7 context holds an important element in conversation to interpret the meaning of the
speaker’s utterance. A definition of context is delivered by Yule. Yule 1996: 21 defines
context as any real objects around the speaker. Physical context can be place, building, and any physical building where the conversation takes place.
Meanwhile, a wider definition of context is explained by Cruse. According to Cruse 2006: 35 a context is an important factor in interpreting the meaning of
conversations. According to him, a context contains of four factors: the preceding utterances, physical environment, social and power relations, and the mutual
background knowledge between the speaker and the hearer. In sum, it can be said that context is a shared background knowledge and
physical environment which is needed to make a clear interpretation. In pragmatics, there are several branches which concern with context. Some of those
sub branches of pragmatics are conversational analysis, hedges, and politeness.
2. Politeness
According to Yule 1996: 60, politeness can be defined as a way to show alertness towards the face of someone else. The face of either the hearer or the
speaker is one of several things which have to be considered by the speaker in making communication. Yule 1996: 60 defines a face as an expressive and
shared attributes of someone which is deliberately purposed to be showed in order to make people acknowledge it. Meanwhile, Brown and Levinson in Goody,
1978: 61 define face as an emotionally invested attribute which has to be presented in interaction and it can be maintained or lost.
8 In communication, people will behave not only according to the
surrounding context but also according to their face wants. As stated by Brown and Levinson in Goody, 1978: 62 face wants is a basic aspect of people whose
face is desired to be satisfied. Furthermore, Brown and Levinson in Watts, 2003: 86 mention two aspects of face: negative face and positive face. Positive face is
an aspect of person who shows the wants to be accepted by the others. On the other hand, negative face is an aspect of a person whose wants is to be free and
not to be imposed. Commonly, people will try to fulfill the face wants of the others to keep
the communication goes well. However, sometimes people cannot satisfy the others’ face wants which can lead himher to damage or threaten the others’ face.
Furthermore, people also can do some acts which lead them to threaten the positive or negative face of both of the speaker and the hearer.
According to Brown and Levinson in Goody, 1978: 65 any kind of act which is in contrast to the face wants of the speaker or the hearer can be defined
as face threatening acts. In order to minimize the face threatening acts, Brown and Levinson propose four highest-level strategies of politeness, namely bald on
record strategy, positive politeness strategy, negative politeness strategy, and off record strategy.
3. Refusal
Refusal is one example of speech acts which often happens in daily life. According to Yule 1996: 47, speech acts can be described as any action which is
performed through utterance. To be more specific, refusal is categorized as
