CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
…, the Japanese announcement welcoming us to the flight reminds me of the polite language I was taught as a child: always speak as though everything in the
world were your fault. [Kyoko Mori’s Polite Lies, p. 5]
1.1. Background of the Analysis
The word polite, according to The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology is borrowed from Latin politus ‘refined’, ‘polished’, and ‘elegant’, from past
participle of polire ‘to polish’. The meaning of ‘refined’, ‘elegant’, ‘cultured’ is first recorded in English in 1501 and that of ‘courteous’, ‘behaving properly’, in
1762 Barnhart, 1988:581. Since then, the use of this word expands so enormously that in 2003, Roget’s Super Thesaurus offers us great more varieties
of synonyms to this word as ‘well-mannered’, ‘courteous’, ‘gracious’, ‘civil’, ‘considerate’, ‘thoughtful’, ‘courtly behaved’, ‘gentlemanly’, ‘ladylike’, ‘refined’,
‘nice’, and ‘diplomatic’ Thesaurus, 2003:443. In the same year as the publication of the 11
th
edition of the Thesaurus, Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary provides us various definitions to the word polite as following:
1. a of relating to, or having the characteristics of advanced culture
b marked by refined cultural interests and pursuits especially in arts and belles letters
2. a showing or characterized by correct social usage
b marked by an appearance of consideration, tact, deference, or courtesy
Universitas Sumatera Utara
We, ourselves, have been introduced to and taught about this word, since we were children, by our parents, teachers, and those who are regarded qualified and
having knowledge about this. We were trained to be polite, either in acting or speaking, in every aspects of life. For example, we were taught how a child should
walk when he passes by an elder man or woman, how a woman should laugh, how a man should talk, how an employee should write a letter to herhis boss, etc.
All these forms of politeness, of course, are not taught and learned for no reasons and purposes. Adapting Wardraugh’s idea that to achieve group identity
with, and group differentiation from, other speakers, the speakers in the same community share some kind of common feeling about social, cultural, political,
ethic, and linguistic characteristics in the community Wardraugh, 1986:114, it can be said that everybody is trying to behave and speak politely, according to the
culture of the community where he lives, to make herhim feel that she is member of the same community
Moving from polite behavior in general to the more specific case of polite language usage, we would better take a glance at the definition of the word
politeness given by Jack Richards’ Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics.
Here, politeness is defined as ‘the study of how languages express the social distance between speakers and their different role relationship and how face-
work—the attempt to establish, maintain, and save face during conversation—is carried out in a speech community’
. From this definition we can say that politeness is the study of how participants in verbal interaction
recognize both their place and face in the society and realize it through the language that they use.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
It should be noted that languages differ in how they express politeness Richards et al 1985: 222. Sachiko Ide Ide 1989: 230 in Watts, 2003:82, posits
that there are societies, particularly those in Asia, e.g. China, Japan, Thailand, Korea, etc., in which politeness is determined by discerning the appropriate
features of the ongoing social interaction, i.e. those features of the interaction which determine politic behavior, and choosing socially appropriate strategies of
interaction. The Japanese word for the ability to discern the correct form of behavior in the ongoing situation is wakimae. To behave according to wakimae is
to show verbally and non-verbally one’s sense of ‘place’ according to social conventions.
However, the case is not that simple. Even in one society the term polite and politeness are still in discursive dispute. There is not a uniformity of idea or
concept on what is being polite and what politeness itself is. Everybody has herhis own idea over these two terms. While one defines the word polite
positively as synonyms and definitions given above, others define it negatively as ‘standoffish’, ‘haughty’, ‘insincere’, ‘hypocritical’, ‘dishonest’, ‘distant’,
‘unfeeling’, etc. Watts, 2003:1-2. It is this phenomenon reflected in the novel Polite Lies. Through her fourth
novel, Kyoko Mori provides us a story of herself, a Japan-born American woman who spends her first twenty years of life in Japan and the next twenty years in
America until she finally decides to be an American citizen. During her visit to Japan, Kyoko interacts with her Japanese families, relatives, and friends. From the
story I find out and Kyoko herself acknowledges that verbal interaction carried out is polite. However, the evaluation of the politeness in this country is negative
Universitas Sumatera Utara
that she firmly and clearly states that politeness in Japan is not more than polite lies—small lies we tell to protect ourselves andor others from trouble or
embarrassment.
Then, how are linguistic utterances in Kyoko Mori’s Polite Lies open to the interpretation as polite? How Kyoko does evaluates those polite utterances
negatively as polite lies? Through my thesis entitled Politeness in Kyoko Mori’s Polite Lies I will reveal the answers to those questions and explain them by the
use of Watts’ radical new approach to politeness.
1.2. Scope of the Analysis
