Analysis of Non-Observance of The Gricean Maxims in Jokes of Funny Junk Website That Lead To The Occurrence of Humor.

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ii Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Di dalam skripsi ini, saya mengkaji humor yang muncul akibat adanya

pelanggaran bidal. Menurut Grice, pelanggaran bidal dapat dikategorikan secara

lebih 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 menyebabkan adanya ketidakcocokan skrip atau script

incongruitydalam sebuah humor.

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APPENDICES

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44 Data 2

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44 Data 4

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46 Data 6

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47 Data 8

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48 Data 10

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49 Data 12

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40 Data 14

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1

CHAPTER OPE

IPTRODUCTIOP

Background of the Study

As human beings, we are different from the other creatures. We can express

our feelings and thoughts besides interacting with one another by using language.

According toOxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the definition of “language”

is the use by humans of a system of sounds and words to communicate

(“language”, def. 2). It can be said that language is a tool for humans to

communicate with one another in this world. This tool plays an important role in

our lives, and it is difficult for people to interact properly without using language.

Although we can use body language to communicate, it is still not enough for us

to express what we want to say. Communication is really crucial to all people.

Without communication, people could not interact with one another

appropriately. In reality, we could communicate through many ways such as

giving a sign using our gesture or conversation. In a conversation, people can

transmit what they want to say to another. However, people tend to produce some

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Therefore, the hearers have to catch an implicature that lies within the words.

Implicature means implying or giving hints, suggest or convey some meaning

indirectly by means of language (Thomas 58). For instance, when the speaker

wants to say something, but he or she does not want to say it directly because of

certain reasons, an utterance with an implied meaning may occur. The speaker

produces an implicature with the hope that the hearer will understand the implied

meaning. In this case, it shows a problem of maxim which falls under the category

of pragmatics pioneered by Grice.

Pragmatics itself is an analysis of what people mean from their utterance

rather than from what the words or phrases meant by themselves which are

concerned with the study of the speaker’s meaning (Yule 3). This study is very

important because in daily conversations, we deal with utterances and we should

know the speaker’s meaning.

In general, people hardly directly say what they want to say. By doing

this, they fail to observe the Gricean maxims. When the speaker says something

which might not be understood by the hearer, the hearer might also reply with an

answer which is not relevant or related to the context. This misinterpretation often

leads to the occurrence of humor.

The topic of this thesis is an analysis of non-observance of maxims in

funny junk sitethat leads to the occurrence of joke. It is known that humor is very

common and it also plays an important role to entertain people. It is one of the

reasons why I choose this topic. Besides, I take an interest in jokes, especially

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maxim which triggers the occurrence of humor will be analyzed. Pragmatic

knowledge is needed here to help us to understand humor.

As the readers, it is necessary for us to have a particular knowledge to

interpret jokes. With this knowledge, we are expected to understand more about

the process of jokes being created and their part in conversation that triggers jokes.

The knowledge that we get from this analysis will help us to appreciate humor.

The theories that will be used are the theory of conversational implicature

from Pragmatics, and the theory of script incongruity to emphasize the

explanation of humor. I choose these theories because they can help us to analyze

jokes.

Furthermore, the significance of this thesis is that people will be more

aware of the fact that jokes might occur due to the occurrence of different scripts

which may root from non-observance of maxim.

The sources of the data are jokes inFunny Junk Website. I decide to take

the data from the website, because I know that website is one of the most popular

media nowadays. Most people prefer reading jokes through website because of

practical reasons. And this site provides a lot of data that can be analyzed. Besides,

we can find many categories of jokes from which people can choose the jokes

they want. Most of the jokes in this site are in the form of conversation, so it

would be easy for me to analyze them through pragmatics and script incongruity.

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4 Statement of the Probcem

1. What type of non-observance of the maxims is used in the jokes?

2. Which maxim is unobserved in the jokes?

3. How can Raskin’s theory of script incongruity help us to analyze the

occurrence of humor in the jokes?

Purpose of the Study

1. To know the types of non-observance that found in jokes

2. To find out which maxim is unobserved in the jokes

3. To explain how Raskin’s theory of script incongruity can help the

occurrence of the humor in the jokes.

Method of Research

In the process of analyzing the topic, I gathered sources of data by searching

the most suitable site that provides jokes possible to be analyzed. Moreover, I

managed to find out what kind of theories that could be used to analyze these

jokes. After selecting the theories, I decided that the theory of maxim, which is

from Pragmatics area, and the theory of script incongruity are the most suitable

theories to analyze the data. Furthermore, I started to analyze both data by using

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5 Organization of the Thesis

This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter One is the Introduction, which

consists of Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the

Study, Method of Research and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two is the

Theoretical Framework, in which the theories that will be applied to analyze are

explained. Chapter Three is the analysis of the data, while Chapter Four is

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

This chapter sill conclude all the results found in Chapter Three, shich

provides my analysis about the non-observance of the Gricean maxims in the

jokes offunny junk websitethat lead to the occurrence of humor. All the results of

Chapter Three sill be discussed and explained. It also becomes a conclusion of

this thesis.

First of all, there are six jokes that flout the maxim of manner, five jokes

flout the maxim of relation, and three jokes violate the maxim. Those three types

of non-observance of maxim are those that commonly appear in the data that I

have analyzed in my thesis. On the other hand, there are three jokes that flout the

maxim of quantity, and one joke flouts the maxim of quality. Some of the data

also have more than one maxim flouted in it.

Based on my analysis in Chapter Three, the non-observance of maxim that

mostly appears is flouting the maxim of manner. I conclude that shen people

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to jump into a different context instead of the real one. Moreover, shen the true

meaning is knosn, people sill find this non- observance as a surprising ansser

that also leads the humor to happen. For example, in data 3, the old man flouts a

maxim of manner by giving a statement shich has tso possible meanings. The

short reply ignites a different interpretation shich is best applied to make the

readers laugh. In this case, the ambiguous and unclear statement also leads script

incongruity to happen, shich also becomes the reason for the readers to find the

tsist that leads to the occurrence of humor.

Flouting a maxim of manner is the non-observance that mostly appears,

shile flouting a maxim of relation is the second one. Through my analysis, I

find that an unrelated ansser sill lead the hearer to find it funny and

automatically laugh soon after hearing it. It can also be seen that the irrelevance of

the ansser is an easy say to induce laughter. Besides, the irrelevance of the

ansser sometimes is superficial in the sense that it does not seem to be relevant,

but somehos it is still related shen se analyze more deeply in terms of its

implicature.

Flouting a maxim of quantity and quality are tso types of

non-observance that rarely appear in the data. Flouting a maxim of quantity and

quality do not give a big impact compared to the other types of non-observance

that can make the readers laugh. Compared sith the other types of flouting, these

tso types do not shos the tsist of script incongruity. For example, the ambiguity

and unrelated ansser support the occurrence of different scripts recognizably

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Another type of non-observance that also appears in my analysis is

violating a maxim.People sill find this type of non-observance funny because it

is like deceiving people. The speaker does not tell the shole story and keep the

main points that automatically mislead the hearer. I also conclude that violating a

maxim is a type of non-observance shich criticizes people physically or mentally.

People tend to choose to mislead someone rather than giving a statement that

seems hurtful, and their say to mislead people induces laughter effectively.

Moreover, in data 8, violating a maxim also shoss us the kid’s smartness that has

tricked us and led to the occurrence of humor.

There are some types of non-observance of maxim that do not appear in

my data, such as infringing a maxim, suspending a maxim, and opting out a

maxim. In my opinion, these types of non-observance are rarely found because

they lack the possibility to lead humor to happen. For example, opting out of a

maxim and suspending a maxim are usually used in serious situations. Opting out

of a maxim usually happens for legal or ethical reasons, shile suspending a

maxim is commonly used in a serious situation. Because of that, these types of

non-observance rarely appear as the trigger of humor in jokes.

Each type of non-observance that is analyzed in this thesis has its osn

effectiveness. For example, se already knos that all jokes analyzed in this thesis

are in the form of conversation. Flouting a maxim of manner is effective in jokes

that have insulting statements sithin the conversation, shile flouting a maxim of

relation is effective in jokes that have a purpose to tell the reality in the

conversation. Another type of non-observance such as violating a maxim is

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conversation. Moreover, flouting a maxim of quantity is effective in jokes that

have an indirect statement sithin the conversation, shile flouting a maxim of

quality is effective in jokes that have a satirizing statement sithin the

conversation. From the analysis, se can conclude hos each non-observance of

maxim has its osn effectiveness.

The non-observance of maxim helps to achieve the change of script in a

conversation. It may easily cause a misunderstanding betseen the speaker and the

hearer, creating another script on top of the current one already follosed. This

nes script is beyond the expectation in conversation, and it makes a joke funny.

Through the analysis, se can conclude that the non-observance of

maxim that mostly appears in funny junk websiteis flouting a maxim. Although

in the jokes se can also find other types of non-observance of maxim, such as

violating a maxim, flouting a maxim is still the type that mostly appears. All types

of flouting a maxim can be found in the data. Because of that, se can conclude

that flouting a maxim is the type of non-observance of maxim that mostly leads to

the occurrence of humor.

As the sriter of this thesis, I hope my analysis could help other students in

sriting their thesis. I also suggest that other sriters use other linguistic

approaches to analyze the occurrence of humor. I believe that there are so many

linguistic approaches that can be used to analyze jokes. I hope this thesis could be

developed into a beneficial research later and also help many people to understand

humor found in jokes.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary text

Funnyjunksite.4.p. n.d. Web. 15 February 2013.

Printed and Online References

Cook, Guy.Language Play, Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press,

2000. Print.

Thomas, Jenny.Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to pragmatics. London

and 4ew York: Longman Group Limited, 1995. Print.

Yule, George. “Definition and background.”Pragmatics. Ed. H.G. Widdowson.