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himself by the line others assume he has taken during a particular contact ”. Brown
and Levinson in Goody, 1978: 61 add that the term face can be defined as something invested within human being which can be lost and maintained during
the interaction .
In maintaining this face, it needs cooperation from the two parties, the addresses and the one who is addressed.
Goffman 1967: 6 explains further that actually face or the self-image is closely attached to the feeling. Sometimes they feel good when their images are
sustained or they feel bad or hurt when their images are imposed. In politeness theory, there are two types of face, namely positive face and negative face.
Positive face is the image that people have which is expected to be appreciated, accepted and approved by others, while negative face is an image which is
expected to be respected and not to be imposed by others. In other words, positive and negative face does not refer to the good and bad, but rather to the need and
desire of people themselves regarding to their self-images or called as face wants. Since the face wants are changeable dependent on the flow of events or situation,
therefore face is a non permanent identity. In their interaction, while saying something people consciously or
unconsciously threat faces of others which is called as Face Threatening Act FTA. Alternatively, according to Yule 1996: 61, they can lessen the possible
threat by saving their face which is called as Face Saving Act FSA.
b. Politeness Strategy and the Realizations
There are many ways in saving face of others, but mainly by paying attention to their positive face wants or negative face wants. Brown and Levinson
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in Goody, 1978: 68 give two choices in doing this strategy, that are by avoiding to do FTA or still by doing FTA but with employing certain strategies that can
minimize the threat itself. They add four ways of possible strategies for doing FTA i.e. on record without redressive action bald on-record, on record with
redressive action such as positive politeness and negative politeness, and off record.
1 Bald On-record Strategy
Using bald on-record strategy means that the speaker chooses to talk in a direct, clear, unambiguous, and effective way. Brown and Levinson in Goody,
1978: 95 states that the reason why speakers use this strategy is because they assume that doing effective communication is much more important than
satisfying hearer’s face. Hence the speaker says thing as it is. In the other words, using bald on-record strategy means what is actually said clearly shows what the
intention is. There are two kinds of bald on-record usage introduced by them. They are
non-minimization and minimization of face threat. Non-minimization of face threat can be realized by focusing on emergency that include various levels of
urgency. On the other hand, minimization of face threat can be realized using FTA-oriented bald-on-record usage. In short the realization of bald on-record
strategy falls into eight. Below is the very brief description of each strategy and its examples taken from Goody’s book 1978: 95-98.
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a Strategy 1 – No face redress in great urgency
It is used when maximum efficiency is very important either known by speaker or hearer, thus t
he speaker does not need to redress hearer’s face since heshe only focuses on the great urgency itself. For example, when a speaker says
“Watch out”, it means that heshe wants to directly and effectively communicate the danger or something which is very urgent to the hearer. In the other words,
this utterance indicates that there is a great urgency that the speaker wants to inform to the hearer. Thus, heshe thinks that face redress is not necessary to be
inserted. b
Strategy 2 – Metaphorical urgency for emphasis The speaker speaks as if maximum efficiency is very important, thus
heshe intentionally emphasizes metaphorical urgency, for example in “Listen,
I’ve got an idea”. The metaphorical urgency in this utterance is emphasized in the word listen. It is to get attention from the hearer as if heshe has something
important to say. Therefore, it can be said that the metaphorical urgency refers to the urgency in the eye of the speaker himselfherself, and its meaning is
contextually personal. Other expressio ns to represent this strategy are in “Hear me
out” and in “Look, the point is this”. c
Strategy 3 – Metaphorical entreaties stressing high valuation of hearer’s friendship
This strategy is based on the strategy of metaphorical urgency for emphasis, but it rather refers to the begging of the speaker in hope the hearer puts
forward their friendship as the consideration. Also, the speaker wants the hearer to
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care for himher, for example in the expression “Don’t forget us” The utterance
contains metaphorical entreaties in which the speaker begs the hearer to not forget himher and others.
d Strategy 4 – Channel noise
In this strategy, the speaker has to speak with maximum efficiency because there is an obstacle in the channel or in the means of communication. For
instance, when the speaker calls the hearer across a distance by saying “Come
home right now”, heshe has to shout out because of the distance between them. The case of channel noise in this utterance refers to the far distance between the
speaker and the hearer. Therefore, the speaker talks in a direct way. e
Strategy 5 – Task-oriented The speaker wants the hearer to do something, but heshe feels that it is
inappropriate to red ress hearer’s face. For example, in “Lend me a hand here”,
the speaker asks directly to the hearer to do the task, so that the hearer feels the burden to help himher. Generally, when it orientates to the task, the more direct
the utterance is spoken, the more effective the outcome from the hearer be. f
Strategy 6 – Do not care to maintain hearer’s face or be rude This strategy is used when the speaker feels powerful than the hearer, and
does not care to maintain the hearer’s face. For example, in “Bring me wine, Jeeves”, the speaker feels superior over Jeeves. Heshe is also not afraid of the
possibility of Jeeves’s non-cooperation to not bring the wine. Different to the
task-oriented strategy in which face redress is not used because of the maximum
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efficiency of delivering the task, in this strategy face redress is not used because the speaker merely does not want to.
g Strategy 7 – Sympathetic advice or warning
This strategy is used when the speaker does FTA but at the same time cares the hearer’s face, for example in “Careful He’s a dangerous man”. This
utterance indicates that in giving this warning by saying careful, the speaker cares to the positive face of the hearer, thus heshe thinks that heshe does not need any
redress to the hearer’s face or any minimization to his FTA of requesting.
h Strategy 8 – FTA-oriented bald-on-record usage
In this strategy the speaker invites the hearer to impose hisher preserve, because the speaker assumes that the hearer is careful not to infringe hisher face.
This strategy is usually used in welcoming, farewell, and offers, for example in “Come in, don’t hesitate. I’m not busy.” It means that the speaker is not offended
if the hearer comes in. The words come in refers to the invitation that goes baldly on-record, while
don’t hesitate, I’m not busy reflects to the additional expression of FTA-oriented strategy.
2 Positive Politeness Strategy
Positive politeness appeals to the addressee’s positive face, the need to be
recognized and approved. In this case, the speaker acknowledges hearer’s face and tries to keep the relationship going friendly. Heshe uses intimate language in
order to come closer to the hearer although precisely the risk of hearer’s denial over the utterance addressed is great. This type of politeness is to imply common
ground or sharing of wants between the speaker and the hearer Brown and
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Levinson in Goody, 1978: 103. They additionally posit fifteen strategies in addressing to this positive face, i.e. in Watts, 2003: 89-90.
a Strategy 1 – Notice, attend to hearer
The speaker should notice to hearer’s interests, wants, needs, or goods as FTA redress, for example in
“Jim, you’re really good at solving computer problems. I wonder if you could just help me with a little formatting problem I’ve
got. ” The speaker approves or acknowledges Jim’s ability in solving computer
problems as the notice to hearer and as minimization of his FTA of requesting that is to fix the computer.
b Strategy 2 – Exaggerate
This strategy includes the exaggerative or emphatic use of words or particles focusing on the interest, approval, or sympathy with the hearer. It is
illustrated in “Good old Jim, just the man I wanted to see. I knew I’d find you here.” The speaker exaggerates the intonation in saying this utterance especially in
the words Good old Jim to show hisher interest for meeting Jim. c
Strategy 3 – Intensify interest to hearer In this strategy, the speaker shares hisher want to intensify hisher
interests to the conversation by making a good story and as a result the hearer is being pulled to the event being discussed. The instance of this strategy is in
“You’ll never guess what Fred told me last night. This is right up your street.” The speaker builds a conversation by intensifying hisher interest to the topic of
what Fred has told to himher. Heshe also tries to drag the hearer to be the
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participant of this conversation by saying you’ll never guess what Fred told me
last night. d
Strategy 4 – Use in-group identity marker The speaker conveys in-group membership to the hearer. It usually
includes address form, dialect, jargon or slang, and ellipsis. One of address form usage is illustrated in
“Here’s my old mate Fred. How are you doing today, mate?” The address form, mate, used by the speaker in this utterance reflects as an
identity marker in which the speaker claims that heshe and Fred is in one group membership.
e Strategy 5 – Seek agreement
The speaker seeks ways to agree with the hearer and to satisfy hisher desire to be right, for example in
“I agree. Right. Manchester United played really badly last night, didn’t they?” The common knowledge of the speaker and hearer
about Manchester United last match plays as the safe topic which makes the speaker possible
to satisfy the hearer’s want to be right. Thus heshe performs agreement utterance in I agree and right. Another way to seek agreement is by
using repetitions that is by saying partly or fully what the hearer said. f
Strategy 6 – Avoid disagreement Although the speaker does not agree with the hearer, heshe should pretend
to agree or at least does not respond with a blatant no, for example in “Well, in a
way, I suppose you are sort of right. But look at it like this.” This utterance is
called as token agreement in which the speaker soften the disagreement by showing agreement first, that is by saying I suppose you are sort of right, then
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showing the disagreement by saying but. The other ways to avoid disagreement are by using white lies and hedging opinion. White lies are performed when the
speaker does not want to damage the hearer’s positive face in stating hisher opinion. For example, in response to a request to borrow a hand phone, the
speaker might say, “Oh I can’t. The batteries are dead” where it is actually not true. Meanwhile, hedging opinions are performed when the speaker chooses to be
vague in order to be not seen to disagree. They include the expression such as sort of, kind of, like, in a way.
g Strategy 7 – Presuppose or assert common ground
There are some ways to achieve this strategy, such as small talk, point of view operations which realized by personal-center switch from the speaker to the
hearer, time switch, place switch, and avoidance of reports to hearer’s point of view. The other way includes presupposition manipulations which cover to
presuppose knowledge of hearer’s wants and attitudes, to presuppose speaker’s and hearer’s similarity of values, to presuppose familiarity in speaker and hearer
relationship , and to presuppose hearer’s knowledge. The utterance, “People like
me and you, Bill, don’t like being pushed around like that, do we? Why don’t you go and complain?
” is one example in which the speaker presupposes hisher knowledge of
hearer’s wants by using personal-centre switch from speaker to hearer. The expression, people like me and you, Bill,
don’t like being pushed around, indicates
that the speaker asserts Bill’s characteristic as the same as hishers that is to dislike being pushed around.
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h Strategy 8 – Joke
Joking is basically used to put the hearer at ease or simply to minimize an FTA of requesting, such as in the following dialogue.
A: “Great summer we’re having. It’s only rained five times a week on average.”
B: “Yeah, terrible, isn’t it?” A: “Could I ask you for a favor?”
The conversation above shows that the speaker gives a joke about the climate by saying a paradox statement in
great summer we’re having, it’s only rained five times a week on average. Then, heshe addresses an FTA of requesting which is
reflected in could I ask you for a favor? Thus, by adding the joke before the FTA, the imposition of the FTA itself can be redressed.
i Strategy 9 – Assert knowledge of and concern for hearer’s wants
The speaker tries to imply knowledge of h earer’s wants in hope that the
hearer cooperates with himher, for example in “I know you like marshmallows,
so I’ve brought you home a whole box of them. I wonder if I could ask you for a favor.” The speaker asserts hisher knowledge about the hearer’s favorite food that
is marshmallows, thus heshe tries to fulfill it first in order that the hearer can be cooperative with hisher request after that.
j Strategy 10 – Offer, promise
In this strategy, the speaker will cooperate and help the hearer to achieve or obtain hisher wants. It is as illustrated in
“I’ll take you out to dinner on Saturday, if you’ll cook the dinner this evening.” The speaker makes a promise
that heshe will take the hearer out to dinner on Saturday. In this case, the speaker
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shows a good intention to satisfy hearer’s positive-face want that is to have a
dinner. k
Strategy 11 – Be optimistic The speaker assumes that the hearer knows and wants what the speaker
wants, thus the hearer will cooperate with himher. One instance of this strategy is in
“I know you’re always glad to get a tip or two on gardening, Fred, so, if I were you, I wouldn’t cut your lawn back so short.” The speaker utters an optimistic
expression in I know you’re always glad to reflect that Fred is happy to do
gardening. In addition, the words a tip or two are used as the minimization of the size of the FTA and as the softener of his presumptuousness.
l Strategy 12 – Include both speaker and hearer in the activity
This strategy utilizes inclusive pronoun we instead of you or me. It is used by the speaker to make cooperative interaction with the hearer, for example in
“I’m feeling really hungry. Let’s stop for a bite.” The speaker uses the word us which actually refers to me in order to make the hearer agree with hisher want to
stop and eat something. m
Strategy 13 – Give reasons The speaker gives or asks a reason to the hearer why heshe wants what he
wants, for example in “I think you’ve had a bit too much to drink, Jim. Why not
stay at our place this evening?” The speaker addresses the FTA of offering to Jim that is to stay at hisher place. The speaker demands a reason by saying why not,
in which at the same time heshe assumes that the hearer has no good reason why heshe can’t cooperate.
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n Strategy 14 – Assume reciprocity
The speaker urges the cooperation with the hearer by giving reciprocal rights or obligations.
One instance of this strategy is reflected in “If you help me with my math homework, I’ll mow the lawn after school tomorrow.” This
utterance implies reciprocity between the speaker and the hearer that is if the hearer does the speaker
’s math homework, the speaker will mow the lawn for the hearer. By negating this debt aspect, the speaker softens hisher FTA at once.
Therefore, it can be said that the reciprocity precisely shows the cooperation between them.
o Strategy 15 – Give gifts to hearer
Satisfying the hearer’s positive face can be done by giving gifts such as
goods, sympathy, understanding, and cooperation, for example in “Have a glass of
malt whisky, Dick.” In this utterance, the speaker attends to Dick’s positive face which is to be cared about by giving drink to him.
3 Negative Politeness Strategy
Negative politeness is a type of politeness in which the purpose is to redress the threat of addressee’s negative face Brown and Levinson in Goody,
1978: 129. It means that the speaker gives opportunity to the hearer to act or response freely over the FTA addressed. This is considered as a conventional
strategy in showing respect and polite behavior to the hearers. There are ten sub strategies along with their instances as the realizations of negative politeness
illustrated in Watts 2003: 90-91.
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a Strategy 1 – Be conventionally indirect
In this strategy, the speaker’s utterance goes on record but hisher desire
goes off record. It can be seen in “Could you tell me the time, please?” This is an
indirect request used by the speaker to communicate hisher want to know what time it is rather than a
sking hearer’s ability to tell the time. In other words, there is a transformation from the literal meaning into the conveyed meaning. The
transformation also includes the insertion of sentence-internal please. b
Strategy 2 – Question, hedge Instead of making direct as
sumptions towards hearer’s want, the speaker question or hedge them, for instance in
“I wonder whether I could just sort of ask you a little question.” The speaker uses the words wonder and just sort of to hedge
the assumption that the hearer permits himher to ask a question. c
Strategy 3 – Be pessimistic To redress the hearer’s negative face, the speaker expresses his doubt
whether the condition to his speech act is appropriate or not. It is illustrated in “If
you had a little time to spare for m e this afternoon, I’d like to talk about my
paper.” The use of if clause in the utterance acts as the subjunctive which shows that the speaker is in doubt or seemingly pessimistic to the possibility that heshe
can talk about hisher paper with the hearer. d
Strategy 4 – Minimize the imposition The speaker supposes to lessen the coercion to the hearer by minimizing
the seriousness of the imposition. The example of this strategy is in “Could I talk
to you for just a minute?” The utterance indicates that the speaker threats the
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hearer’s negative face by saying could I talk to you, but then heshe minimizes the imposition by using the word just which means only in literal meaning and merely
in its additional meaning. e
Strategy 5 – Give deference The speaker uses the deference strategy to the hearer, for example by using
formal address form in “Excuse me, officer. I think I might have parked in the
wrong place.” The address form used by the speaker is officer which is the general form of hearer’s occupation as a police constable. This indicates that heshe shows
deference to the hearer since heshe is unfamiliar with him. f
Strategy 6 – Apologize The speaker does not want to impose the negative face of the hearer.
Therefore, heshe tries to apologize for doing the FTA. For example, it is reflected in
“Sorry to bother you, but . . .” It is to express that the speaker begs hearer’s forgiveness before addressing the FTA. Other ways to show regret or reluctance
to do the FTA are by admitting the impingement, indicating reluctance, and giving overwhelming reasons.
g Strategy 7 – Impersonalize speaker and hearer
In this strategy, the speaker is avoiding the pronouns I and you. It is illustrated in the following example.
A: “That car is parked in a no-parking area.” B: “It’s mine, officer.”
A: “Well, it’ll have to have a parking ticket.” Instead of saying “You park in a no-parking area”, the speaker says “The car is
parked in a no-parking area ”. Also, the speaker chooses to say “It’ll have to have a
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parking ticket ” than “You have to have a parking ticket”. These clearly show that
the speaker avoids saying you to refer to the hearer by using passive voice with agent deletion.
h Strategy 8 – State the FTA as general rule
The speaker states that the FTA addressed to the hearer is as an example of general social rule or regulation. One example is reflected in
“Parking on the double yellow li
nes is illegal, so I’m going to give you a fine.” The speaker addresses the FTA as telling the rule that parking on double yellow lines is
prohibited. Therefore, it is seemingly that the speaker is being forced to address the FTA to the hearer because of the circumstance telling so or as a result of the
parking rule. i
Strategy 9 – Nominalize The speaker nominalizes the actor and adds formality, for instance in
“Participation in an illegal demonstration is punishable by law. Could I have your name and address, madam?” The speaker adds formality by nominalizing the
subject or removing the active doing part of the hearer in the expression. Therefore,
the expression is more formal and less imposing than in “You participate in an illegal demonstration, and it is punishable by law.”
j Strategy 10 – Go on record as incurring a debt
To redress an FTA, the speaker claims or disclaims the indebtedness to the hearer. It can be seen in
“If you could just sort out a problem I’ve got with my formatting; I’ll buy you a beer at lunchtime.” The speaker claims to incur a debt to
buy the hearer a beer as heshe performs the FTA of requesting that is asking for
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help whic h actually impinges on hearer’s negative face. As Brown and Levinson
stated in Goody, 1978: 209, the more speaker in hearer’s debt, the more careful heshe treats hearer’s preserve.
4 Off-record Strategy
Off record generally refers to the indirect communication in which the hearers have to make inference by themselves. According to Brown and Levinson
in Goody, 1978: 211, in off record strategy, it is more than one clear communicative intention that is being attributed by speaker, which means that the
interp retation of speaker’s utterance is left to the hearer. These are the fifteen
strategies together with their instances taken from Holtgraves’s 2008: 44 and Goody’s book 1978: 213-227.
a Strategy 1 – Give hints
This strategy is the violation of the maxim of relevance because the speaker says something which is not explicitly relevant, and instead heshe raises
an issue. One might say, “It’s cold in here.” There are actually two interpretations
of this utterance. First, the speaker merely talks about the condition. Second, the speaker gives hint about the coldness of the room because heshe has a motive for
asking the hearer to shut the window or to turn off the air conditioner. b
Strategy 2 – Give association clues This strategy is still a kind of violation of the relevance maxim in which
the speaker says something as a clue which implicitly requires the hearer to act. It is illustrated in
“Oh God, I’ve got a headache again.” The speaker gives an associated clue about hisher headache to the hearer.
It indicates that both the
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speaker and the hearer mutually have the same association to the meaning of the word headache itself. Therefore, it is possible that the utterances above may be
used to convey a request from the speaker to borrow hearer’s swimsuit. c
Strategy 3 – Presuppose Like giving hints and giving association clues, presupposing also violates
the relevance maxim. The speaker presupposes the assumptions of hisher utterance to the hearer. Thus, heshe leaves the hearer to observe what heshe
really means. For instance, it can be reflected in “I pretend to be happy.” From
this utterance, it can be identified that the speaker wants the hearer to notice that heshe is actually not happy.
d Strategy 4 – Understate
This strategy is the violation of quantity maxim where the speaker speaks less informative as required, for example, when someone asks about the new
haircut and demands the opinion, the speaker only answers by saying “It’s OK”. It
means that the speaker gives less response and palters with hisher new haircut which is called as understatement.
e Strategy 5 – Overstate
This is the opposite strategy of understatement, which is being too much informative as required. The instance of this strategy is when someone says,
“The line in the grocery store was a
mile long”. The speaker overstates the excuse about the condition of the line in the grocery by saying a mile long.
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f Strategy 6 – Use tautologies
In this strategy, the speaker seems to express something obviously, but actually heshe intends to communicate more than what is said, for instance in
“Business is a business”. Although it seems a meaningless utterance, the speaker probably has something more in mind about the topic of business that heshe
wants to communicate to the hearer. g
Strategy 7 – Use contradictions The speaker says two contradictive things because heshe cannot tell the
truth. For example, it is illustrated in the following dialogue. A: “Are you upset about that?”
B: “Well, I am and I am not. The expression I am and I am not draws an interpretation that there are two
contradictive sides of feeling in the speaker. Therefore, heshe encourages the hearer to find the way to reconcile them.
h Strategy 8 – Be ironic
The speaker does not literally say what is true, but heshe uses sarcastic irony instead. For example, there is a girl asking about her new dress to her friend.
However, her friend might say, “That’s brilliant” when it is actually not. This
belongs to irony expression. Through the irony she performs in the expression, the speaker’s intended meaning is conveyed indirectly since she is merely
backhanded and intentionally does not say the truth. i
Strategy 9 – Use metaphors The speaker violates the maxim of quality in which the meaning of the
expression is literally false, for example in “My job is a jail.” It is of course that
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the speaker does not intend to mean that hisher job is a jail but rather to mean that hisher job is like in a jail. The connotation of the metaphor used by the speaker
means that heshe is discontented with his current job. j
Strategy 10 – Use rhetorical questions Another strategy of off-record politeness associated with the violation of
quality maxim is by using rhetorical questions, which is illustrated in “Just why
would I have done that?” The speaker does not have the intention to obtain the hearer’s answer of his question, yet does not mind if the hearer gives reaction to
it. k
Strategy 11 – Be ambiguous The speaker creates ambiguity between the literal meaning and the
implicature invoked in hisher utterance, for example in “John’s a pretty smooth
cookie.” This utterance does not have a clear interpretation since it can be interpreted as a compliment or as an insult. What makes it be ambiguous is on the
connotation word smooth. l
Strategy 12 – Be vague The speaker tries to be vague on what object heshe actually refers to and
what kind of offence heshe addresses to the hearer. Thus, heshe violates the manner maxim, for example in
“I’m going you-know-where.” The euphemism expression that is used by the speaker in referring to a particular place shows that
heshe tries to be vague.
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m Strategy 13 – Over-generalize
The speaker states an instant rule to offend hearer, but actually this only lets the hearer have a choice in deciding whether it is applied to himher or not.
One example of this strategy is illustrated in “Mature people sometimes help do
the dishes.” The speaker gives advice as the FTA of requesting to the hearer to do something by giving an instant rule, which is if the hearer does the dishes; heshe
is mature then. However, the hearer is left to decide by himselfherself. n
Strategy 14 – Displace hearer The speaker does not address the FTA to the hearer directly, but pretends
to address it through someone else. For example, when in the teacher room, one asks the other to pass the stapler by using negative politeness, whereas the stapler
is much closer to the headmaster rather than the other teacher. It means that the teacher displaces the headmaster.
o Strategy 15 – Be incomplete, use ellipsis
The speaker leaves hisher utterance is undone and hanging in the air, for example in
“Well, if one leaves one’s tea on the wobbly table …” In this utterance, the speaker leaves the hearer is burdened with cogitating upon the
additional meaning of this undone utterance. Therefore, it is likely that the hearer cogitates what happen next after someone leaves tea on that wobbly table.
c. Politeness Principles
