Ted and Robin the reason why two guys who are friends cannot go to brunch. After that, Ted answers, ”Because brunch is kind of...”, and then Robin finishes
his statement by adding, “Girly”. In here, since Robin blatantly gives less
information to Marshall than what is required, he does not get any idea of what Robin is trying to say. Thus, he asks them for an explanation. Therefore, Ted
answers, “I dont know. Theres nothing girly about a horse, nothing girly about a horn, but put them together and you get a unicorn
”. From his statement, Ted attempts Marshall to look for an implicature beyond his answer.
By saying his statement as written in bold previously, Ted is implying that brunch is usually attended by couples; a man and a woman who are on a date.
Implicitly, Ted is saying that two guys who are friends having brunch together is rare to be done. Hence, if Marshall and Brad go to brunch together even though as
friends, people who see them will think differently. In fact, instead of telling this implicature to Marshall directly, Ted chooses to use the unicorn as a parable to
Marshall so that he can understand the deeper meaning beyond it. However, it turns out that Marshall does not understand Ted‟s explanation which is
mentioning horse and unicorn. Thus, Ted‟s implicature is not successfully delivered to Marshall. In here, Ted is not being cooperative in the conversation.
From the explanation above, by not being brief and direct in delivering his message to Marshall about the fact that brunch is usually attended by couples, Ted
is seen as violating the maxim of Manner. In order to be more cooperative, Ted could have just directly explained his message to Marshall that brunch is usually
attended by couples.
2. Flouting of Conversational Maxims
Within the four maxims of Cooperative Principle, there are twenty two floutings of conversational maxims found in the situation comedy. There are two
floutings of Quantity maxim, one flouting of Quality maxim, six floutings of Relation maxim, and thirteen floutings of Manner maxim. The categorization of
floutings of conversational maxims in their type can be seen in the table below:
Table 2. Data Findings: Flouting of Conversational Maxims Flouting of
Conversational Maxims
Quantity 2
Quality 1
Relation 6
Manner 13
Data code
01FloQuanRls 02FloQuanRls
03FloQualHos 04FloRelRls
05FloRelInc 06FloRelInc
07FloRelInc 08FloRelInc
09FloRelInc 10FloManRls
11FloManRls 12FloManInc
13FloManInc 14FloManInc
15FloManInc 16FloManHos
17FloManHos 18FloManInc
19FloManRls 20FloManInc
21FloManHos 22FloManRls
a. Flouting of maxim of Quantity
There are two floutings of maxim of Quantity resulted from the analysis. The explanations of the floutings are presented below.
Data code:
01FloQuanRls Barney
Have you chosen your entrée? Marshall
I have. A sweet brunette, eight oclock. Nine oclock. Ten; thirty. Shes walking to the bar.
Barney
Her? Really? No, youre right. Ambition is the enemy of success. OK, hit it.
Marshall to the
girl Hey four-eyes. You got astigmatism or
something? Im sorry, I was trying to be playful but I just got out of a long relationship. I have
no idea what Im doing Im Marshall.
Girl
Hi Marshall. Amy. Dont worry, Ive been there. Hold on.
The excerpt above is the situation when Barney and Marshall are going out at MacLaren‟s. Barney wants Marshall to flirt other woman because he is no
longer in a relationship with Lily. In the middle of their conversation, Barney asks Marshall whether or not he has found his target. Then, Marshall tells him that he
has found a woman he wants to talk to. No longer after that, Marshall approaches
the woman and introduces himself to the woman by saying, “Hey four-eyes. You got astigmatism or something? Im sorry, I was trying to be playful but I just
got out of a long relationship. I have no idea what Im doing Im Marshall
”. As a total stranger who wants to introduce himself, he could have greeted
the woman simply by saying, “Hi, I am Marshal.” However, Marshall‟s statement which is written in bold previously shows that he provides too much information
to the woman. Marshall‟s statement about the fact that he has just got out from a relationship is unnecessary in the conversation because the woman does not ask
any information about Marshall‟s love life from him due to the fact that it is the first time they meet. Furthermore, at the beginning of his statement, Marshall
