Non-Observance of Grice’s Conversational Maxims in Persian Discourse of Humor and its Role in Text Comprehension: A Mixed- Methods Study

Abstract

Grice’s conversational maxims have been one of the impactful pragmatic theories up to now. The goal of this study was to
measure the comprehension ability of native Persian speakers in terms of Persian humor based on Grice’s non-observed
conversational maxims. Moreover, this study intended to find Grice’s non-observed conversational maxims which bring
difficulty for native Persian speakers to comprehend Persian discourse of humor. Using a mixed-methods design, 300 participants
were selected from different age groups and genders. They were 129 females and 171 males whose age varied from 19 to 37. In
the last phase of the study, 8 students were selected based upon their willingness and availability take part in the qualitative phase
of this research and reflected upon and shared their experiences for the purposes of the research. Results showed that among four
Grice’s non-observed conversational maxims, manner (.64) has the highest mean score which is the easiest maxim and relevance
(.46) has the lowest mean score which is the most difficult maxim. Results of the qualitative data also confirm the quantitative
results. It was found that in Persian Humor Comprehension Test, manner was the easiest maxim and relevance was the most
difficult maxim. The humor test in this study can be used for measuring those non-native speakers' ability in comprehending
Persian humor. On the other hand, it can evaluate their ability linguistically in terms of Grice's conversational maxims