Overall, all the studies described above have different data that analyzed although some studies used the same theory to identify the data. The strength and weaknesses found will support
the study, the differences of each study will used as references to make this research reliable.
2.2 Concepts
2.2.1 Politeness
Politeness is the practical application of good manners or etiquette. It is a culturally defined phenomenon, and therefore what is considered polite in one culture can sometimes be
quite rude or simply eccentric in another cultural context. Politeness is universal, but the way to show politeness is culturally bound. Politeness is much more influenced by sociocultural aspects
of the speaker. In the process of communication, both speaker and addresser are obliged to follow the cooperative principles, even when what she means is not uttered explicitly. In
communication politeness strategies are used to formulate messages in order to save the hearer‟s positive face when face-threatening acts are inevitable or desired. Brown and Levinson
1987:56 outline four main types of politeness strategies: bald on-record, negative politeness, positive politeness, and off-record indirect.
2.2.2 Language and Sex
According to Holmes 1992:164, women and men speak differently. The use of linguistic variation of a language is closely related to the sex of the speaker. It is claimed that
women are more linguistically polite than men and emphasize different speech function. Holmes and Lakoff proposed some linguistics feature which consider as the linguistic features of male
and female.
Robin Lakoff 1975:53 , an American linguist argued one stereotypes of women‟s speech
is that it is more polite than men‟s. He has made this claim, he mentioned a number of linguistic features, which the subject and the verb of preceding statement is repeated in a question, of
typically reserved polarity, such as: Bill too Luke to the party last night, didn‟t he? Or Louise and Lucille didn‟t leave together last night, did they? Lakoff claimed that female speakers tend to
make direct assertions, to avoid conflict with addresses.
2.2.3 Gender
There are two concepts of gender, the biological gender and the socially constructed gender. A text written by Gayle Rubin„s in 1975 discusses gender as a sexgender system, in
which the social gender is described as enhancing the idea of a biological gender, which in itself creates gender. It implies that the image of gender image for both sexes is being distorted, due to
gender being socially constructed. In gender theory there is also the discussion of the power aspect being built into the gender system: a system in which the male is the norm, making the
female the subordinate one of the two genders Månsson 2010:243-245. Miegel Johansson 2002:162. The starting point in gender theory then is that the featurestraits that we consider as
being feminine or masculine is socially constructed, and has changed throughout history. The woman is described as being watchedsaved, while the man the one watchingsaving Bell 1995,
Miegel Johansson 2002:158, 165-169.
2.3 Theoretical Framework
