Context of Situation Theoretical Framework

themselves differ from one speech community to another. Holmes 2001:267 writes being polite is a complicated business in any language because it involves the understanding, not only the language but also the social and cultural values of the community. It deals with more than the superficial politeness routines that parents explicitly teach to their children. Generally speaking, it also counts how people save others’ face and feeling. It also involves people to speak appropriately in the light of the relationship. A polite person makes others feel comfortable. Making decisions about what is or is not considered polite in any community; therefore, it involves assessing social relationships along the dimensions of social distance or status. Refer to how people saving other people’s feeling, Lakoff 1975:64 adds that being polite can reduce any friction that usually happens in a personal interaction. Friction means the undesirable perspective stance that might be developed by the society between personal interactions. In line with Lakoff, Leech also states that politeness is a conscious effort or a strategy to avoid friction – or he uses the term ‘strategic conflict avoidance’ 1983:19. Further, Leech explains that his model of politeness is descriptive Watts, 2003:63. He does not purpose to cover an amount of pragmatic competence, where usually politeness is included in. His concept of politeness is a general pragmatics of the general condition when the language is used by the speakers. The major purpose of Leech’s concept of politeness, which is known as Politeness Principles or PP, is to establish and maintain feelings of the comunity within a certain social group. The central concept is that cost-benefit scale of politeness related to both the speaker and the hearer. It involves minimizing the cost and maximizing the benefit to speaker or hearer. Politeness concerns a relationship between two participants whom Leech calls self and other. Later on, self will be identified with s, and other will typically be identified with h. Therefore, the label other may apply not only to addressees, but to people designated by third – person pronouns. 1 Tact maxim The statement of tact maxim says “minimize the expressions of beliefs which express or imply cost to other, maximize the expression of beliefs which express or imply benefit to other. Leech, 1983:107 Here is an example: Table 4: Example of Tact Maxim Leech, 1983:107 Cost to h Less polite a Take this b Eat the Sandwich c Enjoy the sandwich Benefit to h More polite In this sentence c, the benefit to hearer h hearer is higher and the cost to h hearer is lower than in sentence a and b. The relevant value becomes ‘benefit to h’ hearer rather than ‘cost to h’ hearer. These make sentence c is considered more polite than sentence a and b . The arrows in the table explain the three expressions or statements. If the arrows go down, it means the statements are polite because it gives benefit to the counterpart. Cost, in this situation, can be interpreted as the burden or responsibility that will be borne by the counterpart from the action taken, while Benefit refers to the advantage gained by the counterpart. 2 Generosity maxim The statement of generosity maxim says “minimize the expression of beliefs which express or imply benefit to self, maximize the expressions of beliefs which express or imply cost to self. The difference between the generosity maxim and the tact maxim is on the term “self and other-centered”. Generosity maxim applies”self-centered” while tact maxim applies “other centered” Leech, 1983: 132. Here is one example: Table 5: Example of Generosity Maxim Leech, 1983:133 benefit to s Less polite a Could you lend me some money? b Could I borrow some money? cost to s More polite In sentence b, the benefit to self is lower and the cost to self is higher than in sentence a. These make sentence b is considered to be more polite than sentence a. The arrows given on the table explain that statement b is more polite than statement b because in the statement a, the speaker forces the hearer