English Language and Literature Pragmatic Analysis of Ironic
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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Mária Savkaničová Pragmatic Analysis of Ironic Humour in Black Books Bachelor‟s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Mgr., Jan Chovanec, Ph. D. 2013 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author‟s signature I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor, Mgr. Jan Chovanec, Ph.D for his guidance and professional support during the time of research and writing of this thesis. Secondly, I would also like to thank all who encouraged and helped me in any respect during that time. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 6 2. Definition of Humour ................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Linguistic Theories of Humour ............................................................................. 11 2.1.1 Incongruity-Resolution Theories .................................................................... 11 2.2.1 The Hostility Theories .................................................................................... 12 2.3.1 Release/Relief Theories .................................................................................. 12 2.3.2 The Semantic Script Theory ........................................................................... 13 2.3.3 The General Theory of Verbal Humour ......................................................... 14 2.3.4 Conversational Humour .................................................................................. 15 2.2 Discourse of Humour ............................................................................................ 16 3. Irony ............................................................................................................................ 17 3.1 Types of Irony ....................................................................................................... 17 3.2 Pragmatics of Irony ............................................................................................... 18 3.2.1 Cooperative Principle and Implication Theory .............................................. 20 4. Television Comedy ..................................................................................................... 23 4.1 Genre of Sitcom .................................................................................................... 24 4.1.1 Black Books .................................................................................................... 27 5. Non-observance of the Cooperative Principle and Ironic Humour in the “Black Books” ............................................................................................................................ 28 5.1 Non-observance of the Maxim of Quality ............................................................ 28 5.1.1 „Do not say what you believe to be false‟ ....................................................... 29 5.1.2 „Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence‟ ................................ 32 5.2 Non-observance of the Maxim of Quantity .......................................................... 34 5.2.1 „Do not make your contribution more informative than is required‟ ............. 34 5.3 Non-observance of the Maxim of Relation ........................................................... 35 5.3.1 „Be relevant‟ ................................................................................................... 35 5.4 Non-observance of the Maxim of Manner ............................................................ 36 5.4.1 „Avoid ambiguity‟ ........................................................................................... 36 5.5 Discussion ............................................................................................................. 39 6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 41 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 44 Anotace ........................................................................................................................... 46 Abstract ........................................................................................................................... 47 1. Introduction Humour has been for centuries a subject for an extensive scholarly research in various fields of study including psychology, sociology and linguistics. It is an important part of human interaction in which it serves as a multi-functional tool. The roles and functions of the phenomenon of humour are discussed by several theories of humour all of which put emphasis on a different aspect of its multimodality. The core of the thesis is a study of verbal humour considered from a pragmatic perspective of Cooperative Principle and Implication Theory formulated by Paul Grice in 1975. Special attention is given to the study of oppositional irony which arises from the notion of the implication theory itself. This opposition in which something else is implied while something different is said will be discussed through individual maxims of conversation in the examples taken from the situation comedy Black Books. The end of discussion shows the connection between creation of humour in sitcoms and breaking of certain conversational rules. The content of the thesis is embedded in six chapters. The first chapter provides an introduction into the topics which it will discuss and justifies the purpose of the study. Next chapter is devoted to definition of humour through different linguistic theories and depiction of humour as a certain kind of potential to be funny or to induce amusement indicated by laughter. Chapter three provides an insight into pragmatics of irony and its different types. It aims to establish a background for a further study of cooperative principle. The fourth chapter deals with television comedy and a genre of sitcom and introduces the sitcom Black Books which is to be analysed respectively in chapter five. This chapter focuses on application of non-observance of cooperative 6 principle in the excerpts from the series to explain how humour is conveyed. The last chapter concludes the findings of the study. 7 2. Definition of Humour This chapter is going to clarify the problems with definition of humour and discuss different approaches to this phenomenon. Further, it will mention the most important roles the humour has and will consider a social aspect of humour as one of its biggest significances. At the beginning of discussion about humour the definition of the term itself is crucial. Many scholars have been trying to define humour for centuries, but no single definition has been given. The fact that there are many theories of humour suggests that it functions among no precise frontiers. Research has been made in several different fields such as linguistics, psychology or sociology with an attempt to define certain boundaries of its functions. Different points of view on this issue from different fields of study, however, caused ambiguity and defining humour has thus become a problematic question. Mixing of terms like humour, comic and funniness also brings inconsistency into the research: “...the lack of rigorous, or at least reliable, definition of humour...is represented by the fact that denominations of processes...are often used as if they were synonyms...This denotes that the semantic field to which they belong does not have precise boundaries” (Attardo 1994, p. 4). Attardo thus suggests that it is impossible to give a definition of humour that will be completely unambiguous (p. 3). In spite of the difficulties, it can be said that humour is a certain quality or potential of somebody or something to be funny and amusing. Humour has a frequent occurrence in society and is considered to be a very important part of human interaction (Ross 1998, Introduction). Verbal humour, which is the core of the discussion for this thesis, can be found in written as well as spoken forms 8 such as puns, jokes or teasing. The varieties of these forms became popular in television broadcasting which is today an inseparable part of everyday entertainment. It is also a powerful tool to present one‟s opinions and attitudes and thus create bonds between certain groups of people and make them distinguishable from the others: “Humour is influential – from political satire to joking as a way of establishing friendships and excluding others” (Ross 1998). Humour itself has several roles which are difficult to tell apart and in fact function together to achieve wanted effect: communication cognitive development indication of laughter, pleasure or entertainment (Clarke 2008, p. 68) reduction of stress and anxiety promotion of self-image (Günther 2003, p. 17-18) Concerning the social aspect of humour, probably the most frequently recognized role of humour is to induce laughter. It can be used in lightening of some situations, in showing a gesture of sympathy or to arouse good mood by causing amusement. In connection to this, Ross in his view defines humour as “something that makes a person laugh or smile” (p. 1). To build up on this rather simplistic definition, Palmer provides a more sophisticated interpretation when he says