bald on record by saying “Get a lips reader here now”. These two commands are aimed at different addressees and for different purposes. The first
command is to analyze the video and the second command is to find a lip reader to read the movement of Nathan’s mouth.
2. The Realizations of Politeness Strategies
According to Brown and Levinson, politeness strategies can be realized in nine forms. However, there are only five forms that are found in the first
season of The Lottery TV Series. These five forms are non minimization, inviting conversational implicature, claiming for common ground, conveying
that both participants are cooperators, and being direct.
a. Non Minimization
Since non minimization is the only way to realize bald on record politeness strategy, therefore, the speakers will get advantages for being clear
and effective. Moreover, non minimization can also be used to warn and threaten the hearer by directly attacking the hearer
’s face wants. In the first season of The Lottery TV Series, this realization is mostly performed by
Vanessa with 11 utterances. This strategy is intended to show Vanessa’s
purposes in making a command which are to warn her brother and to threaten the DOH’s staff in another circumstances. On the other hand, Darius only
performs this realization in three utterances since he faces a different type of addressee compared to Vanesssa. However, both speakers can take full
advantages from bald on record politeness strategy by non minimizations.
For example, in data 18-3BRNMP, Vanessa performs a direct command to her staff since they need to hurry. In this example, she asks the
staff to contact the SEAL team when they identify the terrorist’s hideout in
Shanghai.
Vanessa Keller : Get Langdon. Tell him to contact the SEAL team. Other staff
: They go to tell Langdon.
18_3BRNMP
In this utterance, Vanessa needs to be clear when she performs a command because she is in the middle of an important meeting. When she
says “get Langdon. Tell him to contact the SEAL team”, she means to be clear and unambiguous. Moreover, in this particular context, non
minimization is the best way to express the command for two reasons. First, it is an urgent situation since the White House needs to rescue the hostages as
soon as possible. Second, Vanessa has the power to perform a direct command since she is the representative of the president in this meeting.
The second example is performed by Darius to the terrorist in Shanghai who works for him. When the SEAL team come
to Shanghai, the terrorist’s hideout is already empty so they fail to rescue the hostages. In response to the
first effort, the US government decides to cooperate with the Chinese military department. Soon, they track and attack the terrorist for the second time. In
this incident, all the hostages are dead along with the terrorist. However, the head of the terrorist is able to escape from the sudden attack. He then contacts
his boss, Darius, in order to demand his promises.
Darius Hayes : I need you to calm down and listen.
Terrorist : You promised we’d get out alive.
20_3BRNMP
In this conversation, Darius performs bald on record in the form of non mini
mization strategy. When he says “I need you to calm down and listen”, he performs a direct and brief command in order to settle the situation. This
utterance has no room of multiple interpretations, therefore, it can be categorized as bald on record by non minimization politeness strategy.
The third example is set in the basement of the White House. Conner brings a gun and threatens people to commit a suicide. Vanessa comes to the
basement and tries to make him drop the gun. Conner says that there is something that Vanessa needs to know. He comes closer to Vanessa with the
gun, and the police asks him to drop the gun. However, Conner still holds the gun when he walks toward Vanessa. This situation makes the police shoot
him down. Conner dies in the end and the FBI makes report that he commited suicide.
Vanessa Keller : Conner Just put the gun down, damn it Conner
: Vanessa there is something that you need to know. Police officer :
I said put the gun down, I’m not gonna repeat myself
24_4BRNMD In the example Vanessa clearly performs bald on record politeness
strategy with non minimization. There is no attempt to redress the face threat in Vanessa’s utterance since the setting or the condition forces her to perform
a command with the maximum efficiency. She needs to make Conner drop
