The Occurrence of Humour Due To The Non-Observance of Gricean Maxims in 'Everybody Loves Raymond' TV Series.

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Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, acapkali penutur diperhadapkan kepada

suatu situasi tutur yang di dalamnya ia gagal menerapkan bidal yang merupakan

hasil pemikiran dari H.P. Grice. Kegagalan menerapkan suatu bidal dalam

bertutur dapat menciptakan suatu atmosfer tertentu. Berkaitan dengan hal tersebut,

dalam tugas akhir ini, saya hendak mengkaji penerapan bidal tertentu yang

memiliki peranan penting dalam menciptakan suatu atmosfer tertentu dalam

situasi tutur, khususnya humor. Saya melakukan penelitian tentang penerapan

bidal dalam berkomunikasi dengan cara menganalisis komedi situasi Amerika

berjudul Everybody Loves Raymond.

Saya mengumpulkan teori mengenai bidal pemikiran H.P. Grice dari

berbagai sumber, yakni internet, dan berbagai buku dari perpustakaan. Saya juga

mengaplikasikan teori yang berkaitan dengan Pragmatik dan juga teori spesifik

mengenai bidal, yang disebut dengan Non-Observance Of Gricean Maxim. Bidal

mempunyai empat tipe yakni bidal kualitas, bidal kuantitas, bidal relevansi, dan

bidal perilaku. Kesemua bidal tersebut akan saya analisa dengan menggunakan

serial komedi Amerika berjudul Everybody Loves Raymond. Selain itu sayajuga

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Maranatha Christian University Everybody Loves Raymond dan penyebab hal tersebut terjadi. Salah satu temuan

penting yang saya peroleh dari menganalisis bidal dalam Everybody Loves

Raymond adalah bahwa humor acapkali muncul dikarenakan pelanggaran

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Maranatha Christian University

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Communication is one of the important things in our life. As it is a process

that allows people to exchange information by several methods, in this case

language. Communication by two or more people is called conversation.

(http://www.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia.html).

Communication is the process sending a message. “Communication is the production and exchange of information and meaning by use of signs and

symbols” (http://www.highbeam.com). “It involves encoding and sending messages, receiving and decoding them, and synthesizing information and

meaning” (http://www.highbeam.com). “Communication also refers to the transmission of information (a message) between a source and a receiver, using a

signalling system” (McArthut, 238). “In linguistic studies, the system involved is a language and the idea of response to feedback, a message holds a central place” (McArthur, 238). Communication is said to have taken place if the information

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2 Maranatha Christian University Our communication in our utterance sometimes may indicate a meaning

different from the meaning we want to deliver. Thus, our utterance may lead to

the occurence of misunderstanding. Usually, the situation, mood and context of

the conversation make us produce an utterance that contains more or less

information or does not straight to the point, is irrelevant, ambiguous and

sometimes has an obscure expression.

In our conversation, sometimes the utterance that we produce has different

or additional meanings. Thus, we have to have more awareness of interpreting

people’s intention within their utterances. This failure to observe a maxim is the topic that I would like to discuss for my thesis. I hope to be able to understand

other people’s intention in their utterances. If we do not understand one’s utterances properly, we may miss getting what the speaker actually wants to say.

In this thesis, I would like to observe the utterances of the characters in a

TV series. There are different genres of TV series, such as mystery, comedy,

action and romance. For my thesis, I am going to use a situational comedy series

as my data source. The reason why I use a film entitled Everybody Loves

Raymond as my data source is because the characters in the film often fail to

observe a maxim that creates funny atmosphere around them. Each characters in

this film has a unique personality, one of them whom very humorous person and

who is fond of making jokes from every condition that he has. The other character

likes replacing some words to become more polite but funny at the same time.

Also, there is a character who is a little bit slow in thinking; because of those

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3 Maranatha Christian University analyzed. Besides that, I choose Everybody Loves Raymond TV series because it

is one of the comedy series that is quite popular and funny. Besides, this film is

quite representative and appropriate for my source of data because the characters

in this film often fail to use maxim several times, which ends up in humours. I

choose to watch TV series to make my research become easier to be conducted as

it consists of serial series. Thus, the significance of my study is to analyse that the

non-observance of Gricean maxims may result in humours, the proof of which is

seen in Everybody Loves Raymond as one of the examples in our daily lifes. In

our daily life we often find that we do not observe maxim, as a result of which

humors occurs

Since the topic of my thesis is The Occurrence of Humours due to the

Non-Observance of the Gricean maxims in Everybody Loves Raymond TV series,

I will limit my research and analysis only about the non-observance of the

Gricean maxim, although Everybody Loves Raymond is analysable through other

Pragmatic linguistic fields, such as speech acts and politeness strategies.

My topic falls under the study of Pragmatics. “Pragmatics is concerned

with the study of meaning as communicated by a speaker (or writer) and

interpreted by a listener (or reader)” (Yule 3). Specifically, I would like to focus on Gricean maxims as one of the subfields of pragmatics. According to H.P. Grice

there are five categories of non-observance of the conversational maxim which

people usually fail to observe. They are flouting a maxim, violating a maxim,

opting out of a maxim, suspending a maxim and infringing a maxim (Thomas,

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4 Maranatha Christian University Word Count : 717 word

1.2 Statement of the Problem

In this thesis I would like to discuss the following problems:

1. What types of non-observance Gricean maxim found in Everybody Loves

Raymond?.

2. How does non-observance of the Gricean maxim result in humour?.

1.3 Purpose of the Study:

1. To know what types of non-observance Gricean maxim found in

Everybody Loves Raymond.

2. To know how non-observance of the Gricean maxim results.

1.4 Methods of Research

In analyzing my topic, I watch Everybody Loves Raymond TV series and

then I select the data, in which non-observance of the Gricean maxim fail to

observe. Afterwards, I search for the theory from the Internet and read some

books concerned with flouting of the maxim. I also read some references related

to my topic. Finally, I analyze the flouting of the maxim in Everybody Loves

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5 Maranatha Christian University 1.5 Organization of the Thesis

This thesis consists of four chapters. The first chapter is the Introduction,

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

Purpose of the Study, Methods of Research and Organization of the Thesis.

Chapter two contains the Theoretical Framework as a basis used to analyze the

data. The discussion of Non Gricean of maxims in Everybody Loves Raymond TV

series is presented in chapter three. Subsequently, it is followed by chapter four

which is the Conclusion. Eventually, the thesis ends with the Bibliography and the

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33 Universitas Kristen Maranatha

CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I would like to present my conclusion based on my findings.

Having analyzed the data, I notice that there are a number of factors which can create

humors in comedy situation Everybody Loves Raymond TV series, especially maxim,

because there are lots of communications which involve conversation that contains

maxim. Maxims make communication become more understandable and more

attractive to be observed.

In my data analysis, I focus on the failure to observe non-observance of

Gricean maxim in conversation. There are a lot of things that can result in the failure

to observe observance of Gricean maxim. What makes a failure to observe

non-observance of Gricean maxim is that: at first, the speaker wishes to prompt the hearer

to look for a meaning which is different from or in addition to the expressed meaning.

Secondly, the speaker wants to mislead and divert the hearer into the other thought.

Thirdly, the speaker has an imperfect command of language and the speaker’s

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34 Universitas Kristen Maranatha With the hearer. Fifth, the speaker replaces the taboo word with the more polite word.

Moreover, the failure to observe non-observance of Gricean maxim can lead to the

occurrence of humor.

From the data I have analyzed, I find out that there are two types of the failure

to observe the non-observance of Gricean maxim that are often found in Everybody

Loves Raymond TV series and that create a funny atmosphere. They are flouting a

maxim and suspending a maxim. I have collected sixteen data for my thesis. From the

sixteen data, I find ten data that contain flouting a maxim, five data that contain

suspending a maxim, three data that contain violating a maxim, two data that contain

infringing a maxim, and I could not find a data that contain opting out of a maxim.

I think the purpose of using flouting of the maxim in Everybody Loves

Raymond TV series is to avoid somebody’s anger via the speaker’s utterances. While

the purpose of suspending a maxim in this Everybody Loves Raymond TV series is

quite unique, because suspending a maxim in Everybody Loves Raymond has a

contradictory function. What I mean by being contradictory is that suspending a

maxim in Everybody Loves Raymond TV series is used to make taboo words become

more polite and appropriate to be said. It is also used to make the words less

offensive; on the other hand, sometimes this suspending a maxim is also used to

satirize other people, to make other people offended. This contradictory function of

suspending a maxim on Everybody Loves Raymond TV series make suspending a

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35 Universitas Kristen Maranatha On the whole, humors that occur due to the flout of the maxim of quality in

Everybody Loves Raymond TV series is when the speaker feels under pressured by

the hearer’s question. When the speaker offends the hearer by making a joke about

the hearer or the speaker wants to avoid the hearer is existence, or in other words

when the speaker does not want to spend their time with the hearer. For example: Ray

lies to Robert when he does not want to spend his weekend with Robert, as we can

see in data 16.

On the whole, humors that occurs due to the flout of maxim of quantity in

Everybody Loves Raymond TV series is when the speaker shows his or her

dislikeness to the hearer indirectly or when the speaker feels under pressured by the

hearer’s question or when the speaker wants to have more time for themselves to

think about something or when the speaker tries to describe and make the hearer feel

what the speaker feels. For example: Ray gives further information to Debra when he

tries to have more time for himself to think about something, which in this case is

thinking about Debra’s age, as we can see it in data 1.

On the whole, humors that occurs because of the flouting of maxim of relation

in Everybody Loves Raymond TV series is when the speaker has a wrong perception

with what the hearer says and when the speaker does not get what the hearer intents

to say. For example: When Ray does not get what Leo, Ray’s friend says and it

causes Ray to have a wrong perception about Nemo that Leo has said, we can see in

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36 Universitas Kristen Maranatha On the whole, humors that occurs because of the flouting of maxim of manner

in Everybody Loves Raymond TV series is when the speaker wants to change the

subject of the conversation without hurting the hearer’s feeling or when the speaker

wants to refuse what the hearer asks smoothly, when the speaker wants to tease and

tempts the hearer or when the speaker feels under pressured by the hearer’s question,

when the speaker is too excited to tell something to the hearer or when the speaker

wants to tell something which is private and a little bit taboo to be uttered with the

hearer. For example: when Ray does not want to help Debra clean the dishes, as we

can see in data 5.

In my analysis about non-observance of Gricean maxim in Everybody Loves

Raymond TV series, I can not find an opting out of a maxim that creates funny

atmosphere. I find the opting out of a maxim in Everybody Loves Raymond. Yet, it

does not create or help build a funny atmosphere that leads to the occurrence of

humor. There is no one unwilling to cooperate intentionally and make the

unwillingness to result in the funny situation

Violating maxim rarely happens in Everybody Loves Raymond TV series. It is

because the characters in this Everybody Loves Raymond TV series more often fails

to observe Non-Observance Of Gricean Maxim by chance without having any

intention to mislead the other people. Besides, it does not end in humours. When the

characters lied in the scene, the characters may flout and violating. It depends on the

the effect to the hearer. If the speaker lies to the hearer but the hearer is not mislead it

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37 Universitas Kristen Maranatha For further researcher, I hope to be able to use what I write as a references

and to be compared with their research. For everyone who has the same topic as me, I

suggest their choosing a serial film that has a lot of seasons to be their data source,

because the more season the film has, the more data we can get. There are many other

film genre to be analyzed, aside from a comedy film such as: horror, tragedy, action,

romance and etcetera. The researcher can also analyze the atmosphere that occurs

when the characters in the film fail to observe non-observance of Gricean maxim.

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38Maranatha Christian University

BIBLIOGRAPHY

References

Thomas, Jenny. Meaning In Interaction : An Introduction To Pragmatics. New York:

Longman, 1995.

Yule, George. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996

McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Companion To The English Language. New York:

Oxford University Press, 1992.

Internet websites

http://www.highbeam.com//, 20 September 2009

http://www.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia.html), 25 September2009

Source of Data