How Listeners Infer Meaning from Indirect Responses in Movie Dialogues

Abstract

This study investigates how listeners infer meaning from indirect responses in the film The Maze Runner (2014). Using a descriptive qualitative approach, six scenes were analyzed to examine how characters reply in ways that do not directly address preceding questions yet still convey intended meanings. The analysis draws on Searle’s theory of indirect speech acts, Grice’s cooperative principle, and contemporary research on pragmatic inference. Findings show that indirect responses function to regulate emotional tension, control access to knowledge, reinforce hierarchical relations, and maintain narrative suspense. Listeners rely on contextual cues, shared assumptions, and situational urgency to interpret meanings that are not explicitly stated. The inferential process involves assessing literal meaning, detecting pragmatic mismatch, and reconstructing speaker intention. The study concludes that indirect responses operate as strategic communicative mechanisms shaping character dynamics and narrative progression. Future research may compare indirectness across genres or explore its role in institutional and high-stakes settings. In addition, the study highlights that indirect responses are closely linked to the survival-based environment of the film, where uncertainty and restricted knowledge influence how characters communicate. The consistent use of indirectness demonstrates that meaning is not solely derived from linguistic form but from the interaction between context, intention, and interpretation. These findings emphasize the importance of pragmatic competence in understanding communication within complex narrative settings and contribute to broader discussions of meaning-making in film discourse.