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CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter comprises two sections, i.e. findings and discussion. The first section, findings, provides the data found and presents them in a table. The second
section, discussion, illuminates the detail and further explanation about the data findings along with their examples.
A. Findings
This section shows the findings or data related to the research objectives including the types of politeness strategies, the realization of each politeness
strategy, and the sociological factors affecting the preference of the politeness strategies performed by the main character in Denzel Washington’s The Great
Debaters. The main character in this movie is Melvin B. Tolson who is an English professor. There are 35 data analyzed in total taken from his utterances in
communicating with other characters such as with his students, i.e. Henry Lowe, Samantha Booke, Hamilton Burgess, James Farmer Jr., and Dunbar Reed, with
white and black sharecroppers, and with his wife, Ruth Tolson. All types of politeness strategies as proposed by Brown and Levinson in Goody, 1978 are
performed by him with various realizations and based on the consideration of the three sociological factors. In the following table, the findings of the types,
realizations, and sociological factors of politeness strategies occurred are presented.
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Table 2. Findings of types, realizations, and sociological factors of politeness strategies performed by the main character in Denzel Washington’s The Great
Debaters
Type Realization
Sociological Factor Total
Frequency Rank of
Imposition Social
Distance Relative
Power
Bald on Record
No face redress in great urgency
2 2
Metaphorical urgency for emphasis
1 1
Metaphorical entreaties stressing high valuation
of hearer’s friendship 1
1 Task-oriented
1 1
5 7
Sympathetic advicewarning
2 2
FTA-oriented bald-on- record usage
1 1
TOTAL 14
Positive Politeness
Notice, attend to hearer 2
2 Exaggerate
1 1
Intensify interest
to hearer
1 1
Use in-group identity marker
2 2
Seek agreement 1
1 2
Presuppose or assert common ground
2 2
Include both speaker and
hearer in
the activity
1 1
TOTAL 11
Negative Politeness
Be conventionally
indirect 3
3 Question, hedge
1 2
3 Give deference
1 1
TOTAL 7
Off Record
Give Hints 1
1 Overstate
1 1
Be vague 1
1
TOTAL 3
TOTAL 2
14 19
35
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As presented in Table 2, bald on-record strategy is used most frequently by Melvin B. Tolson, as the main character in the movie, with a total of 14 times
occurrence. It indicates almost a half of the data is performed by using this strategy. On the other hand, the least strategy used by him is off record strategy. It
is only performed 3 times. Then, in terms of politeness strategy realizations, 18 out of 48 sub strategies are performed. In bald on record strategy, task-oriented
comes as the most strategy used since it is performed 7 out of 14 times. Meanwhile, in positive politeness strategy, negative politeness strategy, and off-
record strategy, there is no single dominant strategy since the occurrence of some sub strategies are similar in numbers.
In performing these four politeness strategies, Melvin B. Tolson takes three sociological factors into his consideration. Although all of which are
employed in each utterance performed, only one dominant or significant factor is chosen as the representative of each utterance in this research. Relative power is
the most frequent factor that affects Melvin’s preference of politeness strategy performed. There are 19 data related to this factor. It is used in performing all four
politeness strategies but mostly bald on-record strategy. Social distance also affects those four politeness strategies performed since 14 data are found. It
mainly affects positive politeness strategy. On the other hand, 2 data of rank of imposition factor are only used in performing bald on-record strategy and
negative politeness strategy. It means that rank of imposition does not significantly affect positive politeness and off-record strategy. Among those sub
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strategies or realizations of politeness strategy performed by Melvin, only task- oriented strategy which is dominantly affected by the three sociological factors.
In short, four politeness strategies are performed by Melvin B. Tolson with the realizations of 18 sub strategies. Bald on-record strategy comes as the most
frequent strategy performed by him with the total of 14 times. In addition, all the sociological factors, namely rank of imposition, social distance, and relative
power affect his preference of politeness strategy. However, relative power is the most frequent one.
B. Discussion
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