Social Distance Off Record Payoffs

75 which is offered by the record company. They prefer to publish the album without cooperating with the record company. Dialogue 19 Setting : On the Road. Situation : Gretta thanks to Dan for making her able to finish the album. Participants : Gretta and Dan Gretta : “We could take the whole gang. You know? Rachel, Malcolm, Steve. So….” Dan : “So” Gretta : “Look, I guess I‟ll see you in a while. Thank you.” NP The underlined utterance above is addressed to the hearer who possesses higher power rather than the speaker. Dan‟s power is higher than Gretta because Dan is the person who helps Gretta in producing her songs. The underlined utterance above shows that Gretta wants to express farewell expression by saying thank you to Dan. It indicates that their work is finished but Gretta hopes that they can meet in another time. In other words , rather than just saying “good bye”, the speaker will tend to use longer expression like “look, I guess I‟ll see you in a while” to express farewell for the hearer who possesses higher power. Therefore, longer and more formal expression will tend to be used by the speaker to talk to the hearer with higher power. The next example illustrates the situation where the hearer possesses the lower power than the speaker. The example can be seen in the scene where Gretta and Violet are talking for the first time. Gretta and Violet are talking about the boy who is admired by Violet. Gretta gives a suggestion to Violet regarding the way she dressed in order to make the boy pays attention to Violet. This situation is exemplified in dialogue 20. 76 Dialogue 20 Setting : At the park. Situation : Gretta and Violet are talking about the boy who is admired by Violet. Participants : Gretta and Violet Violet : “How do you get someone to notice you‟re ignoring them if they‟re ignoring you?” Gretta : “He‟s not ignoring you. You‟re beautiful. He knows that you‟re there. He‟s just hedging his bets. But, I mean you have to be more really sure that you actually like him, you know. That‟s it‟s not just that he is the guy at school to be seen with. ” Violet : “No, I do really like him.” Gretta : “Well, then you have to find a way to get him to ask you out.” Violet : “Yes, but how?” Gretta : “Well, for starters, stop dressing like you‟re totally easy.” BoR Violet : “I thought this was sort of sexy, it‟s American Apparel.” In the dialogue above, the hearer possesses the lower power rather than the speaker. Gretta stands on the position as someone who will give some advice for the hearer. Since Gretta realizes that Violet wants some advice from Gretta, she decides to convey her wants through the less polite language. The utterance “Well, for starters, stop dressing like you‟re totally easy.” is expressed through bald on record. Bald on record strategy is chosen because it allows Gretta to be clear and efficient in conveying her wants. Furthermore, the less polite language is widely used when the speaker applies bald on record. Therefore, by applying bald on record strategy and the higher power that she possesses, Gretta can impose on her own want over Violet‟s want. From the discussion above, it can be concluded that the choice of politeness strategies is determined by the power possessed by the hearer. The speaker who talks to the hearer who possesses lower power will tend to apply the strategy where the less polite language is used and he can give the imposition. In contrast, the speaker who talks to the hearer who possesses higher power will tend PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 77 to use the strategy where the more polite language is used and indirect imposition is conveyed. Therefore, the speaker should understand in which level the hearer‟s power is.

c. Ranking of Imposition

According to Brown and Levinson 1987 ranking of imposition is the degree of imposition in which the imposition is considered as the interference to the hearer‟s face. The degree of imposition is determined through the face threat which is produced by the speaker. In other words, the bigger the speaker‟s wants, the more polite strategy that will be applied. Positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record strategies are the strategies which are used to impose the hearer in doing or not doing something. It means that if the speaker has a big desire, he or she will tend to use positive politeness, negative politeness, or off record strategy. There are two kinds of Face Threatening Acts which can be produced by the speaker namely positive and negative face. The two kinds of face will be explained in the following paragraphs. For the negative face, there are two scales which can be employed to identify the rank of imposition, namely imposition of services and of goods. Whenever the speaker wants to get services or goods from the hearer but he does not want to put the face threat, the speaker can choose negative politeness or off record strategy to be applied. Those strategies are possible to be applied because the speaker can get the services or goods without giving face threat to the hearer. The situation where the speaker applies negative politeness is exemplified in the 78 situation in which Steve asks Gretta to sing her original song on the stage. The conversation is illustrated in dialogue 21. Dialogue 21 Setting : At the Café. Situation : Steve is doing his performance and he asks Gretta to sing her song on the stage. Participants : Steve and Gretta Steve : “…….. Gretta, would you come up here, please? Uh, just give me a moment. I think it would be a good idea if you‟d come up and sing one of your songs. ” NP Gretta : “It would be a really fucking bad idea.” Steve knows that Gretta is a great singer and song writer that is why he asks Gretta to come up to the stage and to sing her own song. Since the underlined utterance is expressed in front of the people and it aimed to ask Gretta to come up on the stage, Steve applies negative politeness strategy. Steve applies negative politeness because the language used in negative politeness strategy tends to be more polite. Therefore, through the more polite language, the big desire can be easier to be conveyed. Moreover, using polite language through negative politeness indicates that the speaker possesses serious and big desire that need to be fulfilled. The ranking of imposition for positive face can be identified through the measurement of the threat given to the hearer‟s face. The strategy which can satisfy the hearer‟s positive face is positive politeness. Positive politeness strategy allows the speaker to have a closer relationship with the hearer. Therefore, the possible threat which is addressed to the hearer‟s positive face will be the actions or utterances which can put the social distance to the hearer. Giving compliment