Internal modifications First step

66 Table 11. Coding of Lexical Modifications in Requests Lexical modifications Strategies Description and example Lexical downgraders LD Politeness marker Polm ‘Excuse me’, ‘please’, ‘Sir’ or ‘Miss’. Downtoner Down ‘Well……you know, but…. …then’. Subjectivizer Subj ‘I think… I feel… I believe…’ Understater Unds ‘a little’ and ‘some’ Appealer Appl : ‘……., OK?’ Honorific Hon honorific device e.g. Mr.Mr. Ms. honorific addressee speech level formal or informal Hesitation marker Hesm ‘well…. uh….’ Delimiter Delm ‘only only once’ Hedge Hedg ‘possiblyprobably’, ‘perhaps’, ‘seem’, ‘just’, etc. Lexical Upgdraders LU Commitment indicator Comm ‘definitely’, ‘surely’, etc. Repetition of request Rept ‘Come here Come here quickly’ Time intensifier Time ‘right now’, ‘hurriedly’, ‘quickly’, etc. Meanwhile, syntactic downgraders were related to the using of three syntactical modifications of requests. The codings are presented in table 12 below. Table 12. Coding of Syntactical Modifications in Requests Syntactic downgraders SD Strategies Description and example Conditional Cond ‘if…….’ Reduplication of verb Redp ‘chit-chat’ Interrogative Intrg Using a ‘?’ as question mark

d. External modifications supportive moves

The last strategy were external modifications. The external modifications consisted of downgrading external modifications i.e., preparatory, grounder, cost minimizer, promise of reward, apology, humbling oneself, self-introduction, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 67 gratitude, begging for help, sweetener, disarmer, asking hearer’s opinion, and joking and upgrading external modifications i.e., reprimanding, confirmation of request, and moralizing. The coding of the external modifications are displayed in table 13. Table 13. Coding of External Modifications in Requests External modifications Strategies Description and example Downgrading external modifications DEM Preparator Prep ‘I have something to say to you’ or ‘May I ask you something?’ Grounder Grnd ‘I lost my wallet, can you lend me some money?’ or ‘There is a wedding at 3 o’clock, so come by 11 o’clock’. Cost minimizer Cost ‘I will return it to you tomorrow’ and ‘It won’t take long’. Promise of reward Prom ‘Do me a favor this time’, ‘allow me to treat you’ and ‘I will treat you’. Apology Apol ‘Sorry’ and ‘I am sorry, but…’ Humbling oneself Humb ‘I think I’m not capable of .....’ Self-introduction Intrd ‘I am a student of Beijing University’ and ‘I am from the Management Department’ Gratitude Grat ‘Thank you for your cooperation’ and ‘I’d appreciate it if you could help me’. Begging for help Beg ‘I beg you’ Sweetener Sweet ‘I know you are very good at making money’ and ‘No one can do this work as well as you’ Disarmer Disa ‘I know you don’t have time, but…’ and ‘I know it is very difficult, but…’ Asking the hearer’s opinion Askop ‘How about it?’, ‘Is that OK to you?’, and ‘What do you think?’ Joking Joke ‘I don’t want to let you move…’ Note: the boss said the sentence tongue in cheek Upgrading external modifications UEM Reprimanding Repr ‘Why can only you do these?’ and ‘This one is wrong. Don’t you know?’ Confirmation of request Conf ‘Confirm that document again. Are you clear about what I said?’ and ‘You should hand it by tomorrow. When can you do it?’ Moralizing Moral ‘Is your behavior appropriate?’ and ‘This is good for everyone, so…’