suicide because he was depressed about Nathan’s death. However, his family particularly Charlie, does not believes in the report from the FBI. Thus, in
order to reduce the burden, Charlie contacts the media to come to his home since he will give a statement regarding the issue. However, Vanessa does not
agree with this idea. Then, Vanessa asks him to calm down and she promises to help him find out the t
ruth behind Conner’s death. In response to the media, Vanessa orders Charlie to say that the report from the FBI is true.
Charlie : I just said I wanted to make a statement.
Vanessa Keller
: Okay, good. So you’ll make a statement. Go and tell them exactly what I just said.
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In this example, Vanessa performs bald on record with non minimization politeness strategy. She baldly performs the command in order
to prevent ambiguity or multiple interpretations. She intends to make a clear command since she tries to make Charlie avoid more problems. Moreover,
the most influential factor which influences the choice of politeness strategy is the social distance. It is because Vanessa is a close friend of Conner, and
she knows that Conner loves his family very much. This relation makes Vanessa does not have to be afraid to perform a command in the form of bald
on record, because she knows that Charlie will understand that she wants to help him.
b. Relative Power
Relative power is the most dominant factor which influences both speakers. There are 12 data found in Vanessa’s utterances and 9 data in
Darius utterances. Both speakers are dominantly influenced by this factor for one reason which is to show their power over their addressees. In order to
give more explanations, there are three examples provided in this sub chapter. In the first example, Vanessa asks Darius to release Dr. Lennon from
the captivity. However, Darius rejects it, he argues that Dr. Lennon stole one of the embryos from the laboratory and she refused to give it back to the
government. Since Vanessa needs Dr. Lennon to be the scientific face of the lottery, she uses her power to make Darius obey her command.
Darius Hayes : She refused to cooperate.
Vanessa Keller : What are you doing to her?
For God’s sake, get her out of there.
I’m acting on behalf of the president. Get her the hell out of there now.
05_2BRNMP
Vanessa performs bald on record politeness strategy with non minimization of face threatening act.
When Vanessa says “I’m acting on behalf of the president”, she wants to show her power over Darius. Moreover,
Vanessa and Darius have no special relationship in the society. Thus, it can be concluded that in this utterance, relative power is the most influential
factor which influences the choice of the strategy. The second example is the conversation between Vanessa and Dr.
Lennon. Dr. Lennon comes to Vanessa’s room and she tells Vanessa that she
does not want to follow the script since she found out that the contract she has
signed does not force her to tell lies. In response to Dr. Lennon’s request,
Vanessa says that if Dr. Lennon does not want to follow the script, she will arrests Dr. James Lynch for helping Dr. Lennon steal the embryo in the past.
To close the conversation, Vanessa delivers a statement which contains a command for Dr. Lennon to stay on the script.
Dr. Alison Lennon : The agreement I signed does not require me to
lie. Vanessa Keller
: This is about something much bigger than any
of us. Stay on script Dr. Lennon, and all will be grant.
11_2PPPCP
In this conversation, Vanessa shows her power to Dr. Lennon. Vanessa shows that she is able to arrest Dr. James Lynch if she does not follow the
order. Moreover, she can make sure that everything will be fine if Dr. Lennon agrees
to cooperate by saying “Stay on script Dr. Lennon, and all will be grant
”. In short, relative power becomes the most influential factor which influences Vanessa to perform the strategy since the topic is related to their
working issue. The third example is set in the White House after the announcement of
the lottery’s winner. A night after the announcement, the White House makes
a cocktail party. In this occasion, Darius reminds Dr. James Lynch to stay focus on his prime job which is to fertilize more
human’s eggs. Darius Hayes
: We’ve been out of touch. James Lynch
: I’ve, uh I’ve been busy. I apologize. Darius Hayes
: Remember Dr. Lynch, focus on what’s important.
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When Darius says “Remember Dr. Lynch, focus on what’s important”, it is not only a reminder but it is also a command. In this conversation,
relative power becomes the most important factor. Darius is the boss of Department of Humanity and James is one of the scientist who works for
Department of Humanity. Moreover, only relation that they have is working relationship and the topic of the conversation is related to
James’s jobs. Thus, when Darius performs a command by bald on record with non minimization,
he is not afraid of non cooperative actions from James.
c. Ranking of Imposition
Ranking of imposition is the least factor which influences the speakers with only 2 data. Basically, the ranking of imposition for every command is
high. However, there are two circumstances in the first season of The Lottery TV Series which make the degree of imposition higher than the other
circumstances. The first condition is faced by Vanessa when she has to ask George to find more information about Conner before the abductions. In this
situation, George is not Vanessa’s employee, so she has to perform a command by negative politeness strategy to lessen the degree of imposition.
The second condition is faced by Darius when he asks the chairman of the joint chiefs to persuade the president to drop the lottery. In this context,
Darius has no real power over the adressee, thus, he also tries to lessen the imposition by seeking for the common ground among the participants. Two
examples are also provided in this sub chapter to add more explanations.
