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Asking someone to take the drink and inquiring someone to handle a new upcoming big project were two different job to do. Slightly, the researcher directly noticed
that there was different cost of imposition from these two situations. Specifically, when the speaker had higher power and rank, shehe was accepted to ask the
employee to do or not to do something for hisher sake. Yet, even the speakers were given a more deliverance in making request, they still managed some strategies to
get their request granted by the hearers. It was explained in 348 and 349 that the speakers wanted the hearers to
get drink for them. However, by solely stating the main request acts such as “can you bring me a glass of water” and “can you bring a glass of water for me now,
please?” without any explanations or justifications, the hearers obviously noticed that the speakers were thirsty and wanted water to drink. In contrast, 350 and 351
appealed greater imposition and forces to the hearers since what the speakers intended were not something small and easy. It needed great skills and hard work
at the same time. Thus, to minimize this cost, the speakers, even when they were the boss and able to decide everything by themselves, they still asked the possibility
of the request to the hearer. Some strategies then explicated. Firstly, to make the hearers felt ease toward
the requests, often both Medical and Law students selected sweeteners as the gate before conveying their main request acts such as “I am so excited to know that we
have such talented person in our compa ny”, “It will be great to work with you”, “I
heard that you has done a great job managing marketing” and “I don’t have other candidate except you” which were potentially to built up the positive vibe between
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the speaker and the hearer. At the same point, feeling being appreciated by the boss could possibly increase the eagerness of hearers to accept the request. Secondly,
without mentioning the purpose of the requests, the hearers might put into a hard situation to decide whether or not to take the requests. Therefore, the speakers also
selected supportive grounders to explain the justifications and reasons like “I want to have you on my team to do our new project next year” and “We will have a big
project” behind the requests made.
e. Reciprocal Asymmetry
The term “reciprocal asymmetry” adopted by the researcher from Leech’s 2014 theory on eight peculiar characteristics of politeness. This is a new idea
which embraced the use of the politeness in a more specific way. A reciprocal asymmetry was taken as the polite behavior between two parties, A and B, in which
meaning that whatever is felt to be polite in A’s behavior would be felt to convey the reverse of politeness if observed, on the
same occasion, in B’s behavior Leech, 2014:6. Further Leech gives an example of A and B behavior toward giving
salutation. A uses clapping and cheering to attribute high value to B and B’s performance, while, on the other hand, B uses bowing which meant to attribute low
value to B and B’s performance. Thus, it can be seen that A and B party have different behavior toward the same occasion.
In a more simple way of attributing, the reciprocal asymmetry drove the speaker to give high value to the other party or to typify low value to oneself is felt
to be polite, to do the opposite, to give high value to one self or low value to the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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other person is felt to be impolite. However, different factors might contribute to this different way of behavior. Some matters which possibly triggered the reciprocal
asymmetry found in this research were sex and different field background of the speaker.
352 M Can we substitute our shift, please? I have something to do,
urgent. DM 004
353 F Hi friend, so sorry to disturb your time. I would like to exchange shift with you because tomorrow I have important
family business
. How? Can I exchange shift with you? Thank you.
DM 009
354 F Sorry, can you replace me in the morning shift? I just got the call from the hospital that my roommate had an accident last night
. DL 028
355 M Please replace my morning shift, can you? DL 029
It has already been investigated for long time and this was not something new that male and female used the language differently. Corresponding to the other
primary researches, in this research the researcher discovered that sex was the potential factor which affected the selecting of the requests strategies. The
preceding examples labelled by M indicated that speakers were male, while, F indicated the speakers were female. At glance, it was observed that female
employed longer form of request acts. Seen from 352 and 356, male speakers favored to be frankly stated their aims. On the other hand, 353 and 354 were the
female speakers whom preferred less straightforward in conveying their goals. Precisely, to mark the politeness, male speakers solely attached
“please” as seen in “Can we substitute our shift, please?” and “Please replace my morning shift”
to which they concerned have been fulfilled “to be polite” notion. Meanwhile, female speakers might regard that there
was higher consideration on “to be polite” way in making requests. Thus, they selected more various strategy to be employed.
