Bald on Record Payoffs

62 Meanwhile, the example of the results showed that the relative power did not influence the speakers in using the politeness strategies. Utterance 2 showed Obama ‘s utterance. Utterance 2 Obama : You know, the Ellen dog bowls are somewhere, I am sorry, but… NP Audience laughing. Transcript 3, p. 83 Utterance 2 showed that Obama was talking about Ellen‘s dog bowls. Obama gave his apology to Ellen when he talked about the dog bowls by saying ―I am sorry, but…‖. It indicated that Obama was aware that his utterance might threaten Ellen ‘s negative face. At that time, Obama was the president of United State of America. It meant that he had higher power than Ellen who was a host of the talk show. However, Obama ignored his status and power as president, so he used the negative politeness strategy to be more polite towards Ellen. Utterance 6 showed Hillary ‘s utterance that consisted of negative politeness. Utterance 6 Hillary : Can I tell you about that? NP This is hard to believe, but there was a law passed so that if you were married, or you were a single woman, you would be legally entitled to a credit card. So I applied to credit card. Transcript 2, p. 80 Hillary was talking about gender quality in U.S. and she wanted to add some information about the fact of the situations at that time. Before Hillary continued to share the facts, she immediately said ―Can I tell you about that?‖ 63 towards Ellen. In this case, Hillary was aware that her utterance can threaten Ellen‘s negative face. However, Hillary used the negative politeness strategy instead of the other politeness strategy which had lower power. Hillary ignored her status and power as president candidate to tell the hearer baldly. By using the negative politeness strategy, Hillary respected Ellen as the host and minimized the status distance between Ellen and her.

c. Rank of Imposition

There are two variables in rank of imposition, namely imposition towards negative face and positive face. The speaker who wants to imp ose hearer‘s negative face will choose more polite strategies as in negative politeness and off record strategies. Meanwhile, the speaker who wants to impose the hearer‘s positive face will choose less polite strategies as in positive politeness and bald on record strategies. Utterance 7 showed Hillary ‘s utterance that contained the off record strategy. In that conversation, Hillary used the off record strategy to make an imposition that required service and goods. Utterance 7 Hillary : I‘m not asking people to vote for me because I‘m a woman, but I think if you vote for somebody on the merits, one of my merits is I‘m a woman, and I think that makes a big difference in today‘s world. OR Transcript 2, p. 80 Hillary was in her campaign while she was interviewed by Ellen. In doing her campaign, she used the off record strategy as stated in the dialogue box.