University of Pardubice Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Non-observance of Conversational Maxims as a Source of Humour in the Sitcom The Big Bang Theory Markéta Dančová Master Thesis 2019 Prohlašuji: Tuto práci jsem vypracovala samostatně. Veškeré literární prameny a informace, které jsem v práci využila, jsou uvedeny v seznamu použité literatury. Byla jsem seznámena s tím, že se na moji práci vztahují práva a povinnosti vyplývající ze zákona č. 121/200 Sb., autorský zákon, zejména se skutečností, že Univerzita Pardubice má právo na uzavření licenční smlouvy o užití této práce jako školního díla podle § 60 odst. 1 autorského zákona, a s tím, že pokud dojde k užití této práce mnou nebo bude poskytnuta licence o užití jinému subjektu, je Univerzita Pardubice oprávněna ode mne požadovat přiměřený příspěvek na úhradu nákladů, které na vytvoření díla vynaložila, a to podle okolností až do jejich skutečné výše. Souhlasím s prezenčním zpřístupněním své práce v Univerzitní knihovně. V Pardubicích dne 31. 3. 2019 Markéta Dančová Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor PhDr. Petra Huschová, Ph.D. for her time and valuable advice during the consultation hours. I would also like to thank my friends / classmates for keeping me sane and motivated during the studies, namely Martin, Ála, and Míša. And I cannot forget to thank my other friends, especially my roommates and my colleagues from the cinema – this paper would have been finished earlier if it was not for you. Annotation The aim of this paper is to analyze the Maxim non-observance in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, more specifically, how and when Maxim non-observance is used for creating humorous conversations. The theoretical part focuses on the work of H. P. Grice, the terms implicature, the Cooperative Principle, and Maxims of conversation are introduced. In the following chapters, humor is defined and linked to the non-observance of Maxims of conversation. The practical part focuses on analysis of selected conversations from the sitcom and tries to find the rules for using Maxim non-observance for creating humor. Key words Maxims of conversation, implicature, pragmatics, humor, sarcasm, sitcom Název Porušování konverzačních maxim za účelem humoru v sitcomu Teorie velkého třesku Anotace Cílem této práce je zanalyzovat výskyt porušování konverzačních maxim v sitkomu Teorie velkého třesku, přesněji, jak a kdy se porušování maxim používá pro vznik humorných konverzací. Teoretická část se zaměřuje na práci H. P. Grice, vysvětlují se zde termíny implikatura, kooperační princip, a maximy konverzace. V další části je definován humor a spojen s porušováním maxim. Praktická část se analyzuje vybrané konverzace se sitkomu a snaží se najít, jaká jsou pravidla pro porušování maxim v tomto sitkomu na účelem vzniku humoru. Klíčová slova Konverzační maximy, implikatura, pragmatika, humor, sarkasmus, sitkom Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 10 1. Implicature, the Cooperative Principle and Maxims of Conversation ................................. 11 1.1. Implicature ........................................................................................................................ 11 1.2. The Cooperative Principle and the Maxims of Conversation ........................................... 14 1.2.1. Non-observance of Maxims ........................................................................................... 17 1.2.2. Exploitation of Maxims .................................................................................................. 19 1.2.3. Criticism and Further Development of the CP, the Maxims of Conversation, and the Conversational Implicature ...................................................................................................... 21 2. Humor and Sitcom ............................................................................................................... 24 2.1. Jokes as Maxim Non-observance ...................................................................................... 25 2.1.1. Irony ............................................................................................................................... 28 2.2. The Big Bang Theory ........................................................................................................ 32 3. Analysis ................................................................................................................................ 34 3.1. Quality ............................................................................................................................... 35 3.2. Quantity ............................................................................................................................. 42 3.3. Relation ............................................................................................................................. 45 3.4. Manner .............................................................................................................................. 48 3.5. Combination ...................................................................................................................... 53 4. Results of the Analysis ......................................................................................................... 58 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 69 Resumé ..................................................................................................................................... 71 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 75 Appendix .................................................................................................................................. 77 List of Pictures, Graphs, and Tables Picture 1 - An example of a script: The Lexical Script for 'Doctor' by Raskin ........................ 27 Graph 1 - Maxim Non-observance in The Big Bang Theory According to the Broken Maxim .................................................................................................................................................. 60 Graph 2 - Maxim Non-observance in The Big Bang Theory (According to the Type of Non- observance) ............................................................................................................................... 67 Table 1 - The Quantitative Results of the Analysis - Maxim Non-observance in The Big Bang Theory ...................................................................................................................................... 59 Table 2 - The Quantitative Results of the Analysis – Quality Maxim Non-observance .......... 60 Table 3 - The Quantitative Results of the Analysis – Quantity Maxim Non-observance ........ 62 Table 4 - The Quantitative Results of the Analysis – Relation Maxim Non-observance ........ 64 Table 5 - The Quantitative Results of the Analysis – Manner Maxim Non-observance ......... 65 List of Abbreviations CP: Cooperative Principle Qlty: Quality Maxim Qnty: Quantity Maxim Rel: Relation Maxim Man: Manner Maxim Fl: Flouting Vi: Violation Op: Opting out In: Infringing App: Appendix Introduction The focus of this master thesis is the use of non-observance of Maxims as a source of humor in the TV sitcom The Big Bang Theory. The aim is to find whether there are any prevailing tendencies in how the non-observances occur, and to analyze how exactly the Maxims are broken. The Big Bang Theory series is a very popular sitcom, and a proof is that it was translated into many languages, including Czech, and has many viewers all around the world. The fans are usually able to quote humorous utterances from the series, yet it is unknown why the utterances are perceived as humorous. This led to a desire to explore humorous utterances from the series from the linguistic point of view. The paper is divided into two parts, theoretical and analytical. The theoretical part introduces H. P. Grice’s theory, namely it focuses on implicature, the Cooperative Principle and the Maxims of conversation, and further development and alternations of his theory. The first of the main chapters deals with Grice’s theory of implicature, as it is crucial for understanding humorous situation containing features such as sarcasm. The second part deals with the Cooperative Principle and the Maxims of conversation, and it also introduces alternations made by other linguists. The last chapter of the theory deals with Maxim non-observance. In this chapter, the categories of non-observance are introduced and exemplified, as for understanding the analytical part, the non-observance types and differences between them have to be understood correctly. The analytical part begins with the description of the methodology and the corpus. For the analytical part a corpus consisting of 250 conversations was created; the corpus may be found in the Appendix of this paper, as it is used throughout the analytical part for referencing. In the next chapter, selected conversations from the corpus are analyzed in detail to show general tendencies and differences between the use of various types of non-observances. The last part of the analytical part discusses the results of the analysis, in other words, general tendencies, who and how uses given types of Maxim non-observance to create