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Hamid Reza Dowlatabadi

Hamid Reza Dowlatabadi

Academic rank: Assistant Professor
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7763-6678
Education: PhD.
ScopusId: 57188754727
Faculty: Literature and Languages
Address: Arak University
Phone:

Research

Title
Violating and Flouting of the Four Gricean Cooperative Maxims in Friends the American TV Series
Type
JournalPaper
Keywords
Grice Maxims, Violation, Flouting, Cooperative Principle, Comedy, Friends.
Year
2015
Journal International Review of Social Sciences
DOI
Researchers Leyli Jorfi ، Hamid Reza Dowlatabadi

Abstract

Pragmatics, as a vast field of study, provides us with insights on how to make communication among speakers efficient. One of the ways by which speakers can have efficient and non-problematic conversations is cooperation among them. As far as cooperation is concerned, Grice has suggested the Cooperative Maxims Principles according to which, conversations can be analyzed. The present study focuses on the instances of violation and flouting of Grice‟s maxims in the American TV series “friends” (Series 1, scene 1; the one where Monica gets a new roommate). Grice‟s maxims which are the core of cooperative principle (CP) are suggested in order to shape a better and clearer conversation. In some eccentric cases, though, the flouting of these maxims will create an effect. This effect is created in this movie series as well, and gives it an air of comedy. Among other genres, comedies have this capability to flout or violate the Gricean maxims for the creation of laughter, and also fun making. This is the reason that encouraged the researcher to select this genre. For this purpose, 4 excerpts of this TV series has been identified for a detailed analysis and description. The findings and analyses suggest that among the four maxims of quality, quantity, manner, and relevance, the one which is violated most, is the maxim of relevance, the one which is flouted the most is the maxim of quality. The amount that each character caused a flout is almost evenly distributed; except for Monica, who compared to other characters, did not very much flouted or violated the maxims and this may be due to the fact that she formed the story in the first episode and others created laughter and reacted on what she is going on to do.