THE COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE IN DEBATE

The study entitled “The Cooperative Principle in Debate” was aimed to investigate the violations to Grice’s conversational maxims that occurred in three randomly chosen talk shows: Padamu Negeri, Save Our Heritage Round Table Dialogue, and Today’s Dialogue. Textual analysis applying the form of qualitative analysis was undertaken to reveal the violating utterances in the three talk shows. It employed Grice’s Cooperative Principle as the framework for data analysis. The study found 108 violations that occurred in three maxims: the maxim of quantity, relevance, and manner. The maxim of quantity was violated 54 times while the violation to the maxim of relevance indicated in six cases. On the other hand, the maxim of manner was violated 55 times. Those three maxims were violated as the speakers were more likely to break the rules of the maxims. They did so as they had to hold on to their opinions strongly to win the debate they are involved in. Prior knowledge and cultural background are assumed to be among the determining factors that have influenced the strategies adopted by the speakers involved in the debates. \n