POLITENESS MAXIMS IN DIFFERENT SETTINGS OF THE EAT PRAY LOVE MOVIE
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POLITENESS MAXIMS IN DIFFERENT SETTINGS
OF THE EAT PRAY LOVE MOVIE
By
DWI LINA SARI TANJUNG
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS UDAYANA UNIVERSITY
Abstrak
Bahasa adalah salah satu alat komunikasi yang digunakan oleh manusia. Ada banyak cara untuk berkomunikasi dengan orang lain yang bisa dilakukan oleh semua orang di seluruh dunia, salah satunya dikaitkan dengan kesopanan. Ini adalah hal yang harus diperhatikan oleh manusia ketika mereka ingin berinteraksi dengan makhluk hidup lainnya. Terkadang setiap orang memiliki tingkat kesopanan yang berbeda sesuai dengan tempat tinggal mereka. Sumber data dari penelitian ini adalah ungkapan dari sebuah percakapan dalam film Eat Pray Love (2010). Adapun tujuan dari penelitian ini untuk mengetahui tingkat kesopanan dalam sebuah ungkapan di sebuah percakapan dan faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi penggunaan kesopanan dalam sebuah percakapan.
Kata Kunci: Kesopanan, Ungkapan, dan Percakapan
As living beings, humans need language to communiciate with other people. There are many ways of communiciating with other people that can be done by everybody around the world, one of them is associated with politeness. It is a thing that must be noticed by humans when they want to interact with other living creatures. Sometimes every person has a different level of politeness according to their residence. The use of politeness also deals with their cultures which they have applied. For example, some people who live in Europe have different cultures from people who live in Asia, so the level of their politeness is slightly different because every place has their own culture. The use of politeness in an area influenced by the culture that gives many positive and negative impacts to the community. In this case, the use of politeness and the different setting indeed affects each other.
Based on the backgroun mentioned above, there are some problems could be formulated, as follows:
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1. What types and functions of politeness maxims are mostly used by the characters in Eat Pray Love movie?
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2. What are the factors that affected the different usage of politeness maxim toward the different setting in Eat Pray Love movie?
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3. Aims of the Sudy
In accordance with the problem of study formulated above, the aims of study can be divided into:
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1. To find out what types and functions of politeness maxims which are mostly used by characters in Eat Pray Love movie.
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2. To analyze the factors that affected the different usage of politeness maxims toward the different setting in Eat Pray Love movie.
The primary data for this study were taken from the utterances in conversation between characters in movie entitled “Eat Pray Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). The utterances used as the data source were the utterances of the conversation which applied the politeness Maxims.
As a movie used as the data source, the collection of the data applied by watching and listening the conversation to understand the story. The utterances which applied politeness expression were noted down and then clasified into six maxims stated by Geoffrey Leech(1983), they are; Tact maxim, Generosity Maxim, Approbation Maxim, Modesty Maxim, Agreement Maxim, and Sympathy Maxim.
The collected data of this study were analyzed using qualitative method based on the theory Politeness Maxims proposed by Geoffrey Leech (1983). It was used as main the theory and supported by other theories by Dell Hymes (1974)
The data that apply the maxims expressions were collected after constructing the concept and theory. In “Eat Pray Love” movie, every setting has many conversations
spoken by the characters. The use of the types of Politeness Maxims in every setting also has differences. It depends on each character when creating communications between each other. The different settings in this film are Italy, India and Indonesia (Bali); they give several different conversations because each character in the film is different in each place. Italy is a unique country which is famous for its wide range of foods, India is also one of the famous countries in the world as a spiritual place and Bali (Indonesia) is still well-known as a romantic place. These settings have different characteristics that influence the use of politeness maxims. The final data of the types of six maxims stated by Geoffrey Leech in “Eat Pray Love” movie are illustrated with the analysis as follows:
Italy is one of the three settings used in “Eat Pray Love” movie. There are four types of Politeness Maxims found in this setting but there are two types which were analyzed in this part.
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a. LIZ: No it’s me, I’m so sorry.
GIOVANNI: Do not apologize for crying, Liz. Without this emotion, we are only robots.
LIZ: I just…I…
GIOVANNI: Parla come magni. Speak the way you eat. You know, like food. Just lay it on the table. It’s the Italian way.
This conversation takes place in Italy between Liz and Giovanni. This utterance applied the Tact Maxim very well. Tact maxim states ‘Minimize the expression of beliefs which imply cost to other; maximize the expression of beliefs which imply benefit to other.’ Giovanni as hearer says ‘Do not apologize for crying, Liz’ to Liz who feels guilty because she realized her mistake when she divorced her husband, Stephen. In this case, Giovanni tries to convince Liz if she was innocent and he says in a polite way because in this utterance he tries to give positive support to Liz and the utterance Do not apologize for crying, Liz’ is more polite than “Don’t crying’ for instance. This utterance is related to the influence of the etiquette of the first speaker which gives benefit to second speaker. Based
on Miller and Smith (2008), they argue if the behavior of someone is related to his etiquette and norms which give influence to be polite or impolite. The good etiquette of the first speaker makes the second speaker pay attention to her. Although at this moment they don’t have close relationship but Giovanni still pay attention to how to speak more politely to someone who is in a big problem. He is considering the use of Tact maxim by using a very high indirect polite sentence to Liz.
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b. GIOVANNI: Liz Gilbert, you are a Roman Woman now!
LIZ: Only honorary. That’s a Roman woman!
(Liz indicates a real Roman woman in next table)
This conversation takes place in Italy between Giovanni and Liz. In this expression, ‘Only honorary. That’s a Roman woman!’ expresses the Modesty Maxim that ‘minimize praise of self, maximize dispraise of self’. This expression shows the good etiquette of someone when giving praise to others. Based on Miller and Smith (2008), they argue that human interaction etiquette is between human performance and cultural phenomenon. In this case, the performance of Liz gives a positive thinking to Giovanni so he expresses his praise as the form of his thought of Liz. The utterance ‘Only honorary’ is very polite because Liz utters it to someone next to their table in the same level with them whereas this utterance is usually expressed by someone to high class person. Actually, Giovanni expresses the praise to Liz but she shows up about herself. Giovanni wants to express about his astonishment to Liz about her ability to speak Italian very well. But Liz realizes that she is only an ordinary woman not a perfect woman like Roman woman.
India is one of the three settings used in “Eat Pray Love” movie. There are three types of Politeness Maxims found in this setting but there are two types analyzed in this part.
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a. RICHARD: Yeah, Groceries. Because I’ve never seen anyone eat so much at on time.
LIZ: You know, it’s been a rough day and I hope no one takes it personally if I more over there and finish my disguiting large meal in silence.
TULSI: No. stay! I’m done.
This conversation takes place in India between Richard and Liz. Actually, the expression ‘No, stay! I’m done.’ is a simple utterance in which there is no politeness expression directly. But it is called a politeness expression because there is an implied meaning in this utterance. In this situation, Tulsi is offering her seat in front of Liz to Richard who wants to sit for their breakfast although when Richard comes, it makes Liz feels uncomfortable. It means Tulsi followed the rule of culture as the factors of her using of politeness expression because she is a young girl, she offers her seat to a person who is older than herself. Tulsi also says this utterance in a slow tone. Tulsi tries to apply the Generosity Maxim which says minimize benefit to self, maximize cost to self. She has no benefit, while maximizing the cost herself. She follows Generosity Maxim very well.
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b. RICHARD: You’re a bit of a road block, sister.
LIZ: I can’t believe I fell asleep
RICHARD: Yeah, Pity you’re the only person in the history of the world who ever fell asleep during meditation.
This conversation takes place in India between Liz and Richard. Yeah, Pity you’re the only person in the history of the world who ever fell asleep during meditation, this expression shows sympathy to Liz. She fells asleep when she has meditation and Richard realizes it. It is one of the embarrasing things for Liz because when all of people have meditation seriously, she fells asleep so she can not enjoy the meditation. Actually, Richard feels dissapointed with Liz because she does not do the meditation well, but he utters the utterance using the factors of etiquette which, in this case, he expresses utterances in a polite way as a friend who cares about Liz. In this situation, Richard utters the Sympathy Maxim very well.
Bali is one of the three settings used in “Eat Pray Love” movie. There are five types of Politeness Maxims found in this setting but there are only two types analyzed in this part.
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a. KETUT: So long ago we meet! Last time you have too much worry too much sorrow. Last time, you look like sad old woman. Now you like young girl. Last time you ugly! Now you pretty! Why you so different?
LIZ: Well, I spent a wonderful four months in Rome, just enjoying myself. And then I went to an Ashram in India, where I began a more serious spiritual life. KETUT: Now we put together.
LIZ: Exactly, that’s why I’m here.
This conversation takes place in Bali between Ketut and Liz. ‘Last time, you look like sad old woman. Now you like young girl. Last time you ugly! Now you pretty!’ is an utterance that expresses praise to Liz. This expression is said by Ketut who meets her again after many years. The expression shows not only praise but also an admiration that makes Ketut surprised when he sees Liz again. This utterance really maximizes the praise, while there is no dispraise sense in the expression. In this conversation, the setting is located in Bali which is famous for its friendly people. It is proved by Ketut who is a Balinese and expresses his admiration in a good way and it is influenced by culture in Bali. He tries to make Liz feel comfortable when they meet so he utters polite expression to Liz. He applies Approbation Maxim very nice in this conversation.
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b. LIZ: Well, I spent a wonderful four months in Rome, just enjoying myself. And then I went to Ashram in India, where I began a more serious spiritual life. KETUT: Now we put together.
LIZ: Exactly, that’s why I’m here.
This conversation takes place in Bali between Liz and Ketut. Actually, the expression ‘Exactly, that’s why I’m here’ is not an expression to say about an agreement but in this case Liz says if she agrees with Ketut when he says if they have similarity. The agreement maxim runs as follows ‘Minimize the expression
of disagreement between self and other; maximize the expression of agreement between self and other.’ It is in line with Brown and Levinson’s positive politeness strategies of ‘seek agreement’ and ‘avoid disagreement’ to which they attach great importance. When someone tries to appreciate other people in a good way, all of the utterances will sound more polite like what Liz’s response. It depends on the etiquette and behavior of someone. (Miller&Smith, 2008).
According to the analysis in Chapter III in this paper, it can be concluded that there are six maxims found in “Eat Pray Love” movie. They are Tact Maxim, Generosity Maxim, Approbation Maxim, Modesty Maxim, Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim. The sympathy Maxim is the maxim mostly applied in this movie. The setting also influences the use of Politeness Maxims. Based on three different settings in this movie (Italy, India, Bali), Bali (Indonesia) is the setting in which the characters use Politeness Maxims most frequently. There are five Politeness Maxims found in Bali, they are Tact, Generosity, Approbation, Agreement and Sympathy Maxims. These Politeness Maxims are influenced by some factors. There are three factors that can influence the use of Politeness Maxims, they are; etiquette, culture and directive compliance. In Bali, culture is the most factors of the use of Politeness Maxims.
Brown & Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Gilbert, Elizabeth. 2010. Eat Pray Love. New York: Penguin Group
Hymes, Dell. 1974. “Foundations of Sociolinguistics: An Etnographic Approach”. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P.
Leech, Geoffrey. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London & New York: Longman Miller,A & Smith,K. 2008. Culture, Politeness and Directive Compliance:
Does Saying “Please” Make a Difference? . Article. USA: SAF/PAX
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