Bald on Record Politeness Strategies Used by the Four Main Characters of Begin Again

49 problem that happened in his family so that it makes him loses his focus on his work. Since Saul does not on the same vision with Dan anymore, he starts to make distance with Dan. Saul follows his vision and starts to work on his vision with the staffs without having discussion about the vision with Dan. At the day of the meeting, Dan comes and shows his disagreement toward the plans that each band should have made audio commentary on their own music. In dialogue 5, Dan said, “Come back here. Don‟t you walk away from me, man. ” to show that he needs Saul to give explanation why he run the plans without doing any discussion with Dan. Since Dan expresses his disappointment toward Saul, Dan tends to be rude by producing the utterances without doing the face minimization. Dan is more powerful than Saul because when someone is mad at something, he will express the feeling to the hearer without caring with the hearer‟s feeling. Therefore, the underlined utterance above is expressed because the speaker possesses more power in which it makes the speaker obtains more power to satisfy his own desire. The next circumstance is where the face threat is minimized to the hearer. The application of bald on record strategy in this circumstance can be seen in the utterance which is aimed to give an offer to the hearer. The scene where Steve and Gretta meet for the first time after a long time can illustrate the application of bald on record strategy in giving an offer to the hearer. This scene is a flashback where Dave and Gretta have not broken up yet. Dave is busy with his projects and tours while Gretta is having fun by herself when finally she meets Steve after a long time. Steve then, invites Gretta to come to his house and they are having a good 50 time by talking about everything. The conversation between Steve and Gretta can be seen in dialogue 6. The bald on record strategy is labeled with BoR. Dialogue 6 Setting : Steve’s house Situation : Steve and Gretta met after a long time, then Steve invited Gretta to come to his house. Participants : Steve and Gretta. Steve : “So, uh, this is me.” Gretta : “Aw, it‟s lovely.” Steve : “It‟s like that old joke. You put the key in the door, you break a window. ” Gretta : “My God, look at this stuff.” Steve : “Yeah, a lot of the studios, uh, are upgrading. So, they‟re practically giving stuffs away. I can record an album here soon. ” Gretta : “Well, that would be cool. Look at you. You‟ve got CDs.” Steve : “Yeah. I just phased out all my cassettes. Have a sit down.” BoR Gretta and Steve are close friends and they have not met each other for a long time. When Gretta comes to New York, she does not have intention to find and meet Steve since her purpose going to New York is only accompanying Dave to work on his projects. However, since Dave is busy with his projects and tour, Gretta then spends her time walking around the city. Gretta finally meets Steve on the road when Steve is singing on the road. After talking about everything, Steve invites Gretta to come to his house. The dialogue above shows that Steve gives an offer to Gretta when Gretta came to his house by saying, “Have a sit down.” The underlined utterance is a kind of imperative because it is expressed in order to ask the hearer to sit down on the chair. However, the underlined utterance implies that the speaker wants to make the hearer enjoyed the time spent in the speaker‟s house. In performing this utterance, the speaker insists that the hearer may impose on the speaker‟s negative face. Thereby, through the underlined utterance, the face 51 threat is minimized since the speaker has insistence that the hearer may impose on his negative face. Another example of bald on record strategy where the face threat is minimized can be found in the form of farewell. In this case, the speaker insisted that the hearer might transgress on the speaker‟s positive face. The example of farewell expression can be seen where Dan meets Gretta for the first time and he meant to make a contract with Gretta to make her becomes professional singer and songwriter. Dan tries to appreciate Gretta for her performance on the stage. The reason why he does that is to make Gretta interested in cooperating with him to produce an album. However, it seems that Gretta is not interested in cooperating with Dan because she thinks that her song is not good enough to be recorded by the record label. Dan finally gives up in persuading Gretta and he decides to leave Gretta. The conversation between Gretta and Dan can be seen in dialogue 7. The bald on record strategy is labeled with BoR. Dialogue 7 Setting : Café Situation : Dan is trying to persuade Gretta to cooperate with him in producing an album. Participants : Dan and Gretta Dan : “I‟ve been celebrating all weekend, I signed a band and we got carried away. That‟s some songs you got there. I promise you it could be a b ig hit. Plus, you‟re beautiful.” Gretta : “Sorry, what‟s beauty got to do with anything?” Dan : “Jesus, you‟re tricky, aren‟t you?” Gretta : “No, I actually just think that music is about ears, not eyes. And, I am not Judy Garland just off a Greyhound bus looking for stardom, but really, thank you. ” Dan : “OK, bye.” BoR Gretta : “Bye.” 52 Dan is a producer who has just been fired from his office because he does not produce an artist for several years. He tries to find artists who make him interested to sign them, but he still cannot not find artist to be invited to produce the music. Then, he sees Gretta when she is singing on the stage with guitar and her original song. As Dan sees Gretta when she is singing on the stage, he wonders a beautiful arrangement that makes him want to cooperate with Gretta by producing the music. Dan comes to Gretta conveying his plan to sign Gretta as a professional singer. Dan is trying to show his interest toward Gretta‟s song and is giving promise to Gretta that her songs will become the greatest song. By showing his interest toward Gretta‟s song and her performance, Dan expects that Gretta will also be interested in cooperating with Dan to produce her music. On the contrary, Gretta does not show the act that she is interested in producing her music. She thinks that she just writes the song and does not think about what others think of her music. Knowing that his plan is refused by Gretta, Dan decides to cancel his plan by expressing farewell to Gretta through bald on record strategy. In dialogue 7, Dan expresses t he utterance “OK, bye” which contains literal meaning of saying good bye to the hearer. It was expressed by minimizing the Face Threatening Acts. As the main goal of bald on record strategy is to achieve the maximum efficiency of communication, the underlined utterance is short and expressed clearly to the hearer to make the hearer understand the speaker‟s desire easily. In performing the farewell expression, the speaker insists that the hearer may transgress on the speaker‟s positive face. It means that the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 53 speaker leaves the hearer to interpret because the hearer might transgress on the speaker‟s positive face. Therefore, in the dialogue above, Dan takes his leaving by minimizing the face threat because he knows that Gretta refuses his offer to work together in producing the music. Furthermore, Dan takes his leaving by minimizing the face threat also because he wants to respect Gretta‟s decision that she does not want to work with Dan in producing the music.

3. Negative Politeness

Negative politeness is one of the four strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson 1987 which is addressed to the hearer‟s negative face. Negative face is freedom of act and freedom of imposition. The aim of negative politeness strategy is to put a social brake in the interaction with the hearers. In other words, if a speaker applies negative politeness in the interaction with the hearer, this means that the speaker wants to put a distance between the speaker and the hearer. Furthermore, negative politeness was applied by the four main characters in Begin Again movie. Since this strategy is meant to give distance between the speaker and the hearer, the language that is used in this strategy tends to be more polite compared with the positive politeness. The example of negative politeness application can be illustrated in the scene where Dan, Gretta, and their band are recording a new song on the top of a building. There is also someone, named Violet who comes to the location to join Gretta and the band to record the song. Violet is invited by Gretta to join the recording because Gretta knows that Violet can play the guitar. In the middle of the preparation, Gretta thought that it will be great if Dan also plays the music for 54 the recording because his daughter will play the guitar. At first, Dan refuses that he can play the bass, but then he admits that he can play the bass. He finally contributes to play the bass in the recording and so does Violet. In this scene, Gretta performs negative politeness through the utterance which is included in conventional indirectness. Conventional indirectness is the way of conveying something through the utterances which contain more than one meaning or which is different from its literal meaning. The conversation can be illustrated in dialogue 8. The utterance of the negative politeness application is labeled with NP. Dialogue 8 Setting : Top of a Building Situation : Gretta, Dan, and the team were recording a song when suddenly there was a message coming from Dave Participants : Dan, Gretta, and the Team Dan : “You want me to set your amp or are you good? OK. No, no, no, no, no, Rachel, at the top, or, yeah, at the top, come in a little bit gradually. Fat Jimmy, come on man. ” The Drummer : “All right, man, all right.” Dan : “Police is not going to get you up here. Let‟s hear that bass, my brother.” Gretta : “I‟m sorry, wait a minute. Um, do you play bass?” NP Dan : “You were out of tune, you were flat.” Gretta : “Because I read on the internet that you used to play a bass. So, um, I think seeing as we‟ve got Violet doing some guitar on this, this should be a family affair. ” Dan : “I am a producer „cause I do not play bass, baby.” Gretta : “Yes, you are… you got to do it. You got to do it.” After thinking about Dan‟s offer to produce her songs, Gretta decides to cooperate with Dan to produce her songs. Since they have been refused by the record label where Dan is fired, they decide to produce an outdoor album. The dialogue above shows the scene where Dan and Gretta are doing the preparation PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 55 to record a song on the top of a building. Gretta remembers that she has ever read about Dan‟s profile on the internet that he can play the bass. Therefore, she asks Dan whether he can play the bass or not through conventionally indirect utterance. The utterance, “I‟m sorry, wait a minute. Um, do you play bass?” contains literal meaning in which Gretta only ask Dan whether he can play the bass or not. However, Gretta has another intention when she asks Dan about it that she actually wants Dan to play the bass in the recording. By being conventionally indirect, the speaker redresses the face threat toward the hearer. Furthermore, the speaker also avoids the imposition toward the hearer to satisfy the spe aker‟s actual desire. Another example of the negative politeness application can be illustrated in the scene where Dave and Gretta meet each other for the first time after they break up and live separately. They are still in New York when Gretta works on her album and Dan has just come back from the tours. At the time they meet each other, they face a new situation in which they are not a couple of lover anymore. As the result, the situation makes them awkward in doing the interaction. The following dialogue shows that the speaker is being pessimistic towards the hearer. In addition, it also shows the use of hedges which aimed to lessen the impact of the utterances. The example of negative politeness strategy is illustrated in dialogue 9. The utterances which represent the application of negative politeness are labeled with NP. Dialogue 9 Setting : Park Situation : Dave was trying to apologize to Gretta for what he had done to Gretta 56 Participants : Dave and Gretta Dave : “The funny thing about this is that I‟d throw that fucking record into the ocean if we could just continue this conversation right now. This is what I want to talk about. OK? And if I could somehow say something or do anything that would undo what I did to us, then just tell me what it is. Help me. ” Gretta : “Would you? Would you throw it in the ocean?” NP 1 Dave : “Would you… would you want me to? Gretta : “No. no, I just, you know, I think… I think everything‟s changed. And I‟m… I‟m just finding it a bit hard to adjust.” NP 2 Dave and Gretta live separately after they break up. Dave then continues his projects on music by doing some tours to promote his album. Gretta also starts a new life by working with Dan to produce her music. After a while, Dave asks Gretta to meet him. At first, Gretta is confused whether she will accept Dave‟s offer to meet him or not, but finally she accepts Dave‟s offer to meet him. When they meet each other, they have different situation that made them acted awkwardly and talk in more polite language. The dialogue above shows that the utterances which are labeled with NP give them a social distance. It implies that Gretta wanted to put distance toward Dave because Dave had given her bad and hurt memories. The utterance which is labeled with NP 1 is a kind of question which asks about Dave‟s willingness. In negative politeness strategy that kind of question is expressed where the speaker is being pessimistic that the hearer is willing to do something related to the speaker‟s desire. Dave says that he will throw his album in the ocean if they can continue the conversation with Gretta. However, Gretta doubts that Dave is really willing to throw his album to the ocean. By producing the utterance, “Would you? Would you throw it in the ocean?” Gretta is 57 expressing her doubt toward Dave through giving face redressed to the hearer‟s negative face. The utterance which is labeled with NP 2 also shows that the speaker wants to achieve the goal of negative politeness that she wants to put a distance toward the hearer. By applying hedges in the utterance, the speaker can deny the responsibility for the truth of the utterance. The hedges which are found in the utterance NP 2 are, “I‟m just finding it a bit hard to adjust” and “I think… I think everyth ing‟s changed”. Those hedges are applied because the speaker aimed to disguise the truth of the utterance. Gretta aimed to say that she finds it hard to adjust and she wants to say that everything has changed. However, since Gretta wants to lessen the impact of the utterances, she applies hedges in her utterances. By applying the hedges in the utterances, the speaker does not want to presume and impose the hearer.

4. Off Record

Off record strategy is the act of saying things indirectly and allowing the addressee to interpret what the speaker is saying. Since this strategy is more indirect, the speaker will produce the more general language or express utterances which have different meaning from the actual meaning. In other words, the speaker will let the addressee to decide how to interpret the utterances expressed by the speaker. Through this strategy, the FTA can be done by the speaker because this strategy allows the speaker to avoid the responsibility of doing the FTA. Off record strategy was only performed by the three of the main characters, namely Dan Mulligan, Gretta James, and Dave Kohl. The reason of why Steve did PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI