UNIVERZITET U NOVOM SADU FILOZOFSKI FAKULTET Studijski program master akademskih studija: Engleski jezik i književnost ZAVRŠNI RAD Efekti narušavanja Grajsovih konverzacionih maksima u odabranim dijalozima u seriji "House M.D." The effects of flouting Gricean conversational maxims in selected episodes of the series "House M.D." Studentkinja: Mentorka: Vera Đakonović prof. dr Sabina Halupka Rešetar Novi Sad, 2020. UNIVERZITET U NOVOM SADU FILOZOFSKI FAKULTET Studjski program master akademskih studija: Engleski jezik i književnost Vera Đakonović ZAVRŠNI RAD Efekti narušavanja Grajsovih konverzacionih maksima u odabranim dijalozima u seriji "House M.D." The effects of flouting Gricean conversational maxims in selected episodes of the series "House M.D." Ovaj završni rad ne sadrži oblike nezakonitog prisvajanja ili zloupotrebe radova drugih autora. This thesis does not contain any form of illegal appropriation or abuse of other authors’ work. Ovaj završni rad ne sme biti predmet nezakonitog prisvajanja ili zloupotrebe od strane drugih autora. This thesis must not be an object of illegal appropriation or abuse of other authors. Potpis studentkinje 2 Efekti narušavanja Grajsovih konverzacionih maksima u odabranim dijalozima u seriji "House M.D." Apstrakt Ovaj rad se bavi analizom narušavanja četiri konverzacijske maksime u odabranim dijalozima popularne američke televizijske serije ,,House M.D.” kao i efektima do kojih dolazi kao njihov rezultat. Temelj ovog rada predstavlja Grajsov (1975) Princip kooperativnosti, kao najuticajnije shvatanje pravila kojima se sagovornici rukovode u cilju postizanja uspešne komunikacije. Grajs ta pravila naziva konverzacionim maksimama i one su sledeće: maksima informativnosti, maksima istinitosti, maksima relevantnosti i maksima jasnosti. Cilj ovog istraživanja je da se odrede i analiziraju tipovi maksima koji se javljaju u odabranim epizodama serije ,,House M.D.", kao i da se utvrde načini narušavanja maksima, te da se objasni veza između narušavanja maksima i pragmatičkih efekata koji nastaju kao njihov rezultat. Rad je zasnovan na korpusu transkripta odabranih dijaloga iz poslednje, osme sezone američke televizijske serije ,,House M.D.”, koja je emitovana u periodu od 2011. do 2012. godine. Kao metod analize primenjena je kvalitativna analiza, pomoću koje su opisani primeri koji najbolje prikazuju narušavanje Grajsovih maksima u dijalozima, uz koje su dati i kratki opisi situacije kako bi bio jasan kontekst u kojima se komunikacija odvija. Očekuje se da će u korpusu biti najbrojniji dijalozi u kojima dolazi do narušavanja maksime jasnosti i relevantnosti. Takođe, pretpostavlja se da će većina likova iz serije narušavati maksime, kao i da će se svi likovi, a ponajviše glavni lik, koristiti sarkazmom, ironijom i dvosmislenošću u cilju postizanja komunikativnog efekta. Ključne reči: princip kooperativnosti, konverzaciona maksima, narušavanje maksima, verbalni humor, sarkazam 3 The effects of flouting Gricean conversational maxims in selected episodes of the series "House M.D." Abstract This paper deals with the analysis of flouting the four conversational maxims in selected episodes of the popular American TV series “House M.D.” as well as the effects that result from this flouting. The paper draws on the Cooperative Principle, introduced by H.P. Grice (1975), which is the most influential work for understanding of the rules which interlocutors must adhere to in order to make their communication successful. Grice names those principles ‘conversational maxims’ and they are as follows: maxim of quantity, maxim of quality, maxim of relation and maxim of manner. The aim of this research is to determine and analyze the types of maxims flouted in selected episodes of the TV series “House M.D”, as well as to determine the ways in which this is done. Furthermore, the aim is to explain the relationship between flouting the maxims and the effects that occur as a result. The paper is based on a corpus of transcripts of selected dialogues taken from the final eighth season of the American TV series “House M.D.” which was aired in the period of 2011 to 2012. The research method applied is that of qualitative analysis, which helped describe the instances of flouting the Gricean maxims in the dialogues, along with short descriptions of the situations, which contributed in making the context of the communication clear. The corpus is expected to contain examples of flouting all of the four maxims, with floutings of the maxims of manner and relation being most numerous. Also, it is expected that the maxims will be flouted by most characters in the series and it is anticipated that most of them, especially the title character, will use irony, sarcasm and ambiguity in order to achieve a communicative effect. Key words: the Cooperative Principle, conversational maxim, flouting a maxim, verbal humor, sarcasm 4 Contents 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 7 1.1. The subject and aims of the research .................................................................................. 7 1.2. Significance of the paper ..................................................................................................... 8 1.3. Structure of the paper .......................................................................................................... 8 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ....................................................................................... 10 2.1. Defining pragmatics .......................................................................................................... 10 2.2. Speech Act Theory ............................................................................................................ 11 2.3. Politeness Theory .............................................................................................................. 14 2.4. The Cooperative Principle ................................................................................................. 16 2.5. Non-observance of the maxims ......................................................................................... 18 2.6. The linguistic and non-linguistic context .......................................................................... 21 2.7. Conversational implicatures .............................................................................................. 23 2.8. Understanding the notions of sarcasm, irony and deception ............................................. 25 2.9. Verbal humor and some means of its achievement ........................................................... 28 3. CORPUS ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................... 31 3.1. Methodology of research ................................................................................................... 31 3.2. A short synopsis of the TV series with the main characters included ............................... 31 3.3. Analysis of the results ....................................................................................................... 32 3.3.1. Maxim of quantity .......................................................................................................... 32 3.3.2. Maxim of quality ............................................................................................................ 35 5 3.3.3. Maxim of relation ........................................................................................................... 39 3.3.4. Maxim of manner ........................................................................................................... 41 3.4. Multiple flouting of the maxims ........................................................................................ 43 3.5. Discussion of the results .................................................................................................... 47 4. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 50 References ................................................................................................................................ 51 Appendix .................................................................................................................................. 53 SOURCES ................................................................................................................................ 78 6 1. Introduction 1.1. The subject and aims of the research The subject of this research is the effects of flouting the Gricean Cooperative Principle in the American medical drama “House M.D.” and the main aim of the present research is to determine, classify and describe the ways of this flouting, for which purpose the qualitative research method is used. Using the instances of this type of non-observance, this paper is also supposed to explain the relationships between the flouting of the maxims and the effects which are left on a hearer and on a viewer, which are created as a result. This paper is based on several hypotheses. The first one is that the most the most typical type of non-adherence to the maxims will be flouting because it is done intentionally in order to provoke a reaction on the part of a hearer but also because flouting the four conversational maxims generates the implicatures that the hearers are expected to recognize. It is expected that most numerous examples will be the ones