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realizations are used by both of the characters in giving commands and the relative power is the large contributing factor to their politeness strategies.
These two researches are used as the comparison as well as the reference for the current study. The difference between these researches and the current
research lies in the object and the focus of the study. The current study is aimed to examine the types of politeness strategies, the realizations of each strategy, and
the affecting sociological factors in the utterances of the main character only.
B. Conceptual Framework
This research is under the field of pragmatics which discusses the phenomena of politeness along with their realizations and affecting sociological
factors. This study is based on Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness in Goody, 1978. The strategies studied here are those used by the main character of
The Great Debaters movie, Melvin B. Tolson, who represents as a teacher character. In this movie the utterances performed by Melvin B. Tolson are
analyzed in term of his politeness strategies which are divided into bald on-record strategies, positive politeness strategies, negative politeness strategies, and off-
record strategies. The researcher also analyzes how the strategies are realized by him. Finally, the affecting sociological factors in politeness as in Brown and
Levinson’s theory, i.e. rank of imposition, social distance, and relative power are the focus as well. Based on this conceptual framework, the researcher makes an
analytical construct as shown below.
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Figure 2. Analytical Construct
Figure 2. Analytical Construct Bald on record
Positive Politeness
Negative
Politeness
Off record Types
Realizations
Sociological Factors Principles
Relative
Power
A PRAGMATIC AN ALYSIS OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES PERFORMED BY THE MAIN CHARACTER IN DENZEL WASHINGTON’S THE
GREAT DEBATERS MOVIE
Strategies
1. No face redress in great hearer’s friendship
urgency 4. Channel noise
2. Metaphorical urgency for
5. Task-oriented emphasis
6. Do not care to mantain hearer’s face or be rude
3. Metaphorical entreaties
7. Sympathetic advice or warning stressing high valuation of
8. FTA-oriented bald-on-record usage 1.
Notice, attend to hearer 7. Presuppose or assert
11. Be Optimistic 2.
Exaggerate common ground
12. Include both speaker 3.
Intensify interest to hearer 8. Joke and hearer in the activity
4. Use in-group identity marker 9. Assert knowledge of and 13. Give reasons
5. Seek agreement
concern for hearer’s wants 14. Assume reciprocity 6.
Avoid agreement 10. Offer, promise
15. Give gifts to hearer 1.
Be conventionally indirect 6. Apologize
2. Question, hedge
7. Impersonalize speaker and hearer 3.
Be pessimistic 8. State the FTA as general rule
4. Minimize the imposition
9. Nominalize 5.
Give deference 10. Go on record as incurring a debt
Pragmatics Implicature
1. Give hints
6. Use tautologies 11. Be ambigous
2. Give association clues
7. Use contradictions 12. Be vague
3. Pressupose
8. Be ironic 13. Over-generalize
4. Understate
9. Use metaphors 14. Displace hearer
5. Overstate
10. Use rhetorical questions 15. Be incomplete, use ellipsis
Speech
Act
Presupposition Deixis
Social Distance Politeness
Rank of Imposition
Context
The Great
Debaters
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CHAPTER III METHODS OF RESEARCH
This chapter is divided into six parts which are to be the guidelines on how this research was conducted. They are research type; form, source, and context of
data; instruments; data collection technique; data analysis technique; and trustworthiness.
A. Type of the Study
Qualitative research is a type of research with a purpose to describe phenomena in narrative or textual mode, meaning that the description itself
presented via words Vanderstoep Johnston, 2009: 7. Hence, the current research was conducted by using qualitative method precisely with descriptive
method because its aim was to describe the politeness phenomena. It used quantitative method as well in order to measure the frequency of data occurrence.
Pragmatic approach was used in this research since the researcher intended to collaborate meaning and context as the analysis of the research. Furthermore, the
research focused on its analysis on the process of finding and making conclusion based on the research question made. On the whole, the researcher met the final
analytic decision through following procedures such as collecting, classifying, analyzing and interpreting the data.
B. Form, Source and Context of Data
Data are crucial because they serve as the basis of the research Yin, 2011: 129. They are typically the result of measurement or research that can be
