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

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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.

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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

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am curious about how to understand English jokes and know what the speaker in

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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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