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guide the conversation management. According to Grice in Leech, 1983: 8, under the cooperative principle, there are four sub-principles called maxims, they
are maxim of quality, maxim of quantity, maxim of relation, and maxim of manner.
Another topic under pragmatics is politeness. The employment of politeness is used to show awareness of another person’s public self-image Yule,
1996: 60. Cutting 2003: 45 explains that politeness refers to the choices made in the use of language. It is the linguistic expressions which give people space and
show them a friendly attitude. The further discussion about politeness will be discussed in below section.
2. Face and Politeness
Face is a central concept in studying linguistic politeness. As proposed by Goffman 1967: 5, face can be defined as the positive social value which is
claimed by a person for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a specific contact. In addition, he states that it is an image of the vivid portrayal of
one’s self regarding the approved social traits. In accordance with Goffman, Brown and Levinson 1987: 61 define face as the public self-image which is
needed by every member of society to claim for himself. Brown and Levinson 1987: 62 define face in two related aspects, i.e.
negative face and positive face. Negative face is what every member of society wants that hisher actions be unimpeded by others. Meanwhile, positive face is the
want of every member of society that hisher wants be desirable to others.
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In simpler explanation, Yule 1996: 61-62 describes negative face as a people’s need to be liberated, to have the power to determine their own action,
and not to be forced by other people. Positive face, on the other hand, is a person’s need to be recognized and cherished by others, to be accepted in the
same group as a member, and to be aware that what heshe desires is in common with others.
In relation to the concept of face, Yule 1996: 61 says that within the social interactions in everyday life, people generally behave in such a way that
their expectations regarding their public self-image, or their face wants, will be respected by others. Then, if a speaker says something which portrays a threat to
another individual’s expectations regarding self-image, it is described as face- threatening act or FTA. Brown and Levinson in Cutting, 2003: 45 say that it is a
universal characteristic over cultures that speakers should respect e ach others’
expectation in relation to self-image, take their feeling into consideration, and avoid FTAs.
People use language in society to interact with others. It is a means of social interaction which people use to create harmony. In order to create harmony
within a society, an understanding among the people in the society is needed. Watts 2003: 42 claims that successful social interaction among people depends
on the will of the participants to cooperate in the society. Politeness is one of the tools to reach the understanding among the people in the society. According to
Yule 1996: 60, politeness can be described as showing awareness to another
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person’s public face image. It is similar to the statement by Brown and Levinson in Watts, 2003: 86 who explain that the aim of politeness is to minimize FTA.
Brown and Levinson in Culpeper, 1996: 355 argue that if a person wants to perform a FTA, but at the same time heshe also wants to maintain the face of
those involved, heshe will carry out politeness work appropriate to the face threat of the act. There are five strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson for
performing an FTA as summarized by Culpeper 1996: 356. 1 Bald on record
In this strategy, the FTA is carried out in the most exact, obvious, and easily understood method Brown and Levinson, 1987: 69.
2 Positive politeness The use of this strategy intends to restore the addressee’s positive face wants.
3 Negative politeness The use of this strategy intends to restore the addressee’s negative face wants.
4 Off-record The FTA in this strategy is used in a way which creates an impression that the
actor may have another intention. The actor performs the FTA by using ambiguous language Brown and Levinson, 1987: 69. In other words, it uses
implicature to perform FTA Grice, 1975. 5 Withhold the FTA
In this strategy, the speaker does not do the FTA.
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3. Impoliteness
