The Occurrence of Humor Due to the Non-Observance of the Gricean Maxims in 2 Broke Girls Season 2.

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ABSTRACT

Dalam skripsi ini, saya menganalisis pelanggaran teori bidal atau maksim yang diperkenalkan oleh Grice (1995). Hasil analisis menggunakan teori bidal ini akan membantu menjelaskan aturan apa yang menjadi pemicu adanya unsur-unsur humor di dalam salah satu serial televisi Amerika Serikat yang berjudul 2 Broke Girls seri ke 2.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

In our daily life, sometimes people do not say what they mean directly to the hearer because of some reasons. And sometimes for some reasons they say more or less than what they actually mean and sometimes they even say something that is totally irrelevant with the context of their conversation.

When this situation occurs, the hearer has to find the implied meaning behind the speaker’s utterance. The hearer has to observe the situation and condition and after that the hearer has to realize the real message behind the utterance. If the hearer fails to understand the message behind the speaker’s utterance, the hearer may misunderstand the message sent by the speaker. This situation can lead to a different situation depending on the condition the hearer is in. This may lead to conflict, misunderstanding or humor.

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Annie Vilenia 15 March 2016/ 08.00 utterance can make the situation change its direction with or without the speakers’ intention to mislead, to deceive, to express annoyance or to make fun of someone. This can lead to humor, even though there are some occasions where the hearers fail to catch the humor simply because they cannot understand it.

The theories I choose to analyze my data belong to one of the branches of Linguistics called Pragmatics. Pragmatics is the study of meaning, both in use and in context. Specifically, I will use the theories of Pragmatics called the cooperative principles and the conversational maxims introduced by H.P. Grice.

Grice’s theories are about the implied meaning or implicature within the speaker’s utterance when he/she does not observe the maxims. I think this theory is suitable to analyze the verbal humor in drama series 2 Broke Girls Season 2.

To avoid the hearer’s misunderstanding of the speaker’s implicature, Grice

in his theory suggests a cooperative principle in which the speaker has to “make their contribution such as is required at the stage which it occurs, by accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which [they] are engaged” (Thomas, 1995, p. 62).

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Annie Vilenia 15 March 2016/ 08.00 1995, p. 64). The theory of maxims used in this thesis to analyze the utterances will be discussed further in the next chapter of this thesis.

Drama series 2 Broke Girls is a story about Max and Caroline, two best friends and also business partners who work together with some other employees at a diner. The situation in this drama series can be found in our daily life. Also, the jokes made by the characters in this drama series are not only funny but also easy to understand. This makes this drama series entertaining and worth watching. There are a few reasons for me to choose this drama series as my data source. The first reason is the jokes produced by the characters in this drama series may contain an implicature, as they often fail to observe maxims. The other

reason is the characters’s failure to observe a maxim can lead to different types of results, such as annoyance, conflict, puzzlement, and also misunderstanding that can lead to humor.

The analysis of the non-observance of the Gricean Maxims that leads to humor in drama series 2 Broke Girls Season 2 is quite significant. This study is conducted to make the reader aware of the fact that in society people tend to unconsciously generate an implicature in their utterances which can lead to different results that can affect their daily life. Hopefully, my thesis can become a good reference for people interested in the similar topic.

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Statement of the Problem

Based on the topic that I choose, these are the problems to analyze:

1. What types of non-observance of the Gricean maxims are found in the utterances of the characters in the drama series 2 Broke Girls?

2. What is the implicature of each utterance?

3. How does each type of the non-observance of the maxims in the utterances lead to humor?

Propose of the Study

In this thesis, I am going to find:

1. the types of non-observance of the Gricean maxims found in the utterances of the characters in the drama series 2 Broke Girls.

2. the implicature of each utterance.

3. how each type of the non-observance of the maxims in the utterances leads to humor.

Method of Research

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Organization of the Thesis

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I would like to conclude the result of this study. The findings show several types of the non-observance of the Gricean maxims in the utterances of 2 Broke Girls’ characters, the reasons why their failures lead to humor, and the analysis of the humor.

From all of the data that I have analyzed it is apparent that flouting the maxim has been the only type of non-observance of maxim that creates humorous and hilarious scenes in this TV series. In fact, it is found in the analysis that flouting the maxim while the other four types of non-observance of the Gricean maxims: violating the maxim, infringing a maxim, opting out of a maxim, and suspending a maxim are not found in the data.

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Based on the data I have gathered, the most frequent type of non-observance of the Gricean maxims in the TV series 2 Broke Girls is flouting the maxim of manner, with the total of seven occurrences. There are some reasons why the characters in 2 Broke Girls hide their intentions by using confusing longer sentences. First, of the total seven data, five of them show that the characters flout the maxim of manner to imply their disapproval to the other party’s ideas. Second, out of seven

data there are two in which flouting the maxim of manner is used to explain a certain situation or a description about work ethic. The last reason is to add another meaning in their statement regarding the topic in hand.

From the result of the analysis, it can be concluded that flouting the maxim of manner in TV series 2 Broke Girls is effective to support the characters’ intention to secretly add more meaning to their sentences. This also shows that flouting the maxim of manner in this TV series is very effective to create humor because the implied meaning is not found in the sentences that the hearer and the audience hear; nevertheless, both the hearer and the audience are able to understand it.

The second most frequently used type of non-observance of the Gricean maxims is flouting the maxim of quantity. There are also a few reasons why a character in this TV series is considered to flout the maxim of quantity. In two out of four data, the characters in this TV series are adding more information to make the other party understand that people cannot always expect something to happen the way they want in life. The other two data show that the speaker’s intention when

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There are only two data of flouting the maxim of quality that are found in the analysis. They are uttered by Max, one of the main characters in the TV series 2 Broke Girls. In the story, Max is lying to her best friend to imply that she strongly

disagrees with her best friend’s idea to buy something they cannot afford. In this

case, she believes that her best friend will understand the implied meaning in her utterance. Flouting the maxim of quality in this TV series is very efficient as both parties know each other so well that the implied meaning is easily understood.

Evidently, there is only one datum regarding the failure to observe the maxim of relation in this drama series. A character in TV series 2 Broke Girls flouts the maxim of relation to ridicule the lack knowledge of the other character about something that is very common. It is apparent that flouting the maxim of relation is not very effective to rise humor. That is why flouting the maxim of relation is not frequently used.

After analyzing all of the data in drama TV series 2 Broke Girls season 2 it is seen that all the total of fourteen data only involve flouting the maxim, whereas the other four types of non-observance of the Gricean maxims do not occur.

As mentioned before, the humor in the TV series 2 Broke Girls is about daily lives and well-known jokes or rumors around the time it is aired. Nevertheless, the audience might not understand some humors that happen in this TV series if they do not know the terms used in the TV series. For example, one of the scenes is taking place in a soup’s kitchen. Soup’s kitchen is a place where free food is provided for the poor. If the audience is not familiar with the term soup’s kitchen,

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To end my conclusion, I want to say that TV series 2 Broke Girls season 2 is not only amusing but also informative. The audience is not only presented with an amusing story that can make laughter but after watching this TV series, people will also be more informed about how hard it is to work in a big town and to open a business as well as to run it at the same time.

I hope that this thesis can be useful for everyone who wants to conduct a study with the same topic, especially students who take Linguistics as their major. Also, for students who wants to conduct the same topic, I suggest them to make a background check of the jokes. This is needed to know the situation of the jokes better, how is the jokes produces by the characters and the real situation related. Furthermore, I hope that this thesis can help the reader to be more aware about the use of non-observance of a maxim in daily life and to understand more about the non-observance of a maxim, including its practice in the society.

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THE OCCURENCE OF HUMOR DUE TO

THE NON-OBSERVANCE OF THE GRICEAN

MAXIMS IN 2 BROKE GIRLS SEASON 2

a thesis

submitted to the English Department of the Faculty of Letters

in partial fulfilment of the requirements

for the “Sarjana” degree

ANNIE VILENIA 1141016

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LETTERS

MARANATHA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY BANDUNG

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Source:

Nader, M. (Producer), & Scardino, D. (Director). (2012). 2 Broke Girls [Motion Picture]. Retrieved January 15, 2016, from

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1845307/?ref_=ttco_co_tt

Reference:

Brown Gillian, G. Y. (1983). Discourse analysis. London: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved October 18, 2016

Etheridge, M., & Lopes, L. (1995). Waterfalls [Recorded by TLC]. On waterfalls [Youtube]. D. Austin. Retrieved 9 12, 2016, from www.allmusic.com Suls, J. (1983). Cognitive processes in humor appreciation. In McGhee, P. E.,

&Goldstein, J. H. (Eds.), Handbook of humor research (pp. 39-57). New York: Springer-Verlag.

Thomas, J. (1995). Meaning in interaction: An introduction to Pragmatics. London and New York: Longman.

Types of communication. (2009, March 8). Retrieved October 18, 2016, from