Volume 11, Number 2, September 2020, 162-177

available at http://jurnalfahum.uinsby.ac.id/index.php/nobel/article/view/299

DOI: 10.15642/NOBEL.2020.11.2.162-177

GRICEAN MAXIM VIOLATION(S) IN THE MURDER CASE OF

JAMAL KHASHOGGI: A FORENSIC LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

Zakir Hussain Radfar1, Dadang Sudana2, and Wawan Gunawan3

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia

Article Info Abstract

The murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the consulate of Saudi Arabia in

Turkey is still controversial. The judgment relies on valid and reliable

evidence. This study is vital due to investigating a murder case based

on pragmatic meanings as language evidence broadcasted in media.

This research employs Grice’s conversational implicature to investigate

the murder of Jamal Khashoggi by analyzing the exposed recorded

tapes of Jamal Khashoggi and the accused inside the consulate, the

utterances of Khadija Changiz, the fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi, and

Adel al Jubeir’s statements, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia as a

representative of the Saudi Arabian. The design of this research is a case

study, and content analysis is used to analyze the data based on

Mayring’s (2000) qualitative content analysis. Based on the findings of

the study, the recorded tapes of Jamal Khashoggi and the accused are

outlined as ambiguous language. Saudi Arabia denied the murder by

saving face, misleading the hearer, and skipping the questions, but later

on, affirmed the murder and promised to bring justice. Hence, the

results of this study will affect the verdict on the judicial decree, and the

accusations will be prosecuted, and justice will be served to Jamal

Khashoggi.

Article History:

Received May 2020

Accepted July 2020

Published September 2020

Keywords:

forensic linguistics,

implicature, Jamal

Khashoggi, murder, Saudi

Arabia

Email: zakir.radfar1@gmail.com e-ISSN 2549-2470

http://jurnalfahum.uinsby.ac.id/index.php/nobel/article/view/299
mailto:zakir.radfar1@gmail.com

Zakir Hussain Radfar, Dadang Sudana, & Wawan Gunawan

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INTRODUCTION

In a few years, forensic linguistic has gained peoples' attention in the world. The term

forensic linguistics was first coined by Svartvik (1968), and now there are so many

organizations that support the development of forensic linguistics. For instance, the University

of Birmingham in Europe has built an organization called Forensic Linguistics: The

International Journal of Speech, Language, and the Law (Coulthard, 2005). Forensic linguistics

is a branch of the linguistic studies (Ariani et al., 2014; Leonard et al., 2017; Ramezani et al.,

2016) and is taken from a Latin word ‘forensis’ (Wasikata, 2014) which investigate the

language usage in crime and assisting the police, court, law in case of the criminal issues.

According to McMenamin (2002), forensic linguistics is the scientific study applied to

forensic purposes and contexts, directly associated with linguistics, applicable and

interdisciplinary knowledge connecting language, crime, and law (Olsson, 2008, p. 11). In

other words, it is the application of scientific knowledge to language in the context of civil,

law, and criminals. Therefore, some linguists are interested in the language of written law,

originality, and language use in forensic procedures, and thus the study starts from the judicial

point of arrest to the trial and sentence stage (Ariani et al., 2014). In line with this view, Momeni

(2012) cited that forensic linguists are boosting their works in the communication and

advertisement, which includes sound identification, identification of writer of a written text,

miscommunication between lawyers and client, perjury, problems related to the legal texts,

libel, problems with brands, interpretation, and translation of communication in courts and

recorded interviews as evidence. Also, there are some areas that forensic linguistics covers.

Ariani et al. (2014) pointed out some specific areas such as document examination, software

forensic, semiotic, plagiarism, linguistic, and lawyer’s interaction. Hence, forensic linguistics

is not only limited to the crimes like murder, suicide, bribe or stealing and assisting the police

in courts but also is a applied to various issues by scientifically accepted principles of linguistic

analysis to legal evidence and using the descriptive linguistic technique (Malcolm & Coulthard,

1997) such as phonology and phonetics, lexis, syntax, pragmatics, discourse, and text analysis

(cited in Ariani et al., 2014).

Further, there has been a spate of interest in forensic linguistics and much research

conducted in the field of forensic linguistics in various areas such as investigation in the police

report (Sumaljag, 2018), research about fraud in the Judicial System as a Language Crime

(Momeni, 2012), analyzing suicide note cases (Sudjana, 2013), studying bribery case in

Indonesia (Waskita, 2014), exploring an authorship identification (Neito et al., 2008), applying

Forensic linguistics in detecting of deviant teaching in Malaysia (Nordin, 2016), and reviewed

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forensic linguistics in the light of crime investigation (Ramezani et al., 2016). As a result, no

study investigated an international murder case broadcasted in Media. Hence, this research

attempted to examine the murder of Jamal Khashoggi that occurred in early October 2018 in

Turkey.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Forensic linguistics is a new approach to applied linguistics which is using scientific

mechanisms (Ramezani et al., 2016) derived from other sub-areas of descriptive linguistics

such as phonetics and phonology, lexis, syntax, pragmatics, semantics, discourse, dialectology,

and text analysis used in courts to solve legal cases (Coulthard, 2005). According to

McMenamin (2002, p. 86), forensic linguistics is the scientific study applied to forensic

contexts, including civil, law, and crime. It is defined as a field of study that deals with

analyzing language in the context of crime, judicial procedure, and dispute law (Udina, 2017).

Based on these definitions, forensic linguistics is directly related to the linguistics and

interdisciplinary knowledge that connects language, crime, and law (Olsson, 2008, p. 11).

According to Udina (2017), forensic linguistics is a new approach using scientific techniques

and other subfields such as phonetics, stylistics, pragmatics, dialectology, and semantics in

courts, a police investigation to solve crimes and legal issues. Hence, most crimes and legal

issues are relying on legal texts (Olsson, 2008), which is implicated in a legal and criminal

context like letters, books, essays, contracts, and theses (Sudjana & Fitri, 2013). Further,

Olsson (2008) clarified with more examples, for instance, “a parking ticket, a will, a contract,

a health department letter, a thesis; almost anything that spans from plagiarism, insurance

contracts, trademarks and patents to court procedure, confessions, hate crimes, and murder.”

To sum up, in line with Shuy (2007) that forensic linguistics includes a wide range of topics

such as the language used in trials by judges, lawyers, and witnesses, further, the language of

the law, language used in civil as well as in criminal cases.

On the other hand, pragmatics is a significant field of linguistics. According to Yule

(1996), pragmatics deals with the appropriateness of linguistic choice to the context. In other

words, Luo and Gao (2011) believed that pragmatics is the study of the use of language in

communication, especially the relationship between sentences, context, and situations in which

utterances are deployed. Some other authors believed pragmatics as the study of language in

use (Akinwotu, 2013 cited in Basra & Thoyyibah, 2017; Levinson, 1983). For instance,

implicature employed in this research is a part of pragmatics. Implicature is something meant,

implied, or suggested distinct from what is said (Wang, 2011). According to Grice (1975), the

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related theory describes the relationship between what is said and what is meant in a case that

the conventional meaning is associated with the sentence ('what is said') and is not equivalent

with the intention of speakers' communication and intended effects on the audience ('what is

meant'). It is how it meets with issues that there are meaning and intention beyond what is

simply said or involve in the communication such speakers' intention does not appear on his

words but another side of meaning. Therefore, there is more than what a speaker says or writes

that should be accounted for as a real intended meaning of the speaker or writer (Nanda, 2015).

Thus, Coulthard and Johnson (2007) and Aziz (2015) believed that pragmatic studies and

pragmatic meanings could cause legal action.

According to Mustafa (2010), Grice introduced two kinds of implicature, the first one is

conversational implicature, and the second one is conventional implicature. The earlier arises

when the producer of an utterance violates the four maxims. The later occurs from the

conventional meaning of words and the discourse they happen in. Aglina (2018) contended that

conversational maxims imply meaning during conversation and are known to conversational

implicature, but the "co-operation" between speakers while using maxim is called cooperative

principles. In conversation, the speaker and hearer need to cooperate in communicating

smoothly. Therefore, there is a need for cooperative principles, which is discussed for the first

time by Grice in his lecture entitled "Logical and Conversation." According to Grice (1975, in

Yule, 1996), "cooperative principles make your conversational contribution such as required,

at the stage at which it occurs by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in

which you are engaged.” Huang (2009, cited in Jingjie, 2016) stated that the cooperative

principle in the exchange of conversation makes sure that the right amount of information is

provided, and the conversation is made in a truthful, relevant, and perspicuous manner. Thus,

the researcher in this study believed that cooperative principles would help find the truth of the

murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the consulate. The cooperative principles include four maxims:

the maxim of quality, the maxim of quantity, the maxim of relation, and the maxim of manner.

Yule (1996) pointed out the maxims, such as the following:

a. the maxim of quantity:

1) Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purpose of the

exchange).

2) Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.

b. the maxim of quality:

Try to make your true contribution.

1) Do not say what you believe to be false.

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2) Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

c. the maxim of relation:

Be relevant.

d. the maxim of manner:

Be perspicuous.

1) Avoid obscurity of expression.

2) Avoid ambiguity.

3) Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).

4) Be orderly

The Context of the Murder Case

Jamal Khashoggi is a Saudi citizen who was a prominent journalist and often criticizing

the Saudi government (Haltiwanger, 2018). He was an adviser to a senior official in the Saudi

government and worked for the top news outlets in the country and was seen as close to the

ruling elite in Saudi Arabia. Last year, he had a falling-out with the government over Saudi's

prince Mohammad Bin Salman because of controversial tactics as he has worked to consolidate

his power. Indeed, he has not been seen since the 2nd of October, 2018 while he entered to

Saudi's consulate in Turkey. Based on the online broadcasting Media, he has been killed by

Saudi's royal family. Now, the legal procedure is going on. This research focused on the

forensic linguistic analysis of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder reflected through the national and

international online media to determine the truth and help the prosecutions.

METHODS

This research is a descriptive study, and the data is analyzed qualitatively. The design

employed in this research is a case study, and content analysis is used to analyze the data based

on the qualitative content analysis of Mayring (2000). Based on this framework, Mayring

(2000) exemplified materials such as interview transcripts, focus groups, observational studies,

document analysis, and secondary analysis. Thus, this study includes transcripts of video

recorded tape as document analysis and also interviews. The researcher used Grice’s

conversational implicatures (1975) and interpreted the data based on Coulthard and Johnson’s

language in evidence (2007). Further, the framework of the study is developed based on

cooperative principles of Grice (1975); based on this framework, Ql=stands for Quality,

Qn=stands for Quantity, R=stands for relevance, and M=stands for Manner.

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The research is a case study investigating the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey based

on online broadcasting Media such as Sabah Daily Newspaper, The New York Times (NYK),

Al-Jazeera, and BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). The data is already published in the

Media by CIA agents of USA, Turkish police and authorities, and other investigators. The data

includes the exposed recorded tapes of Jamal Khashoggi and the accused people inside the

consulate, interviews and press conferences of Khadija Changiz, the fiancée of Jamal

Khashoggi who is demanding justice, and Adel al Jubeir’s statements about the murder of

Jamal Khashoggi-the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia as a representative of the Saudi Arabian

Kingdom in this study. To transcribe the data, the researcher used software called MAXQDA,

version 2018. This version is the new generation of software that presents seven new innovative

analysis tools, including Paraphrasing, Twitter statistics, smart coding, group comparison, code

configuration, survey response, Maxmaps, and Transcriptions. Besides, the researcher asked

someone a native speaker of Turkish and a specialist to re-transcript the videos related to the

Turkish language. These people could help the researcher to understand the data better.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

Interpretation of Implicatures as a Language in Evidence Applied in the Report about

the Murder of Jamal Khashoggi

To analyze the data, the researcher applied Grice’s conversational implicature (1975) and

interpreted the data based on the theory of language in evidence (Coulthard & Johnson, 2007).

Based on the findings of the study, generally, the speakers failed to observe the maxims to have

a cooperative conversation, and in particular, they flouted and violated the maxims to convey

their intended thought to the hearer. Much details are provided about the outcome of the study

in the table below:

Table 1. The findings of cooperative principles of the study

Observance of

maxims

Non-observance of Maxims Total

maxim

No Utterer Ql Qn R M Flouting Violating Opting out Infringing

Ql Qn R M Ql Qn R M Ql Qn R M Ql Qn R M

1 Recorded

tape of

Jamal

Khashoggi

1 1 1 3

2 Khadija

Changiz

7 3 1 11

3 Adel al

Jubier

2 2 2 1 7

Overall total of non-observance of maxims 21

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As shown in the table above, the recorded tapes of Jamal Khashoggi's conversation with

accused people were included in the non-observance of maxims. For instance, he has flouted

the maxim of quality for one time. He has flouted the maxim of quantity and manner, one time,

respectively. In opposite, there is not violating the maxims the same as Adel al Jubeir did. Thus,

Thomas (1995) stated that flouting a maxim is when a speaker blatantly fails to observe a

maxim in which he has no intention of deceiving or misleading (p. 65). So, the outcome of the

recorded tape of Jamal Khashoggi is similar to Khadija Changiz. Khadija Changiz also has not

cooperated well in the conversation. She has flouted the maxims not violated. Based on the

results of the analysis, she has flouted the maxims for 11 times, which was included seven (7)

times flouting the maxim of quantity and three (3) times the maxim of relevance and once (1)

maxim of manner; but, the third party based on the analysis, Adel al Jubeir has violated the

maxims in opposite to other parties. Violating maxims occurs when the speaker will be liable

to mislead the hearer (Grice, 1989). Hence, Adel al Jubeir violated the maxims of quantity two

times, quality, and manner each of them two times and violated the maxim of relevance only

two times. Further, Adel al Jubeir has once opted out the maxim of quality. As a result, violating

the maxim of quantity is more than others in this study. Thus, it is in line with Tajabadi et al.

(2014), who investigated the Grice's cooperative maxims in oral arguments; their study

revealed that the maxim of quantity is mostly violated; because the participants in the court

were providing more information than required. Hence, they believed that legal language seems

to be over informative and overcrowded and presented awkwardly. Thus, Tajabadi et al. (2014)

contended that the contribution of involved parties is more than required due to explaining

about the situation, telling a story, saving face, and blamed others guilty. In the following, it

is discussed in details:

1. Implicatures Applied in the Recorded Tape of Jamal Khashoggi

Based on the revealed recorded tape of Jamal Khashoggi and other people in the consulate,

they have flouted the maxims of quality, quantity, and manner once, respectively. In the

following is discussed in details:

1.1 Flouting of the maxims

Flouting a maxim is when a speaker blatantly fails to observe a maxim in which he has no

intention of deceiving or misleading (Thomas, 1995, p. 65). Therefore, the flouting of a maxim

includes all kinds of maxims, including quality, quantity, manner, and relation. Further, these

maxims are flouted in the recorded tape of Jamal Khashoggi. Examples are discussed below:

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1.1.1 Flouting the maxims of quantity in the recorded tapes of Jamal Khashoggi

The utterance below showed the flouting of the maxim of quantity. According to Grice

(1989), this maxim is related to the quantity of the information provided (p. 26).

[1.1] Accused 1: I know how to cut well

Accused 2: Why?

Accused 3: Because he is a forensic expert. He is a senior military guy.

Regarding the utterances above, the contribution should be as informative as required, and

more information than required is flouting the maxims. Therefore, the utterance because he is

a forensic expert. He is a senior military guy, is an answer to the question why? The first

sentence of the statement is quite informative and enough to answer the question, but in the

second sentence, the speaker has flouted the maxim. He has given more information than

required, which is not important.

1.1.2 Flouting the maxims of relation in the recorded tapes of Jamal Khashoggi

[1.2] Jamal Khashoggi: I'm suffocating … Take this bag off my head, I'm claustrophobic.

Accused: Put your air phones in and listen to music like me, when I do this job, I

listen to music.

Based on the above statement, put your air phones in and listen to music like me, when I

do this job, I listen to music, the speaker has flouted the maxim of relation; this is because the

speaker’s utterance is not relevant to the hearer speech. The reason is that the accused man did

not cooperate with the speaker; he stated something irrelevant. Maxim of the relation or

relevance emphasizes on the importance of having answers in relevance to the topic being

discussed (Ceballos & Sosas, 2018, p. 25). Thus, the speaker said to him to ‘put your air phones

and listen to music …’ while he is doing the same. That means the speaker changed the topic

using the irrelevance topic related to his partner of the conversation (Levinson, 1983, p. 111).

Hence, he flouted the maxim of the relation. Thus, his utterance is not related to the issue. As

language evidence and pragmatic meanings, the speaker ignored him, and therefore, his

statement is not relevant to Jamal Khashoggi’s utterance. This indicated that he is mocking him

while doing something. Hence, this utterance employs the implicature of mocking.

1.2.3 Flouting the maxim of manner in the recorded tape of Jamal Khashoggi

In the conversation below, the answer to the question that Releases my arm! What do you

think you are doing, the speaker answered, ‘Traitor! You will be brought to account!’

[1.3] Jamal Khashoggi: “Release my arm! What do you think you are doing?”

Accused: “Traitor! You will be brought to account!”

Jamal Khashoggi: “You can’t do that; People are waiting outside.”

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Based on the above data [1.3], the answer to the question is not clear and did not provide

the right answer to the question, and hence, it indicates an ambiguous language (Grice, 1989).

The hearer may know what the speaker means because it seems known to him from his next

sentence, you can't do that. People are waiting outside. That means he can do something, and

he is afraid to not happen to him, and thus he continues to affirm that people are waiting for

him outside. In last, as a result, he has flouted the maxim of the manner because the answer is

not clear to the question. According to Grice (1989), the maxim of manner means speakers

should avoid obscurity of expression, avoid ambiguity, be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity),

and be orderly (p. 27). Thus, as language evidence, according to Coulthard and Johnson (2007),

He has not said the exact word, and on the other side, the implicature employed ambiguity.

That means he had a plan to do something with Jamal Khashoggi.

2. Implicatures Applied in the Khadija Changiz Utterances

Khadija Changiz also has not cooperated well in the conversation with the hearer. Based

on the result of the analysis, she has flouted the maxim of quantity and maxim of relevance.

2.1 Flouting of the maxims resulted emphasizing on the event by providing more information

than required for several times:

The conversation below is between Khadija Changiz and the Reporter:

[2.1] Reporter: What did he say to you before he went in for the appointment? A second

appointment. You were outside with him.

Khadija: He did not tell me anything. He went straight in. We had not discussed any

possibility of having a problem, nor did we talked about whom to contact if something

bad happened to him. Not at all.

The question what did he say to you before he went in for the appointment, is answered

correctly by the hearer in the statement He did not tell me anything, but this was not enough to

the speaker so, therefore, she has given more information than required which was not essential,

but it is related. Thus, she has flouted the maxim of quantity. It is because she has been over

informative (Grice, 1989, p. 26). Flouting the maxim of quantity is due to the speaker, which

gives more or less information than the situation requires. According to the above statement,

she gave more information because she believed the situation required it. She talked about the

whole story of what happened on that day while Jamal Khashoggi was leaving for the consulate,

and she talked about the unwanted coming events too. Thus, she has provided more information

than required. She stated several sentences repeatedly. That means she emphasized that related

issue.

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In the following statement, Khadija Changiz did not cooperate well with the speaker:

[2.2] Reporter: and then you went to the consulate front door. What happened then?

Khadija: The wave bursting, which made me anxious was my sister's message saying

that the Saudi consulate would close at three-thirty. I started running towards the

entrance. Then I told the consulate security guide that Jamal was still inside and he did

not come out yet. The man who a Turkish security official was told me he did not know

much about it, but he told me if the consulate was now closed everyone would have

been out already.

Based on the data [2.2], the first statement of the question, the wave bursting which made

me anxious was my sister's message saying that the Saudi consulate would close at three-thirty,

is not related to the question's answer; hence, the speaker flouted the maxim of relation. The

reason is that Khadija Changiz did not cooperate with the speaker; she stated something

irrelevant. Maxim of the relation or relevance emphasizes on the importance of having answers

in relevance to the topic being discussed (Ceballos & Sosas, 2018, p. 25). Furthermore, the

statements to answer what happened then while she went to the consulate front door? is entirely

related to the question and answered as much as needed. Hence, that means she has observed

the maxim of relation.

3. Implicatures applied in Adel al Jubeir’s utterances

Adel al Jubier has failed to observe the maxims and violated the maxims of quantity,

quality, and manner and also the maxim of relation. In addition, he has even opted out the

maxim.

3.1 Violating of the maxims showed denying the case, misleading the hearer, saving face.

[3.1] Reporter: You're Excellency; this is a top-down society. Explain to us how the crown

prince could not know about something like this because people close to him did.

Adel al Jubeir: you have people, and people were dismissed that should have known

or should have revealed what they knew or should have prevented this or should have

made sure that the authorizations were very clear and the authorities were very clear

the. This was an unfortunate accident, and it was a crime and those who committed it

will be brought to justice. Our investigation is ongoing. We have asked Turkey to

provide us with evidence. We're still waiting for some of the evidence. We're asking

other countries if they have any evidence to provide it to our court system so they can

help them with the trials that are taking place.

According to the above statement, to answer the question, how the crown prince could not

know about something like this because people close to him did, Adel al Jubeir responded that

you have people. People were dismissed that should have known or should have revealed what

they knew or should have prevented this or should have made sure that the authorizations were

very clear and the authorities were very clear. Based on his answer, Adel al Jubeir violated the

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maxim of quality. He misled the hearer to something lie. His sentence seemed non-sense; he

said something false and unrelated to the discussed topic. Thus, he has violated the maxim of

quality.

Further, based on the above utterance that ‘this was an unfortunate accident and it was a

crime and those who committed it will be brought to justice…, this utterance is relevant to the

question. However, Al Jubeir violated the maxim of the quantity. He could say that it was an

unfortunate accident that happened, but on the opposite, he has given more information than

required. He has provided more information on something which is not important. As some of

his utterances are not relevant to the question, for instance, 'We have asked Turkey to provide

us with evidence. We're still waiting for some of the evidence. We're asking other countries if

they have any evidence to provide it to our court system so they can help them with the trials

that are taking place.' These sentences are a kind of misleading the hearer to some other issues

which are not important. Hence, he did not cooperate well in conversation with the opposite

side. He used to hide something to save the face of the Saudi Arabia government. Thus, he has

violated the maxim of quantity, quality, and relevance. According to Grice (1975, p. 45), a

speaker even does multiple violations for lying purposes. Therefore, Adel al Jubeir violated to

hide, save face, and lied to have such implicature.

[3.2] Reporter: Your Excellency thank you so much for joining us. I want to kick off by

asking you about the comments that we've heard over the last 24 hours from President

Trump. He said maybe the crown prince knew and maybe he didn't about the murder of

Jamal Khashoggi and either way Saudi Arabia has his support. How do you feel about

getting that kind of praise and support from the president?

Adel al Jubier: “Well it's. We have made it very clear that Saudi Arabia's a government

is not involved in this, 100 circumference is not important to us at all. We have made it

very clear that this was an operation that was that went wrong where people exceeded

their authorities did something they're not supposed to do. We have made it very clear

that we're investigating that those who committed this crime will be brought to justice

and that procedures will be reviewed in order to make sure it doesn't happen again and

this is exactly what we're doing.”

According to Grice (1975), people intend to tell untruth and break the cooperative

principles while communicating and doing multiple violations due to several reasons, for

instance, by hiding the truth, saving face, feeling jealous, satisfying, convincing and making

happy the hearer and avoiding hurting the hearer. Hence, based on the statement above, Adel

al Jubier violated the maxims of cooperative principles in the related conversation with the

hearer. The question is, how do you feel about getting that kind of praise and support from the

president? The question is to know his feelings, but his answer referred to deny the case of

murder. He just affirmed it with 'well, it is' which means he may hide the truth to save the face

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of Saudi's government. Hence, he has stated that We have made it very clear that Saudi Arabia

is a government is not involved in this. He denied the crime committed by Saudi Arabia in this

sentence. However, he may know this is false because, in another sentence, he has accepted

the crime done by officials of Saudi Arabia. We have made it very clear that this was an

operation that was that went wrong where people exceeded their authorities did something

they are not supposed to do. He intended to mislead the hearer to something different. In the

last sentence of his statement, he, while accepting the case of murder and crime, has given hope

to bring justice and to commit not to happen again.

In the following to the above statements, Adel al Jubeir violated the maxims of manner

two times. The utterances are presented below:

[3.3] Reporter: A lot of people have heard that audio. Why did they say that they won't give

it to you?

Adel al Jubeir: “I don't know you should ask them. The other issue that we have is

we've said to the Turkish friends if you have any more evidence, please provide it. And

so if there has been any delay in providing evidence, it's the other way around. We have

sent an investigative team to Turkey who had spent several weeks there in order to work

with our Turkish friends, and our public prosecutor sent three official documents

requesting information from Turkey specific information. We still are waiting for the

answers.

Furthermore, the speaker in response to the question ‘the other issue that we have is

we've said to the Turkish friends if you have any more evidence, please provide it…, According

to Grice (1989, p. 27), the speaker has violated the maxim of manner, because he used

ambiguous language, in other words, he is not brief and orderly. The utterances did not mean

to answer the question but used to mislead the hearer. In last, the speaker at the same time

opting out the maxim and violated the maxim of manner. First, he did not want to cooperate

with the hearer, and the second did not avoid the ambiguities.

3.2 Opting out the maxims showed rejecting the co-operation with the speaker.

Adel al Jubeir has violated opting out once, and it is discussed below:

[3.4] Reporter: A lot of people have heard that audio. Why did they say that they won't give

it to you?

Adel al Jubeir: “I don't know you should ask them. The other issue that we have is

we've said to the Turkish friends if you have any more evidence, please provide it. And

so if there has been any delay in providing evidence, it is the other way around. We

have sent an investigative team to Turkey who had spent several weeks there in order

to work with our Turkish friends, and our public prosecutor sent three official

documents requesting information from Turkey specific information. We still are

waiting for the answers.

Gricean Maxim Violation(s)

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Volume 11, Number 2, September 2020, 162-177

Based on the statement, to answer the question, why did they say that they will not give it to

you, Adel al Jubeir did not cooperate with the speaker. According to Grice (1975, p.71), when

the speaker seems unwilling to cooperate in the way the maxim requires, he/she opts out the

maxim. In this case, in the statement above, he answered the question with I do not know you

should ask them. He has opted out the maxim. Hence, Thomas (1995) believed that opting out

occurs in public life when the speaker cannot reply due to legal or ethical reasons in a normal

way. Hence, he refused to answer the question. He may know some reasons behind the

answering to the question, or he may hide something.

As a result of the discussions above, the recorded tapes of Jamal Khashoggi's with the

accused men includes the observance and non-observance of the maxims. The two speakers

talking with each other, and failed to observe the maxims, showed misleading each other. In

addition to these, recorded tapes are highlighted as ambiguous language. The accused people

knew what they were doing, and it was a preplanned action. Therefore, their utterances are not

being brief, using obscure language, and using ambiguities language (Thomas, 1995, p. 65).

On the other hand, Khadija Changiz has not cooperated well in the conversation. Khadija

Changiz tried to expand more detailed information and emphasized the murder while insisting

that Jamal Khashoggi is innocent; hence, she has asked for justice. According to Vrij et al.

(2016), truthful stories included more details of information than a deceptive story. That means

Khadija Changiz was telling the truth about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. In contrast, Adel

al Jubeir has violated the maxims to fulfill his intentions, such as saving face, lying, and

denying the murder of Saudi citizens. He tried to skip the co-operation with the speaker; he has

hidden the truth to save the face of Saudi's government. He rejected the crime committed by

Saudi Arabia, though he knew that it is false. Later, he has accepted the crime is committed by

Saudi Arabia; and, he has given hope to bring justice and not to happen again in the future. In

last, the result of this study is in line with Tajabadi et al. (2014), who has investigated Grice's

cooperative maxims in oral arguments. Their study revealed that the maxim of quantity is

mostly violated because the participants in the court are providing more information than

required. Hence, they believed that legal language seems to be over informative and

overcrowded and presented awkwardly. Thus, Tajabadi et al. (2014) contended that the

contribution of involved parties is more than required due to explaining the situation, telling a

story, saving face, and blamed others guilty. Including this, Ceballos and Sosas' (2018) findings

showed that the violation of maxims is unostentatious, quiet, and non-observance of a maxim

of conversation. They stated that message witness in trial courts intends to convey a misleading

Zakir Hussain Radfar, Dadang Sudana, & Wawan Gunawan

NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 175

Volume 11, Number 2, September 2020, 162-177

that resulted in the questioning of attorney and leads to further court discussion and lengthy

drawn cross-examination.

In last, according to Coulthard and Johnson (2007) and Aziz (2015), pragmatic meanings

in any kind of discourse, written or spoken, and conversation have the potential to cause the

legal actions. Hence, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi inside the consulate of Saudi Arabia in

Turkey, based on the pragmatic meanings provided above, proved ‘true.’ Thus, the criminals

should be arrested, prosecuted until justice should be served.

CONCLUSION

This study attempted to discover the truth and valid information about the murder of Jamal

Khashoggi inside the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Turkey. Thus, the exposed recorded tapes

of Jamal Khashoggi's with the accused men failed to observe the maxims; hence, recorded

tapes are highlighted as ambiguous. On the other side, Khadija Changiz has emphasized on the

truth of the case by providing detailed information, while at the same time, constantly

demanding justice for the victim. In opposite, Saudi Arabia denied the murder several times,

misleading the hearer, saving face and denying the truth, and then in last, accepted the criminal

acts and committing to serve justice. Thus, with the help of this study and pragmatic meanings,

judgment controversies are solved, the accusations are prosecuted, and justice is served to

Jamal Khashoggi.

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