61 hearer. In other words, it indicates the intimacy between the speaker and hearer
whether they had close or distant relationship. If the speaker has a high intimacy with the hearer, the speaker will choose
less polite strategies as in positive politeness and bald on record strategies. Meanwhile, if the speaker has less intimacy with the hearer, the speaker will
choose more polite strategies as in negative politeness and off record strategies. Utterance 5 showed Obama
‘s utterance that contained positive politeness. Obama chose to use positive politeness to lessen the social distance between him
and Ellen. Utterance 5
Obama : Ellen, you should be a part of this. You should pledge to also get a
tattoo with us. PP Transcript 1, p. 78
Utterance 5 showed that Obama invited Ellen to get a tattoo together with Obama‘s family. Obama invited Ellen by using the positive politeness, as in
utterance ―You should pledge to also get a tattoo with us.‖ By saying this, Obama lessened the social distance between him and Ellen. Therefore, he regarded Ellen
as a part of his family by inviting Ellen to get the tattoo together with Obama‘s
family. Thus, Utterance 5 showed that Ellen and Obama had a great intimacy.
b. Relative Power
Relative power discusses the power of the hearer over the speaker. When the speaker has lower power than the hearer, the speaker will use more polite
strategy. Furthermore, when the speaker has higher power than the hearer then the speaker will use less polite strategy.
62 Meanwhile, the example of the results showed that the relative power did
not influence the speakers in using the politeness strategies. Utterance 2 showed Obama
‘s utterance. Utterance 2
Obama : You know, the Ellen dog bowls are somewhere, I am sorry, but… NP
Audience laughing. Transcript 3, p. 83
Utterance 2 showed that Obama was talking about Ellen‘s dog bowls.
Obama gave his apology to Ellen when he talked about the dog bowls by saying ―I am sorry, but…‖. It indicated that Obama was aware that his utterance might
threaten Ellen ‘s negative face. At that time, Obama was the president of United
State of America. It meant that he had higher power than Ellen who was a host of the talk show. However, Obama ignored his status and power as president, so he
used the negative politeness strategy to be more polite towards Ellen. Utterance 6 showed Hillary
‘s utterance that consisted of negative politeness.
Utterance 6 Hillary : Can I tell you about that? NP This is hard to believe, but there was a
law passed so that if you were married, or you were a single woman, you would be legally entitled to a credit card. So I applied to credit
card.
Transcript 2, p. 80 Hillary was talking about gender quality in U.S. and she wanted to add
some information about the fact of the situations at that time. Before Hillary continued to share the facts, she immediately said ―Can I tell you about that?‖
