Maxim of Quality Cooperative Principle
when they provide long-winded and ambiguous explanation to the hearers. By not being order and clear in giving certain information, speakers are also said to flout
the maxim of Manner. The example of flouting of conversational maxims can be found from the
conversation bellow:
Example 11: Penny
: Hey. How do I look? Luke
: Your skirt is so cute… From the conversation above, Luke has flouted the maxim of quantity by not
telling the detail information about Penny‟s appearance. Luke does not say anything about Penny‟s t-shirt or shoes, when it is clear that Penny asks for
Luke‟s advice about her overall appearance. By only mentioning her skirt, he expects Penny to understand the implied meaning he is trying to deliver, which is,
that the skirt is the only thing that looks good on her. Luke could have also flouted the maxim of relation by changing the topic of discussion into a new topic, such
as: „I‟m hungry. Let‟s go get lunch‟. By doing that, Luke tries to distract Penny‟s attention from the topic of discussion. It is possible that Penny‟s appearance is not
as good as she hopes. That being done, if Penny understands the fact that Luke is trying to distract her from answering her question while she still insists in
knowing Luke‟s opinion, she will keep asking Luke until she gets Luke‟s opinion. Based on the situation above, it is possible for Luke not to obey the maxim of
Manner. He could have flouted the maxim of Manner when he answers Penny by saying: „I guess you are confident enough to wear clothes with that kind of color
combinations.‟ From his response, Luke is not being brief in answering Penny‟s
question. He does not say briefly whether or not she looks good in those clothes. He only gives a hint and lets her decide her own appearance. In order to be
cooperative in a conversation, Luke could have given a brief and non-ambiguous answer.
Another example of flouting conversational maxims is the flouting of maxim of Quality that can be found in a situation when an employer is
interviewing an applicant. The employer finds out that the applicant does not have the criteria the company is looking for. Thus, the employer tries to find a nice way
to reject the man by saying: „By having great skills and experiences in engineering like what you have now, I am sure that you will easily fit in a larger company than
our company.‟ In here, the employer actually does not say what he really thinks. It can be concluded that the employer lies to the applicant in order to let him down
easy. By saying this, the employer expects that the applicant will understand the implied meaning from his utterances, which is, that he is not accepted in the
company.