FLOUTING CONVERSATIONAL MAXIMS IN THE MOVIE "THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING" (a Pragmatics Approach)

This research is conducted in order to achieve the objectives of the research. The objectives of this research are to find out the types of flouting maxims according to Grice’s Cooperative Principle theory, to reveal the strategies used to flout the maxims, and to figure out the intentions of the characters in flouting the maxims. This research is a descriptive qualitative research. There are 23 data analyzed in this research. The data are collected using the method of content analysis. The primary data analyzed in this research are taken from the dialogues containing flouting maxims found in the movie The Theory of Everything. Whereas the secondary data are taken from previous research about flouting maxims. The result of the research shows that there are four types of flouting maxims found in the movie The Theory of Everything, namely flouting maxim of quality, quantity, relation, and manner. Flouting maxim of quality is the most dominant type of flouting maxims in the movie, while flouting maxim of manner is the least dominant type of flouting maxims. Based on the types of flouting maxims, there are 7 different strategies used by the characters to flout the maxims; namely metaphor, irony, rhetorical question, overstatement, understatement, irrelevant statement, and ambiguous statement. The most used strategy is irony. Meanwhile, the least used strategy is metaphor. Both irony and metaphor are used to flout the maxim of quality. There are 9 different intentions of flouting maxims found in the movie The Theory of Everything. The intentions are to tease someone, to be polite, to make a joke, to explain something, to avoid a particular topic, to be friendly, to be sarcastic, to change the atmosphere of the conversation, and to deny an accusation. The most dominant intentions of flouting maxims are to tease someone and to be polite. Whereas the least dominant intentions of flouting maxims found in the movie are to be friendly, to be sarcastic, to change the atmosphere of the conversation, and to deny an accusation. This research hopefully can help to provide some information for other researchers who are interested in this field of study. Moreover, this research hopefully can also give an overview and explanation about the occurrences of flouting maxims. Keywords: pragmatics, flouting maxims, the Cooperative Principle