ISSN: 2808-8336

Vol.01, No.02: April 2022, pp-140-149.

STILISTIKA

Journal of Indonesian Language and Literature

STYLISTIC FEATURES: CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE OF THE POEM JABBERWOCKY BY LEWIS CARROLL

Ni Kadek Dwi Rahayu

Udayana University

Email: [email protected]

doi: https://doi.org/10.24843/STIL.2022.v01.i02.p11

Article submitted: 18 Februari 2022; Accepted: 18 Maret 2022

STYLISTIC FEATURES: CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE OF THE POEM JABBERWOCKY BY LEWIS CARROLL

Abstract. The present study aimed to analyze the stylistic features especially conversational implicature of the poem “Jabberwocky” written by Lewis Carroll. Implicature theory was the cooperative principle by Grice to use to analyze. Two reasons support to use of this theory. First, the poem was taken from the novel entitled Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. Second, the implied conversation between the characters was found in this poem. The method used was Documentation method with note-taking and highlighting technique.This study analyses the violating maxims only. The results were all maxims are violated. Then, Maxim of Quality was mostly violated in this poem.

Keywords: conversational implicature; literary pragmatics; pragmatics; stylistic.

INTRODUCTION

Poetry is short work compared to other literary works; drama and prose (novel) because it is built with creative and imaginative words and phrases. The study is commonly used to investigate the poetry itself is a study of stylistic features. Stylistics is the science of using language and style in literature. Stylistics is very important for a literary work, including poetry because poetry is never separated from the use of beautiful language styles. The usage of stylistics in a literary work is referred to as literary stylistics or poetic stylistics. They are phonology, semantic, pragmatic, graphological, lexical, syntactic (Simpson, 2004). Phonology and semantics are discussed more often because both of them are easy to find in a literary work; poetry. However, the pragmatic aspect tends to be slightly examined in recent studies. They are implicature and speech acts.

The literary work by Lewis Carroll entitled “Jabberwocky” raises implied conversation in it. This poem is taken from a novel as well entitled Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1871) uses a ballad poetry style; sad poetry with a cultural core, which tells about human life, through thoughts and feelings (Manis, 2018). Judging from the type of style of this poetry, it is important to have

the meaning of poetry according to the context. This research investigates aspects of meaning involved in the interaction between the context of the expression of the poem and the interpretation itself.

According to Grice (1967 in Igwedibia, 2017: 121), when implying an utterance, one must be able to go beyond what is said therefore the non-linguistic features play a role, namely social and cultural. In addition, the implicature provides some explicit explanation of how it might mean more than what is said. Then, this implicature theory can be analyzed using the cooperative principle by Grice; the norm that governs all cooperative interactions between humans and consists of four conversational maxims. This paper aims at identifying Grice’s maxims in this poem and analyzing violated maxims that emerge in the poem entitled ”Jabberwocky”.

To make this study was different from another study, here, it explained an international journal article in detail. The article entitled “Grice’s Conversational Implicature: A Pragmatics Analysis of Selected Poems of Audre Lord” was written by Igwedibia (2017) aimed to discover the extent to which these maxims could be applied to the reading of the selected poems of Lorde. It also seeks to ascertain the degree to which Lorde's selected poems violate or adhere to these maxims. The theory used was Grice’s conversational implicature (Cooperative Principles) consist of four maxims; Quantity, Quality, Manner and Relation. The author used documentation method and analytic survey as an analysis data. This study showed that two poems as a sample violate as well adhere to the maxims.

The strength of this study was the theory used, since the newest research in which discussed pragmatic in the poem used. It could be seen from the gap in the literature review in which there were no studies discussing pragmatic analysis in the poem of Audre Lorde. The weakness was the research object used Audre Lorde’s poem. Audre Lorde’s poem was a sense poem that was very easy to find out using pragmatic analysis. However, the current study used a non-sense poem by Lewis Carroll in which arise words and phrases should be discussed in deep analysis. Even, the current study discussed the Literary Pragmatics that needed to find out the literal meaning. The current object research had not found out yet about Literary Pragmatic. Therefore, it was different from this study and others studies. This study is relevant to discuss since the theory used was the same applied in the current study and method of collecting data that was Documentation Method.

Pragmatics

Pragmatics is one of the scopes contained at the linguistic level. This theory studies how the meaning of speech is semantically related to its context. External factors to be able to understand this context are the place, who is being spoken to, and most importantly the prevailing norms which are considered in this paper. According to Levinson (1983 in Al-Saedi, 2005: 15), language and context are the basis of language understanding.

Above has been discussed about pragmatics as the grand theory of this paper. Then move on to how to relate pragmatics to literary work. When we see the underlying pragmatics are used in real life through conversations of both parties (speaker and listener). Pragmatics in literary work, there will be no visible conversation between the speaker and the listener because it is in the form of the text so that what is seen in literary work is only the language user, namely the author and reader. The pragmatic aspect concerns two parties in conversation in a literary work. Although the message in literary work cannot be conveyed directly from the author to the reader because there is no response from the reader, the appropriate term to use is to transfer the message from the implied author to an implied reader (Leech & Short, 2007 in Al-Saedi, 2005: 18). Implied readers can share presupposition and inference on literary works of a language, while implicit writers communicate messages regardless of situational context directly to non-speaking recipients (Leech & Short, 2007: 209 in Al-Saedi, 2005: 19).

Conversational Implicature

There is an influential theory for understanding the implied meaning of a sentence, namely the theory by Grice (1967 in Igwedibia, 2017: 121). Conversational implicatures provide some explicit explanation of how the meaning of a word can mean more than what is said. Then, Grice continued his theory of implicature called the cooperative principle; norms that govern all interactions between humans and consist of four conversational maxims. However, in this paper, we will focus on maxims that are violated in the poem entitled “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll. The following meaning of maxims is violated: (1) Violating the maxim of Quality: This maxim can be flouted for different purposes; irony, metaphor, understatement (meiosis), overstatement (hyperbole) or rhetorical questions. (2) Violating the maxim of Quantity: it means that the conversation can be either less or more informative. (3) Violating the Relation maxim: This maxim can be flouted to change a subject and the conversation cannot be continued. (4) Violating the Manner

maxim: the communicators try to exploit the maxim by being not brief, orderly, ambiguity.

Illocutionary Act

Illocutionary act is a acts which perfomed intended meaning behind the utterances (Austin, 1962 in Rahayu, et.al., 2018: 177). This theory used in order to know the contextual meaning was exist in the poem. Since this poem was nonsensical genre, it means that to comprehend the intended meaning behind, it has to comprehend the contextual meaning inside. By comprehend the contextual meaning, this illucotinary act can added in the analysis. There were five categories of the Illucotionary Act by Yule (1996 in Rahayu, et.al, 2018: 177-178) such as Representatives, Directives, Commissives, Declaratives, Expressives.

Representatives means that the speaker believe about something the truth or not. In performing this type, it can be used by some performative verbs, such as: state, tell, assert, correct, predict, report, remind, described, inform, assure, agree, guess, claim, believe, conclude. Directives is a types of illocutionary act that is done by the speaker to get the hearer to do something. They express about what they want directly to the hearer. It is commonly appear with some performative verbs such as: requesting, demanding, questioning,asking, proposing, advising, suggesting, interrogating, urging, encouraging, inviting, begging, ordering. Commissives is a types of illucotionary act that speaker do something for the future. In performing this type of illocutionary act, commonly using performative verbs such as: ask, order, command, request, beg, plead, pray, entreat, invite, permit, advise, dare, defy, and challenge. In the case of commissives, the world is adapted to the words via the speaker him or herself. Declaratives is a types of illucotionary act that change the world via their utterances. As the example below, the speaker has to have special institutional role, in a specific context such as to pronounce, declare, baptize and sentence. The words that can be indicated into this type are curse, announce, declare, define, appoint, call, bless, nominate, and authorized. Expressives is a kind of illocutionary act that state what the speaker feels. They express psychological states and can be statements of pleasure, pain, likes, dislikes, joy or sorrow, surprise, apologize, thank. In using an expressives, the speaker makes words fit the world (of feeling). In performing an expressive, it can be noted with some performative verbs: greet, surprise, like, fear, apology, thank, regret, and praise.

The method used in collecting the data was Documentation method. The key to collect the data in qualitative research is the way to observe the data source’s information and review it into manuscript and proposal production (Creswell, 2009:

137). Meanwhile, the note-taking and highlighting technique are used as it obtains explanations and comparisons that are convenient to the source of information.

Concerning the technique, Creswell (2009: 272) defines the documentation method as a means to observe public documents or private documents as written evidence of the research. There are several steps in collecting the data as follows: 1) Download the poems from google. 2) Read the poems repeatedly. 3) Highlight the special meaning and conversational implicature that represents violate maxim issues. 4) Observe the types of Grice’s maxim related to poetical expression in the poetry along with analyzing the socio-cultural and historical perspective related to the meaning of its lines. 5) Compare the meaning of and other information related to the data such as articles and books.

In analyzing data, this study used interpretative form of qualitative research. It means that this study in which gather the data and analyse it with interpretation. Therefore, the descriptive-analysis technique defined as an elaboration of such informational text and images used to analyze the data. There were four steps in analyzing the data as followed:

Classify four maxims and its meaning related to the types maxims in the poems used. 2) Eliminate the line of the poetry that has the same interpretation. 3) Interpret the meaning of each maxims used in the poetry. In presenting the data was use informal technique. Informal technique means it was wriiten into descriptions and various potential evidence presented in the form of words.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The poem of Jabberwocky is considered to be the most popular non-sense poem in the English language. The poet uses many non-sense words that do not exist in human life. However, that non-sense words can be understood by looking at the context since this poem was taken from the novel. It consists of seven stanzas with each consisting of four lines. Stanza one, line 1-2 :

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

In these two lines, the poet uses a strange and nonsensical word. He described the scene as ‘brillig’ that means four o’clock in the afternoon added with phrases ‘the slithy toves’. ‘Slithy’ is taken from blending words slime and lithe means slippery as an adjective. The ‘toves’ can be kind of fiction plant or a creature like a lizard,

badger, crockscrew that is defined in Trough the Looking Glass. The words ‘toves’ has a similar sound to ‘grove’ such as a grove of trees might be. Then, the next line does gyre and gimble means do motion and play. ‘in the wabe’ it derived from the verb to 'swab' or 'soak', "the side of a hill" (from its being soaked by the rain) or the grassplot round a sun-dial. The utterance “Twas brillig, and the slithy toves” above belongs to representatives (describing). It was represent a situation in the poem where there were fiction plant or creatures which play in the side of a hill (for fiction plant and creatures) or it can be a grove of trees in which moving around in the afternoon. Therefore, those lines violate the maxim of manner since arises ambiguity of the phrase of ‘the slithy toves’ and ‘in the wabe’.

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe

The phrases ‘all mimsy’ and ‘the borogoves are not clearly defined. ‘mimsy’ is derived from flimsy and miserable and ‘borogoves’ it could be meant as a kind of plant or a creature. Then, ‘the mome’ has two meanings. The first meaning could be stupid creature because ‘raths’ is like a turtle, however, it could be the home of raths. Those utterances were still belongs to representatives (describing). It still described the situation at that time in the poem where decribed other fiction plants or creatures were exist. There were miserable fiction plant or creature and a turtle who was like a fussy pig that whistle or sneeze. Therefore, in the first stanza it still described about the circumstances happened in the poem. Look at this, lines 3-4 are violating maxim of manner because arises many ambiguities as well.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

For the second stanza, it appeared to violate the maxim of relation. It could be seen from the last line in the first stanza that the poet still described the scene of the poem, however, in the fifth line, the poet jumped into the conversation of the father to his son that there was no reason was told before so as make the father said to beware of the Jabberwock to his son. In the second stanza, the actors arose in the poem. The utterances above belongs to declaratives since the father declared warning to his son towards the creatures named “Jabberwock”. It could be seen in

the first line of the second stanza “Beware the Jabberwock, my son!”. Meanwhile, the father described the appearance of the Jabberwock.

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"

For the second, the phrases ‘beware the Jubjub bird’ and ‘Bandersnatch’. The poet did not clearly define these creatures. It was less information on whether this kind of bird was Jabberwock who has a lot of names and the poet did repetition here because in the second stanza there was an urgent message from the father to his son warning about the dangerous creature ‘Jabberwocky’ or it told that another creature exists. Those utterances belongs to declaratives (announce) since the father continued his utterances by saying another creatures might be or Jabberwock it self. This phrase was violating the maxim of quantity.

And, as in uffish thought he stood, (13)

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, (14)

Line 14 is violating the maxim of quality because arises from figurative language; hyperbole. ‘with eyes of flame,’ it can be seen that the poet creates overstatement to describe the Jabberwocky because there were no strong eyes in any creature that can survive with the fire in it. Perhaps, ‘flame’ indicates the nature of the creature and its inherent danger. The symbol of fire make the Jabberwock seem evil and as something that should be fought back against. Therefore, the poet told overstatement of description about evil. In this fourth stanza of the line 13 and 14 belongs to representatives (stating a fact) since the poet told about the son in a war with the Jabberwocky. Here, the son thought a strategy to kill the Jabberwocky by standing a while. It can be seen from the third stanza in which the son rested by the Tumtum tree and thought.

One, two! One, two! And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! (18)

Line 18 is violating the maxim of quality as well since arose a metaphor from the word “the vorpal blade went snicker-snack!”. Here, ‘went’ means fast-forward to kill the Jabberwock. It could be seen from the phrase ‘snicker-snack that was a sound of

cutting something from the sharp sword which about the Jabberwock’s body. This utterance above (Line 18) belongs to declaratives (declare) since the poet declare the situation between the son and the Jabberwocky in a war. It represents by the sentences “One, Two! One, Two! And through and through” that is the sound of the motion of the war.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

The seventh stanza is a reiteration of the first. However, it is violating the maxim of quality. Since the last stanza is an understatement (not too important) to put in this poem entitled “Jabberwocky”. The reason is that a son already killed the Jabberwock. The head of Jabberwock that brought by a son to home which indicates that he win to attack the Jabberwock. Therefore, the poem is a happy ending. Thus, it does not need again to reiterate the first stanza.

CONCLUSION

The analysis of the poem showed implicature in every array of the lines. Even though this poem was in the form of written text or it did not have conversation visibly, but actually, the message of this nonsensical poem which was delivered to the readers was consists of an implied conversation. Therefore, it was interesting to be discussed using conversational implicature in which sometimes a poem could not be analysed by using this theory. The cooperative principle by Grice (1967) was all violated.

Here, the violation that occurs in the poem: (1) maxim of Quality shown arises in the second stanza, lines 14, 18, and the seventh stanza, all lines of the poem, (2) maxim of Quantity showed arises in the second stanza, lines 3-4, (3) Then, the maxim of Relation arises in the second stanza, lines 1-2, (4) And the last is the maxim of Manner that can be seen in the first stanza, all lines.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Praise God Almighty, Ida Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa for the blessing, grace and mercy so that I can complete this undergraduate thesis entitled “Stylistic Features: Conversational Implicature of the Poem “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll”. This

article is submitted as the final requirement in accomplishing an undergraduate degree at English Department, Faculty of Arts Udayana University.

In this valuable chance, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to all of them. First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to My Lecturer, Ni Made Ayu Widiastuti, S.S., M. Hum. for all knowledge, advice, time, and guidance which help me completing this undergraduate thesis. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to My Mother Ni Ketut Suarni for the supporting me as always. Finally, I would like to thank you for my father, I Nyoman Sudana, and also my older brother and little sister, I Putu Agus Nove Pratama and Ni Komang Anik Sagita for accompanying and entertaining me in the process of writing this undergraduate thesis.

This undergraduate thesis is far from perfect; however, it is expected to be useful not only for the author but also for all readers. For this reason, thoughtful suggestion and critics are welcomed.

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PROFIL PENULIS

Ni Kadek Dwi Rahayu is a student of the English Literature study program, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Udayana University who takes a concentration in literature.

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