26
12 A: Where are you now?
B: I’m in my clothes.
Or, the speaker may flout maxim of relevance to avoid hurting someone’s feeling:
13 A: What are you and C talking about?
B: Oh well… why don’t we go get something to drink?
Moreover, the speaker flouts maxim of relevance when she utters slang or ambiguous utterance:
14
A: Let’s play emoji tennis.
B: Ok.
The word ‘emoji tennis’ is ambiguous. However, it is a slang, meaning texting nothing but emoticon back and forth between a friend or partner.
2 Violating Maxims
According to Grice 1975, the speaker violates a maxim when the speaker will liable to mislead the hearer to have such implicature. The speaker deliberately
tries to make the hearer misunderstanding the truth meaning of speaking. The hearer is misled to look for the surface meaning. This make the hearer infers an
implicature. People in real life tend to tell lies for different reasons, hide the truth, save face, feel jealous, satisfying the hearer, cheer the hearer, building one’s belief,
avoid hurting the hearer, and convincing the hearer as cited in “Non Observance of Grice Maxims”, 2013. As said by Tupan and Natalia 2008, people believe that
a lying is the natural tool to survive and to avoid from anything that may put the speaker in an inappropriate condition p. 64-66.
A speaker violate maxim quality when she lies to cover the truth:
15 A: Who was with you last night?
B: He’s my cousin.
27 Furthermore, a speaker violates maxim of quantity to limit the exposure of
a truth:
16 A: Where have you been? I called you thirty times.
B: I wasn’t around. What’s the big deal?
Or, the speaker violates maxim of relevance to evade current situation or topic being discussed:
17 A: Why did you not come to class today?
B: pointing away Is that Mr. Carla?
3 Opting out Maxims
Thomas 1995, p. 73, defines opting out as a situation when a speaker “chooses not to observe a maxim and states an unwillingness to do so”. For
example, a new friend asks about personal life:
18 A: I heard your boyfriend ran away and dumped you, is it true?
B: I’m sorry I can’t say it to you. Privacy area.
There are some conversations in How I Met Your Mother season 2 which the speakers opted out certain maxim and stated her unwillingness to do so clearly.
19 Robin was hiding the reason why she does not go to the Mall.
Robin: Sorry, I just don’t like Malls. Barney: Why not?
Robin: I’d rather not say.
However, the above example in the situated condition does not appear to be humorous. Rather it appeared to be a disappointment or curiosity for the hearer.
4 Suspending Maxims
This condition occurs when there is a certain circumstances or as part of certain event which does not expect the participant or any participant to observe
one or several maxim and no fulfillment does not generate any implicatures Thomas, 1995, p. 76. For example:
A: Yo mama is so dumb, when she wear a yellow raincoat everyone will yell, Taxi
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