CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
The first chapter discusses the
basic of the research involving background of the study, problems of the study,
objectives of the study, significances of the study, scope and limitation of the study, and
operational definition of the key terms.
1.1 Background of the Study It is undoubtedly true that conversation is
indispensable to establish human interaction.
It allows people with different views on a topic tolearn from each other.Dubberly & Pangaro (2009, p.3)
affirms that conversation offers people to learn highly valuable life lessons and it will
enable them to convey new concepts, share
and evolve knowledge.
Moreover, many verses in Holy
Qur’an illustrate howconversation is very crucial to convey the truth of Islam, as in
Sura Huud verses 22-23, for example"O
Nûh (Noah)! You
have disputed with
us and much have
you prolonged the dispute with
us, now bring upon us what you threaten
us with, if you are
of the truthful.". Nûh
then answered: "Only Allah will
bring it (the punishment)
on you, if He will, and then you will not escape. (Huud, 22-23).
Conversation, as clarified by
Stubbs (1983, p.104),is organized in a concept
of exchanges whose simplest structures are an initiation [I] from one speaker and a response [R] from another.
Stenstrom (1994, p.88) states that initiation
refers to the utterances of the first speaker in a turn to start an exchange of conversation. It has such basic types as
statement, question, and request that need
responses in forms of reply, answer, and acceptance or rejection. While a response is defined as the act of the addressee
of responding to what the previous speaker
has said.
Statement, the first basic of
initiations, suppliesinformation that expects to be acknowledged. Meanwhile, question basically
has functions to elicit information and
confirmation. It can be used to start a conversation and can be used repeatedly to keep conversation going.
Zubaidi(2009, p.2) concludes that without
questioning, speakers cannot get information in conversation. The last basic of initiation, that is request, is used
to get someone to do something, for example,
can you pick me up at ten, please? and also to ask permission to do something as in utterance of may I leave now?.
As initiation, a response can
also ensure the talk exchange runs well.
According to Stenstrom (1994,
p.109), it constitutes a reaction of the next speaker to what has been said in initiations by the
first speaker. If the previous speaker delivers
statement, request, or question, so the addressee should respond to it by giving replies and answers. By
using well-ordered structures of conversation and understanding its functions, people will be able to keep
conversationgoing and get accomplishment of interaction with others. These two elements
of conversation seem to form a perfect
structure for the speakers when they involve in conversation. However, in reality, it is not as simple as that. Straker
(2008, para.2) notes that people occasionally
feel difficult to start conversation and keep it going though it seems easy to do. They may feel reluctant to
initiate talk with strangers, for example, because they are so fearful of rejection. Some
others may also find problems giving
respond to what have been said by the previous speaker because of inability to understand what the partner has
talkedabout. Opine This study endeavors to investigate the types and functions
of initiations and responses in a talk
show. Talk show as an exercise of conversation is preferred to investigate since it resembles a
dailyspeech as a real life communication
(Zubaidi, 2009, p.5). During the show, the host and the guests naturally have a talk exchange, in which the
dialogues occur are typically unscripted
and have direct address to the audience.The host, as the main speaker is expected to begin talk in the show, he/she
will have such a manner of initiations to
promote a communicative conversation. The guests, in turn, are encouraged to respond to what has previously been said by
the host so that they can be interactive
on the show.
The researcher selects Larry King
Live, a talk showbroadcasted by CNN.
Different from other talk shows,
its format is one-on-one with no audiences in the studio. In interviewing the guests, King as
the host, regards himself as non- threatening and non-judgmental one. As a
broadcasting legend, he is indisputable to
have good abilities to start conversation with the guests, and encourage them
to continually pay attention to him.
According to Tennant (2010, para.2), King is used to speaking soft-spoken, direct,
easy-gentle, intimate and simple languages that express his uniqueness of speaking. The
guestsprefer discussing intimate details
with King because they feel comfortable with his easy style. These aspects eventually persuade them to give their best
responses to what King has said.
This study has relations with
some previous researchers who have conducted
relevant studies of similar topics. Tan (2005) investigated the dialogue of conversation produced between the broadcaster
and the callers of a radio program in
phone line interaction. As result, she affirmed that combinations of initiation and response used in the radio does
not always same with the theory used in
her study. Ruby (2008) did an analysis on the teacher-student interaction patterns focusing on the discourse patterns in
the whole class teaching portion.
The result showed that the
classroom discourse patterns followed three-part I-R-F (initiation, response and follow-up), it was
shown as a useful descriptive tool in analyzing
contemporary language classrooms. Sunderland (2001) has also analyzed classroom exchange; student
initiation-teacher response-student feedback
in a language class of school. He finally concluded that the frequency of occurrence and the nature of student-initiated
IRFsare related to the nature of the classroom
activity.
Building on the previous studies,
the present studyis particularly intended to explore exchange structure of conversation
in a talk show focusing on initiations
and responses. The researcher argues that initiations and responses produced by the speakers in talk show will run
better and is more communicative because
it involves the speakers in a face-to-face conversation. In this study, the researcher examines utterances performing
initiations of the host and responses of the invited guests in Larry King Live show.
Theory of Stenstrom is applied as a supporting
theory for the reason that it covers variants of initiations and responses which is appropriate to investigate natural
and daily conversation as in a talk show.The
types of initiation and response in talk show, moreover, are more various than in classroom exchange since it
has natural manner as in daily conversation.
Hence, the researcher is interested in conducting the study of “Initiations and Responses in Larry King Live”.
1.2
Problems of the Study Considering
the background of the study in the preceding discussion, the researcher formulates the problems of the
study as follows: 1. What are the types and functions of
initiations in Larry King Live? 2. What are the types and functions of responses
in Larry King Live? 1.3 Objectives of the Study The first objective of the study is to
identify thetypes and describe the functions
of initiations used by the host in Larry King Live. Second objective is to identify the types and describe the functions
of responses produced by the invited guests
in Larry King Live. 1.4
Scope and Limitation of the Study In order to focus the data to be considered in
initiations and responses (IR) framework,
the researcher specifies the analysis onthe types and the functions of the host’s initiations and the invited guests’
responses.
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