Analysis of the Non-Obeservance of the Gricean Maxims in Online Marriage Jokes.

ABSTRACT

Di dalam tugas akhir ini, saya menganalisis humor yang muncul akibat adanya pelanggaran bidal. Teori yang diambil adalah teori menurut Grice. Pelanggaran bidal ini dikategorikan secara 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 membantu saya untuk menganalisis makna ujaran yang menjadi penyebab humor di dalam suatu lelucon. Selain teori Grice, saya pun menggunakan Incongruity Theory. Teori ini pun dapat membantu saya untuk dapat lebih memahami humor.

Guna mengaplikasikan teori tersebut, saya mengambil sumber data dari beberapa situs web di Internet, yang di dalamnya terdapat sejumah lelucon tentang percakapan antara suami dan istri. Dikarenakan humor merupakan hal yang subyektif, saya memperkuat kajian saya dengan teori Incongruity berupa diagram. Dari seluruh data yang saya analisis, flouting a maxim of manner merupakan pelanggaran bidal yang paling sering ditemukan. Hal ini disebabkan oleh ujaran yang ambigu atau tidak langsung pada intinya sehingga terciptalah humor.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... ii

ABSTRACT ... iii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Background of the Study ... 1

Statement of the Problems ... 4

Purpose of the Study ... 4

Method of Research ... 4

Organization of the Thesis ... 5

CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...6

CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF THE NON-OBSERVANCE OF THE GRICEAN MAXIMS IN ONLINE MARRIAGE JOKES ... 14

CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ... 29

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 33

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

These days some people are busy with their activities that will make them stressed. To solve that problem, we need to do something which does not make us bored. One of the things we can do is reading some jokes. We can read jokes in our free time. When we read jokes, we can laugh and relax. Jokes can be found in novels, films, or magazines.

There are so many ways for us to laugh. Laughing has some benefits for our health and has good effect for our feeling. Laughing is important to do in our daily life because humor and laughter can strengthen our immune system, boost our energy, diminish pain, and protect us from the damaging effects of stress

(“Laughter is the Best Medicine”). The statement shows us how important laughing is as there are many benefits that we can get.

The title of my thesis is Analysis of the Non-Observance of Gricean Maxims in Online Marriage Jokes. The reason why I choose this topic is because I

am curious about how to understand English jokes and know what the speaker in online jokes wants to imply.

The type of jokes which I analyze is marriage jokes. In my opinion, it is easier to read and analyze this type of jokes because there are only two people who are talking in the dialogue. Therefore, it is not difficult to find which utterance breaks the Gricean maxims.

I take the data from the Internet. In the Internet, I can get a lot of jokes from several websites and it does not take a long time. There are many varieties of jokes that we can find on the Internet, such as marriage jokes, couple jokes, family jokes, kid jokes, and school jokes. The practicality of the Internet makes me decide to find the data source in it.

The area of linguistics that my topic belongs to is Pragmatics. “Pragmatics is the study of the aspects of meaning and language use that are dependent on the speaker, the addressee and other features of the context of utterance” (“What is

Pragmatics”). The specific theory used is the non-observance of the Gricean Maxims.

The theory which becomes the basis of my analysis is from an English language philosopher, Paul Grice (1975). “One of his central ideas is that, when interpreting an utterance of a sentence, one assumes that the speaker has complied

with a number of principles ensuring that conversation is a cooperative activity.” (“Maxim of Conversation”). His principle is “maxims of conversation”.

Grice proposes four types of flouting the maxims which are the maxims of quality, quantity, manner, and relation. He also says that there are five types of non-observance, which are flouting a maxim, violating a maxim, infringing a

maxim, opting out of a maxim, and suspending a maxim. This theory shows me how the speaker in the jokes does the non-observance of Gricean maxims. That is why I use this theory to analyze the jokes. It really helps me to get the point that a speaker wants to say.

According to Humor Theories and the Physiological Benefits of Laughter, “There are three main theories that explain the functions of humor: the relief theory, which focuses on physiological release of tension, the incongruity theory which focuses on contradictions between expectations and experiences, and the superiority theory which focuses on sense of supremacy over others.” (Julia Wikins, par. 1). However, the theory that I use to analyze the humor in the jokes is the incongruity theory. Based on “Handbook of Humor Research”, the incongruity theory is a theory that explains how humor is produced. The diagram of the Incongruity theory explains that a joke can be funny when the reader’s prediction is different from the fact that happens in the joke and makes the readers surprised. The utterance in a joke which produces humor is called the punch line. I decide to use this theory because this is a good theory and has a good way to enable us to understand the humor in a joke. Besides, it also helps me to know

which part of the speaker’s utterance produces humor.

I hope this thesis will help people to know the meaning in the utterance that the speaker in the jokes wants to imply and make the readers especially Indonesian people able to understand English jokes more easily. Moreover, I also hope it will make people more critical to understand the utterances in the jokes which produce humor.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

I would like to discuss the following problems:

1. Which utterance in the joke fails to observe the Gricean maxim? 2. What is the type of non-observance that the speaker does?

3. How does the non-observance of Gricean maxims lead to the humor in the couple joke?

1.3 Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is:

1. To find out the utterance in the joke that fails to observe the Gricean maxims.

2. To find out the type of non-observance that the speaker does.

3. To find out how the non-observance of Gricean maxims can lead to the humor in the joke.

1.4 Method of Research

There are three steps that I used in writing this thesis. First I learned the Theory of the Non-Observance of Gricean maxims and the Theory of Incongruity to analyze the data. Second, I searched for the jokes on some websites in the Internet. Third, after I found the jokes that met the criteria, I read and analyzed it. Finally, I wrote the research report.

1.5 Organization of the Thesis

This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One is Introduction, which is divided into five parts: Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of Research, and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two contains Theoretical Framework, which shows the theories that are used to analyze the data. Chapter Three presents the analysis of the data. The last chapter, Chapter Four, is Conclusion. At the end of the thesis, there are Bibliography and Appendix.

CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter I would like to put forward my concluding points based on my analysis in the previous chapter. In my thesis, there are eleven jokes as the data source and all of them contain utterances which do not observe the Gricean maxims. There are 20 utterances altogether. However, some utterances break more than one type of maxims. I find that there are eighteen utterances flouting a maxim: nine flout the maxim of manner, five flout the maxim of quantity, two flout the maxim of quality, and two flout the maxim of relation.

As we can see that there are eighteen utterances out of twenty or 90 percent flouting a maxim. In my opinion, it happens because the speaker and the hearer has a close relationship. The speaker who has a close relationship with the hearer sometimes says something that has an implicature. The speaker most probably thinks that the hearer will understand the meaning of the speaker’s utterance without any further explanation again. Unfortunately, the hearer sometimes does not understand what the speaker wants to imply. This case also happens in the jokes that I analyze, which is marriage jokes. The conversation is between married couple who talks about the common topics that they have in

married life. The examples of the topics are about trying to make the wife happy or trying not to have a big conflict, etc. Because of the close relationship, the married couple sometimes does not want to say something directly. It is because they do not want to hurt each other by their utterance and prevent them from having a big conflict. Mostly, the utterances in all my data have implicatures that can be analyzed with the types of flouting a maxim. In my opinion, flouting a maxim is effective for creating a joke, because it involves the readers in identifying the speaker’s utterance which contains an implicature and causes a conflict in the conversation.

In my analysis, the maxim of manner is the most flouted maxim. I find that there are nine utterances out of eighteen utterances or 50 percent that break this maxim. As I have mentioned before, a married couple prefers not to say something explicitly. The reason is because they want to keep each other’s feeling and they do not want to have a big conflict with their spouse. Therefore, their utterance is usually not straight to the point or ambiguous. It makes the hearer need more time to think and understand what the speaker wants to imply. Then, it will create a funny effect to know the unexpected meaning from the speaker’s utterance. For example, in data 1 the wife’s answer about her reason why she is crying after she has had a dream is unexpected. It is different from what the husband or the readers think first. She says that she is crying because she regrets getting married to her husband. Because of this unexpected answer, it can create humor in the joke.

As I have explained in the first paragraph of this chapter, some of my data have more than one flouting a maxim; for example, in data 1, 3, 4, and 8, the

utterances have flouted the maxim of manner and quantity. In my opinion, the reason why an utterance can flout the maxim of manner and quantity is quite simple and logical. When a speaker’s utterance is less informative, it tends to be unclear. Because of the less information, it will make the hearer confused and does not get the implication of the speaker’s utterance. Then, when a speaker’s utterance is unnecessarily too informative, at the same time it will not be straight to the point. Based on the two cases above, I can conclude that flouting the maxim of manner and quantity are most often related to each other. Besides, the utterance that flouts more than one type of maxim can prompt the readers to be more aware in analyzing the utterance that leads to the humor in the jokes.

Next, I also find one out of eleven data that has two utterances violating a maxim. In my opinion, usually a wife or a husband violates a maxim when his or her affair is about to be known by the spouse. By violating a maxim, the speaker can mislead the hearer. For example in data 2, the husband violates the maxim when his wife asks him about where he was last night. He does it because he wants to mislead his wife. He does not want his wife to know about his mistress. However, there are only few jokes that violate the maxim. It is because there is only one data from all my data source that tells about an affair and contains violating a maxim.

To analyze the humor in the jokes, I use the Incongruity theory. All of my data can be explained by this theory. In my opinion, this theory is effective to make the readers smarter to think hard in understanding the humor that is produced in the jokes. This kind of jokes, which relies on the use of language, requires the readers to think seriously about it.

All my data have unpredictable ending because it is different from the reader’s prediction. I find that the situation in the jokes is not the same as the common marriage life that the readers usually see or hear. Because of the different prediction, humor is created. It is interesting to find the rule why it can be different and yet, it still makes sense. Therefore, it is a good theory to help the readers understand the jokes.

Finally, I would like to give suggestions for further researchers who are interested in the same topic. Gricean maxims can be used to analyze any text in the form of conversation. We can find many utterances that break the Gricean maxims in novels, films, or online comics. The Incongruity theory can be used to analyze the humor in other types of jokes such as school jokes, family jokes, or kid jokes, etc. as it is a very good theory.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

“A Culinary Adventure”. Reader’s Digest. n.p., n.d. Web. 29 August 2014. Ayman. Funny Jokes. n.p., 24 July 2012. Web. 29 August 2014.

“Football vs Marriage”. Akposjokes. n.p., n.d. Web. 20 January 2015.

“How Many Girls?”. Akposjokes. n.p., n.d. Web. 27 December 2014.

“I Will Die”. Akposjokes. n.p., n.d. Web. 27 December 2014.

“Marriage Humor”. The Creativeshed. n.p., n.d. Web. 14 July 2014.

McGhee, Paul E. and Jeffrey H. Goldstein. Handbook of Humor Research. Springer – Verlag, 1983. Print.

Segal, Jeanne. “Laughter is the Best Medicine.” Helpguide. April 2014. Web. 20

April 2014.

Smuts, Aaron. “Humor.” n.d. Web. 20 April 2014.

Spector, Benjamin. “Maxim of Conversation.” n.d. Web. 20 April 2014.

“The Truth”. Akposjokes. n.p., n.d. Web. 27 December 2014.

Thimira. Funny Jokes. n.p., 21 September 2012. Web. 29 August 2014.

Thomas, Jenny. (1995) Meaning in Interaction: an Introduction to Pragmatics. London and New York: Longman Group Limited. Print.

“Uncanny Resurrection”. Akposjokes. n.p., 29 November 2013. Web. 14 July 2014.

“Where Are You?”. Akposjokes. n.p., n.d. Web. 20 January 2015.

Wikins, Julia. “Humor Theories and the Physiological of Laughter”. n.d. Web. 20

CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter I would like to put forward my concluding points based on my analysis in the previous chapter. In my thesis, there are eleven jokes as the data source and all of them contain utterances which do not observe the Gricean maxims. There are 20 utterances altogether. However, some utterances break more than one type of maxims. I find that there are eighteen utterances flouting a maxim: nine flout the maxim of manner, five flout the maxim of quantity, two flout the maxim of quality, and two flout the maxim of relation.

As we can see that there are eighteen utterances out of twenty or 90 percent flouting a maxim. In my opinion, it happens because the speaker and the hearer has a close relationship. The speaker who has a close relationship with the hearer sometimes says something that has an implicature. The speaker most probably thinks that the hearer will understand the meaning of the speaker’s utterance without any further explanation again. Unfortunately, the hearer sometimes does not understand what the speaker wants to imply. This case also happens in the jokes that I analyze, which is marriage jokes. The conversation is between married couple who talks about the common topics that they have in

married life. The examples of the topics are about trying to make the wife happy or trying not to have a big conflict, etc. Because of the close relationship, the married couple sometimes does not want to say something directly. It is because they do not want to hurt each other by their utterance and prevent them from having a big conflict. Mostly, the utterances in all my data have implicatures that can be analyzed with the types of flouting a maxim. In my opinion, flouting a maxim is effective for creating a joke, because it involves the readers in identifying the speaker’s utterance which contains an implicature and causes a conflict in the conversation.

In my analysis, the maxim of manner is the most flouted maxim. I find that there are nine utterances out of eighteen utterances or 50 percent that break this maxim. As I have mentioned before, a married couple prefers not to say something explicitly. The reason is because they want to keep each other’s feeling and they do not want to have a big conflict with their spouse. Therefore, their utterance is usually not straight to the point or ambiguous. It makes the hearer need more time to think and understand what the speaker wants to imply. Then, it will create a funny effect to know the unexpected meaning from the speaker’s utterance. For example, in data 1 the wife’s answer about her reason why she is crying after she has had a dream is unexpected. It is different from what the husband or the readers think first. She says that she is crying because she regrets getting married to her husband. Because of this unexpected answer, it can create humor in the joke.

As I have explained in the first paragraph of this chapter, some of my data have more than one flouting a maxim; for example, in data 1, 3, 4, and 8, the

utterances have flouted the maxim of manner and quantity. In my opinion, the reason why an utterance can flout the maxim of manner and quantity is quite simple and logical. When a speaker’s utterance is less informative, it tends to be unclear. Because of the less information, it will make the hearer confused and does not get the implication of the speaker’s utterance. Then, when a speaker’s utterance is unnecessarily too informative, at the same time it will not be straight to the point. Based on the two cases above, I can conclude that flouting the maxim of manner and quantity are most often related to each other. Besides, the utterance that flouts more than one type of maxim can prompt the readers to be more aware in analyzing the utterance that leads to the humor in the jokes.

Next, I also find one out of eleven data that has two utterances violating a maxim. In my opinion, usually a wife or a husband violates a maxim when his or her affair is about to be known by the spouse. By violating a maxim, the speaker can mislead the hearer. For example in data 2, the husband violates the maxim when his wife asks him about where he was last night. He does it because he wants to mislead his wife. He does not want his wife to know about his mistress. However, there are only few jokes that violate the maxim. It is because there is only one data from all my data source that tells about an affair and contains violating a maxim.

To analyze the humor in the jokes, I use the Incongruity theory. All of my data can be explained by this theory. In my opinion, this theory is effective to make the readers smarter to think hard in understanding the humor that is produced in the jokes. This kind of jokes, which relies on the use of language, requires the readers to think seriously about it.

All my data have unpredictable ending because it is different from the reader’s prediction. I find that the situation in the jokes is not the same as the common marriage life that the readers usually see or hear. Because of the different prediction, humor is created. It is interesting to find the rule why it can be different and yet, it still makes sense. Therefore, it is a good theory to help the readers understand the jokes.

Finally, I would like to give suggestions for further researchers who are interested in the same topic. Gricean maxims can be used to analyze any text in the form of conversation. We can find many utterances that break the Gricean maxims in novels, films, or online comics. The Incongruity theory can be used to analyze the humor in other types of jokes such as school jokes, family jokes, or kid jokes, etc. as it is a very good theory.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

“A Culinary Adventure”. Reader’s Digest. n.p., n.d. Web. 29 August 2014. Ayman. Funny Jokes. n.p., 24 July 2012. Web. 29 August 2014.

“Football vs Marriage”. Akposjokes. n.p., n.d. Web. 20 January 2015.

“How Many Girls?”. Akposjokes. n.p., n.d. Web. 27 December 2014.

“I Will Die”. Akposjokes. n.p., n.d. Web. 27 December 2014.

“Marriage Humor”. The Creativeshed. n.p., n.d. Web. 14 July 2014.

McGhee, Paul E. and Jeffrey H. Goldstein. Handbook of Humor Research. Springer – Verlag, 1983. Print.

Segal, Jeanne. “Laughter is the Best Medicine.” Helpguide. April 2014. Web. 20

April 2014.

Smuts, Aaron. “Humor.” n.d. Web. 20 April 2014.

Spector, Benjamin. “Maxim of Conversation.” n.d. Web. 20 April 2014.

“The Truth”. Akposjokes. n.p., n.d. Web. 27 December 2014.

Thimira. Funny Jokes. n.p., 21 September 2012. Web. 29 August 2014.

Thomas, Jenny. (1995) Meaning in Interaction: an Introduction to Pragmatics. London and New York: Longman Group Limited. Print.

“Uncanny Resurrection”. Akposjokes. n.p., 29 November 2013. Web. 14 July 2014.

“Where Are You?”. Akposjokes. n.p., n.d. Web. 20 January 2015.

Wikins, Julia. “Humor Theories and the Physiological of Laughter”. n.d. Web. 20