Background of the Study

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Language provides various ways of communication things. The range in language is so rich that there are myriad ways to say something but this does not mean that our choices are not deliberate. Language is very important in making and maintaining relationship and cooperation with other people. According to Kridalaksana as quoted by Kushartanti, “Language is an arbitrary sound symbol used by human being for cooperation, communication and identification of himself. 1 From the explanation above, the basic functions of language in society are: 1 Means of communication 2 Means of cooperation 3 Means of identification of himself. 2 Communication has roles to establish and maintaining social relationship. Communication seen as the joint responsibility of the speaker and hearer. Speaker is one who gives information or idea, while hearer is one who becomes target of speech from speaker. Communication success is achieved if the speaker chooses his word in such a way the hearer will, under the circumstances of utterance, recognize his communication intention. According to Dell Hymes as quoted by Nadar, Hymes, an expert of sociolinguistic developed a valuable model to assist the identification of 1 Kridalaksana, Bahasa dan Linguistik in Kushartanti, et al., Pesona Bahasa Jakarta: PT. Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2005, p.3. 2 Definisipengertian bahasa, Ragam dan Fungsi Bahasa – Pelajaran Bahasa Indonesia. Accessed on February 20, 2009. http:organisasi.orgdefinisi-pengertian-bahasa-ragam-dan- fungsi-bahasa-pelajaran-bahasa-indonesia. component interaction that is driven by his view that in order to speak language correctly, one needs not only to learn its vocabulary and grammar, but also the context in which words are used. Hymes constructs the acronym of SPEAKING, that is: S as Setting and Scene which refers to the time and place of speech. P is Participant , refers to speaker and hearer. E is Ends, as purposes, goals, and outcomes. A as an Act of Sequence, refers to form and order of the event. K as Key which refers to the clues that establish the “tone, manner, or spirit” of the speech act. I is Instrumentalities, refers to forms and styles of speech. N as Norms, which refers to the social rules governing the event and the participants’ actions and reaction. The last one is G as Genre that refers to the kind of speech act or event. 3 The content and the manner in expressing language are tell – tale signs on how the participants situate themselves in relation to certain groups in society as well as to our addresses. As members of society, the participants are expected to do the common practice that applies to any member, which is being polite toward others. Politeness is a universal element interaction. It is essential in communication and it exists in different culture, though it is realized manifested in different ways. In order to act politely, the participants need to understand social values of the society where they life. Generally speaking, politeness involves taking account of the feelings of others, as with linguistic politeness, it is 3 F.X. Nadar, Pragmatik dan Penelitian Pragmatik Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu, 2009, p. 7. the use of language to attend to face needs to maintain smooth interaction and good relationship. Politeness cannot be discharged from Geoffrey Leech theory and concepts. Leech explained that the role of politeness is a very important. Politeness principle is needed to explain and also as a complement of cooperative principle because the cooperative principle cannot explain why people are so indirect in conveying what they mean. The examples where the politeness principle rescues the cooperative principle are the following: 4 A: “We all miss Bill and Agatha, won’t we?” B: “Well, we’ll all miss Bill.” When A ask B to confirm A’s opinion, B merely confirms part of it, and pointedly ignores the rest. From this we derive an implicature: Speaker is of the opinion that we will not all Miss Agatha.’ But on what grounds in this implicature arrived at? Not solely on the basis of the cooperative principle but because of politeness principle. The conclusion is that B could have been more informative, but only at the cost of being more impolite to a third party. That B therefore suppressed the desired information in order to uphold the Politeness Principle. Everyday interaction serves both affective or social, and referential or informative function. Being linguistically polite involves speaking to people appropriately in the light of their relationship. In American culture, politeness is a very important especially for politicians. The politicians have a special function. They are non ordinary citizen 4 Geoffrey Leech, Principles of Pragmatics London and New York: Longman, 1983, p. 80. because they have power and ability. So, their behavior and language were learned by other people. Politicians have to communicate fluently to various sides. They were expected able to communicate idea of them clearly. They have to give a good response and express their idea politely. In fact, in communicating the politeness still not obeyed. That is why, the writer is interested in the politeness and decided to do the study about it. To find out the violations of maxims in the context of politeness, the writer chooses The Dialogue of The America’s Presidential Candidates Debate.

B. Focus of the Study