able to keep Mr. Walker from his son,
but I’m not going anywhere until I see what’s going on
here.
22_4ORCIP In this conversation, Vanessa performs off record politeness strategy by
inviting a conversational implicature. When Vanessa says that she does not want to go anywhere, she does not mean to stay in the lobby but she insists to
vis it Mr. Walker’s son, Elvis, no matter what happens. Since the staff knows
that Vanessa is the chief of staff in the White House, he then decides to let her into avoid getting himself into troubles. In short, the function of this utterance
is similar to the first example. It is a repetition which is used to strengthen her previous request to visit Elvis.
The third example is the conversation among Darius, the DOH’s staff and the judge
in Elvis’s custody hearing. In this example, the staff of DOH reports to Darius that the judge is going to deny some of their agreements
related to the result of the custody hearing. In response to the issue, Darius gives an indirect command to the judge via mobile phone. Moreover, Darius
performs off record politeness strategy in order to remind the judge that they have agreement which forces her to do what Darius asks her. So, this type of
command is also used to emphasize or strengthen the previous order in their previous meeting.
DOH’s staff : Sir, I don’t know what happend. She just going off
script. Darius Hayes : Can you put her on the phone?
DOH’s staff : Yes, She’s right here.
Darius Hayes :
There’s only one acceptable outcome. Do you understand?
Judge : I thought we were supposed to be advocating for the
best interests of children. Darius Hayes
: That’s exactly what we’re doing.
30_5ORCIP
Darius performs off record politeness strategy by inviting some conversational implicature. When he says “There’s only one acceptable
outcome. Do you understand?”, he does not continue his utterances by giving more information related to those acceptable outcomes. However, the judge
understands the reference of Darius’s utterances. Thus, it can be concluded
that both Darius and the Judge have already discussed the issue beforehand. Moreover, they have some agreements related to
Elvis’s custody hearing.
c. Positive politeness
Positive politeness strategies are found in 9 data; most of them are performed by Darius with 6 data. The speakers mostly use positive politeness
strategies in order to minimize the negative impact and to avoid unnecessary clash in communication. However, there is also a circumstance where Darius
performs positive politeness strategy to minimize the ranking of imposition. More explanation is shown in the examples below.
The first example is the speech act of command performed by Darius to Dr. Alison Lennon. The conversation occurs when Darius visits DOH fertility
laboratories and he meets Dr. Lennon. Darius then decides to fire her because he believes that Dr. Lennon cannot be trusted.
Darius Hayes : That won’t be necessary, Dr. Lennon.
Dr. Alison Lennon : excuse me? Darius Hayes
: I appreciate your diligence, but we’ll taking the
lead from this point going forward.
02_1PPCGP
In this example, Darius tries to avoid any complaint from Dr. Lennon. Therefore, he tries to respect Dr.Lennon in order to fulfil Dr. Lennon
’s Positive face wants which are the wants to be respected and appreciated by
others. In the first utterance, he says “I appreciate your diligence” in order to
fulfill the addressee’s wants to be recognized, respected
,
and appreciated. Moreover, in the second utterance
,
he performs the speech act of command indirectly
by saying “but we’ll take the lead from this point going forward”. This second utterance makes it possible to soften the face damage into a
minimum. In short, Darius is powerful enough to fire Dr. Lennon for any reason but he respects her as one of his scientists.
In the second example, Vanessa has a conversation with Dr. Alison Lennon in one of DOH
’s research facilities. Vanessa tries to persuade Dr. Lennon to join her in the project of the lottery. She expects that Dr. Lennon
can be the scientific face of the lottery since she is the one who fertilized the one hundred viable human embryos. Since Vanessa knows that in this
circumstance, Dr. Lennon is not in her good shape both mentally and physically, she tries to avoid any clash by respecting Dr. Lennon
’s positive face wants. Vanessa shows her respect by offering Dr. Lennon her old job if
they can get into the agreement.
Vanessa Keller : The president wants you to be the scientific
face of the lottery, help us market the concept, the credibili
ty. In exchange, we’ll drop the charge and restore your job once you
return the embryo. Dr. Alison Lennon : The embryo is the only thing keeping me alive.
Vanessa Keller : Dr. Lennon, I am trying to help you but you have
to trust me.
06_2PPPCP
Vanessa tries to avoid any conflict with Dr. Lennon for two reasons. First, it is the first time for her to have a conversation with Dr. Lennon.
Second, in this moment, Dr. Lennon is psychologically depressed for getting fired from her previous job. In response to this condition, Vanessa performs
an indirect command which contains a positive politeness strategy by indicating that they can get mutual benefits if Dr. Lennon agrees to cooperate
with her. Vanessa clearly states her intention by saying “The president wants
you to be the scientific face of the lottery, help us market the concept, the credibility”. In this utterance, it is clear that Vanessa and the government will
get advantages if Dr. Lennon agrees to join them. However, in the second utterance
,
Vanessa shows that Dr. Lennon will get benefits as the rewards for joining
them. Vanessa says “In exchange, we’ll drop the charge and restore your job once you return the embryo”. The
second utterance does not only contain an offer from Vanessa but it also contains a threat. If Dr. Lennon agrees to cooperate, she will get her job back.
However, if she rejects the offer, the government will fill the charge for her because she evidently steals one of the embryos from DOH after getting fired
by her boss, Darius Hayes.
