4 The focus of this study is to observe and analyze the use of politeness
strategies in the movie entitled Yes Man. The writer chooses a movie as a media to conduct the research because the movie provides dialogues which show
interpersonal relationships. In the dialogues, the characters use the language to communicate. Thus, this movie provides the example of how language is used in
social context. Specifically, the Yes Man movie conveys a story about the life of Carl
Allen and everything that revolves around him. Carl is a lonely banker with a miserable life. He often says no to any opportunity that comes in his life.
Everything changes after he joins a self-development seminar and starts to say yes to any opportunity that comes to him. This movie is chosen for its genre which is
drama-comedy. This kind of genre represents daily life situation which consists of some interactions between employer and employee, close friend, new
acquaintances etc. These interactions will likely provide a big field of a politeness strategies investigation. Thus the writer as an English teacher candidate is
interested to conduct this study using Yes Man movie.
B. Research Problems
The research problems in this study are formulated as follows: 1.
Which politeness strategies are used by the four main characters of Yes Man
? 2.
What are the factors influencing the choice of politeness strategies done by the four main characters of Yes Man?
5
C. Problem Limitation
The focus of this study is the application of politeness strategy and factors that influence the politeness strategies within the interaction of the four main
characters of Yes Man. The writer classifies the four main characters based on the frequencies of the appearance and also the importance of the role within the plot
of the movie. The four main characters are Carl Allen, Peter, Allison and Norman. These characters are chosen for their roles in the movie and also their frequency
of appearance. The writer uses the theories from Brown and Levinson 1987 to analyze the data. The data are taken from the Yes Man movie script, downloaded
from http: www.englishclique.com.
D. Research Objectives
This study is conducted in order to find out: 1.
The politeness strategies used by the four main characters of Yes Man. 2.
The factors which influencing the choice of politeness strategies done by the four main characters of Yes Man.
E. Research Benefits
The writer believes that this study will give contributions to English teachers, English teacher candidates, and English learners. For English teachers
and English teacher candidates, this study will encourage them to assess not only the grammatical proficiency of the students, but also the students’ proficiency in
6 using the language in social situations or sociolinguistic aspects of the languge,
particularly politeness. For English learners, this study will encourage the students to be more aware of how English is used in social situations or the sociolinguistic
aspects, particularly politeness. Hopefully, the learners will be able to use appropriate English utterances in appropriate social situations.
The writer also believes that this study will also give contribution to readers and future researchers. This study will give vivid information that will
help the readers to understand what politeness is. For the future researchers, this study will help those who will conduct a politeness study. Thus, the writer hopes
that this research will be a reference for them.
F. Definition of Terms
