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a. The Role of Politeness in Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is explained as the study of the relationship between language and society Holmes, 2001. The study of sociolinguistics may discuss
why people tend to use different language in a certain context and the way people convey social meaning. Politeness belongs to sociolinguistics study since it
focuses on the way language is used differently in a certain society. The study of politeness will be more related to a search for its markers in everyday
conversations. Holmes 1992 states that being polite is a complicated business in any language p. 296.
However, politeness is difficult to learn because people have to understand not only the language but also the social and cultural values of a community.
Therefore, understanding the social values, which belongs to sociolinguistics study, is needed in order to speak politely.
b. The Role of Politeness in Pragmatics
Leech 1983 states that pragmatics deals with the meaning which is defined to be connected with a speaker of the language p. 6. Moreover, Leech
defines pragmatics as „the study of meaning in relation to speech situations‟ p. 6. In pragmatics‟ theory, language cannot be separated from context and principles
of language use Levinson, 1983. Therefore, pragmatics focuses on how language is used by people in a certain context or situation.
This study can also be stated as pragmatics study because it analyzes the language use and its meaning in relation to a speech context or situation. People
must consider their language use according to the social context of the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
17 conversation so that their utterances will be considered as polite. The context in
pragmatics may cause people to speak explicitly andor implicitly Yule, 1996. When people speak implicitly, they will talk about their intention indirectly.
According to Leech 1983, the more indirect the statement is, the more polite it will be.
Politeness becomes an important factor in pragmatics study because it may help people to find out why people are often so indirect in conveying their
meaning. It will also cover the reason why people give politeness a high rating in a certain situation.
c. Negative and Positive Face in Politeness
Face is stated as public self-image which everybody wants to claim for himself Brown Levinson, 1987. There are two kinds of face, namely negative
face and positive face.
1 Negative face
Brown and Levinson 1987 define negative face as the want of every member of society that his or her action be unimpeded by others p. 62. It is also
stated as the desire for autonomy Holtgraves, 2002. It can be simplified that every individual has their own want to be free from impediment or not to be
restricted by others. Hence, it focuses on freedom of action and freedom of imposition.
2 Positive face
Positive face is defined as the want of every member of society that his or her wants be desirable to at least some other members Brown Levinson, 1987.
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