Darius Hayes : I need you to calm down and listen.
Terrorist : You promised we’d get out alive.
20_3BRNMP
In this conversation, Darius performs bald on record in the form of non mini
mization strategy. When he says “I need you to calm down and listen”, he performs a direct and brief command in order to settle the situation. This
utterance has no room of multiple interpretations, therefore, it can be categorized as bald on record by non minimization politeness strategy.
The third example is set in the basement of the White House. Conner brings a gun and threatens people to commit a suicide. Vanessa comes to the
basement and tries to make him drop the gun. Conner says that there is something that Vanessa needs to know. He comes closer to Vanessa with the
gun, and the police asks him to drop the gun. However, Conner still holds the gun when he walks toward Vanessa. This situation makes the police shoot
him down. Conner dies in the end and the FBI makes report that he commited suicide.
Vanessa Keller : Conner Just put the gun down, damn it Conner
: Vanessa there is something that you need to know. Police officer :
I said put the gun down, I’m not gonna repeat myself
24_4BRNMD In the example Vanessa clearly performs bald on record politeness
strategy with non minimization. There is no attempt to redress the face threat in Vanessa’s utterance since the setting or the condition forces her to perform
a command with the maximum efficiency. She needs to make Conner drop
the gun, otherwise the police will shoot him for holding a gun in a public area.
b. Inviting Conversational Implicature
There are 4 data of off record politeness strategy found in The Lottery TV Series. Vanessa performs three utterances and Darius performs only one
utterance. Off record politeness strategy can be realized in two ways, by inviting conversational implicature and being vague or ambiguous. However,
both Vanessa and Darius only perform off record politeness by inviting conversational implicature. It is because they use this strategy only to remind
or to emphasize their previous command in the conversation. In other words, they only perform commands by inviting conversational implicature when the
context of the conversation is clear as presented in the following examples. The first example is the conversation between Vanessa and Dr. Alison
Lennon. In the previous utterances, Vanessa demands Dr. Lennon to use the script for her next speech. However, Dr. Lennon rejects it since she believes
that it contains some lies. In the end of the conversation, Vanessa delivers an indirect command in the form of reminder for Dr. Lennon that she has to give
a scientific speech in the next morning. Vanessa Keller
: This is about us, this country inspiring hope, preventing a civil war.
Dr. Alison Lennon : I understand, our predicament, but I’m not
gonna whore out my scientific integrity and defraud the nation.
Vanessa Keller : The speech is tomorrow morning at 8:00.
10_2ORCIP
When Vanessa says “The speech is tomorrow morning at 8:00”, she does not only utter a statement without any further purpose. The utterance
contains a certain implicature which is already stated in the
previous conversation. The utterance can be interpreted as a command for Dr. Lennon
to follow the script because Vanessa already gave the same command in her previous utterance. Thus, this utterance is used to emphasize the previous
command. In the second example, Darius performs a command to the judge who
is r
esponsible for Elvis Walker ’s
custody hearing. Elvis’s father, Kyle Walker
tries to take him back from the government through the custody hearing. All the evidences presented in the court support the fact that Kyle has the right to
take care of Elvis. However, before the judge makes a decision, Darius calls her and delivers an off record command that forces her to make a decision
based on their agreement. DOH’s staff
: Sir, I don’t know what happened. 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 a command by saying “There’s only one acceptable
outcome. Do you understand?”. If the context is omitted, this utterance means nothing but a statement and a question. However, in this conversation, the
context explains that it is neither a statement nor a question. It is a command
for the judge to take a
certain decision according to their previous agreement. When the DOH’s staff says that the judge is going out of script, it implies that
both Department of Humanity and the Judge have already made a certain agreement.
The staff’s utterances is meant to explain Darius’s reference to the agreement to make the government win the custody.
c. Claiming for Common Ground
In the first season of The Lottery TV Series, there are 4 data found as the performance of claiming for common ground. Moreover, Darius is the
only speaker who performs this sub strategy. When he performs a command, he tends to seek the common needs among the participants or to include the
hearer into the same group with him. Thus, athough the command is not in the form of bald on record, the hearer will follow him with less complaints
since they feel the same way as Darius. On the other hand, Vanessa does not perform any command by claiming for common ground. It is because bald on
record with non minimization politeness strategy is more suitable for her conditions. Finally, there are three examples provided in this sub chapter in
order to give deeper explanation. The first example is set in the DOH’s laboratory where Dr. Lennon
works. In this meeting, Darius fires Dr. Lennon from her job as the head of fertility research project. Moreover, Darius tries to convey his intention in a
very smooth way by not giving a direct command. Darius Hayes
: That won’t be necessary, Dr. Lennon. Dr. Alison Lennon : excuse?
Darius Hayes
: I appreciate your diligence, but we’ll taking the
lead from this point going forward.
