Sociological Variables and Politeness
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and the hearer, and ranking of impositions which occurred in line with the politeness level applied. Simply, the searcher drew a conclusion of these relations in figure 5
below.
Figure 5. Sociological variables and politeness relation
The first social variable was the power notion. Whenever the “power” was assessed between the participants, it affected the choice of the request strategy
employed by the Medical and Law students.
322 Excuse me, boss. Sorry to disturb your time, but I want to be honest,
boss. I cannot cope with the responsibilities on my present position. I am afraid that my performance was not optimal when
I fill this position . Please considerate it again, boss DM 129
323
.
Excuse me, boss. I’m sorry if I am not professional but it’s for our
company .
I have to tell you that I cannot take my job because it’s not my capability to do this job
. Can I change my position that
suitable for my skill? Please? DL 135 324
I’m sorry, I have things to do all sudden. I am wondering if you can replace me today
. DM 007
325 Bro, can you help me? I have something urgent right now. Can you substitute my shift?
DaL 003 The two first statements 322 and 323 were expressions stated by the
employee to their boss or employer. Here was examined that the power gap did exist. These two example satisfied [+P] variable, thus it required [+Pol] at the same
time. Politeness was noted by the using of the openers with upgrading function of “Excuse me, boss”, and followed by apologizing “Sorry to disturb your time” and
“I’m sorry if I am not professional” as the downgrading external modifications.
+ Power + Distance
+ Rank + Politeness
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Besides, the speakers also employed reasonable reasons and justifications like “I
cannot cope with the responsibilities on my present position. I am afraid that my pe
rformance was not optimal when I fill this position” and “I have to tell you that I cannot take my job because it’s not my capability to do this job” which provided
grounders of downgraders. At the same time, to state the main request head acts, Medical group preferred the non-conventionally indirect head acts of strong hints
which considered as the most indirect strategy of request as stated in “I am afraid that my performance was not optimal when I fill this position”. Meanwhile, Law
student employed conv entionally indirect head acts of “Can I change my position
that suitable for my skill?” that was recognized as query preparatory strategy. The contrast things were found in the following two examples of 324 and
325 which suggested the less politeness needed to convey the plea. Both utterances were between the speaker and hisher colleague, indicated [-P], thus [-
Pol] is required. They were begun by the neutral form of openers like “I’m sorry” and “bro”, besides, for the external modifications, the speakers solely explained the
reasons of doing the requests, like “I have things to do all sudden” and “I have
something urgent right now”. The conventionally indirect head acts were opted by both groups, resembling “I am wondering if you can replace me today” and “Can
you substitute my shift?” which indicated the query preparatory of the request. Taking a close reading on the four examples above, the researcher came to the
conclusion that the greater the relative power perceived between the speaker and the hearer, the more politeness was recommended to be applied in the conversation.
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The second variable to be evaluated was the distance existed between the participants. The same as “power” feature, the distance also seemed to have the
same influence toward the requests strategy employed by Medical and Law students.
326 Excuse me, sir. Would you help me please? Please open the door for me
, I need your help. Thank you. DM 051 327 Excuse me, sir. Can you help me to open the door, please?
I can’t open the door because my hands are so full.
DL 041
328 Sorry, I need to finish my tasks because the deadline is in a couple of hours
. When I finish my work, you can borrow it again. Is that OK?
DM 091 329
I’m sorry, I want to do my job right now. I don’t take a long time, you can wait for me. DL 103
Example 326 and 327 were involved the speaker and the stranger heshe met when they on the way went out from a company building. This showed that the
distance took place between them, [+D] directed [+Pol]. In order to be polite, the speaker employed some internal modifications such selected “sir” the politeness
marker for the openers. Besides, the speaker also mentioned “please” and past modal “would” as other linguistic units to mark the politeness. To minimize the
impositive forces of the plea, the speakers used some external modifications of grounders in sort of “I need your help” and “I can’t open the door because my hands
are so full” as the explanations, in addition, Medical students at the same time selected one gratitude e
xpression of “Thank you”. Alhough Medical student stated a performative as the head acts, whenever the power was not embedded, the
insertion of “please” preceding the head acts was considered as polite enough. On the other hand, Law student chose indirect
head acts of query preparatory “Can you help me to open the door, please?” as the main requests acts.
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Conversely, example 328 and 329 indicated the interaction between the speaker and the colleague at the same company. This exposed that they had quite
less distance compared to the other two examples stated previously. Less distance led to less politeness or [-D] entailed [-Pol]. It was seen that the neutral openers of
“Sorry” and “I’m sorry” without any upgraders function marker found in this relatio
n. Giving realistic justifications as “I need to finish my tasks because the deadline
is in a couple of hours” and “I want to do my job right now” were acceptable for the hearer. At the same time, these grounders were also functioned
as direct head acts of want statements, yet, were still considered as polite. Moreover, when the speakers conveyed some downgrading external modifications like “When
I finish my work, you can borrow it again” as a promise, “Is that OK?” to increase the hearer-
oriented, and “I don’t take a long time” to minimize the cost of the request. In other words, the researcher drew a decision that the greater the social
distance between the interlocutors, the more politeness is expected. And the last sociological variable contemplated whenever people made
requests was the rank of the impositions. Whenever the power and distance assessed in particular interaction, it was understood that the imposition rank between the
speaker and the hearer was there.
330 Excuse me, boss. Can I talk to you about something? I need to tell you that I can’t take the responsibilities in my present job. It is
too hard for me to do . Would you mind to change my job? DM 135
331 Excuse me, sir. Can I speak with you right now? I feel my job is not my specialty. I cannot cope the responsibilities on my present
position.
Will you change the job for me? I will make my best on the new position you give me.
DM 132
332 Congratulations You are always as great as usual.
Then, let’s buy
us a drink to celebrate your promotion. I think it is not bad idea, what do you think?
DM 238 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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333 Oh, you has just got a promotion. Congratulation, bro. Great job
Maybe you can treat me and other office member to a meal together? Come on, we will make something happy for you. Okay? DL 211
The ranking of impositions were found in the example 330 and 331 that indicated there was a gap between the speaker as the employee and the addressee
as the employer. It was shown that in order to mark this imposition, the speakers employed more politeness strategy in making requests, [+R] meant [+Pol]. The
most commonly opted strategies were the upgrading openers and internal modifications. Adopting the linguistic element of “sir” in the openers signified two
things, the first was the opener’s upgrader, and the second was showing the politeness marker.
Besides, the selection of the modal verb of “would” and “will” for the
indirect head acts of “Would you mind to change my job?” by medical student and “Will you change the job for me?” by Law student were considered having less
force than “can”. This was also applicable form of politeness marker of internal modifications. The head acts were preceded by the preparators to prepare the
request using “Can I talk to you about something?” and “Can I speak with you right
now?”. On the other hand, the speakers uttered the justifications and explanations
of “I need to tell you that I can’t take the responsibilities in my present job. It is too hard for me to do” and “I feel my job is not my specialty. I cannot cope the
responsibilities on my present position” to diminish the impositive forces.
Furthermore, to heighten their justifications , the promise of “I will make my best
on the new position you give me” which committed the speaker to do something good after the request was granted also took place.
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Contrariwise, there always two opposite things happened. As there was [+R] context, there was also [-R] which construed [-Pol] exposed in this research. As
shown in 332 and 333 , less imposition’s ranking guided to less politeness usage.
Although the distance was there, strategies of requests employed in these two examples accepted to be appropriate because of its fashion. For this special case,
the openers were possibly in way of greeting or expressing salutation of someone’s promotion.
Both speakers selected “Congratulations” as the openers to be entailed by some sweeteners of “You are always as great as usual” and “Great job” as the
external modifications. Medical student favored to use both direct and indirect head
acts as mentioned in “Let’s buy us a drink to celebrate your promotion” as performatives and at the same point also employed “I think it is not bad idea, what
do you think?” as the suggestory formula. Meanwhile, Law student preferred to
insert hedging expression to diminish the force of head acts “Maybe you can treat
me and other office member to a meal together?” and to avoid any possible refusal from the hearer, the promise of “we will make something happy for you” which to
same extend also functioned as disarmer was added. Based on the elaborations above, the researcher figured out that the greater the gap of the rank or the
imposition between the participants, the more politeness had to be used.