yang memicu pelanggaran satu bidal untuk mendukung bidal yang lainnya.
Dari analisis penelitian ini diperoleh bahwa ada dua kasus pelanggaran bidal; (1) bidal kuantitas dengan bidal kualitas dan (2) bidal kuantitas dengan bidal relevansi. Bidal kuantitas dilanggar karena penutur tidak mampu menyediakan informasi yang benar sebagaimana yang diminta oleh bidal kualitas. Begitu pula pelanggaran terjadi pada bidal kuantitas ketika penutur dituntut untuk memberikan jawaban yang relevan sementara dia tidak memiliki informasi yang sesuai.
Kata kunci: implikatur, bidal.
In our daily life, one utterance sometimes does not only have one meaning.
What is contained in an utterance could have several meanings apart from its overt meaning. Those meanings are called implied meanings of an utterance. According to this fact, the analysis of implicature is obviously needed. Grice (1975) proposed the term implicature to explain the meaning which is implied in an utterance. Implicature is the added sense which is derived from conversational factors based on the distinction on what is being said and what is being communicated. He
introduced the technical terms implicate and implicature for the case in which what speaker means, implies, or suggests is different from what the speaker says. Implicature itself can be part of sentence meaning dependent on conversational context, and can be conventional or unconventional based on several conditions.
In terms of conversational context, Grice (1975) states, speakers intend to be cooperative in conversation. For this reason, Grice (in Levinson, 1983: 101) formulates a general “Cooperative Principle” which is elaborated in four subprinciples called maxims; Maxims of Quality, Quantity, Relevance, and Manner. Grice also identified three types of general conversational implicatures; the speakers may deliberately flout a conversational maxim to convey an additional meaning not expressed literally, the speakers desire to fulfill two conflicting maxims result in his or her flouting one maxim to invoke the other, and the speaker invokes a maxim as a basis for interpreting the utterance.
After reading a drama written by George Bernard Shaw (1912) entitled Pygmalion, it seems interesting how an utterance can be modified in various ways to express something which is not literally stated by the speakers. Therefore, this drama is believed having implicatures within. This study analyzed the conflicting maxims results in flouting one maxim to invoke the other. All characters are the focus of this analysis. The reason of choosing this drama because it is a very interesting drama indeed since it plays on the complex business of human relationships in a social world.
Based on the background above, there are two problems discussed in this study:
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1. What are the conflicted maxims of Conversational Implicatures found in the drama Pygmalion?
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2. What are the implied meanings in those Conversational Implicatures?
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3. Aims of the Study
The aims of this study are:
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1. To find out what conflicted maxims of Conversational Implicatures found in the drama Pygmalion.
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2. To find out the implied meanings in those Conversational Implicature.
The data used in this writing were taken from a drama entitled Pygmalion which was written by George Bernard Shaw. Pygmalion which was published in 1912 consists of 5 Acts. The play is about Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins who makes a bet that he could train and change the bedraggled Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is impeccable speech.
The data which were considered appropriate to support the research were in the form of written conversation. Pygmalion is chosen due to some reasons: it contains many expressions which do not convey the literal meaning, and the issue in this drama is related to romantic comedy and social critics containing a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a commentary on women's independence which tend to be indirect and a little bit sarcastic. Therefore, Pygmalion can be a very good source for this study of implicature especially about the conflicting maxims in the implicature.
The data were collected by conducting library research. The method which was used in collecting data from the drama was by reading carefully the script of the drama – observation by reading the drama script. The steps of collecting data were as follows: First, the drama was read carefully and repeatedly in order to understand the story including the setting, condition among the characters, and the context of situation in which the conversations take place. Second, the relevant data were selected by doing note-taking. The data which are needed in this study were the conversations which contained implicature. Finally, the conversations that were considered containing conflicting maxims were then selected and compiled.
The collected data were put in a table with some detail and verbal explanation using the qualitative method. Data analysis was conducted based on the problems formulated. After all of the utterances selected, the implied meaning of each utterance was then determined based on its context. The theory of implicature by Grice (1975) was used to analyze the implied meaning and also to find out the reason why the speakers used implicature in their utterances. This theory was also used to prove how maxims can be flouted or exploited, violated, and straightforwardly followed as what Grice stated in his theory of Implicature and Cooperative Principle about the conflicting maxims.
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5. Conflicting Maxims in the Implicature in Pygmalion
5.1 Violating Maxims of Quantity to Invoke Maxim of Quality
Table 5.1.1 Conversational Implicatures, Violating Maxims of Quantity to Invoke Maxim of Quality.
|
NO. |
UTTERANCES |
IMPLICATURE |
|
Cs 1 |
FREDDY. [Springing out of taxicab] Got one at last. Hallo! [To the girl] Where are the two ladies that were here? THE FLOWER GIRL. They walked to the bus when rain stopped. |
I don’t know where they are, but I can give you information that the just walked to the bus. |
|
Cs 2 |
PICKERING. We are slightly. Are there any letters? HIGGINS. I didn’t look. [Pickering takes the overcoats and hats and goes downstairs. Higgins begins half singing half yawning an air from La Fanciulla del Golden West. Suddenly he stops and exclaims] I wonder where the devil my slippers are. |
I didn’t know whether there are any letters or not. |
One of the three types of general conversation implicatures is that the speakers desire to fulfill two conflicting maxims results in his or her flouting one maxim to invoke another. Take a look at the data below.
[Cs 1] FREDDY. [Springing out of taxicab] Got one at last. Hallo! [To the girl] Where are the two ladies that were here?
THE FLOWER GIRL. They walked to the bus when rain stopped.
This conversation is the end of Act 1 when the rain was stopped and Freddy hadn’t come back from finding a cab. When Freddy was back, the two women; the mother and the daughter had left by taking a bus.
In this conversation, the flower girl desires to fulfill two conflicting maxims results in her flouting one maxim to invoke the other. And it is obvious that there is a conflict between Maxim of Quantity and the Maxim of Quality in the conversation above. Grice (in Levinson, 1983) stated that in order to fulfill maxim of Quantity, a speaker should be as informative as required and should not make it more that it is required. In this case, a cooperative speaker does not want to be ambiguous and wants to be as informative as possible to provide information. However, if the condition is not supporting to give informative as it is required, speaker can deliberately violate Maxim of Quantity to invoke Maxim of Quality; fulfilled by not conveying what she/he believes to be false and what seems unjustified or lacking of evidence. In this case, the violation leads to information that the flower girl is not sure and does not want to give a false contribution about where the two ladies were at the time Freddy asked their position by giving brief information about what just happened.
FREDDY. Where are the two ladies that were here?
THE FLOWER GIRL. I’m not sure where they are right now but I can give you one information that might be useful for to figure out where they are right now; They just walked to the bus when rain stopped, so I think they are on the way home now.
[Cs 2] PICKERING. We are slightly. Are there any letters?
HIGGINS. I didn’t look. [Pickering takes the overcoats and hats and goes downstairs. Higgins begins half singing half yawning an air from La Fanciulla del Golden West. Suddenly he stops and exclaims] I wonder where the devil my slippers are.
The conversation above took place in Higgins’ house in Wimpole street right when the clock stroke 12 after the ambassador’s party. Both Higgins and Pickering were exhausted but satisfied and happy about what Eliza did during the party. How Eliza proved herself that she could change from the bedraggled Cockney flower girl into a lady whom everyone is admired.
Before Pickering went to bed, he asked Higgins whether there were any letters for them or not. However, Higgins just simply answer I didn’t look. From this response, it is obvious that the response is not the one that Pickering expected to hear. However, if it is interpreted in a broader interpretation, it would implicate that Higgins was unable to provide information to Pickering question because he did not know what the answer is and at the same time he also did not want to give false statement.
Therefore, it can be concluded that there is obviously a clash between maxim of quantity and maxim of quality. The violation toward maxim of Quantity occurred since Higgins as the speaker did not provide informative contribution for the current purpose of the exchange and it leaves the question remains unanswered. However, he did so because he did not want to give false answer with lacking of evidence.
Table 5.1.2 Conversational Implicatures, Violating Maxim of Quantity to Invoke Maxim of Relevance
|
NO. |
UTTERANCES |
IMPLICATURE |
|
Cs 3 |
MRS. PEARCE. Where’s your mother? LIZA. I ain’t got no mother. Her that turned me out was my sixth stepmother. But I done with them. And I’m a good girl. |
I don’t know where she is because I don’t have mother |
Conflicting maxims is not only for maxim of Quantity and maxim of Quality. It is found that the other maxims can be in conflict too.
[Cs 3] MRS. PEARCE. Where’s your mother?
LIZA. I ain’t got no mother. Her that turned me out was my sixth stepmother. But I done with them. And I’m a good girl.
The scene occurred in act to when Liza came to Higgins offering herself to be his students. Still surprised, Higgins, Pickering, and Mrs. Pearce asked a questions about her background.
The question word where is conventionally asking about location. Therefore, the best corresponds for the above question is a certain location. However, on the conversation above, the response seems irrelevant. We shall observe maxim of relevance by understanding that hearer’s response provides partial answer to the speaker’s question. Since the hearer, in this case is Liza, is not on the position to provide full and complete information but she is in the position of conveying where might be her mother is now by providing information I ain’t got no mother, even my sixth stepmother abandoned me.
However, even though the response seems relevant in that way, the question of where her mother is now remains unanswered. Grice expected the speaker to give informative contribution. However, what happened to Liza is that she could not provide specific location, she give more information than it is required by telling about her stepmother. Therefore, Liza is failed to fulfill maxim of quantity, but she invokes maxim of relevance instead.
The existence of Conversational Implicatures cannot be separated by Cooperative Principle and Maxims as proposed by Grice (1975). They are used to identify and classify the phenomenon of implicature and also to explain and predict the Conversational Implicature. Note that Grice also emphasized Cooperative Principle and four basic Maxims in order to make people to be cooperative in communicating, to build efficient communication, and to avoid
ambiguity among speakers who are involved in a conversation by following these rules.
This study has discussed about the conflicting maxims in the implicatures that were found in the drama Pygmalion. From the discussion above, there were two conflicting maxims; maxim of quantity in conflict with maxim of quality and maxim of quantity in conflict with maxim of relevance. These conflicts occurred because one speaker cannot simply flout one maxim and make the conversation tend to be not cooperative and ambiguous. The conflict of maxim of quantity and quality occurred because the speaker does not want to give a false statement but at the same time he/she cannot provide the proper amount of information. While the conflict of maxim of quantity and relevance occurred since the speaker wanted to give a relevant response towards the utterance. However, she/he was unable to provide enough information that leads to violating maxim of quantity.
Bach, Kent. The Myth of Conventional Implicature. (Avalaible from: http://userwww.sfsu.edu/kbach/Myth.htm#_edn4)
Gibert, Theresa. 2003. The Role of Implicatures in Kate Chopin’s Louisiana Short Stories. Journal of the Short Story in English. Presses Universitaires d'Angers.
Leech, Geoffrey. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics: New York. Longman
Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw: The Pennsylvania State University
Schiffrin, Deborah. 1994. Approaches to Discourse. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publisher
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