Nominalize to Distance the Actor and Add Formality
From the findings and the discussion, it can be concluded that Atticus employs four politeness strategies, namely bald on record strategy, positive
politeness strategy, negative politeness strategy and off record strategy. As a lawyer, Atticus has to be polite to everyone, especially during a trial which is
considered as an important and formal occasion. The most dominant politeness strategy used by Atticus is positive politeness strategy. The positive politeness
strategy is mostly used when Atticus is talking to the victim, Mayella and her father, Mr. Ewell. He uses positive politeness strategy to reduce the
embarrassment toward the hearers and also to avoid conflict because he wants to dig more information about the crime for the sake of justice. Moreover,
Atticus does not know Mayella and her father well. The lowest frequency of politeness strategy used is off-record strategy.
Atticus uses off-record strategy when talking to Tom Robinson, the defendant and Mayella, the victim. The reason is that Atticus does not know them well,
especially Tom, so that he needs to avoid imposition to the hearers and save their face.
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