AN ANALYSIS OF MAXIM VIOLATIONS IN AMBER HEARD’S TESTIMONIES DURING JOHNNY DEPP’S DEFAMATION TRIAL

This research focused on conversational maxim violations in Amber Heard’s testimonies during Johnny Depp’s defamation trial, with particular attention to her first examination. The aim of this study was to identify the types of conversational maxim violations and to explain the reasons behind those violations. A qualitative method was employed, and the data were taken from a video entitled Amber Heard Testifies in Defamation Trial – Part One (Johnny Depp v Amber Heard). The analysis was conducted using Cooperative Principle Theory by Grice (1975), supported by the theory of Leech (1983) and the situational context framework proposed by Halliday and Hasan (1985). The results showed that 51 utterances contained maxim violations. The maxim of Quantity violation occurring most frequently with 41 utterances (80%), followed by violations of the maxim of Manner with 7 utterances (14%) and the maxim of Relation with 3 utterances (6%), while no violations of the maxim of Quality were found. In terms of reasons, 49 violations (96%) served a collaborative reason, while one violation (2%) was competitive and one violation (2%) was conflictive, and no convivial reason was identified. These findings showed that maxim violations appeared in the speaker’s responses during courtroom testimony.