Data Collection Technique Data Analysis Technique
47 if the speaker gives or asks a further reason about hisher refusal. It may lead the
hearer to feel that the speaker pays more attention towards himher and treats himher as a friend.
On the other hand, the most dominant strategy of negative politeness in Boyhood is minimizing the imposition. It happens since, in many cases, the
imposition is great enough so the characters try to reduce the tension by using the strategy of minimizing the imposition. By performing this strategy, the addressee
can accept the refusal without getting really upset or disappointed. In term of the second objective, there are two factors that influence a
speaker in choosing a certain type of politeness strategies. Those factors are payoff and relevant circumstances. Relevance circumstances consist of three
elements, namely social distance, relative power, and rank of imposition. In this research, payoff, as a prior assumption, is a factor that always
occurs in every conversation, which influences the speaker to choose the strategy between positive and negative politeness. Positive politeness strategy is more
dominant since the relationship between the characters is relatively close and there is no big difference in terms of age, social status, and power. On the other hand,
negative politeness strategies are only used in some conversations whose participants are not close. Since their relationship is not close, they tend to be
more careful in refusing other characters’ offer, suggestion, invitation, or request. The second factor which always influences a speaker to choose a certain
strategy is the relevant circumstances. Relevant circumstances consist of three elements: social distance, relative power, and rank of imposition. Based on the
48 analysis, social distance is the main element of relevant circumstances that
influences a speaker in choosing a certain strategy. If the relationship between the participants of the conversation is close, the speaker tends to use positive
politeness strategy. On the contrary, if there is a distance between the participants, negative politeness strategy is preferable.
In this research, the least element of relevant circumstances which influence a speaker in choosing a certain strategy is relative power. It happens
since in Boyhood, there are only few participants who have different power in a same conversation. This research results reveal that if the addressee has more
power than the speaker, the speaker tends to use negative politeness to show respect and to maintain the distance. However, if the speaker has more power than
the addressee, heshe will use positive politeness to make the addressee feel as hisher friend.