The Role of Flouting Maxim, Context of Situation and Its Function in Supporting Elle Woods’ Character Development in the Legally Blonde (2001) Movie

Shafa Afriela Yonika

Abstract

This study explores how flouting maxims and social context contribute to the character development of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde (2001). It identifies the types and strategies of flouting used, examines their illocutionary functions, and analyzes their role across different stages of the narrative. Using a qualitative, pragmatic approach and Spradley’s ethnographic analysis, 123 utterances from the movie script were analyzed. Elle was found to flout all four maxims—quantity, quality, relevance, and manner—using strategies like overstatement, sarcasm, and ambiguity. These often occurred in high power and high distance contexts (+P +D), with relevance being the most flouted. The dominant illocutionary function was competitive. The findings show that Elle’s use of flouting maxims shifts alongside her growth, highlighting their role in portraying her transformation from a stereotypical "blonde girl" to a capable law graduate.

Keywords

pragmatic, flouting maxim, character development, pragmatic analysis, context of situation, Legally Blonde

Full Text:

PDF PDF

References

Adiari, N. P. Y. J., Maharani, P. D., & Utami, N. M. V. (2021). The functions of floating maxim that uttered by characters of The Hunger Games movie. LITERA: Jurnal Litera Bahasa dan Sastra, 7(1). Ariwangsa R., I., G., B., Gede, S., I., G., A., & Putra, Y., I. B. (2018). The Strategies of Maxim Flouting in Lincoln Movie Script. Jurnal Humanis, 22(4), 943-949. Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press. Cutting, J. (2002). Pragmatics and discourse: A resource book for students. Routledge. Firdaus, S. K. (2023). Flouting of conversational maxims, implicatures, and their social contexts in "Peaky Blinders" series (A Pragmatics Approach) [Thesis]. Universitas Sebelas Maret. Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics: Speech acts (Vol. 3, pp. 41–58). Academic Press. Grice, P. (1989). Studies in the way of words. Harvard University Press. Hamidah, N., Arifin, M. B., & Ariani, S. (2022). Analysis of flouting of conversational maxims by characters in The Help movie. Ilmu Budaya, 6(1), 80–93. He, Y. (2024). Challenging gender stereotypes and promoting female empowerment: A feminist analysis of Legally Blonde. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media, 54, 338–345. Jiwalno, V., Valiantien, N. M., & Setyowati, R. (2020). Flouting maxims performed by the characters in Jackie movie: A pragmatic analysis. Ilmu Budaya: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni dan Budaya, 4(1), 173–187. Leech, G. N. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. Longman. Lutz, K. M., & Smith, K. (2000). Legally Blonde: Shooting script [Film script]. Daily Script. Muslimin, A. I. (2015). Flouting maxims and the implication to major character in Paulo Coelho’s The Winner Stands Alone. Journal on English as a Foreign Language, 4(2), 63. Noertjahjo, E., Arifin, M. B., & Ariani, S. (2017). Analysis of flouting and violating towards maxim of quality in My Sister Keeper novel. Ilmu Budaya: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Budaya, 1(3), 206. Santosa, R. (2021). Dasar-dasar metode penelitian kualitatif kebahasaan. Surakarta: UNS Press. Spradley, J. P. (1980). Participant observation. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Tasyarasita, A. Z., & Wibowo, A. H. (2022). Flouting of conversational maxims analysis of characters and social contexts in All the Bright Places movie. Surakarta English and Literature Journal, 5(2), 59–73. Viryani, N. M. J., Putri, I. G. A. V. W., & Marantika, I. M. Y. (2023). An analysis of flouting maxim in Her movie by Spike Jonze. Journal of Language and Applied Linguistics, 4(2), 92–101.

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.