An analysis of non-observance maxims in the amazing world of gumball cartoon.

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ABSTRACT

Gilly, Michael Yohanes B. (2015). An Analysis of Non-observance Maxims in
The Amazing World of Gumball Cartoon. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Humor is a part of human life. People need humor to reduce their stress
from daily life activity. Humor can be performed in various forms, they are in the
form of moving pictures, comedy TV and also text with pictures as in comic
books and comic strips. Cartoon is one of the film that can be used to entertain
people. People from all ages can watch cartoon. Many people love to watch
cartoon because the conversation and the animation from the cartoon can create
humor. The Amazing World of Gumball cartoon is one of the cartoon that can be
analyzed by using pragmatic theory. Theory of conversational maxims, nonobservance maxims, implicature and theory of humor are implemented in this
study to analyze humor. Benign violation theory also is used in this research to
support others theories.
There were two research questions in this research. They are: 1. What are
the types of non-observance maxims in The Amazing World of Gumball cartoon?
2. How frequent do the non-observance maxims occur to create comedy in The
Amazing World of Gumball cartoon?
In this research, mixed was used. The Amazing World of Gumball cartoon

was used as a subject to do research. The film was taken from season 3. The
researcher chose 20 episodes on purpose. Those 20 episodes have rich data to be
analyzed. This research used document analysis method in analyzing the data.
Human instrument became the primary instrument in gathering and analyzing the
data. GOM Player, scripts, and video was used as a secondary instrument to
gather and analyze the data.
The answer for the first research question, there were only two types of
non-observance maxims to create humor. Namely violating maxims and flouting
maxims. The use of implicature helps the researcher to find the meanings behind
the words and the humor effect that is created. The meanings are understood
through the two non-observance maxims, namely violating maxims and flouting
maxims. For the second research question reveals that in this cartoon, violating
and flouting maxims appeared frequently. There were 13 dialogues which are
violating maxims (52%) and 12 dialogues are flouting maxims (48%). Meanwhile,
opting out and infringing maxims did not appear in this cartoon to support humor
effect. Flouting and violating maxims had an important role in creating humor in
this cartoon.
Keywords: Theory of maxims, Non-observance maxims, The Amazing World of
Gumball cartoon

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ABSTRAK
Gilly, Michael Yohanes B. (2015). An Analysis of Non-observance Maxims in
The Amazing World of Gumball Cartoon. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata
Dharma.
Humor adalah bagian dari kehidupan manusia. Orang memerlukan humor
untuk mengurangi stres dari aktivitas kehidupan sehari-hari. Humor bisa dalam
bentuk film dan teks, misalnya film, buku komik, komik strip, komedi di serial TV
dan kartun. Kartun merupakan salah satu film yang dapat digunakan untuk
menghibur orang. Semua orang dari segala usia dapat menonton kartun. Banyak
orang suka menonton kartun karena percakapan dan animasi dari kartun dapat
membuat efek humor. Kartun The Amazing World of Gumball merupakan salah
satu kartun yang dapat dianalisis dengan menggunakan teori pragmatis. Teori
conversational
maxims,
non-observance
maxims

dan
implicature
diimplementasikan untuk menganalisis efek humor dalam kartun ini. Teori benign
violation juga digunakan dalam penelitian ini untuk mendukung teori lain.
Ada dua pertanyaan dalam penelitian ini, yaitu: 1. Jenis-jenis nonobservance maxims apa yang didalam kartun The Amazing World of Gumball? 2.
Seberapa sering non-observance maxims terjadi untuk membuat komedi dalam
kartun The Amazing World of Gumball?
Dalam penelitian ini, metode campuran digunakan. Kartun The Amazing
World of Gumball digunakan sebagai subjek untuk melakukan penelitian. Film ini
diambil dari musim 3 dan mengambil 20 episode dengan tujuan . 20 episode itu
memiliki data yang kaya untuk dianalisis. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode
analisis dokumen dalam menganalisis data. Instrumen manusia menjadi
instrumen utama dalam pengumpulan dan menganalisis data. Laptop, GOM
Player, skrip, video digunakan sebagai instrumen sekunder untuk mengumpulkan
dan menganalisis data.
Jawaban untuk pertanyaan penelitian pertama, hanya terdapat dua jenis
non-observance maxims dalam menciptakan humor. Mereka adalah violating
maxims dan flouting maxims. Penggunaan implikatur membantu peneliti untuk
menemukan makna di balik kata-kata dan efek humor yang dibuat. Makna yang
dipahami melalui dua non-observance maxims, yaitu violating maxims dan

flouting maxims. Jawaban untuk pertanyaan penelitian kedua mengungkapkan
bahwa dalam kartun ini, violating dan flouting maxims yang paling banyak
keluar. Ada 13 dialog violating maxims (52%) dan 12 dialog mewakili flouting
maxims (48%). Sementara itu, opting out dan infringing maxims tidak muncul
dalam mendukung efek humor di kartun ini. Violating maxims dan flouting
maxims memiliki peran penting dalam menciptakan efek humor dalam kartun ini.
Kata kunci: Theory of Maxims, Non-observance Maxims, The Amazing World of
Gumball cartoon

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AN ANALYSIS OF NON-OBSERVANCE MAXIMS IN THE
AMAZING WORLD OF GUMBALL CARTOON
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to
Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education

By
Michael Yohanes Berchmans Gilly
Student Number: 111214074

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2015
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PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work

or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the
references, as a scientific paper should.

Yogyakarta, July 29, 2015

The Writer

Michael Yohanes Berchmans Gilly
111214074

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PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI
LEMBAR PERNYATAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH
UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama
Nomor Mahasiswa

: Michael Yohanes Berchmans Gilly
: 111214074

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
AN ANALYSIS OF NON-OBSERVANCE MAXIMS IN THE AMAZING
WORLD OF GUMBALL CARTOON
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian, saya memberikan
kepada Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam
bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan
secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk
kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu minta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan
royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal: July 29, 2015
Yang menyatakan

Michael Yohanes Berchmans Gilly
v

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ABSTRACT

Gilly, Michael Yohanes B. (2015). An Analysis of Non-observance Maxims in
The Amazing World of Gumball Cartoon. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Humor is a part of human life. People need humor to reduce their stress
from daily life activity. Humor can be performed in various forms, they are in the
form of moving pictures, comedy TV and also text with pictures as in comic
books and comic strips. Cartoon is one of the film that can be used to entertain
people. People from all ages can watch cartoon. Many people love to watch
cartoon because the conversation and the animation from the cartoon can create
humor. The Amazing World of Gumball cartoon is one of the cartoon that can be
analyzed by using pragmatic theory. Theory of conversational maxims, nonobservance maxims, implicature and theory of humor are implemented in this
study to analyze humor. Benign violation theory also is used in this research to
support others theories.
There were two research questions in this research. They are: 1. What are

the types of non-observance maxims in The Amazing World of Gumball cartoon?
2. How frequent do the non-observance maxims occur to create comedy in The
Amazing World of Gumball cartoon?
In this research, mixed was used. The Amazing World of Gumball cartoon
was used as a subject to do research. The film was taken from season 3. The
researcher chose 20 episodes on purpose. Those 20 episodes have rich data to be
analyzed. This research used document analysis method in analyzing the data.
Human instrument became the primary instrument in gathering and analyzing the
data. GOM Player, scripts, and video was used as a secondary instrument to
gather and analyze the data.
The answer for the first research question, there were only two types of
non-observance maxims to create humor. Namely violating maxims and flouting
maxims. The use of implicature helps the researcher to find the meanings behind
the words and the humor effect that is created. The meanings are understood
through the two non-observance maxims, namely violating maxims and flouting
maxims. For the second research question reveals that in this cartoon, violating
and flouting maxims appeared frequently. There were 13 dialogues which are
violating maxims (52%) and 12 dialogues are flouting maxims (48%). Meanwhile,
opting out and infringing maxims did not appear in this cartoon to support humor
effect. Flouting and violating maxims had an important role in creating humor in

this cartoon.
Keywords: Theory of maxims, Non-observance maxims, The Amazing World of
Gumball cartoon

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PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ABSTRAK
Gilly, Michael Yohanes B. (2015). An Analysis of Non-observance Maxims in
The Amazing World of Gumball Cartoon. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata
Dharma.
Humor adalah bagian dari kehidupan manusia. Orang memerlukan humor
untuk mengurangi stres dari aktivitas kehidupan sehari-hari. Humor bisa dalam
bentuk film dan teks, misalnya film, buku komik, komik strip, komedi di serial TV
dan kartun. Kartun merupakan salah satu film yang dapat digunakan untuk
menghibur orang. Semua orang dari segala usia dapat menonton kartun. Banyak
orang suka menonton kartun karena percakapan dan animasi dari kartun dapat
membuat efek humor. Kartun The Amazing World of Gumball merupakan salah
satu kartun yang dapat dianalisis dengan menggunakan teori pragmatis. Teori

conversational
maxims,
non-observance
maxims
dan
implicature
diimplementasikan untuk menganalisis efek humor dalam kartun ini. Teori benign
violation juga digunakan dalam penelitian ini untuk mendukung teori lain.
Ada dua pertanyaan dalam penelitian ini, yaitu: 1. Jenis-jenis nonobservance maxims apa yang didalam kartun The Amazing World of Gumball? 2.
Seberapa sering non-observance maxims terjadi untuk membuat komedi dalam
kartun The Amazing World of Gumball?
Dalam penelitian ini, metode campuran digunakan. Kartun The Amazing
World of Gumball digunakan sebagai subjek untuk melakukan penelitian. Film ini
diambil dari musim 3 dan mengambil 20 episode dengan tujuan . 20 episode itu
memiliki data yang kaya untuk dianalisis. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode
analisis dokumen dalam menganalisis data. Instrumen manusia menjadi
instrumen utama dalam pengumpulan dan menganalisis data. Laptop, GOM
Player, skrip, video digunakan sebagai instrumen sekunder untuk mengumpulkan
dan menganalisis data.
Jawaban untuk pertanyaan penelitian pertama, hanya terdapat dua jenis
non-observance maxims dalam menciptakan humor. Mereka adalah violating
maxims dan flouting maxims. Penggunaan implikatur membantu peneliti untuk
menemukan makna di balik kata-kata dan efek humor yang dibuat. Makna yang
dipahami melalui dua non-observance maxims, yaitu violating maxims dan
flouting maxims. Jawaban untuk pertanyaan penelitian kedua mengungkapkan
bahwa dalam kartun ini, violating dan flouting maxims yang paling banyak
keluar. Ada 13 dialog violating maxims (52%) dan 12 dialog mewakili flouting
maxims (48%). Sementara itu, opting out dan infringing maxims tidak muncul
dalam mendukung efek humor di kartun ini. Violating maxims dan flouting
maxims memiliki peran penting dalam menciptakan efek humor dalam kartun ini.
Kata kunci: Theory of Maxims, Non-observance Maxims, The Amazing World of
Gumball cartoon

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I want to dedicate this thesis for Jesus Christ. He always gives
me strength in finishing my thesis. Without Him, I will be nothing. He always
guide me when I have difficult time.
My special gratitude goes to Paulus Kuswandono, Ph.D. for giving me
his advice, comments, suggestions and also corrections on my thesis. He
supported me in finishing my thesis. I also thank to Maria Septiyani, S.Pd.,
M.Hum. and Drs. Barli Bram, M.Ed., Ph.D. for helping me in finishing my
thesis. I want to thank to Chosa Kastuhandani, S.Pd., M.Hum. as my Academic
Supervisor who always guided me and my friend and also to all lecturers in
Sanata Dharma University who taught me everything.
For my beloved family, Uballdus Yohanes Gilly, Yustina Sri Wahyuti,
Emmanuel Giovani Batista Gilly and Maria Immaculata Angelina Gilly, I
thank them for supporting me to finish my Sarjana Pendidikan degree. They
always give me support.
For my beloved girlfriend Denyk Aprilia Kartikawati, I thank her for her
support, care and love to me so that I can finish my thesis. Without her, I could
not have finished my thesis on time. I am really glad to have her beside me.
For my friends from campus Heni, Sri, Sasa, Riri, Leo, Gaiety, Rozalina
Monic, Joko, Cinde, and all my friends, I thank them so much for being such a
good friend for me. I will not forget the friendship with them.

Michael Yohanes Berchmans Gilly

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ............................................................................................................... i
APPROVAL PAGES .................................................................................................. ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ........................................................ iv
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ......................................................... v
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ vi
ABSTRAK ................................................................................................................... vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................... viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... ix
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... xii
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................. xiii
LIST OF APPENDICES ......................................................................................... xiv

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION
A. Research Background..................................................................................... 1
B. Research Questions ........................................................................................ 4
C. Problem Limitation ........................................................................................ 4
D. Research Objectives ....................................................................................... 5
E. Research Benefits ........................................................................................... 6
F. Definition of Terms ........................................................................................ 7

CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
A. Theoretical Description ................................................................................ 10
1. Theory of Conversational Maxims ..................................................... 11
2. Theory of Non-observance maxims .................................................... 12
a. Violating Maxims ........................................................................ 12
b. Flouting Maxims ......................................................................... 16
c. Opting out Maxims ...................................................................... 19
d. Infringing Maxims ....................................................................... 20
3. Theory of Conversational Implicature ................................................ 20
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4. Benign Violation Theory..................................................................... 21
5. Theory of Humor................................................................................. 24
B. Theoretical Framework ................................................................................ 24

CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Research Method .......................................................................................... 27
B. Research Setting ........................................................................................... 28
C. Research Data............................................................................................... 28
D. Research Instruments ................................................................................... 29
E. Data Analysis Technique ............................................................................. 30
F. Research Procedure ...................................................................................... 31

CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
A. The Types of Non-observance maxims........................................................ 36
a. Violating Maxims ............................................................................... 36
1.) Violating Maxim of Quality ....................................................... 37
2.) Violating Maxim of Relevance .................................................. 39
3.) Violating Maxim of Quantity ..................................................... 40
b. Flouting Maxims ................................................................................. 41
1.) Flouting Maxim of Quality ....................................................... 41
2.) Flouting Maxim of Quantity ..................................................... 42
3.) Flouting Maxim of Manner ...................................................... 43
4.) Flouting Maxim of Relevance .................................................. 44
c. The Use of Benign Violation Theory .................................................. 45
B. The Frequency of Non-observance maxims ................................................ 48

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions ................................................................................................ 54
B. Suggestions ................................................................................................. 55

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REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 57
APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... 59

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LIST OF TABLES

2.1 Types of Violating Maxims (Dornerus, 2005) ...................................................... 14
2.2 Types of Flouting Maxims (Levinson, 1987) ....................................................... 17
4.1 Table of Violating Maxims ................................................................................... 49
4.2 Table of Flouting Maxims..................................................................................... 50

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LIST OF FIGURES

2.1 Advertisement from department store ................................................................... 13
2.2 Benign Violation Venn (McGraw & Warner, 2014, p. 10) ....................................... 22
2.3 Love letter from a kid to his mother ..................................................................... 23
2.4 Diagram Venn Love Letter ................................................................................... 23
4.1 Diagram Venn Dialogue 1 .................................................................................... 46
4.2 Diagram Venn Dialogue 2 .................................................................................... 47

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LIST OF APPENDICES

1

Classifying Non-observance maxims and Applying
Benign violation Theory ....................................................................................... 60

2

The Script The Amazing World of Gumball season 3 episode 1 entitled
“The Fan” .............................................................................................................. 68

3

Script The Amazing World of Gumball season 3 episode 10 entitled
“The Procrastinator”.............................................................................................. 76

4

Script The Amazing World of Gumball season 3 episode 32 entitled
“The Safety” .......................................................................................................... 83

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

This chapter discusses the background of the research. There are six parts in
this chapter to be discussed. The first is research background, the second is research
questions, the third is problem limitation, the fourth is research objectives, the fifth is
research benefits and the last is definition of terms.

A. Research Background
In daily life, humor is a part of human life. McGhee (1994) says sense of
humor is one of the most powerful tools that can change daily mood and emotional
state. People need humor to reduce their stress from daily life activity. Humor can be
performed in various forms, they are in the form of moving pictures, comedy TV and
also text with pictures as in comic books and comic strips (Septiyani, 2014). Since
people like to watch movies or read books that contain humor, many TV producers
take the advantages in making comedy TV program on their channel. Cartoon is one
of the film that use humor in the conversation. Cartoon is a two dimensional
illustrated visual arts that appear on a television or comics in this era. Cartoon can be
watched by many people from young to old age nowadays. Many people love to
watch cartoons because it has simple humor with animation that makes many people
can laugh.

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2

In this study, pragmatic theories are important to analyze the study which is
related to the conversation. The researcher uses theory which is introduced by Grice
(1995). There are four maxims or conversational maxims from Grice (1995). Those
four maxims are maxim of quality, maxim of quantity, maxim of relevance and
maxim of manner. Those maxims can be implemented on the non-observance
maxims.
This study focuses on the non-observance maxims (Grice, 1995; Dornerus,
2005; Levinson, 1987; Thomas, 1995). They are violating maxims, flouting maxims,
opting out maxims and infringing maxims. These non-observance maxims help the
researcher to analyze the conversation on the cartoon. The researcher also uses theory
of humor from Attardo (1994) to analyze humor on the conversation. The researcher
uses theory of conversational implicature from Levinson (1987) to help analyzing the
meaning from what speaker said and the listener heard. Theory from McGraw and
Warren (as cited in McGraw and warner, 2014) is used to help conducting the
research to support theory from Grice in the conversation that is funny.
In this research, there are two reasons why the researcher chose The Amazing
World of Gumball cartoon as a subject to be analyzed. The first reason why the
researcher chose The Amazing World of Gumball as the subject because it provides
cases where humorous conversation can be identified using pragmatic theories.
Humor in pragmatics can be explained by using several theories from several experts,
like Grice (1995), Levinson (1987), Dornerus (2005), Attardo (1994), Thomas (1995)

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3

and McGraw and Warren (as cited in McGraw and warner, 2014). Theory of
conversational maxims and theory of non-observance maxims are the theories which
can be used to analyze humor. The Amazing World of Gumball is one of the famous
cartoon in America nowadays that provides simple jokes with good animation. This
cartoon has been aired since 2011 until now. The Amazing World of Gumball has
released 3 seasons and 112 episodes. There are five characters in The Amazing World
of Gumball cartoon. They are Richard Watterson as the father, Nicole Watterson as
the mother, Gumball Watterson as the son, Anais Watterson as the sister and Darwin
Watterson that used to be the pet and now become the Wattersons. Secondly, as a
personal reason, this cartoon is different with the other cartoon, because the
characters of the cartoon are always giving ambiguous word in their conversation.
This ambiguous word can be analyzed by using non-observance maxims.
There is a researcher who has already conducted research about humor by
using pragmatics theories. One research from Septiyani (2014) discusses the violation
of two maxims. They are violation maxim of quantity and violation maxim of
relevance in Peanut comic strips. However, this research is different from her
research. The researcher does not only use one non-observance maxim but four nonobservance maxims (Grice, 1995; Dornerus, 2005; Levinson, 1987; Thomas, 1995).
They are violating maxim, opting out maxim, flouting maxim and infringing maxims.
The researcher also uses cartoon as the subject to be analyzed.

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4

By conducting this research, the researcher believes the result of the finding
will be beneficial to the academic field, especially for English Language Education
Study Program students in the drama class or play performance class. This research
deals with pragmatics especially the use of non-observance maxims in the cartoon.
The researcher expects that from this research, students can learn the use of nonobservance maxims in creating humor both verbally and written. The researcher also
expects that from this research, lecturers can teach the students how to use nonobservance maxims both verbally and written.

B. Research Questions
There are two research questions that the researcher provides, they are:
1. What are the types of non-observance maxims in The Amazing World of
Gumball cartoon?
2. How frequent do the non-observance maxims occur to create comedy in The
Amazing World of Gumball cartoon?

C. Problem Limitation
The focus on this research is pragmatics in humor. There are studies and
theories in pragmatics that can be used to analyze humor. The researcher uses four
theories in this research. The first one is theory of conversational maxims that
consists of maxim of quality, maxim of quantity, maxim of relevance and maxim of

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5

manner. The second is the theory of non-observance maxims that includes violating
maxims, flouting maxims, opting out maxims and infringing maxims. The third is
theory of conversational implicature and the last is theory of benign violation in The
Amazing World of Gumball cartoon. This study only focuses on kind of the nonobservance maxims which can be seen in the conversation and how non-observance
maxims can make a humor effect in the conversation. The researcher uses 20
episodes of The Amazing World of Gumball cartoon which are considered to have
rich data for the purpose of the study from season 3 as the data. The researcher wants
to take the funniest films from the season 3. The Amazing World of Gumball cartoon
is different from other cartoons because the combination of the animation and choice
of words in this cartoon can make the audience laugh. That is why the researcher used
The Amazing of Gumball cartoon as an object to be analyzed.

D. Research Objectives
There are two objectives from this research. The first one is to know the types
of non-observance maxims that occur in the conversation in The Amazing World of
Gumball cartoon. The second one is to see the frequency of non-observance maxims
which can create comedy in the conversation in The Amazing World of Gumball
cartoon.

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6

E. Research Benefits
This research hopefully will be beneficial for students, lecturers and also the
future researchers. There are benefits that they can get it, they are:
1. For Students
Students will know pragmatic study in daily life conversation, especially nonobservance maxims from Grice. The use of non-observance maxims for students,
especially for English Language Education students can help them to create comedy
scripts both in drama class and play performance class. Students may know and
understand how to create humor verbally or written and also a good conversation or
an effective conversation.
2. For Lecturers
Pragmatic study especially the use of non-observance maxims, can be
implemented not only in pragmatic class but also the other classes. Drama class and
play performance class can be used by lecturers to teach non-observance maxims for
students. Lecturers can teach the students how a good conversation or an effective
conversation can be created. Lecturers can also guide them in making the script,
especially for those who want to create comedy scripts.
3. For Future Researchers
This research can be a reference for the future researchers to do research in
pragmatic world, especially related to the Grice’s theory. This research can enrich the
researchers’ knowledge in pragmatics especially related to the Grice’s theory. The

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7

researchers can do the research about humor by using different data, like other
cartoons, comic books or novels.

F. Definition of Terms
The terms that are used by the researcher to analyze humor in The Amazing
World of Gumball cartoon are conversational maxims, non-observance maxims,
cartoon itself, The Amazing World of Gumball cartoon and humor. The researcher
uses these terms because these terms are the main point to analyze humor in The
Amazing World of Gumball cartoon. The functions of these terms are used to help the
readers to understand the contents of this study.
1. Non-observance Maxims
In the non-observance maxim theory, if the conversation between the speaker
and the listener fails, it is called non-observance maxims. Grice (1995) states that
there are four non-observance maxims, they are violating maxims, flouting maxims,
opting out maxims and infringing maxims. In this study, the researcher finds the
humor from the cartoon by using non-observance maxims.
2. Conversational Maxims
According to Grice (1995), conversational maxims are the rules to guide
people in communication. There are four maxims from theory of conversation
maxims that Grice believes as a rule to guide people in communication, namely
maxim of quality, maxim of quantity, maxim of relation and maxim of manner. In a

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conversation, what people need is accurate information from the speaker so the
listener will not get wrong information. If someone gets an accurate information, they
will trust you as the speaker.
In this research, the researcher uses conversational maxims in identifying the
data. To find the humor from the conversation, conversational maxims work with
non-observance maxims to find the humor from the conversation.
3. The Amazing World of Gumball Cartoon
The Amazing World of Gumball is a British–American animated television
series from cartoon network. Ben Bocquelet is the producer of this cartoon. This
cartoon is aired on the cable TV only. This cartoon has been aired 3 seasons with 112
episodes. The length of the videos are more or less 11 minutes. This cartoon is
popular among kids and teenagers nowadays. There are five characters on this
cartoon, they are Gumball Watterson, Darwin Watterson, Anais Watterson, Richard
Watterson, and Nicole Watterson. The researcher believes that The Amazing World of
Gumball has rich data to be analyzed.
4. Humor
Humor is a part of human life. People usually use it to reduce their stress from
their daily life activity. Attardo (1994) states “humor to be an all-encompassing
category, covering any event or object that elicits laughter, amuses, or is felt to be
funny”.

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The details of those terms are found in the following chapter. The next chapter
discusses the review of related literature.

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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter reviews the theories which are used as the framework for this
study that applied pragmatics in The Amazing World of Gumball cartoon. In this
chapter, the researcher will divide this chapter into two parts. They are: theoretical
description and theoretical framework. The first part reviews the relevant theories on
theory of conversational maxims, theory of non-observance maxims, theory of
conversational implicature, theory of humor and theory of benign violation. The
second part of this chapter reviews the summary of those theories which are helpful
to analyze the problem.

A. Theoretical Description
There are five theories discussed in this research. They are theory of
conversational maxims, theory of non-observance maxims, theory of conversational
implicature, theory of humor and theory of benign violation. Theory of nonobservance maxims, conversational maxims, conversational implicature, humor
become the main point of this research to analyze humor effect from the dialogue and
also to find types of maxims that appear in The Amazing World of Gumball cartoon.
Those four theories help the researcher to answer the research. The last theory
which is theory of benign violation becomes the support theory to analyze the films.
10

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1. Theory of Conversational Maxims
Conversation is the form of interaction between two or more people to
develop social development in social life. In the conversation, it is important for
people who are having conversation to give accurate information to the listener.
Therefore, they will have a good conversation. Grice (1995) suggests that
conversation is based on the cooperative principle and he stated, “Make your
conversational contribution what is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the
accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.” (p.26).
According to Grice (1995), there are four maxims that work in this principle. They
are, maxim of quality means try to make the contribution that is true. People cannot
give false information and say if it is lack evidence. Maxim of quantity means to
make the contribution as informative as required (for the current purposes of the
exchange). The contribution should not be more informative and less informative
than is required. Maxim of relevance means be relevant, while maxim of manner
must be perspicuous. In other words, the contribution from this maxim are avoiding
obscurity of expression, avoiding ambiguity, being brief and being orderly.
Good conversation happens when the speaker follows those four maxims.
Those four maxims can help the speaker to have good conversation with others. The
information that the speaker gives must be true, be informative as required, be
relevant and be perspicuous, so the listener will get correct information from the
speaker.

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2. Theory of Non-observance Maxims
In having daily conversation with someone, the speaker does not know
whether he or she follows the rules or fail to observe the maxims. Non-observance
maxims happens when someone fails to observe the maxims (Thomas, 1995). He also
states that non-observance maxims are often used to show the humors parts from the
conversation. There are four ways that someone may fail in observing the maxims,
they are violating maxim, opting out maxim, infringing maxims and flouting maxim
(Grice, 1995; Dornerus, 2005; Levinson, 1987; Thomas, 1995).
a. Violating Maxims
According to Dornerus (2005), someone or the speaker will be responsible to
mislead the others. What Dornerus wants to say is that in violating the maxim the
speaker has plan to mislead the listener. Violating maxim is one of the example
which is not an effective communication in the conversation, because it will make
someone or the listener believes something that is not true. Dornerus (2005) says
violating maxim can be found in the conversation or it can be found in the form of
advertisement on the street. Here is the example of violating maxim in a form of
advertisement:

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With minimum
purchase Rp. 200.000
for MCC card
members

Figure 2.1 Advertisement from department store

The advertisement above shows that there is 50% discount, plus 20% discount in that
department store. However, there is a condition applied. To get the 20% discount,
people must buy something in that department with the minimum purchase of Rp
200.000 and have MCC card (member of Matahari department store). This
advertisement can mislead someone because the condition to get more 20% discount
is written with small size font. If someone does not pay attention to the advertisement
well, they will be trapped by the advertisement.
Attardo (1994) says that violating maxims can make humor effect in the
conversation. Here are the examples of violating maxim in the conversation:

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Table 2.1 Types of Violating Maxims (Dornerus, 2005)

No.
1.

Types of violating
maxims
Violating Maxim of
Quality

2.

Violating Maxim of
Quantity

3.

Violating Maxim of
Manner

4.

Violating Maxim of
Relevance

Meaning

Examples

People or the speaker will
fail to mention about the
relevant information, but
the listener will assume that
he or she gets enough
information
The speaker will say
something that the listener
knows to be false, but the
listener will believe in what
the speaker said

Mike: Kindra and I
are just friends.
Susan: And I came
here to ride the bull.

People will use repeating
information or many words
to the listener, but the
listener will assume that
there is more being
communicated than there
actually is
People will say something
which is not relevant, but
the listener will assume that
he or she gets the relevant
information

Mike: I know how
this looks but there is
nothing between us,
Kindra is just an old
friend.
Susan: Old friend?
Mike: Yeah, you
know
Bree: Did you offer to
help Danielle into
modeling school?
Gabi: What? Yes,
no, is that how she
took it?
Bree: Yes. Gabrielle,
did you or did you not
offer to sponsor her?
Gabi: I just wanted
to help out.

1. Violating Maxim of Quality:
Dialogue:
[Edie and Susan go to a cowboy bar with a mechanical bull, to try to spy on Mike and
Kindra in order to see if there is something going on between them or not. Mike sees
them and confronts Susan, he asks her if she is there to spy on him and when she
denies this, he says:]

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Mike: Kindra and I are just friends.
Susan: And I came here to ride the bull.
In this dialogue Susan is violating maxim of quality because she is trying to
tell a lie to Mike. She does not give the true answer to Mike. She tries to convince
Mike that she only rides a mechanical bull not to spy them.
2. Violating Maxim of Quantity:
Dialogue:
[Susan and Mike have recently kissed for the first time after a long time of flirting.
She walks over to his house to pick him up for their first big date when she sees
another woman there. Mike meets her on the veranda and cancels their date. He
begins to explain:]
Mike: I know how this looks but there is nothing
between us, Kindra is just an old friend.
Susan: Old friend?
Mike: Yeah, you know
From the dialogue, Mike is violating maxim of quantity because he does not
give the right amount of information to Susan and he tries to mislead Susan. He is
violating maxim of quantity by saying “Yeah, you know”. Susan thinks there is
nothing more to know from Mike. By violating this maxim, he looks like a
mysterious man.
3. Violating Maxim of Manner:
Dialogue:
[Gabi offers to help sponsoring Bree’s daughter Danielle to get into modeling school
but without the permission from Bree. Bree gets furious and goes over to Gabi to
confront her.]
Bree: Did you offer to help Danielle into modeling school?

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Gabi: What? Yes, no, is that how she took it?
In this dialogue Gabi is violating maxim of manner. Gabi is violating maxim
of manner because she gives a confusing answer to Bree. Gabi does not give a brief
answer to Bree. Gabi misleads Bree into thinking that she had nothing to do with.
4. Violating Maxim of Relevance:
Dialogue:
[Gabi has offered to sponsor Bree’s daughter’s modeling career by helping offering
her a place at a modeling school in New York. In that way she will stay away from
Gabi’s lover John. When Bree finds out she is a furious; she wants her daughter at
home.]
Bree: Yes. Gabrielle, did you or did you not offer to sponsor her?
Gabi: I just wanted to help out.
From the conversation, Gabi is violating maxim of relevance because she
gives irrelevant answer to Bree in order to save her friendship with Bree. This
conversation only makes her look helpless but actually Gabi is trying to be a good
friend for her by trying to get Danielle out of the way. Gabi is violating this maxim
by convincing Bree about her goodness.
b. Flouting Maxims
Flouting maxims are different from the violating maxims. Maxims can be
violated, which means that they are not adhered to. Violation maxims happens for
instance when someone is liable to mislead someone. In flouting maxims, Levinson
(1987) says the person doesn’t intend to mislead the person who hear it, but wants to

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see the person who hear or see another meaning from the word that the speaker talk.
There are several examples in flouting the maxims, they are:
Table 2.2 Types of Flouting Maxims (Levinson, 1987)
No
.
1.

Types of flouting
maxims
Flouting maxim of
Quality

2.

Meaning

Examples

happens when the
speaker gets the
information from the
speaker that he/she
knows to be untrue

A: Teheran’s in Turkey isn’t it,
teacher?
B: And London’s in Armenia
I suppose

Flouting Maxim of
Quantity

happens when
someone or the
speaker gives less or
more information

- War is war.
- Either John will come or he
won’t
- If he does it, he does it

3.

Flouting Maxim of
Manner

happens when the
speaker gives the
information which is
ambiguous

4.

Flouting Maxim of
Relevance

happens when
someone or the
speaker gives the
irrelevant information
to the listener

- Miss Singer produced a
series of sounds
corresponding closely to the
score of an aria from
Rigoletto
- Miss Singer sang an aria
from Rigoletto
Johnny: Hey Sally let’s play
marbles.
Mother: How is your
homework getting along
Johnny?

1. Flouting Maxim of Quality:
Dialogue:
A: Teheran’s in Turkey isn’t it, teacher?
B: And London’s in Armenia I suppose

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In this conversation, B’s utterance means that B wants A to know that A gives
the wrong answer. B uses other words to say that A’s answer is wrong. B does not
say directly to A that A’s answer is wrong.
2. Flouting Maxim of Quantity:
(1) War is war.
(2) Either John will come or he won’t.
(3) If he does it, he does it.
In case (1), it might be concluded that in the middle of war, terrible things
always happen, and that is its nature and it is not good lamenting in that situation; In
case (2) it might be concluded that the person should calm down, because there is
nothing that person do whether he is going to come or not; In case (3), it might be it is
not our concern.
3. Flouting Maxim of Manner:
(1) Miss Singer produced a series of sounds corresponding closely to the
score of an aria from Rigoletto.
(2) Miss Singer sang an aria from Rigoletto.
In the case (1) that sentence is flouting maxim manner because that sentence
breaks the sub-maxim ‘be brief’ from maxim of manner. Case (2) is the simple
answer that can be made from case (1).
4. Flouting Maxim of Relevance:
Dialogue:
Johnny: Hey Sally let’s play marbles.
Mother: How is your homework getting along Johnny?

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In this conversation, Johnny’s mother is flouting maxim of relevance. From
the example, Johnny’s mother cuts the conversation between Johnny and Sally by
telling Johnny about his homework. What Levinson wants to explain in this
conversation is that this is not the conversation between two persons directly, but
what Levinson wants to emphasize in this conversation is that the irrelevant respond
from Johnny’s mother can create flouting maxims of relevance. Actually, Johnny’s
mother can directly say to Johnny not to play with Sally, but Johnny’s mother
responds with asking his homework to Johnny.
c. Opting Out Maxims
According to Thomas (1995), the meaning of opting out the maxim is when
people do not want to corporate with others and when others need to have the
information. In this case, the speaker or someone only gives less information that
he/she already has. There are several responses in opting out the maxims. They are
opting out of quantity, for examples: my lips are sealed, I cannot say more; Opting
out of quality, for examples: I am not sure, but I think….; Opting out of manner, for
example: I do not know how to say this more simply….; Opting out of Relation, for
example: I do not know if this answers your questions….
Thomas (1995) says that “the example of opting out occurs frequently in
public life, when the speaker cannot, perhaps for legal or ethical reason, reply in the
way normally expected. The speaker usually wishes to avoid generating a false
implicature or appearing uncooperative” (p 74). It is clear that opting out the maxims

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usually happens in public life. For example, a conversation which is found in the
hospital:
[There is a man who got serious injury on his head
because of an accident on the road. His sister asked to
the doctor about his condition now.]
Jean : Doctor, how was the condition of my brother?
Doctor : I cannot say more.
In this case, the doctor does not want to tell the condition of Jean’s brother.
The doctor wants to keep the information secretly. In this conversation, opting out
maxim of quantity is used.
d. Infringing Maxims
Grice (1995) states that someone may violate one maxim in order to preserve
another. For example:
A: Where does C live?
B: Somewhere in the South of France
This conversation uses violating maxim of quantity. In this case, there is clash
between two maxims, they are maxim of quantity and quality. In this conversation, B
gives weak information and also less information. B does not know where the
specific location is and he gives less information without violating maxim of quality.
3. Theory of Conversational Implicature
According to Levinson (1987), implicature is a component of speaker
meaning that constitutes an aspect of what is meant in a speaker’s utterance without
being part of what is said. There are two types of implicature. They are conventional

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implicature

and

conversational

implicature.

Levinson

(1987)

states

that

conversational implicature is related to the certain general features of discourse.
Implicature, cooperative principle and the four maxims are related each other. The
function of cooperative principle and the four maxims are to make good and effective
conversations, for example:
A: Do you see my pudding in the refrigerator? I put my pudding yesterday..
B: Wow today is so hot..
From the example above, B is flouting maxim of relation, because B gives irrelevant
answer to A. B uses another word because B does not want to answer directly to A.
Actually, B wants to avoid A’s question by giving irrelevant information. It implies
that B does not want to answer and avoid A’s question by giving an irrelevant answer
to the A.
4. Benign Violation Theory
Benign violation theory actually came from N+V theory that was developed
by Veatch (as cited in McGraw and Warner, 2014). He states that “the idea that
humor occurs when someone perceives a situation is a violation of a ‘subjective
moral principle’ (V) while simultaneously realizing that the situation is normal (N)”
(as cited in McGraw & Warner, 2014, p.8). Because there is no one who paid much
attention to his theory, then McGraw with Warren developed Veatch’s theory became
benign violation theory. There are three things in this theory that can create humor:
(1) The situation is benign, (2) The situation is a violation (3) Both situation happen

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simultaneously (as cited in McGraw & Warner, 2014). Situation is benign when it