Flouting and hedging maxims in Mr. Pecut column of Jawa Pos

ABSTRACT

In communication, the effectiveness and efficiency of delivering information are needed. That is why, it is essential to use Grice’s maxims theory of cooperative principles to avoid misinterpretation and misunderstanding. Maxim is a basic assumption and it can be changed. There are four maxims, namely maxim of quality, quantity, relation and manner. Thus, we have to obey the rules of four maxims to communicate smoothly.

Flouting and hedging maxims on Mr. Pecut column of Jawa Pos are analyzed in this study. The maxims are violated and overtly broken, that cause the sentences seem informative, well founded and relevant. It also causes the sentences have some implied meanings and sometimes it is difficult to understand or less informative. The research problems in this thesis are: (1) How are the maxims flouted in Mr.Pecui column of Jawa Pos?, (2) How are the maxims hedged in Mr. Pecut column of Jawa Pos?. A descriptive qualitative method is used because the data are explained descriptively. The data are taken from Mr. Pecut column of Jawa Pos published from April Is’ to April 23rd , 2005.

After the data are obtained and analyzed, it is found that most of the data were flouting the maxims, especially the maxims of quality and quantity. It used the sentences which had some implied meanings and also the sentences that were less informative or too informative. Therefore, the utterances were often stated briefly or expressed in exaggeration, which were also classified as understatement and overstatement. The data also used metaphor, rhetorical question, and irony to indicate that they were not literally true and conveyed some implied meanings. It was also found that tautology was not used on the data. Moreover, flouting the maxim of relation was not found on the data. It was because all the news and comments were related each other, so that they would be understood easily.

There were also some data that were hedging the maxims. It was found that most of them were hedging the maxim of quality, because there were many data which were quoted from other people’s opinion and also said something which was doubtful. On the other hand, it was found that the data were not hedging the maxims of relation and manner because the data are in the form of news and comments that should not be explained in a long way. Beside that, it was found also that there were some data which fulfilled all the maxims, rhe data fulfilled the maxim of quality because they were true, fulfilled the maxim of quantity because they were informative, fulfilled the maxim of relation because they were relevant, and fulfilled the maxim of manner because they were not ambiguous. So, the data were directly understood by the readers.

Finally, it is suggested that the journalists fulfill all the maxims in order to make their news and comments more efficient and will be understood easily. English teachers are suggested to pay attention to the significance of flouting and hedging maxims in all kinds of communication to enrich the students’ knowledge on the parts of discourse. It is also suggested for further researchers to use the other subjects of study, such as the utterances found on novels or short stories, to conduct the same field of research.