Exploring Scriptwriter’s Intention of Maxim Flouting in “Barbie: A Fashion Fairy Tale” Movie

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the flouting maxim of the main character, Barbie, in the dialogue  in  the  movie  transcript  of  “Barbie:  A  Fashion  Fairy  Tale”,  which  is  an animated movie released in 2010, while also discussing the purpose of the movie script writer in flouting maxims. The study is based on Grice’s (1975) theory of Cooperative Principle which consists of four conversational maxims, namely quantity, quality,  relation,  and  manner.  The  method  used  in  this  study  is  a  qualitative descriptive method. The data in this study are selected dialogues from the transcript that contain flouting maxims in the movie. The researcher observed, transcribed, then analyzed the utterances based on the guidelines by Grice (1975). The findings show that  the  main  character,  Barbie,  flouted  all  four  types  of  maxims  throughout  the movie. These maxim floutings were intentionally written by the scriptwriter to build humor and narrative conflict that support the storyline. The use of indirect language, irony,   and   mild  sarcasm  functions   as  a  communicative  strategy  to   show  the character’s personality and make the story more interesting, while still maintaining appropriateness for children and family audiences. Therefore, this study concludes that even children’s animated movies can be analyzed to understand how meanings and  character  expressions can also have a deep  contexts  that can be analyzed  as pragmatic studies and can contribute to understande language use and implied meaning in cinematic discourse.