57 expressing her doubt toward Dave through giving face redressed
to the hearer‟s negative face.
The utterance which is labeled with NP 2 also shows that the speaker wants to achieve the goal of negative politeness that she wants to put a distance
toward the hearer. By applying hedges in the utterance, the speaker can deny the responsibility for the truth of the utterance. The hedges which are found in the
utterance NP 2 are, “I‟m just finding it a bit hard to adjust” and “I think… I think everyth
ing‟s changed”. Those hedges are applied because the speaker aimed to disguise the truth of the utterance. Gretta aimed to say that she finds it hard to
adjust and she wants to say that everything has changed. However, since Gretta wants to lessen the impact of the utterances, she applies hedges in her utterances.
By applying the hedges in the utterances, the speaker does not want to presume and impose the hearer.
4. Off Record
Off record strategy is the act of saying things indirectly and allowing the addressee to interpret what the speaker is saying. Since this strategy is more
indirect, the speaker will produce the more general language or express utterances which have different meaning from the actual meaning. In other words, the
speaker will let the addressee to decide how to interpret the utterances expressed by the speaker. Through this strategy, the FTA can be done by the speaker
because this strategy allows the speaker to avoid the responsibility of doing the FTA. Off record strategy was only performed by the three of the main characters,
namely Dan Mulligan, Gretta James, and Dave Kohl. The reason of why Steve did PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
58 not perform off record strategy is because Steve always expresses his desire
directly to the hearer. He aimed to avoid misunderstanding which may happen when he expresses something indirectly. Therefore, most of his utterances in the
movie are included in direct strategies such as Bald on Record and Positive Politeness.
The example of off record strategy can be seen in the condition where the speaker gives hints to the hearer. The speaker is meant to ask the hearer to find the
interpretation of the indirect utterances by giving hints to the hearer. Afterwards, the speaker will let the hearer to find the possible interpretation of the utterances
expressed by the speaker. The example of this strategy can be illustrated in the scene where Dan and Gretta visit
Dan‟s ex artist, namely Troublegum. Troublegum is a famous hip hop rapper who has been cooperated with Dan in
producing his music. Dan and Gretta visit Troublegum in order to ask for help especially for their financial problem. Dan assumes that Troublegum is willing to
help him because he has made Troublegum to be a famous hip hop rapper. In this scene, Dan and Gretta produce the utterances through off record to convey that
they want Troublegum to help them solving their financial problem. The situation is shown in dialogue 10. The off record strategy is labeled with OR.
Dialogue 10 Setting
: Troublegum’s house Situation
: Dave and Gretta visited Troublegum wby the aim to ask Troublegum to help them solving their financial problem.
Participants : Dave, Gretta, and Troublegum.
Troublegum
: “An outdoor album?”
Dan : “That‟s right.”
59 Troublegum
: “That‟s fucking crazy. I wish I could‟ve thought of that. What do you want me to do?
” Dan
: “I need musicians. I need a bass player and a drummer.” OR 1
Troublegum : “I got a plenty of musicians.”
Gretta :
“The problem is we can‟t pay them.” OR 2 Troublegum
: “Fuck it up. I‟ll pay them.” Dan and Gretta are working on their project to make an outdoor album
since they have been refused by the record label. An outdoor album means that the songs are recorded in some locations outside the record studio. Besides, they also
do not use the expert tools which usually used when somebody records an album in the record studio. They produce the outdoor album because they do not have
enough money to rent a studio along with the expert tools. On the other hand, in order to make a good music production, they also need to employ some musicians
as the band members. Therefore, they come to Troublegum in order to ask him to help them employing some musicians. In conveying their desire, Dan and Gretta
apply off record strategy by expressing indirect utterances. In the dialogue above, the first underlined utterance,
“I need musicians. I need a bass player and a drummer
” shows that Dan only needs a bass player and a drummer. However, Dan prefers to say the indirect utterance above rather than
saying directly to Troublegum to help him finding and employing the musicians. Dan‟s desire is strengthen by Gretta by saying “The problem is we can‟t pay
them.” The underlined utterance which is expressed by Gretta shows that she has another intention by saying that utterance. The intention behind the utterance
expressed by Gretta is that she wants Troublegum to help them paying the musicians. However, Dan and Gretta expresse the underlined utterances through
off record strategy because they aimed to avoid the responsibility of doing the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
60 face threat. By going off record, Dan and Gretta can do the FTA and avoid the
responsibility of doing the FTA. Therefore, Troublegum can decide how to interpret the intention which is tried to be conveyed through the underlined
utterances above. Another example of off record strategy is where the speaker is using
metaphor in the utterances. This is done by comparing the two unrelated things or actions. The example of metaphor can be seen in the dialogue between Gretta and
Dan when they are going to have dinner at a restaurant. They come from picking up Dan‟s daughter, Violet from the school and go shopping with her. Dan is not
living together with his daughter and wife because there are some problems that make them live separately. Gretta thinks that it is nice to see Dan and Violet
spending time together in that day. However, Dan is still sensitive to discuss about the problem which happened in his family and he thinks that Gretta is too
officious talking about his family problem. The situation can be illustrated in dialogue 11. The off record strategy is labeled with OR.
Dialogue 11 Setting
: A restaurant. Situation
: Dan and Gretta were having dinner that suddenly Gretta talked about Dan and his daughter.
Participants : Dan and Gretta.
Gretta : “You know, it was nice to see you with Violet today. It must be
hard not seeing her more.
”
Dan : “Yeah, it‟s…”
Gretta : “So, why don‟t you? I mean, she obviously really needs her father
around. ”
Dan :
“What, are you the fucking social services now?” OR Gretta
: “No, no, I mean, I‟m just saying. It must have been fairly tense for you to leave, especially seeing as how much she obviously wants
you around. ”
61 That day is the first time for Gretta to meet Violet. They then spending
time together at the park and going for shopping. After they are done with the shopping, Dan and Gretta go to a restaurant to have dinner. At the restaurant,
Gretta starts the conversation by talking about what they have done on that day together with Violet. Gretta is impressed seeing how Dan and Violet are spending
their time together. However, since Dan has a family problem, it seems that he does not want to talk about the topic related to his family. Therefore, he expresses
an utterance which is different from what he meant. The underlined utterance above
“What, are you the fucking social services now?” shows that Dan compared Gretta with a social service worker. A social
service worker is someone who always deals with family problems, but Gretta is not. Gretta is only trying to give impression to Dan that it is nice seeing Dan
together with his daughter. Saying that Gretta is a social service worker is the expression to compare Gretta with the social service worker because Gretta talks
about Dan‟s family matter. On the other hand, the underlined utterance which is expressed by Dan also implies that he is not comfortable if there is someone
talked about his family problem. Therefore, by using metaphor in the utterance, Dan is doing the face threat toward Gretta but he lets Gretta to interpret his actual
intention. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
