Politeness Strategy of Brown and Levinson used by the characters in employing requests.
2. Politeness Strategy of Brown and Levinson used by the characters in employing requests.
This part presents the findings of politeness strategies to express requests. The discussion of politeness strategies is divided into five parts based on the five types of requests. It covers the politeness strategies of request for action, request for permission, offer, invitation, and proposal.
a. Politeness Strategies of Request for Action
From the data analysis, it is found that there are three politeness strategies used by the characters to express request for action. They are bald on record strategy, positive politeness strategy, and negative politeness strategy. This can be seen in Table 4.2.1.
Table 4.2.1. Politeness Strategies of Request for Action Data
No.
Requester – Requestee
Strategies Ways of expressions Compl iance
5 Dinky-The boy
Positive Politeness
Applying in group identity marker: address form „Sugar‟
Yes
6 Lenny- Sydney
Negative Politeness
Employing conventional indirectness
Yes 8(a)
Tyler-Sydney Bald on
record
Imperative sentence, High tone and intonation
No
9 Sydney-The students
Bald on record
Imperative sentence, High tone and intonation
Yes
10 Tyler-Sydney Positive
Politeness
Asserting Reciprocity Yes
14 Tyler-Sydney Bald on
record
Imperative sentence, Use the word “you”
Negative Politeness
Employing conventional indirectness
Yes
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express request for action. Then, positive politeness and negative politeness are each used twice.
As it can be seen from the data number 8(a), 9, 10, and 14, bald on record strategy is employed by using imperative sentence in high tone. Using this strategy, the speakers are baldly requesting actions that are intended for their own benefit. Although bald on record provides no attempt to minimize the imposition on the hearer‟s face, this direct way to express request does not have any
significant influence toward the compliance of the requests. It is proved that from the four requests of action using bald on record strategy, there is only one request resulting negative compliance. The participants included in this kind strategy are those who have close relationship and occupy the same status.
Further, positive politeness used in request for action is realized by applying in group identity marker and asserting reciprocity. This implies that the participants using this kind of strategy have close and good relationship. Then, negative politeness is realized by employing conventional indirectness strategy. Both of positive and negative politeness used in this kind of request result positive compliance. The more detail about the factors of choosing the politeness strategies will be discussed in the next subchapter of this discussion session.
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b. Politeness Strategies of Request for Permission
There are three politeness strategies used by the characters in expressing request for permission. They are bald on record, positive politeness and negative politeness. Table 4.2.2. shows the findings:
Table 4.2.2. Politeness Strategies of Request for Permission Data No.
Requester – Requestee
Strategies Ways of expressions Compli ance
1 Big Ron- Sydney
Positive Politeness
Presupposing the same want, use the marker „please‟, low tone
Yes
4 Tyler-Sydney
Positive Politeness
Giving Reason
Bald on record
Imperative sentence, High tone and intonation
No
11 Tyler-Gurkin
Positive Politeness
Using ellipse sentence High tone and intonation
Yes
13 Sydney-Tyler
Negative Politeness
Employing conventional indirectness
Yes
15(b)
Spankly-The girls
Bald on record
Imperative sentence, High tone
Yes
From the six requests for permission found in this research, there are three requests employed by using positive politeness strategy, two requests employed by using bald on record strategy, and one request employed by using negative politeness strategy. All of requests for permission presented in the table above result the positive compliances.
As it can be seen from the table, the speaker tends to use positive politeness strategy in asking the hearer to let the speaker do something. The
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speaker provides an attempt to minimize the damage on the hearer‟s face for the sake of getting positive compliance. The characters express positive politeness by presupposing the same want, giving reason, and using ellipse sentence. Nonverbally, this strategy is expressed in low tone.
The next strategy used by the characters in expressing request for permission is bald on record. In realizing this strategy, the characters use imperative sentence and high tone. Last, negative politeness used to express request for permission is employed by applying conventional indirectness. Using this strategy, the speaker pretends to ask a question for actually requesting the hearer‟s permission.
c. Politeness Strategy of Offer
The two acts of offer found in this research are employed by using positive politeness strategy. This can be seen from table 4.2.3.
Table 4.2.3. Politeness Strategies of Offer Data
No.
Requester – Requestee
Strategies
Ways of expressions Compl iance
3 Dinky-Sydney
Positive Politeness
Attending the hearer‟s need
Yes
7 Lenny-Sydney
Positive Politeness
Noticing and Attending the hearer‟s need
Yes
As it can be seen from the table, the two acts of offer are all employed by using positive politeness strategy. Noticing and attending the hearer‟s need is used by the speaker to perform the positive image of the hearers‟ face. By doing so, the
speaker att empts to minimize the threat on the hearer‟s self image. Further, by attempting
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compliance of these request utterances.
d. Politeness Strategy of Invitation Positive politeness is the chosen strategy to express invitation. This can be seen from table 4.2.4.
Table 4.2.4. Politeness Strategy of Invitation Data No. Requester-
Requestee
Strategy
Ways of expression Compl iance
12 Tyler- Sydney‟s
friends
Positive Politeness
Using in group identity marker: address form
„guys‟
Yes
Datum number 12 is the only one that can be classified into invitation, the kind of requests that asks the hearer to go somewhere. Positive politeness is chosen by the character to express this request. In this datum, Tyler uses address form „guys‟ to make Sydney‟s friends feel as the people who are personally liked to be Tyler‟s group of friends. Then, it is hoped that Sydney‟s friends will give positive compliance toward Tyler‟s request.
e. Politeness Strategy of Proposal
Table 4.2.5. shows that the character uses positive politeness strategy to express proposal.
Table 4.2.5. Politeness Strategy of Proposal Data
No.
Requester- Requestee
Strategy
Ways of expression
Compli ance
2 Sydney- Father
Positive Politeness
Using the word c‟mon, use inclusive „we‟.
Yes
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Again, positive politeness is chosen by the character to express this request. Sydney uses the words c‟mon and we. This indicates that the participants have
close relationship. This request includes both of speaker and hearer to perform an action for both of their benefit. This implies that the speaker‟s want is equally respected with the hearer‟s need.
From all of the requests found in this research, there are nine requests employed by using positive politeness, five requests employed by using bald on record strategy, and three requests employed by using negative politeness.
In short, positive politeness is mostly chosen by the characters to express requests. Positive politeness is done by attempting to make the hearer feel good about his possession. Request is intrinsically face-threatening act so that the speakers need to minimize the damage on the heare r‟s face in order to increase the possibility of getting positive compliance. Then, as the strategy to express request, bald on record strategy comes the second rank. The characters using this kind of strategy are usually those who have had close relationship and occupy the same status. Finally, negative politeness is chosen by the characters that have some social distances, meaning that they have not had intimate relationship, yet.
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