digilib.uns.ac.id 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Research Background People are naturally given the attitude to express their feeling and emotion. The expression is always influenced by the condition and it needs stimuli to make it happen. One of the stimuli can emerge from funny things which affect humorous condition. Sometimes visual and audio effect can cause people to laugh or smile. Apte explains that in any case, the researcher recognizes the intimate connection between humor and laughter; the two seem to have a cause effect or a stimulus response relationship in many social situations. Not every instance laughter, however, results from humor, nor does every humorous event necessary produce laughter (1985:239). Definition of humor based on Collins English Dictionary (1994:757) says that Humour or humor is the quality of being funny or the ability to appreciate things, situations, or people that are comic. Thus, we can conclude that humor is an effort to make situation become laughter as it is a means to entertain. For many long times, scientists are not able to explain exactly what humor is. Based on the reality, Ritchie (2004:1) regards that humor as universal phenomenon for it emerges in every area and culture around the world, covering all aspects of human life, relationship and communications. As phenomenon, humor holds a significant role in human life. It is not highly valued in interaction between people, but humor also gives contribution for human being that is to entertain, to educate in 1
digilib.uns.ac.id 2 purpose to increase their life quality as well (Wijana, 2004:3). Thus, besides as a means to entertain, humor begins to broaden its function as means to educate society so that they are able to increase their life quality as well. Ritchie distinguishes two types of humor, the first is referential humor and the second one is verbal humor. The verbal humor is humor that is more expressed by means of a linguistic system while referential (also known as situational) humor is humor whose amusing substance is in what the joke says, such as the events described, the characters and the situations, rather than the details of the language used (2004:13). Thus, situational humor can be affected by event described, the characters and the situations as it will make the humor become more interesting in which the amusing substance leads humor to the multidimension comic situation. In addition, the content of humor can be in our daily life and has become a central part of human culture worldwide. Recently the object of humor has spread around our society. It can be found from the presence of novel, story, advertisement and magazine, even the film has become media in recognizing the humor as entertainment and education aspect of human life. The development of humor movie reaches top rank of audiences. The amusing action can make audience more interested when they look for alternative for entertainment. As an example of situational humor, the movie Hitch has become central part of humor movie around the world. The movie is directed by Andy Tennant and takes the plotting in the U.S. The movie tells about Alex Hitchen. He is a successful relationship consultant in New York and coaches his clients about the
digilib.uns.ac.id 3 art of wooing their lovely woman. The story begins Hitch (Will Smith) trains Albert Brennaman (Kevin James) who falls in love with a famous celebrity Allegra Cole (Amber Valletta). Then Hitch also feels something special with a gossip columnist named Sara Melas (Eva Mendes). Finally, Hitch and Albert Brennaman pursuit their love and make sure that their love is pure. There are some reasons when I choose Hitch as the source of data. The first reason is because the conversations of movie represent the common dialogue in U.S. The second reason because the movie is classified as humor and it is very interesting to be observed as it has implied meaning in dialogue. Thus, I decide to conduct a research entitled: The Floutings of Cooperative Principle Maxims in the Humor Movie Entitled Hitch (A Pragmatics Approach). B. Problem Statement Based on the research background, the problem statements are proposed as follows: 1. How do the speakers flout the Cooperative Principles (CP)? 2. In what situation do the speakers flout the Cooperative Principles (CP)? 3. What is the intention of the speakers in flouting the maxims? C. Scope of Research This research focuses on Grice s cooperative principles especially flouting of maxim in the film entitled Hitch directed by Andy Tenant. The problem is limited on the conversations performed by the speakers when they flout the
digilib.uns.ac.id 4 cooperative maxim. The dialogue of humor conversations will be dominantly employed to signify the usage of flouting maxim. D. Research Objectives The research is conducted to answer the problems explained previously in research problem, i.e.: 1. To describe the strategies of flouting the maxims used by the speakers in the film entitled Hitch. 2. To find out the situation when the maxims are flouted in conversation. 3. To explain the intention of the speaker in flouting the maxims in their utterance in the film entitled Hitch. E. Research Benefits This research is expected give benefits as follows: 1. English Department Students The research will contribute to English Department students who are interested in Pragmatics. The analysis of the research is expected to give more understanding for the student that humor activity can be the interesting object when it results many floutings of Cooperative Principle. 2. Other Researcher The research will give more references when other researchers just know the application of flouting the maxims in daily conversations. The flouted maxim s research of humor movie can stimulate them.
digilib.uns.ac.id 5 3. The Public The research is expected to make the public awareness with flouted maxims in conversation, especially in humor activities so they understand the conversation in humor activities. F. Research Methodology This research uses a descriptive qualitative research. It covers several steps such as collecting the data, analyzing the data, interpreting the data and drawing the conclusion. Moleong explains more that the research of descriptive qualitative itself is a research intended to comprehend the phenomenon of what is experienced by the research subject, for instance the behavior, perception, motivation, action, etc (2012:6). Bodgan & Taylor in Moleong say that the type of research uses the qualitative method as the research procedure resulting descriptive data; those are the expressed and implied meaning from the people and their behavior (2012:4). G. Thesis Organization The thesis is systematically organized by some chapters and items which are arranged as follows: Chapter I : INTRODUCTION contains Research Background, Problem Statement, Scope of Research, Research Objectives, Research Benefit, Research Methodology, and Thesis Organization.
digilib.uns.ac.id 6 Chapter II : LITERATURE REVIEW contains Pragmatics, Cooperative Principles, The Four Conversational Maxims, The Flouting of Maxims, Conversational Implicature, Context, Review of Related Study, Synopsis of the Film, and the Characters in the Film. Chapter III : METHODOLOGY contains Research Methodology, Data and Source of Data, Technique of Collecting Data, Technique of Coding Data, and Technique of Analyzing Data. Chapter IV : ANALYSIS and DISCUSSION contains Introduction, Data Analysis, and Discussion. Chapter V : CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION