pragmatics and humors: impoliteness
TRANSCRIPT
KRIANGKRAI VATHANALAOHALANGUAGE CENTRE, INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE FOR
SUSTAINABILITY STUDIES, SWU
Pragmatics and Humors: A Case Study of Phoebe Buffay’s Verbal Acts in ‘Friends’
Objectives
To explore the linguistic characteristics of Phoebe Buffay’s humorous turns by frameworks of CP and Impoliteness Theory
To apply pragmatic theories to reflect on Phoebe’s specific characterization
Phoebe’s Characteristics
Eccentric Telepathic/ déjà vu Exasperated, reverts to a harsher
"Street Phoebe" persona
Note The first Emmy award winning
character among the others
Literature Review: Humors
Humor Theories1. Superiority 2. Incongruity3. Relief4. Semantic Script
Pragmatic Theories
1. Cooperative Principle
2. (Im) politeness
Humor Theories
Superiority“laughter is an expression of sudden glory and a realization of being superior to someone else” (Hobbes, cf. Berger (1993))
Incongruity“a conflict between what is expected and what actually occurs in a punch line”
Relief“when the surge of energy is in excess of what is needed, the surplus is dispelled through laugher (Morreall, 1983)”
Humor Theories
Semantic Script “humor involves a semantic-
pragmatic process which includes a semantic opposition between the scripts” (Raskin, 1985)
Patient: Is the doctor at home?Doctor’s Wife: No, you can come in and wait for me in bed.
Pragmatic Theory Grice’s (1975)Cooperative Principle
Maxim of Relationbe relevantMaxim of Qualitymake your contribution one that is trueMaxim of Quantitynot make more or less informative than requiredMaxim of Manneravoid ambuiguity/obscuritybrief/orderly
Breaking Maxims can threat some people’s faces.
Positive Face Want – want respect from others
Negative Face Want – not want other people to impede his/her freedom
Avoid Face Threatening Act Brown and Levinson’s (1975) Politeness
Superstrategies
Bald on record (“the most direct, clear, unambiguous and concise way possible”)
Positive Politeness (“paying attention to the hearer, expressing interest, approval or sympathy”)
Negative Politeness (“mollifying the force of an utterance, deference”)
Off-record (“performed by means of an implicature (Grice 1975)”)
Withhold the FTA (“silence”)
Impoliteness’s Strategies Bald on record impoliteness: the FTA is performed
in a direct, clear, unambiguous and concise way Positive Impoliteness: ignore the other, exclude the
other from an activity, be disinterested, unconcerned, unsympathetic
Negative Impoliteness: frighten, condescend, scorn, ridicule, belittle, invade the other’s space
Sarcasm or mock politeness (irony): obviously insincere, using politeness for impoliteness.
Off-record impoliteness: implicature but in such a way that one atrributable intention clearly out-weighs any others.
Withhold politeness: the absence of politeness work
(Im) PolitenessQuestion: “How was my midterm
paper?”
Perhaps it could have been improvedIt wasn’t goodIt was badIt was crapYou must have shit for brains
Politeness
Impoliteness
Impoliteness can only happen when
1) the speaker communicates face-attack intentionally, or
2) the hearer perceives and/or constructs behavior as intentionally face-attacking,
3) a combination of 1) and 2)
Culpeper’s impoliteness
Bald-on-RecordPositiveNegativeOff-recordWith-hold FTA-------------------------------------------SarcasmOff-recordNegativePositiveBald-on-Record
Face EnhancingStrategies
Face Aggravating/Attacking Strategies
Note
It is almost impossible when confronting jokes without conversational jokes, conversational form.
DATA COLLECTION
Friends 1st season Phoebe Buffay’s humorous turns:
Analysis of the Cooperative Principle The maxim mostly violated by
Phoebe isMaxim of Relation (16.17%)Maxim of Manner (25.15%)Maxim of Quality (47.30%)Maxim of Quantity (11.38%)
Violating the Maxim of Quality Speakers have to try to make their
conversational contribution correspond to the truth.
exaggeration, irony, excuse, pretending
Ep 7
Exaggeration – refers to the way that the speaker overstates the features, defects or the strangeness of someone or something
Rachel: So Pheebs, what do you want for your birthday?
Phoebe: Well, what I really want is for my mom to be alive and enjoy it with me .
Ep 6 Irony – “expresses utterance completely
different from the literal meaning”
Ross: You know, there's nothing wrong with speaking correctly.
Rachel: "Indeed there isn't"... I should really get back to work.
Phoebe: Yeah, 'cause otherwise someone might get what they actually ordered.
Rachel: Ohh-ho-hooohhh. The hair comes out, and the gloves come on.
Violating The Maxim of Quantity
Less information(When Rachel lost her ring)
Chandler and Joey: Oh! Yeah!Joey: Alright, when'd'ya have it on
last?Phoebe: Doy! Probably right before
she lost it!
Violating the Maxim of Relation Irrelevant – “unrelated response so as to show
her diverted attention
Phoebe: Okay, they're just talking...Ross: Yeah, well, does he look upset? Does he
look like he was just told to shove anything?Phoebe: No, no actually, he's smiling.. and... Oh
my God, don't do that!!Ross: What? What? What?!Phoebe: That man across the street just kicked
that pigeon !
Ep 10 Changing the topic – divert attention from the
current situation
Ross: 'That' would be Marcel. You wanna say hi? Monica: No, no, I don't. Rachel: Oh, he is precious! Where did you get
him? Ross: My friend Bethel rescued him from some
lab. Phoebe: That is so cruel! Why? Why would a
parent name their child Bethel ?
Violating the Maxim of Manner Lexical ambiguity
Phoebe: (entering) Hi, sorry I'm late, I couldn't find my bearings.
Rachel: Oh, you-you mean your earrings?
Phoebe: What'd I say ?
Situational ambiguity
Rachel: Look-look-look-look-look, my first pay check! Look at the window, there's my name! Hi, me!
Phoebe: I remember the day I got my first pay check. There was a cave in one of the mines, and eight people were killed.
Monica: Wow, you worked in a mine?Phoebe: I worked in a Dairy Queen, why?
(Im)Politeness
Sarcasm (11.32%) Off-record (17.75%) Negative (18.75%) Positive (18.75%) Bald-on-Record(33.42%)
Ep 5 Bald on Record
Joey: Ok, you know what blows my mind? Women can see breasts any time they want. You just look down and there they are. How you get any work done is beyond me.
Phoebe: Oh, ok, you know what I don't get? The way guys can do so many mean things, and then not even care.
Ep 7 Positive ImpolitenessRachel: Oh. (they knock at the next
door, Mr. Heckles answers) Hi. We just found this cat and we're looking for the owner.
Mr. Heckles: Er, yeah, it's mine.Phoebe: (trying to hold back the
struggling cat) He seems to hate you. Are you sure ?
Ep 8 Negative Impoliteness Phoebe: Ooh, wait.. wait, I see a
woman. Monica: Please tell me it's his
mother. Phoebe: Definitely not his mother. Monica: Oh, no... Phoebe: Oh, wait, she's walking
across the floor.. she's walking.. she's walking.. she's going for the pizza- (Yelling) Hey, that's not for you, bitch!
Ep 10 Sarcasm/Mock Politeness
Phoebe: Well, c'mon, if it's important enough to discuss while I'm playing, then I assume it's important enough for everyone else to hear .
Chandler: (Quietly, to the others) That guy's going home with a note!
David: Noth- I was- I was just saying to my-
Phoebe: Could you speak up please ?
Violation/Flouting Grice’s Maxims
Impoliteness
Type % Type %
Quantity 11.38 Bald-on-Record 33.42
Quality 47.30 Positive 18.75
Relation 16.17 Negative 18.75
Manner 25.15 Off-record 17.75
Sarcasm 11.32
Discussion
The results show close relationship between humor and cooperative principle and FTA attached to Buffay’s utterances.
Maxim of Quality is violated mostly Bald on record is used majorly by
Phoebe Buffay Phoebe’s characteristics
“Eccentricity” and “Street Phoebe”?
ReferencesAttardo, S. (1994). Linguistic theories of humor. Berlin and New York: Mouton
de GruyterBrown, P. and Levinson, S.C. (1987) Politeness: some universals in language
usage, Cambridge Cambridge University Press.Culpeper J. (1996) “Towards an anatomy of impoliteness’, Journal of
Pragmatics 25: 349-67Raskin, V. , & Attardo, S. (1991). Script theory revised: Joke similarity and
joke representation model. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 4(3)
Wu Y., & Chen Y., Humor Strategies in the American Sitcom “Friends”: An Empirical Study, 54-71
Grice, P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole, & J. L. Morgan (eds.), Syntax and semantics (vol. 3) New York: Academic Press.
Ross, A. The Language of Humour, London, RouledgeShu, Y. (2007). Linguistic Strategies Adopted in the American Sitcom Friends.
Unpublished master’s thesis, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei.Sperber, D., &Wilson, D. (1995). Relevance: Communication and cognition.
Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Thank you