Abstract :
Users of social media sites, such as Facebook, tend to violate numerous language rules and use informal language to convey a message. This scenario can cause misunderstanding between sender and receiver in conversation. In order to address the aforementioned concern, Grice proposes the cooperative principle as a rule of conversation. Anchored on Gricean Maxims,
this study explored how these maxims were violated in selected Facebook public comments. Results revealed that the maxims of Quality and Quantity were the most violated maxims. These maxims were violated through flouting a maxim (53.3%) by “Not directly addressing the question or comment”, “Giving information without credible evidences” and “Using vulgar words.” Additionally, Coping with a clash between maxims (46.7%) were done “Providing unverified information” and “Using vulgar words.” Therefore, people shall be vigilant in spotting unverified information online. Since there are no rules governing the use of social media, individuals can easily claim something which in untrue.
Keyword :
Content analysis, Gricean Maxim, Facebook, cooperative principle