Flouting Maxim in SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run

Volume 1 Number 3, November 2021 e-ISSN 2798-6543 p-ISSN 2798-5164 Pages: 173-179 FLOUTING MAXIM IN THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE ON THE RUN Ramadhanisya1, Sri Hartati2 1,2 Gunadarma University, Jl. Margonda Raya No. 100, Depok 16424, Jawa Barat Corresponding Author(S): Abstract: Maxims are rules for determining whether the speaker is being cooperative in a conversation or not. When a speaker refuses to be cooperative during a conversation, this is known as flouting of maxim. This research focuses on flouting maxims uttered by the characters in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. The objective of this research is to identify the types of flouting maxims contained in this movie. The researcher used the descriptive qualitative method to analyze the data. The result of this research showed that the researcher found 41 utterances that flout the maxim in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. There are flouting the maxim of quality (6 data), flouting the maxim of quantity (16 data), flouting the maxim of relevance (15 data), and flouting the maxim of manner (9 data). The number of utterances and the number of flouting maxims used are different because one utterance may include more than one flouting maxim. Keywords: Cooperative Principle, Flouting maxim, Movie Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License INTRODUCTION People will meet and communicate with others in their daily lives. This communication activity is connected to the use of language. Language is the primary form of communication. According to Hamilton (2007:5), communication is the act of people expressing their opinions, ideas, and thoughts with one another in a way that others can understand. Communication is said to be smooth when both parties understand each other and there are no misunderstandings. Language as a form of communication which is done by people to communicate with others to express their needs –request, information, or services, we can say as speakers must consider the persons they are talking to as listeners (Santoso, 2015: 183). To be cooperative, both the speaker and the hearer must follow the cooperative principle to make a good conversation. The cooperative principle is a part of pragmatics. The cooperative principle consists of four maxims. There is the maxim of quality, the maxim of quantity, the maxim of relevance, and the maxim of manner. There may be problems, misunderstandings, or misinterpretations in communication that occur in everyday life, and there must be difficulties or misunderstandings that occur in 173 174 Ramadhanisya, Sri Hartati everyday life because the hearer does not recognize what the speaker is saying. In other words, communication between the speaker and the hearer is not always easy. When a speaker is not cooperative during a conversation, it is considered a flouting of the maxim. When the speaker says anything that is believed to be false, he/she flouts the quality maxim. When the speaker says more or less in providing information, he/she flouts the quantity maxim. When the speaker says an irrelevant response to the conversation's topic, he/she flouts the relevance principle. When the speaker says anything ambiguous or unclear, he/she flouts the maxim of manner. In our daily lives, sometimes people flout the maxim. For example: A: “These elementary school children draw very well, don't you think?” B: “Yeah, they are very creative.” C: “Yeah right, they are clever. But I can draw a better future as long as I’m with you.” In the example above, the answer “B is normal. Meanwhile, the answer “C” flouts the maxim of quantity because he/she gives too much information to the question asked. Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics that studies the meaning of an utterance. Leech (1983:x), explained that pragmatics can be usefully defined as the study of how utterances have meanings in different situations. Levinson (1983:21) also stated that pragmatics is the study of the relationships between language and meaning that characterizes every account of language comprehension. Knowing the meanings of the words uttered and their grammatical connections isn't enough to understand an utterance. Making inferences that relate what is stated to what is assumed or what has already been expressed is required to understand an utterance. To summarize, pragmatics is the study of the relationship between utterances and the contexts in that they are delivered. The context in question is a factor outside of the utterance that influences the meaning of the utterance. Furthermore, Grice in Thomas (1995) stated a flout happens when a speaker consciously ignores a maxim at the level of what is said with the intent of conveying an implicature. Flouting can occur in four of the maxim's sub-principles, they are flouting the maxim of quality, flouting the maxim of quantity, flouting the maxim of relevance, and flouting the maxim of manner. Table 1 Types of Flouting Maxim (Grice, 1995 in Thomas) Types of Flouting Maxim Description Flouting the maxim of quality when the speaker says something which is blatantly untrue or for which he or she lacks adequate evidence Flouting the maxim of quantity a flout of the maxim of quantity occurs when a speaker blatantly gives more or less information than the situation requires Flouting the maxim of relevance the maxim of relation ('Be relevant') is exploited by making a response or observation which is very obviously irrelevant to the topic in hand (e.g. by abruptly changing the subject, or by overtly failing to address the other person's goal in asking a question) JEdu: Journal of English Education Pages 173-179, Volume 1, Number 3, November 2021 Flouting Maxim in the Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run Flouting the maxim of manner 175 flouting the maxim of manner occurs when a speaker deliberately breaks a rule of manners by saying something unclearly, not being orderly, or using ambiguity Commonly, in conversation, flouting of the maxim has easily to found because the communication between the speaker and the hearer is not always smooth. Flouting of maxim occurs when the speaker deliberately ceases to apply the maxims to persuade their listeners to infer the hidden meaning behind the utterances; that is, the speakers employ implicature (Levinson in Ibrahim, et. al., 2018: 82). This research only focused on the analysis of the flouting maxim uttered by all characters in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. The present study was addressed to answer the following research question: what are the flouting of maxim uttered by all characters in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run. METHOD According to Creswell (2009:3), research designs are plans and procedures for research that span the decisions from board assumptions to detailed methods of data collection and analysis. It means that the research design assists researchers in gathering data as a reference in collecting data, analyzing data, and presenting data. To cAs a re (...truncated)