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2. The Realizations of Politeness Strategies Performed by the Main
Character in The Great Debaters
There are 18 realizations out of 48 sub strategies of politeness introduced by Brown and Levinson in Goody, 1978. In bald on-record strategy, Melvin B.
Tolson uses non redress in great urgency, metaphorical urgency for emphasis, metaphorical entreaties stressing high valuation of hearer’s friendship, task-
oriented, sympathetic advice or warning, and FTA-oriented bald-on-record usage. To notice or attend to hearer, to exaggerate, to intensify interest to hearer, to use
in-group identity marker, to seek agreement, to presuppose or assert common ground, and to include both speaker and hearer in the activity are the realizations
of positive politeness strategy performed by Melvin B. Tolson in this movie. Meanwhile, to be conventionally indirect, to question or hedge, and to give
deference to the hearers are his realizations of negative politeness strategy. Finally, to give hints, to overstate, and to be vague are his realizations of off-
record strategy. The explanations of those realizations are as follows.
a. No Redress in Great Urgency
This strategy is performed by Melvin B. Tolson because of the urgent situation. It means that in such situation, he chooses to go baldly on record
without any effort in minimizing the face threat directed to the hearers. It is because the focus of his utterance only refers to the urgency and he thinks
maximum efficiency of the communication should be done quickly. If he employs face redress or face threat minimization, he will decrease the communicated
urgency itself.
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For example, Melvin uses this strategy when the urgent situation comes as he knows that the sheriffs together with their staffs arrive in the place where he
and the sharecroppers hold a secret meeting. Man
: Here they come Here they come Melvin B. Tolson
: Get the lights Everybody get down Get down Shhh Shhh
Datum number 25 Melvin is in discussion with the sharecroppers inside the building. Suddenly there
is a sound of truck approaching indistinctly outside. Then, someone who is in charge to keep an eye to the surrounding shouts out, “Here they come Here they
come” What he means by ‘they’ refers to the sheriffs and the staffs, the government.
Knowing what happens, Melvin urges everyone to turn the lights off. He also wants them to get down and be silent since they are in serious danger this
time. These are commands performed by Melvin in which there is no offence intention. It is purely because he wants to communicate the great urgency to them,
thus he does not intend to redress their faces. In such emergency, the urgent situation they are facing is much more important than the face of the hearers.
Unfortunately, the truck keeps approaching the building until it breaks the door. Everyone runs away including Melvin. Some succeed to escape but some are not.
The chaos cannot be avoided, then.
b. Metaphorical Urgency for Emphasis