pragmatic analysis of humor in the mandmx comic
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PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF HUMOR IN THE MANDMX COMIC STRIP
Intan Kartika Sari (NIM 0808517)
English Education Department, Indonesia University of Education
Misskartijo@gmail.com
Abstract - Such strategies are done by cartoonist to create humor effect on their comic.One way to create humor effect on the comic according to Attardo (1994) is by creating condition where the character on the comic break the Grice's maxim of cooperative principle while communicating with other character. When any of the four maxims is violated or flouted, misunderstanding or implicature, and thus humor might be generated. This study attempts to prove Attardo’s theory in the Mandmx comic strip.
Keywords: the breaking of maxim of cooperative principle, comic strip, humor effect.
I. INTRODUCTION
A comic strip is series of adjacent drawn images, usually arranged horizontally ,
that are design to be read as a narrative or chronological sequence (Brittanica). One example
of comic strip is Mandmx comic. Mandmx comic is bilingual English-Chinese comic strip
which is made by Magnus, an American Cartoonist from Western Massachusetts USA and
Mingxing a local Shanghainese. Both of them made comics contain unique stories about the
life of the expatriat living in China, their life experience and every interesting fact about
China. Both of them catch the reality and made it into comic strip.
Comic has several functions. According to Osho (2008) as cited by Afeez (2011) one
of the Comic functions is to entertaining the reader. To entertain the reader the cartoonist
usually try to make some humor on their comic and in creating humor effect the cartoonist,
the writer of comic, usually used certain strategy in entertaining the reader. One of the
strategies that is used is the breaking the maxim of cooperative principle. It is said by the
Attardo (1994) that when any of the four maxims is violated or flouted, misunderstanding or
implicature, and thus humor might be generated. On the previous research by Shuqin Hu
(2012) which is analyzing humor in the Big Bang Theory, it is found that breaking
cooperative principle strategy is proved to be very efficiently in creating humor effect.
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This mini research is therefore, borne out of a desire to study the workings of
pragmatics in Mandmx comic strip to discover how humor effect is generated by breaking the
maxim of cooperative principle.
II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Cooperative Principle
The cooperative principle is a principle of conversation that was proposed by Grice (1975).
Grice points out that communication is a cooperative behavior. The basic assumption is that
any discourse, whether written or spoken, is a joint effort. Both the speaker and the addressee
have to follow certain rules in order to communicate effectively (do not provide more or less
information than is required, speak the truth, be relevant, and be clear).This assumption is
called Cooperative Principle
The Conversational Maxims
Grice proposed four maxims, they are; maxim of Quantity, maxim of Quality, maxim of
Relation and maxim of Manner. These maxims are expressed to speakers as a rule how they
should contribute to a conversation.
a. Maxim of Quantity
The rule of this maxim is to give the right amount of information. It demands a
speaker to give information as informative as required, not too much or even too little.
According to Grice (1975), this maxim is followed by two maxims (as cited from
Grundy, 2008):
1.Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purpose of the
exchange);
2.Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.
b. Maxim of Quality
The maxim requires true contribution. It deals with the quality of information that a
speaker gives to his addressee. It is followed by two maxims (Grice: 1975):
1.Do not say what you believe to be false;
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2.Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence (as cited from Grundy,
1995:96)
c. Maxim of Relevance
This maxim is followed by only one maxim, namely ‘be relevant’. This maxim
requires the speaker to be relevant to the context and situation in which the utterance
occurs.
d. Maxim of Manner
This maxim is a matter of being clear and orderly when conversing. The speaker
describes things in order in which they occurred and avoids ambiguity and obscurity.
It falls into more detailed maxims (Grice: 1975)
1.Avoid obscurity of expression;
2.Avoid ambiguity;
3.Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity);
4.Be orderly
Non-observance Maxims
Non-observance the maxims means that the maxims are not applied properly. This
occurrence depends on speaker’s condition; they are perhaps incapable of speaking clearly, or
because they intentionally choose to lie on order to achieve their communication purposes.
There are some indications to describe the failure to observe the maxim.Regarding the non-
observance of the maxims, Jenny Thomas identifies five ways to observe a maxim based on
Grice theory (1995),
Flouting a maxim
This non-observance occurs when a speaker fails to observe a maxim by generating an
implicature of the utterances. In other words, a speaker who flouts a maxim expects the
hearer to notice. This failure can be seen noticeably in the following example,
A: I hear you went to the cinema last night, what movie did you see?
B: Well, I watched a number of people line up for a ticket foe watching a magical witchcraft
of Harry Potter.
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In the exchange, B provides more information than is required. Whereas B can simply
answer A’s question by saying “I saw Harry Potter”, this example indicates that B flouts
Maxim by uttering the information unclearly.
Violating a maxim
“This failure is perceived as the unostentatious non-observance of a maxim” (Thomas 1995:
72). It means that when a speaker gives a tendency to violate a maxim, the hearer will be
liable to mislead. The following example is given to identify the maxims violation:
Jane and Robert is a couple for years. Jane has a best friend named John who is suspected
having an affair with her. In fact, Robert does not realize that Jane has felt in love with
another man, Tom.
Robert : Please, tell me the truth..did you ever falling in love with John?
Jane : No…of course not. I’m not having affair with John.
Jane’s statement that says she is not having an affair with John is true, but not the whole
truth. By saying this utterance, she covers the fact that she is having an affair with another
man called Tom. This unostentatious violation of the maxim Quantity generates the
intentionally misleading implicature that Jane is not having an affair with anyone.
Infringing a maxim
This type of non-observance occurs when a speaker has an imperfect command of the
language, for example the speaker is a child or a foreign learner. The failure to observe a
maxim happens because the speaker is impaired in some ways such as nerveousness, physical
impairment, excitement or even cognitive impairment. Because of these reasons, speakers do
not have intention to generate or deceive an implicature. The illustration given indicates that
the speaker has infringed a maxim.
In a speech contest, one of the contestants says some irrelevant statement to the topic of
speech. She should explain about an educational program, but she in fact tells the significant
role of a woman. However, she acts like this because she is nervous.
Ladies and Gentlemen…mmmm, this program…eh, I think women have mmmm…some
important role. Because…well anyway…
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The contestant says these utterances nervously, so that she gives an irrelevant answer. Since
the student fails to observe Maxim of Relation, she has infringed a maxim.
Opting out of a maxim
The speaker is considered to opt out a maxim if he or she does not only indicate an
unwillingness to cooperate in the way the maxim requires, but also wish to avoid generating a
false implicature or uncooperative conversation. The following example gives an illustration
when a speaker opts out of observing a maxim.
A: So, how’s the search for the new principal and vice president going? Do you have a short
list yet?
B: I can’t tell you anything about it; the proceedings of the committee are confidential.
In the example above, B opts out the Maxim of Quantity in order to preserve
confidentiality. B explicitly utters that she cannot give the requested information, as a result,
the maxim cannot be satisfied.
Suspending a maxim
Suspending a maxim happens because of several factors. Culture-specific or particular events
in a culture are the aspects that cause a speaker fails to observe a maxim (Thomas 1995).
Thomas gives an example of this case as follows:
The speaker is the daughter of a murdered man. She is talking to Officer Jim Chee of the
Navajo Tribal Police,
“Last time you were with that FBI man-asking about the one who got killed,” she said,
respecting the Navajo taboo of not speaking the name of the dead. “You find out who killed
that man?” (1995:76)
The underlined utterance shows that the speaker fails to observe the maxim of
Quantity by generating the implicature. In Navajo culture, mentioning the name of a dead
man is taboo, so she is forbidden to mention the name. (Thomas, 1995).
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III. RESEARCH METHOD
This mini research used eight Mandmx comic strips to be analyzed. Comic strips
are chosen purposively, only comic strips which have conversation in it that are chosen. The
nine comic strips chosen tells story around the character, a ‘Panda’ journalist (PJ) who
interviewing people about current issue such as search engine used, drinking coffee habit and
president election. The eight comic strips analyzed are: 2008-10-21 ‘Google or Baidu or
Yahoo’, 2008-10-23 ‘Google Baidu or AOL’, 2008-10-24 ‘Google or JUST GOOGLE’,
2008-10-25 ‘Google Baby’, 2010-08-02 ‘Chinese and Coffee 1’, 2010-08-04 ‘Chinese and
Coffee 2’, 2010-08-06 ‘Chinese and Coffee 3’, 2012-11-05 ‘Panda News Network Interviews
American Voters at the 2012 Election’
The data will be analysed using pragmatic approach. The element to be analyzed is
non-observance maxim that is done by the character in creating humor effect on the comic
strips.
IV. FINDINGS
1. Google or Baidu or Yahoo
PJ : Hitting the streets in the U.S asking about search engine
Google or Baidu?
YG : Yahoo.
PJ : No no Baidu
YG : No. you're mistaken. It's yahoo. Google or Yahoo
Note : Panda Journalist ( PJ)
Baidu Chinese Search Engine
On the conversation above between PJ and a Young Girl (YG), the young girl flout
maxim of quality of conversation. YG should choose between Google or Baidu, but she
blatantly said that she prefer use Yahoo, the search engine which is not included in the
option.
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2. Google Baidu or AOL
PJ : Checking out what Americans think about search engines
Google or Baidu?
YB : What's that? I don't know that stuff.. I still use AOL
On this conversation A Young Boy flout maxim of manner and quantity. Instead of
answering PJ’s question, he asked the PJ back about what Google and Baidu is. And his
explanation about he is still using AOL violated maxim of quantity because PJ didn’t ask
him about that.
3. Google or JUST GOOGLE
PJ : Talking to the locals here in the US of a asking about search engines
Google or Baidu?
A Man : Google or? There's no Google or..just Google
On this conversation a man flouts maxim of manner and quality. He didn’t answer PJ’s
question properly. He instead ask the PJ back about what he seemed has been understand,
the word ‘or’ that PJ’s uttered shown that PJ is giving him an option. Impossible for him
to does not understand what is the word ‘or’ mean.
4. Google Baby
PJ : We're asking americans what they think of search engines..
google or Baidu?
YB : Which one is American?
PJ : Google is from America, Baidu is from China.
YB : Then Google baby.
From the conversation above we can see that A Young Boy (YB) violated maxim of
manner. Instead of answering PJ’s Question, he chose to answer the PJ’s question with
another question which is the answer that is not wanted by PJ.
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5. Chinese and Coffee I
PJ : We're at Shangai Expo asking Chinese people about coffee!?
Do chinese people drink coffee?
A Man : No.
PJ : But you are drinking coffee now!
A Man : This is a cappucino
From the conversation above, the man answered ‘no’ to PJ ask him whether Chinese
people drink coffee or not. It violated maxim of quality, he should answer the PL’s
question with ‘yes’ because he (Chinese) actually was drinking cappuccino, and
cappuccino is one kind of coffee.
6. Chinese and Coffee II
PJ : We're talking today to Chinese about coffee!
Do you like to drink coffee?
A Man : Coffee is very expensive. That's why i only drink Mr. Brown coffee! It's
good! It's refreshing! Its in a can!
PJ : Ah ya! he's a coffee salesman!
A man in the conversation above had shown us the flouting of maxim of relation. A man
did not answer PJ’s question properly. Instead of answering PJ’s question, he prefers to
talk about other matter, namely promote coffee that he sells.
7. Chinese and Coffee III
PJ : We're talking to Chinese about coffee!
What coffee do you like?
YG : There are too many choices. there's starbucks. Fake starbucks. there's coffee
bean. Coffee in a can, Coffee gum, coffee in a box
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From the conversation above, a Young Girl (YG) violated the maxim of relation. Just
like the case of Chinese and coffee II, the interviewee, YG, gave irrelevant answer to
PJ. A Young Girl doesn’t mention what coffee that she like, she instead tell the PJ many
kind of Coffee in China. And that answer is not appropriate with the question of PJ.
8. Panda News Network Interviews American Voters at the 2012 Election
PJ : I'm in America now interviewing Americans at he 2012 election polling
place
PJ : who did you vote for?
A : I chose not to vote. I don't like any of the candidates
PJ : Please, who are you voting for?
B : Isn't obvoius?
PJ : Wait, who are you voting for?
C : Obamney! Obamney!
In the conversation above, there are three kind of non-observance of maxim which is
done by three interviewees (A, B, and C). From the conversation between PJ and A, we
can say that A flouted maxim of relation and quantity. A answered PJ’s question with
irrelational answer. What PJ asked is who did A vote in the president election. He better
said ‘he choose no one’ rather than saying ‘I choose not to vote’. And A’s explanation
about the reason why A didn’t choose anyone is violating maxim quantity. Actually PJ
didn’t expect the A unnecessary explanation.
From the conversation between PJ and B, we can see that B opted out the maxim of
manner. He unwillingly answered PJ’s question. He didn’t answer PJ’s question but
asking PJ’s back about what he’s really thinking. B felt that he did not need to answer that
PJ’s already know the answer.
From the conversation between PJ and C we can see that C violate maxim of quality
deliberately. C’s answer is not really the answered PJ’s question. PJ expect C to tell PJ
whether he choose Obama or Romney, chose only one of them, but C answered it by
telling PJ that he chose both Obama and Romney (Obamney).
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9. CONCLUSION
From the discussion above we can conclude that in creating effect humor in the comic
strip, the cartoonist made the character to utter such utterance that break the maxim of
cooperative principle while communicate with other character. This strategy is proved helpful
to the cartoonist to make humor effect on the comic.
10. REFERENCES
Comic Strip. (2012, 12 14). Retrieved from Brittanica: www.brittanica.com/EBchecked/topoc/127589/comic-strip
Afeez, H. (2011). A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF SELECTED CARTOONS IN VANGUARD NEWSPAPER. retrieved on 2012, 12 15 from http://www.unilorin.edu.ng/studproj/arts/0715CD097.pdf
Attardo, S. (1994). Linguistic Teories of Humor. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Grundy, P. (2008). Doing Pragmatics. london: Hodder Education.
Hu, S. (2012). An Analysis of Humor in The Big Bang Theory from Pragmatic Perspectives. retrieved 2012,12 14 from http://ojs.academypublisher.com/index.php/tpls/article/download/tpls020611851190/4965
Thomas, J. (1995). Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction of Pragmatic. New York: Longman.
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