Flouting of Grice’s Conversational Maxims in the Movie John Wick

Abstract

This study deals with the theory of Cooperative Principle: Maxim of Quality (MQL), Maxim of Quantity (MQT), Maxim of Relevance (MR), and Maxim of Manner (MM), proposed by Paul Grice (1970). This study applies the idea of flouting of maxims to conduct the analysis using the approach of Discourse Analysis (DA). The analysis deals with the study of flouting maxim in a Hollywood movie titled John Wick – Chapter One (2014) and analyzes the flouting maxims by protagonist (John Wick) and other major characters to assist the readers to understand maxims once flouted. The leading characters of the movie emits flouting maxims for some reasons. The results of the study indicate the reasons for flouting maxims: the particular scene must be clear, save time and make audience able to deduce the implicit meaning by their own. This research, therefore, concludes that flouting a maxim is used in order to make communication more effective.  People decode or understand the hidden meaning of an utterance in correspondence whether the maxims are flouted or not, otherwise ambiguity will appear at the end of the conversation. The study shows that the purpose of flouting maxims is pointing at a particular aspect, hiding the truth and avoiding bad things which might occur.