10 Meanwhile, there are two elements that are firmly related to the application
of politeness strategies that are proposed by Brown and Levinson 1987. The elements are the notion of face and Face Threatening Act FTA. Before
explaining the politeness strategies by Brown and Levinson 1987, the writer discusses the elements in the following paragraphs.
a. Face
Brown and Levinson 1987 define face as the public self-image that every member wants to claim for himself. There are two related aspects of face. The two
aspects are negative face and positive face. Negative face is defined by Brown and Levinson 1987
as ―the basic claim to territories, personal preserves, rights to non-
distraction‖ p. 61. Negative face is known as the want of every individual to be independent and be
unimpeded by others Brown and Levinson, 1987, p. 62. It means that every individual has the desire to be free from imposition and action towards him.
Positive face is defined by Brown and Levinson 1987 as the positive consistent self-image claimed by interactants. As Brown and Levinson 1987
state that positive face refers to ―the want of every member that his wants be
desirable to at least some others‖ p. 62. The positive face crucially includes the desire that self-image be appreciated and approved of. It means that positive
politeness is used when an individual wants to be appreciated or to be approved and liked by others.
To make it clear, consider an example. Mrs. Thompson is a cat lover. Much of her time and effort are expended on her cats. She is proud of her cats,
11 and she likes others to admire them. She is gratified when people
say ‗What a lovely cat; I want to touch it. How do you take care of its fur?‖, implying that they
want just what she has wanted and achieved Brown Levinson, 1987.
b. Face Threatening Act
When a speaker produces an utterance that violates hearer‘s positive or
negative face, he does the Face Threatening Act FTA. It is intuitively the case that the speaker‘s utterances threaten the hearer‘s face. The utterances will
threaten the hearer‘s face when there is a difference between the speaker and hearer
‘s wants or desire. In other words, the speaker and hearer‘s wants run contrary. Brown and Levinson 1987 state that FTA is a threat used by a speaker
that consists of mitigating statement and verbal repair or politeness p. 66. The speaker may threaten the hearer‘s face, for example by asking for help which
threatens hearer‘s negative face since the speaker is potentially imposing on the
hearer or just simply by giving compliments which threatens hearer‘s positive face
since the speaker satisfying the hearer. Furthermore, FTA can be done within verbal and non-verbal communication. However, the focus of this study is to
analyze FTAs which are produced verbally. People need to be aware of the utterance that they produced. They must be
careful in choosing the words to be uttered to maintain the hearer‘s face. Any
misunderstanding will happen if the speaker‘s utterance threatens the hearer‘s
face. Besides, the misunderstanding will damage their interpersonal communication. Therefore, B
rown and Levinson‘s 1987 politeness strategies PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
