conversational implicature on abc interview...
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CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE ON ABC INTERVIEW BETWEEN
BARBARA WALTERS AND SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR AL- ASSAD
A Thesis
Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty
in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for
The Degree of Strata One
DEBI NOVIANINGRUM
NIM. 1110026000018
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT
LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
JAKARTA
2015
i
ABSTRACT
Debi Novianingrum, Conversational Implicature on ABC Interview between
Barbara Walters and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. Thesis: English Letters
Department, Letters and Humanities Faculty, State Islamic University of Syarif
Hidayatullah Jakarta, February2015.
The purpose of this research is to analyze the non-observance maxims of
co-operative principle theory on ABC Interview between Barbara Walters and
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, which non-observance maxims are mostly
found in formal or informal interview. In this case, the aims of this research are:
(1) to discover the non-observance maxims on ABC Interview between Barbara
Walters and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad interviews script (2) to find the
implied meaning of the utterance by observing the non-observance maxims on
ABC Interview between Barbara Walters and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad
interviews script.
The method of this research is using qualitative case study. The research
questions will be answered in analytical description. The object study is picked up
by official website media online then the writer classified the non-observance
maxim based on the co-operative principle maxim. The non-observance of co-
operative principle maxim is analyzed using Gricean Theory which observing
non-observance maxims can discover the implied meaning of utterance.
The result of this research shows that there are sixteen data collected from two
interview scripts, those collected data resulted the non-observance maxim which
mostly found the flouting maxim of quantity. The non-observance maxims of co-
operative principle consist of four types, but only three types of non-observance
maxim found in those interviews. By flouting maxim of quantity, the speaker tries
to say his statement carefully and clearly, because speaker does not want to make
misleading to other people considering he have interview to seek some support for
their mission.
Keywords: Co-operative principle, P.H Grice, Conversational Implicature,
Interviews
ii
APPROVAL SHEET
CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURE ON ABC INTERVIEW BETWEEN
BARBARA WALTERS AND SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD
A Thesis
Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty
in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for
The Degree of Strata One
DEBI NOVIANINGRUM
NIM. 1110026000018
Approved by:
Advisor I Advisor II
Dr. M. Farkhan, M.Pd. Moh. Iqbal Firdaus, M.Hum.
NIP. 19650919 200003 1 002
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT
LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
JAKARTA
2015
iii
LEGALIZATION
Name : Debi Novianingrum
Nim : 1110026000018
Title : Conversational Implicature on ABC Interview between Barbara
Walters and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad
The thesis has been defended before The Faculty of Letters and Humanities‟
Examination Committee on February 16th, 2015. It has been accepted as a partial
fulfillment of the degree of strata one.
Jakarta, February 16th, 2015
The Examination Committee
Signature Date
Drs. A. Saefuddin, M. Pd. (Chair Person) __________ _________
NIP. 19640710 199303 1 006
Elve Oktafiyani, M. Hum. (Secretary) __________ _________
NIP. 19781003 200112 2 002
Dr. M. Farkhan, M. Pd (Advisor I) __________ _________
NIP. 19650919 200003 1 002
M. Iqbal Firdaus, M. Hum (Advisor II) __________ _________
Hilmi Akmal, M. Hum (Examiner I) __________ _________
NIP. 19760918 200801 1 009
Yenny Rahmawati, M.Ed (Examiner II) __________ _________
iv
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by
another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the
award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher
learning, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text.
Jakarta, February 16th,
2015
Debi Novianingrum
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim
In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent and the most Merciful.
All praises be to Allah SWT, the Lord of universe, who had blessed the
writer in finishing this research. May peace and salutation be upon the honorable
prophet Muhammad SAW and all of his family, companions and adherents.
The writer‟s deep gratitude goes to her beloved parents, Subagio Utomo
and Retno Dwi Larasati for all their great love, patience, support and prayer.
Thanks for being the strength and the best supporter of her life. The writer also
want to give her gratitude to Mr. Dr. H. Muhammad Farkhan, M.Pd, as the
Assistant of Dean of Letters and Humanities Faculty and her first advisor; Mr.
Moh. Iqbal Firdaus, M.Hum, as her second advisor for their time, help, patience
and motivation from the first to the final level of this research.
The gratitude is also dedicated to Prof. Dr. Oman Fathurahman, M.Hum,
the Dean of Letters and Humanities Faculty; Mr. Drs. Saefuddin, M.Pd, the Head
of English Letters Department; Mrs. Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum, the Secretary of
English Letters Department; and all the lecturers of English Letters Department
who had taught her during her study at UIN Jakarta.
In addition, the writer would like to give appreciation to the following
friends and people, namely:
vi
1. Tenri‟s Family. Thank you for the love,support, facilities that given to
the writer.
2. Hwang Chansung. Thanks for the positive energy that he gives to pass
the hardest time.
3. HAHA Family. Thanks for always bring the laugh and happiness
during these four years.
4. Yuliana Kuslambangningrum. Thanks for being the best for these four
years, from first until last fighting.
5. Akram Husni Kamal. Thanks for teach her how to be understanding
patient lovely girl.
6. With all due respect, especially to all friends and people who cannot be
mentioned one by one.
May Allah always bless and protect them wherever they are, Aamiin.
Hopefully, this research will be useful for the people who read it.
Jakarta, February 2015
The Writer
vii
LIST OF TABLE
Table 1 : The types of The non-observance maxims on ABC Interview
between Barbara Walters and Syrian President Bashar Al-
Assad…...........................................................................................27
Table II : The unobserved of maxims on ABC Interview between Barbara
Walters and Syrian President Bashar Al-
Assad…...........................................................................................28
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ..........................................................................................................i
APPROVAL SHEET............................................................................................ii
LEGATIZATION.................................................................................................iii
DECLARATION...................................................................................................iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT....................................................................................v
LIST OF TABLE.................................................................................................vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS...................................................................................viii
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................1
A. Background of the Study........................................................................... 1
B. Focus of the Research................................................................................ 4
C. Research Question..................................................................................... 5
D. Significance of the Research......................................................................5
E. Research Methodology...............................................................................5
1. Objective of the Study....................................................................6
2. Technique Collecting Data and Data Analysis...............................6
3. Instrument of the Research.............................................................7
4. Unit of Analysis..............................................................................7
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ....................................................................8
A. Previous Research......................................................................................8
B. Concept .....................................................................................................11
1. Discourse Analysis .......................................................................11
2. Pragmatics…...........…..................................................................13
3. Co-operative Principle ..................................................................14
4. Implicature.................................................................................... 16
CHAPTER III
DATA ANALYSIS.............................................................................................. 25
ix
A. Data Description .....................................................................................25
B. Data Analysis ..........................................................................................26
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION............................................................ 41
A. CONCLUSION....................................................................................... 41
B. SUGGESTION........................................................................................ 42
REFERENCES.... ..............................................................................................44
APPENDICES ....................................................................................................46
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
In social life, the function of language is as communication tool1. In
communication, language is used to express the argument, request, promise, and
soon. There are many ways to communicate, one of them is conversation.
Conversation occurs between the speaker and the listener, where the listener
understands the speaker‟s message. Conversation is one of the most popular uses
of human language2. It can deliver the message to each other in the form of idea,
feeling, thought, and emotion easily.
In conversation, the speaker and listener produce utterances and
exchange information, therefore both of speaker and listener should cooperative
each other in order to avoid misunderstanding and make an ideal conversation. In
pragmatics, the way to understand how to make a perfect conversation can be seen
in Cooperative Principle theory proposed by Grice. Based on Grice in Yule
(1996), “Make your conversational contribution 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 engage3.” To make a good conversation, the speaker and listener
should have one interpretation in order to avoid misunderstanding.
Misunderstanding often occurs when the listener does not understand the meaning
1 Abdul, Chaer, Linguistik Umum. (Jakarta:PT.Rineka Cipta, 2012). p.30
2Anthony J. Liddicoat, An Introduction to Conversation Analysis. (London: Continuum,
2007). p.1 3 George Yule, Pragmatics. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). p.37
2
of the speaker‟s utterance. Consequently, the listener makes a misinterpretation of
the speaker utterance. Sometimes, the speaker is not just talking or
communicating but the speaker delivers an implicit meaning to other person. The
speaker usually put an implicit meaning in a utterance which different with the
speaker says. It is an additional conveyed meaning, called an implicature4.
Implicature is a component of speaker meaning that constitutes an aspect of what
is meant in a speaker‟s utterance without being part of what is said5. In other hand,
the speaker intends to communicate is more invisible than the speaker directly
expresses.
As Grice states that what people say and what people mean are often
different matters. So that the listener need to understand a knowledge of four
maxim that allows listener to draw inferences about the speaker‟s intention and
implied meaning. The meaning conveyed by speaker and recovered as a result of
the listener inferences, is known as conversational implicature6
. There are
cooperative principle of conversation and elaborated in four sub-principle called
maxim which defined by Grice such as maxim of quality, maxim of quantity,
maxim of relevance, and maxim of manner7. In the using of language every day,
people often use conversational implicature to express a specific purpose8
.
Conversational implicture appears not only in every day talk but also in formal
interview. Interview is a conversation between a journalist or radio or television
4 Ibid. p.35
5 Horn, Laurence R. “Implicature”. The Handbook of Pragmatics. (Australia: Blackwell
Publishing, 2005). p.3 6
Joan Cutting, Pragmatics and Discourse: A Source Book of Student, (London:
Routledge,2002). p.36 7Ibid, p.37
8Jaccob. L. Mey, An Introduction Pragmatics. (United Kingdom: Blackwell,2001).p. 45
3
presenter and a person of public interest used as the basis of a broadcast or
publication9.
For this research focused on the transcript ABC interview bwtween
Barbara Walters and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad interview. And this
research will be analyzed with discourse analysis because it studies of the
meaning of words in context, analyzing the parts of meaning that can be explained
by knowledge of the physical and social world, and the socio-psychological
factors influencing communication, as well as the knowledge of the time and
place in which the words uttered or written10
.
Barbara Walters is an American broadcast journalist, author and
television personality. She has hosted morning television show Today and The
View, the television news magazine 20/20, co-anchored at ABC Evening News,
and was contributor to ABC News11
. She is the only American journalist who was
able to interview Syrian President since the Syrian crisis. Meanwhile, Bashar al-
Assad is the president of Syrian who has an authoritarian regime. It is inherited to
him since his father Hafez Assad be a president at that time. Syrian President
Bashar al- Assad required to step down because Assad family has lead the country
over 20 years. His people assume that Assad will make the dynasty to control
Syria but he refuses to change his position as president. So that, he becomes a
controversial Middle East country president and United Nation has given a
warning solve the issue in his country. In his interview, Assad has a defense to
stand on his position and he does not say it explicitly. This reason quite interest to
9 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/interview
10 Joan Cutting, Op. Cit, p.2
11 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Walters
4
analyze because there are many non-observance maxim of cooperative principle
on verbal interaction in these interview. For example:
Walters : Do you feel now that you still have the support of your
people?
Assad : if you don‟t have the support of the people you cannot be
in this position.
The conversation above, Assad seems does non-observance maxim of
cooperative principle because he does flouting maxim of relation by not
answering the question relevantly. Walter‟s question needs „yes‟ or „no‟ answer
but Assad replay it with a sentence which contain „yes‟ or „no‟ answer. By
answering „if you don‘t have the people........be in this position‟ Assad justifies
that he has people to support him as President but he does not say it directly.
The example of conversation above clearly indicates that implicit
meaning often found in this interview transcript. Therefore, this research quite
attract to discuss because involved influential people who have a great passion to
achieve their aims even though the world claim that he is a dictator. He also has
good accomplishment to persuade people for some support to raise their goals.
B. Focus of the Research
This research focused on discourse and exceedingly on maxim of
Cooperative Principle that are not observed to induce conversational implicatures
and to describe the intended meaning in dialogue on Bashar Al-Assad and Barbara
Walters “ABC‟s Barbara Walters and Syrian President Bashar Al- Assad” which
posted on official ABC News website
http://abcnews.go.com/International/transcript-abcs-barbara-walters-interview-
syrian-president-bashar/story?id=15099152
5
C. Research Question
Regarding to the background of study above, the research questions may
be formulated as follows:
1. What kind of non-observance maxim of cooperative principle that induce
conversational implicature in the dialogue?
2. How is the non-observance of maxim generating conversational
implicatures in ABC‟s Barbara Walters and Syrian President Bashar Al-
Assad interview?
3. What are the meanings of conversational implicatures describe in the
dialogue?
D. Significance of the research
This research is expected to contribute some advantages for society
especially the student who will do the same research to expand the knowledge
about analysis implied meaning. In addition, this research is practically expected
to one of useful references for the reader who want to perform a further study
related to pragmatics study especially in the use of conversational implicature.
E. Research Methodology
This research uses the qualitative case study. According to Merriam (1998),
as quoted by Nunan, this method used to define intensively, holistic description
and analysis of a single entity, phenomenon, or social unit. Case studies are
particularistic, descriptive, and heuristic and rely heavily on inductive
6
reasoning in handling multiple data sources12
. Data will be analyzed of the
Cooperative Principle that is not observance maxims to draw conversational
implicature in the dialogue ABC Interview between Barbara Walters and
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad interview on ABC, Dec 27 2011.
1. Objective of the study
Based on the research questions above, the purposes of this research are:
a. To know the types of non-observance maxims of Cooperative
Principle that generate conversational implicature in the dialogue
ABC‟s Barbara Walters and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
interview.
b. To find the reason why the utterances can be said as the implicatures.
c. To describe the meaning of the conversational implicatures.
2. Technique of Data Collecting and Data Analysis
This research uses bibliography research method. Bibliography is
using written sources to gain the data.13
Data gained by using data card
which to the Grice Cooperative Principle. In this research the data are
collected by following steps:
a. Read the transcript text.
b. Give mark the utterances that might be conceived
conversational implicatures.
c. Write the data gained and numbered into data card.
12
David Nunan, Research Method in Language Learning. (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1992). p.77 13
Edi Subroto, Pengantar Metoda Penelitian Linguistik Struktural. (Surakarta:Sebelas
Maret University Press, 1992). p. 77
7
After the data have been collected, the next step is data analysis. it
is to get specific data that focused to analyzed. The steps are taken as
follows:
a. Classify and descripting the utterances to maxim of
Cooperative Principle.
b. Descripting the intended meaning of the conversational
implicature.
c. Make the conclusion based on the description analysis.
3. Instrument of the research
This research uses data card as instrument of the research to classify
and identify the data which gained from interview transcript. Then, the data
which contained non-observance maxims of Grice‟s Cooperative Principle
are analyzed.
4. Unit of Analysis
The unit of analysis of this research is the transcript an interview of
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad entitled “ABC‘s Barbara Walters and
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad” that downloaded from ABC News
official website.
8
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Previous Research
This analysis has been conducted by some writers in the previous research.
The writer discuss the same topic and theory with previous research belongs to
Deni Iskandar‟s thesis (2010) from English Letters Department State Islamic
University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta entitled “The Gricean Maxim Analysis in
the Script of the Simpsons Season 5” which is related to this research. The thesis
identifies the conversational maxim in the scope of Pragmatics study especially of
the Gricean Maxim on Simpsons Season 5 movie script. The purpose of the thesis
is to discover the types of the maxims which were written in the script and to
categorize the violation or deviation toward Gricean maxims. The writer uses a
qualitative method by collecting and studying the data. The data was analyzed
through descriptive analysis technique14
.
Secondly, a similar study is also made by Haiyan Wang from College of
Foreign Languages Qingdao University of Science and Technology China (2011),
in his journal entitled “Conversational Implicature in English Listening
Comprehension”15
. This journal focuses on learning listening comprehension
using conversational implicature. Haiyan uses Grice theory of co-operative
principle to improve the listening ability both in the non-English learning major
14
Deni, Iskandar, “The Gricean Maxim Analysis in the script of the Simpsons Season 5”,
unpublished undergraduate thesis (Jakarta: English Letters Department, State Islamic University
Syarif Hidayatullah, 2010) 15
Wang, Haiyan, “Conversational Implicature in English Listening Comprehension”,
(China: College of Foreign Languages, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, 2011),
vol.2
9
and the English major. Mostly, English learners are hard to understand the implied
meaning in a sentence when they are given a piece of listening material although
they have mastered vocabulary and grammatical rules. Hence, he thought that
learning such pragmatics study especially Gricean theory is help the learners
better understand implicated meaning in English listening.
The next previous research is made by Nuur Alfi Laelah‟s thesis (2012)
from English Letters Department State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah
Jakarta entitled “The Humor and Non-Humor of Grice‟s Conversational
Implicature in the Transcript of Bridesmaids Movie”. This thesis is aimed at
knowing the non-observance maxims, the humor and non-humor implicature in
Bridesmaids movie transcript based on Grice Cooperative Principle and theory
humor of Salvatore Attardo. The writer uses descriptive qualitative method to
describe and identify the conversational maxim. From the research, the writer can
classify humor and non humor effect by finding non-observance of maxims on the
Bridesmaids Movie transcript16
.
The fourth previous research is made by Noviani‟s thesis (2012) from
English Letters Department State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta
entitled “Conversational Implicature in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Movie”.
The goal of this research is to find the implied meaning by analyzing non-
observance maxim of conversation on The Boy in the Striped Pajamas movie. The
writer uses descriptive qualitative as method of this research. The conclusion, the
16
Nur, Alfi Laela, “The Humor and Non-Humor of Grice‟s Conversational Implicature in
the transcript of Brides maids Movie”, unpublished undergraduate thesis (Jakarta: English Letters
Department, State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah, 2012)
10
writer identifies the Gricean maxim were applied and violated in the The Boy in
the Striped Pajamas Movie transcript17
.
Besides, a same topic was described by Ahmed Muhammed Saleh Alduais
jounal (2012) from Department of English Language King Saud University
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia entitled “Conversational Implicature (Flouting the Maxim):
Applying Conversational Maxim on Example Taken Non-Standard Arabic
Language, Yemeni Dialect, an Idiolect Spoken at IBB city. The purpose of this
journal is to investigate the fact that conversational implicature theory by Grice
can be universal and applied to all languages of the world, especially in idiolect
from Arabic 18
Language. The writer uses descriptive qualitative method to
describe the data in this research. He recorded the interview between the writer
and the interviewee who speaks non-standard Arabic idiolect and transcript it into
English. Then, the writer analyzes the data using Grice‟s theory of co-operative
principle. The writer found that implicature theory can be applied in universal
language especially Arabic language.
The five topics above explain the similarities with the topic of this
research, which discuss about conversational implicature using Grice theory of co-
operative principle. Some writers use movie transcript as their object study and
the rest of writer uses an interview as object study. In this research, the writer uses
an interview transcripts as the object study, but it will be different with the
17
Noviani, “Conversational Implicature in the Boy in the Striped Pajamas Movie”,
unpublished undergraduate thesis ( Jakarta: English Letters Department, State Islamic University
Syarif Hidayatullah, 2012) 18
Ahmed, Mohammad Saleh Alduais, “Conversational Implicature (Flouting the maxims):
Applying Conversational Maxims on Examples Taken from Non-Standard Arabic Language,
Yemeni Dialect, an Idiolect Spoken at IBB City‖, (Riyadh: Department of English Language, King
Saud University (KSU), 2012), Vol.3
11
interview of the example above because it uses a formal interview transcript
ABC‟s Barbara Walters and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad published by ABC
News official website. Meanwhile, the example of A. Muhammed Saleh Alduais
uses standard daily activity interview that obtained from recording the
interviewee.
Therefore, this research is needed to discuss because it uses an interview
transcript involve influential people that claimed as a dictator. As we know,
Bashar Al-Assad is claimed as a dictator by Western goverment who led his
country over 10 years but overall Assad family have led Syria over 20 years. In
the interview, Assad tries to convey some message about a reason to maintain his
position even though there are an uprising around the country. Besides his regime,
Assad also has power to cover his country to against the rebel who oppose him.
The writer hopes that the reader will know the character of Bashar Al-Assad who
have a great spirit to struggle for their purpose on their life by analyzing the
interview transcript.
B. Concept
1. Discourse Analysis
For many particular linguist, “discourse” has generaly been defined as
anything “beyond the sentence”. And for others discourse is the study of language
use19
. Discourse has contextual meaning, it is to identify, interpret meaning, such:
interwords, intersentence, interparagraph, those are must be coherent for
19
Deborah Schiffrin, et.al, The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. (Massachusette:
Blackwell, 2001). p.1
12
understood by the reader or listener20
. There are definitions of discourse in many
linguistics books on the subject now open with a survey of definition. For
example Jaworski and Coupland (1999: 1-3) include ten definition from a wide
range of sources. They all, fall into the three main categories noted: 1) anything
beyond the sentence, 2) language use, and 3) a broader range of social practice
that includes nonlinguistics and nonspecific instances of language21
. The other
source states discourse is a connected strecth of language (especially spoken
language) usually bigger than a sentence, and particularly viewed as interaction
between speakers or between writer and reader22
.
Stubbs refers the term discourse analysis as the attempts to study the
organization of language above the sentence or above the clause; and therefore to
study large linguistic unit such as conversational exchanges or written text23
. In
the other hand, discourse analysis is the study of the higher level organization of
sentences which coherent to interpret contextual meaning of the text.
A discourse can be analyzed by using pragmatics as tools because of both
of them has a context as the focuse of the study. Context is analysing part of
meaning that can be explained by knowledge of the physical and social world, and
the socio-psychological factors influencing communication, as well as the
knowledge of the time and place in which the words are uttered or written24
. The
second feature that pragmatics and discourse analysis have in common is that they
20
Eriyanto. “Analisis Wacana.” (Yogyakarta: LKiS Yogyakarta, 2001). p.5 21
Deborah Schiffrin, et. Al, Op, Cit. p.1 22
Sylvia Chalker and Edmund Weiner, Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1994), p.118 23
Paul Baker, Key Term in Discourse Analysis, (New York: Continuum International
Publishing Group, 2011), p.32 24
Joan Cutting, Op, Cit. p.2
13
both look at discourse, or the use of language, and text, or pieces of spoken or
written discourse, concentrating on how stretches of language become meaningful
and unified for their users25
. From the relations above, discourse can be applied in
analyzing Grice Cooperative Principle theory because both of them using context
to interpret meaning in a utterance.
2. Pragmatics
Semantic and pragmatics are two parts of linguistic study which discuss
about meaning of the utterance what we say or hear, and what we speak or write.
In linguistics, there is a distinction between two of them. Leench states that
semantics is defined purely as property of expression in a given language, in
abstraction from particular situation, speakers, or hearers26
. While pragmatics
approaches to studying language‟s relation to the contextual background
features27
.
Austin in Hickey defines pragmatics has focused on the condition which
permit speakers and writers to achieve what they want to achieve by bringing
about certain modifications in the behaviour, knowledge, attitudes or beliefs of
others28
. It means that pragmatics studies what language users mean.
Pragmatics is branch of linguistic study which explores the role that context
plays in the interpretation of what people say29
. According to Verhaar in Kunjana,
Pragmatics learns about anything that includes the language structure as a media
25
ibid 26
Geoffrey N.Leech, Principles of Pragmatics ( London: Longman,1983). p.6 27
Joan Cutting, Op, Cit. p.1 28
Leo Hickey, Pragmatics of Translation Topic in Translation 12 (England: Multilingual
Matters, 1998) p. 4 29
Charles, F. Mayer, Introducing English Lingustics (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press,2010). p.48
14
of communication between the speaker and the listener as well as an extra-
linguistic sign language reference30
. Mey states Pragmatic is a study about the use
of language in human communication as determined by the condition of society31
.
The basic concentration of pragmatics is how the people interpret and understand
what others said in a particular context. Sometimes sentences or utterances cannot
be understood word by word, but altogether within their context or circumstances.
Levinson states the term pragmatics covers both context dependent aspects of
language structure and principle of language usage and understanding that have
nothing or little to do with linguistics structure.32
It means pragmatics tries to
convey the intended meaning of sentences or utterances through context. So that,
understanding the sentences or utterances requires a great deal more than knowing
the words uttered and the linguistics structure between them, but understanding
sentences or utterances must have relation with the context.
3. Co-operative Principle
The speaker and the listener in making conversation should have cooperation
each other. It needs a collaboration to avoid a misleading conversation. However,
this kind of cooperation is simply one way to make a conversation successful.
When the speaker and the listener are cooperative, they intend to communicate
something which is more than just what the words mean but there is an additional
meaning. Then, it is what we call as an implicature.33
The notion of implicature
both conversation and conventional was originated by the Oxford philosopher
30
Kunjana Rahardi, Pragmatik : Kesantunan Imperatif Bahasa Indonesia (Jakarta:
Erlangga,2005). p.47 31
Jacob, L. Mey, Op. Cit,. p.6 32
Stepen C.Levinson, Pragmatics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1983). p.9 33
George Yule, Op.Cit, p.35
15
H.P. Grice.34
According to Mey, a conversational implicature is something which
is implied in conversation or something which is left implicit meaning in actual
language use.35
Conversational implicature is derived from a general principle of
conversation and a number of maxim which must be fulfilled by the speaker in
order to make a good communication. The general principle also known as co-
operative principle.36
The definition of co-operative principle, Grice proposes
―The co-operative principle: make your conversational contribution 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 engage.”37
It means that by obeying co-operative principle, the utterances will be as it
needed in conversation. The fulfilment of co-operative principle in a speaker‟s
utterance will make the utterance easy to be understood because both of the
speaker and the listener get a same assumption in conversation. The co-operative
principle consists of four maxim, such as:
a) Maxim of Quantity
To fulfil maxim of quantity, the speaker should make the utterances as
required for the topic being discuss. The speaker not allowed to make his
utterances more informative than is required. This maxim relates to the
amount of information to be provided38
.
34
Yan Huang, Pragmatics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). p.23 35
Jacob, L. Mey, Op. Cit, p. 45 36
Gillian Brown and George Yule, Discourse Analysis (Cmabridge: Cmabridge University
Press, 1983), p.31 37
Ibid
38 Paul Grice, The Studies in the Way of Words, (United States of America: Harvard
University Press, 1989), p.26
16
b) Maxim of Quality
To accomplish maxim of quality, the speaker is required to tell the
truth. The speaker is not allowed to say something he knows it is false.
c) Maxim of relation
To observe this maxim, the speaker is assumed to be saying something
that is relevant to what has been said before.39
d) Maxim of Manner
The speaker should be brief, orderly, avoid obscurity and ambiguity
to fulfil this maxim.40
Grice said that the listeners assume which speakers observe the co-operative
principle, that it is the knowledge of the four maxim that allows the listeners to
draw inferences about the speaker‟s intention and implied meaning.
4. Implicature
People may break the Co-operative principle for some reasons. One of them
is that the speakers want to imply something beyond what they say. According to
Grice, the participant in a talk exchange may fail to fulfill a maxim in various
ways. They may flouting a maxim, violating a maxim, opting out, or infringing.41
So that, the Implicature occurs because the speakers cannot fulfill a maxim of Co-
operative Principle.
39
Joan Cutting, Op. Cit, p. 35 40
Ibid, p.36 41
Paul Grice, Op, Cit. p.30
17
a) Flouting
A flout comes out when a speaker blatantly fails to observe a maxim,
without any intention of deceiving or misleading, but only look for a
meaning which different from the expressed meaning.42
The speaker who flouts the maxim of quantity seems to give less or too
much information.43
For example:
(1) A: well, what do you think about this restaurant?
B: the beverage are delicious....
B does not say that the dessert and main food are delicious, but B knows
that A will understand that implication, because A asks about the
restaurant and only gets told part of it.
Another example:
(2) X: Have any of the supervisors been in?
Y: Oh yeah, I‘ve had a lot of visitors lately um I went
downstairs to get something to eat and somebody was
waiting at the door today
X: Who was it?
Y: John Wood, do you know him?............
Speaker Y for instance, directly answers X‟s question about whether
any supervisors had come in. Y provides slightly more information than
necessary, saying that may visitor had come in. But this extra information
does not exceed the amount of detail that would be provided in a
conversation of this nature.44
The speaker Y gives more information
42 Ibid
43
Joan Cutting, Op. Cit, p.37
44 Charles F. Mayer, Op.Cit, p.57
18
about X‟s question may be, Y want to tell the X that his event is
successful because he find the supervisor which he looks for.
The speaker may flout the maxim of quality. They may say something
which they do not have enough evidence. The most important to indicate
a flouting maxim of quality is using of inaccurate expression in
utterance.45
For example:
(3) Dio : As far as I know, Chan has graduated from college.
Kai : I may be mistaken, but I thought i saw him working
at this restaurant.
Sehun : I‘m not sure if this is right, but I heard that he
celebrated the graduation in a great hotel in this
town.
Dio : what is wrong with him? He did not invite us.
Here, the speaker does not say something totally accurate. It is proof
that Kai says „I may be mistaken‟ and Sehun says „I‘m not sure‘. It shows
that the conversation above flouting a maxim of quality because they are
talking about something may not be totally accurate.
Another example:
(4) Chen : what do you think about my shirt?
Lay : hmmm, it is great.
As the role of the maxim of quality, to fulfill this maxim the speaker
has to tell the truth, but for some reasons people chose to say untruth than
something truth. For instance, based on the example above Chen asks
45
George Yule, Op. Cit, p.38
19
Lay about his new shirt. It would be inappropriate in most contexts to
replay “No.” since this could result in hurt feelings because Chen like his
new shirt. Therefore, in most communicative contexts, many people
would replay “Yes” or “It‟s great,” even their replies are untruthful.46
Moreover, the speaker may also flout the maxim by exaggerating the
word, as in hyperboles; or by using metaphors; or arise from irony.
If speakers flout the maxim of relation, they expect that the hearers
will be able to imagine what the utterance did not say, and make the
connection between the utterance and the preceding one (s).47
Thus, in:
(5) Kai : Hey, do you want to join with us tonight?
Fanny : I have a scary examination tomorrow.
In the dialogue above, Fanny is flouting maxim of relation because
Fany‟s answer is not relevant to Kai‟s question. Kai‟s question needs
“yes” or “No” answer, but Fanny‟s answer is “I have a scary examination
tomorrow”. The inference drawn from the utterance is that Fanny will
study hard tonight for the examination, therefore she does not come to
the party.
Similarly in the next, Noel Coward said to have had this exchange, after
his play Sirocco (1927) was booed:
(6) Heckler : We expected a better play.
Coward : I expected a better manners.
46
Charles F Mayer, Op. Cit, p.58 47
Joan Cutting, Op. Cit, p.37
20
We can say that the second comment seems irrelevant to the first: the
heckler in the audience talking about the play, and Coward comments
about manners. However, Coward intends the Heckler to infer that he
expected better manners than booing and shouting about his play. The
Heckler will have understood that Coward found him as well as the
others not just bad-mannered, but rude and offensive.48
The last is the example of flouting maxim of manner. Those who flout
the maxim of manner, appearing to be obscure, are often tying to exclude
a third party, as in this short exchange between college students who will
celebrate their friend birthday:
(7) A: Where are you going?
B: I am going to take something make somebody surprise.
A: well, don‘t get any single noise then.
B speaks in an ambiguous way, saying ‗take something‘ and
„somebody‟, because he is avoiding saying „birthday cake‘ and ‗C (their
friend)‘, so that C does not notice that C will have a surprise birthday
party from her friends. Sometimes writers play words to heighten the
ambiguity, in order to make a point.49
Another example:
(8) ―A pancake should have a good texture: sieve the flour
and salt into a large bowl and make well in the mixture;
break the egg and stir to make breadcrumby mix; fried it
for 5 mints; preheat the pan to medium level; and add a
glass of milk and the water mix bit by bit (this makes a
lovely light batter), beating constantly to avoid lumps.‖
48
Ibid, p.39 49
Ibid
21
The recipe above is odd as it is not written orderly. The speaker
normally follows a chronological order of events to describe a process, in
this case, cooking. One of the principle maxim of manner is „be orderly‟,
because the recipe above is written in wrong order; it means that the
writer of recipe is flouting the maxim. The right step should be as follow:
(9) “ A pancake should have a good texture; sieve the flour
and salt into a large bowl and make well in the mixture;
break egg and stir to make bread crumby mix; add a glass
of milk and the water mix bit by bit (this makes a lovely
light batter); preheat the pan to medium level; fried them
for 5 mints.‖
b) Violating
Speakers can be said „violate‟ a maxim when they know that hearer
will not know the truth and will only understand the surface meaning of
words. They intentionally generate misleading implicature.50
Grice stated
that violating a maxim is the unostentatious violate a maxim, and if the
speaker violates a maxim he/she will be liable to mislead.51
The speaker
may supply insufficient information, saying something that is insincere,
irrelevant or ambiguous, and the hearers wrongly assume that they are
cooperating.52
If the speakers violate maxim of quantity, they do not give the hearer
enough information to understand what is being talking about. The
speakers do not want to the hearers know the full situation or inference.
50
Ibid, p.40 51
Paul Grice, Op. Cit, p.30 52
Joan Cutting, Op. Cit, p.40
22
The speaker is not implying anything; they are „being economical with
the truth‟. For example:
(10) Porter : what color is your car?
Sica : White.
Porter : OK. (Raise the travel bag and put it in the
white car)
Old lady : hey, what are doing with my car?!!
Porter : she said her car is white.
Sica : my car is behind this building.
Sica says only „white‟ when the porter asked about her car. She does
not give more information which one exactly her car. So that, the porter
gets a wrong information because he does not have same inference with
Sica and put Sica‟s travel bag in other car. Sica has not an implied
meaning, but she just being economical with the truth may be she has
another travel bag and the porter has to waiting for that.
Another example:
(11) Husband : How much did that new dress cost, darling?
Wife : Less than last one.
Based on the example above, the wife tries to cover up the price of the
dress by not saying how much less than her last dress. The wife, when
asked „how much did that new dress cost, darling?‟ she does not tell the
price, and say „less than last one‟. She may violate maxim of quality
because she does not tell the price explicitly.
The wife, when asked „how much did that new dress cost, darling?‟
could have violated a maxim of quality by not being honest. She gives
wrong information about the price because she does not want the
husband disappointed about the price. Needless to say, not all violations
23
of the maxim of quality are blameworthy.53
In many cultures, it is
acceptable to tell untruth. For example: in Indonesia, when Indonesian
visit their friend‟s house and have a dinner, they always say that the meal
is delicious, even the meal is not delicious because they keep their
manner to be polite. Nevertheless, they have violated a maxim of quality.
Violating maxim of relation is about irrelevant answer in order to
imply something. Based on the example husband-wife above, when the
husband asks the price of wife‟s dress, the wife distracts him and changes
the topic by saying ‗i know, let‘s go to somewhere tonight, where do you
want to go?‘ expecting that the husband does not know the price of the
dress, but she answers with irrelevant answer.
In this example below, a couple conversation may show the violating
maxim of manner:
(12) A: what was your parent saying to me?
B: ah well I don‘t know, I couldn‘t repeat it, because I don‘t
really believe a half what they are saying. They just get
something in their mind.
B says „a half what they are saying‟ is an obscure reference to the
other opinion, and ‗something‘ contains a general noun containing vague
reference. B may use this expression to avoid giving a brief and orderly
answer because B‟s parent do not like the B‟s girlfriend.
c) Infringing a maxim
53
Ibid
24
Infringing a maxim is a kind of non-observance maxim because the
speaker‟s imperfect linguistics performance.54
This can happen if the
speaker has an imperfect command of the language. It is found in a child
or a foreign learner. If the speaker‟s utterance influenced by nervousness,
drunkenness, or excitement; they have cognitive impairment, or they
have simply incapable to speak. For example; there are some people in
front of bar and they have a simply conversation but they speak under
control, ambiguous, and also not relevant with their topic. It can say as
non-observance maxim because it fails to fulfill the observance of
maxim.
d) Opting out
A speaker may opt out the maxim because he/ she may indicate the
unwillingness to co-operate fulfill the maxim.55
The speakers do not want
to appear unco-operative, so that they cannot replay in the way expected.
Sometimes, the speakers do that for legal or ethical reasons.56
For
example: the lawyer who handle the chairman‟s case usually say „I don‟t
know the result is, we better look forward‟. He does not want tell the
truth what the case is because some private reasons, and a police refusing
to release the victim name of accident until the relative have been
informed.
54
ibid 55
Paul Grice, Op. Cit, p.31 56
Joan Cutting, Op. Cit, p.40
25
CHAPTER III
DATA ANALYSIS
A. Data Description
Bibliography study is used as data collecting technique in this research. It
is using written sources to gain the data. The steps to collect run as follows:
1. Download the transcript of on ABC‟s Barbara Walters and Syrian
President Bashar Al-Assad interview on December 27, 2011 at ABC
channel. It is taken from official website
http://abcnews.go.com/International/transcript-abcs-barbara-walters-
interview-syrian-president-bashar.
2. Give mark on every utterance that contain non-observance maxim
(implicature).
3. Then write the data into data cards, e.g on page 1, data 1: flouting maxim
of quantity, page data 2: flouting maxim of relation, and so on. Total data
gained on data cards are 16 corpus data. The details are shown on the
tables below:
Table I
The types of non-observance maxim on ABC‟s Barbara Walters and Syrian
president Bashar Al-Assad on December 27, 2011 at ABC channel.
No Types of Non-Observance
Maxim
Total
1 Flouting a maxim 10
26
2 Violating a maxim 1
3 Opting out a maxim 5
TOTAL 16
Table II: The maxims that unobserved on ABC‟s Barbara Walters and Syrian
president Bashar Al-Assad on December 27, 2011 at ABC channel:
No Unobserve of maxim Total
1 Maxim of quantity 7
2 Maxim of quality 2
3 Maxim of relation 4
4 Maxim of Manner 3
TOTAL 16
B. Data Analysis
For the further, the 15 data are analyzed as below:
Data 1
Walters asks about the condition of Syria because there are a lot of conflict related
to Assad‟s position.
Walters: Tell me what the reality here is your country is. What is the reality?
Assad: it‘s too complicated, it takes hours to talk about...so let‘s be specific.
This dialogue indicates that Assad does an opting out a maxim of quality
because he said ‗it‘s too complicated, it takes hours to talk about...‘ which means
Assad does not want to answer the Walters‟s question because Assad appears
27
unco-operative to answer the question and tend to lying. It is impossible that
President does not understand the condition in his country but he does not want to
tell Walters because it waste much time. So that, he prefers to replace another
question to drawing his country. In the other words, Assad does not want to
describe quite detail about his country. It is very vulnerable if everybody knows
what happened in his country for this time because it will make a public opinion
related to his position as president.
Data 2
Walters talks about people who support Assad to lead Syria.
Walters: but you talk about the support of your people. You did have the support
of your people, and then began these demonstration, which i will discuss in more
detail and crack down, and you have people now who don‟t want you to lead. You
don‘t have the support of your people.
Assad: You always—
Walters: Of all your people.
Assad: you always have people that don‘t want you to be in that position, that‘s
self-evident, that‘s normal, you cannot say that having the support of the people.
All the people support you means something absolute. You are talking about the
majority, and people are against you, they‘re not majority, when they are majority
you don‘t have to stay in that position.
From the dialogue, the writer finds that Assad flouts maxim of quantity by
saying more informative than it‟s required. If we look by Walters‟s statement, the
28
answer must be „yes‟ or „no‟, but Assad replies with his explanation that flout the
maxim of quantity. On the conversation above, Walters said “you talk about the
support of your people. You did have support of your people...and you have
people now who don‘t want you to lead. You don‘t have the support of your
people.‖ It means that Walters thought Assad does not have to lead the country
because some people do not support him to lead the country but Assad tries to tell
that he has people who support him. He said “you always have people that don‘t
want you to be in that position, it is normal. You are talking the majority, and
people against you are not the majority if they are the majority you cannot stay in
your position‖. In fact, Assad still stay in his position, it means Assad has people
who support him.
Data 3
Walters asks about the participation of opposition parties which do not allowed to
enroll in president election.
Walters: In 2014, when there are presidential election, will you allow opposition
parties?
Assad: that‘s why we are changing the constitution.
The statement above has flouted maxim of relation because his answer
irrelevant with the question. Walters asked Assad about involvement opposition
party in next president election, then Assad answered with “that‘s why we are
changing the constitution‖ which irrelevant with the question. Based on that
statement, Assad implies that he agrees with the involvement of opposition party
for next president election. It proofs with conversion of the constitution. Syria will
29
do a reformation which changes the constitution and law. For the reformation,
Syria makes a constitution which allows the opposition party to enroll next
president election.
Data 4
Walters asks Assad‟s opinion about President Obama because President Obama
push President Assad to step down from his position.
Walters: Mr. President, you once had positive things to say about President
Obama. Now President Obama says, and I quote, “President Assad has lost his
legitimacy to rule, he should step down.” What do you say to President Obama?
Assad: I‘m not a political commentator. I—I comment more on action rather than
word. At the same time if I want to care about something like this I would care, I
would care about what the Syrian people wants. Nobody else outside Syria is part
of our political map, so whatever they say we support, we don‘t, he‘s legitimate,
or he‘s not, it‘s the same for me. For me what the Syrian people want, this is the
popular legitimacy that put me in that position, and this is the only thought that
can make me outside, so anyone could have his own opinion, whether president,
official or any citizen, it is the same for me outside our border.
In this conversation, Assad does an opting out maxim of quantity by not
being co-operative and give more information with Walters‟s question. By said
―I‘m not a political commentator. I comment more on action than word..”
indicates that he does not want to say something about Obama‟s word. He tries to
avoid a public opinion about him and Obama. If he makes public opinion and
does not accurate, it will create another problem. As reported by media online
30
RedState, Bashar Al-Assad and America have an adverse relation because Obama
tries to overthrow Assad as Syrian president57
. Therefore, Assad does not want to
respond everything related to America‟s opinion about Syria because he will not
make any deal with America.
Data 5
Walters talks about supporting people that gives to Assad.
Walters: do you feel now that you still have support of your people?
Assad: if you don‘t have the support of the people you cannot be in this position.
In this case, Assad flouts maxim of quantity by giving more information as
required. Assad should give an answer yes or no but he does not. He replies the
question with a sentence which contains yes or no answers. On his statement “if
you don‘t have the support, you cannot be in this position‖, Assad implies that he
still has a support by his people to lead Syria. If he does not have a support, he
cannot stay in his position right now.
Data 6
Walters asks about people who support Assad.
Walters: you feel the majority of the people in this country support you?
Assad: I say the majority are in the middle and the majority are not against—to
be precise.
This dialogue between Walters and Assad indicates that Assad flouts maxim
of quantity because he gives more information that it‟s required. When Walters
57
www.redstate.com014/09/16/obama-uses-war-isis-overthrow-syrias-assad/acess 16 Oct
14
31
asked him “you feel the majority of people in this country support you?‖ Assad
can give a simple answer by saying „yes‘ or „no‘ but he does not answer it. He
replied it with a sentence by saying ― I say the majority are not against – to be
precise.‖ He implies that he still has a lot of supporters by saying “the majority”
besides the protesters. So that, public don‟t have to worry about his expedience to
lead his country.
Data 7
Walters talks about the forces that attack protesters because it involves women
and children.
Walters: well in the beginning these protests, the women were marching with
children carrying olive branches nobody at that point was asking for you to step
down.it has escalated. Do you think that your forces cracked down too hard?
Assad: they are not my forces, they are military forces belong to the government.
Walters: OK, but you are the government.
Assad: I don‘t know them. I am president. I don‘t own the country, so they are not
my forces.
Walters: No, but you have to give the order?
Assad: No, no, no. We have, in the constitution, in the law, the mission of the
institution to protect the people to stand against any chaos or any terrorist, that
their job, according to the constitution to their—to the law of the institution.
From the conversation above, Assad does a violating maxim of manner. It
indicates that Assad does not answer the question briefly. Walters asked ―do you
32
think that your forces cracked down too hard?”. Assad should answer it simple
and clear but Assad responds with statement which he does not want to take
responsibility about this crack down. He said the crackdown is not his force,
because he is a president who does not take care of security system. It means that
Assad know this hard crack down to his people by saying “they are not my forces,
they are military forces belong to government‖ but he does not want to hook this
incident to him then he replays the question with his refutation which states he
does not know about this crackdown. The writer thinks it is impossible if
president does not know the activity conducted by his military forces.
Data 8
Walters asks about an issue which posted by United Nation. United Nation has
reported that Syria‟s government did a violence toward the demonstrans.
Walters: last week an independent United Nations Commission who interviewed
more than two hundred and twenty five people issued a report what it said was
that your government committed crimes against humanity and they went on
torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence against protesters including
against children, what do you say to them, I mean what I am saying again and
again is that protesters were, were beaten, things happened to them, um, do you
acknowledge that, do you acknowledge what the U.N said?
Assad: very simply I would say send us the documents and the concrete evidences
that you have and we will see if that is true or not, you have not offered
allegations now.
33
In this dialogue, Assad indicates that he flouts maxim of relation and maxim
of quantity. Based on the answer, Assad‟s sentence is not irrelevant with the
question. Walters asked about the issues which United Nation posted and asked
whether he knows or not. But Assad answered with “I would say send us the
document and the concrete evidences..‖ which if someone read this sentence and
do not have a particular context, they do not know what the meaning is about the
document or evidence. Consequently, the reader should have a particular context
to know the meaning of this sentence. This sentence also flout maxim of quantity
because it gives more information as required. Assad has to answer it with brief
answer but he choose to answer with a sentence. He implies that he actually does
not look some issues as his issues without any evidence showed to him
(government). Even though United Nation posts that issues, and he does not
receive the valid evidence, he does not take the issues as crime. Assad also try to
tell that he is not believe with United Nation‟s posting if they cannot give a proof
related to Syrian issue by saying ―..send us the documents and the evidence, and
we will see if it is true or not...”, and Assad thinks that people outside Syria do not
know what exactly happened in Syria.
Data 9
Walters inquires Assad about Syria‟s relation with neighborhood. Because of the
conflict, Syria gets criticized from some country to solve its crisis.
Walters: but what is the agenda, for example, of Turkey or Jordan or the Arab
League, why?
Assad: I‘d rather ask them. I wouldn‘t answer on their behalf.
34
Walters: OK.
Assad: they will tell you they have an agenda.
From this statement, Assad has opted out the maxim of quality because of
some legal and ethical reason. He does not answer Walters‟s question which he
may know information that Walters need. Assad implies that he does not want to
interfere his neighbors business by saying “I‘d rather ask them, i wouldn‘t on
their behalf‖ because it relates to their individual interests. If he says something
and it is not appropriate with the fact, it can make misconception between Syrian
and the neighbors.
Data 10
Walters talks about a license to visit Syria in the conflict situation since there are
some issues that Syria does not allow other people to visit Syria especially foreign
correspondent.
Walters: we have not heard this, you will say yes?
Assad: you have to hear; to hear the truth, you have to look for the truth, the
truth—
Walters: well I‘m, I‘m asking you now.
Assad: but doesn‘t mean they can come without a visa. We are a country where
they have to take visa. We give visa to people, maybe we don‘t give visa to—we
are like any other country against our sovereignty.
Walters: OK, but in—
Assad: that doesn‘t mean anyone can come any time and do whatever they do.
35
The dialogue above has flouted maxim of manner. Assad does not say the
answer briefly. Walters stressed the question “we have not heard this, you will say
yes?” but Assad said ―you have to hear the truth, but doesn‘t mean they can come
without visa..” which not answered Walters‟s question. From his answer, Assad
tries to imply that everyone can go to Syrian with visa. If they take visa means
everybody has protection from the government. So that, it can refuse some issues
that Syria is not stable and unsafe country to visit. Based on the VOA Indonesia
media online, the crime is being increase in Syria and the condition was not
stable58
. But Syrian president says that everyone can come to Syria, it means that
not all of Syria is unsafe, but only part of it.
Data 11
Walters asks question about the beginning Assad replace his brother as president
and the news of making Assad dynasty.
Walters: your father asked you to come back?
Assad: my brother had no position when my father was there and I had no
position. I wasn‘t, I was nothing in the party, I was only, I was in the military
since I was a doctor, nothing else.
On the conversation above, Walters asked “your father asked you to come
back?‖ and Assad replied something irrelevant with the question. It indicates that
Assad flout maxim of relation. He implies that his father never to ask him and his
brother to change his father position as president. So, he answered ―my bother
58
http://www.voaindonesia.com/content/kekerasan-di-suriah-meningkat-rusia-tolak-
penggulingan-assad/1211818.html
36
and i had no position when my father was there...‖ means that Assad take his
position as president is not because of his father, likewise his brother. He will tell
the people that he does his own effort to replace his brother position after shooting
incident by being a military doctor. Then he takes a place to his party and being a
president. So that, it can refuse the news which claim that his family want make
Assad Dynasty in Syria.
Data 12
Walters talks the reaction of Assad‟s children about Syria‟s conflict.
Walters: pay attention?
Assad: they are very curious to know.
In this conversation, Assad has flouted maxim of relation to replay
Walters‟s question. Walters asked Assad‟s children pay attention what‟s
happening in their country or not and Assad gave an irrelevant answer by saying
“they are very curious to know.” To get this implied meaning, the reader needs a
particular context. In this situation, Assad and Walters are talking about Assad‟s
children. Assad has 3 child; the eldest is 14 years old, the middle is 12 years old,
and the younger is 11 years old. Since they have grown up as well, they can
understand the situation of their country. So that, Assad tries to tell the people that
his children know the condition of Syria as well and Assad does not cover the
Syria issues currently to his children. It means that Assad is being transparent
person for his family about Syrian conflict.
37
Data 13
Walters asks about misconception between Assad and President Obama because
president Obama is very ambitious to replace Assad‟s position.
Walters: what do you think is the biggest misconception that my country has of
what‘s happening here, if indeed there is a misconception?
Assad: misconception about a lot of things. I cannot tell you, because it‘s so many
facts, distorted facts, you have them in the media. But the most important thing, as
accumulation of these facts, you don‘t have vision. The problem with the west in
general, especially in United States, they don‘t have vision about—at least my
region, I wouldn‘t talk about the rest of the world—failing in Iraq, failing in
Afghanistan, failing in fighting terrorism.
Assad: the situation is getting worse and worse in the rest of the world. The
question you ask as American, what did you get? Well, where did you win? Well,
you spent trillions, where you could spend few hundreds of millions, and get the
terrorists out. So that will—you—it harms your interest but at the same time, it
harms others‘, interest. So this is the misconception I think.
This explanation flouts maxim of manner and opts out the maxim because
Assad does not say the answer briefly. When Walters asked about American
misconception to the Syria, Assad did not say the answer clearly. He responds it
with explanation which confirmed that there was misconception. He also opts out
the maxim by not being co-operative to answer the question. Assad has said ―I
can tell you” that indicates opting out the maxim because he cannot tell what kind
of misconception. Once more, he is quite detail about his critical about America
38
because it can make misunderstanding if he says something wrong. In Assad‟s
explanation, he implies that America does not know the situation of middle east
country by saying “they (United States) don‘t have vision about at least my
region, I wouldn‘t talk about the rest of the world.......failing in fighting
terrorism....”. Assad also impeach United States to make a worsen situation in the
middle east by spoil their economic sectors and United states assessed fails to
create conciliation between Middle East country.
Data 14
Walters asks about brutal reaction which discourses as order of government.
Walters: OK. Our view is there are peaceful protesters, they were killed, and
some were torture. It was a brutal reaction. Are we wrong in thinking that?
Assad: every single—every brute reaction, was by individual. Not by institution.
That‘s what you have to know.
Assad: we don‘t have institution that kill people, or give to—for brute reaction.
This is individual—and that‘s what I call—what I describe as—individual
mistakes.
From the conversation above, Assad flouts maxim of quantity. He replies
the question more than it‟s required. Walters question is “ are we wrong in
thinking that the peaceful protesters being torture and killed were a brutal
reaction?” this question needs „yes‟ or „no‟ answer, but Assad answers with a
sentence which gives more information than its required. Assad said “every brutal
reaction was by individual not by institution” from that statement, Assad implies
that the government does not take responsibility of any brutal reaction because it
39
is not from the government institution. So that, if someone says that the peaceful
protesters killed and tortured were a brutal reaction from government, they are
quite wrong because the government does not have the institution to kill the
people.
Data 15
Walters is talking about the brutality that happened in Syria while the
demonstration.
Walters: The crackdown in the beginning, the brutality. Do you think it went too
far?
Assad: I cannot tell you this, without the evidence. You ask me to tell you
according to rumor, or to reports. It‘s not enough for me, as president. For me,
when there is policy, I could say yes, or no, when there is individuals with
concrete evidence, who committed mistake, I will say yes or no.
From the dialogue above Assad has opted out maxim of quantity, because
he does not want to cooperate to answer Walters‟s question by saying i cannot tell
you, that is the indicator if Assad does not want to cooperate with Walters and
being informative than its required. Actually, Walters question needs a short
answer, but Assad answer with an explanation. Here, Assad tries to tell that he
does not believe about the brutality that government doing to the citizen in his
country because there is no a concrete evidence. He thinks that there is no
brutality since there is no official reports to the government. With condition of
Syria nowadays, Assad tries to avoid some negative issues in order to make Syria
under control. So that, he does not answer Walters‟s question carelessly.
40
Data 16
Walters ask about Assad‟s leadership in Syria
Walters: You have said often that you don‟t see yourself doing this job for life.
You‟ve said you‟re doing it for your country. With all the turmoil in your country
is it perhaps better for Syria that you no longer remain its leader?
Assad: i don‘t have problem. For me Syria as a project, project of success, if you
don‘t succeed you don‘t have to stay in that position and that success again
depends on the public support without public support you cannot, whether you are
elected or not, it‘s not about the election, now it‘s about public support. This is
the most important thing. So when i feel that the public support declined, i won‘t
be here even if they say, if they ask or not i shouldn‘t be here if there is no public
support.
In this explanation, Assad flouts maxim of manner, because he said the
answer with ambiguous answer. When Walters ask about his leadership and the
turmoil that happened in Syria, Assad does not answer strictly by saying I don‘t
have problem.... it depends on public support.. It does not answer Walters‟s
question clearly. In this case, he tries to be wise to respond about his overthrow
issue as Syrian president. He want to change the views of people of him better
than in the issue. He will step down when there is no support of Syrian people for
him. In fact, he still stay in his position even if the Syria condition is not fully
secure.
41
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
In studying the transcript “ABC‟S Barbara Walters and Syrian President
Bashar Al- Assad” by using Gricean Theory of Conversational Implicature, the
writer has found from the dialogue on the transcript, the speaker have done non-
observance towards maxim of quality, maxim of quantity, maxim of relation, and
maxim of manner. Especially, the speakers flout, violate, and opt out of those
maxim.
By observing non-observance maxim that generate conversational
implicature, the writer discovers that most of the non-observance maxim is a
flouting maxim of quantity. It may a bit different from the thesis which uses
movie script as an object of study because the interview script has one context,
whereas a movie script has many contexts of situation cause of implicature. The
speaker does a flouting maxim of quantity in order to avoid misleading towards
the listener because his goal in this interview is looking for support to achieve
speaker‟s mission. The speaker tends to give more information even though the
interviewer‟s question need a short answer. It is because the speaker wants every
question to be answered clearly and does not cause ambiguity. As we know,
Assad wants other people to trust him because of his issues which make a dynasty
in Syria. So that, he answers every single question by an explanation and clearly.
42
On the other hand by flouting maxim of quantity, the writer concludes that
the speaker seems not to be brave in justifying a statement whether his utterance is
true especially when he talks about someone else. That is because the speaker
does not want to make an issue by his respond considering the speaker is the
influencing people to others. Consequently, the speaker replies the question very
carefully.
B. Suggestion
In interaction with others, people always relate to communication.
Communication always relate to language. Language is the best way for people to
change information with others. But in language, there are rules applied in
forming communication especially in speaking. It depends on the culture and
every language has a different culture in this world. By observing the maxim, a
communication in two speakers can be known their characteristic of language,
culture and their view. Due to it, the writer would give some suggestions for the
Linguistic researchers and for English Letters student as well, especially the
students who focus their study on Pragmatics scope.
1. For the Linguistic researcher, in analyzing the language phenomena, there
are various thing that can be investigated because language is dynamic and
always developed. It means we study people‟s culture which never become
extinct unless the human does not exist. For example in Pragmatics, one
language may assume that one‟s expression is defy maxim, however in
another language is not a form of deviation maxim.
43
2. For the reader especially the students, the students do not have to think that
to do investigating in Pragmatic scope is difficult because they can find a
lot of resources on their daily conversation and their environment easily. It
will more interest to discussing and find the unique of their language and
culture.
44
REFERENCES
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Cutting, Joan, Pragmatics and Discourse: A Source Book of Student. London:
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Yule, George, Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996
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Jounals
Alduais, Ahmed Mohammed Saleh, Conversational Implicature (Flouting the
Maxim): Applying Conversational Maxim on Examples Taken from Non-
Standard Arabic Language Yemeni Dialect an Idiolect Spoken at IBB City.
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Iskandar, Deny, Unpublish Thesis: “ The Gricean Maxim Analysis in the Script of
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Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2010
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Conversational Implicature in the Transcript of Bridesmaids Movie”.
English Letters Department, UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2012
Noviani, Unpublish Thesis: “Conversational Implicature in the Boy in the Striped
Pajamas Movie”. English Letters Department, UIN Syarif Hidayatullah
Jakarta, 2012
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Websites
Abcnews.go.com. Transcript: ABC‟s Barbara Walters‟ Interview with Syrian
President Bashar Al-Assad. Retrieved from
http://abcnews.go.com/International/transcript-abcs-barbara-walters-
interview-syrian-president-bashar/story?id=15099152&page=2
Streiff (Diary). Obama uses war on ISIS to Overthrow Syria‟s Assad. Retrieved
from http://www.redstate.com/2014/09/16/obama-uses-war-isis-overthrow-
syrias-assad/
VoaIndonesia.com. Kekerasan Suriah Meningkat Rusia Tolak Penggulingan
Assad. Retrieved from http://www.voaindonesia.com/content/kekerasan-di-
suriah-meningkat-rusia-tolak-penggulingan-assad/1211818.html
APPENDICE
TRANSCRIPT: ABC's Barbara Walters' Interview With Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad
Dec. 7, 2011
The following is the transcript of the interview ABC's Barbara Walters conducted
with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It was his first American interview, and
the president was asked about Syria's role in the Arab League and how he is
treating protesters in his country.
ABC's Barbara Walters: Mr. President, you have invited us to Damascus and
you have not given an interview to the American media since this crisis began.
What is it you want us to know?
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: I would like to reiterate what I used to say
after 11th of September, to every American delegation I met, first of all I think the
American people, people should know more about what's happening beyond the
ocean, second the American media I would like them to tell only the truth about
what's happening in the world, and for the American administration. Don't look
for puppets in the world.
Walters: Don't look for puppets?
Assad: Only deal with administration that, on people that can tell you know about
the truth, because what's happening in the world now is taking the world toward
chaos, what we need now is we need to deal with the reality. So the message now
is about the reality.
Walters: Tell me what the reality here is your country is. What is the reality?
Assad: It's too complicated, it takes hours to talk about... so let's be specific.
Walters: Not long ago you were widely seen as a fresh pragmatic leader, a doctor
whose life was in healing people, now sir, much of the world regards you as a
dictator and a tyrant. What do you say to that?
Assad: What's important how the Syrian people look at you, not how you look at
yourself. So I don't have to look at myself. This is... second, it's about the system.
You have a dictator and you have dictatorship, there's a big difference between the
two, dictatorship is about the system, we never said we are democratic country,
but we're not the same, we-- we are moving forward in, in reforms, especially
during the last nine month, so I think we are moving forward, it takes a long time,
it takes a lot of maturity to be full fledge democratic country, but we are moving
that, that direction, for me as a person, whatever I do should be based on the will
of the people, because you need popular legitimacy and this is against dictatorship
for person.
Walters: But you talk about the support of your people. You did have the support
of your people, and then began these demonstrations, which I will discuss in more
detail and crackdowns, and you have people now who don't want you to lead. You
don't have the support of your people.
Assad: You always--
Walters: Of all of your people.
Assad: You always have people that don't want you to be in that position, that's
self-evident, that's normal, you cannot say that having the support of the people.
All the people support you means something absolute. You're talking about the
majority, and people are against you, they're not majority, when they are majority
you don't have to stay in that position.
Walters: But you have people who are against you who are protesting every day.
It started with people marching with olive branches and with their children asking
for more freedom, for freedom of press, for freedom of expression, and much of
the country now, sir, is not supporting you, that's what these, that's what your
crisis is about.
Assad: Yeah. That's why we had the reform started quickly, after the very
beginning that you described as simple, so we didn't take the role, we didn't play
the role of stubborn government, they say they need more freedom. We right away
had new party laws, new media law, new election law, new local administration
law, and we are revising our constitution now.
Assad: Showing your opinion, whether you like somebody or doesn't like
government or president or whoever, should be through the election, the ballot
box, this is the only way.
Walters: If you have elections, will they be elections for president?
Assad: No, no, we are going to have first of all the local administration election
this month...
Walters: Local administration, but what about the president?
Assad: Yeah, after that, we are going to have the parliamentarian election, which
is the most important. Talking about presidential election, it's going to be in 2014,
this is the...
Walters: People don't want to wait that long, till 2014.
Assad: Which people?
Walters: The people who are protesting.
Assad: How, how, how much, how many, are they majority or not, that's why you
need, you need to wait first of all for the parliamentarian election, these election
will tell you are you going to have majority or minority, then when you can think
about presidential election, but not before, before that you don't have any
indication, any clear indication.
Walters: In 2014, when there are presidential elections, will you allow opposition
parties?
Assad: That's why we are changing the constitution.
Walters: OK. And if somebody else wins, will you step down in 2014?
Assad: If he wins he's going to be in my position, I don't have to step down, he's
going to be president. So you don't step down. He will win the election, he will be
president. So step down means you leave, while if you win the election, he's going
normally, he's going to be in that position instead of me.
Walters: Mr. President, you once had positive things to say about President
Obama. Now President Obama says, and I quote, "President Assad has lost his
legitimacy to rule, he should step down." What do you say to President Obama?
Assad: I'm not a political commentator. I-- I comment more on action rather than
word. At the same time if I want to care about something like this I would care, I
would care about what the Syrian people wants. Nobody else outside Syria is part
of our political map, so whatever they say we support, we don't, he's legitimate, or
he's not, it's the same for me. For me what the Syrian people want, this is the
popular legitimacy that put me in that position, and this is the only thought that
can make me outside, so anyone could have his own opinion, whether president,
official or any citizen, it is the same for me, outside our border.
Walters: Public opinion doesn't matter?
Assad: Outside Syria?
Walters: Outside Syria.
Assad: No. It's Syrian issue. Walters: But Syria is almost completely isolated. The
prime minister of Turkey, who was your ally has said, and I quote, "no regime can
survive by killing or jailing." Jordan says you should step down, the Arab League,
Syria was a founding member, have said that they have suspended you, you've
lost all the support of your neighbors and friends. Does that matter to you?
Assad: That depends how do you describe, or how do you define isolation and
support? How did they support, how did they support me and how did they isolate
me? Isolation is not by visitors or by supporting by words, it's about your role,
your position.
Assad: Nobody can support-- can isolate Syria because of our position. That
happened in 2005 and they couldn't, Bush tried to isolate Syria, Chirac, Blair...
everybody, they couldn't, we have role to play. We are related to two different
problems. If they isolate Syria, Syria will collapse and it's going to be doing
effect, everybody will suffer, so they don't have interest to isolate Syria, we're not
isolated.
Walters: Sir, they are isolating you, they have economic sanctions against you,
they may have further sanctions, all of these neighbors, so-called friends, have
now abandoned you.
Assad: Yeah.
Walters: So you are isolated.
Assad: We've ban-, we've been under isol-, of, under embargo for the last 30, 35
years, it's not something new, but it's fluctuating, up and down depending on the
situation, those country that you're talking about, they have little influence on the
situation in Syria.
Walters: Your neighbors have no influence?
Assad: No, no, we have, we still have good relation with them, they're not, we're
not isolated. You have people coming and going, you have trade, you have
everything, so that's why I said, how do you define isolation, if you don't define it,
it's just term. In reality, we're not isolated here.
Walters: They have sanctions against you.
Assad: What kind of sanctions, nothing?
Walters: Economic sanctions against you.
Assad: It's not implemented. They're going to suffer, the countries around Syria
the countries suffer. What about the transit, what about many, many other things,
they have common interests with us, they won't implement it, or they cannot or
they're going to suffer. That depends on the option that they are going to take,
that's why I said, isolating Syria is not something easy. It's not only a decision that
you implement, it's not easy. So it's not about the economy, it's about the whole
role in the, in the political arena in the Middle East, it's not only about the
economy.
Walters: You know, sir, that many leaders in the region have been overthrown.
Walters: You have seen, I am certain, the pictures of Egypt from the President
Mubarak in jail, pictures of, uh, in Libya of Moammar Gadhafi killed, are you
afraid that you might be next?
Assad: No, I am afraid that the people won't support me, Syrian people.
Walters: That they won't support you?
Assad: I mean the only thing that you could be afraid of as president to lose the
support of your people that the only--
Walters: You don't.
Assad: Thing that you should be afraid of not to be in jail or things like this.
Walters: Do you feel now that you still have the support of your people?
Assad: If you don't have the support of the people you cannot be in this position.
Walters: But--
Assad: This is Syria. It's not easy, it's very compli--, it's very difficult country to
govern if you don't have the public support.
Walters: But Mr. President, you have people an hour and a half away from here
protesting you have people who have been killed and people who have been
tortured and still they are protesting and you say you have the support of your
people?
Assad: No, no you are mixing between the protesters and the killing, it's different.
Now we are having terrorists in many places killing.
Walters: Now?
Assad: No, no, not only now, no from the very beginning, no not now, now it's
recognized in the media that the difference, that from the very first few weeks we
had those terrorists they are getting more and more, more aggressive, they have
been killing. We have 1,000-- over 1,100 soldier and policeman killed, who killed
them peaceful demonstrations. This is not logical this is not palatable.
Walters: Let me ask the question again, do you feel now, even with people who
have been protesting, that you have the support of your people?
Assad: The majority or the minority? Because you are talking about protesters.
Walters: The majority, the majority of the people you feel still support you?
Assad: Not the majority of the people only in the middle always, the majority of
the Syrian people are in the middle and then you have people who support you
and you have people who are against you. So the majority always in the middle.
Those majority are not against you. If they are against you you cannot have stable
most of the city is not Syria let's say, as you see, you've been here for two days
now.
Walters: You feel the majority of the people in this country support you?
Assad: I say the majority are in the middle and the majority are not against -- to
be precise.
Walters: OK, the majority that is in the middle support you.
Assad: Yeah.
Walters: The protest really began with after the detention and torture of children
who were writing graffiti calling for your downfall; I've seen awful pictures of
what happened, why was there such a brutal crackdown?
Assad: What happened?
Walters: Well I will give you some examples and you can tell me if you've seen
these, these are some of the images and stories and some of the images that I saw,
a 13-year-old boy who was arrested in April, a month later his body was returned
to his family bearing scars of torture. A famous cartoonist whom you know who
was critical of you badly beaten his arms are broken. A singer, famous singer who
wrote a popular song calling for your oust he was found with his throat cut. You
have seen these pictures, have you not?
Assad: No, but I, I...
Walters: Is this news to you?
Assad: No, no, no it's not news. I met with his father, the father of that child and
he said that he wasn't tortured and he appeared on the media, you have to see, we
have to see things with a stereoscopic vision with two eyes, not with one eye to be
frank.
Walters: Ok, the cartoonist...
Assad: I don't...
Walters: The cartoonist who was critical of you, I have seen his pictures, his
hands were broken, he was beaten.
Assad: Many people criticize me, did they kill all of them, who killed who, most
of the people that have been killed are supporters of the government not the vice
versa.
Walters: But in the beginning, what about the singer with his throat cut?
Assad: I don't know about him, I don't know about every single case.
Walters: He was a famous singer, a famous song, you don't know about it?
Assad: No I don't think he's famous. I don't know about him.
Walters: You don't know about him? Well I saw those pictures.
Assad: Famous in the United States but not in Syria.
Walters: This is.
Assad: Do you know about him? This is editing, I don't know, I don't know.
Walters: You don't know?
Assad: No. I didn't hear this story, it's the first time for the child I met with his
father and there were special investigation committee to see if there was torture,
there was no torture. This is only false allegations to be frank with you that's what
I said at the very beginning of my message for the media to tell the truth not to
listen to rumors.
Walters: Well in the beginning these protests, the women were marching with
children carrying olive branches nobody at that point was asking for you to step
down. It has escalated. Do you think that your forces cracked down too hard?
Assad: They are not my forces, they are military forces belong to the government.
Walters: OK, but you are the government.
Assad: I don't own them. I am president. I don't own the country, so they are not
my forces.
Walters: No, but you have to give the order?
Assad: No, no, no. We have, in the constitution, in the law, the mission of the
institution to protect the people to stand against any chaos or any terrorists, that
their job, according to the constitution to their-- to the law of the institution.
Walters: The crackdown was without your permission?
Assad: Would you mind, what do you mean by crackdown?
Walters: The, the reaction to the people, the some of the murders some of the
things that happened?
Assad: No, there is a difference between having policy to crack down and
between having some mistakes committed by some officials, there is a big
difference. For example, when you talk about policy it's like what happened in
Guantanamo when you have policy of torture for example we don't have such a
policy to crack down or to torture people, you have mistakes committed by some
people or we heard we have some allegations about mistakes, that is why we have
a special committee to investigate what happened and then we can tell according
to the evidences we have mistakes or not. But as a policy, no.
Walters: Have there been mistakes made in this crackdown, yes?
Assad: Yes, for one reason because we don't, when you don't prepare yourself for
new situation you are going to make mistakes.
Walters: OK, have the people who made the mistakes been found accountable,
have they been punished?
Assad: Some of them yes, according to the evidences, but you cannot puni--,
punish anyone according to rumors or allegations so this is judicial committee
independent judicial committee, it's, it's, uh, job to detain people if they are guilty
and to send them to the court for prosecution.
Walters: So some people have been found accountable?
Assad: Yes, according to my knowledge from the very beginning.
Walters: Last week an independent United Nations Commission who interviewed
more than two hundred and twenty five people issued a report what it said was
that your government committed crimes against humanity and they went on
torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence against protesters including
against children, what do you say to them, I mean what I am saying again and
again is that protesters were, were beaten, things happened to them, um, do you
acknowledge that, do you acknowledge what the U.N. said?
Assad: Very simply I would say send us the documents and the concrete
evidences that you have and we will see if that is true or not, you have not offered
allegations now.
Walters: Did the U.N. not send you these documents?
Assad: Nothing at all.
Walters: You mean the first you're hear--
Assad: They didn't say. They don't have even the names, who are the rape people
or who are the tortured people who are they, we don't have any names, they didn't.
Walters: But they've issued--
Assad: Sorry.
Walters: Mr. President they have issued this report.
Assad: Yeah.
Walters: They have accused you and your regime...
Assad: According to what?
Walters: Well according to what they said is 225 people, witnesses, uh, men,
women, children, whom they interviewed and identified and that's when they
called it crimes against humanity.
Assad: They should send us the documents, as long as we don't see the documents
and the evidences we cannot say yes that's normal, we cannot say just because the
United Nations who said that the United Nations is a credible institution first of
all.
Walters: Who says if the United N--
Assad: Who said? We, we, we know that you have the double standard in the
world in the United States policy in the United Nations that is controlled by the
United States and this so it has no credibility so it's about evidences and
documents, whenever they have we can discuss it just to discuss the report that we
don't see in reality related to it. It is just a waste of time.
Walters: You do not think the United Nations is a credible organization?
Assad: No, for one reason, they haven't implemented, they never implemented
any of the resolutions that related to the Arab world for example the Palestinians
to the Syrian land why don't they, if they talk about human rights what about the
Palestinians suffering in the occupied territory, what about my land is my people
that live their land because it's occupied by Israel, of course not.
Assad: For every citizen it is not for me as president I am telling you about the
perception in the whole region.
Walters: You do, you do not think the United Nations is credible?
Assad: No.
Assad: Never it's not something before my generation it's something we inherited
as a concept as a belief.
Walters: You have an ambassador to the United Nations.
Assad: Yeah, it's a game we play. It doesn't mean you believe in it.
Walters: I see. Even some of your armed forces are not remaining loyal. Some of
them have defected and some of them are fighting now against you, what do you
say to that?
Assad: What do you mean by defected?
Walters: Well they are-- some of your armed forces have left the military.
Assad: But every year, in the normal situation you have thousands of soldiers that
fled from the army. You have it normal when you have this situation you have a
little bit more you have higher percentage and then you have some few officers
that leave the army to be against you and this cannot say if you talk about
deflection in the army different from having few people deflecting so we cannot
generalize.
Walters: You don't think that they are a great many, you think it's just a few.
Assad: No, otherwise we have different situation. You are in Syria now you see
most of the things are stable if you have defection in the army you cannot have
stable country or stable major cities like Damascus, Aleppo and the majority of
Syria is stable.
Walters: You describe your country now as a stable country?
Assad: In most of the areas, yes. We have trouble we have turbulence but not, not
to the extent that you have a divided army. If you have divided army you are
going to have real war. You don't have war, you have-- instability is different
from war.
Walters: You do not feel now that you are at the brink of a civil war?
Assad: No. No, not because of our policy because of the history of this society.
Assad: We don't think that we are on the brink of civil war because the people are
aware about the need to live together that's why.
Walters: I want to make this clear, you say that the country in general is stable,
certainly we see here in Damascus since we've been here it's business as usual but
there are areas of this country an hour, an hour and a half away in which there is
still fighting, in which there is still protest--
Assad: That's true.
Walters: Do you see that as something important, people fighting for their
freedom or do you see it as a little something here and a little something there?
Assad: No it's, you have different components. Not everybody is fighting for the
freedom, you have people who want freedom and that's why we have reform
because we recognize those people and most of the people that they need freedom.
Not everybody in the street was fighting for freedom. You have different
components, you have extremists, religious extremists, you have outlaws people
who have been convicted in the courts and they have been escaping for, for years
now.
Assad: Drugs smugglers and you have like-minded people of Al Qaeda and those
so it's different components. You have money coming from outside just for the
media, uh, propaganda they give money to people they demonstrate for 15
minutes or for half an hour and in the media you see demonstration. You have
everything, you have real demonstrations, you have peaceful demonstrations you
have militants, you have terrorists, you have everything in the same place
sometimes.
Walters: So here you have what seems to be much of the world condemning you
so what's the biggest misconception why is there this misconception in the USA,
the country is stable, we have some factions what is the misconception?
Assad: First of all who is most of the world, most of the West do you mean?
Walters: Not just the West-- Turkey, well Turkey, Jordan.
Assad: Turkey is not most of the world.
Walters: The members, that is not the West, the members of the Arab League,
they are saying to you they are imposing sanctions, some of them are telling you
to step down these are your neighbors?
Assad: There is an agenda for those countries. It's not, it's political gain it's not
because they don't care about the killing, they don't care about democracy most of
these countries they have agenda not going to talk about it now, I am not going to
talk about their agenda because we have information but when we have evidence
we will announce it. But this is not because they care about the Syrian people.
Walters: Right.
Assad: If we talk about Turkey and the Arab League.
Walters: Yeah.
Assad: But going back to the condemnation no we still have good relation with
most of the world and not vice versa, even with the neighboring countries we still
have normal relation.
Walters: With who?
Assad: With our neighbors.
Walters: Not Jordan.
Assad: With Lebanon, we have trade, we have normal--
Walters: Not-- well Lebanon...
Assad: With Iraq.
Walters: But what is the agenda, for example, of Turkey or Jordan or the Arab
League, why?
Assad: I'd rather ask them. I wouldn't answer on their behalf.
Walters: OK.
Assad: They will tell you they have an agenda.
Walters: Do they want to destroy you?
Assad: You should ask them, I cannot talk about their will I don't know about
their will to be frank.
Walters: One of the things that the Arab League has asked for consistently is to
have monitors, to have objective people come and visit these areas where there is
discontent. Will you allow monitors?
Walters: Will you now allow monitors to come into this country?
Assad: Of course.
Walters: Of course?
Assad: We want that but in line with our sovereignty.
Walters: What does that mean?
Assad: What does it mean to everything in cooperation with the Syrian
government you have a state here?
Walters: Yeah but if--
Assad: They cannot just come and do whatever they want.
Walters: But if you had monitors they have to be free to look around they can't
be.
Assad: Of course they are free.
Walters: They can't, but you are saying they have to be free with your people
accompanying them.
Assad: NO.
Walters: They're not independent.
Assad: They ask for protection so they need our people, they are asking for
protection how can they go to conflicts and being killed if they want this is their
responsibility.
Walters: I am going to ask this again because I want it very clear this is
important. Will you allow monitors outside monitors to come into your country
and look around to go to these other cities, to Homs for example will you allow
them to come, yes or no.
Assad: Yes as a principle, of course we would say yes.
Walters: Under what circumstances?
Assad: To be in line with our sovereignty to do everything in cooperation with the
Syrian government, they cannot say that we're going to send, send say, for
example, 15,000. It's two sides. It's contract you don't make contract from one side
it's a technical issue you have technicalities I don't know everything about these
technicalities.
Assad: How to move, how to prepare, how to protect them, what their job, what's
our job>? We are party, you cannot have protocol just to explain to you very
clearly you cannot accept protocol that is made there and we don't have anything
to discuss, very simply.
Walters: Are you now negotiating with the Arab League?
Assad: Of course that is what we are doing. Yeah, yeah.
Walters: You are?
Assad: Of course we are still negotiating, yes.
Walters: So you think that monitors will be allowed to come soon?
Assad: Of course, as I said we ask this before.
Walters: You asked for monitors?
Assad: Yeah before they have this--
Walters: Can they travel wherever they want?
Assad: Of course. But according to certain rules, how to discuss this rules, they
are going to, when you make contract you discuss it. At the very beginning they
didn't want to discuss it with us. We said no if we don't discuss it we cannot sign
it, it will be discussed in details.
Walters: Are you now discussing with the Arab League allowing monitors to
come?
Assad: Yeah, yeah.
Walters: Can outside foreign reporters come, they have not been allowed?
Assad: No, they were allowed and you are here.
Walters: I am here and I have a correspondent here, but in--
Assad: But you have been here for two days now did anyone tell you where to go
or where not to go nobody you are free to go wherever you want.
Walters: I am appreciative that I have been allowed here and that you've granted
an interview, can other foreign correspondents, American and others come into
this country now?
Assad: Yeah, exactly.
Walters: We have not heard this, you will say yes?
Assad: You have to hear; to hear the truth, you have to look for the truth, the
truth--
Walters: Well I'm, I'm asking you now.
Assad: But that doesn't mean they can come without a visa. We are a country
where they have to take visa. We give visa to people, maybe we don't give visa to-
- we are like any other country against our sovereignty.
Walters: OK, but in--
Assad: That doesn't mean anyone can come any time and do whatever they do.
Walters: I grant you but as soon as you say visa it means this one can't come,
that, in general now can foreign correspondents come to this country.
Assad: Of course. Yes, and we have been receiving the delegations from Europe,
from the United States, from the rest of the world.
Walters: No sir, you have not been receiving delegations.
Assad: I met with them, I met with them.
Walters: Foreign correspondents?
Assad: Of course, of course foreign, they can give you the article they made
interviews with me.
Walters: But now?
Assad: I met with two British recently, one a French we meet we had and others.
Walters: Let me ask you once more time so we are clear, in general, can foreign
correspondents, if they are accredited, come to this country?
Assad: Of course they can come.
Walters: They can?
Assad: Yeah of course.
Walters: You said that if there is any outside attempt to bring you down it would
mean an earthquake, what do you mean by that?
Assad: Syria is the fault line in the Middle East. You know, the Middle East is
generally it's very diverse in ethnicities, in sects, in religions, but Syria the most
diverse and this is the fault line where all these diversity meet so it's like the fault
line of the Earth of the, of the Earth. When you play with it, you will have
earthquake that is going to effect the whole region. So playing don't mean to
overthrow me or to deal with me it's not about me it's about the, the, the fabric of
the society in this region that is what I meant.
Walters: You know your father led this country for 30 years until his death. You
have now led the country for more than a decade.
Assad: Yes.
Walters: If the Arab Spring means anything it seems to be that the era of one-
family rule is over.
Assad: OK, no I never supported being a dynasty, is that correct?
Walters: That's correct.
Assad: Yeah of being a dynasty.
Walters: You are not raising your son to succeed you?
Assad: No, no and my father never spoke with me in politics, you don't believe
this. We never and he never tried to prepare me. He always wanted me to be a
president against what you hear in the media that he asked me to come from
London. He wanted me to go back to London to continue and I refused.
Walters: But your older brother was supposed to be, take your father's place when
he was killed.
Assad: No, he had no posit--
Walter: Your father asked you to come back?
Assad: My brother had no position when my father was there and I had no
position. I wasn't, I was nothing in the party, I was only, I was in the military
since I was a doctor, nothing else.
Walters: But your father did not expect his sons to take his place?
Assad: Never, he never spoke about this.
Walters: Really?
Assad: Yeah.
Walters: Then, then with all due respect you're a doctor you're an
ophthalmologist how did you become the leader of this country?
Assad: I was a military doctor and according to our laws that military law you can
move from how to say sector to sector within the army.
Walters: OK.
Assad: So I left the, I was military doctor. Even when I was in London I was a
military doctor. They only sent me to London not the Ministry of Higher
Education, for example, or anything or the university or university. And so I was
in the army since 1985 since I was made a student at the school, few people knew
that. I wasn't civil doctor. So anyway when I became, when I became president, I
became president through the party after President Assad died. Not, not-- When
he was alive I was not there I didn't have any position.
Walters: But when your father died the son became the leader.
Assad: Yes.
Walters: So there were not free elections to make you the leader.
Assad: No anyway we don't have free election we have referendum this is our
constitution.
Walters: So your constitution said we want the son?
Assad: No not the constitution, the party.
Walters: The party said?
Assad: And the people demonstrating and they surrounded the parliament they
said we need a president so many people who didn't want the president in the
government they accepted this new president and I nominated myself, before that
I never thought about it.
Walters: So when you have elections which you say is in 2014, you will have
opposition parties?
Assad: Yeah.
Walters: Yes.
Assad: We have them already now.
Walters: OK and if they want somebody else and not you, you say OK and you
step down?
Assad: The people will say OK, the people say OK. Of course you have to be, to
leave that is self-evident you don't have to discuss it. To stay to be president while
the people don't want you how can you, how can you succeed.
Walters: You are not training your eldest son who is now, 8?
Assad: He's 8. No.
Walters: To take your place?
Assad: No I was never trained to be in this place.
Walters: Do you sometimes wish that you were still an ophthalmologist?
Assad: No, because I was in the public sector anyway as son of president, I
couldn't have my own clinic and get money from the people, so I was in public
sector now in wider public sector in the same place. So you wish you still have
kind of let's say emotion and feeling toward that job and I am still in touch with
the new innovations in that field. But you cannot look back to see yourself as a
doctor now we have more important position.
Walters: You have said often that you don't see yourself doing this job for life.
You've said you're doing it for your country. With all the turmoil in your country
is it perhaps better for Syria that you no longer remain its leader?
Assad: I don't have problem. For me Syria as a project, project of success, if you
don't succeed you don't have to stay in that position and that success again
depends on the public support without public support you cannot, whether you are
elected or not. It's not about the election, now it's about public support. This is the
most important thing. So when I feel that the public support declined, I won't be
here even if they say, if they ask or not I shouldn't be here if there is no public
support.
Walters: OK.
Assad: That's conclusive.
Walters: So you are still having protests and now your military is involved and
there are armed people on the other side there is turmoil in your country but you
are saying that in general you have the support of your people?
Assad: Yeah but let's wait for the elections to be, to be clear.
Walters: That's too, no but that's, that's, this is 2011 we are talking this can't go
on for two years.
Assad: No, no, no I am talking now about these next elections now we are going
to have the parliamentary elections.
Walters: And...
Assad: I belong to the Bath Party we will see what the position of our party is
because this is an indication it's important it's not only the person you are part of
another party of another identity.
Walters: Yeah but your party is not going to want to give up power?
Assad: Yeah no to give up why to give up if the party has the right like the other
party to compete and win the elections. But to see through the election do we still
have support as a party, if yes well this is an option and if not they have another
option.
Walters: And your parliamentary elections which are when in two months?
Assad: In three, two to three months.
Walters: And they will be open enough so that people can vote against it?
Assad: Of course. Anyone.
Walters: And that would be the end of the Bath Party and you as terms of
leadership?
Assad: If the people said no to the Bath Party, if they lost you, can say this is the
end.
Walters: Is there an opposition that they can go to?
Assad: We have opposition but it takes time to have strong opposition you have
so many figures now if they unified themselves and go to the election you can
have one strong election that depends on the tactic that they are going to adopt I
cannot tell you they are going to be strong or not I don't know. And I don't know
about how much among the people they have, how much support they have
among the people I cannot tell you.
Assad: As I said, it's about personal mistakes. Not about policy. There was no
policy of cracking down.
Walters: Who made them?
Assad: There was policy of facing the terrorists when you have militants; you
have to face the militants. You don't allow in the United States to have militants,
and remember what happened in Los Angeles in the '90s, when you send the army
to the city, to face the terrorists. That the same.
Walters: Our protest, we don't kill people. And we have-- we have press seeing it
all.
Assad: Yeah, but nobody knows yet who killed the people. Because-- when the
same question who killed the 1,100 soldiers. If you don't know, if you don't know
who killed those, you can't tell who killed the civilians.
Walters: The crackdown in the beginning, the brutality. Do you think it went too
far?
Assad: I cannot tell you this, without the evidence. You ask me to tell you
according to rumor, or to reports. It's not enough for me, as president. For me,
when there is policy, I could say yes, or no, when there is individuals with
concrete evidence, who committed mistake, I will say yes or no.
Walters: Did you give the order? For the crackdown?
Assad: No, we gave the order to implement the constitution, and the law. That's
the order and that's the job of the president.
Walters: You gave-- but who gave the order to react against the protests?
Assad: You don't need order, because this is their job.
Walters: Well somebody had to say--
Assad: No, no, no...
Walters: You know, use guns, somebody had to say their arrests.
Assad: No, no. There was even written not to use guns, that's why I said it wasn't
policy. Their job is to prevent people like any other country, you have the own
means. Whenever they used machine guns against civilians, this is breaching of
the law.
Walters: It happened.
Assad: In some cases yes, and they were caught, and they were detained I mean.
Walters: People went from houses to houses. Children were arrested. I saw those
pictures.
Assad: When, but you, to be frank with you, Barbara, I, you don't live here-- how
did you know all this-- this-- you have to be here to see. We don't see this. So it
cannot depend on what you hear in the United States. You have to--
Walters: But I saw reporters who brought back pictures.
Assad: Yeah but how did you verify those pictures? Yeah so, that's why we are
talking about false allegations and distortion of reality in this region, and most of
the things that happened. In Syria, not reflected in the media, I'm being frank with
you. So I cannot answer about fake pretenses, I can only talk about reality. Yeah.
Walters: Some people say that it's not the protests that may bring you down, but
the economic sanctions, uh, now. Not just the West, but your, as we said, your
former allies having imposed economic sanctions on your country.
Walters: Shell Oil for example, which is the largest oil production in Syria, has
stopped production. How much are the economic sanctions are going to hurt
Syria?
Assad: How much, it's difficult to tell. But it-- it will hurt from us, one aspect, but
from another aspect, it will have positive effects because of course this is
surprising. But actually, we were under sanctions, strong sanction, in the second
half of the '80s, and we built our industry in that period of time. So you can use
sanctions for example the-- agreement between Syria and Turkey, wasn't fair.
Assad: It was against our interest. Many industrialists in Syria, many business
men, most of the economic sector were against it, and they asked our government
many times, to stop working with this treaty. They sent to see-- I think two folds,
export, something like this, I don't have the numbers now, so, you have-- if you--
if you are smart enough, if you are creative enough. You know, every cloud has
silver lining, and we have a lot of political clout in this region. So we have lot of
silver lining, but you have to see the silver lining to know how to-- to have the
positive. So it will affect you badly, from one side, but you can decrease the harm.
I wouldn't say you can win now, let's not exaggerate, but you can decrease this
harm and get some benefits from it.
Walters: How can you get benefits from economic sanctions?
Assad: First of all we are not oil producing country, we are not like Iraq. Iraq was
depend-- oil dependent. We are not oil dependent, we produce. We can leave the--
we export the food. We eat our food.
Walters: So you were saying that it would take more maybe creativity, more
industry.
Assad: Exactly.
Walters: In this whole country to become independent.
Assad: Exactly. And we can. We don't have problems if-- and this could be the
strong point of Syria. That's why I said they cannot isolate Syria.
Walters: They cannot isolate you?
Assad: No.
Walters: I have seen the markets filled with food so I, you are able to-- to keep
feeding your people.
Assad: Of course, no, we don't have trouble. We can-- we can eat two years
without, with full embargo. We export wheat to many countries.
Walters: Your wife was raised and went to school in England. It has been said
that she is a force for moderation. I'd like to know, when you and she discuss
things, um, what has she said about what's happening in your country?
Assad: We are used to live as one family in Syria, because Syria is small country.
Whenever you have one crime, the whole country will hear about it. It's very safe
country. Of course it's still the same pain, to feel-- we feel sorry about what's
happening, but at the end-- the-- the, the discussion-- is always and I think
everywhere in Syria is part-- what can we do to have to prevent more blood
shedding in Syria.
Walters: Your wife has her own projects in the country.
Assad: Yes. Development project. Charity of course.
Walters: But do you discuss the situation?
Assad: Of course yes. That's what I said, part of the solution is how to make life
better in different aspects. Development is part of the solution. It's not only about
demonstrations and militants and terrorists and things like that.
Walters: Is your wife a source of support for you?
Assad: Of course, all my family.
Walters: Let me ask about the children. Because you have three young children, 9,
8 and 6.
Assad: Yes.
Walters: What have you told them about what's happening in this country?
Assad: The reality.
Walters: Which is what?
Assad: What-- what I told you.
Walters: What do you say to them?
Assad: I told them all.
Walters: Especially the older boy?
Assad: I told them about terrorists, I told them about people-- innocent people
being killed. About investigation we have to know who-- who helped looked for
the reason. Everything.
Walters: You've told them about innocent people getting killed?
Assad: Of course.
Walters: Some of whom are children.
Assad: Uh we didn't talk about whether-- innocent is innocent. Whether it's
children or-- is innocent.
Walters: Do they see pictures? Do they have Facebook?
Assad: Of course.
Walters: Or YouTube?
Assad: Of course. Of course.
Walters: Do they ask questions?
Assad: They can watch the Internet every day. Of course. They ask a lot.
Walters: Pay attention?
Assad: They are very curious to know.
Walters: What do they say?
Assad: About the question-- about what's happening? Why-- why do you have
militants, why do you have evil people? Why do the-- why do those people want
to kill?
Walters: I want to hear the answers, what do you say?
Assad: I told them a lot of things. Sometimes people commit mistakes, sometimes
you have bad people. In every society you have bad people. So they kill more to
undermine the government, that's what you explain to the children.
Walters: How does this all end? How do you restore peace?
Assad: By reform and facing the terrorists.
Walters: Is the reform, too little too late?
Assad: No, because anyway, the reform will not have direct impact on the
terrorists, because most of the terrorists, and I would say, all the terrorists, they
don't have political agenda. They don't care about reforming. The reform is for the
majority in the middle that I told you about and the people who support you, and
the people who are against you. But terrorists don't care about this.
Walters: Will you allow freedom of expression, freedom of press?
Assad: We already have it.
Walters: You don't have freedom of press, they can't criticize you.
Assad: We have in every-- every society, you have a, like-- I wouldn't call taboo?
You have a limit.
Walters: Taboo? Not in mine. We have freedom of press.
Walters: How do you hope that you will be remembered?
Assad: By doing the best I can, can for, for this country. Whether you agree, or
whether the people agree or don't, don't agree, but at-- at the end, I was not a
puppet. I care a lot about being independent president for independent Syria. And
do my best, according to my convictions. That's the most important thing. At the
end, even if they disagree with you, they will respect you.
Walters: What do you think is the biggest misconception that my country has of
what's happening here, if indeed there is a misconception?
Assad: Misconception about a lot of things. I cannot tell you, because it's so many
facts, distorted facts, you have them in the media. But the most important thing, as
accumulation of these facts, you don't have vision. The problem with the West in
general, especially the United States, They don't have vision about-- at least my
region, I wouldn't talk about the rest of the world -- failing in Iraq, failing in
Afghanistan, failing in fighting terrorism.
Assad: The situation is getting worse and worse in the rest of the world. The
question you ask as American, what did you get? Well, where did you win? Well,
you spent trillions, where you could spend few hundred of millions, and get the
terrorists out. So that will-- you-- it harms your interest, but at the same time, it
harms others', interest. So this is the misconception I think.
Walters: Dealing with the protest-- with the protesters. What is the
misconception, if there is any?
Assad: About this situation?
Walters: About the protests, that's what is being focused on now.
Assad: OK, we don't kill our people, nobody kill. No government in the world kill
its people, unless it's led by crazy person. For me, as president, I became president
because of the public support. It's impossible for anyone, in this state, to give
order to kill people.
Assad: We have militants, those militants killing-- soldiers and killing civilians.
This morning, we lost nine civilians, killed in Homs, in the middle of Syria, and
they are supporters. Most of the victims are support government supporters. That's
something they don't know, they think every civilian is demonstrator, and every
civilian is against the government, which is not true.
Walters: But the protesters in the beginning, who were killed...
Assad: Yeah.
Walters: What about them?
Assad: What do you mean?
Walters: OK. Our view is there are peaceful protesters, they were killed, some
were tortured. It was a brutal reaction. Are we wrong in thinking that?
Assad: Every single-- every brute reaction, was by individual. Not by institution.
That's what you have to know.
Assad: We don't have institution that kill people, or give order to-- for brute
reaction. This is individual-- and that's what I call-- what I describe as-- individual
mistakes.
Walters: OK. Done by the military, or done by whom?
Assad: We don't know everything. In some cases done by the police. In some
cases done by civilians.
Walters: But not by your command?
Assad: No, no, no. We don't have-- nobody-- no one's command. There was no
command, to kill or to be brutal.
Walters: So that was individual people?
Assad: Of course.
Walters: Are you remorseful?
(side chat)
Assad: What do you mean remorseful? You mean being sad or-- or regret?
Walters: Regret.
Assad: No, a regret-- you regret when you do-- when you do mistakes, when you
commit a mistake. I always try to protect my people. How can I feel remorseful if
I try to protect the Syrian people?
Walters: Yeah, do you feel guilty? Guilty. Guilt.
Assad: Because if you mean guilty, it means you made the mistake. That's why I
have be precise. So if you can change the term just for me to--
(side chat)
Walters: And then I'm done. Do you feel guilty?
Assad: I did my best to protect the people, so I cannot feel guilty, when you do
your best. You feel sorry for the lives that has been lost, but you don't feel guilty -
- when you don't kill people.
Walters: Thank you, Mr. President.
Assad: Thank you.
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