FLOUTS OF THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE MAXIMS IN SBY’S PRESIDENTIAL INTERVIEWS ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 Vol. 1, Issue 1, December 2012 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE FLOUTS OF THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE MAXIMS IN SBY’S PRESIDENTIAL INTERVIEWS Fahrus Zaman Fadhly Department of English Education, University of Kuningan, Indonesia E-mail: fahruszf@gmail.com APA Citation: Fadhly, F. Z. (2012). Flouts of the cooperative principle maxims in SBY’s presidential interviews. English Review: Journal of English Education, 1(1), 57-70 Received: 12-10-2011 Accepted: 21-11-2013 Published: 01-12-2012 Abstract: This paper analyzed the presidential interviews of the President of Republic of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY), based on Grice’s theory of the Cooperative Principles (CP). This study employed a qualitative research design and the data were three transcripts of interview discourse between SBY and eight Indonesian journalists obtained through the presidential official website: http://www.presidentsby.info. The research investigated the ways of SBY in flouting the CP maxims in his presidential interviews and the functions of the flouts were. The research revealed that SBY flouted all the CP maxims and the maxim of Quantity was frequently flouted. Meanwhile, there were four ways used by SBY in flouting the CP maxims, i.e. hedging, indirectness, open answer and detailed element. The function of the flouts, i.e. face saving acts (FSA), self-protection, awareness, politeness, interestingness, control of information, elaboration and ignorance. This research also revealed that CP maxims of Grice are not universal. Keywords: flouts, maxim, cooperative principles, SBY, presidential interview INTRODUCTION A speaker does not always explicitly say what she or he means much more than his or her utterance actually utters (Thomas, 1995). In another case, a speaker may also provide information that intentionally confuses or misleads the hearer (Keenan, 1976). Therefore, for the sake of a successful communication, both speaker and hearer should mutually cooperate with each other. Since, without cooperation, interaction would be counterproductive. In pragmatics study, there are at least three big themes that are largely discussed, i.e. (1) speech act (Austin, 1962; Searl, 1970; Searl, Keifer and Bierwisch, 1980; Blum-Kulka and Oldstain, 1984; and Kasper, 1989), (2) conversational implicature (Grice, 1975; Keenan, 1976; Levinson, 1983; Sperber and Wilson, 1986; Schiffrin, 1994; Brown and Yule, 1996; Van Dijk, 1998; Saifullah, 2002; Mooney, 2004), and (3) politeness (Goffman , 1967 in Haverkate 1988; Lakoff, 1973; Brown and Levinson, 1978; Leech, 1983; Matsumuto, 1988; Kitao, 1989; Mao, 1994; Holmes, 1995; Wilamová, 2005; and Zhang and You, 2009). It was Grice, an English language philosopher, who firstly introduced the term ‘conversational implicature’ in a series of lectures at Harvard University in 1967. In Grice’s paper (1975) entitled ‘Logic and Conversation’, Grice promotes the CP which then republished by Davis (1991), and Jaworski and Coupland (1999). Further, in order to elaborate his theory, Grice wrote an article entitled http://www.presidentsby.info/ FAHRUS ZAMAN FADHLY Flouts Of The Cooperative Principle Maxims In Sby’s Presidential Interviews Further Notes on Logic and Conversation in Syntax and Semantics edited by Cole (1978). The study of cooperative principles (here after called CP) is sub- theory of conversational implicature. The CP rules the members of communication in order that the conversation will be coherent. In realizing the CP, Grice (1975) suggests that contribution to talk should be guided by four maxims as subordinate rules or sub-principles of CP, i.e. the maxim of Quantity, the maxim of Quality, the maxim of Relation and the maxim of Manner as follows (further explanation will be elaborated in Chapter II). Since its emergence, CP has attracted a lot of linguists’ attention and critiques and until now it still invites controversy in accordance with its universality, practicality, and contradiction within the principles as pointed out by Keenan (1976), Levinson (1983), Sperber and Wilson (1986), Schiffrin (1994), Brown and Yule (1996), and Van Dijk (1998). According to Keenan (1976, p. 23), CP is not universal by claiming that: The Malagasy, for example, follow a completely opposite Cooperative Principle in order to achieve conversational cooperation. In their culture, speakers are reluctant to share information and flout the maxim of quantity by evading direct questions and replying on incomplete answers because of the risk of losing face by committing oneself to the truth of the information, as well as the fact that having information is a form of prestige. Sperber and Wilson (1986) suggested that maxims of CP become only one: maxim of Relation. They drew attention to the central importance of relevance decisions in reasoning and communication. They proposed an account of the process of inferring relevant information from any given utterance. To do this work, they used what they called the "Principle of Relevance": namely, the position that any utterance addressed to someone automatically conveys the presumption of its own optimal relevance. Levinson (1983) explored his disagreement on the maxim of relation. In his view, the maxim of relation raises over-implicature what are uttered by the speaker. Gricean maxims are also criticized as the barriers in using language. Meanwhile, Leech (1983) says that no principle can be absolutely applied. He even says that the maxims may also be contrary one another. According to Leech, there is a politeness principle with conversational maxims similar to those formulated by Grice. He lists six maxims: tact, generosity, approbation, modesty, agreement, and sympathy. The first and second form a pair, as do the third and the fourth. These maxims vary from culture to culture: what may be considered polite in one culture may be strange or downright rude in another. Meanwhile, Schiffrin (1994), Brown and Yule (1996) and Van Dijk (1998) attempt to critically develop the Grice’s theory in Discourse Analysis. According to Schiffrin (1994), activity of discourse analysis can methodologically be done through pragmatic approach especially by using CP of Grice. Yule (1996) develops CP by correlating the presence of hedging and indirectness in an utterance. Yule (1996) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malagasy_people http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Leech http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politeness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gricean_maxims http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Grice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 Vol. 1, Issue 1, December 2012 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE points out that the use of hedging and indirect speech tend to flout CP maxims. Hedging is frequently used as sign of awareness, while indirectness is frequently used to show positive politeness. Meanwhile van Dijk (1998) develops Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in text of news. According to him, in CDA, a discourse is also analyzed as a representation of social practice which is correlated to situation, institution and social structure. Therefore, van Dijk (1998) identifies five characteristics that have to be considered in CDA, i.e. act, context, history, power and ideology. Despite the criticisms, a lot of research focuses on the CP maxims. The study of CP maxims generally concerns the flouts of utterance. This present study explored the flouts of CP made by the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudoyono (SBY) in his presidential interviews. The use of SBY’s language was interesting to be investigated when delivering his ideas, opinion or even objection related to social and political issues. To public, for example, SBY (Antara, Dec 26, 2006) declared that: Pemerintahan yang saya pimpin telah memasuki tahun ketiga, karena itu ke depan saya akan lebih menggunakan bahasa terang. (The government I lead has been entering the third year, therefore next I will use ‘clear language’). On the day after that, to Kompas (Dec 27, 2006) he proposed: Bekerja lebih konkret dan menggunakan bahasa terang, saya kira sudah saatnya. ...kurang katakanlah kurang, baik katakanlah baik, tidak baik katakanlah tidak baik. Dengan demikian tidak ada dusta di antara kita. (I think it’s the time to work in a more concrete way and use ‘clear language’. ...bad or good will be said for the sake of the truth. Having done these things, there will be no more lies between us.) From the above statement, SBY declared during the third year of the his government (first period), he flouted the maxim of manner as indicated by words, “…therefore next I will use clear language” and “I think it’s the time to work in a more concrete way and use clear language”. Maxim of manner suggests that speakers have to try presenting meaning clearly, concisely orderly, and avoid ambiguity and obscurity of expression (Grice, 1975). Based on the brief overview above, I was encouraged to explore the phenomenon of the SBY’s language regarding social and political issues in the moments of presidential interviews whether or not he would consistently observe CP maxims. The present study was purposely designed to identify the ways of SBY in flouting the maxims of CP in his presidential interviews and figure out the functions of flouts of CP applied by SBY in his presidential interviews. As mentioned above, this present study focused on the flouts of CP which includes realization and function of the flouts. It also focused only on one person, i.e. SBY and one area of topic of interview, i.e. related to public interest. It also focused on three transcripts of SBY’s presidential interviews chosen as the samples. Such a consideration was taken, since those interviews are still one area of topic in various situations both formal and informal. The topics of interview were extremely controversial related to the public’s interest at that time, i.e. (1) The SBY’s objection on DKP and foreign fund issues, (2) the Lapindo mudflow disaster, and (3) the 100 days of SBY’s government and Century Bank FAHRUS ZAMAN FADHLY Flouts Of The Cooperative Principle Maxims In Sby’s Presidential Interviews scandal. Those topics had also became the national media’s headlines and public discourse at that time. The data were released by Bureau for Press and Media Presidential Household from December 2006- February 2010 as published by presidential official website: Http://www.presidensby.info. This consideration was taken to acquire the authenticity and naturalness of SBY’s utterances. METHOD This study attempted to unveil the flouts of CP maxims in SBY’s presidential interviews. It was largely qualitative which could be used ‘to uncover and understand what lies behind any phenomenon about which little is yet known” (Strauss and Corbin 1990, p. 75). According to Atkinson and Hammersley (1994), qualitative research starts with unstructured data, and through data analysis interprets meaning in verbal form to achieve a rich background and in-depth understanding of people or a phenomenon. A qualitative design was considered appropriate since this study also attempts to uncover and understand what lies behind SBY’s interviews in terms of his cooperativeness with others while performing interviews or dialogs. CP maxims flouts as the focus of the present study was identified through qualitative procedures i.e. by identification, classification and interpretation. To further enhance the analysis, some quantification is employed. This procedure involves some descriptive statistics covering frequency and percentage of occurrences of the maxim flouts in order to examine trends in the flouts. The data were in the form of interview discourse between SBY and Indonesian journalists in responding to current issues related to public interests. The data were collected through presidential official website: http://www.presidensby.info published by Bureau for Press and Media Presidential Household. The selection of the samples was only in Indonesian-written interviews. This consideration was taken to acquire the authenticity and naturalness of SBY’s utterances. Meanwhile, the method of sampling applied in the present study is a purposive sampling since the three data were chosen mainly based on the topics of conversation. The topics chosen for analysis were those containing controversy on public service area and they became the national media’s headlines and public discourse at that time as listed in the following table 3.1. Table 3.1 Interviewer List Along with the Topics No Place, Date Interviewer Topic of InterviewName Profession Media 1. Cipanas Palace, February 3, 2010 Arief Suditomo Editor-in-Chief RCTI The 100 Days of SBY’s Government and Century Scandal Putra Nababan Journalist/ Presenter RCTI 2. The President’s residence, May 25, 2007 Asmanu Journalist Suara Surabaya SBY’s Reaction on DKP and Foreign FundAgil Samal Journalist TVRI Johan Sarjono Journalist Elshinta http://www.presidensby.info/ ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 Vol. 1, Issue 1, December 2012 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE 3. Cipanas Palace, August 13, 2006 Arief Suditomo Editor-in- Chief RCTI Lapindo Mudflow Disaster and National Examination (UN) Ray Wijaya Journalist Global TV Tyas Anggoro Editor-in- Chief Trijaya Sururi Alfaruq Editor-in- Chief SINDO The topics of: (1) The 100 Days of SBY’s Government and Century Scandal; (2) SBY’s Reaction on DKP and Foreign Fund; and (3) Lapindo Mudflow Disaster and National Examination (UN) became central issues of public discourse at that time. The data were in the form of interview transcripts were then identified, classified and analyzed. In order to address the first research problem, i.e. in what ways SBY flouts the CP maxims in the presidential interviews, the data were analyzed by identifying traces of flouts based on Grice’s theory of maxims flouts which include the use of hedging (Yule, 1996), indirectness of utterance (Yule, 1996), the use of open answer (Tubbs and Moss, 1996), and the presence of detailed elements (Schriffin, 1994). The flouts were further classified based on types of maxim. Flouts of the maxim of Quantity in which a speaker flouts the maxim by blatantly giving either more or less information that the situation demands. Flouts of the maxim of Quality in which a speaker says something which is blatantly untrue or for which he or she lacks adequate evidence. Flouts of the maxim of Relation in which a speaker gives a response and observation which is very obviously irrelevant to the topic in hand, i.e. by abruptly changing the subject, or by overtly failing to address the person’s goal in asking a question. Flouts of the maxim of Manner in which a speaker does not say clearly, concisely, orderly, and does not avoid ambiguity and obscurity of expression. Meanwhile, in order to address the second research question, i.e. what the functions of flouts of CP in SBY’s presidential interviews, the flouts are analyzed by identifying the intentions of SBY’s utterances when he was being interviewed by journalists related to social and political issues. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The data were analyzed by identifying traces of flouts based on Gricean theory of maxims flouts. This includes identification and classification of flouts. Some descriptive quantification was further employed to enhance the analysis by examining trends in the realization of flouts. The analysis was then discussed in relation to the research problems, to be enhanced by relating the concern to related theories and findings. From the samples, SBY flouted the conversational maxims 18 (twelve) times. The flouts occurred on the maxim of Quantity (eight times), the maxim of Quality (five times), the maxim of Relation (twice), and the maxim of Manner (three times). FAHRUS ZAMAN FADHLY Flouts Of The Cooperative Principle Maxims In Sby’s Presidential Interviews The flouts the overall maxims revealed that there is relation between the forms or ways of utterance and the functions of utterance. The use of hedging, indirectness, open answer and detailed elements generated functions. Overall flouts of the maxim were generally indicated by open answer and detailed element. The flouts of the maxim of Quantity were indicated by open answer and detailed element. Meanwhile, the flouts of the maxim of Quality were always indicated by hedging, open answer and detailed element. The flouts of the maxim of Relation were indicated by indirectness, open answer and detailed element; and then the flouts of the maxim of Manner were indicated by indirectness, opened answer and detailed element. The following table is the illustration of the overall flouts. Table 2. The realization of flouted maxims and their ways DATA NO Flouted Maxims Ways of Flout Quantity Quality Relation Manner Hedging Indirectness Opened Answer Detailed Utterance #001 V - - - - - V V #002 V - - - - - V V #003 V - - - - - V V #004 V - - - - - V V #005 V - - - - - V V #006 V - - - - - V V #007 V - - - - - V V #008 V - - - - - V V #009 - V - - V - V V #010 - V - - V - V V #011 - V - - V - V V #012 - V - - V - V V #013 - V - - V - V V #014 - - V - - V V V #015 - - V - - V V V #016 - - - V - V V V #017 - - - V - V V V #018 - - - V - V V v ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 Vol. 1, Issue 1, December 2012 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE This study revealed that many utterances of SBY flouted the maxims of the Cooperative Principles (CP). The utterances which flouted the maxims vary in ways and in functions. First, the flouts of CP maxims appeared to be realized linguistically by using hedging. Second, this study also revealed that the maxim of Quantity was mostly flouted in SBY’s interviews. The flouts of the maxim of Quantity indicated three phenomena, i.e. tendency for indirectness, over information, and politically-driven use of language. When, being interviewed, SBY tended to use indirect utterances. SBY’s responses about some questions of the interviewers were frequently exaggerating, indirect, and ambiguous. The use of indirect utterances of SBY seems to be intended to show an implicit positive politeness, to have fun with certain topic, and to avoid the potential face-threatening acts or politically risky topics, and to gain both political and interactional advantage over their political opponents. The consequence of indirectness of SBY’s utterances was that the hearer may not quickly get the main point (Dascal 1983 in Thomas 1995: 47). Such utterances surely were not beneficial for the hearer since it would take too long for him/her to grab what was meant by the speaker. It was also apparent that SBY tended to give over information that was demanded by the interviewer(s) or interlocutor(s). Such a strategy was taken to build his positive image that he was fully capable of certain topics being asked. However, over contribution to a conversation did not always inflict a loss upon the hearer/interviewer because his interlocutors might get advantages through detailed chronological events which was beneficial background especially for a journalist, although not all information given by the interviewee deserved to be published as public’s consumption. By giving more information, SBY politically tried to control any issues as his domain, i.e. that he was in charge of the nation’s problems that he deserved to provide details of an accident. For SBY, the nation’s problems such as Lapindo mudflow, Aceh’s crisis, education, Papua autonomy, foreign policy, etc. need ‘enough’ explanation to satisfy public’s rights to get information and what he had been done. However, in some cases he produced direct, explicit and clear explanation if the substances were in favour of his side. Otherwise, if the utterance were predicted to be threatening his position, it would be conveyed indirectly, implicitly, and ambiguously. The function of flouts of the conversational maxim depends on the traces of flouts. As explained earlier, there were flouts indicated by (1) the use of hedging and indirectness as pragmatic factors; (2) the factors related to the characteristics of interview texts such as the use of opened answer; and (3) the presence of detailed elements. The functions of flouts are therefore discussed in terms of hedging, indirectness, opened answer and detailed element. Hedging may intentionally or unintentionally be employed in both spoken and written language since they are crucially important in communication. Generally, Hedging devices are pragmatic markers that attenuate (or weaken) the strength of an utterance. Hedging occurs as mitigating devices which attenuate the propositional content of the message. However, attenuation can be achieved in FAHRUS ZAMAN FADHLY Flouts Of The Cooperative Principle Maxims In Sby’s Presidential Interviews different ways employing diverse linguistic and non-linguistic strategies (Wilamova, 2005). A conversation which uses hedging or cautious notes tends to flout the maxims of Cooperative Principles since the existence of hedging functioned as a sign of awareness. Hedging is used to indicate that what we are saying may not be totally accurate (Yule, 1996). This phenomenon also applies to SBY when communicating his ideas to journalists, as his interlocutors/interviewers. From the data, there are two functions of hedging identified in SBY’s interviews i.e (1) as a sign of awareness, and (2) as a politeness marker. SBY used hedging strategy is as a sign of awareness that what he is saying may not totally be accurate. The flout of these maxims is--especially maxim of Quality, therefore indicated by his usage of hedging utterance. SBY used hedging as an effective politeness marker. As a President surely he always tries to be a good conversational partner of his own public and tries to minimize a potential threat to his positive face in responses to his utterances. Moreover, as one who is rooted in Javanese culture, he is very aware that in daily communication, Javanese always want to form and keep good relationships with others, avoid embarrassment, misunderstanding or friction, and maintain interpersonal and social harmony. Otherwise, the observance of the maxims is identified by the use of non- hedging which functions to give brief information. Meanwhile, the function of a non-hedging utterance here is also as a sign of awareness and to protect him from the possibility of being embarrassed. A non-hedging utterance was also applied by SBY to serve the function as to make the listeners sure that the information conveyed is really accurate and as informative as it is required. By using hedging, SBY expected to put himself in a comfort zone even though, as a President, he absolutely had certain interest of doing so. For example, in Papua’s case about the use of budget by local authorities, SBY tended to emphasize around how much money was allocated to Papua instead of how much leakages were created which resulted in the unproportional amount of money received by the society. It was well known that Papua was the biggest contributor among other provinces, to Indonesia National Budget (APBN), nevertheless, Papuanese seemed to skip anything from the government. They were not well-treated by the government. SBY’s attitude of not answering the opened questions (usually started by how) could be easily predicted that it was a sign of not wanting to emerge bad images of the local authorities which were for certain, under control of his ministers. SBY was, then, still keep himself with the positive positioning. Nevertheless, he explained several questions which were relevant and in line with what were asked without having to flout the maxim of Quantity, when the topic were about government’s plan to face several problems. The fact showed that SBY wanted to emphasize that as a President of Indonesia, he was indeed having an appropriate capacity in analyzing, planning, and at the same time solving various problems in his governance system. In other words, by giving a clear, appropriate and precise answer to the question, SBY intended to build the positive image of him as a leader. That is what Clarke and Crossland (2006) ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 Vol. 1, Issue 1, December 2012 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE highlighted as how a leader rules his own and other people’s world: by making him and others believe that he can make good deeds. Obeng (1997) also confirms that in talking about potential face- threatening acts or politically risky topics, politician tend to communicate indirectly in order to protect further their own careers and to gain both political and interactional advantage over their political opponents. Indirectness may also be motivated by politeness. Further, Obeng (1997, p. 1) explains that “obliqueness in communication may be expressed through evasion, circumlocution, innuendoes, metaphors, etc”. Language as well as varying social conventions of the relevant culture as well as differing degree of personal danger inherent in the socio-political situation in which politicians operate may also affect the degree of indirectness as well as the kind(s) of obliqueness employed. Related to this study, the use of indirect utterances of SBY has at least three functions i.e. (1) politeness, (2) self- protection, and (3) interestingness. The use of indirect utterances was frequently intended to show an implicit positive politeness. In many utterances, SBY tried to use politeness strategies in expressing his complaint to the public. In some occasions, he promoted people to practice politics without ‘commotion or tumult’. The use of indirect utterance is to avoid making a direct complaint which could hurt the hearer’s feelings and to protect the speaker’s credibility. Pyle (1975) as cited in Dascal (1983) notes that we often employ indirectness because we have two goals which compete. The user of an indirect utterance relies upon his or her interlocutor’s ability to detect the problem in order to understand what the speaker means, the hearer must recognize the conflict of goals. Indirectness was shown when SBY frequently utters his ideas or arguments in explaining about how to handle the social discrepancy between GAM and the Government of Republic of Indonesia. The same case also happens when the President did not directly in answering the interviewer’s question about the educational budget. The desire to make SBY’s language more interesting as exemplified in some data of results. Thomas (1995) explains that interestingness is probably the least significant of other functions of indirectness, but nevertheless its importance should not be underestimated. People may use indirectness because they enjoy having fun with language or certain topic. If the substance of an utterance is beneficial for the speaker, so it will be conveyed directly, explicitly and clearly. Otherwise, if the utterance is predicted to be threatening him or her, it will be conveyed indirectly, implicitly, and ambiguously. There are also some fragments of interview show the opposite, that is, the utterance flouts the maxim of Quantity and it is conveyed directly. This different phenomenon is caused by different conversational implicatures. The indirect utterance which flouted the maxim of Quantity is done to protect the speaker from the possibility of face threatening. The flout of the maxim of Quantity can also be grounded from the use of direct speech and implicit utterance that is functioned to protect him from being addressed as having shortages. A shortage, in this context, is the possibility of raising impression that FAHRUS ZAMAN FADHLY Flouts Of The Cooperative Principle Maxims In Sby’s Presidential Interviews SBY is “one-sided” and unfair. This fact tends to destroy his positive image. They can be seen in table 3. Based on this analysis, it can be fore grounded that the observance of maxim of Quantity are indicated by the use of direct utterance. Meanwhile, the flout of the maxim of Quantity is indicated by the use of indirect utterance. The function of indirectness that flouts the maxims is to express the intention of an utterance implicitly. Examining SBY’s way in responding the use of budget of Papua Government as seen on DATA #014 shows that the President ignores how the budget will be used by the Papua Government, but the most important is that it is used as transparent and accountable as possible. The flouts of CP maxims may also be traced by the use of opened answer. An opened answer tends to flout the maxims. Otherwise, a closed answer tends to observe the maxims. Opened answer has function to protect the speaker’s face. In many responses, SBY applied opened answer to protect the face of his government from public’s humiliating. In some conversations with journalists, SBY tends to use opened answers. The use of opened answer is purposely aimed to maintain carefulness. Since, if SBY responds the closed questions, by only saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’, meanwhile that was not the reality, his bad image will soon be established. Besides, having flouts the CP maxims, SBY can give ideal viewpoints regarding the problems. Based on the data and analysis above can be concluded that the flouts of CP maxims are indicated by the use of opened answers. Dijk (1998) confirms that the presence of detailed elements in an utterance frequently has two functions, i.e. (1) to control the information, and (2) as elaboration of facts or opinions. By using detailed elements, the speaker will exaggeratingly perform information which is beneficial for his/her positive image. Meanwhile, the existence of detailed utterance in interview texts usually has function as elaboration and explanation of facts or opinions. As far as such a function, surely the existence of detailed utterance may be said relevant with the main topic of conversation/interview and, therefore observe the maxim of Manner. However, if the detailed utterance is presented more than is required, its existence frequently used for the sake of its speaker to build positive image. Complete details were deliberately designed by the speaker to create a certain image to the public. The realization of observance and non- observance of the maxims can be seen from the aspect of the detail utterance. In the interviews transcript, a non-detailed utterance tends to observe the maxims, while detailed utterance tends to flout the maxims. The function of flouts of the maxim of Quantity is to control of information that what was being accused by Amien Rais was wrong and put himself as one who was on the right track. Meaning that the result of the 2004 general election is legal and legitimated. Examining SBY’s utterances, almost all of his opinions, arguments, and ideas were delivered in detailed ways. It was difficult to find the data that showed SBY’s utterance without detailed elements. Over elaboration by breaking down information or ideas tended to flout the CP maxims, especially the maxim of Quantity. ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 Vol. 1, Issue 1, December 2012 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE Examining the overall data, the functions of flout of the CP maxims which are most frequently used by SBY is ‘face saving acts’. The functions of flout as a sign of self-protection. Meanwhile, the ways of flout made by SBY were opened answer and detailed utterance. The following table is the illustration of functions and ways of flouts employed in SBY’s utterances. Table 3. The realization of functions and ways of flout in SBY’s presidential interviews Ways Functions Hedging Indirectness Opened Answer Detailed Utterance Face saving act V - V V Self-protection V V V V Awareness V - V V Politeness - V V V Interestingness - V V V Control of information V - V V Elaboration - - V V Ignorance - - V V In the presidential interviews of SBY, the function of a face saving act (FSA) is mostly employed. Followed then by self-protection (four flouts), awareness (three flouts), politeness (one flout), interestingness (one flout), control of information (one flout), elaboration (one flout), and ignorance (one flout). Almost all of the functions aimed to build a positive image of the President. Only the function of ignorance that is not directly related to the contribution of positive image building project. The presence of six flouts in SBY’s utterances which had function as FSA showed that as a president, SBY frequently attempted to maintain his face of government. This was done as an effort of SBY’s image politics in order to survive his government until at the end of his period. The functions of self- protection, awareness, politeness, interestingness, control of information, elaboration are leading to a single function, i.e. an implicit positive image of the president. CONCLUSION This research explored the realization of Cooperative Principle in real life, i.e. SBY’s presidential interviews. The first research problem concerns the flouts of CP maxims in the SBYs presidential interviews. The second research problem concerns the functions of flouts of CP maxims made by the President. Eight functions had been identified, i.e. face saving act, awareness, politeness, self-protection, interestingness, control of information, elaboration and ignorance. The ultimate goal of the flouts of the maxims was to create the speaker’s positive political image over the public. On the basis of the findings above, it can be said that: first, the flout of CP maxims is a daily phenomenon, including at administration sector. The flouts may be triggered by the tendency of the interviews to threaten government credibility since the controversies are still in progress because the problems had not been solved. Second, maxim flouts seems to be largely employed by FAHRUS ZAMAN FADHLY Flouts Of The Cooperative Principle Maxims In Sby’s Presidential Interviews politicians as confirmed by van Dijk (1998). It is indicated by the use of indirectness, open question, and detailed element in their utterances. Generally, the flouts have functions to enhance their credibility. Such functions give a great contribution to build positive political image of the politicians. Third, the study of maxim flouts can explore various social phenomena. It means that Grice’s CP theory is still relevant to analyze utterances in daily interactions. Fourth, flouting the maxim of quantity in journalism is beneficial for conversation members both interviewer and interview. For a journalists as interviewer, get more information from the interviewee is beneficial since they can obtain background information. Therefore, giving less information is not intended to reduce cooperation with the partner of conversation. Such phenomena above also show that CP is not universal. Fifth, the phenomenon of flouts in SBY’s presidential interviews did not reduce the cooperativeness. The over- information and lengthy explanations given by SBY did not make the interviewers (journalists) disappointed. 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