11 the point and there is no effort to save the hearer’s positive face. The speaker only
wants to make the hearer knows what heshe wants.
b. Positive Politeness
Positive politeness is a type of politeness strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson whose orientation is the positive face of the hearer. In the positive
politeness strategy, the face threatening act is minimized by implicating that the speaker likes some of the hearer’s wants. In so doing this, the positive-face wants
of the hearer will be fulfilled and the hearer will believe that the speaker is in the same group with himher.
According to Brown and Levinson in Goody 1978: 103-130, there are 15 strategies of positive politeness. Those strategies are as follows.
1 Noticing and Attending to Hearer
In this strategy, the speaker is expected to take notice to the hearer’s attribute such as the appearance, possession, or anything related to the hearer. This
strategy can be done through compliments. The following expression is the example of this strategy.
Jim, you’re really good at solving computer problems. I wonder if you could just help me with a little formatting problem I’ve got.
Watts, 2003: 89 In the utterance above, the speaker shows that he notices Jim’s ability by
saying “you’re really good at…” Actually, the intention of the speaker is to ask Jim to help him solve his computer problem. However, the speaker, at first,
12 chooses to say that Jim is good at solving computer problem to satisfy Jim’s
positive-face wants and to minimize the face threatening act.
2 Exaggerating
This strategy suggests the speaker to deliver some exaggerated expressions. Those exaggerated expressions can be done in the form of intonation,
stress, reduplication word, and other aspects of prosodics. The exaggerated expressions are used when the speaker delivers hisher feeling trough interest,
approval, or sympathy towards the hearer. The expression below is an example of this strategy:
Good old Jim. Just the man I wanted to see. I knew I’d find you here. Could you spare me a couple of minutes?
Watts, 2003: 89 The speaker puts an exaggerated expression in the sentence “just the man I
wanted to see.” By saying that expression, the speaker implies that heshe has waited a long time to meet Jim and is happy that finally heshe meets Jill. Thus,
Jil’s positive face will be satisfied and she will agree to spend her time with the speaker.
3 Intensifying Interest to Hearer
In this strategy, the speaker shows that heshe has the same common goal with the hearer by making the hearer intensifies the interest towards the speaker.
The speaker can increase the hearer’s interest by making an interesting introduction of a story with an obvious explanation. The following example is an
example of this strategy.
