THESIS A STUDY ON THE FLOUTING OF MAXIMS USED IN THE NOVEL “THE SUN ALSO RISES” BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VI PHẠM CÁC PHƯƠNG CHÂM HỘI THOẠI TRONG TIỂU THUYẾT “MẶT TRỜI VẪN
Trang 1MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
M.A THESIS
A STUDY ON THE FLOUTING OF MAXIMS
USED IN THE NOVEL “THE SUN ALSO RISES”
BY ERNEST HEMINGWAY
(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VI PHẠM CÁC PHƯƠNG CHÂM HỘI THOẠI TRONG
TIỂU THUYẾT “MẶT TRỜI VẪN MỌC” CỦA NHÀ VĂN ERNEST
HEMINGWAY)
NGUYỄN THANH HUYỀN
Field: English Language
Code: 60220201
Supervisor: DO KIM PHUONG PhD
Hanoi, 2016
Trang 3i
CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled: “A study on the flouting of maxims used in the novel “The sun
also rises” by Ernest Hemingway” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis
Hanoi, 2016
Nguyen Thanh Huyen
Approved by SUPERVISOR
DO KIM PHUONG PhD Date: October, 2016
Trang 4A special word of thanks goes to all my lecturers at Hanoi Open University, without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my husband for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work
Nguyen Thanh Huyen
Trang 5iii
ABSTRACT
This study is made to analyze the flouting maxims used in the novel “The
sun also rises” by Ernest Hemingway The research problems of the study
are the flouting of maxims The study is further elaborated into: the flouting
of quality maxim, the flouting of quantity maxim, the flouting of relevance/ relation maxim, the flouting of manner maxim The study is expected to be beneficial to the world of literature In addition, the author hopes the result
of the study will give additional information to the readers and can contribute to the development of literary study particularly among students who are interested in the literary study It is a qualitative study focusing on the flouting of maxims of the novel Firstly, the data were gathered by picking up the utterances within conversation which reveals the flouting of maxims Secondly, the author started to analyze the data in conducting the analysis, the author used Grice’s classification which divides the maxims into four categories, namely quality maxim, quantity maxim, relevance/relation maxim, and manner maxim Finally, the author classified the data into each category where they belong to and gave a little comment
on the case As a result, the author found how the maxims were flouted and then drew the inferences dealing with the case From the results, it was known that the flouting of maxims occur in all kinds of Grice’s maxims with
no exception, and it is done in various ways
Trang 7TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents
1.6 Structural organization of the research 6
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Trang 8
Chapter 5: CONCLUSION
Trang 91
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale
Conversation is very important in communication In daily communication, various style of conversation occurs and is used for many purposes It is used for socializing, expressing feeling, sharing knowledge and ideas, maintaining good relationships with others, and others related to human interactions in life Levinson (1983:284) defined conversation as the familiar kind of talk in which two or more participants freely alternate in speaking, which generally occur outside specific institutional settings like religious services, law courts, classrooms, and the like In understanding the messages conveyed in the daily conversation, it is needed that we learn and study about one of an idea in pragmatics which called conversational implicature Levinson (1983:101) described conversational implicatures as
“a non-conventional implicature based on an addressee’s assumption that the speaker is following the conversational maxims or at least the cooperative principle”
In producing a good conversation, participants need to understand each others’ meaning of the utterance That is why the participants tend to follow the cooperative principle and the conversational maxim by giving enough, true, related, and arranged utterance which is assumed as explicit information On the other hand, conversational implicature tends to flout the conversational maxim Grice (1975) categorized the cooperative principle of conversation and elaborates it in four sub-principles: (1) maxim of quantity, (2) maxim of quality, (3) maxim of relation, and (4)
Trang 102
maxim of manner Yule (1996: 37) says that it is important to recognize these maxims as unstated assumptions we have in conversation Efforts to understand the meaning assumed from the flouted conversational maxim
in the conversation implicature has been doing by many participants of conversation When people have conversation, there is a risk that one could misunderstand the others Thus, Grice (1975), proposes a principle called “Cooperative Principle” in conversation This principle has to be followed so that people could have a smooth conversation To fulfill this principle, Grice states four maxims to be followed However, from some investigations, the flouting of maxims could create humorous effects in certain situation such as novels
In a novel, many utterances have different meanings Furthermore, as novel’s lovers, we might to know what the conversational purpose is Conversation in the novel does not always follow Grice’s principle including conversational maxims In a conversation, utterances or sentences that flouted maxims can be found Understanding the meaning
of a conversation is needed by a viewer in order to avoid
misunderstanding In Ernest Hemingway’s The sun also rises the flouting maxims also happen The sun also rises has many utterances or
sentences that flouted maxims The case of flouting maxims in the novel
is represented by the data, which are classified into four categories The data collected show that the flouting of those maxims occurs in all kinds
of Grice’s maxims with no exception The following example is taken in
“The Sun Also Rises” (Page 5)
Jake: Don’t you like Paris?
Trang 113
Georgette: No
Jake: Why don’t you go somewhere else?
Georgette: Isn’t anywhere else
Georgette flouts the maxim of quality by uttering thing, which is untrue, namely that there is nowhere else but Paris Of course, it is blatantly false for in fact there are so many other places in the world besides Paris Jake must assume that Georgette is being cooperative In order to preserve the assumption of cooperation, Jake then, will have to infer a particular reason (for example, she cannot go to other places) why she makes an apparently untrue remark The implicature in above is essentially that there is something, which has been forcing her to stay in Paris She has no choice
at all about where she can live in accordance with her wants She has to stay there no matter what Although she is eager to move to any other places, she cannot do it anyway
This phenomenon is quite interesting to be explored It is significant to the development of science on Pragmatics since it can be used as a way of solving problems appearing in dealing with the conversational maxims Considering those statements, in this study the author would like to attempt to analyze such a phenomenon found in a literary work Here I
carry out a research entitled “A study on the flouting of maxims used in
the novel “The sun also rises” by Ernest Hemingway
1.2 Aims of the research
The aims of the study are to analyze the flouting of maxims used by the
characters taken in “The sun also rises” novel written by Ernest
Hemingway Besides, this study also brings the answers from the research
Trang 124
problems of the study In writing this thesis, the author would like to solve the study problem concerning how the maxims are flouted
1.3 Objectives of the research
Based on the above stated aims of the study, the objectives of this study are: (i) To point out the conversational maxims that are flouted in the novel
“The sun also rises” by Ernest Hemingway
(ii) To seek out the hidden meanings behind the flouting maxims used in
the novel “The sun also rises” by Ernest Hemingway
1.4 Scope of the research
This study concerns with discourse analysis The author only analyses the characters’ conversation which contains the flouted maxims in Ernest
Hemingway’s “The sun also rise” In analyzing, Grice’s theory of
conversational maxims is used as the basic theory to analyze the conversations In addition, I want to find out the reasons why the writer used the flouting maxims for answering the research questions
1.5 Significance of the research
This study is expected to give both practical and theoretical contributions in relation to the study of cooperative principle
(i) Theoretical significance
Trang 135
The result of this study is based on the Cooperative Principle and Conversational Implicature theory formulated by Grice It will strengthen Grice’s theory by performing how the assumption of conversational maxims goes on in the conversation and how the maxims are flouted by the speakers to imply what they intentionally mean This also gives more explanation about the flouting maxims used in the novel
“The sun also rises” by Ernest Hemingway generated from the
conversations It helps the description of language aspect that can be discussed through linguistic study, which focuses on the speaker’s intended meaning constructed from their utterances to gain better understanding of communication in daily life
(ii) Practical significance
This study is expected to be useful for Vietnamese learners of English, especially the trainee translators to broaden their understanding about Grice’s theory concerning conversational maxims and flouting of maxims that generates implicatures or hidden meanings They will get
new insight what conversational maxims are flouted in the novel “The
sun also rises” by Ernest Hemingway and the implicatures conveyed
behind the characters’ utterances The trainee translators will also learn how to generate implicature effectively in their communication without irritating the addressee to convey what they really mean in their utterances Moreover, this study provides Vietnamese learners of English with the inspirations as their further study in this field
Trang 146
1.6 Structural organization of the study
The study is organized into 5 chapters as follows:
Chapter I, Introduction presents the rationale, the aims and objectives of the study, the scope of the study, the research questions, the significance
of the study and the organization of the study
Chapter II, Literature review provides the previous studies related to the paper, and some theoretical backgrounds of the study discussing the theories used as the bases of the study
Chapter III, Methodology focuses on presenting research questions, research setting, research approaches, data collection, as well as methods
of analysis
Chapter IV, Analysis and Discussion presents analysis and discussion of the study findings The chapter concerns with the interpreting and drawing inferences of the findings
Chapter V, Conclusion summaries the major findings recorded during the making of the thesis The chapter presents the limitations of the study and provides some suggestions for further research as well
Trang 157
Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
In order to make a better understanding about the study, the author used a particular theory from an expert to come into the analysis and the conclusion Grice’s theory of cooperative principle (1975) has been used
as the basic of the analysis The author collected some theories about the notion of conversation, cooperative principle, conversational implicatures, and the flouting maxims This review is very important as it is used as the basic of the analysis of the study
2.1 Conversation
Living in a society, one always gets along with so many other people around him They, in getting along, need to communicate and to interact with each other One of the ways they have to exchange their ideas is having conversation Therefore, no wonder if human beings spend a large part of their lives engaging in conversation They cannot be separated from making conversation in their daily activities It cannot be denied that in their life, conversation takes a more dominant role than any other way of communication like writing letters, interviews, or speeches, for examples
Conversation itself is one of the forms of oral communication event in which there should be a speaker and at least a listener who are doing talk exchanges It may occur between at least two individual According to Cook (1989:51), the number of participants in conversation is small; talk is primarily for the
Trang 168
participants not for an outside audience; and speaking turns are quite short So, conversation can be clearly described as an activity where, for the most part, two or more people who intend to do social interaction take turns at speaking Typically, only one person speaks at a time It means that when one person speaks, another/the others listens/listen
Conversation is an activity that is governed by a certain set of conversational rules As a result, conversation is not a random activity, but it is an activity that shows orderliness It is not a random succession of unrelated utterances produced alternately by participants On the other hand, it has something in the nature of a general purpose or direction, and the contributions of the participants are intelligibly related both to one another and to the overall aim of the conversation Hence it is not an activity that does not have a goal This communication activity always lasts within a condition bound to goal/mutual end that will be reached by conversationalists When people take part in conversation, they bring to the conversational process shared assumptions and expectations about what conversation is, how conversation develops, and the sort of contribution they are each expected to make From this, we finally arrive
at the conclusion that the goal of conversation is the understanding between speaker and listener about the message the speaker is trying to convey
In connection with achievement of the goal/mutual end in conversation, an unstated assumption underlies conversation The assumption is that, when engaged in conversation, people intend to behave cooperative; they implicitly signal that they agree to cooperate in the joint activity It means that in conducting conversation they share knowledge and expectation about what
Trang 179
conversation is; they share belief that they normally do not try to confuse, trick,
or withhold relevant information from each other and that the speaker will not intend to mislead the listener The speaker, then, thinks and expects the listener
to think what the speaker is thinking, that the listener is able to get the meaning he/she tries to convey Without this underlying assumption, conversation will not be considered worth carrying out for the communicative process will break down to the detriment of everyone “Successful communication, or the successful transfer of meanings, is thus seen as a process by which a state of mutual knowledge of a communicative intention is attained, with help of (intentionally applied) principles of conversation” (Verschueren, 1993:47) The cooperative principle therefore will take an important role in talk exchanges Grice who argued about this assumption formalized it into what he called the cooperative principle
2.2 Cooperative Principles
The cooperative principle, which is mutually understood between interlocutors,
is a basic assumption to govern purposeful and effective communication in conversation Grice, as quoted by Schiffrin (1994:194), proposes the cooperative principles as a general principle that participants will be expected to observe says “make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction
of the talk exchange in which you are engaged” Or, to locate it in other words: act in conversation according to the general principal that you are mutually engaged with your listener in an activity which is of benefit to both of you People engaged in conversation will say something suitable at stage at
Trang 1810
which the conversation occurs Grice has made this cooperative principle somewhat more explicitly by elaborating it into a set of conversational rule called maxims of conversation The function of these maxims is as guidelines about how participant in conversations should behave in conducting conversation So, these maxims illustrate behavior participants carry to conversation; regulate what they say so that it contributes to accepted direction
or mutual end of conversation The details of these maxims are as follows:
2.2.1 Quality Maxim
Under the category of quality, this maxim refers to the importance of making only statements one believes to be true as Grice (1975) expects that the contributions to “be genuine and not spurious.” In short, the speaker is expected to be sincere and tell the truth They are assumed not say anything that they believe to be false or anything for which they lack evidence The reason is that if he/she gets making false statements he/she will lose one of the most important social assets a person can have, credibility
In other words, each participant’s contribution should be truthful and based
on sufficient evidence (Parker, 1994: 23) It simply means that the speaker says only what they believe to be true and that for which they have sufficient evidence Here, obviously there will not be adequate evidence for a false statement This quality maxim can be paraphrase as “Do not make unsupported statements” If not, it would be extremely difficult to maintain conversation with our partner Example:
Niken : London is the capital of French, isn’t it?
John : No, you’re wrong
Trang 1911
As a matter of fact, the capital of French is Paris, not London Thus, John’s answer in clearly conforms to uality maxim because Niken’s statement is wrong It will be different if he says, “Yeah, and Tokyo is the capital of Canada”, for instance Such an answer will completely not conform to quality maxim since he says something, which is totally untrue The capital
of Canada is not Tokyo but Ottawa, while Tokyo is the capital of Japan
2.2.2 Quantity Maxim
The category of quantity relates to the quantity of information to be provided Under this category requires one to “be as informative as required.” This maxim means that the speaker has to include all the information that the hearer requires to understand If the speaker leaves out a crucial piece of information, the hearer will not understand what the speaker is trying to say On the other hand, providing too much information during course of a conversation can be perceived as superfluous and insignificant to the other person According to the second maxim, which requires one to “be brief”, the speaker should avoid unnecessary or redundant information in his contribution
According to this maxim, each participant in conversation has to provide enough information; it should not be less informative or more informative For example:
Anita : Where are you going?
Nathan: I’m going downtown
In the example, sufficient information is given by Nathan, without redundancy His remark is appropriate to quantity maxim The case will be
Trang 2012
different if his remark is, for instance “I’m going downtown to go window shopping” Such a remark is not appropriate to quantity maxim although it is still a sufficient contribution It is because it gives more information than is required – Anita does not ask him about what he is going downtown for
2.2.3 Relation/Relevance Maxim
Under the category of relation, Grice (1975) places a single super maxim namely “be relevant” The demand for relevance simply means that the speaker should only include information in the communication that is relevant to the topic being discussed
“The maxim states that each participant’s contribution should be relevant to the subject of the conversation” (Parker, 1994:23) In other words, people’s contribution engaged in conversation should be relevant to the subject of the conversation itself Example:
Adit : Have you finished your thesis?
Atik : Yes, I have
In the example, it is obvious that the only related contribution to Adit’s question is “yes/no” answer Atik thereby has said something she should do
So, just like the first two examples, this one also conforms to the maxim She will make her remark inappropriate to relevance maxim if she, for instance says thing like “Is the Pope Moslem?” The reason is that such a remark doesn’t have any connection with Adit’s question
2.2.4 Manner Maxim
Trang 2113
The maxim of manner obligates speaker’s utterance to be perspicuous which
is not to be ambiguous, obscure, or disorderly and unnecessary prolixity Therefore, each participant’s contribution should be reasonably direct, that
is, it should not be vague, ambiguous or excessive wordy
In other words, each participant’s contribution should be reasonably direct; that is, it should not be vague, ambiguous, or excessively wordy (Parker, 1994:23) Meanwhile, Cruse (2000: 357) points out that the maxim of manner cautions the speaker to be methodical and to avoid ambiguity, prolixity, and obscurity The first rule of manner maxim enjoins us to avoid use of jargon or other terms our listener cannot be expected to know The second one requires us to avoid saying things that have two or more meanings unless our listeners can be expected to know which meaning is deliberate The third one wants us to avoid unnecessary prolixity As Cruse (2000:357) said that not everybody knows what prolixity means, and the Concise Oxford Dictionary says it means “lengthy, tediously wordy” So, it tells us not to expound at length on a topic when a few words will do The fourth one comes down to saying that we should organize what we say in some intelligible way The orderliness Grice had in mind, as cited by Cruse (2000:357) was recounting events in the order that they occurred Example:
Irphan : What should we have for the kids?
Een : Anything but ice cream
In the example, Een provides a normal contribution in replying to Irphan’s question There is no ambiguity or obscurity in her utterance She also replies in a brief utterance It is thereby appropriate to manner maxim Just compare with if she, for instance says “Anything but I-C-E C-R-E-AM-S”
In this utterance she spells out the word ice cream that would only make her
Trang 22as they can Because these principles are assumed in normal interaction, speakers rarely mention them
After taking a look at Grice’s maxims closely, we can conclude that conversational maxims actually describe rational means for conducting cooperative talk exchanges in conversation In short, as Levinson (1983:102) stated in supporting the above idea, these maxims specify what participants have to do in order to converse in a maximally efficient, rational, cooperative way: they should speak sincerely, relevantly and clearly, while providing sufficient information However, in fact, speakers often flout Grice’s maxims rather than always adhering to them Whenever any of the maxims is flouted, there must be an extra meaning that speakers try to convey beyond what is literally expressed As a result of this flouting
of maxims, conversational implicature, which plays an important part in communication arises
2.3 Conversational implicature
Conversational implicature which was firstly introduced by the philosopher Herbert P Grice is one of the studies of Pragmatics It is a pragmatics implication, a kind of implicative proposition or statement that what is possibly
Trang 2315
meant, implied, or intended by the speaker is different from what is actually said in a conversation So, it tends to deal with the speaker‘s meaning rather than the linguistic meaning of an utterance A conversational implicature, as Mey (1994:103) puts it, is something which is implied in conversation, that is, something which is left implicit in actual language use Meanwhile, Implicature
is generated intentionally by the speaker and may (or may not) be understood
by the hearer (Thomas, 1995:58) Consider the examples below:
The situation: Arya come from school and starts his destructive journey through the biscuit barrel, and his mother asks him
Mother : Why didn’t you eat your school lunch?
Arya : It’s the taste
Arya’s mother must understand what her son actually implies in his words to find out the real meaning of his utterance It is because what he says is more than it appears to mean The implicit meaning (extra meaning) she may infer is that the taste of the food is not good
Yayi’ : When’s Devi’s birthday?
Fery : It’s sometime in June
As we all know, someone’s birthday always include both the date and the month on which he/she was born However, Fery in the example doesn’t give a normal answer He does not mention the date of Devi’s birthday He has something implied in his utterance that his interlocutor must find “Sometime in June” will tell her that the only thing the speaker remembers about Devi’s birthday is the month in which it occurs The extra meaning she may infer is that he does not know whether Devi’s birthday is at the beginning, the middle,
or the end of that month He does not know the date of Devi’s birthday
Trang 2416
Grundy (2000:71) also gave example: One Saturday morning, he went in when the post office had just opened
Post master: It’s a nice morning, isn’t it?
Peter: Not bad
Post master: It will be better at one o’clock
Grundy understood him to mean that he would be happier when the post office had closed, but again, he never explicitly stated this For the present, it is sufficient to notice that the context is very important in determining what someone means by what they say Knowing that the post office closes at one o’clock on a Saturday enables us to understand what is meant by saying “it will
be better at one o’clock” And because its part of their culture to believe that people find it hard to think properly early in the morning
The example above shows us how important context is in helping us to understand utterances In the case of implicature, context helps us to determine what is conveyed implicitly but not explicitly stated by the speaker
After examining the examples closely, we now know what is meant by conversational implicature exactly It is precisely the extra meaning (additional conveyed message) we infer from the speaker’s utterance when he means more than he says Such messages are part of what is communicated indeed, but they are not part of the meaning of the word in the utterance since they are not said They are conveyed indirect and understood implicitly without ever being explicitly stated
It is sufficient to notice that the context is very important in determining what someone means by what they say Given different context, we would have understood that the same utterances will have different meaning
Trang 25Conversational implicature becomes very important in the flouting maxims for
it arises as a result of what happened to the flouting of those maxims
2.4 Flouting maxims
According to Grice’s theory, interlocutors operate on the assumption that as
a rule, the maxims will be observed But when speakers appear not follow the maxims but expect hearers to appreciate the meaning implied Grice was well aware, however, that there are many occasions when people fail to observe the maxims Grice (1975:49) stated that a speaker may flout a maxim when s/he blatantly fail to fulfil it, not with any intention of deceiving or misleading, but because the speaker wishes to prompt the addressee to look for a meaning which is different from, or in addition to, the expressed meaning He called this additional meaning as “conversational implicature.”
Thomas (1995:64) stated that a flout occurs when a speaker blatantly fails to observe a maxim at the level of what is said, with the deliberate intention of
Trang 2618
generating an implicature He also stated that most of Grice’s own example
of flouts involves this sort of “exploitation”
Grice (1975:49) stated that when s/he blatantly fail to fulfil a maxim, this situation is one, that characteristically gives rise to a conversational implicature; and when a conversational implicature is generated, it meant that a maxim is being exploited
The most interesting thing about Grice’s conversational maxims is that there are several ways in dealing with them Grice suggests the following ways in which a participant in conversation may fail to fulfill the maxims as mentioned below:
(1) Speakers can straight forwardly follow the maxim; that is, they can speak the truth, while giving just enough relevant information in a clear, unambiguous, sufficient, and orderly manner
(2) Someone may violate a maxim He will be considered to have violated the maxims when he infringes the maxim quietly and unostentatiously He disobeys the maxim but he is not doing it so purposefully and/or with the intention that the listener recognizes that a maxim is being disobeyed Therefore, he may in fact mislead
Example:
Trang 2719
S : We need someone to make some sort of fruit salad for the picnic
K : I can make my family’s favourite fruit salad
(Grice, 1975:50)
K unostentatiously infringes the maxim of quality She could legitimately say what was said was based on the fact that she had watched it being made many times and thought she knew all that was needed to be known to make it Suppose K was to make the salad and it were to come out very badly If so, what she said would have been very misleading by telling a lie It is because in fact S would likely draw the inference that K has actually made this fruit salad before, for the very best evidence that K can make this salad is that she has actually made it
(3) Speakers can opt out of a maxim It occurs when one has the required information to contribute, but has an obligation not to divulge it and has to say something like “I cannot say more; my lips are sealed; I don’t want to talk about it” or use expression like “No comment” in response to a question
(4) Speakers face the maxim clash It is a case in which they would have to break one maxim in order to fulfill another In other words, they may be unable
to fulfill one maxim without violate another Example:
A : What about the wife – you’ve tried her?
B : Several times
A : Can’t she help?
B : She hasn’t so far
(Grice, 1975:51)
B in example is not sure of the answer and therefore cannot truly reply yes/no
In this case, he wants to fulfill the maxim of quality and the only reasonable
Trang 2820
thing to do is by breaking another maxim that is quantity maxim That is why
he then does not give as full an answer as he might
(5) Speakers may flout the maxim, that is if he/she blatantly and ostentatiously fails to observe it even if he/she were in a position to do so
Grice’s maxims become more interesting to discuss when speakers do not follow them either by violating or flouting them Both violating and flouting the maxim are infringement indeed but they are quite different In order to distinguish between violating the conversational maxims and flouting them, the former is a term to describe cases in which someone is disobeying a maxim, but he/she is not doing so purposefully and/or with the intention that the hearers recognize that a maxim is being disobeyed Grice himself use the latter term, to flout a maxim, to describe situations in which a maxim is being deliberately and flagrantly disobeyed, with the intention that the listeners recognize that that
is the case So, this infringement is detected by the listeners
This is the thing that makes flouting the maxims quite different from violating the maxims The transgression is so flagrant that it is totally obvious that the speaker knows he or she is not observing the maxims and realizes everyone else in the conversation knows it, too We can also know from the explanation given by Cruse (2000:360) that breaking the maxim is categorized as a flouting
if it is in circumstances in which (1) it is obvious to the hearer that the maxims are being flouted, (2) it is obvious to the hearer that the speaker intends to the hearer to be aware that the maxims are being flouted, (3) there are no signs that the speaker is opting out of the cooperative principle
The flouting maxims is the most interesting and intriguing case comparing to other cases such as observing, violating, or opting out of them It is because the
Trang 2921
flouting of the maxims always brings about the happening of conversational implicature which allows a speaker to convey meaning beyond what is literally expressed As Grundy says (2000:39) that whenever a maxim is flouted there must be an implicature to save the utterances from simply appearing to be a faulty contribution to conversation Thus, in this flouting of the maxim cases, what a speaker literally says is not what he/she intends to convey The listener has to work out what the speaker intends to convey
2.4.1 Flouting the maxim of quality
Firstly, this flouting will be done by the addressor because the addressor lies or says and denies something that is believed to be false in order not to get some punishment from someone Secondly, addressor uses irony statement when he/she flouts Finally, speaker distorts information It means thathe/she misrepresents his/her information in order to make addressee understand The examples below will explain this violation
A : Teheran’s in Turkey isn’t it, teacher?
B : And London’s in Armenia I Suppose
(Levinson, 1983, p 110) Here, the example explain that addressor has flouted maxim of quality Addressor B answers the statement about London that is in Armenia Actually, this answer the statement about London that is in Armenia Actually, this answer is false because London is in England Therefore, the addressor gives false statement
Queen Victoria was made of iron
(Cook, 1992, p 31)
Trang 3022
The example above, is flouting the maxim of quality It gives a metaphor statement It is impossible that Queen Victoria was made of iron Actually, queen Victoria is human, and she is not iron That is why this statement is a kind of irony statement
2.4.2 Flouting the maxim of quantity
Firstly, the addressor flouts this maxim because he/shedoes circumlocution It means that addressor does not explain to the point Secondly, this violation usually gives uninformative contribution Here, addressor gives less information or too much information Finally, addressor usually violates this maxim because he/she use insufficient words talks It means that he/she gives incomplete words when he/she is speaking The examples will explain about the flouting of maxim of quantity
A : I’ve lost a diamond ring
B : Well Julie was wearing onethis morning
(Leech, 1983) The conversation does not fulfill the maxim of quantity By using indefinite article, B refuses to commit himself to whether the ring he sees is the same one that A loses B is not being informative in this case
A : We’ll all miss Bill and Agatha, won’t we?
B : Well, we’ll all miss Bill
(Leech, 1983) Surely, this example is categorized asthe flouting of maxim of quantity A tells
B that both of them will miss Bill and Agatha Yet, B flouts that he/she will miss Bill only B gives uninformative contribution
Trang 3123
2.4.3 Flouting the maxim of relevance
First off all, the participants flout this maxim because they make the conversation unmatched Usually, the participants do the wrong causality Beside, they do not want to speak the same topic; they will change the topic
or avoid talking about something This violation is usually usedto hide something It means that the participants keep secrete or something in order that no body knows about it Two examples below do not fulfill the maxim
of relevance
A : I do think Mrs Jenkis is an old windbag, don’t you?
B : Huh, lovely weather for March, isn’t it?
(Levinson, 1983, p 111) The conversation between A and B have already made the conversation unmatched Addressor B might implicate in the appropriate circumstances Therefore, B gives a respond to speaker A uninformative; therefore B has flouted the maxim of relevance
A : Where’s my box of chocolates?
B : I’ve got a train to catch
(Leech, 1983) The above conversation B has flouted in maxim ofrelevance, which is not causality When A asks B about ‘where’, actually B should answer the question about the place However, B, here, has changed the topic of conversation A asks B about A’s box ofchocolates, but B answer A’s question about his/her wanting to get a train Therefore, B’s utterance is unmatched
2.4.4 Flouting the maxim of manner
Trang 3224
The last flouting is maxim of manner A addressor flouts the maxim of manner when he/she uses ambiguous language He/she usesanother language such as foreign language which makes the addressee does not understand Sometimes, this flouting is used by the addressor to exaggerate things It means that addressor represent as greater things Moreover, addressor uses slang in front of people who do not understand Lastly, if the addressor’s voice is not loud enough, he/she will violate this maxim
A : Let’s get the kids something
B : Ok, but I veto I-C-E-R-E-A-M-S
(Levinson, 1983, p 104) Addressor B obviously breaks the maxim of manner (be perspicuous) by spelling out the word ice cream, and tells A that B does not say the word ice cream in front of the children before they ask their parents to buy some
Before you speak about someone, you must Gnothi Seuthon
(Rakhmat J., 2005, p 17) This statement is ambiguous, it gives a foreign language word in the sentence Here GnothiSeuthon is the motto of Delphi It means that you must know yourself In addition, according to Leech, in the sameutterance, it can have more than one the flouting of maxims as long as the speaker gives the right reasons Besides, people usually have different interpretation about their communication so that their utterance can be contained by two or more (Leech, 1983) For example:
A : Where’s my box chocolates?
B : The children were in your room this morning
(Leech, 1983)
Trang 3325
This example has two kinds of flouting those are maxim of relevance and quantity It contains of the flouting of maxim relevance because B does not give the causality answer It means that B should answer some places where B has put the chocolates In addition, this example is also flouting the maxim of quantity B does not explain to the point that the children were in A’s room this morning If B follows the maxim of quantity, B should answer to the point
Therefore, based on Grice, violation of conversational maxims can make the listeners misunderstand with the message of addressor Yet, it does not mean that the communication will be breakdown as long as the addressor giving a strong reason The flouting of maxims can be many things, for it is no way of prescribing a particular violation as useful or detrimental
Trang 3426
Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY
The previous chapter has established the framework of the theoretical background from Grice’s theory of cooperative principle (1975) and other issues related to the matter of this thesis have been introduced This chapter focuses on introducing the methodology of the thesis; in other words, the methods of collecting data for analysis This third chapter comprises five smaller parts: (1) research questions (2) research setting; (3) research approach; (4) data collection instruments and (5) data analysis method
3.1 Research-governing orientations
3.1.1 Research questions
In conducting the study, the flouting of maxims will be found out which can make the communication unsuccessful To find out the problems, the main focus of the thesis is on the following questions
(1) What types of maxims are flouted by the characters in the novel “The
sun also rises” by Ernest Hemingway?
(2) What are the hidden meanings behind the flouting of maxims in the
novel “The sun also rises” by Ernest Hemingway?
3.1.2 Research setting
Ernest Hemingway’s The sun also rises novel is chosen to find out the
flouting of maxims used by Ernest Hemingway
Trang 3527
i) Summary “The sun also rises” novel
“The sun also rises” novel is a 1926 novel written by American autho
Ernest Hemingway about a group of American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights An early and enduring modernist novel, it received mixed reviews upon publication Hemingway biographer Jeffrey Meyers writes that it is "recognized as Hemingway's greatest work” and Hemingway scholar Linda WagnerMartin calls it his most important novel The novel was published in the United States in October 1926 by the publishing house Scribner's A year later, the London publishing house Jonathan Cape published the novel with the title of Fiesta Since then it has been continuously in print
Hemingway began writing the novel on his birthday (21 July) in 1925, finishing the draft manuscript barely two months later in September After setting aside the manuscript for a short period, he worked on revisions during the winter of 1926 The basis for the novel was Hemingway's 1925 trip to Spain The setting was unique and memorable, showing the seedy café life in Paris, and the excitement of the Pamplona festival, with a middle section devoted to descriptions of a fishing trip in the Pyrenees Equally unique was Hemingway's spare writing style, combined with his restrained use of description to convey characterizations and action, which became known as the Iceberg Theory
On the surface, the novel is a love story between the protagonist Jake Barnes
- a man whose war wound has made him impotent - and the promiscuous divorcée usually identified as Lady Brett Ashley (Since the title belonged to her husband, she should actually have been addressed as Brett, Lady
Trang 3628
Ashley.) Barnes is an expatriate American journalist living in Paris, while Brett is a twice-divorced Englishwoman with bobbed hair and numerous love affairs, and embodies the new sexual freedom of the 1920s Brett's affair with Robert Cohn causes Jake to be upset and break off his friendship with Cohn; her seduction of the 19-year-old matador Romero causes Jake to lose his good reputation among the Spaniards in Pamplona
The novel is a roman à clef; the characters are based on real people and the action is based on real events In the novel, Hemingway presents his notion that the "Lost Generation", considered to have been decadent, dissolute and irretrievably damaged by World War I, was resilient and strong Additionally, Hemingway investigates the themes of love, death, renewal in nature, and the nature of masculinity
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sun_Also_Rises.)
ii) Character list
Jake Barnes: An American veteran of World War I who lives and works as a journalist in Paris during the 1920s
Robert Cohn: A young American novelist living in Paris at the same time Unlike Jake, Cohn did not fight in the war
Brett, Lady Ashley: An Englishwoman loved by Jake who loves him in turn She worked in a military hospital during World War I
Bill Gorton: Jake's good friend, a writer who did not serve in the war but may have covered it as a correspondent
Mike Campbell: Brett's fiancé, an alcoholic Scotsman and war veteran
Trang 37Braddocks: Cohn's "literary" friend in Paris
Mrs Braddocks: The wife of Braddocks, she is Canadian
3.1.3 Research approach
In order to reach the goal of the study, descriptive method is used to analyze the data and to obtain a more holistic picture what goes in a particular situation or setting, and then describes the finding as to answer my questions Therefore, the qualitative approach is employed to describe and analyze the data collected
In this study the author used qualitative research approach because of some characteristics First, the data of this study was in the form of words or utterances that consist of flouting of maxims and implicatures performed by
the characters in “The sun also rises” novel Second, this study used human
instrument: the author herself as the primary instrument for data collection and data analysis Third, the purpose of this study was to get understanding and deep information on the flouting of conversational maxims and the implicatures
generated in “The sun also rises” novel
3.1.4 Principles/criteria for intended data collection and data analysis
Trang 3830
The writer uses documentation method that is taken from primary Data are considered the important element that helps the researcher do the analysis In this research, the author uses primary of data sources to get the data needed The primary data is the verbal expression of conversation such us the words, sentence, and phrases, utterances used in source is taken from the work of
novel “The sun also rises” by Ernest Hemingway Here the author does
focus on the novel because it becomes the basic elements to write this thesis The data is taken from utterances of the characters found in the novel
entitled “The sun also rises” Thus, the novel entitled “The sun also rises” is
a primary source of data collection
3.2 Research methods
3.2.1 Major methods vs supporting methods
This research is in the domain of qualitative research The type of this research
is – “descriptive qualitative research” Van Maanen says that qualitative research is interested in everyday activity as defined, enacted, and made problematic by persons going about their normal routines (1982:16) Descriptive is serving to describe or analogy something and it deals the meaning of thing and view of meaning is associate In addition, Creswell affirms that, qualitative research is defined as an inquiry process of understanding a social or human problem, based on building a complex, holistic picture, formed with words, reporting detailed views of informants, and conducted in a natural setting (1994:1)
Trang 3931
There are three main methods for collecting data in qualitative research The resulting data is usually transcribed than analyzed using one of a variety of techniques for analysis (Hancock, 1998:9) The first - focus ing groups, the researcher brings together a small number of subjects to discuss the topic
of interest The second - direct observation, data can be collected by an external observer, referred to as a non participant observer Or the data can
be collected by a participant observer, who can be a member of staff undertaking usual duties while observing the processes of care Finally, in depth interview, interviews use the same principle as a focus group, but the subjects are interviewed individually Interviews in qualitative research are usually wide ranging, probing issues in detail
Qualitative research has many advantages Subjective information and participant observation are used to describe the context, or natural setting, of the variables under considerable, as well as the interaction of the different variables in the context Qualitative research seeks a wide understanding of the entire situation
3.2.2 Data collection techniques
The technique of collecting data applied in this study was done by taking a sample of utterance within casual conversation, which reveals the flouting maxims This study was conducted through several systematic steps of collecting the data Firstly, the author understood the story of the novel by reading the novel This step helped the author in understanding the characters’ utterances By doing this step, the author could learn the context
Trang 4032
of the novel as well Secondly, is closing reading the novel and highlighting the characters’ utterances that revealed the flouting maxims at the same time Thirdly, the author identified and selected chunks of utterances uttered
by all characters which are flouting maxims only Finally, the author systematically classified and arranged the data to be easily analyzed
3.2.3 Data analysis techniques
Data analysis is a process whereby researchers systematically search and arrange the data in order to increase their understanding of the data and to enable them to present what they learned from others (Ary et al, 2002:465) Since the study is about the flouting maxims, the author analyzed the data in the form of the characters’ utterances based on Grice’s theory about cooperative principle and conversational implicature It is signalled by flouting one or some of the four maxims of conversational maxims those are maxim of quantity, maxim of quality, maxim of relation and maxim of manner that indicate there is an implicature conveyed by the speaker to the addressee To classify the flouting maxim, the author analyzed the utterances performed by all characters one by one deeply by concerning to the context and the sequences of the dialogue among the characters occur
The author used four steps in analyzing the data as suggested by Ary et al (2002), those are data organizing, data summarizing, data interpreting, and reporting
i) Data organizing