circumstances, Darius intends to be clear and effective in delivering the command since he already fired Dr. Lennon in their previous meeting.
Darius Hayes : Now, I will need your access key to the lab and
computer passwords.
Dr. Alison Lennon : Sir? Darius Hayes
: The transition team will help you to move any personal belongings. We will need you to clear the
premises within the hour.
03_1BRNMP
Darius performs bald on record politeness strategy when he asks Dr. Lennon to give him her access key and her computer
’s password. Since the DOH already fired her, she has no right to access the lab. Thus, because of
this condition, Darius demands her access key by blatantly saying “Now, I
will need your access key to the lab and computer passwords”. Dr. Lennon tries to reject his decision because she is the one who successfully fertilized a
hundred healthy human embryos, so she thinks that she does not deserve to be fired. However, since Darius is the boss of DOH, he has the power to fire Dr.
Lennon for any reason. The third example of bald on record politeness strategy can be found in
the meeting in the White House where the contact from the terrorist is responded
.
When the terrorist is contacting the White House, Vanessa talks to one of the staff and asks him to block their video feed. In this example,
maximum efficiency is needed since the U.S government needs to release their diplomats immediately. Thus, in order her command clear and direct,
Vanessa decides to use bald on record politeness strategy.
A staff in the White House : Keep them talking as long as you can. If they using a mesh network, we need at
least two minutes. Vanessa Keller
: Make sure you block our video feed.
12_3BRNMP Before Vanessa picked up the call from the terrorist, one of the staff
reminds her that she should keep the conversation as long as possible so he can track their hideout. Vanessa then gives him a command in the form of
reminder by saying “Make sure you block our video feed”. Since she is in an
urgent meeting, she has to be clear in giving a command in order to minimize multiple interpretations.
b. Off Record
Off record politeness strategy is used by the speakers in four utterances. Vanessa performs three of them and the other one is performed by Darius.
Both Vanessa and Darius perform off record politeness strategy in similar situations and for similar purposes. They use off record in order to emphasize
their previous commands or requests. To provide more explanations, the three examples are presented as follows.
The first example of off record politeness strategy is the conversation between Vanessa and the other staff in White House when they discuss about
the terrorist hideout. After the lips reader reads the movement of Nathan’s
lips, Vanessa gives a command to another staff to inform the location. Lips reader
: 44 Doulan Avenue. Vanessa Keller
: Does that exist? Does that exist?
A staff in the White House :
Got it. It’s a warehouse just outside of Shanghai.
17_3ORCIP
Vanessa performs a command by saying “Does that exist? Does that
exist?” to the staff. The utterance is in the form of question. However, it is not really a question but a command because Vanessa needs to confirm the
existence of 44 Doulan Avenue itself. She performs the same utterance twice with different intonations to show the importance of the information. Thus, it
can be seen from the data that when the context of communication is clear, even an off record strategy can be used to convey an important command in
an urgent situation. Moreover, before Vanessa performs these utterances, she has already asked all the staffs involved in the meeting to seek the terrorist
hideout. In other words, these utterances are only repetitions of the previous command, hence, she is able to emphasize her intention.
The second example is the utterance of Vanessa who gives a command to a staff in DOH research facility. The conversation happens when Vanessa
accompanies Kyle Walker to visit his son who is taken by the Department of Humanity. Mr. Walker asks a staff of DOH for getting permission so he can
visit his son. However, the staff rejects the request by saying that according to their doctor
,
h is son is doing fine. Therefore, Vanessa tries to persuade the
staff to let Mr. Walker in but still the staff rejects her request. Finally, Vanessa performs a command by emphasizing her authority which is higher
than the addressee. Vanessa Keller
: He’s been taken away from his father. No matter what your doctor are saying, he can’t be doing
“just fine”. At least, let Mr. Walker go in and explain to the boy what is going on.
A man from DOH : Policy is policy, Ms. Keller. Vanessa Keller
: Your policy is bureaucratic bullshit. It may be
able to keep Mr. Walker from his son,
but I’m not going anywhere until I see what’s going on
here.
22_4ORCIP In this conversation, Vanessa performs off record politeness strategy by
inviting a conversational implicature. When Vanessa says that she does not want to go anywhere, she does not mean to stay in the lobby but she insists to
vis it Mr. Walker’s son, Elvis, no matter what happens. Since the staff knows
that Vanessa is the chief of staff in the White House, he then decides to let her into avoid getting himself into troubles. In short, the function of this utterance
is similar to the first example. It is a repetition which is used to strengthen her previous request to visit Elvis.
The third example is the conversation among Darius, the DOH’s staff and the judge
in Elvis’s custody hearing. In this example, the staff of DOH reports to Darius that the judge is going to deny some of their agreements
related to the result of the custody hearing. In response to the issue, Darius gives an indirect command to the judge via mobile phone. Moreover, Darius
performs off record politeness strategy in order to remind the judge that they have agreement which forces her to do what Darius asks her. So, this type of
command is also used to emphasize or strengthen the previous order in their previous meeting.
DOH’s staff : Sir, I don’t know what happend. She just going off
script. Darius Hayes : Can you put her on the phone?
DOH’s staff : Yes, She’s right here.
Darius Hayes :
There’s only one acceptable outcome. Do you understand?
Judge : I thought we were supposed to be advocating for the
