An analysis of Good Luck Charlie from perspective of conversational implicature

Sun Yuxue

【Abstract】Good Luck Charlie is a popular sitcom which uses simple plot and humorous language to describe a vivid picture of a lovely family. According to linguistics， people should obey four maxims of cooperative principles. However， they sometimes violate maxims to express emotion， avoid embarrassment or create humors. This paper tends to analyze humor in this TV series from the perspective of conversational implicature.

【Key words】cooperative principle； conversational implicature； maxims

1. Introduction

Humor can be employed in breaking ice， avoiding embarrassment and saving face in daily life. The American sitcom Good Luck Charlie revolves around the Duncans family after the birth of a baby named Charlie. To help little Charlie to record her growth path， her sister Teddy decided to make video dairies for her. Exaggerated language and humorous characters let the audience to laugh every ten seconds. Four clips of violation of cooperative principles will be analyzed.

2. Analysis from perspective of conversational implicature

（1）Episode 1， season 1

PJ： Hi.

Emma： Hi.

PJ： Oh， yeah， I like your taste in stroller.

Emma： Thanks， you too.

Emma： That baby is so cute.

PJ： You too. Oh， I mean yours too.

PJ： Whos this little guy？

Emma： My brother.

Emma： Were just out for our stroll. We do this every day.

PJ： Us too. Like I always say， babies love parks.

In this dialogue， PJ met a beautiful girl when he was babysitting Charlie. When the girl said， “that baby is so cute.” PJ replied， “you too，” and later he explained，“I mean yours too.” Here PJ violated the maxim of relevance because he didnt talked about babies as Emma talked. Moreover， PJ uttered he liked taking Charlie to park so as to leave a good impression on the girl. In fact， he hated to babysit Charlie before. Here PJ told the girl a lie which violates the maxim of quality .

（2）Episode 3， season 1

Amy： Hi， girls. What are you doing？

Ivy： Nothin.

Amy： Hows it going？ Ivy？

Ivy： Real good.

Teddy： Ignore her. Shell go away.（Teddy typed in her text.）

Amy： You girls always on those phones. Who are you texting now？

Teddy： Nobody.

In this dialogue， Amy was curious about girls secret. In order to keep privacy， girls answered “nothing”. Actually girls didnt want Amy to interrupt them. Then Amy asked Teddy who she was texting， and Teddy answered “nobody”. This time they use “nobody” to send Amy off. Teddy didnt tell her mother the fact about what they were doing and who she was texting， and violated the maxim of quality to keep a distance from her mother.

（3）Episode 9， season 3

Amy： Okay， every body. Listen up. Now that we have the new baby. The Duncans are not going to be able to do our summer vacation.

Family members： Yay. / Yes.

（silent for a few seconds）

Amy： Like we usually do.

Teddy： Theres always more. Why is there always more？

Amy said that they wouldnt go summer vacation because of the new baby. Everyone was excited about this news. There was supposed to be the end of the conversation. But Amy added “like we usually do.” In fact， Amy was intended to see the disappointed faces of her kids， so she saved much information. Here she violated the maxim of quantity. However， her kids were glad to hear the news. The mother was embarrassed and said they would go but in another way.

（4）Episode 9， season 3

Bob： We are gonna be staying in a beautiful， rustic cabin on， uh... Dead Mans Lake. （when Bob said the name of the lake， he drank water to make it unclear.）

Teddy： What was that？

Bob： Hmm... um... Dead Mans Lake. （when he said the name of the lake for the second time， he created obscurity again.）

Teddy： Are you trying to say Dead Mans Lake？

Bob： Im trying not to， actually.

The Duncan were talking about the summer vacation. Bob said they would live in a cabin which was located in Dead Mans Lake. When he said the name of lake， he took a sip on purpose to get over the kids. However， kids wouldnt let him pass the name. He pretended drinking again to make the name unclear. Obviously， he didnt want kids to know the creepy name of the lake so he violated the maxim of manner.

3.Conclusion

There are many examples in this comics where conversational implicature are employed. Violation of cooperative principles can avoid embarrassment， save faces or be polite. Thus conversational implicature will be produced. Even conversational implicature exists in daily life. Communicators have to try hard guessing conversational implicature and ensure fluency of communication. The author hopes it will be of help for English learners to understand conversational implicature and humors better.

References：

[1]Brown G.& Yule G.（1983）.Discourse Analysis.Cambridge：Cambridge University Press.

[2]Yule，George.（1996）.Pragmatics.Oxford：Oxford University Press.

[3]何兆熊.語用學概要[M].上海：上海外語教育出版社，1989.