Parenthood In 'Let's Be Mad Together'

900 Words2 Pages

“Parenthood”
As a non-participant observer of the program parenthood episode 5 of season 5, which is called “Let’s Be Mad Together”, I observed the behaviors of the participant of this episode. First I would like to refresh what are maxims and their implicatures. According to the linguistics textbook, an implicature is an inference that consists of accrediting to a speaker an implicit meaning that goes beyond the obvious linguistic meaning of an expression. These are ways to say things without really saying them. When an implicature happens, Grice’s Maxims are violated. The way the characters of this show abide to Grice’s principles depends of the personalities of the different characters. For example, this show is about a family of four grown …show more content…

She went to Stanford University, but married a construction contractor. At the beginning of the seasons she is the one who works as a lawyer of a firm. However, now she is the house wife and is not used to be in that position. She is used to be bossy with her husband, and sometimes violates the Maxim of conversation of manner, as she behaves ambiguous to hide bossy statements that make her husband feel disrespected. As a result, her husband Joel gets used to hear ambiguous expressions, and says occasional ambiguous expressions as well. He also avoids disrespecting …show more content…

For the couple Julia and Joel, the situations are issues regarding Joel starting a new job after being a home dad for 6 years. Also, Julia is a house wife, after being a lawyer for a long time, and they have different conversations in which they violate the maxims of conversation. For example, in a conversation they have Joel tells Julia to go and talk to her new friend (who is a man) about the academic problems of their son, as he is mad at her because she violated the maxim of quantity with her friend, as she said too much information about their private life to her

Open Document