I’ll take you out to dinner on Saturday. If you’ll cook the dinner this

26 1 Be conventionally indirect Be conventionally indirect is a negative politeness strategy intended to avoid burden to H. The example of this negative politeness strategy is in the sentence Could you tell me the time, please?. The example above contains indirectness. Indirectness in the utterance is usually used to avoid burden to the H. It is a form of negative politeness. It concerns to the H‟s negative face. Asking somebody for the correct time might constitute an imposition for that person. The above example of indirect expression Could you tell me the time? is one of the conventionally normal ways to make the request. The linguistic expression that might be assessed as contributing towards the polite nature of the utterance is more likely to be please than the indirect form of the question. The example above is the indirect expression of a question “What time is it?” 2 Do not assume willingness to comply, use question and hedge The use of question and hedge is a perfect way to emphasize avoidance of burden to H. The example of this negative politeness strategy can be seen in the sentence I wonder whether I could just sort of ask you a little question. The example above contains assumption that H does not have willingness to comply S‟ request. So, the use of additional phrases in a question will avoid burden to H face. Asking a questions in sudden manner to someone probably imposes the person, but when S uses t he hedging phrases “just sort of” and “little” it is reducing the imposition toward the H. therefore, hedging is the best way to min imize the threat toward the H‟s utterance. By using the hedging phrases “ just 27 sort of” and “little‟ H will not have too much burden when choosing to answer or not answer the request or questions from the S. H has a little freedom to answer or not to answer. 3 Be pessimistic about ability or willingness to comply. Use the subjunctive Using the subjunctive is a good way to do negative politeness strategy. This type of negative politeness is usually used in addressing someone higher in status. The example of this negative politeness strategy can be seen in the sentence. S : If you had a little time to spare for me this afternoon, I‟d like to talk about my paper. The example above contains subjunctive “if you had a little time to spare for me this afternoon”. The subjunctive presents because S is pessimistic that H will comply S request. This type of negative politeness is usually used in addressing someone higher in status. The example above is the utterance of a student to his academic advisor or a teacher. S uses the subjunctive wishing that H will comply the request. S is fully understand that H is a busy person and probably has no time for S today. The use of subjunctive is to reduce the burden for H and to avoid embarrassment with hope that H has a little time for S. 4 Minimize the imposition Minimizing the imposition is another way to reduce the burden toward H‟s face. It is one of negative politeness strategy and the example can be seen in the sentence Could I talk to you for just a minute?. The example above contains negative politeness to minimize the imposition. By doing negative politeness, H‟s face is saved. This negative