Breaking The Rules of Communication: The Humorous Implicatures of Grice’s Maxims in "Who's On First?" Sketch

Abstract

Humor is a ubiquitous and essential aspect of human communication, enriching social interactions and fostering connections among individuals. This dissertation investigates how violations of Grice's maxims in conversation contribute to humor generation. Grice's Cooperative Principle, encompassing maxims of Quantity, Quality, Relation, and Manner, provides a theoretical framework for understanding effective communication. However, humor often arises from intentional deviations from these maxims, leading to incongruous interpretations that evoke laughter. Drawing on theoretical perspectives such as Incongruity theory, Script-based semantic theory and general theory of verbal humor, this study explores the mechanisms through which violations of Grice's maxims contribute to humor in everyday conversations. Through qualitative analysis of naturally occurring instances of humor in conversation, this research aims to elucidate specific strategies and mechanisms underlying humor generation. Findings have shown how violating Grice's maxims affects humor, by analyzing "who's on first?" sketch, we can see how violations caused misunderstandings and misinterpretations that led to humor's creation.