THE CONVERSATIONAL MAXIMS USED IN THE FAULT IN OUR STARS MOVIE.

Muhammad Machrus Afif

English Education Department. Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, University of PGRI Adi
Buana Surabaya.
Afifsider@gmail.com
Endang Mastuti Rahayu
English Education Department. Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, University of PGRI Adi
Buana Surabaya.
Endangrahayu63@yahoo.com
Dyah Rachmawati
English Education Department. Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, University of PGRI Adi
Buana Surabaya.
Dyra.hadi@yahoo.com
Abstract
Penelitian ini menganalisis film The Fault in Our Stars tentang penggunaan Conversational Maxims.
Adapun masalah penelitian adalah: (1) Apa jenis conversational maxims yang digunakan dalam film
tersebut? (2) Bagaimana conversational maxims direpresentasikan dalam film The Fault in Our Stars?
Peneliti menggunakan metode kualitatif. Sumber data dalam penelitian ini adalah dialog dari karakter
utama dalam naskah The Fault in Our Stars (2003). Data dalam penelitian ini adalah ucapan-ucapan
tokoh utama yang berhubungan dengan film The Fault in Our Stars (2003). Teknik pengumpulan data
menggunakan teknik dokumentasi. Data yang terkumpul selanjutnya dianalisis dengan menggunakan
analisis isi kualitatif. Dari analisis data, penulis menyimpulkan bahwa jenis conversational maxims yang
tercermin dalam film The Fault in Our Stars melalui percakapan mereka yaitu empat jenis maxim sebagai
berikut: Maxim of relevance, maxim of manner, maxim of quantity, maxim of quality.
Kata kunci: conversational maxim, The Fault in Our Stars movie.
BACKGROUND
Language is a system to transfer and to
inform something through a communication.
People usually use language to inform, to
express their id ea, and to build up their social
relationship so that language is important thing
for human being to maintain their life. Besides,
language is related to communication, and
communication is, among other, speaking which
is done by having a conversation. Conversation
needs someone to be a speaker and a hearer.
They have to be cooperative and have
contribution or message, which can be
understood by the listener in order that the
communication is succeeded.
Based on Grice (1989: 26) Make your
conversational contribution such as is required,
at the stage at with it occurs, by the accepted
purpose or direction of the talk exchange in
which you are engaged. People will have a
successful conversation if they fulfill the
cooperative principles that are related in the
four maxims of conversation.

The four maxims are:

a. Maxim of quantity, which says that
speakers should be as imformative as is
required, that they should give neither
too little information nor too much.
b. Maxim of quality, which says that
speakers are expected to be sincere, to be
saying something that they believe
corresponds to reality.
c. Maxim of manner, which says that we
should be brief and orderly, and avoid
obscurity and ambiguity.
d. Maxim of relevance, which says that
speakers are assumedto be saying
something that is relevant to what has
been said before. (Cutting. 2002. p 3435)
These principles can make the
conversation work effectively and run
smoothly. On the other hand, people
sometimes speak without fulfilling the

maxims. They use them because they

have certain reasons. For example, a
child is lying about his/her bad mark in
school in order to avoid the
punishment from his/her parents. Here,
child uses the maxim of quantity,
which requires him/her to say
something that is untrue or false.
The Fault in Our Stars movie
is not only great in terms of action, and
stories, but it also provides good
commentary on the issue of dramatic
story. Josh Boone, who is the director
of The Fault in Our Stars, mixed
between true story and romantic novel.
The fault in our stars has become an
enormously popular movie catching
the teenagers. When the writer was
watching this movie, he noticed that
there were many maxims used in their
conversation. Besides, the romantic
scene of Augustus and Hazel, many
people has a deep impression
especially from their utterances.
Because of that particular reason, the
writer is interested in analyzing their
utterances. The Fault in Our Stars is a
famous movie whose two leading
characters have given deep impression
to the viewers. Then misunderstanding
may occur when a maxim is used and
given nonverbal clues. Therefore, the
writer is interested in doing The
Conversational Maxims Used in The
Fault in Our Stars movie.
As stated above, this research
problem was formulated as the
following: What types of maxims are
used in this movie?, and How are the
maxims used by those characters?.
The researcher expected that this
research will be useful for the further
researcher.
METHOD
In this study, the writer used descriptive
qualitative approach. He used descriptive
method because he analyzed the data and then
described the finding as to answered his
research question. Qualitative research could be
done in social, attitude, individual or
organization by researcher in a group or

personality. It could be said that the research

here used descriptive data: analysing content.
The technique of this data analysis is
discourse study. After the writer transcribed the
conversation, he analyzed the utterances of each
scene to see what maxim has been used. A table
is made to help his analyze the data. Then, he
categoried those utterance containing used
maxims into their categories: maxim of
relevance, quantity, quality, and manner.
Thirdly, he gave the explanation to justify the
use and how the main characters used the
maxims. This was done to answer his research.
This analysis was done by the writer by
referring to both the transcript and the movie so
as to see the nonverbal clues for the occurrence
of misunderstanding. This procedure, reading,
checking the movie script and watching the
movie. Then the movie script were analysed and
written in the table. After analyzing the movie
script, the use of maxims was analysed and
written in the table. Last, it was explaining and
highlighting the use of maxims that contain in
the movie script with the theories proposed
previously, was done for several times in order
to provide accurate analysis by matched the
type of used maxims, how the use of
conversational maxims were characters.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
After collecting the data from The Fault
in Our Stars movie script, the researcher
analyzed them in according with the research
focuses. The writer found that there were many
maxims which were used by Augustus and
Hazel in The Fault in Our Stars. The findings
are as follow:
Table 4.1 The Violation of Maxim of Relevance
in The Fault in Our Stars Movie Script.

Movie
The fault in
our stars

Sentences or utterance
contained maxim of
relevance
Gus : Hazel Grace!
Hazel : Hi Augustus.
Gus : Are you crying,
Hazel Grace?
Hazel : Kind of.
Gus : Whats the matter?

Table 4.4 The Violation of Maxim of Manner in

The Fault in Our Stars Movie Script.

Movie
The fault in
our stars
Table 4.2 The Violation of Maxim of Quantity
in The Fault in Our Stars Movie Script.
Sentences or utterance
contained maxim of
quantity

Movie
The fault in
our stars

Gus: Have you tried

contacting this... Peter
Van Houten?
Hazel: Ive written letters.
Hes never responded.
Apparently he moved
to Amsterdam,
became a recluse.
Hasnt publishing
anything. Doesnt do
interviews.
Gus: Sad.
Hazel: Yeah.

Table 4.3 The Violation of Maxim of Quality in

The Fault in Our Stars Movie Script.
Movie
The
fault in
our
stars

Sentences or utterance contained

maxim of quality
Gus: Apparently the world is... not
a wish-granting factory.( And
at that point, Gus lets it go, lets
himself cry and be sad and feel
awful. But just for a second.
Then he shakes it off, pulls
Hazels face up to his, tries
again to smile through the
tears.)
Gus: Dont you worry about me,
Hazel Grace. Ill find a way to
hang around and annoy you
for a long time. ( She hugs
him, perhaps a little too tightly.
He winces).
Hazel: Does it hurt?
Gus: Its ok. (beat) Im ok.
Hazel: Ok.
Gus: Ok. ( But of course its not
ok, not by a smile. Hazel takes
a moment to look at him,
touches his cheek.)

Sentences or utterance
contained maxim of manner
Hazel: What are you thinking
about?
Gus: Oblivion.
Hazel: Augustus...
Gus: I know its kids stuff
but... I always thought Id
be a hero, you know, with
a grand story to tell.
Something that would run
in all the papers. I mean
I was suppossed a be
special.
Hazel: You are special
Augustus.
Gus: Yeah but... you know
what I mean.

Table 4.5 The Adherence to The Maxim of

Relevance in The Fault in Our Stars Movie
Script.
Movie
The fault in
our stars

Sentences or utterance
contained maxim of
relevance
Hazel : Of course my
lungs still suck at
being lungs but,
theoretically, they
could continue to suck
in just this way for, I
dunno, a while maybe.
Gus : So are you back in
school or. . .?
Hazel : Cant.
Gus : Why not?
Hazel : Already got my
GED.
Gus: A college girl! Well
that explains the aura
of sophistication...

Table
4.6
The
Sentences or utterance contained
Adherence to The
Movie
maxim of quality
Maxim of Quantity
in The Fault in Our
The
Hazel : This obsession with being
fault or
in utterance
remembered...
Sentences
ourmaxim
stars ofGus
: Dont get mad...
Movie
contained
quantity
Hazel: But Im mad! I think
The fault
Hazel: Why are you looking at
youre special, is that not
in our
me like that?
enough?
stars
Gus: Because youre
Gus : Hazel . . .
beautiful.
Hazel : You think the only way
Hazel: I enjoy looking at
to live a meaningful life is
beautiful people and I
for everyone to love you, for
decided a while back not to
everyone to remember you.
deny myself the simpler
Well guess what, Gus, this is
pleassures of exixtance.
yourlife. This all you get. You
Particularly given that, as
get me, and your family, and
you so astutely pointed out,
this world.
were all gonna die pretty
Hazel : And if thats not enough,
soon.
well Im sorry, but its not
Hazel : Im not beautiful.
nothing. Cause Ill
remember you, Ill love you. .
Stars Movie Script.
Gus : Youre right...
Table 4.7 The Adherence to The Maxim of
Quality in The Fault in Our Stars Movie Script.
Movie
The fault
in our
stars

Sentences or utterance
contained maxim of quality
Hazel: Why are you thinking
about?
Gus: Oblivion.
Hazel: Augustus...
Gus: I know its kids stuff
but... I always thought Id
be a hero, you know, with a
garnd story to tell.
Something that would run
in all the papers. I mean I
was suppossed a be special.
Hazel: You are special
Augustus.
Gus: Yeah I know but... you
know what I mean.

Table 4.8 The Adherence to

The Maxim of Manner in The
Fault in Our Stars Movie
Script.

This
step
the
researcher would like to discuss
the result of the writer finding.
The writer will discuss and
analyze the conversational
maxims that was found in The
Fult in Our Stars movie.
There are First,
Maxim of Relevance, in this
use of maxim, Hazel showed
her dishonest to Augustus about
his question, and she want
Augustus did not apprehensive
with her. Second, Maxim of
Quantity, in this case, Hazel
wanted to stress her effort that
she was contacting Peter Van Houten. Third,
Maxim of Quality, Augustus has already lied to
Hazel. He tried to hide his feeling in order that
Hazel believe him and denied what he felt. The
last, Maxim of Manner, Augustus wanted to
Hazel trusted to him. He tried to confident with
himself. Then he made an ambiguous statement,
so it caused Hazel confused and entered into
Augustuss trick.

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

After analyzing the script of
The Fault in Our Stars movie, then the
researcher made the conclusion.
Finding of this study reveal that types
of maxim are used by the main
characters in The Fault in Our Stars
movie. In term of the reasons of
violating the maxims, the writer has
come up with various kinds of reasons
why the main characters violated the
maxim. The most frequent reason used
for violating the maxim of relevance,
the most reason employed by the
addressee for violating the maxim of
quantity. Next to sarcastic was the most

common reason why the addressor

violated the maxim of quality. Finally,
the addressor violated the maxim of
manner over flow the main characters
feeling.
The suggestions are aimed for
other writers of thesis, and also for the
students
at
English
Education
Department of PGRI Adi Buana
Surabaya
University.
In
the
significance of the research and the
result of the research, the researcher
purposes some suggestions. The
researcher expected that this research
will be useful for the further researcher
especially the young researcher of
English Eduaction Department at
University of PGRI Adi Buana
Surabaya. It was important for further
researcher to conduct their researcher
not only limited on two kinds of
discussion but also expands deeply the
analysis
about
Literature
and
Pragmatics. The researcher gave a way
for analyzed movie script, not only The
Fault in Our Stars movie but also the
other movies.
REFERENCES

Cutting, Joan. 2002. Pragmatics and Discourse:

A resource book for students.
Florence, KY, USA: Routledge. p 33-35.
Grice. 1989. p 26 in Meyer, Charles F. 2009.
Introducing English Linguistis.
Cambridge. Cambridge University Press
UK.
Leech. 1983:30-1 Principles of Pragmatics in
Jacob L. Mey. 2001. Pragmatics: An
Introduction. 2nd ed. UK: BlackWell
Pubishing. p 47.
Levinson. Stephen C. (1983).
Pragmatics.Cambridge. Cambridge
Univesity Press.
Scott Neustadter& Michael H. Weber.2013.The
Fault In Our Star. Los Angeles: 20th
Century Fox.
Soanes, C. 2001. Oxford Paper Back Dictionary
theasures and Word Power
Guide.Oxford, England: Oxford
University Press.
https://www.foxscreenings.com/TFIOS_Final_S
hooting_Script.pdf. Accessed on 8th
August 2015 at 04.11 pm.