A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF HUMOR AS REFLECTED BY THE MAIN CHARACTERS IN PINK’S ACCEPTED MOVIE

Abstract

This research aims to answer three objectives which are: (1) to identify the maxims which are flouted by the main characters to create humor in Accepted movie; (2) to describe the forms of humor expressed by the main characters through maxim flouting in Accepted movie; and (3) to explain the functions of humor expressed by the main characters through maxim flouting in Accepted movie. This research employed the descriptive qualitative method. The data were in the form of words, phrases and clauses. The contexts of the data were dialogues. The source of the data was an American comedy movie entitled Accepted. To ensure its accuracy, the data findings were triangulated by two linguistics students. There are three findings found in this research: (1) the main characters in Accepted movie employ all types of maxim flouting, i.e. flouting of maxim of quantity, maxim of quality, maxim of manner and maxim of relation to create humorous utterances; (2) there are two forms of humor found as the result of maxim flouting done by the main characters in Accepted movie: jokes and spontaneous conversational humor; (3) the main characters employ the four functions of humor, i.e social management, decommitment, mediation and defunctionalization in Accepted movie.

Keywords: humor, maxim flouting, main characters, Accepted movie.