CONVERSATION ANALYSIS

Final Assignment of Discourse Analysis Subject Class C

By:
KHUSNUL LIA FATMAWATI
NIM 130210401002

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

THE FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF JEMBER
2015

I.

INTRODUCTION

In communication, we and the people we are talking to will try to be

cooperative to one and another. People use cooperative principles in order to be
considered as polite people. By using the principles, the people can keep a good
relationship with others. According to Grice, cooperative principles is about
making the conversational contribution as required when the communication
occurs using the appropriate purpose and direction. Grice proposed four maxims
(maxim of quality, maxim of quantity, maxim of relevance and maxim of manner)
that must be followed to gain the purpose of communication or pretend to do so.
However, Goffman saw that cooperation is vital in a conversation, but
without politeness, it is loss. Politeness deals with saving face. The term of
face refers to the public self-image one wishes to claim. The face can be
saved, maintained or lost. As the extension of Goffmans face theory, Penelope
Brown and Stephen Levinson said there are two kinds of politeness strategies
since there are two kinds of different faces. First is negative face that refers to the
wish of individuals freedom. Second is positive face that refers to the desire to
gain approval of others.
In this paper, I would like to analyse five examples of cooperative
principles and politeness principles used in Inside Out movie. Inside Out is an
animation movie produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released in 2015 by
Walt Disney Pictures. The storyline was written by Meg LeFauve. It was directed
by Pete Docter. The setting of this movie was in the mind of an eleven year old
girl, named Riley Andersen. There are five personified emotions; Joy, Sadness,
Fear, Anger, and Disgust. All of them lead Riley through a new life after her
parents move the family from Minnesota to San Francisco, California. In
analysing the scenes, I will use the theory of cooperative principles from Grice
and theory of politeness principles from Brown and Lenvinson.

II.

1.

DISCUSSION

Scene 1

The conversation above is between Riley and her mother. The addresser is
Riley, while the addressee is her mother. Riley knows that her mother feels

disappointed since her father suddenly needs to go to office. Riley wants to cheer
her up by asking her whether she wants to eat pizza or not.
According to the conversation, Rileys mother flouts the maxim of
relevance. She actually agrees with Rileys suggestion to buy pizza but instead of
saying yes or no after Riley suggest to but pizza, she says that pizza sounds
delicious. Both of them try to support each positive face. Instead of using title to
her mother, Riley only uses hey. It means that they are really close. They act
interested to one and another. When Riley suggests buying pizza, her mother has
the same opinion by saying Pizza sounds delicious.

2.

Scene 2

The scene above is a conversation between Joy and Sadness. Joy is as the
addresser and Sadness as the addressee. Sadness touches Rileys memory. As the
consequence, Riley feels in blue. Joy is getting angry with Sadness because she
has asked Sadness not to touch the memory. After realizing what she has done,
Sadness apologizes. She is sorry after looking Joy is getting angry with her.
Based on the situation in the conversation, Sadness flouts the maxim of
manner. Instead of saying what is her reason touching the memory, she prefers to
say sorry. She does not say directly that she has the same right as them to lead
Rileys memory. By touching the memory, Sadness wants to save her positive
face. She wants to be acknowledged by Joy that she belongs to the group as well.
However, what Sadness does is threatening Joys negative face. She apologizes
and it makes Joy feel in burden.

3.

Scene 3

The conversation above is between Riley and her teacher. The teacher is
the addresser and Riley is the addresse. It occurs in the classroom. Riley is asked
to introduce herself since it is her first day of school. Riley feels hesitate when her
teacher gives an order to tell something about herself.
According to the conversation above, Riley fulfil the maxim of relevance.
She answers okay and introduce herself when her teacher asks her to do so,
even though she is unwilling to do it . She tells what her full name is and where
she comes from. What Rileys teacher does is a strategy to save her positive face.
She shows her interest towards Rileys life. She wants the other students know
Riley since she is a new students in the classroom.

4.

Scene 4

The conversation above is between Riley and her mother. Rileys mother
is the addresser while Riley is the addressee. They are having dinner as well as
Rileys father.

Rileys mother asks about Rileys first day of school. Riley

answers it but she is not sure about how her first day was. She seems that she does
not enjoy her first day.
According to the situation, Riley flouts maxim of quality because she does
not tell the truth. She pretends enjoying her first day of school by saying It was
fine, I guess By saying I dont know, Riley seems not enjoying her first day
since she is not sure about what her felling is. By flouting maxim of quality, Riley
tries to protect her mothers positive face. She saves her mothers positive face by

acting interested in answering her mothers question though she actually is not
willing to answer the question since she cannot enjoy on her first day of school.

5.

Scene 5

The scene represents the situation when Riley takes the try-out for joining
hockey club. She cannot play well because she cannot remember how to play
hockey well since there is a problem about her core memory. She feels
disappointed towards herself because she cannot do the thing she used to do. Her
mother approaches her and asks about her feeling because she knows well there is
something wrong about her daughter. However, Riley does not give any
explanation about what is going on. Moreover, Riley suggests leaving the
stadium.
What Riley does is flouting the maxim of relevance. She does not answer
her mothers question appropriately. In the contrary, she suggests her to leave the
stadium together. She does that thing because she is disappointed. She used to
play well in Minnesota, but there she cannot do it. By flouting the maxim of
relevance, Riley threatens her mothers negative face he makes her mother lose
her negative face. By suggesting leaving the stadium rather than staying there to
finish her try-out, Riley seems not allowing her mother to stay at the stadium
longer.

III.

CONCLUSION

Based on the analysis, by analysing the cooperative principles in the

conversation, we can know the use of politeness principle as well. The
conversations in the movie are mostly related to the positive face, either
supporting or threatening the others positive face. Most of the characters in the
conversation are close to one and another, except Riley and the teacher. They save
others positive face by showing interest towards each other. Their intention is to
show someone they are talking to that they approve them. However, when the
characters try to lose others negative face like giving suggestion, it means that
they do not give personal space to the other. Moreover, they make the other feel in
burden by apologizing.

IV.

REFERENCES

Grice's Cooperative Principle.

(http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/projects/stylistics/topic12/14cp1.htm)
(date of access: 10 Dec. 2015)
Grices Theory of Conversation.
(http://www.cbs.polyu.edu.hk/ctyjiang/file/notes_new/313/11.htm) (date
of access: 10 Dec. 2015)
Goffman, Erving. 1976. Face Theory.
(http://www.situatedgaming.com/CISTheoryPrimary/face.html) (date of
access: 10 Dec. 15)
Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson's Politeness Theory.
http://www.ello.uos.de/field.php/Pragmatics/PragmaticsPolitenessTheory
(date of access: 16 Dec. 2015)