”A DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF FLOUTING MAXIM DONE BY THE MAIN CHARACTERS IN THE “WILD CHILD” 2008 MOVIE

Abstract

This research was intended to describe the types, strategies, and functions of the flouting maxim performed by the main characters in a movie called, the Wild Child (2008).Since different characters have different types, strategies, and functions of flouting maxim, the research problem focuses on those three aspects of flouting maxim. This is because flouting maxim in social communication might cause misunderstanding. In this case, people speak and cooperate with others without making other people misunderstand what they mean. Meanwhile, Paul H. Grice (1975) believes that people will have a successful conversation if they fulfill the Cooperative Principles which are elaborated in four sub-principles called maxims. The four maxims are maxim of quantity, maxim of quality, maxim of relation, and maxim of manner. Those maxims organize how the participants should participate in a conversation in order to make the conversation run smoothly. Yet in real life, some people often break the maxims by infringing, violating, opting out, suspending, or flouting them. Unlike flouting, the other kinds of the failure of observing the maxim do not generate implicit meaning within them. By flouting maxims, the participants of the conversation seem to be uncooperative but actually they do. The participants themselves have certain intentions of flouting the maxims. The phenomena of flouting maxim can be seen not only in real life but also in a movie. The researcher interested to conduct a research which focused on the types, strategies, and functions of flouting maxim done by the main characters in an English movie.