Violating Maxim of Relevance
64 1
Uttering obscure sentences Firstly, the following excerpt illustrated the violation of the first sub maxim
of maxim manner by constructing obscure utterance:
S02E18MNVL15 In apartment, Barney doesn’t want Ted and Robin living together. He tried to convince
them by asking made-up questions. 1
Barney: So? We all agree? We move Ted’s stuff back up here? 2
Ted: Mm... No. we’re still moving in together. 3
Barney: Why? This is crazy. Ted, you’re throwing your life away. This girl is blinding you. With her shinny hair and her boob shaped boobs. This is bad for you, too, you
know.
The conversation above which constituted the violation sub maxim of manner occurred when Ted was about moving together in Robin’s apartment.
Barney suddenly felt that he was about to lose his best friend, and he was the one who disagreed Ted and Robin moving together. The interesting party was occurred
when Barney initiated an offer to open an offer-refusal sequence with Ted. He offered to move all Ted’s stuff from the lorry back to the apartment. However, Ted
gave a refusal to Barney as the exchange. Ted’s utterance used the dispreffered token “mmm” as the delay before completing his utterance. In the exchange to Ted’s
remark, Barney refrained from talking cooperatively. He obscured the expression by uttering “With her shinny hair and her boob shaped boobs.” to stop Ted moving
together. It was obscure to convince Ted that he was appealed and blinded by Robin’s physical appearance. However, the remark “boob shaped boobs” was
obscure. Therefore, in terms of CP, Barney violated maxim of manner since he did not construct his utterance clearly and obviously Tupan and Natalia, 2008, p. 66.
65 2
Uttering ambiguous sentences Secondly, the following excerpt illustrated the violation of the first sub
maxim of maxim manner by using ambiguous utterance.
S02E12MNVL10 Down at the bar, Barney drops some knowledge that according to him relationships are
like a freeway. In fact, in previous month, he told Marshall that relationships are like a travelling circus.
1 Barney: Freeways have exits. So do relationships. The first exit, my personal favorite, is
six hours in. you meet, you talk you have sex, you exit when she’s in the shower. 2
Robin: So every girl you have sex with feels the immediate need to shower? Actually yeah I get that.
The excerpt above illustrated the utterances which were ambiguous in two different meaning. The conversation chanced when Barney took the floor to drop
the knowledge of relationships. He did not select specifically the next speaker to take the turn. Afterward, Robin took a chance to speak and to give a feedback. In
her utterance “So every girl you have sex with feels the immediate need to shower? Actually yeah I get that.” however turned out to be ambiguous. Although she
intended the hearers to infer the faced-value meaning, her construction was ambiguous. In her utterance, she possibly had ever had sex with Barney, so it was
reasonable to infer that she felt the immediate need to shower, or she possibly understood face-to-face that the girl whom Barney had sex with felt the immediate
need to have shower after sex. Consequently, in terms of CP, she violated maxim of manner Khosravizadeh Sadehvandi, 2011, p. 123.