Gathering of Maxim-flouting utterances in “Occam’s Razor”

43

CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS

The main purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of maxim flouting as it occurs in the television series House, M.D., episode “Occam’s Razor ”, in the hope that a generalization can be made as to how and why people flout maxims, and how to comprehend maxim-flouting utterances. In order to achieve this, an analysis on the utterances in “Occam’s Razor” is carried out. This analysis is separated into two parts. The first part is the identification of relevant dialogues and utterances to be analyzed. This part will enable the study to focus on only those utterances that would effectively serve the goal of the study. The second part is the maxim flouting analysis on selected utterances, in which the use of context is incorporated. This part would enable the comprehension of maxim-flouting utterances and help determine the intention behind the flouting of conversational guidelines. A summary will also be given at the end of the analysis. The results of this analysis will serve as data that will allow a conclusion to be drawn regarding the general use of maxim flouting.

A. Gathering of Maxim-flouting utterances in “Occam’s Razor”

The episode “Occam’s Razor” of House, M.D. is 44.8 minutes long, within which there are practically hundreds and even thousands of utterances spoken. However, not all of those utterances flout maxims of conversation. Most of the utterances are, in fact, pretty straight forward. This part of the analysis is done in the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 44 recognition that it would have been very difficult for this study to yield relevant results if all the utterances of “Occam’s Razor”, including those straight-forward utterances, were to be scrutinized. A proper selection process is, therefore, not only beneficial, but also essential. The criteria set in the methodology are 1 the dialogues must contain maxim- flouting utterances that are comprehensible to the hearers in the dialogue, and 2 The utterances that simply violate or infringe a maxim are excluded. Following the two criteria, this part of the analysis has identified 21 dialogues, spanning approximately 5 minutes and 5 seconds, or 11.2 of the total screen time. These dialogues contain a total of 49 maxim-flouting utterances which will serve as the main source for the dialogue-by-dialogue implicature analysis Of the 49 maxim-flouting utterances, 20 are spoken by House, 13 are spoken Wilson, 6 are spoken by Cuddy, 3 are spoken by Foreman, 3 are spoken by Chase, 3 are spoken by Mindy, 1 is spoken by Brandon, 1 is spoken by the suburban pharmacist suspected of dispensing colchicines, and 1 is spoken by Cameron. All these 49 utterances are deliberately spoken by the speakers in various situations, containing implicatures that would not have been comprehensible without appropriate knowledge of the context surrounding those utterances. In accordance to the criteria set, dialogues with maxim violation and maxim Infringing are not included. The consideration, as explained in the introductory chapter of this study, is that these two does not demonstrate an effective communication, since maxim violation is intended to mislead while maxim Infringing is generally unintended and will lead to miscommunication. However, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 45 in some of the dialogues gathered, there are utterances – mostly those spoken by House – that often seem to be violating maxims when it is, in fact, a maxim- flouting. In those utterances, the speaker use misleading sentences which are meant to be seen through by the hearers: a strong indication of maxim flouting, and not maxim violation. This step of the analysis therefore also includes those utterances to be further scrutinized in the implicature analysis. This step of the analysis also harvests relevant dialogues surrounding a maxim- flouting utterance. This is done in order to provide the information necessary to construct the context of the utterance, especially the co-text aspect. In the case of maxim-flouting utterances that refer to utterances not contained within the dialogue in which it was spoken e.g. spoken a couple of hours ago before the maxim flouting utterance was spoken the relevant utterances will not be listed. Instead, it will simply be mentioned later on in the implicature analysis.

B. Implicature Analysis of The Maxim-Flouting Utterances