AN ANALYSIS OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN HER MOVIE. A Thesis. Submitted to Letter and Humanities Faculty. In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for

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1 AN ANALYSIS OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN HER MOVIE A Thesis Submitted to Letter and Humanities Faculty In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for The Degree of Strata One RAINY NUR NORRA ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT ADAB AND HUMANITIES FACULTY STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA 2015

2 ABSTRACT Rainy Nur Norra, An Analysis of Politeness Strategy in Her movie. A thesis. Jakarta: English Letters Department, Letters and Humanities Faculty, State Islamic University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta This thesis is the study of pragmatics on the use of politeness strategy in movie entitled Her. It is a qualitative research. The theory used in this thesis is Brown and Levinson s Negative Politeness Strategy, and supported by Ronald Wardaugh Politeness and Solidarity theory. The writer also analyzes the relation between distance and the choice of strategy and how the strategy works in the conversation. By applying the theories, the writer knows that the characters use the politeness strategy as we know that politeness strategy have several sub-strategies that have a different purpose. Those sub-strategies are bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, off record, and don t do FTA. They uses those strategies relates to the context of the conversation and the situation. Furthermore, Wardaugh theory about solidarity and politeness are not necessarily main reflection about how the character behavior to each other. Their relation is close but they still polite although the tension of the situation heat up. In conclusion, politeness strategy use to maintain the hearer face in order to communication going well, and the sociological variable such as power, distance, and ranking of imposition is not the main factor that someone uttered polite or impolite, it is based on the situation. i

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5 DECLARATION I hereby declared that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor the material which to substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text. Jakarta, January 15, 2015 Rainy Nur Norra iv

6 ACKNOWLEDGMENT Merciful. In the name of Allah Subhana Wa Ta aalaa, the most Gracious and the most First of all the writer would like to give all majesty and praise to Allah Subhana Wa Ta aalaa who is always give her strength, patients, blessing in completing this thesis. May blessing, peace and salutation be upon the most honorable prophet and messenger of Allah Subhana Wa Ta aalaa, Muhammad Solalluhu Alaihi Wassalam, his families, companion, and congregations. The writer would like to express her deep and sincere gratitude to her advisor, Sholikatus Sa diyah, M.Pd. who had guided and supported her to accomplish this thesis. The writer recognizes that without her guidance, critic, and constructive comment and support during the writing of this thesis, it will not be fulfilled. The writer would like to express her special gratitude to her beloved parents, Abdul Azis and Kholifah, who never stop praying for her, their financial support, their mentally support, their contribution in the writer s life especially in finishing this thesis. Deep gratitude also to the writer s sister Rizki Amalia and her husband, Suherman, her children, Maliq Al-Gazali, Mikaila Ligwina Halwa, Muhammad Hylmi Al-tamis, and also for her sister Rana El Bilqis for her support, kindness, love, and limitless encouragement. v

7 The writer would also like to express the deepest gratitude to many people who given their participation and support in finishing this thesis. They are as follows: 1. Prof. Dr Syukron kamil M.Ag, the Dean of Adab and Humanities Faculty. 2. Drs. Saefudin, M.Pd, the Head of English Letters Department. 3. Elve Oktaviyani, M.Hum, the Secretary of English Letters Department. 4. All lecturers of English Letters Department, who gave the writer knowledge by taught and educated the writer during her studies at the English Letters Department. 5. All the staff of main library of UIN Jakarta, PKBB UNIKA ATMAJAYA, and Faculty of Adab and Humanities library that helped the writer in finding so many references. 6. The writer s group of KKN GEMA PERMATA, what a great month with them and hopefully they have another great month ahead.. 7. The writer s best friend since junior high school Njo, Adry, Raden, Topik, Randy, thank you for the laugh and for the unbreakable friendship. They are not best friend anymore, they are partner in crime. 8. The writer s best friend since high school Icha, Widy, Pietrajaya, Eko, Fauzan, thank you for sharing any thought with them, they are the real MVP. 9. The writer s best friend in the same struggle Farah Noor Syalies, Yuni Asri and Devita Adriani Thank you so much for being such a great companion vi

8 along the way in finishing this thesis, and the laugh for previous four years and also hopefully another million years ahead. And for those that the writer could not mention one by one, for their outstanding contribution, material and immaterial assistance, it was so great having them all. May Allah SWT blessed and protects them. Amin Jakarta, September 2015 The Writer vii

9 TABLE OF CONTENT ABSTRACT... i APPROVAL SHEET... ii LEGALIZATION... iii DECLARATION... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT... v TABLE OF CONTENT... viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION... 1 A. BACKGROUND OF STUDY... 1 B. FOCUS OF STUDY... 5 C. RESEARCH QUESTION... 5 D. SIGNIFICANT OF STUDY... 5 E. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY... 6 CHAPTER II THEORETICAL DESCRIPTION... 8 A. PREVIOUS RESEARCH... 8 B. CONCEPT Politeness Brown and Levinson Politeness Theory Bald On Record Positive Politeness Negative Politeness Off Record Don t Do FTA Sociological Variable CHAPTER III DATA ANALYSIS A. Data Description B. Data Analysis viii

10 CHAPTER IV CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions B. Suggestions BIBLIOGRAPHY ix

11 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of Study Language is a communication tool between members of society in the form of a symbol of the sound produced by the human vocal organs. Communication tool is intended as a means to interact or are interconnected with the other person. 1 As a member of the community would someone need to interact with others through the medium of language. Language is an arbitary system which uses in society to cooperate, communicate, and to identify them. 2 Language used in order to reach what the purpose of the communication. In short, language is medium to communicate in order to interact with society in life. Moreover, communication happens in almost all aspect of life and it is not only as a communication to each other, but also it uses in social aspects such as one's relationship with others, religion, and politics, economics and culture. In addition, in the terms of entertainment, such as movies, soundtracks, and scripts use language either. However the language used within them are certainly to convey the purpose of the creator regardless any linguistics intention. It means that the usage of language is unconsciously contained with linguistics element. 1 Didin Saefudin Buchori. Bahasa Indonesia Untuk Mahasiswa. (Bogor: Granada sarana pustaka. 2012), P.1 2 Abdul Chaer. Linguistik Umum. (Jakarta: Rineka Cipta,2003). P

12 2 Indeed, in the movie definitely are played by various characters that could represent the hidden intention in the film. As the part of storyline, the characters have a conversation delivered by the expression. It means, the language usage effects the expression from the speaker, in this case is the characters. A movie as one of the creative arts arguably has a lot of demands from its spectacle. Especially movie are made by the foreign, precisely by Hollywood industry which mastered cinema networks around the world. The story itself has its own uniqueness; in this case the writer highlights a movie entitled Her. This movie serves an extra ordinary love story, which the main female character in the movie is only a digital voice from computer program. The story tells about the difficult situation the main male actor and the digital voice character who are falling in love to each other. The voice character named Samantha and the male named. The director, succeed plays the emotion of the writer through the love story between Samantha and. Nevertheless, as I mention earlier that the script is conducted for the sake of the story regardless the linguistic element itself. In the other hands, there is a strategy contained in every communication. According to Georgia Green that quoted by Yule in his book that is to understand of intention in human action, it involves interpretation in order to accomplish some purpose in communication. It also includes belief, intention (or goal), plan, and act. 3 The interpretation is based on what we might have intended to convey and includes evaluation as rude and inconsiderate, or considerate and thoughtful. This impact of these evaluations became the investigation and it called politeness. 4 Politeness has been triggered by 3 Georgia Green. Pragmatic and Natural Language Understanding. Lawrence Erlbaum1989, p. 3 in George Yule. Pragmatic. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996) p Ibid p Gino Eelen. A Critique of Politeness Theories. (Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. 2001) pp. 2-19

13 3 some linguists that which are Robin Lakoff, Stephen C. Levinson and Penelope Brown, Geoffrey Leech, Yueguo Gu, Sachiko Ide, Shosana Blum-Kulka, Bruce Fraser and William Nolen, Horst Arndt and Richard Janney, and finally Richard Watts. 5 However, the writer chose the theory proposed by Brown and Levinson, although not the first, Brown & Levinson s theory is certainly the most influential witness the innumerable reactions, applications, critiques, modifications and revisions their 1987 publication has triggered, and still does. 6 In their book entitled Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage suggests that in conversation, speaker and hearer both have positive and negative face 7, where the face should be kept. Brown and Levinson define face as the public self-image that every member wants to claim for himself. 8 This face has two aspects: positive and negative. Negative face: the basic claim to territories, personal preserves, right to non-distraction i.e. to freedom of action and freedom from imposition Positive face: the positive consistent self-image or personality (crucial including the desire that his self-image be appreciated and approved of) claimed by interactants. 9 In short, this theory focuses to analyzed the strategies as follows (1) bald on record, (2) Positive politeness, (3) Negative politeness, (4) Off Record, (5) Don t do FTA. Those strategies are applied in order to uncover the linguistics elements within the human and the computer device character s interaction. 6 Ibid p. 3 7 Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson, Politeness: Some Universals In Language Usage, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), p Ibid. p Brown and Levinson. Op.cit. p. 61

14 4 However, the writer limited this research by only analyzing the negative politeness strategy. According to Brown and Levinson, the negative politeness itself is redressive action addressed to the adressee s negative face: his want to have his freedom of action unhindered and his attention unimpeded. In short, to minimize the particular imposition that the FTA unavoidably effects to hearer. 10 Furthermore, unconsciously we can learn linguistic deeper through the movie. We can find out when and what one's goals using politeness strategies through the movies we watch from the characters who plays the movie through their utterances which relates to the context and situation in the scene of the movie. This study aimed to find out when and what strategies should be used in any context of the conversation that if we can apply in our daily lives that will ultimately have an impact on our relationships with others. In addition, this research also uses a supporting theory from Ronald Wardaugh to attempt discovered the closeness relationship between the speaker and the hearer. His theory called solidarity and politeness. In short, the closer the relationship between the speaker and the hearer the less politeness level and vice versa. This theory conveyed about how the relationship of a person to another person influenced their utterance and in this case is politeness. Wardaugh also conveyed about address term that use in order to be polite and friendly. 11 Those explanations above are the reasons of the writer to do this analysis with a movie entitled Her as the research by using the Brown and Levinson as the main theory to analysis the language phenomenon. Also theory by 1986) p Ibid p Ronald Wardaugh. An Introduction To Sociolinguistics. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

15 5 Wardaugh is applied as the supporting theory to attempt the analysis more accurate. B. Focus of Study In this thesis, the writer will focus on politeness strategy by Brown and Levinson in Her movie. The thesis will be analyzed each scene to know what strategy that use in the movie and how it works and why characters in the movie use those strategies. C. Research Questions In accordance with the background research that has been described beforehand, some research questions that will be explored in depth can be formulated as follows: 1. How are the strategies used by the character in the movie Her using politeness strategies? 2. Why do the characters in the movie Her use politeness strategies in their utterances? D. Significance of Study Theoretically, this thesis is expected to increase the repertoire of linguistic analysis study to be more diverse and varied. In addition, this study is expected to provide accurate information about the meanings of what is contained in every utterance its politeness and politeness strategies. And become knowledge for further research so that further research could investigate in more depth and varying the other linguistic science. Not only

16 6 expected to increase repertoire of linguistics studies but also to learn about politeness strategy in more depth through the film that became the object of this study, so it can be applied in real life. E. Research Methodology 1. Objectives of Research The aims of this research are: 1. To know how the strategies used by the character in the movie. 2. To know the purpose related to the context of conversation of the character use of politeness strategy of Brown and Levinson's theory in the movie entitled Her 2. The Method of Research This thesis is a qualitative research. Qualitative research is descriptive. 12 The writer noted meticulously the data that in the form of words 13 and in this case is movie script. From these data, the writer analyzing the data to make generalizations or conclusions of the research subjects The Technique of Data Analysis The Writer search data in the selected movie script then look for scenes in the movie that is suitable as a data afterwards writer wrote on the data card for makes analysis easier. The data has already collected is analyzed qualitatively by performing the following steps: 12 Edi Subroto. Pengantar Metoda Penelitian Linguistik Struktural. (Surakarta: Sebelas Maret University Press, 1992). p Ibid. 14 Ibid.

17 7 a. Determining the topic and the objective of the thesis. b. Reading the related literature data. c. Determining of the object of the thesis and the theory to solved the problem. d. Watching the movie Her and reading the script. e. Marking and giving notes on the politeness utterances found. f. Identifying and analyzing based on related theory. g. Concluding the research findings. 4. The Instrument of Research The writer is the primary instrument for data collection and analysis. 15 Data have been obtained by the author are written into a card called a data card, the data card contains data that has been taken in the script of the film. 16 Then, the data card used as instrument also besides the writer herself. 5. The Unit of Analysis This thesis uses movie entitled Her as the corpus which the movie cast by Joaquin Phoenix as the main male character and Scarlet Johanson as main female character, but her role in this movie is only a voice heard from computer. Moreover, the genre of this movie is drama. This movie was released in This movie won Academy Award in 2014 for best writing original screenplay, and Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay, Motion Picture. These awards are very prestigious in the movie industry. 15 Sharan B. Miriam. Qualitative Research: A guide to Design and Implementation, (San Fransisco: Jossey Bass, 2009) p Subroto. P. 42

18 CHAPTER II THEORETICAL DESCRIPTION A. Previous Research Before writer doing this thesis about politeness in the movie 'Her', the study by previous writers have been done with different units of analysis. The writer found four writers who wrote thesis about politeness, here are previous writers: 1. This thesis was written by Yuliana Prameswari in 2012, entitled Negative Politeness Strategy in Diplomacy Meeting at UN Security Council Summit on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Disarmament. She used several theories to analyzed the unit analysis, the theories are Brown and Levinson s negative politeness strategy, supported by other theories such as John Searle s indirect speech act, Grice s cooperative principle dimensions-nonspuriousness, relevance, and perspicuosness, Leech s tact maxim, Agha s honorification, Ross s degrees of nouniness and Scollon s politeness system. From this research, the writer found the fact that by applying the theories, the writer knows that negative politeness strategy regularly implies in spokesman s utterances to not infringe the hearer s negative face and to maintain the harmonized atmosphere among them. In brief, negative politeness as the heart of respect behavior has greatly contribution to the success of international diplomacy. With negative politeness strategies, diplomats from different states can represent their own policy and resolution without infringement to territory of hearer s freedom Yuliana Prameswari. Negative Politeness Strategy in Diplomacy Meeting at UN Security Council Summit on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Disarmament. (Jakarta: UIN Syarif Hidayatullah, 2012) 8

19 9 The differences between the thesis above and this thesis is the corpus exist in real life and the situation is formal because the speech from the head of government take place in international diplomacy about nuclear that the topic of the meeting is very important. Indeed, the utterances from the head of government who involve in the meeting must be used politeness strategy not only to maintain the face of the audiences who are the head of government but also to maintain their country relationship. Besides, she also uses a different supporting theory like Agha s Honorification because of the corpus itself. Contrast, the writer uses Ronald Wardaugh politeness and solidarity as supporting theory because she uses movie as the corpus that the character in the movie uttered in informal situation. 2. This thesis was written by Resi Novira in 2010, entitled Negative Politeness Strategies As found in Rachael Ray Show. She used politeness strategy theory by Brown and Levinson (1987), and negative politeness strategy as her specific analysis. She used quantitative analysis to know which strategy that mostly used in the data. The results of this study are speakers of applying a negative politeness strategies were found in 31 utterances. Strategy 1. Be conventionally indirect there are two utterances (6.45%), strategy 2. Question, Hedge there are nine utterances (29,03%), strategy 3. Be pessimistic there are four utterances (12,90%), strategy 4. Minimize the imposition, Rx there are 3 utterances (9,68%), strategy 5. Give deference there are four utterances (12,09%), strategy 6. Apologize there are 1 utterance (3,23%), strategy 7. Impersonalize S and H there are three utterances (9,68%), strategy 8. State

20 10 FTA as a general rule there are 3 utterances (9,68%), strategy 9 and 10 there are only one utterance (3,23%). Rachael Ray as the object of analysis mostly used strategy 2. Question, hedge that shows speaker tend to using simple strategy to applied word or phrase to minimize a risk of wrong in delivering the utterances. 2 The differences between the thesis above and this thesis are in the methodology they used, if Resi Novira used Quantitative method with a percentage of the strategy uses. In contrast, the writer use Qualitative method, then there are no percentage in the result of her thesis. 3. This thesis written by Siti Nurzanah in 2012, entitled An Analysis of Negative Politeness Strategy Used by Harry Potter In JK Rowling s Novel Harry Potter and The Chamber Of Secret. The aim of this research are to find out the analysis of negative politeness strategy used by Harry Potter in J.K. Rowling s novel Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secret, to know in what situation Harry Potter used Negative Politeness, and to know with whom Harry used the Negative Politeness. This research was conducted through discourse analysis methodology. The researcher collecting data by reading the novel and analyzed the data by using technique: data reduction, data display, and analysis according to the theory of Miles and Huberman. As the result of this research, the researcher found the negative politeness strategy used by Harry Potter in J.K. Rowling novel Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secret are seven of ten types of negative politeness: be conventionally indirect, 2 Resi Novira. Negative Politeness Strategies as Found in Rachel Ray Show. (Padang: Universitas Andalas, 2010)

21 11 question-hedge, be pessimistic, minimize the imposition, give deference, apologize, go on record as incurring a debt or as not indebting in the certain situation and setting. There is no utterance which belong to impersonalize S and H, state FTA as general rule, and nominalize. 3 The differences between this thesis and the thesis written by Siti Nurzanah are this thesis is about politeness strategy but she also conducted with Discourse Analysis, and the corpus is novel and uses Miles and Huberman as a technique of data analysis. Otherwise, the writer use qualitative method and the result explained descriptively. And the data conducted used data card as introduced by Subroto. 4. This journal written by Rosina Marquez Reiter from University of Sheffield, entitled Politeness Phenomena in British English and Uruguayan Spanish: The case of Requests. The aim of this journal is to present and analysis and interpretation of the realization patterns of requests in British English (BE) and Uruguayan Spanish (US), establishing the similarities and differences between the conceptualization of politeness by native speaker of both languages. This journal use Brown and Levinson s Politeness Theory, and other supporting theories such as Whorfian hypothesis and its view on the relationship between language and thought, Gricean conversational maxims, Austin s and Searle s speech act theory and Goffman s notion of face, and the major politeness theories such as Lakoff (1973), Brown and Levinson (1987) and Leech s (1983). The result of this journal is the major difference between US and BE request is a matter of orientation. Uruguayans appear to 3 Siti Nurzanah. An Analysis of Negative Politeness Strategy Used by Hrry Potter in JK Rowling s Novel Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secret. (Cirebon: IAIN Syekh Nurjati, 2012)

22 12 be more inclined towards positive politeness when requesting as opposed to the British, who seem to be more inclined to negative politeness. 4 The differences between the journal above and this thesis are this journal is specific in request and the researcher did this research in real life situation and the unit of analysis are the British English native speaker and Uruguayan Spanish Native speaker, and used Whorfian hypothesis as supporting theory different from the writer of this thesis, she used movie as the corpus and related them with Politeness and solidarity which known in sociolinguistics. B. Concept In this section explains the concept of politeness and impoliteness that can affect a person to use politeness strategies and also theories to support from the sociolinguistic namely solidarity and politeness theory initiated by Ronald Wardaugh and politeness theory initiated by Brown-Levinson. Indeed, other theories that support the main theory. 1. Politeness In daily conversation, we as civilized human beings would certainly think about what we uttered, to whom we uttered or who our partners, in a situation like what we said so as not to offend hearer. It is necessary for us said the sentences that polite. In the other hand, according to Thomas, the only reason is that people have discussed five separate sets of phenomena (deference, register, a real-world 4 Rosina Marquez Reiter. Politeness Phenomena in British English and Uruguayan Spanish: The Case of Request. (Sheffield: University of Sheffield, 1997)

23 13 goal, a surface level phenomenon and an illocutionary phenomenon) under the heading of politeness. 5 It is intepreted in everyday life as the use of deferential language and expression of gratitude and apology. 6 Furthermore, politeness is a concept in English that assessed in pragmatic and sociolinguistics in Anglo-Saxon tradition of linguistics. In fact, this concept is also subject of social theory. In general, politeness relates to the idea of such thoughtful, humble, and considerate in term of relationship with others. 7 Politeness is an area of interactional pragmatic which has experienced and explosion of interest over the past quarter of a century and in which empirical studies have proliferated, examining-individually and crosses culturally-languages and language varieties from around the world. 8 It is a pragmatics phenomenon which lies not in the form and the words themselves, but its function and its intended social meaning. 9 Pragmatically, politeness is interpreted as a strategy used by a speaker to achieved variety goals, such as promoting or maintaining harmonious relations. 10 Then, in the pragmatics we recognize the principle of politeness. Some theories about politeness principle introduced by some linguist one of them is Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson, better known as Brown and Levinson's theory of politeness. According to them, the concept of politeness is universal and 5 Jenny Thomas, Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics (Edinburgh: Longman, 1995), p Helen Spencer-Oatey, Culturally Speaking: Culture, Communication and Politeness Theory, 2nd ed. (Cornwall:Continuum, 2008), p Richard J. Watts, Politeness (Cambridge : CUP, 2003), p.10 8 Leo Hickey and Miranda Stewart, Politeness in Europe (Great Britain: Cromwell Press, 2005) p.1 9 Joan Cutting, Pragmatic and Discourse, (New York: Routledge, 2002), pp Thomas. Op.cit. pp

24 14 equal in all speech communities in the world. Member of society have the same way to show politeness to the hearers conceptualized as face. 11 Goffman defines face as the positive social value a person effectively claims for himself by the line other assume he has taken during a particular contact. 12 George Yule defines the concept of face as a social and emotional sense owned by anyone and hoped to be recognized by the others. 13 According to Janney Thomas, the concept of face is the best understood as every individual s feeling of self-worth within politeness theory. This image can be damaged, maintained or enhanced through verbal interaction with others. 14 Brown and Levinson defines it as the public self image that every member want to claim for himself. 15 In their book entitled Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage suggests that in speaking, speaker and hearer both have positive and negative face 16, where the face should be kept. This face has two aspects: positive and negative. Negative face: the basic claim to territories, personal preserves, right to non-distraction i.e. to freedom of action and freedom from imposition Positive face: the positive consistent self-image or personality (crucial including the desire that his self-image be appreciated and approved of) claimed by interactants. 17 As quoted by Helen Spencer-Oatey in their book entitled Culturally Speaking: Culture, Communication and Politeness Theory that in Brown and Levinson seminal work on politeness, proposed that face is the key of motivating 11 Brown and Levinson. Op.cit. pp Erving Goffman. Interaction Ritual: Essays in Face to Face Behavior (New Jersey: Transaction Publisher, 2005), p George Yule. The Study of Language, 3rd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2006), p Thomas. Op.cit. p Brown and Levinson. Loc. Cit. 16 Ibid. p Ibid. p. 61

25 15 force for politeness, and they maintain that it consist of two related aspects, negative face and positive face. In their model, negative face is a person s want to be unimpeded by others, the desire to be free to act as s/he choose and not be imposed upon; positive face is person s want to be appreciated and approved of by selected others, in terms of personality, desires, behavior, values and so on. In other words, negative face represents a desire for autonomy, and positive face represents a desire approval. 18 Additionally, Robin Lakoff could be well called of mother of modern politeness theory; she was the first to examine it from a decidedly pragmatic perspective. Eelen quoted Lakoff in her book that according to Lakoff, politeness is a system of interpersonal relations designed to facilitate interaction by minimizing the potential for conflict and confrontation inherent in all human interchange. 19 Lakoff used politeness to point out certain weaknesses of traditional linguistics theory, and did this by connecting politeness with Grice s Cooperative Principle (CP). Of course, it is possible to treat politeness as a fixed concept, as in the idea of polite social behavior, or etiquette, within a culture. It is also possible to specify a number of different general principles for being polite in social interaction within particular culture. 20 According to Arndt and Janney, as quoted by Eelen, politeness is a matter of using the right words in the right context as determined by conventional rules of appropriateness Helen Spencer-Oatey. Culturally Speaking: Culture, Communication and Politeness Theory. (London: Continuum, 2000). pp Eelen, Op. cit. p George Yule, Pragmatics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), p Eelen. Op. cit. p. 15

26 16 It can be conclude that politeness then defineas activity serving to enhance, mintain or protect face. 22 It can also be define as showing awareness and consideration for another person s face. 23 Finally, based on all perspective, politeness use in order to makes communication between speaker and hearer well. 2. Brown and Levinson Politeness Theory Politeness theory initiated by Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson in his book entitled Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. In the book, they mention that as a speaker and hearer, they both have two face that is positive and negative that can be selected to satisfy both at the end of the conversation. Here is a resume of politeness concept initiated Brown-Levinson: S stands for speaker and H stands for addressee. In this outline S and H are MPs. In their book, MP is model person. Among MPs, it is mutual knowledge that for all MPs: (i) All MPs have positive face and negative face, and all MPs are rational agents i.e. choose means that will satisfy their ends. (ii) Given that face consists of a set of wants satisfiable only by the action (including expressions of wants) of others, it will in general be to the mutual interest of two MPs to maintain each other s face. So S will want to maintain H s face, unless he can get H to maintain S s without recompense, by coercion, trickery, etc. 22 Florian Coulmas.(ed.). The handbook of Sociolinguistics (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publishers, 2000). p Yule (2006). Loc.cit.

27 17 (iii) Some acts intrinsically threaten face: these face-threatening acts will be referred to henceforth as FTAs. (iv) Unless S s want to do an FTA with maximum satisfiable (defined as bald on record) is greater than S s want to preserve H s (or S s) face to any degree, then S will want to minimize the face threat of the FTA. (v) Given the following set of strategies, the more an act threatens S s or H s face, the more S will want to choose a higher-numbered strategy; this by virtue of the fact that these strategies afford payoffs of increasingly minimized risk: Circumstances determining Choice of strategy 1. Without redressive action, baldly lesser on record 2. Positive politerness estimation of do the FTA risk of face loss with redressive action 3. Negative Politeness 4. Off Record 5. Don t do FTA Greater Since i-v mutually known to all MPs, our MP will not choose a strategy less risky than necessary, as this may be seen as an indication that the FTA is more threatening than it actually is. 24 Politeness is fundamental to the very structure of social life and society, in that it constitutes the expression of social relationships and provides a verbal way to relieve the interpersonal tension arising from communicative intentions that conflict with social needs and statuses. Because of this fundamentally social functionality, Brown and Levinson claim that their theory to the universally valid, which is captured by their concept of a universal speaker or hearer or model person Brown and Levinson, Ibid, pp Eelen, Op.cit. p.5

28 18 In the other words, the concept of politeness belong two tradition: one primarily, concerned with conventional courtesy, etiquette or good manners, the other more interactionally pragmatic or face-saving, as developed in Brown and Levinson model. This model does not necessarily view language in term of a polite / impolite cline but rather in term of extent to which speakers strategically deviate from Gricean maxims in order to save their own face and/or that of the others Bald On Record Bald on record is one of the strategies in Brown-Levinson politeness principle that in short is the imperative sentence. In his book, Brown and Levinson said that the strategy of bald on record can be treated like a maxim that was initiated by Grice (1975). This maxim is intuitive characteristics of the cooperative principle which is a guideline to get the maximum efficient communication. 27 Bald on record, are to be found where the power differential is great. In such cases the powerful participant will often employ no indirectness at all. 28 The prime reason for using bald on record may be stated simply: in general, whenever S wants to do an FTA with maximum efficiency more than he wants to satisfy H s face, even to any degree, he will choose the bald on record strategy. There are, however, different kinds of bald on record usage in different circumstances, because S can have different motives for his want to do the FTA with maximum efficiency. 29 Direct imperative sentence is very clear example of the use of bald on record. 26 Hickey and Stewart. Op.cit. p.3 27 Brown and Levinson. Op.cit. p Thomas. Op.cit. p Brown and Levinson. Loc.cit.

29 19 There are two main strategies that not stated as strategy, the first is cases of non-minimization of the face threat define as maximum efficiency is very important that there is no redress face is necessary both to speaker or hearer, it would be decrease the urgency of communication, for example: e.g. Help! (Compare the non urgent please help me, if you would be so kind) Watch out! And the second is cases of FTA-oriented bald-on record usage define as the use of bald on record oriented to the face of speaker and hearer, for examples: Have some cake more. Don t Worry about me. Leave it to me Positive Politeness For some reason, a positive politeness technique can be used not only to improve the FTA, but in general as a social acceleration, where S, using this strategy, indicating that he wanted to be closer to H. 30 Features that distinguish between positive politeness strategy and other strategy is exaggeration elements where this element as a aspect marker of positive politeness expression, by indicating that even if S cannot with total sincerity say I want your wants, he can at least sincerely indicate I want your positive face to be satisfied. 31 Strategy 1. Notice, attend to H (his interest, wants, needs, goods) In this strategy the speaker must be aware of the hearer condition such as noticeable changes, remarkable possessions, anything which looks as though H would want S to notice and approve it. 30 Ibid. p Ibid. p.101

30 20 You cut your hair! By the way, I came to to borrow some flour. You must be hungry; it s a long time since breakfast. How about some lunch? Strategy 2. Exaggerate (interest, approval, sympathy with H) To exaggerated the intonation, stress, and other aspect of prosodic as well as with intensifying modifiers. What a fantastic garden you have! Strategy 3. Intensify interest to H Making a good story is the way in this strategy, S is to communicate to H that he shares some of his wants is to intensify the interest of his own contribution to the conversation. last night, I went to cinema, and you know what? I found my ex dated with a different girl that I saw last week. How can. Strategy 4. Use in-group identity markers In this strategy, S can implicitly claim that the common ground with H that is carried by that definition of the group. These include in group usages of address forms, of language or dialect, of jargon or slang, and of ellipsis. Here mate, I was keeping this seat for a friend of mine Got any Winston? Mind if I smoke?

31 21 Strategy 5. Seek agreement Another ways to claim a common ground with H are raising the safe topic in order to be agreeing with H opinions; and agreement also stressed with repetition or repeating what all the preceding speaker said. Isn t your new car a beautiful color! A: john went to London this weekend! B: to London! Strategy 6. Avoid disagreement In this case, the S must be agree with H in order to main the H s face. The strategies are token agreement is pretending agree with H; Pseudo-Agreement is the use of then as a conclusory marker; white lies is where S is confronted with the necessity to state opinion want to lie rather than damage H s positive face; and hedging opinions is S may be vague about his opinion in order to not to be seen disagree. a: can you hear me? b: barely I ll meet you in front of the theater just before 8.00, then. Yes, I do like your new hat. It s really beautiful, in a way! Strategy 7. Presuppose/raise/assert common ground This strategy have several ways such as gossip or small talk is for softening the request; point of view operations is encoded point of view by mean

32 22 of deixis; time switch is a tense shift from past to present tense; place switch is use proximal (here, this, rather than there, that); avoidance of adjustment of reports to H s point of view is direct quoted speech is is the very general usage; presupposition manipulations is S presuppose something when he presumes that it is mutually taken for granted; presuppose knowledge of H s wants and attitude is with negative question which presume yes answer is indicated that S know H s want, taste, habit; presuppose H s values are the same a S s value is using of scalar predicates; presuppose familiarity in S H relationship the use of familiar address form like honey; presuppose H s knowledge is the use of in group codeslanguage, dialect, jargon, local terminology. Wouldn t you like a drink? Harry took me to the movies the other day. Strategy 8. Joke S May joke or a joke may minimize an FTA of requesting. Ok if I tackle those cookie? Strategy 9. Assert or presuppose S s knowledge of and concern for H s wants Put pressure on H to cooperate with S is to assert or imply knowledge of H s wants and willingness to fit one s own wants with them. I know you can t bear parties, but this one will be really good- do come!

33 23 Strategy 10. Offer, promise To redress the potential of FTAs, S may choose to stress his cooperation with H in another way. He may claim that whatever H wants, S wants for him and will help to obtain. I ll drop by sometimes next week. Strategy 11. Be optimistic S is assume that his want is H s want too, and H will help to obtain them. I ve come to borrow a cup of flour. something. Strategy 12. Include both S and H in the activity Using inclusive form we instead of you or me when S want to doing let s have a cookie, then. (I.e. me) give us break (i.e. me) Strategy 13. Give (or ask) reasons Including H in practical reasoning and assuming reflexivity, H is thereby led to see the reasonableness of S s FTA. why not lend me your cottage for the weekend? Strategy 14. Assume or assert reciprocity S ask for reciprocal right or obligation to H I ll do X for you and you help me to do Y.

34 24 Strategy 15. Give gift to H (goods, sympathy, understanding, cooperation) S satisfy H s face by action, not only giving tangible gift, but also sympathy, understanding and so on Negative Politeness Negative politeness is redressive action addressed to the addressee's negative face: his want to have his freedom of action unhindered and his attention unimpeded. Where positive politeness is free-ranging, negative politeness is specific and focused; it performs the function of minimizing the particular imposition that the FTA unavoidably effects. 32 In this strategy, speaker should be minimizing imposition to the hearer, through distancing style like apologies. We should stressed that negative politeness are not the only motivation a speaker may have for using the linguistics realizations characteristics of negative politeness. The outputs are all forms useful in general for social distancing, not like positive politeness realization are forms for minimizing social distance, they are therefore likely to be used whenever when speaker wants to put a social brake on to the course of his interaction. 33 Strategy 1: Be Conventionally Indirect Speakers must express his desire indirectly to the hearer. In this strategy a speaker faced with opposing tensions: the desires to give hearer and out by being indirect and he desires to go on record. Indirect speech acts are certainly the 32 Brown and Levinson. Op.cit. p Ibid. p.130

35 25 most significant form of conventional indirectness. 34 According to Searle (1975), conventional indirectness refers to the sentences that maybe standardly used to make indirect request. These utterances in certain grammatical forms are conventionally employed to perform the function of getting the addressee to do something. 35 With regard to request, the intention to get someone to do something is commonly conveyed by a form which is not directive, such as interrogative sentence or a declarative sentence. 36 can you pass the salt? (which can be only indirect request an not concievably a question about the adddressee s potential ability) I m looking for a comb. Strategy 2: Question, Hedge. This strategy is using almost the same question as indirect speech and also using particles, words or phrases that modify levels of predication or 'noun phrase'. Modification can be expressed level or more correct and more complete than previously thought. bill is a regular friend I rather think it's hopeless. Strategy 3: Be Pessimistic If the previous strategy, speaker must be optimistic about the response of the hearer, the speaker's strategy this time should be pessimistic about the hearer's response. could you do X? 34 Ibid. p John Searle, Indirect speech act. In: Cole & Morgan (Eds.). Syntax and Semantics: Speech Act (Vol.3). New York Academic press, 1975, p Ibid. p. 52

36 26 Strategy 4: Minimize the Imposition, Rx If the speaker asks hearer to do something, or give her something to the speaker, it means that the speaker was 'impose', as if the speaker gives hearer 'burden' to obey what was uttered. I just want to ask you if you could lend me a single sheet of paper. Strategy 5: Give Deference Show respect and respect for others through utterances. we look forward very much to dining with you. Strategy 6: Apologize Apologized before revealing the real purpose to the hearer, Apologizing does not always explicitly with the words 'forgive' or 'apologize', but also implicitly by using a verb. I hesitate to trouble you, but... Strategy 7: Impersonalize S and H Not mention the speaker or hearer in a utterances. For example, by using the word 'it' that serves impersonal not pronoun. it is so (I tell you that it is so) Do this for me (I ask you to do this for me) Strategy 8: State the FTA as a General Rule Stating utterances in a general form, so it does not seem to make or threaten someone to do something.

37 27 passengers will please refrain from flushing toilets on the train (you will please refrain from flushing toilets on the train). Strategy 9: Nominalize It is quite astonishing is nominalizing expression, express it in the form of a noun, not a verb and others. a. guide on the examinations performed well and we were impressed favorably. b. your performing well on the examinations impressed us favorably. c. your good performance on the examinations impressed us favorably. Here, (c) a more formal look like a formal letter from the (b), and (b) more than in (a). Strategy 10: Go on Record as Incurring a Debt. Or as Not Indebting H Speakers is in order to express what they want directly, but with as if indebted to hearer if indulged (request), or as if it does not feel burdened by someone if asked to do anything (offer). I'll be never repay you if you would... Easily I could do it for you Off Record This strategy uses indirect language and removes the speaker from the potential to be imposing. Off the Record itself is the strategy of politeness on the application, the speaker does not explicitly say the words, and the hearer can speculate on speaker s utterance. Speaker s utterance is not addressed directly to the hearer.

38 28 The notion of Off Record is refers not simply to formal types of indirection but rather to such linguistic strategy in context. Clearly, many of the classic off record strategy-metaphor, irony, understatement, rhetorical question, etc.- are very often actually on record when used, because the clues to their interpretation (the mutual knowledge of S and H in the context; the intonational, prosodic and kinesic clues to the speaker s attitude; the clues derives from conversational sequencing) add up to only one really viable interpretation in the context. 37 In short, off record is do FTA but be indirect. Invite conversational implicatures, via hints triggered by violation of Gricean Maxims. For example, speaker say it s cold in here. (c.i. Shut the window). Make someone doing something for speaker by using utterance implicitly. Strategy 1. Give hints It is like speech act, S saying something implicitly want to H doing something for him. it s is hot in here (i.e. turn on the fan) Strategy 2. Give association clues S and H have mutual knowledge of their interactional experience. oh God, I ve got a headache again (i.e. give me an aspirin) Strategy 3. Presuppose An utterance can be almost wholly relevant in context and yet violate maxim relevance just at the level of its presuppositions. I washed the car again today (he presuppose that he has done it last week). 37 Ibid. p.212

39 29 Strategy 4. Understate The speaker violate the quantity maxim. A: what do you think about Jocelyn new dress? B: yeah good. (i.e. I don t think it is very good) Strategy 5. Overstate S says more than is necessary, exaggerating or choosing a measurement higher than actually is. there were a million people in the party tonight, so come in! Strategy 6. Use tautologies By using tautologies, S encourage H to look for an informative interpretation of non informative utterance. war is war Boys will be boys Strategy 7. Use contradiction S violated quality maxim with using contradiction in the utterance, S force H to find assumption about his feeling. A: are you upset about that? B: well, I am and I m not. Strategy 8. Be ironic S saying the opposite what he means, a violated quality maxim. It s a nice and comfortable room, isn t it? (in a messy room)

40 30 Strategy 9. Use metaphors Use connotations of the metaphor. harry is real fish (c.i. he (drinks/ swims/ is slimy/ is cold blood) like a fish) Strategy 10. Use rhetorical question Asking a question but leave the answer hanging in order to S want to H to provide him with the indicated information. How many times do I have to tell you? (too many times) Strategy 11. Be ambiguous Ambiguity may be achieved through metaphor it is not clear what S means. John s pretty (sharp/ smooth) cookie ( it could be compliment or insult, depending on which of the connotations) Strategy 12. Be vague S being vague about what object of the FTA. I m going ( you-know-where/ down the road for a bit. (c.i. to the local pub) Strategy 13. Over-generalize Rule instantiation may leave the object of the FTA vaguely off record: mature people sometimes help do the dishes.

41 31 Strategy 14. Displace H S redress an FTA to whom it would not threaten in order to the real target will know that he is the actual target who FTA aimed to him. For example, teasing someone in playful way. (asking someone to go out) would you rather get your foot stuck in a bear trap or hang out this weekend? Strategy 15. Be incomplete, use ellipsis Leaving the FTA undone, S can leave the implicature hanging. And this strategy much violated quantity maxim as of manner maxim. oh sir, a headache 2.5. Don t Do FTA This strategy is simply that speaker avoids offending hearer at all with this particular FTA. Speaker also fails to achieve his desired communication Sociological Variable Besides the strategy above, to apply the politeness strategy in the real life, there are three sociological variables: The social distance (D) of S and H (a symmetric relation) The relative power (P) of S and H (an asymmetric relation) The absolute ranking (R) of impositions in the particular culture. Thus these are not intended as sociologist rating of actual power, distance, etc, but only as actors assumption of such ratings, assumed to be mutually assumed, at least within certain limits Ibid. p Brown and Levinson. Op.cit. pp