Bald on Record Strategies Found in
52 communicating speaker‘s want to not impinge on the hearer, and redressing others
want of the hearer‘s. There were two sub-strategies that appeared mostly in those
three mechanisms, such as using hedge and question and apologizing. However, the first and the last mechanism of negative politeness were not found in the
collected data. Hedge and question were two of the sub-strategies that included in
avoiding presumption and assumption mechanism. When the speaker used negative politeness strategy, he had to avoid presuming and assuming the wants of
the hearer. Dialogue 11 showed the example of question usage by Hillary Clinton when she was interviewed by Ellen. The question or negative politeness was
labeled as ‗NP‘.
Dialogue 11 Clip Title
:
Hillary Clinton Catches Up with Ellen
Time : 01.40-02.14
Participants : Ellen and Hillary
Ellen : It wasn‘t until 1920 when the 19
th
Amendment passed that women were allowed to vote.
Hillary : That‘s right.
Ellen : We couldn‘t vote until then. Women weren‘t allowed to serve in
the military until 1948. Not allowed into combat until 2013. It wasn‘t until 1973 that woman could serve on juries. A woman
could not have her own credit card until 1974. Hillary
: Can I tell you about that? NP This is hard to believe, but there was a law passed so that if you were married, or you were a single
woman, you would be legally entitled to a credit card. So I applied to credit card.
Full transcript can be seen in Appendix B, p. 80
Ellen and Hillary were talking about the gender equality in U.S. year to year. They talked about women‘s policy to use their rights in joining an election,
53 serving in the military, until women‘s rights in using their own credit card. When
Ellen stated her opinion about the gender policy, Hillary responded to Ellen with her opinions by saying, ―Can I tell you about that?‖ The utterance which was said
by Ellen was considered as avoiding presumption by using question. In this case, Hillary was aware that her utterance might
threaten Ellen‘s negative face. Thus, Hillary used the question first before stating her opinions to give Ellen choice
whether she allowed Hillary to say it or not. The following mechanism of negative politeness that was found in the
collected data was by communicating the speaker‘s want to not impinge on the
hearer. Apologizing was the sub-strategy of this mechanism that appeared mostly in some conversations between Ellen and U.S. politicians. Dialogue 12 showed
the conversation between Ellen, Obama, and Macey that contained apologizing. Macey was also a guest star in that episode together with Obama. The negative
politeness or apologizing was labeled as ‗NP‘.
Dialogue 12 Clip Title
:
Macey Meets President Obama
Time : 02.27-02.49
Participants : Ellen, Obama, and Macey
Macey : Are you still using the Ellen dog bowls?
Obama : You know, the Ellen dog bowls are somewhere,
I am sorry, but… NP Audience laughing
Ellen : Give me my trump back. Audience laughing
Full transcript can be seen in Appendix B, p. 83
The dialogue showed that the speakers were talking about the dog bowls that were given by Ellen to Obama as gifts for his dogs. Then, Macey asked
Obama about the dog bowls whether he still used it. Unfortunately, Obama rarely PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
54 used the dog bowls because the dog bowls were somewhere. Obama knew that his
answer would offend Ellen‘s feeling. Thus, in answering Macey‘s question and redressing Ellen‘s negative face, Obama gave his apology towards Ellen by saying
―I am sorry, but…‖