Cross Cultural Pragmatic Failure in Anna and the King Film

Abstract

This research discussed on Cross Cultural Pragmatic Failure in Anna and the King Film. It is aimed to find out the types and causes of cross cultural pragmatic failure in Anna and the King film. The data are taken from an American film entitled Anna and the King by Andy Tennant. Theory of Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failure proposed by Thomas is applied in this research. This research is categorized into qualitative research by applying non-participant observational method (Simak Bebas Libat Cakap) and supported by noting technique (Teknik Catat) proposed by Sudaryanto. The result showed that the types and causes of cross cultural pragmatic failure are found in the data source. The types are divided into 2; pragma-linguistic failure and socio-pragmatic failure. Continually, the types occur because there are some causes. Pragma-linguistic failure occurs as the result of pragma-linguistic transfer while socio-pragmatic failure occurs because of taboo, cross-culturally different assessments of relative power or social distance, socio-pragmatic failure and value judgements. Generally, in communication both speaker and hearer who have different background and knowledge will lead cross cultural pragmatic failure. It’s because each cultures are unique which they have their own way in linguistic patterns, politeness, norms, customs, rules of communication and social habit where one culture have and the others not and otherwise. Therefore, both speaker and hearer carry out their own way in communication through the language as the result cultural differences.

Key Words: Cross-cultural pragmatic failure, Anna and the King Film