A Pragmatic Analysis of English Lecturers’ Interpretation of Implicatures in Smudge the Cat Memes

Ardi Nugroho(1*), Rex Stardy(2)


(1) Bunda Mulia University,
(2) Bunda Mulia University
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


Internet memes have become the object of numerous studies over theyears. M emesoften contain implicatures or additional implied meaning, especially when they flout or violate some conversational maxims. This implied meaning can sometimes be difficult to interpret which may lead to misunderstanding the meme itself. Therefore, this study aims to examine what kinds of maxims are flouted and what is the implicature behind the internet memes. Additionally, this research explores how English lecturers in a private university in North Jakarta interpret the implicature of the memes under study. A total of 5 memes are used in this research, all of which are Smudge the Cat memes collected from a Facebook group dedicated to posting various memes of this popular white cat. The data is analyzed qualitatively since it does not involve any numerical calculations. To collect the data for the lecturers’ interpretation of the memes, an online questionnaire was distributed via Google Form. The findings reveal that the main maxim that is violated in the memes is the maxim of manner as most of the replies in the memes can be said to be ambiguous. The implicature behind the memes vary depending on the meme itself, and some of the lecturers had difficulty identifying the additional implied meaning of the memes.


Keywords


implicature; flouting maxims; memes; interpretation

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