Significance of the Research

9 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. From the explanations above, it can be said that being polite means paying attention to other s‟ feeling. This could be gained by being friendly or respecting them. This will avoid us insulting or threatening someon e‟s feeling. Hence, it is indeed expected that when we engage in a conversation, we should present more positive concern toward people we are talking to rather than the negative one in order to maintain successful and meaningful interaction. Face is the “public self-image that a person wants for himself Brown and Levinson, 1987: 61-62. They define positive face two ways: as “the want of every member that his wants be desirable to at least some others, or alternately, “the positive consistent self-image or „personality‟ crucially including the desire that this self-image be appreciated and approved of claimed by participants. Negative face is defined as “the want of every „competent adult member‟ that his actions be unimpeded by others”, or “the basic claim to territories, personal preserves, rights to non-distraction--i.e. the freedom of action and freedom from imposition ”. Further, Brown characterizes positive face by desires to be liked, admired, ratified, and related to positively, nothing that one would threaten positive face by ignoring someone. At the same time, he characterizes negative face by the desire not to be imposed upon, noting that negative face can be impinged upon 10 by imposing on someone. Positive Face refers to ones self-esteem, while negative face refers to ones freedom to act. The two aspects of face are the basic wants in any social interaction, and so during any social interaction. Brown and Levinson 1987:61 state that positive and negative faces exist universally in human culture. In social interactions, face-threatening acts are at times inevitable based on the terms of the conversation. A face threatening act is an act that inherently damages the face of the addressee or the speaker by acting in opposition to the wants and desires of the other. Most of these acts are verbal, however, they can also be conveyed in the characteristics of speech such as tone, inflection, etc or in non-verbal forms of communication. The threats to negative face might take the forms of orders, requests, suggestions, and advice. They potentially damage an individual ‟s autonomy. In contrast, disapproval, disagreement, accusation, and interruptions are threats to positive face, which potentially lower an individual ‟s self and social esteem. To lessen the threats and save face, people need politeness. It arises as a strategy speakers need to know in order to fight against face threatening acts and guarantee safety in conversation.

2. Politeness Strategies

Brown and Levinson 1987: 60 state that there are four main types of politeness strategies: bald on-record, negative politeness, positive politeness, and off-record indirect. The more an act threatens the speaker or hearer´s face, the more the speaker wants to choose a different strategy. The choice may be schematized follow. 11 Figure 1: Super-strategies of politeness Brown and Levinson, 1987: 60 When the speakers want to do politeness strategies, there is only one choice that is to do the Face Threatening Act. It can be done in four ways: the bald on record strategies, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record politeness. Those options are elaborated in the following section.

a. Bald on Record

Bald on-record strategies usually do not attempt to minimize the threat to the hearer‟s face, although there are ways that bald on-record politeness can be used in trying to minimize FTAs implicitly. If the strategy is often used it will shock or embarrass the addressee, and so this strategy is most often utilized in situations where the speaker has a close relationship with the audience, such as family or close friends. Brown and Levinson 1987: 94-98 outline various cases, in which one might use the bald on-record strategy, including: 1 Show great urgency or desperation Urgency is something that needs immediate responds while desperation is an extreme anxiety about something and usually used when one wants to warns about