Maksim Kesantunan Leech dalam Debat Pilgub Sumatera Barat 2024: Pematuhan, Pelanggaran, dan Implikasi Pembelajaran Debat

Abstract

This study analyzes compliance with and violations of the principles of polite language based on Leech's six maxims (tact, generosity, approbation, modesty, agreement, sympathy) in the official debates of the 2024 West Sumatra governor and deputy governor candidates held by the West Sumatra KPU. The research data consisted of 227 expressive speech acts extracted from two debate sessions and transcribed from public broadcasts. The study used a qualitative descriptive approach with content analysis methods through the stages of video collection, transcription, coding based on Leech's maxims, and classification of each data unit into compliance or violation categories. The results show that violations (123 data; 54.2%) were more dominant than compliance (104 data; 45.8%). The most prominent violations occurred in the maxim of tact, namely 112 violations from 197 tact data (56.9%), which mainly appeared in the argumentation/rebuttal segment as the most intense part of the debate with competing claims and evaluations. Segmentally, violations were concentrated in the argumentation/rebuttal segment, while the opening segment in the extracted corpus tended to contain compliant utterances. These findings confirm that politeness in political debates is contextual and can serve a strategic function in building image, strengthening position, and attacking opponents' arguments. Pedagogically, debate excerpts can be used as teaching materials for Indonesian language in high schools/MA to (1) practice identifying compliance/violation of maxims, (2) practice reformulating criticism to remain argumentative but more polite, and (3) develop a speaking assessment rubric based on politeness indicators.