Sarcastic Expressions and the Influence of Social Distance and Relative Power in The TV Series Friends

https://doi.org/10.22146/lexicon.v7i1.64585

Shaula Noorhayu Shelldyriani(1), Aris Munandar(2*)

(1) English Department, Universitas Gadjah Mada
(2) English Department, Universitas Gadjah Mada
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


This research aims to identify and classify the sarcastic expressions found in the TV Series Friends. It applies the theory proposed by Camp (2011) which categorized sarcasm into four classes: Propositional, Lexical, Like-Prefixed, and Illocutionary Sarcasm. Considering sarcasm as a Face Threatening Act (FTA), it also analyzes the influence of relative power and social distance to see how these two social variables influence the delivery of sarcastic expressions. The findings show that Illocutionary Sarcasm is the most frequently used class of sarcasm with 30 utterances (45%) followed by Propositional Sarcasm which consists of 25 utterances (37%), Lexical Sarcasm with 10 utterances (15%) and lastly Like-Prefixed Sarcasm that have 2 utterances (3%). With Illocutionary and Propositional Sarcasm are known to be the most straightforward class of sarcasm, the results also show that these two classes of sarcasm are mainly used when the social distance (D) is negative where the interlocutors does not have the obligation to be polite due to their close intimacy. In cases where the social distance has positive value, the value of power (P) helps to determine which class of sarcasm is used. Furthermore, a clear context and common ground is essential to help identify sarcastic expressions and the intention underlying it.

Keywords


sarcasm; sarcastic expressions; social distance; relative power

Full Text:

PDF 62-70


References

Austin, L. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Bachtiar, E. (2018). Sarcastic expressions in the movies Fantastic Four (2004) and Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer (2007). (Unpublished undergraduate Thesis), Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Brown, P. & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Camp, E. (2011). Sarcasm, pretense and the semantics/pragmatics distinction. Nous, 46 (4), 1-48. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0068.2010.00822.x.

Caucci, G. & Kreuz, R. (2012). Social and paralinguistic cues to sarcasm. International Journal of Humor Research, 25(1), 1-22. Doi: 10.1515/humor-2012-0001

Clark, H. (1996). Common ground. Using Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Colston, H. (2017). Irony and sarcasm. In S. Attardo (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Humor (pp. 234-249). New York: Routledge.

Context. (n.d). in Merriam-Webster online dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/context.

Crane, D. & Kauffman, M. (1994). Friends. Warner Bros. Television.

Culpeper, J. (1996). Towards an anatomy of impoliteness. Journal of Pragmatics, 25, 349-367. Elsevier.

Culpeper, J. (2016). Impoliteness strategies. Interdisciplinary Studies in Pragmatics, Culture and Society, Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, 4, 421-445. Doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-12616-6

Cutting, J. (2002). Pragmatics and discourse: A resource book for students. London: Routledge.

Fangj.github.io. (n.d). Friends transcripts. Retrieved from https://fangj.github.io/friends/.

Haiman, J. (1998). Talk is cheap: Sarcasm, alienation & the evolution of language. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Jayanti, C. (2017). An analysis of types and degree and translation quality of sarcasm expressions in the movie The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II. (Unpublished undergraduate Thesis), Universitas Negri Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia.

Kang, H. (2012). The interpretation of linguistic sarcasm. The Sociolinguistic Society of Korea, 21(2), 29-46. Doi: https://doi.org/10.14353/sjk.2013.21.2.29.

Liberman, M. (2004). Speaking sarcastically?. Language Log. Retrieved from http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001207.html.

McDonald, S. (1999). Exploring the process of inference generation in sarcasm: A review of normal and clinical studies. Brain and Language, 68(3), 486-506.

Netflix. (n.d). Friends. Retrieved from https://www.netflix.com/id-en/title/70153404.

Peccei, J. (1999). Pragmatics language workbooks. Taylor & Francis Routledge.

Prabowo, M. (2013). Sarcastic expressions in the movie The Guard. (Unpublished undergraduate Thesis), Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Sandy, S. (2012). A study of mock politeness in conversation: Sarcasm usage in American sitcoms. (Unpublished undergraduate Thesis), University of Wolverhampton, USA.

Sarcasm. (n.d). In Cambridge online dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/sarcasm.

Subscene. (2020). Friends – First season. Accessed on 22January 2020. Retrieved from https://subscene.com/subtitles/friends--first-season/english/676023.

Toplak, M. & Katz, A. (2000). On the uses of sarcastic irony. Journal of Pragmatics, 32(10), 1467-1488. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00101-0.

Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.



DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/lexicon.v7i1.64585

Article Metrics

Abstract views : 3995 | views : 3080

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2020 Shaula Noorhayu Shelldyriani, Aris Munandar

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.


Lexicon Office

English Department
Faculty of Cultural Sciences,
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Soegondo Building, 3rd Floor, Room 306
Yogyakarta, Indonesia 55281
Telephone: +62 274 513096
Email: lexicon.fib@ugm.ac.id

ISSN: 2746-2668 (Online)

Web Analytics View Stats

Creative Commons License
LEXICON is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Lexicon is indexed in

 

About UsSubmissionIssuePoliciesReview