6 using the language in social situations or sociolinguistic aspects of the languge,
particularly politeness. For English learners, this study will encourage the students to be more aware of how English is used in social situations or the sociolinguistic
aspects, particularly politeness. Hopefully, the learners will be able to use appropriate English utterances in appropriate social situations.
The writer also believes that this study will also give contribution to readers and future researchers. This study will give vivid information that will
help the readers to understand what politeness is. For the future researchers, this study will help those who will conduct a politeness study. Thus, the writer hopes
that this research will be a reference for them.
F. Definition of Terms
In this part, the writer will define some terms that are used in this study. The definitions are:
1. Politeness
Holmes 1996 states that politeness is a behavior that shows positive concern for others and the behavior is somewhat formal, non-imposing and
distancing. Basically, this is an action that has concern on doing something which does not intrude or impose others. According to Mills 2003, politeness is an
action of showing respect toward a person we are talking to and avoiding any offenses that are directed to him. In other words, politeness concerns how people
maintain interpersonal relationship. In this study, the writer will concern the verbal aspect of politeness. Therefore, the utterances where the politeness lays
7 within produced by the main characters of Yes Man will be the focus of the
study.
2. Face Threatening Act FTA
As a prologue of explaining what FTA is, the writer firstly will explain what face is. Goofman describes face as a public self image as cited in
Holtgraves, 2002. It is a positive social value that people claim for themselves. It is a situated identity. Brown and Levinson 1987 in their extension analysis of
face propose two notions which are positive and negative face. Positive face is the want of connection or interpersonal relation. Negative face is the want of freedom
or being unimpeded. FTA as described by Brown and Levinson 1987 is an act that inherently threats hearer’s or speaker’s face. This means any act that opposes
or threatens the want of the hearer or speaker. In this study, face threatening act is the utterance that threats the positive or negative face of the speaker or hearer
within the interaction of the four main characters of Yes Man, Carl Allen, Peter, Norman and Allison.
3. Politeness Strategy
According to Brown and Levinson 1987, politeness strategy is a strategy that concerns
saving hearer’s face by formulating an expression that is less threatening for the hearer’s face. In this study, politeness strategy is dealing with
the way the four main characters of Yes Man mitigate their utterances in order to save the hearer’s face. Brown and Levinson classify four main strategies of
politeness strategy, namely bald on record, negative politeness, positive politeness,
8 and off record. Therefore, the employment of politeness strategy will be the
concern of this study. This chapter provides important information regarding this study. It consists
of the background and reason for choosing the topic. It also describes the research problems, research benefits and the definition of terms. It is expected that this
chapter will help the reader in understanding the whole study.
9
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
