24 →FTA so, if I were you, I wouldn’t cut your lawn back so short.
12 Include both S and H in the activity:
strategy 12 I’m feeling really hungry. Let’s stop for a bite.
FTA = S wants to stop and have something to eat and wants to get H to agree to do this
13 Give or ask for reasons:
strategy 13 I think you’ve had a bit too much to drink, Jim.
→FTA Why not stay at our place this evening? 14 Assert reciprocal exchange or tit for tat:4 Dad,
→FTA if you help me with my math homework, strategy 14 I’ll mow the lawn after school tomorrow.
15 Give gifts to H goods, sympathy, understanding, cooperation:
A: strategy 15 Have a glass of malt whisky, Dick.
B: Terrific Thanks.
3 Negative Politeness
Negative politeness strategies are oriented towards the hearer’s negative face and emphasize avoidance of imposition on the hearer. These strategies presume
that the speaker will be imposing on the listener and there is a higher potential for awkwardness or embarrassment than in bald on record strategies and positive
politeness strategies. There are ten substrategies addressed to the hearer’s negative face Watts, 2003: 90-91:
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25 1 Be conventionally indirect:
strategy 1 Could you tell me the time, please?
2 Do not assume willingness to comply. Question, hedge:
strategy 2 I wonder whether I could just sort of ask you a little question.
3 Be pessimistic about ability or willingness to comply. Use the subjunctive:
strategy 3 If you had a little time to spare for me this afternoon, I’d like to
talk about my paper. 4 Minimize the imposition:
strategy 4 Could I talk to you for just a minute?
5 Give deference:
strategy 5 to a police constable Excuse me, officer. I think I might have
parked in the wrong place. 6 Apologies:
strategy 6 Sorry to bother you, but . . .
7 Impersonalize the speaker and the hearer. Avoid the pronouns I and you: strategy 7
A: That car’s parked in a no-parking area.
B: It’s mine, officer.
A: Well, it’ll have to have a parking ticket.
8 State the FTA as an instance of a general rule:
strategy 8 Parking on the double yellow lines is illegal, so
→FTA I’m going to have to give you a fine. 9 Nominalise to distance the actor and add formality:
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26
strategy 9 Participation in an illegal demonstration is punishable by law.
→FTA Could I have your name and address, madam? 10 Go on record as incurring a debt, or as not indebting H:
→FTA If you could just sort out a problem I’ve got with my formatting,
strategy 10 I’ll buy you a beer at lunchtime.
4 Off-record indirect
The final politeness strategy outlined by Brown and Levinson is the indirect strategy. This strategy uses indirect language and removes the speaker from the
potential to being imposing. For example, a speaker using the indirect strategy might merely say, “Wow, it’s getting cold in here” insinuating that it would be
nice if the listener would get up and turn up the thermostat without directly asking the listener to do so. In other words, Off Record is an indirect politeness strategy
in which the speaker says something that can be interpreted in more than one way. It depends on the hearer’s ability to decide the real meaning. There are fifteen
strategies of Off Record Brown and Levinson, 1987: 211-227: 1 Give hints
S says something that is not explicitly relevant, he she invites H to search for an interpretation of the possible relevance.
Example: 1. “This soup’s a bit bland” Pass the salt
2. “What a boring movie” Let’s leave
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27 2 Give association clues
S gives a related kind of implicature triggered by relevance violations that is provided by mentioning something associated with the act required of H,
either by precedent in S-H’s experience or by mutual knowledge irrespective of their interactional experience. Example:
1. “My house isn’t very far away” Please come visit me 2. “Are you going to market tomorrow?” Give me a ride there
3 Presuppose By implicating something, S forces H to search for the relevance of the
presupposed prior event. Example: 1. “John’s in the bathtub yet again”
2. “It was not me that did it” 4 Understate
S understates what he she actually wants to say. In the case of a criticism, S avoids the lower points of the scale, and in the case of compliment, or
admission, S avoids the upper points. Example: 1. A: “How do you like Josephine’s new haircut?
B: “It’s OK.” I didn’t like it 2. “It’s not half bad.” S thinks it’s surprisingly good
5 Overstate S exaggerates or chooses a point on a scale which is higher than the actual
state of affairs. Example:
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28 1. “I tried to call a hundred times, but there was never any answer.”
2. “You never do the washing up.” The use of hundred and never in those examples above exaggerates a point of
scale which is higher than the actual state of affairs. 6 Use tautologies
By uttering a tautology, S encourages H to look for an informative interpretation of the non-informative utterance.
Example: 1. “War is war”.
2. “Boys will be boys”. 7 Use contradiction
By stating two things that contradict each other, S makes it appear that he she cannot be telling the truth. He she, thus, encourages H to look for an
interpretation that reconciles the two contradictory propositions. Example: 1. A: “Are you upset about that?”
B: “Well, I am and I’m not” 2. “Well, John is here and he’ isn’t here.”
In the first example, it can be seen that the speaker cannot tell the truth because he she said, “I am and I’m not”, here he she encourages the hearer
to look for an interpretation that reconciles the two contradictory propositions. The second example is the same, the speaker said, “John is here
and he’ isn’t here.” here the speaker forces the hearer to interpret whether John was really there or not.
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29 8 Be ironic
By saying the opposite of what he she means, S can indirectly convey his her intended meaning, if there are clues that his her intended meaning is
being conveyed indirectly. Example: 1. “John’s a real genius” after John has just done twenty stupid things in a
row 2. “Lovely neighborhood, eh?” in a slum
9 Use metaphors S uses metaphors and makes H interpret his her intended meaning by
himherself. Example: 1. “Harry’s a red fish” He drinks swims is cold-blooded like a fish
10 Use rhetorical questions S asks a question with no intention of obtaining an answer. Questions that
leave their answers hanging in the air, implicated, may be used to do FTAs. Example:
1. “How many times do I have to tell you?” Too many 2. “What can I say?” Nothing, it’s so bad
11 Be ambiguous S makes purposeful ambiguity which may be achieved through metaphor and
lets H to guess what he she means. Example: 1. “John’s a pretty smooth cookie”
The meaning of the speaker is not clear, that is why he she lets the hearer to guess what he she actually means.
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30 12 Be vague
S may go off record with an FTA by being vague about who the object of the FTA is, or what the offence is.
Example: 1. “Looks like someone may have had too much to drink”. vague
understatement 2. “I’m going down the road for a bit.” to the local pub
The speaker’s object is vague so that it can also be used as a criticism. 13 Over generalize
S utters a rule instantiation which may leave the object of the FTA vaguely off record. Then, H has the choice of deciding whether the general rule
applies to him her, in this case. Example:
1. “If that door is shut completely, it sticks” 2. “The lawn has got to be mown.”
14 Displace H S may go off record as to who the target for his FTA is, or he she may
pretend to address the FTA to, someone whom it wouldn’t threaten, and hope that the real target will see that the FTA is aimed him her.
Example: A secretary in an office asks another – but with negative politeness – to pass the stapler, in circumstances where a professor is much nearer to the
stapler than the other secretary. His face is not threatened and he can choose to do it himself as a bonus “free gift”
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31 15 Be incomplete, use ellipsis
By purposefully not finishing his her utterance and leaving an FTA half undone, S can leave the implicature “hanging in the air”, just as with
rhetorical questions. Example: 1. “Well, if one leaves one’s tea on the wobbly table.....”
2. “Well, I didn’t see you.......” From the examples above, it can be seen that, the speaker leaves the
implicature “hanging in the air”, he she does not finish his her utterance. Meanwhile, Leech’s view of politeness involves a set of politeness maxims
analogous to Grice’s maxims. Among these are Leech, 1983:132 tact, generosity, approbation, modesty, agreement, and sympathy. These maxims vary
from culture to culture. What may be considered polite in one culture may be strange or downright rude in another.
e. Socio-cultural Variables of Brown and Levinson’s Model
In trying to define the principles of polite speech, Brown and Levinson 1987: 74 propose that the choice of a particular strategy - whether it is polite or impolite
- is constrained by important contextual factors relating to both speaker and hearer. These contextual factors include the ranking of the imposition of the act
itself, the relative power of the hearer over the speaker, and the social distance between speaker and hearer. These constraints, which are the universal
determinants of politeness levels in speech acts, specify the particular verbal strategy employed to accomplish the repair work of politeness.
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32
1 Social Distance
The social distance between the speaker and the hearer will determine the degree of politeness which is used to communicate between them. When the
social distance between the speakers is getting far, the degree of politeness that they use will be higher. On the contrary, when the social distance between the
speakers is close, the degree of politeness that they use will be lower. The social distance between them is determined by the age, sex, and socio-cultural
background.
2 Power
The power owned by the speaker will determine the degree of politeness when he or she is speaking to the hearer. When the speaker possesses higher
power than the hearer, the degree of politeness will be lower when he or she is speaking to the hearer. Meanwhile, if the speaker possesses lower power than the
hearer, the degree of politeness will be higher when they are speaking, for instance, when a boss speaks to his people. Although he is still younger than his
people he may speak to them who are older than him with rather impolite way. It might be like someone talks to his close friend.
3 Imposition
Imposition refers to the imposition of the act itself. When the speaker shows the greater FTA, thus the imposition is getting greater as well. As a result, usually
the speaker will apply high positive politeness strategy toward the hearer. For example, asking someone to borrow a quarter would not be as great an imposition
as asking that person to borrow one hundred dollars. Imposition covers every
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33 action by this we also mean speech acts which threatens the addressee’s
autonomy and freedom of action and usually is conveyed in the form of an order.
B. Theoretical Framework
