POLITENESS MAXIMS USED BY THE CHARACTERS IN THE TWILIGHT MOVIE
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POLITENESS MAXIMS USED BY THE CHARACTERS
IN THE TWILIGHT MOVIE
By
AYU CITRA DEWI
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS UDAYANA UNIVERSITY
Abstrak
Komunikasi merupakan salah satu cara penting untuk menyampaikan ide-ide atau pesan dalam interaksi sehari-hari. Salah satu cara berkomunikasi adalah percakapan, dan dalam melakukan percakapan tersebut, kita harus memperhatikan beberapa faktor atau aturan untuk mencapai tujuan dari percakapan tersebut. Salah satu cara untuk meningkatkan makna dari sebuah percakapan adalah dengan cara menerapkan tingkat kesopanan. Makna kesopanan dipengaruhi oleh beberapa faktor seperti factor umur, seks dan situasi. Sumber data dari penelitian ini adalah ungkapan dari sebuah percakapan dalam film Twilight (2008) yang merupakan seri pertama dari Twilight Saga. Adapun tujuan dari penelitian ini untuk mengetahui tingkat kesopanan dan faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi penggunaan kesopanan dalam percakapan.
Kata Kunci: Kominikasi, Percakapan dan Kesopanan
Communication is one of important ways to transfer our ideas in our daily interaction to other people. Communication can be done by conversing with other people. In having a conversation with others, people should pay attention to several rules or factors in order to achieve the goal of the conversation. One way to establish a meaningful conversation is by applying politeness. Politeness could not be read from a certain dimension only, it should be determined by relevant social factors and dimension in all societies such as social status of speaker, hearer and as well as social distance. The problems appear in having conversations are influenced by some certain differences. Those problems are different environment and cultures. In
communication, people should apply the Politeness Maxims reflected in the six maxims of conversation.
Based on the background above, there are some problems that can be formulated, as follows.
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1. What kinds of politeness maxims are used by the characters in the “Twilight” movie?
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2. What factors influence the politeness maxims used by the characters in the “Twilight’’ movie?
The aims of this study can be as follows.
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1. To describe the maxims of politeness used by the characters in the “Twilight” movie.
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2. To explain the factors which influence the politeness maxims applied by the characters in the “Twilight” movie.
The primary data for this study were taken from the conversation between characters in the movie entitled “Twilight” (2008). The utterances used as the data source were the utterances of the conversation which applied the politeness Maxims. 4.2 Method and Technique of Collecting Data
The method and technique of collecting data for this study were obtained by using documentation method. It can be done by observing some movies that contain the terms of politeness maxims. Secondly, by watching the DVD of the “Twilight” movie, the data were taken from any chosen conversations, then the “Twilight” movie was transcribed. The next step was to identify the data source from movie transcript, then the dialogue was classified based on the types of Politeness Maxims and on the types of the factors that influence the Politeness Maxims. It was done by reading the movie transcript and choosing the conversations which contained Politeness Maxims
and did not contain Politeness Maxims. The dialogues that contained Politeness Maxims were chosen randomly.
The collected data of this study were analyzed using qualitative method based on the theory Politeness Maxims proposed by Geoffrey Leech (1983) and the theory by Janet Holmes (1995). They were used as the main theories and supported by other theories by Wardaugh (1992)
The analysis of the types of politeness maxims in the movie is focused on the utterances and sentences which were taken from the transcription of the video of the “Twilight” movie. The finding of the types of politeness maxims and the factors which influenced the politeness maxims used in the “Twilight” movie are presented as follows.
Some conversations below took from the transcript of “Twilight” movie. There are some data from the conversations in Twilight movie which are categorized into the Tact Maxim that would be analyzed:
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(1) High School - Cafeteria
ERIC : La Push, baby. You in?
BELLA : Should I know what that means?
MIKE : La Push beach, down on the Quileute rez. We're all going tomorrow. (page 9)
Analysis:
Data (1) happened between the classmates, they are Eric, Bella and Mike. They were in the cafeteria Forks High school. They were talking about the La Push beach. Bella was the new student in Forks, therefore she did not know La Push beach. ‘Should I know what that means’ is proper according to the Tact Maxim. It is a benefit instead of the cost. Data (1) shows that Bella really wants to know about La Push beach by saying it in a polite way to her friends. Bella was
applying politeness maxim by saying ‘should I know what that means’ that influenced by the context of situation, participant include (Eric, Mike, Angela and Jessica). Although their relation is close, she still takes care with her utterance when talking to her classmates.
Unlike the tact maxim, the generosity maxim is focused on the speaker, and says that others should be put first instead of the self. There are some Generosity Maxims from the conversations in Twilight movie and it would be analyzed:
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(13) Forks Coffee Shop
WAYLON : Hey, kids love those little bottles, though
CORA : Alright. Let the girl eat her garden burger, Waylon. (to Bella) As soon as you’re done, I'll bring your favorite. Berry cobbler. Remember? Your dad still has it. Every Thursday.
(page 4)
Analysis:
Cora was inviting Bella to eat Waylon’s cod and offered her favorite food— berry cobbler. But she gets more cost than benefit. Cora has to make any food to be given to Bella. If Bella accept her offering, she can enjoy the delicious food made by Cora. There is also a benefit. They can talk about interesting thing together in coffee shop. Data (13) above showed that Cora wanted to show her attention by offering some foods and by inviting Bella to eat her foods. She does Generosity Maxim very well. The factor influences the politeness maxim in data (13) is because of the context of situation (relation of participant). Their relation is not to close, but Bella and Cora already knew each other when Bella was little and she was Charlie’s friend.
In this study, there are some conversations regarding the Approbation Maxim. It would be analyzed as follows:
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(19) Charlie’s House
BELLA : Yeah. Wow, you’re looking good.
BILLY : Well, I’m still dancing.
BILLY : I’m Glad you're finally here. Charlie here hasn't shut up about it since you told him you were coming.
(page 1)
Analysis:
The expression from data above (19) is absolutely Approbation Maxim. Billy truly praised to Bella because Bella prefers to stay with her father in Forks. The conversation from data (18) shows that Billy puts no dispraise, but really maximizes the praise for Bella. She said ‘I’m Glad you're finally here’. It means that she is respectful to Bella and as Charlie’s old friend, he really takes care of Bella until she is growing to be a beautiful girl right now. Billy applies Approbation Maxim very well. When Bella is welcoming him to visit her, Billy says that he is glad to Bella who had been finally in Forks. He is expressing her compliments to Bella. The factor which influences the politeness maxim in data (19) is the context of situation (the relation of participant). Their relation is close but he still uses polite expression in his statement and he wants to show her friendship to Charlie by saying it in a polite way to Bella although Billy is older than Bella.
In the Modesty Maxim, there are some conversations which are categorized as the Modesty Maxim as follows:
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(33) HIGH SCHOOL
ERIC : You're Isabella Swan, the new girl. Hi. I'm Eric. The eyes and ears of this place. Anything you need. Tour guide, lunch date, shoulder to cry on?
Bella just looks at him. Is he for real?
BELLA : I'm really kind of more the “suffer in silence” type.
ERIC : Good headline for your feature I'm on the paper, and you're news, baby, front page.
(page 2)
Analysis:
Bella is very modest in data (33) above. She said herself was a kind of the suffer in silence type. She was using that sentence to introduce herself to Eric, her classmate. She minimized praise to herself and she also maximized dispraise to herself. In data (33) above she quite modest in by saying ‘I’m kind of the “suffer in silence” type’, she introduced how her character was. She was maximizing the friendship between her and Eric. The factor influences the politeness maxim in data (33) is the context of situation (the topic). In their first meeting, Bella was talking about how her character. Therefore, she talked politely to Eric.
There are some analyses of the Agreement Maxim in the conversations in Twilight movie as follows:
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(37) BOUTIQUE – PORT ANGELES
JESSICA : And you wouldn’t need jewelry
ANGELA : Jess, what do you think? Lavender? Is that good? Is that my color?
JESSICA : I like it. I liked dusty rose one, too.
(page 12)
Analysis:
Angela asked Jessica about her dress looked like. Jessica agreed by saying ‘I like it. I liked dusty rose one, too’. There is no disagreement here. It can be concluded that they were applying Agreement Maxim. The factor that influences the politeness maxim in data (37) is the context of situation (the relation between participants). The relation between Angela and Jessica is very close, they were maximizing their friendship. They were sharing each other about the dress that they would use in the prom night by using the Agreement Maxim.
There are some Sympathy Maxims, it would be analyzed based on the conversations below:
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(44) Charlie’s House
BELLA : Do you want a ride to school or something?
JACOB : I go to school on the reservation.
BELLA : Right.. right..
JACOB : Yeah.
BELLA : That’s too bad. It would've been nice to know at least one person.
(page 2)
Analysis:
The expression in data (44) above shows the sympathy to Jacob. Bella was trying to offer a ride to Jacob, because he went to school as always on the reservation. She said it was too bad. Bella was sympathic to him because he had to go to school on the reservation. There was no antipathy between Bella and Jacob. Bella maximized the sympathy to Jacob by saying ‘too bad. It would’ve been nice to know at least one person’. Bella was following Sympathy Maxim very well. She expressed her friendship to Jacob. The statement of friendship was based on positive politeness. The factor that influences politeness maxim in data (44) is the context of situation (the relation between participants). Their relation is close, therefore Bella maximized sympathy to her friend.
Based on the foregoing analysis and discussion, the following points can be drawn as conclusion. There were six types of politeness maxim found in the Twilight movie. They are: tact maxim, generosity maxim, approbation maxim, modesty maxim, agreement maxim and sympathy maxim. The type of politeness maxims mostly used in the Twilight movie was Approbation Maxim. The factors that influenced the politeness maxims used by the characters in the Twilight movie was some factors, such as: the context of situations (the relation between participant, setting, and topic), age (it means that the younger speakers have to speak politely to the older speaker), gender (women and man have different ways of talking and hence of realizing and interpreting speech acts) and kinship (terms indicating blood relationship between the speaker and the hearer), social status (such as occupation,
education and wealth). The factor that mostly influenced of the politeness maxim was the context of the situation (the relationship between the characters).
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