Maxim of Quantity in the Police Officers’ Speech Acts: (An

Ethnography of Communication)

Ni Wayan Ayu Permata Sari

, Zuriyati

, Yumna Rasyid

Doctoral Student of Language Education Study, Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Jl. Rawamangun Muka, Jakarta, Indonesia

Lecturer at the Language Education Study, Graduate Program of Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Jl. Rawamangun Muka,

Jakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: The Principle of Cooperation, Speech Acts, Police, SPKT, Community, Polres Depok

Abstract: This research is motivated by the authors' interest in the phenomenon that arises regarding speech acts.

Humans in this millennial era more often feel that the speech acts spoken between the speaker and the

speech partner are inaccurate or inappropriate, causing misperceptions. That of course has an impact on the

social relations of the speaker and the speech partner. Therefore, the principle of cooperation exists to see

the extent of the discrepancy of speech acts between the speaker and the speech partner. The principle of

cooperation has four maxims namely the maxim of quantity, quality, relevance, and manner. The focus of

this research was the principle of cooperation with the maxim of quantity in the speech acts between the

Integrated Police Service Center (SPKT) officers and the society. The object of this study was the SPKT

Police officers in Depok with the society who reported all their problems. This research applied an

ethnographic approach. The results of this study obtained as many as 31 maxims of quantity, both spoken by

the police and the society.

1 INTRODUCTION

Speech acts that occur in humans are proof that

humans are social creatures. In essence, social

beings always communicate both verbally and in

writing, directly or indirectly. Speech acts are used

by humans in various social interests, such as:

debating, discussing, negotiating, arguing, etc.

Humans carry out actions and actions using speech

or utterance. This is as stated (Shams & Afghari,

2011) in the International Journal on English

Language Teaching Published by the Canadian

Center of Science and Education which confirms

that people take action using speech or utterance.

Shams & Afghari (2011) said, "People don't produce

the grammatical utterances and words merely to

express themselves; they perform actions via these

utterances".

Mistakes in speech acts will naturally lead to

misunderstandings and quarrels between the speaker

and the speech partner. The impact of speech acts is

a fatal problem and has a direct impact on the social

sustainability of speakers and speech partners.

To create a good speech act, the principle of

cooperation is very necessary in its application. The

cooperative principle theory that is always used by

researchers is the principle of Grice's cooperation.

The maxim contained therein is the maxim of

quantity, the maxim of quality, the maxim of

relevance or relationship, and the maxim of manner.

However, this research is limited to the maxim of

quantity in the speech act of the Integrated Police

Service Center officers at Depok Police Station.

Ethnography of Communication Analysis used is

(Jonz & Saville-Troike, 1984) model which is then

combined with ethnographic analysis of cultural

themes, (Spradley, 1980) to see the cultural aspects

of the maxim of quantity on the principle of

cooperation in speech acts.

344

Permata Sari, N., Zuriyati, . and Rasyid, Y.

Maxim of Quantity in the Police Ofﬁcers’ Speech Acts: An Ethnography of Communication.

DOI: 10.5220/0008998703440348

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Education, Language and Society (ICELS 2019), pages 344-348

ISBN: 978-989-758-405-3

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Cooperative principle

The principle of cooperation is one of the principles

needed to more easily explain the relationship

between meaning and power, and to assist in solving

problems that arise in semantics using a truth-based

approach.

Make your conversational contributions 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 (Grice, 1989). Susanti (2016)

further stated that in the principle of cooperation try

to make our contribution in the conversation as

needed, with the aim or direction of the conversation

that is acceptable in the current discussion situation.

Grice stated that in order to carry out the

principle of cooperation, every speaker must obey

the 4 maxims of conversation "(Wijana & Rohmadi,

2010). Similarly, as expressed by Djajasudarma

(2012) Conversation has a rule called maxims.

Djajasudarma (2012) also states "Some of the

conditions that are considered as language integrity

in conversations are: (1) honesty in the use of

language, (2) having facts about what is said, and (3)

making what is said relevant to the context of

speech". The principle of cooperation is broken

down into four maxims, as suggested by Grice

(1981).

Herbert Paul Grice divides this principle into

four types of maxims, which include.

a. Maxim of Quantity

Provide the right amount of information, i.e.

1. Your information contribution must be as

informative as needed.

2. Your information contribution do not to exceed

what is needed.

b. Maxim of Quality

Try to make your information contribution correct,

namely:

1. Don't say something that you believe is not true.

2. Do not say something that is not convincing

proof of truth.

c. Maxim of Relation

Try to make your words relevant.

d. Maxim of Manner

Try to be easy to understand, namely:

1) Avoid vague statements.

2) Avoid circumcision.

3) Keep it concise (avoid long-winded statements)

4) Try to speak regularly (Leech, 1983).

2.2 Speech acts

Speech acts are part of the speech event and the

speech event is part of the speech situation. Every

speech event is limited to activities or aspects of

activities that are directly governed by rules or

norms for speakers. Utterance or speech act can

consist of one or more speech acts in a speech event

and speech situation (Putrayasa, 2014).

Speech actions are individual symptoms, are

psychological, and are determined by the speaker's

language ability in dealing with certain situations.

Speech act emphasizes the meaning or meaning of

the act, while the speech event emphasizes the

purpose of the event (Suwito, 1983).

Speech act is a communication that is built

through the construction of facts and events, which

is usually done by humans in their respective lives

(Wibowo, 2016). Whereas Mulyana stated that

speech act is a function of language as a means of

action (Mulyana, 2005). All sentences or utterances

spoken by the speaker actually contain certain

communication functions. That is, the speech of a

speaker of course is not merely just talking, but it

contains a specific purpose. Every utterance spoken

by the speaker has a specific communication

purpose and function which is to be conveyed to the

interlocutor in the hope of understanding each other.

Searle in Kasher (1998) suggests that

pragmatically there are at least three types of actions

that can be realized by a speaker, namely locutionary

act, illocutionary act, and act of perlocutionary act.

Locutionary acts can take the form of questions,

statements or instructions. Illocutionary speech acts

are speech acts to inform something and instruct the

speech partners to do something, while speech acts

of perlocutionary are effects or results caused by the

speech to the speech partners. The speech partner

implements what the speaker wants.

A speech besides functions to say or inform

something, can also be used to do something. How

this can happen, speech acts that are formed are

illocutionary acts of speech. The illocutionary act is

called The Act of Doing Something (Rahardi, 2009;

Sumarsono, 2009). Illocutionary action is what will

be achieved by the speaker when saying something

and can be an act of expressing, promising,

apologizing, threatening, predicting, commanding,

asking, etc.

2.3 Ethnography of Communication

This research was conducted with a qualitative

approach. This research is also based on social and

Maxim of Quantity in the Police Ofﬁcers’ Speech Acts: An Ethnography of Communication

345

cultural research both anthropologically and

sociologically. Specifically, this study concentrates

on ethnographic research. Ethnographic research has

an important role in the study of anthropology,

sociology, and linguistics.

Ethnographic research is more focused on the

viewpoints and patterns of community life and also

includes language behavior in communicating and

interacting, as well as the language system used. The

diversity of communication and communication

practices is an inseparable part of what we know and

do as members of a particular culture (Schiffrin,

1994: 137).

Hymes presents a SPEAKING method that can

be done by applying the concept of these

communication units as communication taxonomies,

as follows.

S (Setting, scene): time, place and other physical

conditions

P (Participants): psychological balance in

settings

E (Ends): purpose-output / purpose-goal

A (ActSequences): form and content of the

message

K (Keys): conversational, serious, or casual tone

I (Instrumentalities): channels, writing,

telegraphs, dialects, standard languages

N(Norms): interpretation norms/ interpretation

norms

G (Genre): stories, advertisements, etc.

Emzir (2013) asserts that ethnography is a

method of social science research. This research

strongly believes in up-close, personal experience,

and possible participation, not just observations by

researchers trained in the art of ethnography.

Ethnographic focal points include intensive study of

culture and language, intensive study of a single

field or domain, as well as a combination of

historical, observational, and interview methods.

Ethnographic research uses three types of data

collection, namely interviews, observation, and

documents. An interactional sociolinguistic

approach highlights the broader socio-cultural

context in which it takes place. However, this

approach pays special attention to linguistic and

non-linguistic instructions that explain how people

interpret conversation interactions in an

ethnographic context.

3 METHODS

This research is a qualitative research using

communication ethnography method. This means

collecting data, processing data, analyzing data, and

presenting data objectively about the maxim of the

quantity of the principle of cooperation in speech

acts at the police officers at the Integrated Police

Service Center. In qualitative research, researchers

are key instruments, therefore, researchers must

have a provision of theory and broad insight so that

they can prepare various questions, be able to

analyze and rebuild research objects so that they

become clearer. The ethnographic communication

method used serves to describe the maxim quantity

in SPKT police officers' speech patterns at Depok

Police Station.

Schiffrin argues that communication

ethnography is an approach to discourse based on

anthropology and linguistics. The concept of

ethnography is an empirical and theoretical approach

that aims to obtain in-depth descriptions and analysis

of culture based on intensive data in the field.

4 FINDINGS

The findings from the study of quantity maxim in

the speech act of the police officers at the Integrated

Police Service (SPKT) at Depok Police Station can

be explained as follows:

Table 1: The Speech Act of The Police Officers at The Integrated Police Service (SPKT)

DATE

SPEECH ACTS TRANSCRIPTION

MAXIM OF QUANTITY

(PRINCIPLE OF

COOPERATION)

22 January 2019

M: “Jadi sebenarnya masyarakat itu kalo mau apa-apa ke sini dulu ya

Pak," [So actually, if you want anything, come here first, sir]

P : "Iya" [Okay]

M: "Jadi bukan hanya di pos eee pos nya aja" [So it's not just the

police station]

P : “Pos nya mana maksudnya?” [Which post does it mean?]

M : “Pos depan itu Pak” [The post in front, sir]

P : “Kalo di sana paling nanya aja" [If you are there, just ask]

M : “Paling nanya he'eh [It’s only asking]

√

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346

P: “Saya paling ndak perlu, ohh itu deh sebentar” [It is not necessary

to ..., hold on]

M : “Ohh”

√

22 January 2019

M : "Iya, terus Saya mau lapor Pak kehilangan KTP misalnya di sini

SPK nya, Pak Saya kemarin kehilangan motor di parkir di sini juga

gitu" [Yes, then I want to report the loss of the ID card, for example

here the SPK. Sir, I lost my motorcycle yesterday in the parking lot

here too]

P : "Hmm"

√

22 January 2019

P 1: "Tunggu nanya dulu, duduk Mas" [Just a second, ask first. Have a

sit, Sir]

P 2: "Duduk" [Have a sit]

P 1: " Silakan duduk, mau laporan apa?" [Just have a sit, what would

you like to report]

M: "Kehilangan buku kredit" [I lost my credit book]

P 1: "Buku tabungan" [Bank account book?]

M : "Heeh" [Yeah]

P 2: "Bank apa?" [What bank?]

M : "BRI"

P2:"BRI 124******64871**"

(Suara ketikan) [typing sounds]

P2: "Dari cabang mana ini?" [What branch of Bank?]

M: "Cabang dari di daerah Subang" [The branch of Subang]

P2: "Daerah Subang" [from Subang]

(Suara ketikan) [typing sounds]

P 2 : "KTP nya, tanda tangan di sini ya. Ini berlakunya 14 hari ya jadi

diurus cepet" [Your ID card, sign here. This is valid for 14 days, so be

taken care of quickly]

M : "14 hari" [fourteen days]

P 2 : "Iya" [Yes]

M : "Ini aja ya. Makasih ya" [Is it all? Thanks]

P 2 : "Iyaaa [Yes]

√

22 January 2019

P: "Silakan mas. Mau laporan apa?" [Yes, please, Sir. What would you

like to report?]

M:"Laporan kehilangan ATM mba" [I’d like to report of my ATM lost,

Madem]

P: "ATM? Bukunya bawa?" [ATM? Do you bring the account book?]

M: "Buku apaan. Tabungan?" [What book, the Bank book?]

P: "Iya tabungan, sama KTP ya"

M: "Iya" [Yes, the book and your ID]

(Suara ketikan) [Typing sounds]

M: "Ini udah mba?" [Here you are]

(Heran) [surprised]

P: "Udah" [finished]

M: "Makasih mba" [Thanks, Madam]

P: "Iya" [Yes]

√

P1: "Duduk" [Have a sit]

M : "BPKB saya kan hilang nih" [I’ve lost my BPKB]

P1: "He'eh" [aha]

M: "Terus mau bikin surat kehilangan BPKB nya itu syaratnya apa aja

ya" [So, I’d like to make the letter of lost]

P1:"Syaratnya banyak" [Some conditionals]

M: "He'eh. Tapi itu atas nama bapak saya" [Aha, but it’s on behalf of

my father]

P1:"Gak ada masalah" [No problem]

M : "Hmm terus ini kalo udah semua bawa ke sini lagi atau gimana?"

[So, after this, all these get to bring here again or what?]

P 2 : "Iya, dilengkapi dulu syaratnya" [Sure, make all the conditionals

complete first]

M : "He'eh" [Aha]

√

Maxim of Quantity in the Police Ofﬁcers’ Speech Acts: An Ethnography of Communication

347

5 CONCLUSIONS

Based on the findings obtained, the conclusion in

this study is that there are 31 maxims of quantity

produced from the people's speech acts at the Depok

SPKT on January 22, 2019. Both the police and the

reporters use more speech acts that contain maxim

of quantity. The maxim of quantity is contained in

the Grice's cooperation principle. Maxim of quantity

is used more by the police officers to provide a brief

and understandable explanations for people who are

confused about the problems they are facing.

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