The Role of Maxims and Script Incongruity in Revealing Humour in College Jokes.

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ABSTRACT

Dalam tugas akhir ini, saya membahas humor yang terdapat dalam

lelucon. Data yang terkumpul diambil dari situs jokes.skem9.co.uk. Dalam situs tersebut terdapat beragam kategori lelucon, seperti lelucon dalam rumah tangga,

pekerjaan, dan lain-lain, baik dalam bentuk percakapan maupun teka-teki. Topik khusus yang saya ambil sebagai data dalam penulisan tugas akhir ini adalah humor yang terdapat dalam lelucon percakapan di kalangan pelajar, khususnya

mahasiswa.

Dalam meneliti humor yang terdapat dalam lelucon di kalangan

mahasiswa ini, saya menggunakan pendekatan pragmatik, dalam hal ini adalah teori maxim atau bidal yang diperkenalkan oleh H. P. Grice. Selain itu, saya juga menggunakan teori script incongruity yang diperkenalkan oleh Victor Raskin

untuk meneliti bagaimana humor terjadi sehingga mengakibatkan pembaca terhibur.

Setelah meneliti data yang terkumpul, saya berkesimpulan bahwa penulis

paling banyak menggunakan flouting a maxim. Hal ini terjadi karena flouting a maxim dapat dikatakan lebih mudah dimengerti daripada yang lain, yang

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

In daily life, people as social beings communicate in order to express their

feelings, give their opinions or ideas, or just to have fun. One way of communicating is by having a conversation. Through a conversation, people may

give their opinions or ideas to others and they may also get some information that they need to know from others. However, in many cases, many people often ask questions or say things that might be misinterpreted by others.

Pragmatics is the study of speaker meaning, and one important thing to study in pragmatics is conversational implicature. In a conversation, people do not

always directly say what they mean. Sometimes they might imply their feelings, opinions or ideas instead of saying them bluntly. By doing so, they actually fail to observe the maxim.

Maxim is a kind of ‘rule’ in an utterance. Conversational implicature in

pragmatics studies how capable a person is to catch the implicature correctly from

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recognize what a speaker implies in the utterance in order to make the hearer understand.

Furthermore, conversational implicature is also used in creating humour.

We might get many examples in daily life because there is a chance that a misunderstanding or misinterpretation happens in a conversation. Moreover, the misunderstanding or misinterpretation that occurs in this conversation could be

funny in certain circumstances. In a conversation, the hearer might not always understand what the speaker actually implies within the utterances. Still, when the

hearer thinks that he or she understands it clearly, and replies it with an answer that actually is not in relation with the topic, it may turn out to be funny. As a result, humour occurs as the hearer replies to the speaker’s utterances in an

unrelated way. From this situation, we might say that humour occurs when the hearer fails to get what the speaker actually implies. In other words, humour may

be created from the misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the conversational implicature.

The topic of this thesis is The Role of Maxims and Script Incongruity in

Revealing Humour in Jokes.com. The reason why I choose this topic for my thesis

is because I am one of many people in the world who are very interested in

humour. One of the ways humour can be found is in jokes that are considered funny.

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conversations. It is interesting to be able to know how jokes in the form of conversations are interpreted.

In addition, jokes are universal and they are easily found in a

misinterpretation of a conversation from anywhere. Therefore, in this thesis I would like to analyze the conversational implicature in the jokes, the types of non-observance of the maxims in relation with Raskin’s theory of incongruity and the

use of their role in revealing humour in the jokes.

The significance of the study is in explaining how a conversational

implicature is created in a joke and how the implicature becomes the source of the joke itself. This study could open our mind in trying to understand the meaning of conversational implicature in creating humour. This topic that I am studying

makes me hope that from what we are about to study in this thesis, the readers are helped to be able to interpret humour within the jokes which are intended to

entertain and to be interpreted and appreciated by the people from around the world.

This topic belongs to the area of linguistics called pragmatics, as it

concerns with implicature in a conversation. The theories that are going to be used in my analysis are Grice’s theory of maxims and Raskin’s theory of script

incongruity. These theories are needed to elaborate the explanation of the humour within the joke explicitly. The importance of these theories is to reveal the

humour within the joke itself, to make the people consider and believe that the joke is funny.

The source of the data which is going to be used in the analysis is

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besides, the actual data that is provided in this site is daily updated. There are at least thirty data which could be gathered and analyzed from the source.

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Statement of the Problem

In this study, the problems that are going to be analyzed are:

1. Which type of non-observance of the maxim occurs in the joke? 2. What is the implicature?

3. How do Grice’s theory of maxims and Raskin’s theory of script incongruity

reveal the humour in the joke?

Purpose of the Study

Based on the statement of the problem above, I would like to:

1. Classify the type of the non-observance of the maxims that occurs in the joke.

2. Find out the implicature.

3. Explain how Grice’s theory of maxim and Raskin’s theory of script

incongruity reveal humour.

Method of Research

The first thing I do in completing this thesis is by gathering the data from the source, which is jokes.skem9.co.uk, then specify the data which are going to

be analyzed. The next thing to do is to determine the theories that are going to be used in the analysis. After the data and the theories are gathered, I begin the data

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Organization of the Thesis

This thesis is organized into four chapters. Chapter One is Introduction, which contains Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of

the Study, Method of Research and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two is Theoretical Framework, which consists of the theories that are used in the analysis. Chapter Three is Data Analysis, which is about the analysis of the

provided data. Chapter Four is Conclusion, which includes my comments, opinions and suggestions for further researches. The last part is Bibliography.

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CHAPTER FOUR

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I am going to draw a conclusion based on my analysis on the conversational college jokes. The college jokes that I analyze are taken from

jokes.skem9.co.uk. The conclusion of my analysis is from the jokes that are related

to Grice’s theory of maxim, especially non-observance of the maxim together with Raskin’s theory about script incongruity. In addition, I would also like to

make some comments regarding my analysis and suggestions for further analysis

using other theories besides the theories that I apply.

I have learned many things in finishing this thesis. I come to understand the importance of maxim and implicature in a conversation, the non-observance of maxims. Besides, I also gain understanding of Raskin’s theory of script

incongruity, and how the non-observance of maxims supports the script

incongruity in revealing humour.

The main reason for applying Grice’s theory of non-observance of the maxim and Raskin’s theory of incongruity in analyzing the conversational jokes is

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of non-observance of maxims or Raskin’s theory of script incongruity are

connected with conversations.

In my analysis, most of the non-observance of the maxims that commonly

occur in the jokes is flouting the maxim of relation. There are six cases of flouting the maxim of relation that I found in my data. The second non-observance of the maxim that commonly occurs in the jokes is flouting the maxim of manner and

quantity. There are four cases of both flouting the maxim of manner and quantity that I found in my data.

The third non-observance of the maxim that occurs in the jokes is flouting the maxim of quality. There is only one case of flouting the maxim of quality that I found in my data. In the jokes that I take as my data, the type of the

non-observance of the maxim is only flouting the maxims. The other non-non-observance of the maxims, such as violating a maxim, infringing a maxim, opting out of a

maxim, and suspending a maxim do not occur in the jokes. It is because they need to create special conditions in the joke and they need some cultural knowledge.

From my analysis, flouting the maxim of relation is the non-observance of

the maxim that is most commonly found in my data. It is because flouting the maxim of relation can instantly create another script. Thus, that other script easily

becomes a surprise, which is an important element in jokes.

The second non-observance of the maxim that mostly occurs is flouting

the maxim of manner and quantity. It is because the ambiguity in jokes can create a surprise; besides, the element of surprise can be found when a person flouts the maxim of quantity. And the third non-observance of the maxim that occurs in the

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because one needs to understand the fact or the evidence when one is flouting the maxim of quality.

There are some types of the non-observance of the maxims that do not

occur in my data. The first one is violating a maxim. The reason why it is not found is because one has to create situation or fact to make the reader understand when the person in the joke is trying to mislead someone. The second one is

infringing a maxim. The jokes may easily become funny if it is in an audio or audiovisual form of oral conversation. However, because the jokes are in a form

of written conversation, one needs to be more careful in describing the culture or certain conditions such as excitement, nervousness, etc.

The third one is opting out of a maxim. It is because one needs the

background knowledge and creates the appropriate situation; or else, the jokes may turn out to be offensive. The last of the non-observance of the maxims that

does not occur in my data is suspending a maxim. It is because one has to have certain knowledge about some circumstances, events, or cultures to understand. That is why it is more difficult to create a joke that is appropriate to the readers in

general, considering the different cultures and understandings they may have. Besides Grice’s theory about maxims, especially non-observance of the

maxims, the other theory that I apply in analyzing my data is Raskin’s theory of script incongruity. It is applied to support my analysis on jokes. Raskin’s theory

of script incongruity itself gives a deeper understanding about the conversational jokes. It explains why the jokes become funny.

By applying Grice’s theory of non-observance of the maxim, it will help

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to distinguish the scripts in the jokes. Furthermore, using the scripts, one can give a clearer explanation on why the jokes become funny by applying Raskin’s theory

of script incongruity. The keywords will also help in determining the scripts. One has to be careful in understanding the jokes, determining the non-observance of the maxims, and distinguishing the scripts so that all of the elements are

connected.

Finally, there are many other theories that can be applied in analyzing

jokes, and it is not limited to one or two theories to use. In this thesis, I apply Grice’s theory about non-observance of the maxims; in addition, I apply Raskin’s

theory of script incongruity in revealing humour in the jokes. One can use one or

other theories besides the theories that I use. For example, one can apply the incongruity resolution theory to analyze the jokes. Furhermore, one can apply

semantics, phonology, or morphology theories and support them using the incongruity resolution theory in analyzing the jokes.

There are so much more variations of jokes all around the world besides college jokes. There are also many types of jokes besides conversational jokes. One just has to find the most appropriate theories to analyze them. My data can be

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Texts

Skem9. Funny Jokes. Web. 7 March 2016.

Printed and Online References

Cook, Guy. Language Play, Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Print.

“Sarcasm.” The Oxford English Dictionary. 7th ed. 2010. Print