HA NOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2
FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY
= = == = =

LE THI PHUONG LINH

A STUDY ON VIOLATION AND FLOUTING OF
CONVERSATIONAL MAXIMS IN THE SERIES
“HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER”
(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT
OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH)

HANOI, 2019


HA NOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2
FOREIGN LANGUAGES FACULTY
= = == = =

LE THI PHUONG LINH

A STUDY ON VIOLATION AND FLOUTING OF
CONVERSATIONAL MAXIMS IN THE SERIES
“HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER”
(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT
OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH)

SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI THU THAO, M.A

HANOI, 2019
ii


STATE OF AUTHORSHIP
Title: An Study on Violation and Flouting of Conversational
Maxims in the series “ How I Met Your Mother”
I hereby certify that no part of this research has been copied from any
other person’s work without acknowledgements and the study is originally
written by me under the guidance of my supervisor.
Date submitted: 10th May, 2019
Student

Le Thi Phuong Linh

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ABSTRACT

This research aims to describe the types of maxims that are violated and
flouted and explain the functions of the non-observation of the four maxims by the
main characters in the sitcom “How I Met Your Mother”. The violations of maxims
occur when the speakers consciously manipulated the maxims so as to mislead the
interlocutors. While the flouting of maxims happens when individuals intentionally
do not observe the maxims since they want to derive the hidden meaning behind to
the listeners, that is, the speakers employ implicature. In obtaining the data, the
researcher uses the non-participant observation to the utterances of main characters
in the season 2 of the series. There are two results of this research. The first result
reveals that the participants mostly did the violation than flouting. From the overall
of non-observations they have done, the quality maxim violation is in the highest
rank and the maxim of relation is flouted most. The second result is that the maxim
violation has four functions namely representatives, declaratives, expressives,

1.3. Aims of the study .................................................................................................3
1.4. Research questions ...............................................................................................3
1.5. Scope of the study ................................................................................................3
1.6. Organization of the study .....................................................................................4
1.7. The sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” ................................................................4
1.7.1. Population .........................................................................................................4
1.7.2. Main Characters ................................................................................................4
1.7.3. A summary of season 2 .....................................................................................6
CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................7
LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................7
2.1. Theoretical background ........................................................................................7
2.1.1. Conversational implicature ...............................................................................7
2.1.2. Grice’s theory of implicature ............................................................................7
2.1.3. Observance and Non-observance of Grice’s maxims .......................................8
2.1.4. The violation of Grice’s maxims ......................................................................9
2.1.5. The flouting of Grice’s maxims ........................................................................9
2.1.6. Speech acts ......................................................................................................10
2.1.6.1. Declarations..................................................................................................11
2.1.6.2. Representatives ............................................................................................11
2.1.6.3. Expressives ...................................................................................................11
2.1.6.5. Commissives ................................................................................................12
2.2. A review of related studies ................................................................................12
CHAPTER 3 ..............................................................................................................13

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METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................13
3.1. The source of data ..............................................................................................13
3.2. Data collection methods and procedures ...........................................................13


The functions of maxim violation and flouting in the HIMYM series. .........27

4.3.1. Representatives ...............................................................................................27
4.3.2. Expressives ......................................................................................................29
4.3.3. Directives ........................................................................................................30
4.3.4. Declarations .....................................................................................................31
CHAPTER 5 ..............................................................................................................34

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CONCLUSIONS .......................................................................................................34
5.1. Conclusions ........................................................................................................34
5.2. Limitations of the study .....................................................................................35
5.3. Recommendations ..............................................................................................35
5.3.1. To students ......................................................................................................35
5.3.2. To English language teachers..........................................................................35
5.3.3. To researchers .................................................................................................36
REFERENCE ............................................................................................................37
APPENDIX ...............................................................................................................38

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the study
In the past few decades, English has become the most commonly used
language in the globalized world where people of different cultures use it to interact



In the pragmatic field, it looks beyond the literal meaning of an utterance and
considers how meaning is constructed as well as focusing on implied meanings.
Something which is more than the words mean is called an implicature which
means the additional conveyed meaning of utterances (Yule, 1996). It is necessary
to note that when communicating with each other, speakers communicate meaning
via implicatures and listeners recognize those communicated meanings via
inferences. It is selected inferences which will preserve the assumption of
cooperation. Implicatures occuring in conversations and depending on the certain
context for their interpretation are usually called conversational implicatures. As
implicatures are primary examples of more being communicated than is said, so to
obtain a satisfactory account of implicature, communicators should appeal to
cooperative principle in pragmatics.
The philosopher Grice (1975) suggested some rules to have cooperative
behaviors while communicating, interlocutors should follow the Cooperative
Principle which explains how people can be informative, truthful, relevant and clear
in the conversation. The Cooperative Principle comprises four maxims namely
quality, quantity, relation, manner. It means that both the speaker and listener are
expected to follow the cooperative principle to keep smooth and effective
communications’ process.
However, in the real context, not all people tend to observe the maxims to
create more effects of meaning in their utterances. In other words, the speakers
sometimes deliberately break the Grice’s theory to refer their intentions to the
hearers for implying certain reasons. As a social creature, people always
communicate and interact with each other in the form of conversations to express
the idea or convey the emotion depending on the physical environment. Therefore,
to deeply understand the way participants fail to observe the Grice’s theory,
researchers ought to put each conversation in its context.
With some non-native English learners, it seems hard for them to collect the

The aims in this study are to investigate the non-cooperative interactions by
the violation and flouting maxims of the main characters and the functions of the
non-observance of them. In specific, it is aimed at identifying two main questions:
Q1.Which conversational maxims are violated/flouted by the main characters?
Q2.What are the functions of the maxim of violation/flouting conveyed by the main
characters ?
1.5. Scope of the study
The study concerns with a small unit of pragmatics, namely the Cooperative
Principle. The writer only focuses on the main characters’ conversation which
contains the violated and flouted maxims. In the study, the writer uses Grice’s
theory of conversational maxims to analyze the conversation. Additionally, the

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writer wants to figure out the functions of maxim non-observance when the main
characters violated and flouted the maxims. The limitation is in terms of utterances
conveyed by the character in the season 2 of the HIMYM series which contains the
violation and flouting of maxims and it is used as the data of this study.
1.6. Organization of the study
The writer organizes the study in following order. The first chapter is the
introduction. Chapter two is review of related literature in which the write
describes his background knowledge related to the study. Next, chapter three is
methodology including methods to collect and analyse the data for answering
research questions. Chapter four is final results and detailed discussions about the
research subjects. Finally, chapter five, conclusion, summaries all of the study from
the beginning up to ending.
1.7. The sitcom “How I Met Your Mother”
1.7.1. Population
How I Met Your Mother (abbreviated to HIMYM) is an American situation

personalities he wishes in his future wife. Despite the failure of finding “the one”
after many times, he still does not give up. Besides, he also acts immaturely when
playing trick with Barney and Marshall.
Marshall Eriksen is the best buddy of Ted Mosby, they are roommates from
the first year at university, Wesleyan University, and remain living with each other
when moving to New York City. Marshall has a beautiful love story with his
girlfriend since his freshman year, Lily. They get married in season 2 and have kids
in season 7. He indulges in the paranormal phenomenon, and mythical creatures,
particularly Sasquatch. His dream is to become an environmental lawyer, which
conflicts with his immediate demands for money, such as for his wedding and to
raise his children.
Robin Scherbatsky is a TV reporter who emigrated from Canada to take a
job in a news station. She additionally met Ted at MacLaren's. She is a strong girl
with some man-like hobbies such as often drinking scotch, smoking cigars, loving
the gun. Moreovers, she really loves career and has strong rejection to the
traditional women’s roles such as marrying and having kids.
Barney Stinson is also a Ted's friend, often jealous of Marshall for having
known Ted since college and the fact of Marshall is Ted's first best friend. He is
really a womanizing playboy who always uses his money and outrageous strategies
to seduce women with no intention of engaging in a long relationship. However, he
is a kind-hearted and generous person to his friends. He also makes the gang laugh
so much because of his jokes.

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Lily Aldrin is Marshall’s wife. She works as a kindergarten teacher, and an
aspiring artist. Though she is terrible at keeping secrets and can be manipulative at
times, Lily is so sweet and sincere. Lily Aldrin’s best girlfriend is Robin.
1.7.3. A summary of season 2