When the husband asks his wife about the car keys, she has answered him by giving clear and truthful answer. She has also given the right amount of
information and addressed her husband‟s goal in asking the question. In here, the wife has obeyed all of the conversational maxims and she does not generate
implicature Thomas, 1995: 64. In conclusion, all of the conversational maxims in the example above are successfully observed.
5. Flouting Conversational Maxims
According to Grice, flouting a maxim is a situa tion when “a speaker
blatantly fails to observe a maxim” Thomas, 1995: 65. The speakers do not have any intention to mislead or deceive the hearers, but they expect the hearers to look
for the meaning different from, or in addition to, the expressed meaning. The speakers assume that the hearers are able to infer the implied meaning of what is
said. Speakers are said to flout the maxim of Quantity when they blatantly fail
to give sufficient information to the hearers in a conversation. They may give too little or too much information than the situation requires. A flout of the maxim of
Quality occurs when the speakers fail to be truthful by saying something that is not based on truth or fact, or even by saying something for which they lack
adequate evidence. The maxim of Relation is flouted when the speakers provide information that is irrelevant to the topic of discussion. The example of flouting
the maxim of Relation is by changing the topic of discussion, or by failing to address the topic directly. The speakers appear to flout the maxim of Manner
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
