19 freedom of action unhinder
ed and his attention unimpeded” p. 129. The speaker in this strategy tends to produce the utterances which are aimed to increase the
social distance. However, this strategy seems to be more polite rather than positive
politeness since this strategy is addressed to the hearer‟s negative face. Brown and Levinson 1987 state that the utterances produced in negative
politeness are performed due to the function of minimizing the imposition to the hearer. It means that the speaker wants the hearer to fulfill hisher wants by
satisfying the hearer‟s negative face. Therefore, this strategy is the heart of respect
behavior because there is FTA redress which is done by the speaker in order to give chance for the hearer to perform the negative face. The example of this
strategy is as can be seen in the utterance “Can you pass the salt?” which can
only be an indirect request and that is not really a question to ask about somebody‟s ability.
d. Off – Record
Brown and Levinson 1987 state that “A communicative act is done
through off record strategy if it is done in such a way that it is not possible to attribute only one clear communicative intention to the act” p. 211. The
utterances which are performed through off record mostly contain more than one possible intention and mostly are about critics or satire. Since off record is mostly
used for indirect usage of language, the speakers will let the hearer to decide the possible intention of the utterances through the speaker‟s FTA if it is performed.
Furthermore, off record is an ineffective way of saying things because the speaker may have another meaning from the utterances which are expressed. The example
20 of this strategy is shown in the utterance
“Beautiful weather, isn’t it?” which is said to the postman who drenched in rainstorm.
4. Factors That Influence The Choice of Strategies
According to Brown and Levinson 1987 there are two factors which influence the choice of strategies, namely payoffs and the sociological variables
between the speaker and the hearer. The first factor, namely payoffs, refers to the result when certain strategy is applied. After certain strategy is applied in the
communication, the speaker will intrinsically afford certain advantages. Brown and Levinson 1987 explain that the second factor, namely sociological variables,
is elaborated into three variables, namely social distance, relative power, and absolute ranking.
a. The Payoffs
Brown and Levinson 1987 state that a payoff is the result after certain strategy is implemented in the communication. When a speaker chooses certain
strategy to be implemented, heshe is expecting result of having implemented certain strategy. The speaker also expects that the result of certain strategy to be
advantageous for himher. According to Brown and Levinson 1987, each strategy has its own advantageous result for the speaker. The advantageous result
will be explained in the following paragraphs. By implementing bald on record, the speaker can get several benefits. The
speaker can enlist public ‟s pressure against the addressee. The speaker can also
get support for hisher own image and heshe can get credit for honesty and outspokenness. Moreover, the speaker can avoid the danger to be seen as
