21 will use Cruses terms in the analysis of this study with regard to the contextual
communication in House, M.D. However, concepts and ideas from Cutting and Gerfen will also be employed freely.
B. Review of Related Studies
The related study is an article by the title of Constructing a Pedagogy of Comedy: Sarcasm and Print Codes as Social Literacies in Winnie-the-Pooh,
which was published in the Journal of Language and Literacy Education. In this article, Liberty Kohn and Wynn Yarbrough analyze comedy in relation to
education, especially for the purpose of childhood education, which explains the choice of childrens book Winnie-the-Pooh as the object of study.
This study on sarcasm and print codes is similar to the current study into maxim flouting as it presented a model where language can be seen as a vessel
which carries messages that could very well be incongruent to the literal meanings of the words spoken. It also depicts how important it was to take context into
account when performing an analysis to discover the real intention i.e. the implicature behind an utterance, something this study discovers to be essential in
its analysis of the dialogues of “Occam’s Razor”. This study describes comedy as having a dual nature, which consists of the
expected and the unexpected. The expected event does not occur but is portrayed implicitly instead, while the unexpected event actually occurs, thus producing
incongruence. Kohn and Yarbrough establish that readers must understand the dual nature, or both the expected and the unexpected in order to get the joke,
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22 which they refer to as the dual cognitive schemas of comedy Kohn and
Yarbrough 2010:60. Kohn and Yarbrough give an example from the story Birthday Scenes in
Winnie-the-Pooh . Pooh asks Eeyore if it is his birthday and Eeyore responds with
an affirmative. He says, ‘‘Can’t you see? Look at all the presents [...]. Look at the birthday cake. Candles and pink sugar’’’ in Kohn and Yarbrough 2010:66
although in fact there is no birthday cake. When Pooh says he cannot see them, Eeyore responds by saying Neither can I. ...Joke in Kohn and Yarbrough
2010:66. Similarly, the recognization of maxim flouting in “Occam’s Razor”
requires that one understand both the literal utterance and the actual situation context to comprehend an implicature. However, the study into maxim flouting
covers more ground as it scrutinizes how incongruent utterances generate not only humour, but also mockeries, suggestions, statements, etc.
This study also shows how sarcasm in Winnie-the-Pooh can serve as the tools to teach not only linguistic literacy but also social literacy to young learners.
Kohn and Yarbrough cited various sources showing that children have difficulties understanding sarcasm through context up to the age of nine although they are
able to understand sarcasm through intonation by the age of seven. Children also have difficulties distinguishing blame attribution and sympathy elicitation
2010:66. Winnie-the-Pooh
can provide examples of sarcasm as one of social expression of individual feelings Kohn and Yarbough 2010:66, which is
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23 actually intended to elicit sympathy as well. In relation to the example quoted
above, it is revealed later on the story that it really is Eeyores birthday and Eeyores sarcasm reflects his sad feeling that nobody remembered his birthday,
thus eliciting readers sympathy. By reading the book, young learners can learn the intentions of the characters in Winnie-the-Pooh upon using sarcasm in their
utterances. Kohn and Yarbough explains about it further as follows. To reconcile young readers contextual problems through discussion of
Winnie-the-Pooh, a pedagogy of comedy would suggest discussing the emotional aspect of sarcasm as not incorrect social behavior, but as
indirect, social expression of individual feelings and the eliciting of sympathy Kohn and Yarbough 2010:66.
Thus, analyzing the expected and unexpected in comic utterances can increase young learners understanding of pragmatics in communication, thus
increasing their emotional literacy, reading skills, and contextualization of communicational or behavioral incongruence Kohn and Yarbough 2010:67.
C. Theoretical Framework
