53 Rachel was drunk in her date and she was infringing a maxim:
EXCERPT 7.13 In a restaurant where Rachel and her date Michael have dinner. Rachel
drank many glasses of Champaign to get rid Ross from her mind. Michael gave her advice to over this and Rachel agreed. So she borrows a phone
call from a guy next table to call Ross to tell him that she is over him. She is obviously drunk and probably unconscious if she is doing this.
Rachel : on phone Ross, hi, its Rachel. Im just calling to say that um,
everythings fine and Im really happy for you and your cat who, by the way, I think you should name Michael. And, you
know, ya see there Im thinking of names so obviously, I am over you. I am over you and that, my friend, is what they call
closure.
The point that Rachel wanted to say to Ross was I am over you. Because
she was drunk, she talked too much and she was infringing maxim of Manner. She also talked something irrelevant such as the name of the cat. So, for the second
time Rachel was infringing a maxim. In this case she was infringing maxim of Relevance.
5. Suspending Maxims in Sitcom
Friends
The example of suspending a maxim was rarely found in sitcom Friends.
This category was only appeared 2 times or approximately 1.6 breaking maxims in verbal humor on sitcom
Friends. Usually, someone suspends a maxim when heshe tells something taboo or the fact is not completely true, so heshe change
into other terms Thomas, 1995. Here is the example:
EXCERPT 1.22 In previous scene, Chandler was on Joey’s tailor to do the rear of his
pants. The tailor, Frankie, was an old man who always touches the man’s penis when he measured. Joey was the one who recommend Chandler to
go to Frankie. That is why Chandler is angry when he is entering Monica’s and Rachel’s apartment.
54 Chandler:
entering, angry Yo, paisan Can I talk to you for a sec? Pause Your tailor is a very bad man
Joey : Frankie? Whatre you talking about?
Ross : entering from the bedroom Hey, whats goin on? Pats
Chandler on the shoulder which causes him to jump.
Chandler: Joeys tailor...took advantage of me. Chandler did not deliberately say what happened to him in Frankie’s. He
only said Joeys tailor...took advantage of me. In many regions, something that
deals with sex is taboo. What Chandler said was not confusing, everyone knows that the term implies to something that deals with sex or impolite and
inappropriate manner that Frankie had done to Chandler. According to the findings and the discussions, the researcher implied that
the application of breaking maxims in verbal humor is dominant. Although Flouting is declared to be the type of breaking maxims which has a function to
create humor, but in the study, instead of Flouting, Violating is mostly used. Not only Flouting and Violating, the other three breaking maxims are also found in the
verbal humor on sitcom Friends. This findings are in mutual accord with
Dornerus 2005 and Alvaro 2011 who point out that it is not only violation of maxims that creates verbal humor, but also any failing to observe the maxims can
produce verbal humor.
B. The Acceptability of Indonesian Subtitles of Breaking Maxims in Verbal
Humor on Sitcom Friends
This section is to answer the second problem about the acceptability of the Indonesian subtitles of breaking maxim in verbal humor found on sitcom
Friends.
