A STUDY ON VIOLATING AND FLOUTING GRICEAN MAXIMS IN THE TELEVISION SITCOM “FRIENDS”

Abstract

Violating and flouting conversational maxims have been of great concern to scholars from different parts of the world. This study is conducted to figure out what maxims are violated and flouted as well as the purposes of the speaker when non-observing Gricean maxims. The research subject in this study is the familiar American television sitcom “Friends”. The conversations which are violated or flouted by the main characters become the population and the most noticeable ones are analyzed in two levels which are quantitative analysis and pragmatic analysis. There are totally 43 conversations in which conversational maxims are not abided. The findings reveal that just two of four maxims are violated; whereas, all of Grice’s rules are flouted. The second result is that men violated and flouted the maxims more often than women. Next, the main characters violated the maxim of quality the most frequently; whereas, the maxim of relation was the most often flouted. Last but not least, the purposes of violating and flouting conversational maxims are very various. There are different reasons for a maxim being violated. However, a speaker has only one reason for each flouted maxim. For further research, it is suggested that the study be conducted in a larger scope of population