Positive Politeness Strategies Found in
44 Another example of claiming common ground was the use of joke. The use
of joke explained that both the speaker and hearer shared the same background knowledge. The speaker put the hearer at ease so that it could minimize the threat
from the speaker. Dialogue 4 showed the conversation between Ellen and Obama that consisted of joke. The use of joke or positive politeness was labeled as
‗PP‘.
Dialogue 4 Clip Title
:
Pres. Barack Obama on Ellen Breaking His Twitter Record
Time : 00.11
– 00.23 Participants
: Ellen and Obama Ellen
: Mr. President, it has be en a while since we‘ve spoken. You look
great. How are you? Obama
: I am doing great. You look wonderful also. Ellen
: Well, thank you so much for saying that. You didn‘t have to just
because I said you look good, but that was nice of you. [Audience laughing] PP
Obama : It is true.
Full transcript can be seen in Appendix B, p. 78
The dialogue showed that Ellen greeted President Obama as her guest star via video call. She greeted Obama by giving him a compliment towards his
appearance and asking him about his life. In order to satisfy Ellen‘s positive face, Obama replied her with the compliment also. However, Ellen responded Obama
by using a joke. Ellen said that Obama did not need to pay her compliment. However, Ellen immedi
ately said ―that was nice of you‖ to Obama. This approach was done by Ellen because she wanted to put Obama at ease and to save his
positive face from the threat. The use of joke also showed in Dialogue 5 in the same situation when
Ellen talked about her retweet s‘ record. It was labeled as ―PP‖.
45 Dialogue 5
Clip Title :
Pres. Barack Obama on Ellen Breaking His Twitter Record
Time : 00.24-00.48
Participants : Ellen and Obama
Ellen :
I don‘t know if you know this, but I was aiming to break your record of retweets, and I apologize for doing it, but I broke your
retweet record. PP Obama
: I heard about that. I thought it was a pretty cheap stunt myself, getting a bunch of celebrities in the background.
Ellen : That‘s the only thing—
Obama : You feeding them pizza?
Ellen : Yeah.
Full transcript can be seen in Appendix B, p. 78
Ellen told Obama that she broke his retweets‘ record. Obama‘s role as a president of course gave so many influences in his daily life including his
existence in social media. However, Ellen had broken Obama‘s record of retweets in one of his social media, namely
Twitter
. Ellen was aware that her utterance might threaten Obama‘s positive face. She might make Obama embarrassed since
they were having a live talk show. Thus, Ellen used a joke in delivering her intentions to Obama.
Another mechanism of positive politeness is conveying that speaker and hearer are co-operators. This mechanism indicates that both speaker and
hearer are involved in the same activity. The speaker and hearer are cooperatively connected by a relevant activity. By cooperating, the speaker and the hearer share
the same goals. Furthermore, giving offer and promise are the examples of the sub-strategies in conveying the speaker and hearer as co-operators.
The speaker would choose to intensify his cooperation with the hearer by giving an offer or promise. By doing that, the speaker showed his good
46 intentions in satisfying hearer even though he could be wrong. Dialogue 6 showed
the use of offering by Obama. The utterance of using offer was labeled as ‗PP‘ as
the part of positive politeness. Dialogue 6
Clip Title :
Pres. Barack Obama on Ellen Breaking His Twitter Record
Time : 03.23-03.32
Participants : Ellen and Obama
Ellen : I hate to say, but I hope they get tattoos. I really do.
Obama : Ellen, you should be a part of this. You should pledge to also get a
tattoo with us. PP
Full transcript can be seen in Appendix B, p. 78
The dialogue above showed Ellen and Obama‘s conversation about making tattoos. Ellen talked to the audience about her wish that Obama and his wife
would have the tattoos. Then, Obama offered Ellen to get tattoos with them as well by saying, ―you should be part of this…‖ By saying that, Obama wanted to
demonstrate his good intention and to satisfy Ellen‘s positive face. The use of promise was shown in Dialogue 7 when Obama gave his
promise to Ellen and the audience. The use of promise was labeled as ‗PP‘ as the
part of positive politeness. Dialogue 7
Clip Title :
Pres. Barack Obama on Ellen Breaking His Twitter Record
Time : 03.03-03.27
Participants : Ellen and Obama
Ellen : If your daughter got tattoos, that you and Michelle would also
get the same tatto o in the same place, and you‘ll take a family
photo of all the tattoos. Obama
: That‘s exactly right. [Cheering and laughing] We will reduce the cool factor of any tattoo. Michelle and I will be right there, and
47 we‘ll post it so that everybody will be able to see it, and we‘ll
say, ―We all got matching tattoos‖ and I suspect that will be a pretty good deterrent for both Malia and Sasha. PP
Ellen : I hate to say, but I hope they get tattoos. [Laugh] I really do.
Full transcript can be seen in Appendix B, p. 78
Ellen asked Obama about his statements that he and his wife would get the tattoos if their daughters got the tattoos. Obama agreed with it and confirmed
that his statements were true. The conversation above indicated that Obama was willing to fulfill Ellen‘s wants. As co-operators, Obama wanted to show his good
intention in satisfying Ellen wants by giving her a promise. The last mechanism of positive politeness strategy was by fulfilling the
hearer‘s wants. Speaker could satisfy the hearer‘s wants by giving gift. The gifts could be in the form of intangible gift, such as sympathy, understanding, and
cooperation. The speaker who used this strategy wanted to redress the hearer‘s
positive face directly. The example in giving gift was shown in the Dialogue 8 when Hillary Clinton was interviewed by Ellen. The sub-strategy was labeled as
‗PP‘.
Dialogue 8 Clip Title
:
Hillary Clinton Catches Up with Ellen
Time : 00.31-00.48
Participants : Ellen and Hillary Ellen
: I want someone who is qualifi ed, and I feel like when you‘re
talking about, if you look at the other candidates… Hillary : Right
Ellen : …someone who is for rights across the board, equal right for
women, equal rights for every ethnicity, equal rights for everyone. It is…the only person I can look at is you. PP
Hillary : Thank you. Thank you, Ellen.
Full transcript can be seen in Appendix B, p. 80
48
Hillary Clinton was one of the president candidates of USA. She was invited to
The Ellen Show
and did the interview with Ellen about her campaign. Dialogue 8 showed that Ellen gave her compliment to Hillary for her action in
keeping the equal rights for women, ethnicity, and everyone. Ellen expressed her admiration to Hillary directly by saying ―the only person I can look at is you‖. It
indicated that Ellen gave her sympathy towards Hillary, who could keep the equal rights. By saying that, Ellen wanted to fulfill Hillary‘s want and redress her
positive face. Moreover, this intangible gift was important for Hillary herself because Ellen‘s compliment showed that Ellen would be by her side, since she
was doing the campaign while doing the interview.