Investigating the Maxim Violation Done by Jessica Wongso in Courtroom Proceedings

Abstract

All courtroom activities are conducted to uphold justice for the entire community. It is important for participants in courtroom proceedings to conduct the court truthfully. This research aims to investigate the maxim violation done by Jessica Wongso and her reason to violate it in her interrogation section with the public prosecutor in the courtroom proceedings. The descriptive qualitative method was applied in this research. The data of this research consists of 55 utterances of Jessica Wongso during her interrogation section with the public prosecutor that contain maxim violation. The Cooperative Principle theory conducted by Grice is employed to analyze the maxim violation and Christoffersen’s criteria to reveal the reason behind the violation. The result of this research shows all types of maxim violation are found in the data, in which the maxim types with the most violations are quantity 29% (16 data), quality 27% (15 data), relation 27% (15 data), and manner 17% (9 data). Moreover, all of these violations have reasons behind them. Out of 8 reasons, 5 of them were found to be the reasons that led maxim violation. The biggest reasons are saving face 58% (32 data), hiding the truth 29% (16 data), building one's belief 5% (3 data), feeling jealous about something 4% (2 data), and convincing the hearer 4% (2 data).