THE FLOATS OF GRICE’S CONVERSATIONAL MAXIMS IN “1001 JOKES” HUMOR BOOK The Floats Of Grice’s Conversational Maxims In “1001 Jokes” Humor Book By Richard Wiseman.
THE FLOATS OF GRICE’S CONVERSATIONAL MAXIMS
IN “1001 JOKES” HUMOR BOOK
BY RICHARD WISEMAN
PUBLICATION MANUSCRIPT
Presented to
Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Thesis Program
in English Department of Post Graduate Programs of Muhammadiyah
University of Surakarta
by:
Muamar Chadafi
NIM: S. 200 120 034
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY
OF SURAKARTA
2014
ii
iii
ABSTRACT
CHADAFI, MUAMAR. S.20012034. The Floats of Grice’s
conversational maxims in “1001 Jokes” humor book by
Richard Wiseman.Thesis, Muhammadiyah University of
Surakarta 2014.
This study focuses on analyzing the floats of Grice’s
conversational maxims in “1001 Jokes” humor book. This study is
aimed (1) to describe types of Grice’s conversational maxims are
frequently floated in “1001 Jokes” humor book, (2) to describe the
implicature found in “1001 Jokes” humor book, and (3) to
describe the maxim floats lead to funny jokes in“1001 Jokes”
humor book.The writer employs descriptive qualitative approach to
reach and to conclude the research findings in this study. In
collecting data the writer uses documentation method, and to
analyze data the writer refers to Grice’s cooperative principle
theory. Based on 30 data analyzed in this study obtained from
“1001 Jokes” humor book, the writer finds that (1) 21 of the data
or 70% float maxim of quality, 4 of data or 13.33% float maxim of
manner, 3 of the data or 10% float maxim of quantity, 1 of the
dataor 3.33% floats maxim of relevance, and 1 of the data or 3.33%
floats all maxims. Then, from the implicature the researcher finds
that (2) scalar implicature is to show contrast meanings between an
utterance to other one, generalized conversational implicature is to
explain the utterances used in the “1001 Jokes” humor book that
do not need a special context to have humorous meaning,
particularized conversational implicature is to demonstrate the
utterances needing a specific context to have humorous meanings,
and scalar implicature is to describe the joke utterances that have
degree of meaning. Afterwards, the researcher finds that (3) there
are two aspects making the maxim floats lead to funny jokes
in“1001 Jokes” humor book, i.e., relief, and incongruity of the
word or the lexis. Besides that the writer also finds that the floats
of all maxims make a strong surprising meaning of the joke
utterances increasing the degree of funny.
Key words: floats, Grice conversational maxim, humor.
1
INTRODUCTION
In pragmatics there are many issues which are interesting to discuss, one of
them is Grice’s conversational implicature. It is one of the pragmatic theories
which is very influential enough in that field of study up to now. In his idea,
“utterances can make meanings based on what is implicated referring to some
assumptions to the particular utterance. What is implicated is formulated logically
by what Grice (1975:45), calls implicatures or conversational implicatures.”
Meaning is actually realized from the situation of some utterances while “Grice's
theory of implicatureis concerned with the ways in which meaning can be
communicated not only by what is said, but also by how it is said”
(Levinson,1983:97).
Then, Grice finds a way to understand the implicature which is called
cooperative principles which are necessary for those who want to produce and
analyze the conversations logically. According to him, “in a conversation,
logically a speaker and a hearer should have cooperation by using four maxims,
i.e., maxim of quality, quantity, relevance and manner in order that one can
understand what other means” (Grice, 1975:45). If the utterances do not contain
one of the maxims they will not be understood by the hearer. These maxims are
named cooperative principles.
However in some cases the cooperative principles are sometimes floated for
various reasons like for joking or achieving politeness. Floats of the maxims
happen in which the speaker deliberately does not explicitly show what he or she
means so the four maxims cannot operate normally. For example: excuse me, do
you know what time is it? Yes. This conversational text is included in the float of
2
the quantity maxim because the information that should be given clearly through
the answer is floated by saying “yes”. The normal answer is it is 10 o’clock or 12
o’clock, and etc. (as cited in Attardo, 1990:355).
Principally many researchers conducted research on floats or violations of
Grice’s conversational maxims such as research conducted by Palupi (2006:1),
stating that there are eight types of humor found in the Situation Comedy Friends
Episode of ‘the One with that Could Have Been’. They are Banter, Blunder,
Chain, FreudianSlip, Irony, Mistaken identity, Relapse and Repartee. These types
of humor refer to Audrieth’s humor theory (1998). Then, Rofiq (2012:1), on his
pragmatic study states that there are only scalar implicatures found in the “English
Jokes about Marriage in Internet” and some purposes of making jokes like
informing, alluding, suggesting, and etc. Furthermore, Listiani (2005:1), on the
violations of Grice’s maxims in Small Villa film finds that the highest percentage
of the violation of Grice’s maxims is Quality maxim, i.e. 35.7 percentages, and
the lowest percentage of the violation of Grice’s maximsison Quantity maxim,
i.e., 14.3 percentages. The similarities of this study to the previous studies
mentioned above are that this study tries to describe floats of Grice’s
conversational maxims, the implicature and the types of humor which have been
researched by the prior researchers. However the point makes this study
difference from the previous studies is in the focus of the study that describes
process of humor found in “1001 Jokes” by using Veatch’s conventional humor
theory (1998), that is different from Palupi’s study that uses Audrieth’s humor
theory. Besides that “1001 Jokes” humor book contains many clean English jokes
3
based on the Richard Wiseman’s research that has its own characters that certainly
produces different research findings from the previous research findings.
Based on the previous explanations, the researcher needs to conduct
research further in regard with the floats of Grice’s conversational maxims found
in “1001 Jokes” humor book. It is importance not only because humor books are
have not been viewed so far from Grice’s cooperative principles but also because
humor is very close enough with human life that every human needs very much to
do it in order that their life will be happy and balance.
Besides that, in this study the writer focuses on finding out types of Grice’s
conversational maxims that frequently floated in “1001 Jokes” humor book, the
implicature found in “1001 Jokes” humor book, and the maxim floats leading to
funny jokes in“1001 Jokes” humor book.
LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Floats of Grice’s Conversational Maxims
The flouting of the maxims is difference from the violation of the
maxims because “it occurs when the hearer really does not understand with the
violated utterances, while the flouting of maxims occurs when the speaker
intentionally stops to use the maxims to flatter the hearer to deduce the
meaning named implicature”(Khosravizadeh&Sadehvandi, 2011:123).
Dealing with the floating of Grice’s maxims, Nailufah (2008) conducted
research entitled “Floating Maxims on Grice’s Maxims in the Drama of the
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller”. This study focuses on how the maxim
of quantity, quality, relevance, and manner floated in the drama of “the Death
4
of a Salesman” and this study used qualitative method.The research findings of
this study show that all the four floated can be found in the drama. The
utterance floats the maxim of quantity when it is too long, the maxim of quality
when it is absurd, the maxim of relevance when it is unrelated topic, and the
maxim of manner when it disorders the utterance.
2. Implicature
According to Grice (as cited in Cummings, 2005:9), “implicature is an
intended utterance of X to produce some effect in an audience by means of the
recognition of this intention.” It is divided into three types, i.e., scalar
implicature “concerning the conventional uses of words like ‘all’ or ‘some’ in
conversation”(Grice,
1975:25),
conventional
implicature
dealing
with
“independent of the cooperative principle and its four maxims. A statement
always carries its conventional implicature” (Ibid.), and conversational
implicature which is divided into particularized conversational implicature
regarding “the dependent of the context”(as cited in Martinovski, 1:2013) and
generalized conversational implicature dealing with “the independent of the
context” (Ibid.).
Regarding implicature, Alvaro’s conducted research (2011) entitled “The
Role of Conversational Maxims, Implicature and Presupposition in the
Creation of Humor: An Analysis of Woody Allen’s Anything Else”. In this
quantitative study, the researcher analyzes on how verbal humor in
communication displays the types, characteristics and the usages of the
implicature, the conversational maxims and the presupposition used in Woody
5
Allen’s Anything Else. The research findings show that the use of implicature
and non-observation of the conversational maxims and its combination with
rhetorical figures is more abundant than the use of presupposition.
3. Conventional Humor Theory
This theory, proposed by Veatch (1998), principally is divided into three
groups. The first is superiority theory. According to Barnes (as cited in
Muder&Nijholt, 2002:3), superiority theory is that “we laugh about the
misfortunes of others; it reflects our own superiority.” In other word, the
superiority theory here is dealing with the winner and the loser. The second is
relief theory. Relief theory, according to Freud (Ibid., :4), “is that we laugh
spontaneously to release tension and psychic energy.” This is made by people
who consider that laughter is helpful for their health. Then, the last is
incongruity theory. This theory as defined clearly by Schopenhauer (Ibid., :4),
is that “the cause of laughter in every case is simply the sudden perception of
the incongruity between a concept and the real objects which have been
thought through it in some relation.” Thus, the strangeness or the incongruity
of the utterance is the main point why the utterance can make the other laugh
according to this theory. However, not all incongruities make the utterance
funny. This happens because of the condition around the speaker.
In relation to humor theory, Palupi conducted research (2006) from
entitled “An Analysis of Humor Types and Grice’s Maxim in the Situation
Comedy Friends Episode of ‘the One with that Could Have Been’(a pragmatic
approach)”. In this study the researcher analyzes the types of humor referring
6
to Audrieth’s humor theory (1998), which appear in this episode and the
researcher also defines whether those humors obey or disobey the Grice’s
maxims as the standard conversational norms. In this study, the researcher uses
qualitative method. The research findings show there are eight types of humor
which can be found in this episode. They are Banter, Blunder, Chain,
FreudianSlip, Irony, Mistaken Identity, Relapse and Repartee. Concerning with
the maxims, it is found that the humors, which are used in every utterances,
tend to disobey at least one of the maxims. The researcher also found that there
are three non-observances of the maxims, which are done by the characters in
delivering the humor. They are flouting, violating, and infringing the maxims.
RESEARCH METHOD
Research design for this research is descriptive qualitative study.
Then, the object of the study of this research is types of Grice’s conversational
maxims that frequently floated, the implicature, and the maxim floats leading
to funny jokes in“1001 Jokes” humor book.
In this research, the researcher uses a non-interactive research instrument
by means of documentation achievements or called documentation method to
collect the data because the object of the study of this research contains in
“1001 Jokes” humor book.
Besides that, Data analysis used here is contrastive analysis by the
following steps:
7
1. Presenting the data
Data are very important thing to know firstly in conducting research
because they are as the core of what are being studied. Without them
research cannot be conducted. So, that is why the researcher presents the
data firstly in the process of data analysis.
2. Checking
To classify the words in“1001 Jokes” humor book into the floats of
the maxims or not, the researcher previously finds out the implicature
referring to Grice’s implicature theory and the illocution of the speaker by
speech act theory and speech context by means of Nunan’s context theory.
The researcher detects floats of Grice’s cooperative principle of the events
happening in “1001 Jokes” humor book by the formula of cooperative
principle. Finally, the researcher determines process of humor by using
conventional humor theory proposed by Veatch.
3. Making Percentage Scores
Finally, to know the mostly use of the types of implicatures, the
types of the maxim floats and the maxim floats leading to funny jokes, the
researcher uses the formula of percentage scores.
DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
1. Data Analysis
The data analyzed in this section refer to 30 data obtained from the
“1001 Jokes” humor book by Richard Wiseman. Some of them are as
follows:
8
a. Datum 02
Man walking down the street meets a friend who has a lobster tucked
under his arm. "Are you taking that lobster home to dinner?" he asks.
"No," says friend, "he's had his dinner and now I'm taking him to the
pictures".
a. Implicature
The utterance above is classified as the linguistic context
indicated by the word “to” as a direction showing that the speaker is
going to dinner with the lobster.
The conventional implicature happens in the utterance above
indicated by the word “to” of preposition functioning as a direction.
Commonly a speaker uses “for” in that utterance indicating a purpose
that the lobster will be eaten by the friend. However, in that utterance
the speaker uses “to” of preposition functioning as a direction. It infers
that the friend wants to make a date with the lobster in the movie.
Then, the underlined statement above contains declarative form
of the illocutionary speech. The utterance above is stated by the friend
to respond the man’s question. By saying “No”, the friend refuses the
proposition made by the man thinking that the lobster will be taken to
dinner.
b. Grice’s maxim float
The utterance above floats maxim of quality because the friend’s
answer to the man’s question, to the pictures, uses overstatement
strategy. So, the meaning used in that utterance contains abnormal
9
meaning according to the most of people’s view that the friend wants
to make a date with the lobster in the movie.
c. Funny aspect
The float of maxim of quality above indicated by “to the
picture” makes the utterance funny because the speaker here creates
the incongruity of the utterance. The speaker here uses the
exploitation of lexis to make it strange for the readers. Principally the
word “to” lexically is “in the direction of”, but in this case the
meaning of the word refers to making a date. Thus, the using of this
float maxim of quality here is to make conflict between what is hoped
by the readers and what happens in the joke influencing the strange
effect that makes them laugh by this effect.
b. Datum 20
Two elderly gentlemen were talking. One says, "Boy, this new hearing
aid I got works great! I can hear everything now." The other one says,
"That's wonderful! What kind is it?" "It's a quarter past two."
a. Implicature
The speakers of the utterance above are two elderly gentlemen
as friends, and the setting of this event here happens when they are
meeting in a particular place. Then, the purpose of the underlined
utterance is that the speaker wants to inform that he is not deaf again.
The communicative event of the utterance is joke. Then, the topic of
the utterance is about recovering from deaf, while the background
knowledge of the utterance above is that the speaker of the underlined
10
utterance is still deaf indicated by saying the last utterance. So, the
utterance above is categorized as the experimental context.
The utterance “I can hear everything now” is categorized as the
generalized conversational implicature. It implies that the speaker
previously is deaf. However, he is still deaf proved by the question
“What kind is it?” but the speaker responds by a wrong answer “It's a
quarter past two”.
Then, the underlined utterance is the representative form of the
illocutionary speech acts. It is uttered to inform that the speaker is
deaf previously.
b. Grice’s maxim float
The utterance “I can hear everything now” floats maxim of
quantity because the utterance is more informative than is required.
c. Funny aspect
The core of the funny utterance is placed in the words “I can
hear everything now”. The incongruity of the words happens in that
utterance because those words lexically refer to a meaning that the
speaker previously is deaf. However, by stating that utterance he feels
that he is not deaf again. In the fact, the speaker is still deaf proved by
the question “What kind is it?”. He thinks that his friend asks about
the time. So, he responds by a wrong answer “It's a quarter past two”.
The using of float of maxim of quantity here is to make conflict
between what is thought by the readers thinking that the speaker can
11
hear everything and what happens in the joke saying that he is still
deaf.
2. Discussion
At least there are three topics of discussion here dealing with the
problems of study namely the implicatures, the floats of maxims and the
processes of humor in the “1001 Jokes” humor book. Before discussing
each problem, the researcher presents some results of data analysis by
means of some charts as follows:
Chart 1
The Percentage Scores of Implicatures in “1001 Jokes” Humor Book
Based on the chart above, it can be known that the particularized
conversational implicature is mostly used in the “1001 Jokes” humor book
reaching 79.92% applied in that book. Subsequently, the generalized
conversational implicature gets the second rank by the percentages 13.32%.
After that the third rank is fallen in the conventional and scalar implicature
both obtaining 3.33%. All these percentages mean that the most jokes used
in the “1001 Jokes” humor book are carried to a context with particular
12
utterance in a particular condition. It happens because it is difficult for the
jokers to create something funny in the written works, such as “1001
Jokes”, without using a specific context. Because basically understanding
written works is harder than understanding spoken expression in terms of
humor.
Based on the explanation above, the results of this study are
difference from Rofiq’s study finding that only scalar implicature is used in
the jokes, while this research finds that all types of implicatures are used in
the jokes.
Chart 2
The Percentage Scores of the Floats of Maxims in “1001 Jokes” Humor Book
The chart above presenting that the most float of Grice’s
conversational maxims is fallen in the floats of maxim of quality reaching
70%. Then, these are followed by floats of maxim of manner in the second
rank by the percentages 13.33%. The third is falling in the floats of maxim
of quantity reaching 10%. Furthermore, the fourth is going to the floats of
maxim of relevance and also the floats of all maxims or multiple floats of
13
maxims achieving 3.33%. This multiple floats of maxims produce a strong
surprising effect of the word meaning to create a good joke. In this third
ranks, the floats of maxim of quality by using the tautology strategy is a
core of the problem making other three maxims floated. If the utterance is
floated by the tautology other maxims will be difficult to avoid floating
meaning. All these percentages mean that to create a good joke, such as
contained in the “1001 Jokes” humor book, the writer needs to consider the
float the maxim of quality because the total percentages of the floats of this
maxim reach 70%.
Thus, the results of this study are difference from the Listiani’s study.
According to Listiani, the highest percentage of the violation of Grice’s
maxims is Quality maxim, i.e. 35.7 percentages, and the lowest percentage
of the violation of Grice’s maxims is on Quantity maxim, i.e., 14.3
percentages. However, the writer finds that the highest percentage of float of
Grice’s conversational maxims is fallen in the floats of maxim of quality
reaching 70%, while the lowest one is coming to the floats of maxim of
relevance and the multiple floats of maxim achieving 3.33%.
14
Chart 3
The Percentage Scores of the Aspects Making Floats of Grice’s Maxims Funny
in “1001 Jokes” Humor Book
The aspects making floats of Grice’s maxims funny in “1001 Jokes”
humor book is clearly described on the chart above that the first rank of the
most way used in the process of humor is coming to the incongruity of the
word by the percentages 96.67%. Then, the second one is fallen in the relief
reaching 3.33%. Furthermore, the third rank is going to the exploitation of
superiority reaching 0%. Here, the researcher just needs to explain why the
incongruity of the word is mostly used in the data reaching the highest
percentage 96.67%. It happens because the strangeness or incongruity is the
easiest way used to create a humor as found in“1001 Jokes” humor book. If
the word is strange the reader will easily laugh by particular effects making
the utterance funny like a surprising effect, ambiguous effect and the
conflict effect between what is hoped by the readers and what happens in
the joke. The second rank is coming to the exploitation of relief. It means
that the jokers alternatively tend to use the exploitation of relief in the
humorous texts as found in “1001 Jokes” humor book although the number
of this aspect is small. It happens because taboo languages or negative
15
statements in a specific context, such as in the humor, is easier to create than
the superiority that needs a social context that is easier to create in forms of
spoken jokes than in the written one. Of course, it is hard for the jokers to
do in terms of humorous texts than the incongruity of the word and the
relief.
The results of this study are difference from the Palupi’s research.
According to Palupi, the aspects making the jokes funny are Banter,
Blunder, Chain, FreudianSlip, Irony, Mistaken Identity, Relapse and
Repartee. These types of humor refer to Audrieth’s humor theory (1998).
However, this research finds the aspects of the floats of Grice’s maxims
funny are the relief, and the incongruity of the word because the writer uses
the conventional humor theory proposed byVeatch (1998).
CONCLUSION
Based on the previous data analysis and discussion, the researcher can
conclude that related to the implicatures there are some types of implicatures
occur in the “1001 Jokes” humor book, i.e., conventional implicature, generalized
corversational implicature, particularized conversational implicature and scalar
implicature. In the book, the using of conventional implicature is to explain the
contrast meanings between an utterance to other one, while The generalized
conversational implicature is to show the utterances used inthe “1001 Jokes”
humor book that do not need a special context to have humorous meaning. Then,
the using of particularized conversational implicature here is to demonstrate the
utterances that need a specific context to have humorous meanings. Finally, the
16
using of scalar implicature in this research is to describe the utterances that have
degree of meaning.
Related to the floats of Grice’s conversational maxims, in the “1001 Jokes”
humor book, there are some maxims floated, i.e., maxim of quantity, maxim of
quality, maxim of relevance and maxim of manner. Besides that the researcher
also found floats of all maxims or multiple floats of maxims. In the book, the
using of floats of maxim of quantity, maxim of quality, maxim of relevance and
maxim of manner basically is to make a surprising effect in order that the readers
laugh. However, the degree of the surprising effect is highest when all maxims are
floated.
Related to the processes of humor, there are some aspects leading the
utterances funny in the “1001 Jokes” humor book, i.e., the relief aspect, and the
incongruity of the word or the lexis aspect. In the book, the using of relief aspect
is to make one of the speakers release his tension. It is made to make him healthy.
Furthermore, the using of the incongruity of the lexis is to make the readers feel
strange with the utterance and then they laugh.
Finally, the writer suggests to some people. The first is to the English
practitioners, by means of the results of this study they should consider that the
multiple floats of maxims can make the degree of the humorous text higher than
they just float one of the Grice’s conversational maxims. Then, the second is to
the future researchers that the result of this study is still left many problems
needed to research by using other theories of pragmatic studies such as nonobservant maxim. Finally, it can be the trustworthy reference for the linguists.
17
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21
IN “1001 JOKES” HUMOR BOOK
BY RICHARD WISEMAN
PUBLICATION MANUSCRIPT
Presented to
Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Thesis Program
in English Department of Post Graduate Programs of Muhammadiyah
University of Surakarta
by:
Muamar Chadafi
NIM: S. 200 120 034
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF MUHAMMADIYAH UNIVERSITY
OF SURAKARTA
2014
ii
iii
ABSTRACT
CHADAFI, MUAMAR. S.20012034. The Floats of Grice’s
conversational maxims in “1001 Jokes” humor book by
Richard Wiseman.Thesis, Muhammadiyah University of
Surakarta 2014.
This study focuses on analyzing the floats of Grice’s
conversational maxims in “1001 Jokes” humor book. This study is
aimed (1) to describe types of Grice’s conversational maxims are
frequently floated in “1001 Jokes” humor book, (2) to describe the
implicature found in “1001 Jokes” humor book, and (3) to
describe the maxim floats lead to funny jokes in“1001 Jokes”
humor book.The writer employs descriptive qualitative approach to
reach and to conclude the research findings in this study. In
collecting data the writer uses documentation method, and to
analyze data the writer refers to Grice’s cooperative principle
theory. Based on 30 data analyzed in this study obtained from
“1001 Jokes” humor book, the writer finds that (1) 21 of the data
or 70% float maxim of quality, 4 of data or 13.33% float maxim of
manner, 3 of the data or 10% float maxim of quantity, 1 of the
dataor 3.33% floats maxim of relevance, and 1 of the data or 3.33%
floats all maxims. Then, from the implicature the researcher finds
that (2) scalar implicature is to show contrast meanings between an
utterance to other one, generalized conversational implicature is to
explain the utterances used in the “1001 Jokes” humor book that
do not need a special context to have humorous meaning,
particularized conversational implicature is to demonstrate the
utterances needing a specific context to have humorous meanings,
and scalar implicature is to describe the joke utterances that have
degree of meaning. Afterwards, the researcher finds that (3) there
are two aspects making the maxim floats lead to funny jokes
in“1001 Jokes” humor book, i.e., relief, and incongruity of the
word or the lexis. Besides that the writer also finds that the floats
of all maxims make a strong surprising meaning of the joke
utterances increasing the degree of funny.
Key words: floats, Grice conversational maxim, humor.
1
INTRODUCTION
In pragmatics there are many issues which are interesting to discuss, one of
them is Grice’s conversational implicature. It is one of the pragmatic theories
which is very influential enough in that field of study up to now. In his idea,
“utterances can make meanings based on what is implicated referring to some
assumptions to the particular utterance. What is implicated is formulated logically
by what Grice (1975:45), calls implicatures or conversational implicatures.”
Meaning is actually realized from the situation of some utterances while “Grice's
theory of implicatureis concerned with the ways in which meaning can be
communicated not only by what is said, but also by how it is said”
(Levinson,1983:97).
Then, Grice finds a way to understand the implicature which is called
cooperative principles which are necessary for those who want to produce and
analyze the conversations logically. According to him, “in a conversation,
logically a speaker and a hearer should have cooperation by using four maxims,
i.e., maxim of quality, quantity, relevance and manner in order that one can
understand what other means” (Grice, 1975:45). If the utterances do not contain
one of the maxims they will not be understood by the hearer. These maxims are
named cooperative principles.
However in some cases the cooperative principles are sometimes floated for
various reasons like for joking or achieving politeness. Floats of the maxims
happen in which the speaker deliberately does not explicitly show what he or she
means so the four maxims cannot operate normally. For example: excuse me, do
you know what time is it? Yes. This conversational text is included in the float of
2
the quantity maxim because the information that should be given clearly through
the answer is floated by saying “yes”. The normal answer is it is 10 o’clock or 12
o’clock, and etc. (as cited in Attardo, 1990:355).
Principally many researchers conducted research on floats or violations of
Grice’s conversational maxims such as research conducted by Palupi (2006:1),
stating that there are eight types of humor found in the Situation Comedy Friends
Episode of ‘the One with that Could Have Been’. They are Banter, Blunder,
Chain, FreudianSlip, Irony, Mistaken identity, Relapse and Repartee. These types
of humor refer to Audrieth’s humor theory (1998). Then, Rofiq (2012:1), on his
pragmatic study states that there are only scalar implicatures found in the “English
Jokes about Marriage in Internet” and some purposes of making jokes like
informing, alluding, suggesting, and etc. Furthermore, Listiani (2005:1), on the
violations of Grice’s maxims in Small Villa film finds that the highest percentage
of the violation of Grice’s maxims is Quality maxim, i.e. 35.7 percentages, and
the lowest percentage of the violation of Grice’s maximsison Quantity maxim,
i.e., 14.3 percentages. The similarities of this study to the previous studies
mentioned above are that this study tries to describe floats of Grice’s
conversational maxims, the implicature and the types of humor which have been
researched by the prior researchers. However the point makes this study
difference from the previous studies is in the focus of the study that describes
process of humor found in “1001 Jokes” by using Veatch’s conventional humor
theory (1998), that is different from Palupi’s study that uses Audrieth’s humor
theory. Besides that “1001 Jokes” humor book contains many clean English jokes
3
based on the Richard Wiseman’s research that has its own characters that certainly
produces different research findings from the previous research findings.
Based on the previous explanations, the researcher needs to conduct
research further in regard with the floats of Grice’s conversational maxims found
in “1001 Jokes” humor book. It is importance not only because humor books are
have not been viewed so far from Grice’s cooperative principles but also because
humor is very close enough with human life that every human needs very much to
do it in order that their life will be happy and balance.
Besides that, in this study the writer focuses on finding out types of Grice’s
conversational maxims that frequently floated in “1001 Jokes” humor book, the
implicature found in “1001 Jokes” humor book, and the maxim floats leading to
funny jokes in“1001 Jokes” humor book.
LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Floats of Grice’s Conversational Maxims
The flouting of the maxims is difference from the violation of the
maxims because “it occurs when the hearer really does not understand with the
violated utterances, while the flouting of maxims occurs when the speaker
intentionally stops to use the maxims to flatter the hearer to deduce the
meaning named implicature”(Khosravizadeh&Sadehvandi, 2011:123).
Dealing with the floating of Grice’s maxims, Nailufah (2008) conducted
research entitled “Floating Maxims on Grice’s Maxims in the Drama of the
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller”. This study focuses on how the maxim
of quantity, quality, relevance, and manner floated in the drama of “the Death
4
of a Salesman” and this study used qualitative method.The research findings of
this study show that all the four floated can be found in the drama. The
utterance floats the maxim of quantity when it is too long, the maxim of quality
when it is absurd, the maxim of relevance when it is unrelated topic, and the
maxim of manner when it disorders the utterance.
2. Implicature
According to Grice (as cited in Cummings, 2005:9), “implicature is an
intended utterance of X to produce some effect in an audience by means of the
recognition of this intention.” It is divided into three types, i.e., scalar
implicature “concerning the conventional uses of words like ‘all’ or ‘some’ in
conversation”(Grice,
1975:25),
conventional
implicature
dealing
with
“independent of the cooperative principle and its four maxims. A statement
always carries its conventional implicature” (Ibid.), and conversational
implicature which is divided into particularized conversational implicature
regarding “the dependent of the context”(as cited in Martinovski, 1:2013) and
generalized conversational implicature dealing with “the independent of the
context” (Ibid.).
Regarding implicature, Alvaro’s conducted research (2011) entitled “The
Role of Conversational Maxims, Implicature and Presupposition in the
Creation of Humor: An Analysis of Woody Allen’s Anything Else”. In this
quantitative study, the researcher analyzes on how verbal humor in
communication displays the types, characteristics and the usages of the
implicature, the conversational maxims and the presupposition used in Woody
5
Allen’s Anything Else. The research findings show that the use of implicature
and non-observation of the conversational maxims and its combination with
rhetorical figures is more abundant than the use of presupposition.
3. Conventional Humor Theory
This theory, proposed by Veatch (1998), principally is divided into three
groups. The first is superiority theory. According to Barnes (as cited in
Muder&Nijholt, 2002:3), superiority theory is that “we laugh about the
misfortunes of others; it reflects our own superiority.” In other word, the
superiority theory here is dealing with the winner and the loser. The second is
relief theory. Relief theory, according to Freud (Ibid., :4), “is that we laugh
spontaneously to release tension and psychic energy.” This is made by people
who consider that laughter is helpful for their health. Then, the last is
incongruity theory. This theory as defined clearly by Schopenhauer (Ibid., :4),
is that “the cause of laughter in every case is simply the sudden perception of
the incongruity between a concept and the real objects which have been
thought through it in some relation.” Thus, the strangeness or the incongruity
of the utterance is the main point why the utterance can make the other laugh
according to this theory. However, not all incongruities make the utterance
funny. This happens because of the condition around the speaker.
In relation to humor theory, Palupi conducted research (2006) from
entitled “An Analysis of Humor Types and Grice’s Maxim in the Situation
Comedy Friends Episode of ‘the One with that Could Have Been’(a pragmatic
approach)”. In this study the researcher analyzes the types of humor referring
6
to Audrieth’s humor theory (1998), which appear in this episode and the
researcher also defines whether those humors obey or disobey the Grice’s
maxims as the standard conversational norms. In this study, the researcher uses
qualitative method. The research findings show there are eight types of humor
which can be found in this episode. They are Banter, Blunder, Chain,
FreudianSlip, Irony, Mistaken Identity, Relapse and Repartee. Concerning with
the maxims, it is found that the humors, which are used in every utterances,
tend to disobey at least one of the maxims. The researcher also found that there
are three non-observances of the maxims, which are done by the characters in
delivering the humor. They are flouting, violating, and infringing the maxims.
RESEARCH METHOD
Research design for this research is descriptive qualitative study.
Then, the object of the study of this research is types of Grice’s conversational
maxims that frequently floated, the implicature, and the maxim floats leading
to funny jokes in“1001 Jokes” humor book.
In this research, the researcher uses a non-interactive research instrument
by means of documentation achievements or called documentation method to
collect the data because the object of the study of this research contains in
“1001 Jokes” humor book.
Besides that, Data analysis used here is contrastive analysis by the
following steps:
7
1. Presenting the data
Data are very important thing to know firstly in conducting research
because they are as the core of what are being studied. Without them
research cannot be conducted. So, that is why the researcher presents the
data firstly in the process of data analysis.
2. Checking
To classify the words in“1001 Jokes” humor book into the floats of
the maxims or not, the researcher previously finds out the implicature
referring to Grice’s implicature theory and the illocution of the speaker by
speech act theory and speech context by means of Nunan’s context theory.
The researcher detects floats of Grice’s cooperative principle of the events
happening in “1001 Jokes” humor book by the formula of cooperative
principle. Finally, the researcher determines process of humor by using
conventional humor theory proposed by Veatch.
3. Making Percentage Scores
Finally, to know the mostly use of the types of implicatures, the
types of the maxim floats and the maxim floats leading to funny jokes, the
researcher uses the formula of percentage scores.
DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
1. Data Analysis
The data analyzed in this section refer to 30 data obtained from the
“1001 Jokes” humor book by Richard Wiseman. Some of them are as
follows:
8
a. Datum 02
Man walking down the street meets a friend who has a lobster tucked
under his arm. "Are you taking that lobster home to dinner?" he asks.
"No," says friend, "he's had his dinner and now I'm taking him to the
pictures".
a. Implicature
The utterance above is classified as the linguistic context
indicated by the word “to” as a direction showing that the speaker is
going to dinner with the lobster.
The conventional implicature happens in the utterance above
indicated by the word “to” of preposition functioning as a direction.
Commonly a speaker uses “for” in that utterance indicating a purpose
that the lobster will be eaten by the friend. However, in that utterance
the speaker uses “to” of preposition functioning as a direction. It infers
that the friend wants to make a date with the lobster in the movie.
Then, the underlined statement above contains declarative form
of the illocutionary speech. The utterance above is stated by the friend
to respond the man’s question. By saying “No”, the friend refuses the
proposition made by the man thinking that the lobster will be taken to
dinner.
b. Grice’s maxim float
The utterance above floats maxim of quality because the friend’s
answer to the man’s question, to the pictures, uses overstatement
strategy. So, the meaning used in that utterance contains abnormal
9
meaning according to the most of people’s view that the friend wants
to make a date with the lobster in the movie.
c. Funny aspect
The float of maxim of quality above indicated by “to the
picture” makes the utterance funny because the speaker here creates
the incongruity of the utterance. The speaker here uses the
exploitation of lexis to make it strange for the readers. Principally the
word “to” lexically is “in the direction of”, but in this case the
meaning of the word refers to making a date. Thus, the using of this
float maxim of quality here is to make conflict between what is hoped
by the readers and what happens in the joke influencing the strange
effect that makes them laugh by this effect.
b. Datum 20
Two elderly gentlemen were talking. One says, "Boy, this new hearing
aid I got works great! I can hear everything now." The other one says,
"That's wonderful! What kind is it?" "It's a quarter past two."
a. Implicature
The speakers of the utterance above are two elderly gentlemen
as friends, and the setting of this event here happens when they are
meeting in a particular place. Then, the purpose of the underlined
utterance is that the speaker wants to inform that he is not deaf again.
The communicative event of the utterance is joke. Then, the topic of
the utterance is about recovering from deaf, while the background
knowledge of the utterance above is that the speaker of the underlined
10
utterance is still deaf indicated by saying the last utterance. So, the
utterance above is categorized as the experimental context.
The utterance “I can hear everything now” is categorized as the
generalized conversational implicature. It implies that the speaker
previously is deaf. However, he is still deaf proved by the question
“What kind is it?” but the speaker responds by a wrong answer “It's a
quarter past two”.
Then, the underlined utterance is the representative form of the
illocutionary speech acts. It is uttered to inform that the speaker is
deaf previously.
b. Grice’s maxim float
The utterance “I can hear everything now” floats maxim of
quantity because the utterance is more informative than is required.
c. Funny aspect
The core of the funny utterance is placed in the words “I can
hear everything now”. The incongruity of the words happens in that
utterance because those words lexically refer to a meaning that the
speaker previously is deaf. However, by stating that utterance he feels
that he is not deaf again. In the fact, the speaker is still deaf proved by
the question “What kind is it?”. He thinks that his friend asks about
the time. So, he responds by a wrong answer “It's a quarter past two”.
The using of float of maxim of quantity here is to make conflict
between what is thought by the readers thinking that the speaker can
11
hear everything and what happens in the joke saying that he is still
deaf.
2. Discussion
At least there are three topics of discussion here dealing with the
problems of study namely the implicatures, the floats of maxims and the
processes of humor in the “1001 Jokes” humor book. Before discussing
each problem, the researcher presents some results of data analysis by
means of some charts as follows:
Chart 1
The Percentage Scores of Implicatures in “1001 Jokes” Humor Book
Based on the chart above, it can be known that the particularized
conversational implicature is mostly used in the “1001 Jokes” humor book
reaching 79.92% applied in that book. Subsequently, the generalized
conversational implicature gets the second rank by the percentages 13.32%.
After that the third rank is fallen in the conventional and scalar implicature
both obtaining 3.33%. All these percentages mean that the most jokes used
in the “1001 Jokes” humor book are carried to a context with particular
12
utterance in a particular condition. It happens because it is difficult for the
jokers to create something funny in the written works, such as “1001
Jokes”, without using a specific context. Because basically understanding
written works is harder than understanding spoken expression in terms of
humor.
Based on the explanation above, the results of this study are
difference from Rofiq’s study finding that only scalar implicature is used in
the jokes, while this research finds that all types of implicatures are used in
the jokes.
Chart 2
The Percentage Scores of the Floats of Maxims in “1001 Jokes” Humor Book
The chart above presenting that the most float of Grice’s
conversational maxims is fallen in the floats of maxim of quality reaching
70%. Then, these are followed by floats of maxim of manner in the second
rank by the percentages 13.33%. The third is falling in the floats of maxim
of quantity reaching 10%. Furthermore, the fourth is going to the floats of
maxim of relevance and also the floats of all maxims or multiple floats of
13
maxims achieving 3.33%. This multiple floats of maxims produce a strong
surprising effect of the word meaning to create a good joke. In this third
ranks, the floats of maxim of quality by using the tautology strategy is a
core of the problem making other three maxims floated. If the utterance is
floated by the tautology other maxims will be difficult to avoid floating
meaning. All these percentages mean that to create a good joke, such as
contained in the “1001 Jokes” humor book, the writer needs to consider the
float the maxim of quality because the total percentages of the floats of this
maxim reach 70%.
Thus, the results of this study are difference from the Listiani’s study.
According to Listiani, the highest percentage of the violation of Grice’s
maxims is Quality maxim, i.e. 35.7 percentages, and the lowest percentage
of the violation of Grice’s maxims is on Quantity maxim, i.e., 14.3
percentages. However, the writer finds that the highest percentage of float of
Grice’s conversational maxims is fallen in the floats of maxim of quality
reaching 70%, while the lowest one is coming to the floats of maxim of
relevance and the multiple floats of maxim achieving 3.33%.
14
Chart 3
The Percentage Scores of the Aspects Making Floats of Grice’s Maxims Funny
in “1001 Jokes” Humor Book
The aspects making floats of Grice’s maxims funny in “1001 Jokes”
humor book is clearly described on the chart above that the first rank of the
most way used in the process of humor is coming to the incongruity of the
word by the percentages 96.67%. Then, the second one is fallen in the relief
reaching 3.33%. Furthermore, the third rank is going to the exploitation of
superiority reaching 0%. Here, the researcher just needs to explain why the
incongruity of the word is mostly used in the data reaching the highest
percentage 96.67%. It happens because the strangeness or incongruity is the
easiest way used to create a humor as found in“1001 Jokes” humor book. If
the word is strange the reader will easily laugh by particular effects making
the utterance funny like a surprising effect, ambiguous effect and the
conflict effect between what is hoped by the readers and what happens in
the joke. The second rank is coming to the exploitation of relief. It means
that the jokers alternatively tend to use the exploitation of relief in the
humorous texts as found in “1001 Jokes” humor book although the number
of this aspect is small. It happens because taboo languages or negative
15
statements in a specific context, such as in the humor, is easier to create than
the superiority that needs a social context that is easier to create in forms of
spoken jokes than in the written one. Of course, it is hard for the jokers to
do in terms of humorous texts than the incongruity of the word and the
relief.
The results of this study are difference from the Palupi’s research.
According to Palupi, the aspects making the jokes funny are Banter,
Blunder, Chain, FreudianSlip, Irony, Mistaken Identity, Relapse and
Repartee. These types of humor refer to Audrieth’s humor theory (1998).
However, this research finds the aspects of the floats of Grice’s maxims
funny are the relief, and the incongruity of the word because the writer uses
the conventional humor theory proposed byVeatch (1998).
CONCLUSION
Based on the previous data analysis and discussion, the researcher can
conclude that related to the implicatures there are some types of implicatures
occur in the “1001 Jokes” humor book, i.e., conventional implicature, generalized
corversational implicature, particularized conversational implicature and scalar
implicature. In the book, the using of conventional implicature is to explain the
contrast meanings between an utterance to other one, while The generalized
conversational implicature is to show the utterances used inthe “1001 Jokes”
humor book that do not need a special context to have humorous meaning. Then,
the using of particularized conversational implicature here is to demonstrate the
utterances that need a specific context to have humorous meanings. Finally, the
16
using of scalar implicature in this research is to describe the utterances that have
degree of meaning.
Related to the floats of Grice’s conversational maxims, in the “1001 Jokes”
humor book, there are some maxims floated, i.e., maxim of quantity, maxim of
quality, maxim of relevance and maxim of manner. Besides that the researcher
also found floats of all maxims or multiple floats of maxims. In the book, the
using of floats of maxim of quantity, maxim of quality, maxim of relevance and
maxim of manner basically is to make a surprising effect in order that the readers
laugh. However, the degree of the surprising effect is highest when all maxims are
floated.
Related to the processes of humor, there are some aspects leading the
utterances funny in the “1001 Jokes” humor book, i.e., the relief aspect, and the
incongruity of the word or the lexis aspect. In the book, the using of relief aspect
is to make one of the speakers release his tension. It is made to make him healthy.
Furthermore, the using of the incongruity of the lexis is to make the readers feel
strange with the utterance and then they laugh.
Finally, the writer suggests to some people. The first is to the English
practitioners, by means of the results of this study they should consider that the
multiple floats of maxims can make the degree of the humorous text higher than
they just float one of the Grice’s conversational maxims. Then, the second is to
the future researchers that the result of this study is still left many problems
needed to research by using other theories of pragmatic studies such as nonobservant maxim. Finally, it can be the trustworthy reference for the linguists.
17
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