31 to close the door, this illocutionary force is request. To put it simple, locution is
the utterance produced by speaker, while the illocution is the intended meaning the speaker‘s goal to produce the utterance. And the perlocution is the effect of the
utterance to the hearer. Speech act information in this study consists of three categories- types of
speech act illocution, numbers of linguistic forms provided for each speech act locution, and types of exercises or tasks which promote speech acts that students
learn in every particular unit. The perlocutionary effect is not considered in this study since to obtain such information a classroom observation should be done.
Of course that is not possible in this study since this study only uses textbooks as the source of data. This categorization of speech act information is adopted from
Wichien and Aksornjarung 2011.
b. Politeness
Every language has its own ways to express politeness differently. Politeness itself is one of topics discussed in pragmatics. First of all, let‘s make a
working definition on politeness by collecting some definitions from various experts then drawing conclusion from those definitions.
Politeness refers to the use of appropriate language considering different social factors, including social distance, age, role relationships, and so forth,
between the speaker and the interlocutor in the given contexts Wichien and Aksornjarung 2011. This definition sounds good since it covers the factors what
should be considered in making polite utterances. However, the weakness of this definition is that it does not specifically mention what people do with language. It
32 only mentioned ‗the use of appropriate language‘. For me, it is too broad, since it
covers pragmatic definition. To cover this weakness, it seems essential to look at Urbanová a
nd Oakland‘s definition on politeness. They suggest a definition which is quite simple but
makes the concept clearer. They define politeness as ―the ability of the speaker to show respect, discretion, and goodwill‖ as quoted in
Švárová 2008. Similartly, Blum-Kulka also defines politeness from the view of metapragmatic definition ―politeness is positively associated with tolerance,
restraint, good manners, showing deference and being nice to people as cited in Watts, Ide, and Ehlich 2005. From those views on politeness, it can be concluded
that politeness is the way how speakers show respect, discretion, goodwill, tolerance, and good manner by considering social factors like age, gender, social
distance, etc. To know how speakers perform politeness in the society is important. Thus,
some theorists have established their own principle model of linguistic politeness. One of them is Robin Lakoff. Lakoff summarizes principles of politeness into
two general rules. Following figure is a diagram of politeness based on Lakoff.
33
Figure 2.6 : Lakoff‘ Rules of Politeness from Watts, 2003: 60 According to the diagram above, it can be seen that to have a pragmatic
competence especially in politeness, someone should know and master two general rules of politeness; 1 be clear and 2 be polite. Firstly, being clear
consists of four rules; quantity, quality, relevance, and manner. These four rules are derived from conversational principles proposed by Grice. According to Grice,
speakers are bound to these four principles when they communicate each other. Secondly, being polite consists of three sub-rules; 1 do not impose, 2 give
options, and 3 make the addressee feel good – be friendly.
Politeness is common in English textbooks. Almost most of English textbooks include this topic in the materials since it is quite vital in a language.
This type of feature can be seen in the following figure.
34
The figure above is one example how the pragmatic information especially politeness appears in an English textbook. The sample above is a feature of
politeness which focus on linguistic forms. It is just related to how to express something politely by using certain linguistic forms. Using expressions which is
similar to the formula above, at least, can make our addressee feel good. Making our addressee feel good, absolutely, is one of the politeness principles which has
been mentioned before. To add, the appearance of this feature in a textbook of course can direct learners‘ attention and enhance learners‘ awareness on learning
the language.
c. Styles
