Analysis of Non-Observance of The Gricean Maxims in Jokes of Funny Junk Website That Lead To The Occurrence of Humor.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................ ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..........................................................
Background of the Study .....................................................................
Statement of the Problem .....................................................................
Purpose of the Study ............................................................................
Methods of Research ...........................................................................
Organization of the Thesis ...................................................................
1
1
4
4
4
5
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................ 6
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF NON-OBSERVANCE OF THE
GRICEAN MAWIMS IN JOKES OF FUNNY JUNK WEBSITE THAT
LEAD TO THE OCCURRENCE OF HUMOR ......................................... 13
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ............................................................ 39
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................... 43
APPENDIW ..................................................................................................... 44
ii
Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Di dalam skripsi ini, saya mengkaji humor yang muncul akibat adanya
pelanggaran bidal. Menurut Grice, pelanggaran bidal dapat dikategorikan secara
lebih spesifik ke dalam lima jenis pelanggaran: Flouting a maxim, Violating a
maxim, Infringing a maxim, Suspending a maxim, dan Opting out a maxim.
Pelanggaran bidal ini menyebabkan adanya ketidakcocokan skrip atau script
incongruity dalam sebuah humor.
Guna mengaplikasikan teori tersebut, saya mengambil sumber data dari
www.funnyjunksite.com, yang di dalamnya terdapat sejumlah lelucon atau humor
yang muncul oleh karena adanya pelanggaran bidal dan ketidakcocokan skrip.
Humor sendiri merupakan sesuatu yang bersifat subjektif. Oleh karena itu, saya
memperkuat kajian saya dengan menggunakan teori script incongruity dari Raskin.
Dari berbagai temuan yang saya dapatkan di dalam analisis ini, flouting a maxim
of manner merupakan pelanggaran bidal yang paling sering ditemukan. Hal ini
disebabkan oleh respon pembicara yang ambigu atau tidak jelas sehingga
terciptalah humor.
iii
Maranatha Christian University
APPENDICES
Data 1
43
Data 2
Data 3
44
Data 4
Data 5
44
Data 6
Data 7
46
Data 8
Data 9
47
Data 10
Data 11
48
Data 12
Data 13
49
Data 14
Data 15
40
CHAPTER OPE
IPTRODUCTIOP
Background of the Study
As human beings, we are different from the other creatures. We can express
our feelings and thoughts besides interacting with one another by using language.
According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the definition of “language”
is the use by humans of a system of sounds and words to communicate
(“language”, def. 2). It can be said that language is a tool for humans to
communicate with one another in this world. This tool plays an important role in
our lives, and it is difficult for people to interact properly without using language.
Although we can use body language to communicate, it is still not enough for us
to express what we want to say. Communication is really crucial to all people.
Without communication, people could not interact with one another
appropriately. In reality, we could communicate through many ways such as
giving a sign using our gesture or conversation. In a conversation, people can
transmit what they want to say to another. However, people tend to produce some
words with meanings different from what they actually want to say.
1
Therefore, the hearers have to catch an implicature that lies within the words.
Implicature means implying or giving hints, suggest or convey some meaning
indirectly by means of language (Thomas 58). For instance, when the speaker
wants to say something, but he or she does not want to say it directly because of
certain reasons, an utterance with an implied meaning may occur. The speaker
produces an implicature with the hope that the hearer will understand the implied
meaning. In this case, it shows a problem of maxim which falls under the category
of pragmatics pioneered by Grice.
Pragmatics itself is an analysis of what people mean from their utterance
rather than from what the words or phrases meant by themselves which are
concerned with the study of the speaker’s meaning (Yule 3). This study is very
important because in daily conversations, we deal with utterances and we should
know the speaker’s meaning.
In general, people hardly directly say what they want to say. By doing
this, they fail to observe the Gricean maxims. When the speaker says something
which might not be understood by the hearer, the hearer might also reply with an
answer which is not relevant or related to the context. This misinterpretation often
leads to the occurrence of humor.
The topic of this thesis is an analysis of non-observance of maxims in
funny junk site that leads to the occurrence of joke. It is known that humor is very
common and it also plays an important role to entertain people. It is one of the
reasons why I choose this topic. Besides, I take an interest in jokes, especially
jokes in the form of conversation. In this thesis, types of non-observance of
2
maxim which triggers the occurrence of humor will be analyzed. Pragmatic
knowledge is needed here to help us to understand humor.
As the readers, it is necessary for us to have a particular knowledge to
interpret jokes. With this knowledge, we are expected to understand more about
the process of jokes being created and their part in conversation that triggers jokes.
The knowledge that we get from this analysis will help us to appreciate humor.
The theories that will be used are the theory of conversational implicature
from Pragmatics, and the theory of script incongruity to emphasize the
explanation of humor. I choose these theories because they can help us to analyze
jokes.
Furthermore, the significance of this thesis is that people will be more
aware of the fact that jokes might occur due to the occurrence of different scripts
which may root from non-observance of maxim.
The sources of the data are jokes in Funny Junk Website. I decide to take
the data from the website, because I know that website is one of the most popular
media nowadays. Most people prefer reading jokes through website because of
practical reasons. And this site provides a lot of data that can be analyzed. Besides,
we can find many categories of jokes from which people can choose the jokes
they want. Most of the jokes in this site are in the form of conversation, so it
would be easy for me to analyze them through pragmatics and script incongruity.
(720 words)
3
Statement of the Probcem
1. What type of non-observance of the maxims is used in the jokes?
2. Which maxim is unobserved in the jokes?
3. How can Raskin’s theory of script incongruity help us to analyze the
occurrence of humor in the jokes?
Purpose of the Study
1. To know the types of non-observance that found in jokes
2. To find out which maxim is unobserved in the jokes
3. To explain how Raskin’s theory of script incongruity can help the
occurrence of the humor in the jokes.
Method of Research
In the process of analyzing the topic, I gathered sources of data by searching
the most suitable site that provides jokes possible to be analyzed. Moreover, I
managed to find out what kind of theories that could be used to analyze these
jokes. After selecting the theories, I decided that the theory of maxim, which is
from Pragmatics area, and the theory of script incongruity are the most suitable
theories to analyze the data. Furthermore, I started to analyze both data by using
these theories and then write my thesis.
4
Organization of the Thesis
This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One is the Introduction, which
consists of Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the
Study, Method of Research and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two is the
Theoretical Framework, in which the theories that will be applied to analyze are
explained. Chapter Three is the analysis of the data, while Chapter Four is
Conclusion. This thesis ends with Bibliography and Appendix.
5
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
This chapter sill conclude all the results found in Chapter Three, shich
provides my analysis about the non-observance of the Gricean maxims in the
jokes of funny junk website that lead to the occurrence of humor. All the results of
Chapter Three sill be discussed and explained. It also becomes a conclusion of
this thesis.
First of all, there are six jokes that flout the maxim of manner, five jokes
flout the maxim of relation, and three jokes violate the maxim. Those three types
of non-observance of maxim are those that commonly appear in the data that I
have analyzed in my thesis. On the other hand, there are three jokes that flout the
maxim of quantity, and one joke flouts the maxim of quality. Some of the data
also have more than one maxim flouted in it.
Based on my analysis in Chapter Three, the non-observance of maxim that
mostly appears is flouting the maxim of manner. I conclude that shen people
give an ambiguous and unclear ansser in a conversation, they can lead the hearer
39
to jump into a different context instead of the real one. Moreover, shen the true
meaning is knosn, people sill find this non- observance as a surprising ansser
that also leads the humor to happen. For example, in data 3, the old man flouts a
maxim of manner by giving a statement shich has tso possible meanings. The
short reply ignites a different interpretation shich is best applied to make the
readers laugh. In this case, the ambiguous and unclear statement also leads script
incongruity to happen, shich also becomes the reason for the readers to find the
tsist that leads to the occurrence of humor.
Flouting a maxim of manner is the non-observance that mostly appears,
shile flouting a maxim of relation is the second one. Through my analysis, I
find that an unrelated ansser sill lead the hearer to find it funny and
automatically laugh soon after hearing it. It can also be seen that the irrelevance of
the ansser is an easy say to induce laughter. Besides, the irrelevance of the
ansser sometimes is superficial in the sense that it does not seem to be relevant,
but somehos it is still related shen se analyze more deeply in terms of its
implicature.
Flouting a maxim of quantity and quality are tso types of nonobservance that rarely appear in the data. Flouting a maxim of quantity and
quality do not give a big impact compared to the other types of non-observance
that can make the readers laugh. Compared sith the other types of flouting, these
tso types do not shos the tsist of script incongruity. For example, the ambiguity
and unrelated ansser support the occurrence of different scripts recognizably
shile the long ansser does not shos the tsist clearly.
40
Another type of non-observance that also appears in my analysis is
violating a maxim. People sill find this type of non-observance funny because it
is like deceiving people. The speaker does not tell the shole story and keep the
main points that automatically mislead the hearer. I also conclude that violating a
maxim is a type of non-observance shich criticizes people physically or mentally.
People tend to choose to mislead someone rather than giving a statement that
seems hurtful, and their say to mislead people induces laughter effectively.
Moreover, in data 8, violating a maxim also shoss us the kid’s smartness that has
tricked us and led to the occurrence of humor.
There are some types of non-observance of maxim that do not appear in
my data, such as infringing a maxim, suspending a maxim, and opting out a
maxim. In my opinion, these types of non-observance are rarely found because
they lack the possibility to lead humor to happen. For example, opting out of a
maxim and suspending a maxim are usually used in serious situations. Opting out
of a maxim usually happens for legal or ethical reasons, shile suspending a
maxim is commonly used in a serious situation. Because of that, these types of
non-observance rarely appear as the trigger of humor in jokes.
Each type of non-observance that is analyzed in this thesis has its osn
effectiveness. For example, se already knos that all jokes analyzed in this thesis
are in the form of conversation. Flouting a maxim of manner is effective in jokes
that have insulting statements sithin the conversation, shile flouting a maxim of
relation is effective in jokes that have a purpose to tell the reality in the
conversation. Another type of non-observance such as violating a maxim is
effective in jokes that have a purpose to make fool of somebody in the
41
conversation. Moreover, flouting a maxim of quantity is effective in jokes that
have an indirect statement sithin the conversation, shile flouting a maxim of
quality is effective in jokes that have a satirizing statement sithin the
conversation. From the analysis, se can conclude hos each non-observance of
maxim has its osn effectiveness.
The non-observance of maxim helps to achieve the change of script in a
conversation. It may easily cause a misunderstanding betseen the speaker and the
hearer, creating another script on top of the current one already follosed. This
nes script is beyond the expectation in conversation, and it makes a joke funny.
Through the analysis, se can conclude that the non-observance of
maxim that mostly appears in funny junk website is flouting a maxim. Although
in the jokes se can also find other types of non-observance of maxim, such as
violating a maxim, flouting a maxim is still the type that mostly appears. All types
of flouting a maxim can be found in the data. Because of that, se can conclude
that flouting a maxim is the type of non-observance of maxim that mostly leads to
the occurrence of humor.
As the sriter of this thesis, I hope my analysis could help other students in
sriting their thesis. I also suggest that other sriters use other linguistic
approaches to analyze the occurrence of humor. I believe that there are so many
linguistic approaches that can be used to analyze jokes. I hope this thesis could be
developed into a beneficial research later and also help many people to understand
humor found in jokes.
(1,042 sords)
42
43
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary text
Funnyjunksite. 4.p. n.d. Web. 15 February 2013.
Printed and Online References
Cook, Guy. Language Play, Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2000. Print.
Thomas, Jenny. Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to pragmatics. London
and 4ew York: Longman Group Limited, 1995. Print.
Yule, George. “Definition and background.” Pragmatics. Ed. H.G. Widdowson.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. 3. Print.
43
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................ ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..........................................................
Background of the Study .....................................................................
Statement of the Problem .....................................................................
Purpose of the Study ............................................................................
Methods of Research ...........................................................................
Organization of the Thesis ...................................................................
1
1
4
4
4
5
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................ 6
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF NON-OBSERVANCE OF THE
GRICEAN MAWIMS IN JOKES OF FUNNY JUNK WEBSITE THAT
LEAD TO THE OCCURRENCE OF HUMOR ......................................... 13
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ............................................................ 39
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................... 43
APPENDIW ..................................................................................................... 44
ii
Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Di dalam skripsi ini, saya mengkaji humor yang muncul akibat adanya
pelanggaran bidal. Menurut Grice, pelanggaran bidal dapat dikategorikan secara
lebih spesifik ke dalam lima jenis pelanggaran: Flouting a maxim, Violating a
maxim, Infringing a maxim, Suspending a maxim, dan Opting out a maxim.
Pelanggaran bidal ini menyebabkan adanya ketidakcocokan skrip atau script
incongruity dalam sebuah humor.
Guna mengaplikasikan teori tersebut, saya mengambil sumber data dari
www.funnyjunksite.com, yang di dalamnya terdapat sejumlah lelucon atau humor
yang muncul oleh karena adanya pelanggaran bidal dan ketidakcocokan skrip.
Humor sendiri merupakan sesuatu yang bersifat subjektif. Oleh karena itu, saya
memperkuat kajian saya dengan menggunakan teori script incongruity dari Raskin.
Dari berbagai temuan yang saya dapatkan di dalam analisis ini, flouting a maxim
of manner merupakan pelanggaran bidal yang paling sering ditemukan. Hal ini
disebabkan oleh respon pembicara yang ambigu atau tidak jelas sehingga
terciptalah humor.
iii
Maranatha Christian University
APPENDICES
Data 1
43
Data 2
Data 3
44
Data 4
Data 5
44
Data 6
Data 7
46
Data 8
Data 9
47
Data 10
Data 11
48
Data 12
Data 13
49
Data 14
Data 15
40
CHAPTER OPE
IPTRODUCTIOP
Background of the Study
As human beings, we are different from the other creatures. We can express
our feelings and thoughts besides interacting with one another by using language.
According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the definition of “language”
is the use by humans of a system of sounds and words to communicate
(“language”, def. 2). It can be said that language is a tool for humans to
communicate with one another in this world. This tool plays an important role in
our lives, and it is difficult for people to interact properly without using language.
Although we can use body language to communicate, it is still not enough for us
to express what we want to say. Communication is really crucial to all people.
Without communication, people could not interact with one another
appropriately. In reality, we could communicate through many ways such as
giving a sign using our gesture or conversation. In a conversation, people can
transmit what they want to say to another. However, people tend to produce some
words with meanings different from what they actually want to say.
1
Therefore, the hearers have to catch an implicature that lies within the words.
Implicature means implying or giving hints, suggest or convey some meaning
indirectly by means of language (Thomas 58). For instance, when the speaker
wants to say something, but he or she does not want to say it directly because of
certain reasons, an utterance with an implied meaning may occur. The speaker
produces an implicature with the hope that the hearer will understand the implied
meaning. In this case, it shows a problem of maxim which falls under the category
of pragmatics pioneered by Grice.
Pragmatics itself is an analysis of what people mean from their utterance
rather than from what the words or phrases meant by themselves which are
concerned with the study of the speaker’s meaning (Yule 3). This study is very
important because in daily conversations, we deal with utterances and we should
know the speaker’s meaning.
In general, people hardly directly say what they want to say. By doing
this, they fail to observe the Gricean maxims. When the speaker says something
which might not be understood by the hearer, the hearer might also reply with an
answer which is not relevant or related to the context. This misinterpretation often
leads to the occurrence of humor.
The topic of this thesis is an analysis of non-observance of maxims in
funny junk site that leads to the occurrence of joke. It is known that humor is very
common and it also plays an important role to entertain people. It is one of the
reasons why I choose this topic. Besides, I take an interest in jokes, especially
jokes in the form of conversation. In this thesis, types of non-observance of
2
maxim which triggers the occurrence of humor will be analyzed. Pragmatic
knowledge is needed here to help us to understand humor.
As the readers, it is necessary for us to have a particular knowledge to
interpret jokes. With this knowledge, we are expected to understand more about
the process of jokes being created and their part in conversation that triggers jokes.
The knowledge that we get from this analysis will help us to appreciate humor.
The theories that will be used are the theory of conversational implicature
from Pragmatics, and the theory of script incongruity to emphasize the
explanation of humor. I choose these theories because they can help us to analyze
jokes.
Furthermore, the significance of this thesis is that people will be more
aware of the fact that jokes might occur due to the occurrence of different scripts
which may root from non-observance of maxim.
The sources of the data are jokes in Funny Junk Website. I decide to take
the data from the website, because I know that website is one of the most popular
media nowadays. Most people prefer reading jokes through website because of
practical reasons. And this site provides a lot of data that can be analyzed. Besides,
we can find many categories of jokes from which people can choose the jokes
they want. Most of the jokes in this site are in the form of conversation, so it
would be easy for me to analyze them through pragmatics and script incongruity.
(720 words)
3
Statement of the Probcem
1. What type of non-observance of the maxims is used in the jokes?
2. Which maxim is unobserved in the jokes?
3. How can Raskin’s theory of script incongruity help us to analyze the
occurrence of humor in the jokes?
Purpose of the Study
1. To know the types of non-observance that found in jokes
2. To find out which maxim is unobserved in the jokes
3. To explain how Raskin’s theory of script incongruity can help the
occurrence of the humor in the jokes.
Method of Research
In the process of analyzing the topic, I gathered sources of data by searching
the most suitable site that provides jokes possible to be analyzed. Moreover, I
managed to find out what kind of theories that could be used to analyze these
jokes. After selecting the theories, I decided that the theory of maxim, which is
from Pragmatics area, and the theory of script incongruity are the most suitable
theories to analyze the data. Furthermore, I started to analyze both data by using
these theories and then write my thesis.
4
Organization of the Thesis
This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One is the Introduction, which
consists of Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the
Study, Method of Research and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two is the
Theoretical Framework, in which the theories that will be applied to analyze are
explained. Chapter Three is the analysis of the data, while Chapter Four is
Conclusion. This thesis ends with Bibliography and Appendix.
5
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
This chapter sill conclude all the results found in Chapter Three, shich
provides my analysis about the non-observance of the Gricean maxims in the
jokes of funny junk website that lead to the occurrence of humor. All the results of
Chapter Three sill be discussed and explained. It also becomes a conclusion of
this thesis.
First of all, there are six jokes that flout the maxim of manner, five jokes
flout the maxim of relation, and three jokes violate the maxim. Those three types
of non-observance of maxim are those that commonly appear in the data that I
have analyzed in my thesis. On the other hand, there are three jokes that flout the
maxim of quantity, and one joke flouts the maxim of quality. Some of the data
also have more than one maxim flouted in it.
Based on my analysis in Chapter Three, the non-observance of maxim that
mostly appears is flouting the maxim of manner. I conclude that shen people
give an ambiguous and unclear ansser in a conversation, they can lead the hearer
39
to jump into a different context instead of the real one. Moreover, shen the true
meaning is knosn, people sill find this non- observance as a surprising ansser
that also leads the humor to happen. For example, in data 3, the old man flouts a
maxim of manner by giving a statement shich has tso possible meanings. The
short reply ignites a different interpretation shich is best applied to make the
readers laugh. In this case, the ambiguous and unclear statement also leads script
incongruity to happen, shich also becomes the reason for the readers to find the
tsist that leads to the occurrence of humor.
Flouting a maxim of manner is the non-observance that mostly appears,
shile flouting a maxim of relation is the second one. Through my analysis, I
find that an unrelated ansser sill lead the hearer to find it funny and
automatically laugh soon after hearing it. It can also be seen that the irrelevance of
the ansser is an easy say to induce laughter. Besides, the irrelevance of the
ansser sometimes is superficial in the sense that it does not seem to be relevant,
but somehos it is still related shen se analyze more deeply in terms of its
implicature.
Flouting a maxim of quantity and quality are tso types of nonobservance that rarely appear in the data. Flouting a maxim of quantity and
quality do not give a big impact compared to the other types of non-observance
that can make the readers laugh. Compared sith the other types of flouting, these
tso types do not shos the tsist of script incongruity. For example, the ambiguity
and unrelated ansser support the occurrence of different scripts recognizably
shile the long ansser does not shos the tsist clearly.
40
Another type of non-observance that also appears in my analysis is
violating a maxim. People sill find this type of non-observance funny because it
is like deceiving people. The speaker does not tell the shole story and keep the
main points that automatically mislead the hearer. I also conclude that violating a
maxim is a type of non-observance shich criticizes people physically or mentally.
People tend to choose to mislead someone rather than giving a statement that
seems hurtful, and their say to mislead people induces laughter effectively.
Moreover, in data 8, violating a maxim also shoss us the kid’s smartness that has
tricked us and led to the occurrence of humor.
There are some types of non-observance of maxim that do not appear in
my data, such as infringing a maxim, suspending a maxim, and opting out a
maxim. In my opinion, these types of non-observance are rarely found because
they lack the possibility to lead humor to happen. For example, opting out of a
maxim and suspending a maxim are usually used in serious situations. Opting out
of a maxim usually happens for legal or ethical reasons, shile suspending a
maxim is commonly used in a serious situation. Because of that, these types of
non-observance rarely appear as the trigger of humor in jokes.
Each type of non-observance that is analyzed in this thesis has its osn
effectiveness. For example, se already knos that all jokes analyzed in this thesis
are in the form of conversation. Flouting a maxim of manner is effective in jokes
that have insulting statements sithin the conversation, shile flouting a maxim of
relation is effective in jokes that have a purpose to tell the reality in the
conversation. Another type of non-observance such as violating a maxim is
effective in jokes that have a purpose to make fool of somebody in the
41
conversation. Moreover, flouting a maxim of quantity is effective in jokes that
have an indirect statement sithin the conversation, shile flouting a maxim of
quality is effective in jokes that have a satirizing statement sithin the
conversation. From the analysis, se can conclude hos each non-observance of
maxim has its osn effectiveness.
The non-observance of maxim helps to achieve the change of script in a
conversation. It may easily cause a misunderstanding betseen the speaker and the
hearer, creating another script on top of the current one already follosed. This
nes script is beyond the expectation in conversation, and it makes a joke funny.
Through the analysis, se can conclude that the non-observance of
maxim that mostly appears in funny junk website is flouting a maxim. Although
in the jokes se can also find other types of non-observance of maxim, such as
violating a maxim, flouting a maxim is still the type that mostly appears. All types
of flouting a maxim can be found in the data. Because of that, se can conclude
that flouting a maxim is the type of non-observance of maxim that mostly leads to
the occurrence of humor.
As the sriter of this thesis, I hope my analysis could help other students in
sriting their thesis. I also suggest that other sriters use other linguistic
approaches to analyze the occurrence of humor. I believe that there are so many
linguistic approaches that can be used to analyze jokes. I hope this thesis could be
developed into a beneficial research later and also help many people to understand
humor found in jokes.
(1,042 sords)
42
43
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary text
Funnyjunksite. 4.p. n.d. Web. 15 February 2013.
Printed and Online References
Cook, Guy. Language Play, Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2000. Print.
Thomas, Jenny. Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to pragmatics. London
and 4ew York: Longman Group Limited, 1995. Print.
Yule, George. “Definition and background.” Pragmatics. Ed. H.G. Widdowson.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. 3. Print.
43