CONVERSATIONAL ANALYSIS IN ‘PERCY JACKSON THE LIGHTNING THIEF’ MOVIE BY RICK RIORDAN
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CONVERSATIONAL ANALYSIS IN ‘PERCY JACKSON THE
LIGHTNING THIEF’ MOVIE BY RICK RIORDAN
By
ANAK AGUNG MIRAH DIAN SARASTIN
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS UDAYANA UNIVERSITY
ABSTRAK
Konteks situasi oleh Halliday dan Hasan serta maxim percakapan oleh Grice merupakan unsur penting dalam suatu percakapan. Konteks situasi dapat menunjukan kejadian pada saat percakapan berlangsung dan maxim percakapan dapat menunjukkan bagaimana percakapan menyampaikan pesan pembicara. Pesan dalam suatu percakapan tidak selamanya diterima sesuai dengan yang diharapkan oleh pendengar. Sehingga konteks situasi dan maxim percakapan diperlukan untuk mengetahui apakah percakapan tersebut dapat menyampaikan pesan dengan baik atau tidak. Penelitian ini menggunakan data film Percy Jackson the Lightning Thief oleh Rick Riordan. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis jenis konteks situasi yang diaplikasikan dalam percakapan film ini menurut Halliday dan Hasan serta mendeskripsikan tipe maxim yang ditemukan dan diaplikasikan dalam percakapan di film ini berdasarkan teori Grice.
Kata kunci : Percakapan, Konteks Situasi dan Maxims
Context of situation and conversational maxims which as proposed by Halliday and Hasan and Grice are the important insures in a conversation. Context of situation can show us what happens during the conversation and conversational maxims show us how the conversation conveys the message from the first speaker. The message in the conversation is not always delivered as clearly as what is expected. Therefore, context of situation and conversational maxims need to be analyzed in order to know whether the conversation can convey the message well or not. This research is focused on the context of situation and conversational maxims found and applied in Percy Jackson the Lightning Thief Movie by Rick Riordan.
From the background above, there are several problems formulated in this study:
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1. What kind of context of situation based on Halliday and Hasan’s theory was applied in conveying the message of the conversation in Percy Jackson ‘The Lightning Thief’ movie by Rick Riordan?
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2. What types of Gricean maxims are found and applied in the conversation in Percy Jackson ‘The Lightning Thief’ movie by Rick Riordan?
Related to problems above, the aims of this study are:
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1. To analyze kind of context of situation applied in conveying the message of the conversation in this movie based on Halliday and Hasan’s theory.
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2. To describe the type of Gricean maxim found and applied in the conversation in Percy Jackson ‘The Lightning Thief’ movie by Rick Riordan based on the Grice’s theories.
The data were taken from Percy Jackson the Lightning Thief movie by Rick Riordan. This movie is a fiction movie which contained some conversations which showed context of situation and conversational maxims.
The method of collecting the data used is the library research and the data were taken from the conversations in the movie.
The data were analyzed using Halliday and Hasan’s theory about context of situation which consists of field, tenor, and mode. First, the data were analyzed based on Grice’s theory about conversational maxims which consisted of maxim of quality, maxim of quantity, maxim of relevance and also maxim of manner.
The first conversation
Poseidon : Zeus
Zeus : Poseidon
Poseidon : It has been many years
Zeus : What do you see?
Poseidon : Thunder cloud
Zeus : But no lightning… stolen
Poseidon : What? You think that I took it? Omnipotence blind you brother. We are forbidden for stealing each other’s powers
Zeus : But our children not
Poseidon : You are accusing my son? I have not seen him since he was baby. He does not know me or even who he is because of you.
Zeus : If your son is the thief, I will send him to the deep of Tartarus Poseidon : If you touch him, it will be fight of your life
Zeus : He must return it to me in 14 days, by midnight in a summer solstice or there will be war
The analysis of context of situation and conversational maxims
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1. Field. Here, in this conversation, there are Zeus and Poseidon who discuss something. They meet in the Empire state building to discuss the lightning. Zeus says that the lightning is stolen. There are two predicates which belong to material and mental processes which are the basic elements to analyze the field of the conversation. The first predicate is think. Poseidon is surprised that he is considered the lightning thief by saying “You think that I took it?”. The second predicate is accuse. Poseidon knows that Zeus believes that Poseidon’s son is the thief. He knows that Zeus accuses his son. It is shown when Poseidon tries to reply Zeus words by saying “You are accusing my son?”.
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2. Tenor. They have permanent relationship as an elder brother and a younger brother because the conversation tends to be an informal one when
Zeus speaks with his younger brother. It is shown when Poseidon asks his brother by saying ‘You think that I took it?’ which has the formal form ‘do you think that I took it?’. Then, the conversation that tends to be an informal one is also shown when Poseidon asks his brother by saying ‘You are accusing my son?’ which has the formal form ‘are you accusing my son?’.
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3. Mode. The way in which language is being used in this speech reaction is spoken conversation. This conversation belongs to expository mode because in this conversation, Zeus tries to explain that he losses his lightning and looking for the thief. He says that the thief must return the lightning in 14 days and there will be a consequence for the thief if he or she does not return the lightning in the expected days. It is shown when Zeus warns Poseidon about the punishment if his son does not return the bolt by saying “if your son is the thief, I will send him to the deep of Tartarus” and “he must return it to me in 14 days, by midnight in a summer solstice or there will be war” and saying “what? You think that I took it? Omnipotence blind you brother. We are forbidden for stealing each other’s powers” and “you are accusing my son? I have not seen him since he was baby. He does not know me or even who he is because of you”.
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4. Maxim of quality. Here in this conversation, maxim of quality is shown when Poseidon tries to make Zeus believe that Poseidon’s son does not steal the lightning. It is shown when Poseidon says “You are accusing my son? I have not seen him since he was baby. He does not know me or even who he is because of you”.
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5. Maxim of quantity. Here, in this conversation, there is no any conversation which shows the maxim of quality because the conversation is only about what Zeus wants to tell to Poseidon and Poseidon does not need to tell what Zeus says to another.
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6. Maxim of relevance. Here, in this conversation, maxim of relevance is shown when Zeus starts the conversation by asking “What do you see?” to Poseidon and after Poseidon gives the answer, Zeus replies it by saying “But no lightning… stolen”. Zeus says about the situation in the sky. Poseidon answers the question by saying “What? You think that I took it?
Omnipotence blind you brother. We are forbidden for stealing each other’s powers”.
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7. Maxim of manner. Here, in this conversation, Zeus says about the thief of lightning to Poseidon clearly without ambiguity or even obscurity by saying “if your son is the thief, I will send him to the deep of Tartarus”. Then, Poseidon answers Zeus’ question in a brief, he says that he does not steal the lightning or even his son by saying “We are forbidden for stealing each other’s powers” and “I have not seen him since he was baby. He does not know me or even who he is because of you”.
The second conversation
Mr. Brunner : Percy. You left the camp and disobeyed my orders
Percy : Yeah. About that…
Mr. Brunner : Which is why you are my favorite student. You can
receive all the training in the world but ultimately you have to follow your instincts. Grace under pressure. Alright. I am trying to train. Go suit up. You might be a big shot on Olympus, but down here you are still just one of my students. Move it.
The analysis of context of situation and conversational maxims
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1. Field. This conversation takes place in the half blood camp. It is a special place for God’s children. Those who have parents who are God and human will be called demigod and have to stay in half blood camp. This conversation is between Mr. Brunner and Percy. There are material and relational processes in that conversation which show the situation in that conversation. They are material process “left” and relational process “are”. The material process “left” is shown when Mr. Brunner says “You left the camp and disobeyed my orders”. This material process shows that Mr. Brunner tries to say his feeling to Percy that he is a little bit disappointed with Percy’s decision to leave the camp. Then, the relational process “are” is shown when Mr. Brunner says “You might be a big shot on Olympus, but down here you are still
just one of my students”. The relational process “are” shows that although Percy already finished his mission, he is still one of Mr. Brunner’s students. Mr. Brunner tries to say that he is still proud of Percy and considers him one of his students.
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2. Tenor. They are two speakers in this conversation. They are Mr. Brunner and Percy. Mr. Brunner is Percy’ s teacher. He is not only as Percy’s teacher at school but also in the half blood camp. Therefore, they have temporary relationship which they only know each other and not too close as a family. They do the conversation only like between a teacher and a student and tends to be an informal one because there is an informal form of sentence when Percy says “Yeah”. Actually, it has a formal form “yes”.
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3. Mode. The way that language is being used in this conversation is spoken language. This conversation belongs to expository and persuasive rhetorical modes. It belongs to expository when Mr. Brunner explains what a little mistake that is done by Percy and why that little mistake makes him proud of Percy by saying “Percy. You left the camp and disobeyed my orders”. He explains and tells Percy that although Percy leaves the camp and disobeys the rule, he is still the student of Mr. Brunner and even becomes the favorite one. Then, persuasive mode is shown when Mr. Brunner persuades Percy to obey his rule as a good student and has some training in half blood camp by saying “Go suit up. You might be a big shot on Olympus, but down here you are still just one of my students. Move it”.
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4. Maxim of quality. This conversation fulfills the characteristic of maxim of quality. It is shown when Mr. Bruner says the fact that Percy is really genius to use his instinct even it is allowed with a naughty thing by saying “You can receive all the training in the world but ultimately you have to follow your instincts”.
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5. Maxim of quantity. This conversation fulfills the characteristic of maxim of quantity. It is shown when Mr. Brunner has to tell Percy that although Percy can finish the mission and solve the Olympian’s problem, he still Mr. Brunner’s student and has to get some training in that camp. He says “You might be a big shot on Olympus, but down here you are still just one of my students”. Mr.
Brunner tells Percy the information that Percy has to know. He does not make the information becomes too less or even too much. He delivers the information as informative as required.
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6. Maxim of relevance. This conversation does not fulfill the characteristic of maxim of relevance because when Mr. Brunner greets Percy and says something to Percy, he does not give a full replay or response to Mr. Brunner. Percy only says something that tends to show to Mr. Brunner that he remembers the thing which is said by Mr. Brunner without giving any relevant response. Therefore, this conversation does not fulfill the characteristic of maxim of relevance.
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7. Maxim of manner. This conversation fulfills the characteristic of maxim of manner. It is shown when Mr. Brunner says “You left the camp and disobeyed my orders” and “Which is why you are my favorite student”. It means that he is really proud to Percy because he can choose the right decision to solve the Olympian’ s problem although Percy breaks the rule which is given by Mr. Brunner. Then, he also says that Percy do the right thing to follow his instinct by saying “You can receive all the training in the world but ultimately you have to follow your instincts”. Mr. Brunner says it clearly, there is no ambiguity occurs.
Those conversations are as the representative of the most important situation in the movie. The first conversation is when the accusation is begun. Poseidon’s son is accused of being the thief of Zeus’s bolt. The second conversation is when Percy can solve the problem and proves that he is not the thief of the bolt. From the analysis above, the data show that first, the context of situation which consists of field, tenor and mode were found and applied successfully in those conversations. Field, tenor and mode always affect the conversation. The situation and the relationship between the participants are related to each other. The permanent and temporally relationship can produce both informal and formal conversations but in those data the relationship are permanent and temporary and the conversation tends to be an informal one
since it still depends on the situation around the conversation. The second one is not all of conversational maxims consisted of maxim of quality, maxim of quantity, maxim of relevance and maxim of manner found and applied in the conversation. There are only three maxims found and applied in the first conversation. They are maxim of quality, maxim of relevance and maxim of manner. Then, there are only three maxims found and applied in the second conversation. They are maxim of quality, maxim or quantity and maxim of manner.
Grice, H.P. 1989. Logic and Conversation. Harvard University Press.
Halliday, M.A.K. 1985. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Sydney: Sydney University.
Halliday, M.A.K. and Hasan, Ruqaiya. 1989. Language, context, and text: Aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective. Deakin University: Deakin University Press.
Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics. Melbourne Sydney: Cambridge Universty Press.
Leech, Geoffrey. 1989. Principles of Pragmatics. United states of America: Longman Inc., New York.
Riordan, Rick. Percy Jackson ‘The Lightning Thief’. Fox 2000 Pictures.
Schiffrin, Deborah. 1994. Approaches to Discourse. Blackwell Oxford UK & Cambridge USA.
Yule, George. 2000. Pragmatics. Oxford University Press
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