Humorous Effects As A Result of Non-Observance of Gricean Maxims in 'Frasier'.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... i
TABLE OF CONTENTS... ii
ABSTRACT ... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Background of the Study ... 1
Statement of the Problem ... 4
Purpose of the Study ... 4
Method of Research ... 4
Organization of the Thesis ... 5
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 6
CHAPTER THREE: HUMOROUS EFFECTS AS A RESULT OF NON-OBSERVANCE OF GRICEAN MAXIMS IN FRASIER ... 13
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION... 37
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 41
APPENDIX ... 42
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ABSTRACT
Di dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, kita sebagai manusia menggunakan bahasa untuk berkomunikasi dengan sesama kita. Namun demikian, seringkali maksud yang ingin kita utarakan melalui bahasa disalahtafsirkan oleh lawan bicara sehingga menimbulkan efek tertentu. Fenomena bahasa ini dapat diaplikasikan dalam teori yang ditemukan oleh Grice, yaitu teori bidalnya. Dalam skripsi ini, saya mengulas pelanggaran terhadap teori bidal yang dapat menimbulkan efek humor di dalam serial TV yang berjudul Frasier.
Saya menemukan terdapat sejumlah situasi tutur di mana para penutur mengutarakan maksud tuturnya tanpa mengindahkan teori bidal Grice. Akibatnya, terjadi ketidakselarasan dalam percakapan tersebut sehingga muncul efek humor.
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APPENDIX
DATA NON-OBSERVANCE OF
MAXIMS Data 1 :
Niles : I’m having a thought Frasier. Since Marries dropped out, we do have some extra space. We should invite Daphne for the evening. I mean the table is for four and three is such an awkward number for a dinner.
Frasier : What are you doing?
Niles : Nothing. Oh for goodness sake, Frasier, I’m a happily married man. Meryl means the world to me. Just the other day I kissed her for no reason or whatsoever.
- Violating a maxim
- Flouting the maxim of manner - Flouting the maxim of quality
Data 2 :
Hank : So doctor Crane, I don’t know what to do with my life. I tried diet after diet and milkshake three times a day that scared a bald-headed lady on TV. Nothing seems to work.
Frasier : Hank, listen to me. You gotta look inside yourself. There is a
part of you that isn’t being fat.
Hank : Well, it certainly is, my butt. Frasier : Well, I’m talking about inner
self. What isn’t being fat there?
Love, career, simple self-esteem? There are deeper issues we work here.
- Flouting the maxim of quality - Flouting the maxim of relation
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43 Data 3 :
Frasier : Why are you wearing only one heel? Did you break it off? Rossi : No, I‘m dating a sea captain
with a peg leg. It makes it easier when we dance. I broke it off on the sidewalk, Crane.
- Flouting the maxim of quality - Flouting the maxim of relation - Flouting the maxim of manner
Data 4 :
Lilith : Go away. (Talking to the dog, Eddie)
Frasier : Why does he listen to you, not to me?
Lilith : Because the tone of my voice, he senses I mean business.
Frasier : Oh I see. Your voice is more commanding than mine is. Martin : Hell, I took a stab before I
realized she was talking to the dog.
- Flouting the maxim of quality - Flouting the maxim of relation
Data 5 :
Lilith : Martin, especially I’m delighted to see you here tonight.
Martin : Oh yea?
Lilith : Telling about your history of relationship with Frasier. When I heard he had taken you in, I immediately flipped to the weather channel to see if hell had indeed been frozen over.
- Flouting the maxim of quality - Flouting the maxim of relation
Data 6 :
Daphne : Doctor Crane. Niles : Yes Daphne.
Daphne : We’re losing the fire.
- Flouting the maxim of relation - Flouting the maxim of quality
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44 Niles : No, we are not; it’s burning with the heat of a thousand suns.
Data 7 :
Frasier : Are you okay?
Rossi : You heard the whooshing sound? It’s my career going down the toilet.
- Flouting the maxim of quantity
- Flouting the maxim of quality - Flouting the maxim of manner
Data 8 :
Frasier : It is not you. It’s me. Every time I come close to reaching
my ethics. I’m getting sick. ….
Catherine: Thank you doctor Crane, first you screwed up with Marco and now you are dumping me. God, I thought I was gonna have sex with you and that was gonna be hot. Oh…like you never had before, I’m talking steaming sweat dripping down your back, neighbors pounding on the wall illegally and 48 states kind of sex but hey, you’re
okay. You won’t be alone
tonight. Now you got your ethics.
- Flouting the maxim of quality - Flouting the maxim of relation - Flouting the maxim of manner
Data 9 :
Caller : Oh, Doctor Crane I must thank
you for answering my call. I’ll
tell you I..I..am about to lose my mind. I’m raising four kids on myself. The oldest one is not even seven and the other three are all under five.
Between cooking, cleaning and changing diapers , tripping over toys. I feel sometimes like
- Flouting the maxim of relation
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I’m about to snap. What should
i do?
Frasier : Have you considered getting a puppy?
Data 10 :
Kate : Have you ever opened the book of Harvard?
Frasier : One of these days, you’re gonna miscall someone and I’m gonna land on you like a sumo racer.
- Flouting the maxim of quality - Flouting the maxim of relation - Flouting the maxim of manner
Data 11 :
Kate : Why are you gunning for me? Frasier : Gunning for you? This is not
about you. This is about what you are doing to those people. This is the shame of Seattle. Kate : No, no this is about your ego
which is the size of Seattle.
- Flouting the maxim of quality - Flouting the maxim of
quantity
Data 12 :
Frasier : Dad..dad…I can’t read my
paper. Eddie’s staring at me.
Martin : It’s a quiet picture in the morning. Just ignore him! Frasier : I’m trying to.
Martin : I’m talking to the dog.
- Flouting the maxim of quality - Flouting the maxim of
relation
Data 13 :
Frasier : Well, Bruce I see we are loaded with callers here. What line is next?
Bruce : What is your favorite number?
- Flouting the maxim relation - Flouting the maxim of manner
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46 Data 14 :
Bulldog : You me sonic nicks tonight. Rossi : Sorry but I’m already going. I
have season tickets. Bulldog : Oh well, we still can get
together afterwards.
Rossi : Only if I smash into your car in the parking lot.
Bulldog : Why is it the one who put up the most has the biggest struggle?
Rossi : Because when I do finally give in, I want us to enjoy it all the more. It is if I’m not too distracted by the fact that every man on earth has died.
- Flouting the maxim of quantity
- Flouting the maxim of relation - Flouting the maxim of manner - Flouting the maxim of quality
Data 15 :
Merlin : When I come back I’ll make you forget you were married to Lilith.
Frasier : That’s never happened before I got a prescription.
- Flouting the maxim of relation - Flouting the maxim of manner
Data 16 :
Frasier : First, the living brain.
A boy : The living brain? What kind of dork one is that?
Frasier : With any luck, the kind of dork will be operating on your prostate someday.
- Flouting the maxim of quantity
- Flouting the maxim of quality - Flouting the maxim of relation
Data 17 :
Rossi : I’m the joke of the station. When I come in the morning and meet the guard, he says
“Morning Ross”. Now it’s all “Hell Rosalinda”.
Frasier : Ross I think you should be
- Flouting the maxim of quality - Flouting the maxim of manner - Flouting the maxim of relation
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47 flattered. No one attempts to immortalize you as a love poem by Robert Browning to his wife.
Rossi : Did he ever write a poem about a woman with extra breasts?
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Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
It is an undisputable fact that we are human beings who need a social interaction. In the social interaction, human beings use language to communicate with one another. Language can be a medium to express ideas, feelings, and the experiences that happen in people’s life. However in the use of language, there will always be a lot of misinterpretations. Therefore, language is a useful tool in our life in order to understand one another but every individual can have a different interpretation when he or she communicates. Misinterpretation can also happen because sometimes a speaker delivers certain utterances that contain an implied meaning, called implicature within his or her speech. For example, if
someone says “it’s hot in here”, it does not only mean literally that the place is hot, but also it contains some implied meanings; it could suggest someone should turn on the air conditioner or give him or her some fresh drink.
In real conversations, people often misinterpret the implied meaning of an utterance. People’s mistake in interpreting the implicature can give certain effects to their emotion. An example is in a serious situation when someone is arguing
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Maranatha Christian University with another person and the speaker tries to explain what happens. In this situation, the misinterpreting may occur to the listener, which is probably caused by the listener’s lack of information or their misinterpreting the speaker’s intention. On top of that, this misinterpreting can cause laughter, anger, sadness, disappointment, embarrassment and so on. These effects are exploited in comedies to create a humorous story.
The subject of misinterpreting is interesting to discuss because it is something that commonly happens, regardless of time, place, and participants of the conversation. In addition, it gives me such a big curiosity to find out some factors affecting misinterpretation.
This misinterpreting can be analyzed by using the theory that was proposed by one of the founders of the modern study of Pragmatics, H.P. Grice Thus, I would like to discuss how the non-observance of Gricean maxims potentially create humor in comedies. I decide to take a comedy series, “Frasier” as my data source. I take this comedy series because this film has many dialogues, in which the Gricean maxims are applied so that I can use the series as my data source and select appropriate data for my analysis. Therefore, my topic will be how the non-observance of Gricean maxims potentially create humor in “Frasier”.
This comedy series is about Dr. Frasier Crane, a psychiatrist, who goes back to his hometown in Seattle, Washington after he gets a divorce in Boston. Frasier lives with his father, Martin Crane, and a caretaker of his father, Daphne Moon. Frasier has a brother named Niles, who is married but does not get along well with his wife. Niles often visits Frasier and has a crush on Daphne. Frasier also hosts a popular radio talk show on KACL 780AM.
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Maranatha Christian University I choose this TV series for the reason that the dialogues are understandable and humorous. I can analyze the conversation in the TV series which is appropriate for my analysis about the non-observance of the maxims. Another reason is because a film provides detailed information, such as dialogues, context, intonation, situation, events, setting and also the characters. Therefore, I can easily analyze the dialogues in the film.
In the film, there are misinterpretations among the characters and those potentially create humor to the audience. The misinterpretations can be analysed by using one of the theories in Pragmatics. Therefore, the linguistic area of my analysis is Pragmatics. “Pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated than is said” (Yule 3). It is concerned with the study of meaning as delivered by a speaker and interpreted by the listeners. Furthermore, in the non-observance of the maxims itself, there are more specific theories that I use. There are five ways of
people’s failure to observe the maxims according to H.P. Grice. Those are flouting
a maxim, violating a maxim, infringing a maxim, opting out of a maxim and suspending a maxim. Each of them shows a specific problem in the non-observance of Gricean maxims.
I use Pragmatics as my approach for the reason that in analyzing this comedy series, I deal with the speaker’s intention. The significance of this study is to expect the readers to get more understanding about how humorous effects occur in a comedy series due to the non-observance of the maxims.
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Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, I am going to conclude the findings of the analysis on the non-observance of Gricean maxims in the TV series “Frasier”. I find seventeen data which create humorous effect in this TV series as a result of the non-observance of Gricean maxims. Having analyzed this TV series, I conclude that the non-observance of the Gricean maxims create humorous effect in this TV series.
As presented in the previous chapter, thirteen data flout a maxim because the characters involved in the conversation do not have any intention to mislead the others. The characters tend to flout the maxim of quality because this is a comedy series where saying something untrue creates humor. The characters tend to say something untrue in order to imply something and wish the hearer to look for another plausible interpretation. An example is when the characters utter sarcastic statements in order to give a certain goal by giving some untrue statements which create humor to the audience, such as when Frasier asks Rossi why she is wearing only one heel. As an answer, she says to Frasier that she is dating a sea captain with a peg leg. By giving the utterance, Rossi is being sarcastic to Frasier and it is her way of telling Frasier to back off. The result of
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Maranatha Christian University flouting the maxim of quality is the occurrence of humor to the audience. On the other hand, the characters also tend to flout the other maxims, namely the maxim of quantity, relation and manner.
The second maxim which is often flouted is the maxim of relation. One of the main reasons why the characters give irrelevant answer is because they would like to change the topic in their conversation. This means the character is not interested in what is being talked about. Moreover, the character flouts the maxim of relation on purpose because he or she wants to be sarcastic to the other character. Therefore, the way they try to be sarcastic through flouting a maxim, creates humor because the hearers do not expect such an irrelevant answer.
The third maxim which is often flouted is the maxim of quantity. The characters flout the maxim of quantity due to their unwillingness to give more information. In “Frasier”, the characters often flouts this maxim because they usually want to imply something in addition to what the situation requires instead of giving a simple answer. Mostly in “Frasier” the characters give more information which is unnecessary to the others but apparently they have an intention to be sarcastic as well.
The last maxim is the maxim of manner. The characters flout the maxim of manner because they do not want to answer a question directly or deliberately. The speaker prefers not to answer the question because he or she thinks the question is unimportant. Therefore, the speaker decides not to give a clear answer. Instead, he or she usually implies something else.
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Maranatha Christian University In this TV series, the non-observance of the Gricean maxims that rarely occurs is violating a maxim. A speaker violates a maxim for the purpose of covering his or her intention so that the hearer is misled and do not know the intention. Another purpose of a speaker’s violating a maxim is that the speaker wants to avoid suspicion from the others. It rarely occurs because this is not a detective TV series in which some characters are trying to cover their mistakes.
There are also the non-observance of the maxims that do not occur in this TV series. They are infringing a maxim, opting out of a maxim, and suspending a maxim. The infringing a maxim does not happen because there is no character who is a young child, a drunk or a foreign language learner. The opting out of a maxim does not happen because the characters tend to imply something within their utterance so they do not give a direct answer indicating unwillingness to cooperate with the other speaker. There is also no suspending a maxim because in this TV series, there is no character who talks about something related to a culture or circumstances where information has to be suspended.
The strangeness from the characters’ utterances and the characters’ sarcastic utterances create humorous effects which give a surprise to the hearer. The implicature in the utterances from the characters have an important role in creating humor because the hearer may laugh when they understand the character’s implicature. I find that humor will not be created if the characters do not imply something because it does not give a surprise to the hearer. Therefore, the non-observance of Gricean maxims is appropriate to be discussed in this comedy series.
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Maranatha Christian University I hope this thesis gives a valuable contribution to the students of the English Department who major in linguistics, especially to improve the discussion of the non-observance of the Gricean Maxims to the readers. This thesis is dedicated to readers who need clear illustrations of the analysis about the non-observance of the Gricean maxims. This thesis may also give more understanding to the readers who want to study the non-observance of the Gricean maxims.
If I may make a suggestion to those who are interested in taking this topic for their thesis, they could possibly discuss the metaphor in this TV series because there are lots of the characters’ utterances which contain metaphor.
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41
Maranatha Christian University
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary source
Cook, Guy (2000) Language Play, Language Learning. Oxford University Press. Thomas, Jenny. Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics. London and New York : Longman Group Limited, 1995.
Yule, George. (1996) Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Internet site
Frasier. 16 September 1993 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frasier> Douglas, Harper. Online Etymology Dictionary. 2001
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Maranatha Christian University I choose this TV series for the reason that the dialogues are understandable and humorous. I can analyze the conversation in the TV series which is appropriate for my analysis about the non-observance of the maxims. Another reason is because a film provides detailed information, such as dialogues, context, intonation, situation, events, setting and also the characters. Therefore, I can easily analyze the dialogues in the film.
In the film, there are misinterpretations among the characters and those potentially create humor to the audience. The misinterpretations can be analysed by using one of the theories in Pragmatics. Therefore, the linguistic area of my analysis is Pragmatics. “Pragmatics is the study of how more gets communicated than is said” (Yule 3). It is concerned with the study of meaning as delivered by a speaker and interpreted by the listeners. Furthermore, in the non-observance of the maxims itself, there are more specific theories that I use. There are five ways of
people’s failure to observe the maxims according to H.P. Grice. Those are flouting
a maxim, violating a maxim, infringing a maxim, opting out of a maxim and suspending a maxim. Each of them shows a specific problem in the non-observance of Gricean maxims.
I use Pragmatics as my approach for the reason that in analyzing this comedy series, I deal with the speaker’s intention. The significance of this study is to expect the readers to get more understanding about how humorous effects occur in a comedy series due to the non-observance of the maxims.
749 Words
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37
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, I am going to conclude the findings of the analysis on the non-observance of Gricean maxims in the TV series “Frasier”. I find seventeen data which create humorous effect in this TV series as a result of the non-observance of Gricean maxims. Having analyzed this TV series, I conclude that the non-observance of the Gricean maxims create humorous effect in this TV series.
As presented in the previous chapter, thirteen data flout a maxim because the characters involved in the conversation do not have any intention to mislead the others. The characters tend to flout the maxim of quality because this is a comedy series where saying something untrue creates humor. The characters tend to say something untrue in order to imply something and wish the hearer to look for another plausible interpretation. An example is when the characters utter sarcastic statements in order to give a certain goal by giving some untrue statements which create humor to the audience, such as when Frasier asks Rossi why she is wearing only one heel. As an answer, she says to Frasier that she is dating a sea captain with a peg leg. By giving the utterance, Rossi is being sarcastic to Frasier and it is her way of telling Frasier to back off. The result of
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Maranatha Christian University flouting the maxim of quality is the occurrence of humor to the audience. On the other hand, the characters also tend to flout the other maxims, namely the maxim of quantity, relation and manner.
The second maxim which is often flouted is the maxim of relation. One of the main reasons why the characters give irrelevant answer is because they would like to change the topic in their conversation. This means the character is not interested in what is being talked about. Moreover, the character flouts the maxim of relation on purpose because he or she wants to be sarcastic to the other character. Therefore, the way they try to be sarcastic through flouting a maxim, creates humor because the hearers do not expect such an irrelevant answer.
The third maxim which is often flouted is the maxim of quantity. The characters flout the maxim of quantity due to their unwillingness to give more information. In “Frasier”, the characters often flouts this maxim because they usually want to imply something in addition to what the situation requires instead of giving a simple answer. Mostly in “Frasier” the characters give more information which is unnecessary to the others but apparently they have an intention to be sarcastic as well.
The last maxim is the maxim of manner. The characters flout the maxim of manner because they do not want to answer a question directly or deliberately. The speaker prefers not to answer the question because he or she thinks the question is unimportant. Therefore, the speaker decides not to give a clear answer. Instead, he or she usually implies something else.
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Maranatha Christian University In this TV series, the non-observance of the Gricean maxims that rarely occurs is violating a maxim. A speaker violates a maxim for the purpose of covering his or her intention so that the hearer is misled and do not know the intention. Another purpose of a speaker’s violating a maxim is that the speaker wants to avoid suspicion from the others. It rarely occurs because this is not a detective TV series in which some characters are trying to cover their mistakes.
There are also the non-observance of the maxims that do not occur in this TV series. They are infringing a maxim, opting out of a maxim, and suspending a maxim. The infringing a maxim does not happen because there is no character who is a young child, a drunk or a foreign language learner. The opting out of a maxim does not happen because the characters tend to imply something within their utterance so they do not give a direct answer indicating unwillingness to cooperate with the other speaker. There is also no suspending a maxim because in this TV series, there is no character who talks about something related to a culture or circumstances where information has to be suspended.
The strangeness from the characters’ utterances and the characters’ sarcastic utterances create humorous effects which give a surprise to the hearer. The implicature in the utterances from the characters have an important role in creating humor because the hearer may laugh when they understand the character’s implicature. I find that humor will not be created if the characters do not imply something because it does not give a surprise to the hearer. Therefore, the non-observance of Gricean maxims is appropriate to be discussed in this comedy series.
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40
Maranatha Christian University I hope this thesis gives a valuable contribution to the students of the English Department who major in linguistics, especially to improve the discussion of the non-observance of the Gricean Maxims to the readers. This thesis is dedicated to readers who need clear illustrations of the analysis about the non-observance of the Gricean maxims. This thesis may also give more understanding to the readers who want to study the non-observance of the Gricean maxims.
If I may make a suggestion to those who are interested in taking this topic for their thesis, they could possibly discuss the metaphor in this TV series because
there are lots of the characters’ utterances which contain metaphor.
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41
Maranatha Christian University
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary source
Cook, Guy (2000) Language Play, Language Learning. Oxford University Press. Thomas, Jenny. Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics. London and New York : Longman Group Limited, 1995.
Yule, George. (1996) Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Internet site
Frasier. 16 September 1993 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frasier> Douglas, Harper. Online Etymology Dictionary. 2001