Respect and obedience of children reflected in Nanny 911.

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Umi Rohmiyatun. 2013. Respect and Obedience of Children Reflected in Nanny 911. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies, Graduate Program, Sanata Dharma University.

People sometimes want others to do what they want or to make them follow the rule. Using language is one way to achieve this purpose because language can be used as a tool to accomplish particular ends. The utterance used in persuading others to do something is included in the directive category of speech acts. One example of people controlling others’ behavior is parents or adults who want children to follow their instruction or to follow the rule. The study aims at revealing the features and the strategies of the language used by parents or adults to control the acts of the children in everyday conversation.

The study focuses on two problems. The first is ‘What linguistic features are used to gain respect and obedience in Nanny 911?’. The second is ‘What strategies are employed to gain respect and obedience in Nanny 911?’.The data for the analysis were taken from the transcribed conversation of the television series Nanny 911. There were 17 episodes in the first season taken to be the data. The total number of the data were 140 utterances. Pragmatics theories were used in the analysis. The data were classified into the moods and to the obeyed and disobeyed utterances. Further, they were categorized into their communicative function also the possible reason of their being obeyed or disobeyed. Finally, the nonconventional strategies used were explored.

From the analysis, it is revealed that the linguistics features, in the discussion of the moods and the communicative function, do not significantly influence the addressee’s obedience. The analysis shows that the control acts are expressed in declarative, imperative, and interrogative sentences. Each type has the disobeyed and obeyed percentage of utterances. The factors that influencing obedience and compliance are the cost of the intended action to the addressee and the face threatening act of the expression. The high cost action tends to be disobeyed by children. The high cost appears when compliance (1) interrupts the addressee’s current or planned activity, (2) is difficult for the hearer, and (3) endangers the possession of the hearer. Saving face from threatening acts is done by (1) attending the hearer’s interest and wants; (2) using in-group identity markers; (3) seeking agreement; (4) avoiding disagreement; (5) asserting common ground; (6) asserting speaker’s knowledge of and concern for H’s wants; (7) offering, promising; (8) including both S and H in the activity; (9) giving or asking for reasons; (10) assuming or asserting reciprocity. The study reveals that nonconventional strategies in directive also influence the compliance of the addressee. The nonconventional strategy includes (1) the reason, (2) the neutralization, and (3) the goal approaches. The reason approach consists of (a) calling attention to a problem, (b) stating an infraction, (c) making a correction, (d) providing preconditions, and (e) forestalling intervention strategies. The neutralization approach contains modifying cost, such as providing compensation and increasing cost of noncompliance strategies.


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Umi Rohmiyatun. 2013. Respect and Obedience of Children Reflected in Nanny 911. Yogyakarta: Program Kajian Bahasa Inggris, Program Kajian Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Seseorang kadang menginginkan orang lain untuk melakukan apa yang mereka inginkan atau membuat mereka mengikuti suatu aturan tertentu. Penggunaan bahasa adalah salah satu cara untuk mencapai tujuan ini karena bahasa dapat digunakan sebagai suatu alat untuk mencapai tujuan tertentu. Ucapan-ucapan yang digunakan dalam membujuk orang lain untuk melakukan sesuatu termasuk dalam kategori tindak tutur direktif. Salah satu contoh mengendalikan perilaku orang lain adalah orang tua atau orang dewasa lain yang menginginkan anak-anak untuk mengikuti perintahnya atau untuk mengikuti aturan tertentu. Studi ini bertujuan untuk mengungkapkan sifat-sifat dan strategi-strategi bahasa yang digunakan oleh orang tua atau orang dewasa lain untuk mengendalikan perilaku anak-anak dalam percakapan sehari-hari.

Studi ini menitikberatkan pada dua tujuan. Tujuan pertama adalah mengungkapkan sifat-sifat kebahasaan yang digunakan untuk mendapatkan kepatuhan anak-anak. Yang kedua adalah mengungkapkan strategi-strategi yang digunakan untuk mendapatkan kepatuhan. Data diambil dari transkrip percakapan serial televisi Nanny 911. Terdapat 17 episode dari musim pertama yang dijadikan data dalam studi ini. Jumlah keseluruhan data ada 140 ungkapan. Data tersebut diklasifikasikan kedalam moods, kemudian kedalam ungkapan-ungkapan yang dipatuhi dan yang tidak dipatuhi. Selanjutnya data dimaksud diidentifikasi fungsi komunikatifnya, juga kemungkinan alasan dipatuhi atau tidak. Akhirnya, strategi-strategi nonkonvensional yang digunakan diteliti.

Hasil analisis mengungkapkan bahwa moods dan fungsi komunikatif tidak secara signifikan mempengaruhi kepatuhan pendengar. Hasil analisa menunjukkan bawa tindakan mengendalikan diungkapkan dalam kalimat-kalimat deklaratif, imperatif, dan interogatif. Dalam setiap bentuk kalimat terdapat bagian yang dipatuhi dan yang tidak dipatuhi. Faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kepatuhan adalah harga tindakan yang harus dibayar oleh pendengar dan face threatening acts dari ungkapan yang digunakan. Tindakan yang mempunyai harga tinggi cenderung tidak dipatuhi oleh anak-anak. Harga tinggi muncul ketika kepatuhan (1) menganggu aktivitas yang sedang atau akan dilakukan oleh pendengar, (2) sulit dilakukan oleh pendengar, dan (3) membahayakan kepemilikan pendengar atas sesuatu. Menyelamatkan muka dari face threatening acts dilakukan dengan (1) memperhatikan kepentingan dan keinginan pendengar; (2) menggunakan penanda kelompok; (3) mencari persetujuan; (4) menghindari ketidaksetujuan; (5) memberikan pemahaman yang sama; (6) memberitahukan pengetahuan dan perhatian pembicara atas keinginan pendengar; (7) menawarkan; menjanjikan; (8) melibatkan pembicara dan pendengar dalam suatu kegiatan bersama; (9) memberikan atau menanyakan alasan; (10) mengasumsikan timbal balik. Studi ini mengungkapkan bahwa strategi-strategi nonkonvensional juga berpengaruh terhadap kepatuhan pendengar. Strategi nonkonvensional ini meliputi pendekatan-pendekatan (1) alasan, (2) netralisasi, dan (3) tujuan. Pendekatan


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koreksi, (d) memberikan prasyarat, dan (e) mencegah intervensi. Sedangkan pendekatan netralisasi meliputi strategi modifikasi harga seperti memberikan kompensasi dan meningkatkan harga atas ketidakpatuhan.


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REFLECTED IN NANNY 911

A THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Magister Humaniora (M.Hum.) Degree

in English Language Studies

by

Umi Rohmiyatun 106332029

THE GRADUATE PROGRAM OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA 2014


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This is to certify that all ideas, phrases, sentences, unless otherwise stated, are the ideas, phrases, and sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full consequences including degree cancellation if she took somebody else’s ideas, phrases, or sentences without proper references.


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PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:

Nama : Umi Rohmiyatun NIM : 106332029

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

Respect and Obedience of Children Reflected in Nanny 911

beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta


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Praise to Allah Subhana Wa Ta’ala finally I have managed to complete this thesis. My deep gratitude goes to Dr. B. B. Dwijatmoko, MA, my thesis advisor, for his invaluable support, guidance, patience and kindness during the completion of this thesis. I would also like to offer my gratitude to the lecturers: Prof. Dr. Soepomo Poedjosoedarmo, Dr. Novita Dewi, M.S., M.A. (Hons), Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M. Pd., M. A., Dr. J. Bismoko, Dr. Alb. Budi Susanto, S.J., Prof. Dr. Ch. Bakdi Sumanto, S.U., and Drs. F.X. Mukarto, M.S., Ph.D., for their guidance and willingness to share their valuable knowledge during my study in Sanata Dharma University. I also express my sincere gratitude to Mbak Lely, Pak Mul, and all staff of Sanata Dharma University for their assistance in my study.

My appreciation goes to PPPPTK Matematika Yogyakarta that has given me a chance to relish this academic journey. My colleagues in Setpim, Widya Suwarningsih, and Anggrahini Suharto, deserve my gratitude for taking care of the job during my study. I also thank all my friends in English Language Studies 2010, especially Orpa Tambing, Anjar Dwi, and Lelly Sepniwati for their lovely companionship. To Supriyo Eko, my husband, and Banyu Aji, my son, I thank them for their love and support. Aliyya Adzkiya and Alifa Nastiti, my daughters, I love them for being with me during the ups and downs in this journey.


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relentless prayer, without them I would not be me. Last but not least, I thank all whose names I cannot mention one by one. May Allah grant endless blessings to them all.


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B. Related Studies……….. 25

C. Theoretical Framework .………... 28

CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ………. 30

A. Type of the Study ..………. 30

B. Data Source....………... 30

C. Data Collection ………... 32

D. Data Analysis……….. 35

1. The Concept of Respect and Obedience ………. 9

2. Sentence Types and Moods………. 11

3. Context ……… 13

4. Speech Acts ……… 16 5. Politeness and Face Threatening Acts ……… 18

6. Control Acts Strategies ……….. 23

TITLE PAGE ………. i

APPROVAL PAGE ……… ii

DEFENCE APPROVAL PAGE ………. iii

STATEMENT OF WORK ORIGINALITY ……….. iv

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH …… v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……… vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS ………... viii

LIST OF TABLES ……….. x

LIST OF FIGURES ……… xi

LIST OF APPENDICES ……… xii

ABSTRACT ………... xiii

ABSTRAK………. xiv

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ……… 1

A. Background ……… 1

B. Research Questions………... 7

C. Research Objectives ………... 7

D. Research Benefits ………... 8

CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW ………... 9


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CHAPTER IV. ANALYSIS RESULTS AND DISCUSSION…..…………. 36

A. Sentence Types and Moods …………. .……… 36

1. Declarative……….. 37

a.Disobeyed Utterances…………..……… 37

b.Obeyed Utterances..……… 45

2. Imperative……... 52

a.Disobeyed Utterances ………..………... 52

b.Obeyed Utterances……….. 54

3. Interrogative... 57

a.Disobeyed Utterances……….. 57

b.Obeyed Utterances……….. 60

B. The Strategies Used to Gain Respect and Obedience………. 64

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS……….. 72

A. Conclusions ……… 72

B. Suggestions ……… 74

BIBLIOGRAPHY ………... 75


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LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1 The Moods Used in Nanny 911 Discourses ………..……….. 36 Table 4.2 The Communicative Function in Declarative Disobeyed

Utterances ………...………. 37

Table 4.3 The Communicative Function in Declarative Obeyed Utterances.. 45 Table 4.4 The Communicative Function in Obeyed Imperative …..……….. 54 Table 4.5 The Communicative Function in Disobeyed Interrogative ..…….. 58 Table 4.6 The Communicative Function in Obeyed Interrogative ………….. 61 Table 4.7 The Strategy used in Nanny 911 ………. 64


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Figure 2.1. The Moods System ………..………..……... 12 Figure 2.2. Giving or demanding, goods-&-services or information ...……. 13


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Appendix 1 Nanny 911 – The Moods and Communicative Function ………… 78 Appendix 2 Nanny 911 – The Nonconventional Strategies……… 83 Appendix 3 Nanny 911 – The Discourses ……..………..….. 90 Appendix 4 Nanny 911 – The Pictures of the Nannies ……….…. 101


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Umi Rohmiyatun. 2013. Respect and Obedience of Children Reflected in Nanny 911. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies, Graduate Program, Sanata Dharma University.

People sometimes want others to do what they want or to make them follow the rule. Using language is one way to achieve this purpose because language can be used as a tool to accomplish particular ends. The utterance used in persuading others to do something is included in the directive category of speech acts. One example of people controlling others’ behavior is parents or adults who want children to follow their instruction or to follow the rule. The study aims at revealing the features and the strategies of the language used by parents or adults to control the acts of the children in everyday conversation.

The study focuses on two problems. The first is ‘What linguistic features are used to gain respect and obedience in Nanny 911?’. The second is ‘What strategies are employed to gain respect and obedience in Nanny 911?’.The data for the analysis were taken from the transcribed conversation of the television series Nanny 911. There were 17 episodes in the first season taken to be the data. The total number of the data were 140 utterances. Pragmatics theories were used in the analysis. The data were classified into the moods and to the obeyed and disobeyed utterances. Further, they were categorized into their communicative function also the possible reason of their being obeyed or disobeyed. Finally, the nonconventional strategies used were explored.

From the analysis, it is revealed that the linguistics features, in the discussion of the moods and the communicative function, do not significantly influence the addressee’s obedience. The analysis shows that the control acts are expressed in declarative, imperative, and interrogative sentences. Each type has the disobeyed and obeyed percentage of utterances. The factors that influencing obedience and compliance are the cost of the intended action to the addressee and the face threatening act of the expression. The high cost action tends to be disobeyed by children. The high cost appears when compliance (1) interrupts the addressee’s current or planned activity, (2) is difficult for the hearer, and (3) endangers the possession of the hearer. Saving face from threatening acts is done by (1) attending the hearer’s interest and wants; (2) using in-group identity markers; (3) seeking agreement; (4) avoiding disagreement; (5) asserting common ground; (6) asserting speaker’s knowledge of and concern for H’s wants; (7) offering, promising; (8) including both S and H in the activity; (9) giving or asking for reasons; (10) assuming or asserting reciprocity. The study reveals that nonconventional strategies in directive also influence the compliance of the addressee. The nonconventional strategy includes (1) the reason, (2) the neutralization, and (3) the goal approaches. The reason approach consists of (a) calling attention to a problem, (b) stating an infraction, (c) making a correction, (d) providing preconditions, and (e) forestalling intervention strategies. The neutralization approach contains modifying cost, such as providing compensation and increasing cost of noncompliance strategies.


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ABSTRAK

Umi Rohmiyatun. 2013. Respect and Obedience of Children Reflected in Nanny 911. Yogyakarta: Program Kajian Bahasa Inggris, Program Kajian Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Seseorang kadang menginginkan orang lain untuk melakukan apa yang mereka inginkan atau membuat mereka mengikuti suatu aturan tertentu. Penggunaan bahasa adalah salah satu cara untuk mencapai tujuan ini karena bahasa dapat digunakan sebagai suatu alat untuk mencapai tujuan tertentu. Ucapan-ucapan yang digunakan dalam membujuk orang lain untuk melakukan sesuatu termasuk dalam kategori tindak tutur direktif. Salah satu contoh mengendalikan perilaku orang lain adalah orang tua atau orang dewasa lain yang menginginkan anak-anak untuk mengikuti perintahnya atau untuk mengikuti aturan tertentu. Studi ini bertujuan untuk mengungkapkan sifat-sifat dan strategi-strategi bahasa yang digunakan oleh orang tua atau orang dewasa lain untuk mengendalikan perilaku anak-anak dalam percakapan sehari-hari.

Studi ini menitikberatkan pada dua tujuan. Tujuan pertama adalah mengungkapkan sifat-sifat kebahasaan yang digunakan untuk mendapatkan kepatuhan anak-anak. Yang kedua adalah mengungkapkan strategi-strategi yang digunakan untuk mendapatkan kepatuhan. Data diambil dari transkrip percakapan serial televisi Nanny 911. Terdapat 17 episode dari musim pertama yang dijadikan data dalam studi ini. Jumlah keseluruhan data ada 140 ungkapan. Data tersebut diklasifikasikan kedalam moods, kemudian kedalam ungkapan-ungkapan yang dipatuhi dan yang tidak dipatuhi. Selanjutnya data dimaksud diidentifikasi fungsi komunikatifnya, juga kemungkinan alasan dipatuhi atau tidak. Akhirnya, strategi-strategi nonkonvensional yang digunakan diteliti.

Hasil analisis mengungkapkan bahwa moods dan fungsi komunikatif tidak secara signifikan mempengaruhi kepatuhan pendengar. Hasil analisa menunjukkan bawa tindakan mengendalikan diungkapkan dalam kalimat-kalimat deklaratif, imperatif, dan interogatif. Dalam setiap bentuk kalimat terdapat bagian yang dipatuhi dan yang tidak dipatuhi. Faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi kepatuhan adalah harga tindakan yang harus dibayar oleh pendengar dan face threatening acts dari ungkapan yang digunakan. Tindakan yang mempunyai harga tinggi cenderung tidak dipatuhi oleh anak-anak. Harga tinggi muncul ketika kepatuhan (1) menganggu aktivitas yang sedang atau akan dilakukan oleh pendengar, (2) sulit dilakukan oleh pendengar, dan (3) membahayakan kepemilikan pendengar atas sesuatu. Menyelamatkan muka dari face threatening acts dilakukan dengan (1) memperhatikan kepentingan dan keinginan pendengar; (2) menggunakan penanda kelompok; (3) mencari persetujuan; (4) menghindari ketidaksetujuan; (5) memberikan pemahaman yang sama; (6) memberitahukan pengetahuan dan perhatian pembicara atas keinginan pendengar; (7) menawarkan; menjanjikan; (8) melibatkan pembicara dan pendengar dalam suatu kegiatan bersama; (9) memberikan atau menanyakan alasan; (10) mengasumsikan


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berpengaruh terhadap kepatuhan pendengar. Strategi nonkonvensional ini meliputi pendekatan-pendekatan (1) alasan, (2) netralisasi, dan (3) tujuan. Pendekatan alasan terdiri dari (a) pernyataan permasalahan (b) pernyataan pelanggaran, (c) koreksi, (d) memberikan prasyarat, dan (e) mencegah intervensi. Sedangkan pendekatan netralisasi meliputi strategi modifikasi harga seperti memberikan kompensasi dan meningkatkan harga atas ketidakpatuhan.


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1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter covers the introduction to the study. It consists of the background of the study, the research questions, the research objectives, and the research benefits. The background of the study introduces the focus of the study. The research questions and the research objectives cover the core issues of the study. Finally, the research benefits are presented to describe the contribution of the study.

A. Background

To be able to get what someone wants, one has to communicate their desires to others using language. Holtgraves (2002) states a language can be viewed as a tool used to accomplish particular ends. In other words, language is used to perform a meaningful action, with consequences for the speaker and the hearer. A mother who wants her daughter to behave well will tell her to be good. The consequence for the hearer, in this case the daughter, is that she obeys her mother and behaves well.

However, to choose the proper utterance in a communication is sometimes not a simple thing to do. What a mother should say to her daughter to put a litter in a dustbin? Is it “Put the litter in the dustbin!”, “Why don’t you put the litter in the dustbin?”, “Would you put the litter in the dustbin?”, “Can you put the litter in the dustbin?”, “Would you help me to put the litter in the dustbin?” or “It’s not


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nice to see litter on a clean place”. Which one would be chosen by the mother and which one would be listened and obeyed by the daughter?

In the context of a family relationship, verbal communication between children and parents, may fail when the intention of the parent is not understood by the children, also when parents do not comprehend what the children’s need or feel. Certain sentence types and strategies may be needed to deal with children, especially in the control acts of their behavior.

The relationship among the elders and children are normally defined by the cultural background of the family. In the western culture, the elders are not necessarily respected by the youngers. Australian schoolchildren, for example, expressed less respect to their parents than Japanese (Fischer, 2006:19). Frei and Shavers as quoted by Fischer and Li (2006) stated that respect is only paid to those who are respectworthy, those with individual distinctions, qualities, merit and achievement.

Tamis Le-Monda, Way, Hughes, Yoshikawa, Kahana, and Niwa (2008) assert that parents in western cultures are illustrated as supporting the developmental goals that are autonomy-oriented. Further, Tamis Le-Monda, et al advise four key values are associated with the developmental goal of autonomy. The first value is personal choice, providing the opportunities to assert personal preferences and establishing unique identity. It is associated with enhanced motivation and achievement. The second value is intrinsic motivation, or being intrinsically driven to achieve goals. It is closely related to optimism about the chances of success. The third value is self-esteem, feeling good about oneself. It is


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believed to be the basic of happiness and achievement of personal goals. The fourth value is self-maximization, achieving one’s full potential. To sum up, parents believe that children should make their own choices, intrinsically motivated, feel good about themselves, and realize their potential to be a unique and autonomous beings.

Conversely, Petersen (2008) asserts sometimes parents demand respect and obedience from their children. Parents may threaten, punish, shame, bribe, and reward their children as a form of showing their power to force their children to comply. It will lead children to grasp that they should respect power and authority, instead of respecting relationships and respecting each other as individuals. The latter according to Petersen (2008) is much more important. Respect for power and authority is more likely to enforce conflict among parents and children. Parents should win, not demand or force, respect from children. Demand and force respect may bring children’s compliance but does not build true respect for each other. True respect is won by giving respect and recognizing others as equals. This applies to everyone, including children.

Respect may lead to obedience. However, obedience may also arise from fear, for example from fear of physical punishment. Both respect and fear may be the root of obedience, yet obedience that arises from respect will build discipline. On the other hand, obedience that arises from fear will end up in chaos when the treat of punishment disappear (www.eqi.org retrieved on April,18, 2012).

Related to the language, some possible linguistic devices may be used to obtain children’s respect and obedience. Beare (2011) suggests that there are four


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common types of sentences: declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory. A declarative sentence declares or states a fact or opinion. Imperative commands or requests, is usually with implied subject. Interrogative asks question and is used with auxiliary verb before the subject. Exclamatory emphasizes a statement. Holtgraves (2002), referring Austin speech act theory, suggests that a person is doing something with his words. When someone speaks, he performs a locutionary act. At the same time he also performs an illocutionary act, or act in saying. Simultaneously, he also performs a perlocutionary act, or giving effect of the utterance on the hearer. Consequently, speech acts theory can clarify the speaker’s intention and the effects to the hearer.

Searle (1969) classifies the speakers’ possible action with their utterances. The speech acts are specified based on the taxonomy and the relation between the words and the worlds. The first is directives, an attempt to get the hearer to perform some future action. It includes requesting, ordering, and questioning. Second is assertives, an attempt to represent an actual state of affairs. It includes asserting, concluding, informing, predicting, and reporting. Third is commissives, an attempt to commit the speaker to a future course of action. It includes warning, promising, threatening, and guaranteeing. Fourth is declaratives, an attempt to bring about change in some institutional state of affairs. It includes declaring war, performing a marriage. Fifth is expressives, an attempt to express psychological state. It includes thanking, complaining, greeting, and apologizing.

Respect and obedience sometimes are intended action demanded by speakers, in this case adults, from hearers, in this case children. Certain utterances


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with certain speech acts might be employed to gain the action of respect and obedience. Adult might use language to gain children’s respect and obedience. A depiction of children and adults communication that demands children’s respect and obedience can be found in Nanny 911. It is a reality show on television program that presents families with mischievous children. The families usually have two or more children, aged less than 9 years. Some British Nannies are engaged in the show. In the first season of the reality show, the nannies featured are Head Nanny Lilian, Nanny Deborah, Nanny Stella, and Nanny Yvone.

The show was originally broadcasted in the US on the Fox channel and in the UK on the ITV2 channel. Many other countries also aired the show in their local television. In Indonesia, for example it is aired in Metro TV. Not only broadcasted, it is also adapted in the local television. The series is produced in 51 episodes for 4 seasons.

An episode of Nanny 911 covers a week of interaction between the Nanny and the family. The usual steps are started on the first day with the Nanny observing the family in order to determine a suitable plan of action for changing the children's behavior; then at the end of the day the Nanny discusses what should be done with the parents. The next days shows the plan being implemented. At the end of the week, the family usually has changed their behavior. The unruly children has become nice, obedient, and helpful. This series is considered to be the appropriate source of data because it gives a lot of examples of adult-children communication.


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The series gives certain strategies for parents to deal with their children bad behavior. Furthermore, Carrol and Reid (2009) mention that there are eleven principles in Nanny 911. First, parents should be consistent. When they say no to their children, it should mean no, and when they say yes it should also mean yes. Second, every action has its consequence. Good behavior will get reward, while bad behavior will get punishment. Third, say what you want and mean what you say. Before speaking, someone should think first because it will have impact, whether it is good or bad. Fourth, parents should works as a team. When parents do not agree on one thing, children will be confused on who they should listen to. As a result, they would not listen to either of their parents. Fifth, parents should not promise if they cannot or do not intend to fulfill it. When parents promise to their children that they will take them to Disneyland, then they should be ready to take them. Breaking promises will make the children do not believe them. Sixth, parents should listen to the children. Parents should acknowledge the children feelings, by saying “I understand” or “I listen to you”. Consequently, parents provide time for their children to listen and understand them. Seventh, parents should define routines. It is because routine will made the children feel safe and use their time structurally. Eighth, respect is reciprocal for both children and parents. When parents do not respect their children, the children will not respect them in return. Ninth, positive reinforcement works more effectively than negative reinforcement. Praises, compliments, and prides are much more benefited than being negative, talkative, and indifferent. Tenth, behavior is universal. It means that good behavior is acceptable everywhere, otherwise bad


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behavior is rejected everywhere. Eleventh, parents should define their role. Parents role is not to make the children attach to them, but to make them ready to face the outer world and let them be themselves.

However, this research will not deliberate on the nannies’ parenting strategies. This research will analyze the utterances used by the parents and the nannies to the children and the effect that rose from the utterances. It will discuss the sentence types and the strategies used to gain respect and obedience from the children. Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1999) suggest that sentence mood conveys the speakers’ mood, therefore identifying the sentence types is significant to understand the mood of the speaker. Consequently, discussing the linguistic features is essential in understanding how respect and obedience are obtained in the utterances. The discussion will also cover the strategies used in the utterances to gain the desired action from the hearer. Besides employing conventional strategies, such as using imperatives, speakers sometimes also use non-conventional strategies. The analysis explores the non-non-conventional strategies used by adults to gain obedience and respect from children.

The questions raised in this research are as follows

1. What linguistic features are used to gain respect and obedience in Nanny 911? 2. What strategies are employed to gain respect and obedience in Nanny 911? C. Research Objectives

Based on the research questions, this research has two objectives. The first objective of this study is to identify the linguistic features used to gain and show B. Research Questions


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respect and obedience from children. In order to achieve this objective, first, the utterances used by parents to communicate with their children will be identified. Then, the linguistic features related to the sentence types and the communicative functions of each utterance will be studied.

The second objective is to identify the strategies used to gain respect and obedience from children. It will reveal the nonconventional strategies used by adults in their utterances. Further, the possible reasons of the children’s compliance related to the employed strategies are revealed.

D. Research Benefits

The study is expected to have some benefits. First, a better understanding in communicating with children would be achieved. To know what types of sentences and strategies are proper when dealing with children in a certain context and condition would help to reduce miscommunication and misunderstanding when communicating with children. As a result, it will contribute to the understanding of children communication development of the pragmatics. Second, the findings may be applicable in defining the appropriate language to teach children, especially in their early childhood when they are not able to do verbal communication appropriately. In other words, the research is aimed to give benefit practically to parents and teachers, and theoretically, to students of linguistics in general.


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9 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is divided into three sections. They are the theoretical review, the related studies, and the theoretical framework. The first is the theoretical review which includes theories that will be applied in answering the questions proposed in this research. The second section is review on the related studies on the same topic, communication between adult and children. The third section is the theoretical framework presenting the explanation on how each theory is used to answer the problems.

A. Theoretical Review

This section presents the theories that will be used in the analysis. It covers the theories that are useful to answers the research questions. They are the theories on of respect and obedience, sentence types and moods, also on pragmatics

1. The Concept of Respect and Obedience

Respectmeans to recognize the value of people and things and to treat them with consideration, care and concern. It is also to treat others the way someone would like

to be treated. Respect is not only applied to people, it also applied to someone‟s

possessions and environment. The foundation of respect is constant, regardless of whether you are demonstrating respect for a person, an object, or our planet. (www.peacefulsolution.org retrieved on February 10, 2014)

The teaching in the Peaceful Solution emphasized a list of some common forms of disrespect that are widespread within the society. First is verbal disrespect which


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teasing; bullying; threatening to hurt someone; and sarcasm. The second is physical disrespect includes assault with a weapon, hitting, pushing or kicking as well as

touching someone‟s body inappropriately. The third is self disrespect includes not taking care of oneself by not keeping oneself clean, abusing alcohol, experimenting with drugs, engaging in premarital sex, and even dressing and acting inappropriately. The fourth is disrespect for the environment includes littering, polluting and harming animals and plants. The fifth is disrespect for propertyincludes stealing, and defacing property as in the case of graffiti. The last is other forms of disrespectinclude rude or vulgar gestures and inappropriate public behavior such as playing songs with vulgar language in a public place. (www.peacefulsolution.org retrieved on February 10, 2014)

Milgram asserts that obedience is an element in the structure of social life. Some system of authority is a requirement of all communal living and only the person dwelling in isolation who is not forced to respond, with defiance or submission, to the commands of others. For many people, obedience is an ingrained behavior tendency, a potent impulse overriding training in ethics, sympathy, and moral conduct. However, the problem of obedience is not only psychological. It is also developed by the form and shape of society. (www.grossmont.edu retrieved on February 10, 2014)

McLeod (2007) suggest that obedience is a form of social influence where an individual acts in response to the order from another individual with the authority figure. It is assumed that without the order the person would have acted differently. Obedience occurs when you are told to do something by the authority. Therefore, the person giving the order has a higher status than the person


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receiving the order (http://www.simplypsychology.org/obedience.html retrieved on February 10, 2014).

2. Sentence Types and Moods

Celce_Murcia, et al (1999) suggest that English sentences have three main moods, they are declarative (indicative), interrogative, and imperative, and two minor moods; exclamatory and subjunctive. Mood conveys the speaker‟s attitude toward the factual content of the sentence. There are three main options in the English mood system correspond to the three main communicative functions of language: telling someone something, asking someone something, and getting someone to do something. However, a sentence type does not necessarily match its function. It is possible to ask someone to do something using the three types. For example, someone can ask other to do something using the imperative, the declarative or the interrogative.

(1) Take the litter!

(2) I want you to take the litter. (3) Would you take the litter?

The three sentences are expressed in different moods, however, they have similar functions of telling the hearer to take the litter.

In the discussion of moods, Halliday (1994) identifies three kinds of mood, they are declarative, imperative, and interrogative. Each of them has their own characteristics, which is essentially identified by the existence of subject and finite in the sentence, as described in Figure 1 below.


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Figure 2.1: The Mood System (Thomson, 2004:58)

Thomson (2004:53) further explained that in functional grammar “Subject is the entity on which the validity of the clause” while “Finite makes it possible to argue about the proposition”. Changes of Subject in a proposition will change the meaning of the proposition. Examples given by Thomson are

She was sacked last week by NatWest. (Thomson, 2004:52) is different from

No, NatWest didn‟t sack her, Barclays did. (Thomson, 2004:53)

The first proposition is about „she” while the second is about “NatWest”, therefore changing in subject will make new complete message. Finite enables a speaker to signals three basic claims of the validity of a proposition which can be accepted or rejected by the listener. First, tense will show whether a proposition is valid for the present time or for other time or for unreal situation. Second, polarity will show whether the validity is positive or negative. Third, modality will show to what extent the proposition is valid.


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She was a brilliant actress. She still is. (Thomson, 2004:53)

You know what I mean. No, I don‟t, as a matter of fact. (Thomson, 2004:53)

It could be a word meaning “inferior”. Oh, yes, it must be, because the rest is an anagram. (Thomson, 2004:53)

In an exchange or a conversation, the fundamental types of speech role are giving and demanding (Halliday, 2004:107). The commodity that is being given or demanded could be goods and services or information. When the commodity is in the form of goods and services, such as an object or an action, then language is only help the process. However, when the demanded is information then the answer would be verbal.

Figure 2.2. Giving or demanding, goods-&-services or information (Halliday, 2004:107) Role in exchange Commodity exchanged

(a)goods-&-services (b) information (i) Giving „offer‟

Would you like this teapot?

„statement‟

He‟s giving her teapot (ii) Demanding „command‟

Give me that teapot!

„question‟

What is he giving her?

3. Context

Holtgraves (2002) asserts that language can be seen as a tool to achieved particular ends. To use a language is to perform a meaningful action with consequences for the speaker, the hearer, and the conversation. In addition, to understand the meaning, a speaker and a context must exist. According to Holtgraves (2002) it is because what a speaker means with an utterance can only be derived with some reference to the context. Further, Holtgraves marks that language is also an interpersonal action because the action that we perform with


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language has implications for the thoughts and feelings of the parties involved and the relationships between them. Our utterances addressed to other people are filled with feelings, goals, thoughts and values.

Context determines the meaning of utterances. Different context would determine different meaning of utterances. In his research, Song quoted some definitions of context from other writers. Cook as quoted in Song (2010) defines context in narrow sense as knowledge of factors outside the text under consideration, in broad sense as knowledge of other parts of the text under consideration. Song (2010) classifies context into three types, they are linguistic, situational, and cultural context. Linguistic context is the relationship between words, phrases, sentences, and paragraph. Situational context refers to the environment, time and place where the discourse happen. It also includes the relationship between the participants. Cultural context implies to the culture, customs, and background of language of the participants.

Song (2010) also generalizes the role of context in a discourse. They are eliminating ambiguity, indicating referents, and detecting conversational implicature. Ambiguity suggests lexical and structural ambiguity. Lexical ambiguity refers to word, phrase, sentence that have more than one possible meaning or interpretation, while structural ambiguity refers to the grammatical structure of sentences. Indicating referents refers to referents words such as the pronouns of the participants of a discourse. Detecting conversational implicature means understanding the intended meaning of an utterance, it is related to the literal meaning of the utterance in a specific context.


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Ervin-Tripp, O‟Connor, and Rosenberg (1984) mention that compliance to a speaker‟s command or directive is unlikely happening when (1) compliance interrupts the hearer‟s conversation, (2) compliance would disrupt the hearer‟s present or planned activity, (3) the projected things is expensive or the activity is difficult, (4) the properties discussed belongs or is currently in use by the hearer, (5) a subordinate tries to direct someone in authority beyond their normal rights.

Leech (1988) asserts that two individuals might have incompatible goals which lead to direct conflict with the scale of decreasing gravity as (1) actual conflict (strongest), in which a makes or tries to make b do A, but b tries to or does not A, (2) disobedience, in which a tells/orders b to do A, but b does not do A, (3) will flouting, in which a communicates to b that a wants b to do A, but b does not do A, (4) will incompatibility, in which a communicates to b that a wants b to do A, but b communicates to a that b does not want to do A. Further, Leech (1988) claims that on the reverse of the positive and negative actions above, there are another four types of situations: (1) actual conflict (strongest) in which a stops or tries to stop b doing A, but b tries to do or does A, (2) disobedience in which a forbids b to do A, but b does A, (3) will flouting in which a communicates to b that a wants b not to do A, but b does A, (4) will incompatibility (weakest) in which a communicates to b that a wants b not to do A, but b communicates to a that b wants to do A.

Hymes‟s (1974) theory of SPEAKING is applicable to analyze a speech and its context. It is indeed an old theory; nevertheless it is useful in explaining a speech event. The model involves some aspects of the linguistic situation. First,


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S- Setting and scene, setting refers to the time and place while scene refers to the environment of the situation. In the Nanny 911, the setting and scene is usually in the house whether it is in a kitchen, in a bedroom, etc. Second, P-Participants, it refers to the parties involves in the speech, including the speaker and the audience. In the Nanny 911 series the participants of a speech involves children and adult whether they are the parents or the nannies. Third, E-Ends, the purpose and goal of the speech along with any outcomes of the speech. The purpose and goal of a speech event in Nanny 911 is to make the children behave as the adult wants or in line with the set rules in the family. Fourth, A-Act Sequence, the order of events took place during the speech. The speech event might be started by a child‟s refusal to obey the parents‟ rules, then with their exchange arguments, and ended with the child or the parent giving up on the issue. Fifth, K-Key, the overall tone or manner of the speech, in the series the tome or manner is mostly in anger from the parents and from the children side. Sixth, I-Instrumentalities, the form and style of the speech being given. The style and form of speech is usually informal between adult and children. Seventh, N-Norms, defines what is socially acceptable at the event. In adult and child conversation, both parties may have their own arguments, however, still there are some rules that has to be obeyed. And finally, G-Genre, the type of speech that is being given. It means the speech acts that are applied in the speech event.

4. Speech Acts

In relation with speech act of a speech event, Jowarowska (2011) asserts that speech act theory explains how speakers use language to accomplish the


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intended actions and how hearers infer intended meaning from what is said. Austin as cited in Holtgraves (2002) classifies speech acts into lucotion, illucotion, and perlucotion. Lucotion is the literal meaning of what is said by the speaker. Illucotion is the social function of the utterance, it can be a refusal, a command, a complaint, or any other thing. Perlucotion is the effect that take place after the utterance.

Another speech act theory developed by Cohen also cited in Holtgraves (2002) identifies five categories of speech acts based on the functions assigned to them. The first is representatives, it includes assertions, claims, and reports. The second is directives, it includes suggestions, requests, and commands. The third is expressives, it includes apologies, complaint, and thanks. The fourth is commisives, which includes promises, threats, and offers. The last category is declaratives, which includes decrees and declarations.

Searle (1969) also develops five illocutionary points that represents an important attempt of the speakers to perform something with their utterances. They are (1) directives, that attempt to have the hearer to perform some future action which includes requesting, ordering, and questioning; (2) assertives, attempt to represent the actual state of affairs to commit the speaker to the case, it includes asserting, concluding, informing, predicting, and reporting; (3) commissives, attempt to commit the speaker to future course of action, it includes warning, promising, threatening, and guaranteeing; (4) declaratives attempt to bring about a change in some institutional state of affairs, it includes declaring a


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war, performing a marriage; (5) expressives attempt to express a psychological state which includes thanking, complaining, greeting and apologizing.

5. Politeness and Face Threatening Acts

A communication always involves participants that in the politeness strategy involve the face of the participants. Brown and Levinson (1987:61) cited in Nadar (2009:32) defines face as the public self-image that every participants wants to claim for himself, consisting in two related aspects: (a) negative face; the basic claim to territories, personal preserves, rights to non-distraction – i.e. to freedom of action and freedom from imposition, (b) positive face: the positive consistent self-image or personality (crucially including the desire that this self-image be appreciated and approved of) claims by the participants. In short, a participant has two faces, the negative face is the individual desire to be free from others interference and the positive face is the individual desire to be approved and favored by others. Brown and Levinson (1987: 65-68), as quoted by Nadar, state further that the face concept is universal and some utterances tend to be an annoying act which is termed as Face Threatening Acts (FTA).

FTA may threaten the positive face and the negative face of the hearer. Some acts that threat the negative face are (a) utterance of „orders and requests, suggestions, advice, reminding, threats, warnings, dares; (b) utterances of offers, promises; (c) utterances on compliments, expressions of strong (negative) emotions toward the hearer such as anger and hatred. Another acts that threat the positive face are (a) utterances of disapproval, criticism, contempt, ridicule, complaints and reprimands, accusations, insults; (b) utterances of contradictions


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or disagreements, challenges; (c) utterances of violent (out of control)) emotions (S gives H possible reason to fear him or be embarrassed by him); (d) utterance of irreverence, mentions of taboo topics, including those that are inappropriate in the context (S indicates that he doesn‟t value H‟s values and doesn‟t fears J‟s fears); (e) utterances on bad news about H, or good news (boasting) about S (S indicates that he is willing to cause distress to H, and/or does not care about H‟s feeling); (f) utterances on dangerously emotional or decisive topics such as politics, race, religion, women‟s liberation (S raises the possibility or likelihood of face threatening acts (such as above) occurring i.e. S creates a dangerous-to-face-atmosphere; (g) utterances on non-cooperation in an activity, such as disruptively interrupting H‟s talk, making non-sequiturs or showing non-attention (S indicates that he doesn‟t care about H‟s negative or positive wants); (h) utterances on address terms and other status marked identification in initial encounters (S may misidentify H in an offensive or embarrassing way, intentionally or accidentally). Although the acts are classified as threatening the positive face or the negative face, Brown and Levinson, quoted in Nadar (2009) note that there are some expressions that may threat both negative and positive face.

Brown and Levinson as cited in Nadar (2009) also suggest some strategies to save the face of the hearer. To save the positive face (1) to notice and attend H (his interest, wants, deeds, goods) also giving special attention to H, such as their physical appearance; (2) exaggerate (interest, approval, sympathy) to H; (3) intensify interest to H; (4) use in-group identity markers; (5) seek agreement; (6) avoid disagreement; (7) presuppose/raise/assert common ground; (8) joke; (9)


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assert or presuppose S‟s knowledge of and concern for H‟s wants; (10) offer, promise; (11) be optimistic; (12) include both S and H in the activity; (13) give or ask for reasons; (14) assume or assert reciprocity; (15) give sympathy to H.

Nadar (2009) cited Brown and Levinson‟s strategies in saving positive face in a conversation, they are (1) be conventionally indirect; (2) question and hedge; (3) be pessimistic; (4) minimize the imposition; (5) give deference; (6) apologize; (7) impersonalize S and H; (8) state the FTA as a general rule; (9) nominalize; (10) go on record as incurring a debt, or as not indebting H.

According to Leech (1988), the maxim of politeness involves the self or the speaker, the other or the hearer. The maxim of politeness tend to go in pair as in the tact maxim (in impositives and commissives) is to minimize cost to other and to maximize benefit to other, in the generosity maxim (in impositives and comissives) is to minimize benefit to self and maximize cost to self, in the approbation maxim (in expressives and assertives) is to minimize dispraise of other and maximize praise of other, in the modesty maxim (in expressives and assertives) is to minimize praise of self and maximize dispraise of self, in the agreement maxim (in assertives) is to minimize disagreement between self and other, and to maximize agreement between self and other, in the sympathy maxim (in assertives) is to minimize antipathy between self and other and to maximize sympathy between self and other (1988:132).

Politeness does not only deal with the content of the conversation, but also with the way the conversation is managed and structured by its participants (1988:


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139). One of the examples is how people aware of the turn-taking in a conversation, when should they keep silent or should speak.

Watts (2003) argues the structures of linguistic politeness are consists of (1) term of address including first names like Bill, David; deferential names like sir; first name+surname like Richard Wells; title+surname like Dr. Weber, (2) formulaic expressions of specific speech act types like thanking such as very many thanks, thank you very much or apologizing like excuse me, (3) ritualized expressions of leave-taking like bye or bye bye, (4) hedges of different kinds, i.e. linguistic expressions which weaken the illocutionary force of a statement: by means of attitudinal predicates like I think, I don’t think, I mean, or by no means of adverbs such as actually, (5) solidarity markers, i.e. linguistic expressions which appeal to mutual knowledge shared by the participants, or support and solidarity from participants, like you know, (6) boosters, i.e. linguistic expressions enhancing the force of the illocution in some way, like of course, clearly, (7) sentential structures containing specific modal verbs, such as may I ask you to accept.

While House and Casper as cited in Watts (2003) propose the structure of linguistic politeness are categorized in eleven groups. The first is the politeness markers, i.e. expressions added to the utterance to show deference to the addressee and to bid for cooperative behavior, for example the use of politeness markers please, if you wouldn’t/don’t mind, tag questions with modal verbs such as will/would following an imperative structure in close the door will you/would you?.


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The second is play-downs, syntactic devices which likely tone down the perlocutionary effect of an utterance on the addressee. The category is subdivided into: the use of past tense (I wonder if …., I thought you might….), progressive aspects together with past tense (I was wondering whether…, I was thinking you might …), an interrogative containing a modal verb (would it be a good idea …, could we …), a negative interrogative containing a modal verb (would it be a good idea …, could we …), a negative interrogative containing a modal verb (wouldn’t it be a good idea if…, couldn’t you….) (quoted in Watts; 182-184).

The third is consultative devices, structures which seek to involve the addressee and attempt for their cooperation, e.g. Would you mind …, Could you … The fourth is hedges, a structure which avoid giving a precise propositional content and leaving an option open to the addressee to impose her/his own intent, e.g. kind of, sort of, somehow, more or less, rather, and what have you.. The fifth is understaters, a means of underrepresenting the propositional content of the utterance by a phrase functioning as an adverbial modifier or also by an adverb itself, e.g. a bit, a little bit, a second, a moment, briefly. The sixth is downtoners, modulate the impact of the speaker‟s utterance, e..g. just, simply, possibly, perhaps, really (quoted in Watts; 182-184).

The seventh is committers, to lower the degree to which the speaker commit her/himself to the propositional content of the utterance, e.g. I think, I believe, I guess, in my opinion. The eight is forewarning, this strategy could be realized by many different structures in which the speaker makes some kind of metacomment of an FTA (e.g. pays compliment) of invokes a generally accepted principle which


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they about to flout (e.g. far be it from me to criticize, but…., you may find this a bit boring, but…., you’re good at solving computer problems)..The ninth is hesitators, pauses filled with non-lexical phonetic materials, such as er, uhh, ah, or instances of stuttering.. The tenth is scope-staters, expression of a subjective opinion about a state of affairs referred to in the proposition, e.g. I’m afraid you’re in my seat, I’m disappointed that you couldn’t…., it was a shame you didn’t…... . The last one is agent avoiders, refer to propositional utterances in which the agent is suppressed or impersonalized, deflecting the criticism from the addressee to some generalized agent, e.g. passive structures or utterances such as people don’t do X (quoted in Watts; 182-184).

6. Control Acts Strategies

Gordon and Ervin-Tripp (1984) suggest that compliance of control acts can be achieved by considering to get attention of the addressee and calculating the cost and the status of the participant. The observed steps in getting compliance are (1) attention-getters, to get the attention of the addressee by verbal or nonverbal means, such as “hey!” or waving hand. An attention-getter alone can function as a request if the context makes clear what is wanted by the speaker.(2) framing moves, to set up a cooperative situation to make an instrumental move more effective, a preliminary moves such as proposing a particular kind of play may be necessary, “Let’s play fire engine.” (3) persuasive adjuncts, instrumental moves are often prefaced or followed by reasons, promises, threats, and so forth, which serves to justify the request or persuade the hearer, like “I haven’t got enough ….”, “I’ve gotta drive ….”. persuasive adjuncts can stand as alone as instrumental


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moves in themselves. (4) instrumental moves, a conventional speech act may occur, qualified by the addition of politeness formula, vocatives, and so on. (5) responses, the hearer responses such as assent, denial and excuses for noncompliance, and requests for clarification require much attention to politeness and persuasion as do the original speaker‟s instrumental moves and adjuncts, (6) remedies, after hearing a response, a speaker may repeat, alter, intensify, clarify, or add persuasive arguments to support an instrumental move that has been challenged.

Nonconventional strategies (NCI) are commonly used when the speaker wants to maintain deference or mitigate the appearance of control (Gordon 1984:306). There are three basic approaches of NCIs: (1) R (The Reason) identifying the reason or cause for the hearer to carry out, or facilitate the desired action and make the hearer awake of it e.g. “It’s your turn”. Five strategies related to Reason approach are first, call attention to a problem. A hearer‟s action is necessary to make up some problem, or a problem can be identified that the desired action would remedy, state the problem, e.g. “This is too heavy for me”. Second is to state an infraction. If the hearer is engaged in an activity that violates a norm or create a problem, state the infraction, e.g. “You’re not supposed to do that”. Third is to make a correction. If the hearer is engaged in an inappropriate action, make the hearer aware of the appropriate action, e.g. “That goes there”, Fourth is to provide preconditions. If the hearer carries out the desired action when specific precondition are met, make the hearer aware that such preconditions have been or will be met, e.g. “The train is leaving.”. Fifth is


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toorestall intervention. If intervention in some activity is anticipated, identify, or justify the planned activity, the effect is a prohibition, e.g. “That’s mine” said as speaker grabs toy. (2) N (Neutralize) anticipate an obstacle to the hearer‟s cooperation and neutralize it, e.g. “I’ll give you a dollar for it”. Three strategies related to obstacle neutralization approach: (a) N.1. Anticipate counterarguments: if the hearer may have reasons not to cooperate with the goal, identify a way to mitigate such obstacle and inform the hearer, e.g. “If I can have a kitten I’ll take care of it all by myself.” (b) N.2. Modify cost: If the cost of a goal or activity is high, find a way of neutralizing it by minimize cost, e.g. ask for small amount, provide compensation, e.g. “If you give me this for a while, you can have this for a while”, or increase cost of noncompliance, e.g. threaten hearer, “If you don’t give it to me, I’ll take my truck back” (c) N.3. Change activity context: If the framing situation or current activity is not favorable to obtaining the goal, invoke a different situation or activity, e.g. a child denied access to a toy may suggest a game or activity in which the use of the toy is routine. (3) G (Goal) make the hearer awake of the desired goal situation or some aspect of it and hope the hearer brings it voluntarily, e.g. “Do we have any candy?” asked when child knows “we” do.

B. Related Studies

There are several studies that related to this study. First is Speech Acts by Mother and Child: Determining Their Nature and Form by Josie Bernicot, Judith Comeau, and Helga Feider (1993). The goal of the study is to determine to what extent the psychological, social, and cultural features of the communication


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situation affect the production of speech acts during an interaction between an adult and a child. Variations in the nature of the speech acts produced (assertive, directive, expressive, and commissive) and in their linguistic form (imperative, declarative, interrogative, and exclamative) are studied in relation to three variables describing the communication situation: (a) a psychological variable, the mother‟s child-raising style (coercive or inductive) which was assessed using a questionnaire on parental control behavior (b) a social variable, the social role of the speaker (mother or child); and (c) a cultural variable, the origin of the dialogue partners (French or Canadian). For each cultural sample, 15-minute dialogues were recorded while 10 pairs of mothers in interaction with their 5 and 6 year old daughters performed a task involving drawing on a computer. The results suggest that for children between the ages of 5 and 6, the production of speech acts is mainly controlled by the social characteristics of the communication situation rather than by its psychological and cultural features. Mothers appear instead to be sensitive to all three kinds of factors. Moreover, the four types of speech acts were found to differ in their frequency of occurrence, linguistic form, and reaction to the psychological, social, and cultural characteristics of the communication situation. The study suggests that the effects of these characteristics on speech act production are not uniform, but vary according to the index under consideration.

The second study is Children’s Pragmatic Competence: A Case Study of English Speech Acts Performed by American Children by Toshihiko Suzuki (2010). It attempts to demonstrate the pragmatic competence of American elementary school children who speak English as their first language. The data


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was taken from pupils aged 8 – 10 in San Francisco in March 2010. It was designed to reveal native English speaking children‟s pragmatic ability to realize their intentions verbally in the form of speech acts, and to consider its significance in human language acquisition in pragmatic development, also to apply the research results to English Language Teaching in Japan. The data consist of six English speech acts, i.e. complimenting, requesting, thanking, inviting, apologizing, comforting, performed orally by children in role-play with puppets and then transcribed for the examination of their linguistic features in detail. The finding of the study is confirming that positive direction strategies were usually used in the face enhancing acts, i.e. apologizing, complimenting, and thanking, and negative direction strategies dominated in face threatening acts, i.e. inviting and requesting. The features are commonly found in adults‟ interaction, therefore it indicates that people at different ages are following general rules for performing speech acts.

The third study is Understanding Request by Susan Ervin-Tripp, Amy Strage, Martin Lampert, and Nancy Bell (1986). It is intended to understand the extent to which interlocutors actually rely on linguistic information, contextual aid and situational knowledge to understand request. The data are taken from 11 three-years-old, 10 five-years-old, and 11 seven-years-old native speakers of English. The finding is that listeners can interpret contextual demand without explicit language. Contextual information, in many cases, is enough to get the listeners compliance.


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The current study on respect and obedience is aimed at finding the linguistic features and the strategies used. It is more or less similar to the studies mentioned, however it is limited to the act of gaining respect and obedience.

C. Theoretical Framework

The concepts of respect and obedience are the basic theories for the study. It assists to build the understanding of the two concepts of respect and obedience. Both concepts are helpful to identify which utterance is obeyed and which one is disobeyed.

The theory on sentence consists the basic concepts of sentences and its categories. It is helpful to understand the identification of the types of sentences and moods in the adult children communication. Further, it is used to categorize the utterances into their types of sentences and moods.

The context theory clarifies the understanding on the discourses between children and adults. Understanding the utterances in a discourse is inseparable from the context of the discourse because different context will demand different understanding of utterances.

The theory of speech acts is valuable in interpreting the intention of the speaker and the perception of the hearer. Since the discussion is mostly about telling others to do something, the utterances are speech acts. It is also used to define the communicative function of each utterance.

The politeness theories help to identify any deference or mitigation in the utterances. It deliberates not only with the use of certain politeness marker‟s but also the use of other form of politeness. Face threatening acts contribute in


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defining the utterances and the strategies used in saving the face. Control acts strategies are used to identify the strategies used by the adults in the discourses.


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30 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the methodology applied in the study. It covers four parts, namely Types of Study, Data Source, Data Collection, and Data Analysis. The type of the study elucidates the kind of the study conducted in the research. The data source consists of the main source of the data as the object of the study. The data collection covers the way the data is collected and processed in the research. The data analysis comprises the steps taken to answer the questions posed in Chapter I.

A. Types of Study

This research is a pragmatic study. Thomas proposes that pragmatics is the

study of ‘meaning in interaction’ involving the negotiation of meaning between

speaker and hearer, the context of utterance (physical, social, and linguistic) and the meaning potential of an utterance (quoted in Cameron 68). The study describes the language use in gaining respect and obedience in adult – children communication, especially in parents – children interaction. The discussion is on the types of sentences, mood, and communicative function of the utterances. Further, it discusses the nonconventional strategies employed in the process of

gaining children’s respect and obedience.

B. Data Source

The data source was the recording of the reality show Nanny 911. Nanny 911 is a reality television show focusing on child parenting. It was broadcasted by the


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FOX television and also many other parts of the worlds. The duration of each episode is 60 minutes included the commercial breaks. In Indonesia the series were broadcasted by Metro TV. Nanny 911 was an adaptation of an English serial entitled Little Angels, a film of an American family with unruly children who were reformed by British Nannies who formerly served the Royal families. In Nanny 911, different nannies were on duties for different issues in different families. In each episode, the Head Nanny Lilian Sperling decides which nanny is suitable to help solve the family problem. For example, Nanny Deborah Carrol is good in dealing with discipline, Nanny Stella Reid is expert to form routines and family system.

An episode of Nanny 911 begins with the pictures of some families with unmanaged children, follows by the introduction of the parents, the children and the unaccepted behavior of the children. One of the nannies then is sent by The Head Nanny Lilian Sperling to the family. The supervision of the nanny in the family lasts for one week. On the first day, the nanny observes the family and takes notes on the behavior of each member of the family. At the end of the day, the nanny, mother, and father discuss the family issues on the nanny’s perspective. In the morning, the nanny already prepares the family rules to overcome the problems of the family. In some episodes, at the first days there are party who does not willing to follow the rule. They can be the father, mother, or the children. This makes the nanny force the family to follow the rule. After they follow the rule, the family is able to solve with their problem of behavior and pictured as


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being happier. On the last day, the nanny says good bye to the family and gives them presents or gifts.

The data taken was limited to Season 1 of Nanny 911 produced in the year 2004. It was taken because the study was about respect and obedience in children – adult communication and the TV show contained the examples of interactions between children – adult which shows respect and obedience. It represented the various nannies and families, also the differences of utterances between the obeyed and the disobeyed. The nannies presented in the series were Nanny Deborah Carrol, Nanny Stella Reid, and Nanny Ivonne Finnerty. Seventeen families were presented in Season 1, they were The Rock Family, The Johnston Family, The Paul Family, The Mccray Family, The Mckelvain Family, The Mcroberts Family, The Lorimor Family, The Priore Family, The Sterneman Family, The Finck Family, The Dunleavy Family, The Cubbison Family, The King Family, The Amico Family, The Lawrence Family, The Dickson Family, and The Silcock Family.

C. Data Collection

The data of this study were taken from the discourses between adult and children in the Season 1 of Nanny 911. There were some steps done to gather the data. First was to watch the show carefully to consider which part of the show that involved adult-children communication which demanded the children’s respect and obedience. Second was to transcribe the discourses. Third was to classify which discourses show the children’s respect and obedience and which discourses were not.


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Examples of the data were shown below. After watching the episode of The Finck Family, choosing the scenes that contain conversations which demand respect and obedience, the writer transcribed the discourses. The first was a conversation between Nanny Deb and Catherine, a child of The Finck Family, when suddenly Catherine cried because she wanted to have her mommy’s timer and her mommy did not want her to have it. The setting was the living room.

Nanny Deb : Excuse me, Catherine. You need to use your word, you have a wonderful word. Take your breath. You are doing a good job. You are just upset, tell me why?

Catherine : I want that….

Nanny Deb : You want the timer? OK. Look, mommy took the timer away because she does not want you to have it. But we are not whining any more. Do you need to have sometime in your room or would you like to play with your sisters downstairs?

Catherine : Play downstairs… Nanny Deb : OK.

The second conversation was between Mrs. Finck and her son, David, who cried and would not stop crying when his mother told him to. The setting was the living room.

Mommy : No kicking, David! (David keeps on kicking) David : No…..

Mommy : Say I’m sorry for using bad words, Mommy. David : No…..

Mommy : Then this is going bye bye. I’m taking it away. David : No…. (crying)

Mommy : You want me to give it to you back? No more bad words. (giving the toy to David)

The number of data taken was 140 utterances. The utterances then were classified according to the responds of the hearer whether it was positively responded or obeyed, or negatively responded or disobeyed. Each utterance was given the code according to the number of the episodes. The numbers of the episodes in the series were (1) The Rock Family, (2) The Johnston Family, (3) The Paul Family, (4) The


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McCray Family, (5) The McKelvain Family, (6)The McRoberts Family, (7)The Lorimor Family, (8) The Priore Family, (9) The Sterneman Family, (10) The Finck Family, (11) The Cubbison Family, (12) The Dunleavy Family, (13) The King Family, (14) The Amico Family, (15) The Lawrence Family, (16) The Dickson Family, and (17) The Silcock Family

A discourse was then divided into each turn of the conversation. For

instance Mommy’s utterance and David’s response was considered as one turn

then coded as a. Mommy’s utterance was then coded as 1 and David’s respond was coded as 2. The table below shows the illustration of the coding.

The next step was to classify the discourses that gained the children’s respect and obedience and those that did not. It was seen from the children’s responses whether they give positive or negative responses. Positive responses meant that the children voluntarily followed the adults saying without any resistance, whereas negative responses were whether the children resisted the adult saying or follow them with resistance. For example, the utterance (10.a.1) was classified as

Participants Utterance Code

Mommy No kicking, David! 10.a.1

(David: No ….. Da id keeps o ki ki g and crying)) 10.a.2

Mommy Say I’ sorry for usi g ad ords, Mo y. 10.b.1

Da id: No….. (crying)) 10.b.2

Mommy Then this is goin bye bye. 10.c.1

I’ taki g it a ay. 10.c.2

Da id: No…. ryi g 10.c.3

Mommy You want me to give it to you back? 10.d.1


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having negative response. David answered No to his mother’s order to stop kicking, he also still kept on kicking and crying despite his mother’s order.

D. Data Analysis

This part presents the steps taken in answering the research questions which have been formulated in the first chapter. Several steps were taken in the process of analyzing the data. The first step was classifying the data into the mood whether they were imperative, declarative, or interrogative. It was to answer the first research question What linguistic features are used to gain respect and obedience in Nanny 911? The next step was identifying which utterance included in the obeyed or disobeyed utterances. It was based on the responses of the children on the directives expressed by the adult.

The step was followed by identifying the communicative function of each utterance. It was to identify the function of the utterances in the context of the discourse. The politeness strategies, the cost of action, and the face threatening acts were also included in the discussion to figure out the possible reason of the utterances being obeyed or disobeyed.

The following step concerned with the second research question What strategies are used to gain respect and obedience in Nanny 911? The strategies used in the utterances were identified whether it is conventional strategies or nonconventional strategies. In this step, the approaches in the nonconventional strategies were identified. The last step was concluding the findings. The findings consisted of the form of language used by adults to gain respect and obedience and the strategies used in the utterances.


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36 CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter discusses the findings of the research. It answers the research questions stated in Chapter 1. The first section answers the features of the

language used by adults to gain children‟s respect and obedience. The second one

presents the answer to the strategies used in the adult utterances. The tables provide the results of the data classification.

A. Sentence Types and Moods

This section covers the sentence types and the moods of the utterances used by adults in their directive to the children in Nanny 911, further it discusses the communicative function of the utterances. The moods being identified in the discourses which are used by the adults to give directives to the children are declarative, imperative, and interrogative. The percentage of the moods found in the discourses is presented in the table below.

Table. 4.1. The Moods used in Nanny 911 Discourses

No Moods Disobedience Obedience Total Percentage (%)

1 Declarative 39 21 60 43.3

2 Imperative 48 10 58 41.1

3 Interrogative 9 13 22 15.6

Total 140 100

Table 4.1 shows that the utterances are mostly expressed in declarative, which covers 60 utterances. From the total number of 60 utterances, 39 are disobeyed and 21 are obeyed. The imperative occurs 58 times, which means that it is not significantly different in number from the declarative. However, the number of


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SCENE : 21 (Mom gives instruction to Tyler) TIME : 10.20

PARTICIPANTS : The Sternemans SETTING : The dining room

1. Mom : Finish eating and then get your homework started. Let me be very specific to you. Finish eating, take out the trash, wash your hands, then get your homework started.

2. Tyler : Why should I listen to you?

3. Mom : Why should you listen to me? Because I gave birth to you and without me

you wouldn’t be here.

4. Tyler : and you…never listen to me 5. Mom : I don’t want to hear that Tyler 6. Tyler : You don’t care about me 7. Mom : That’s what you think, right?

SCENE : 22 (Dana is upset about losing her marbles) TIME : 31.30

PARTICIPANTS : The Sternemans SETTING : The living room

1. Nanny Deb : So let me have a little chat with you, Madam. First of all, I understand that you forgot. Everybody forgets sometime. And it’s hard to remember when something new has become a family rules

2. Dana : I don’t want to lose them

3. Nanny Deb : I know you don’t. You obviously very very upset about it. Because you feel like nobody is really listening or understand what you want to say. Am I right?

4. Dana : (nods)

5. Nanny Deb : You and I had a conversation yesterday you said that you wanted to save your marbles because there’s something special that you wanted to buy for somebody in this family. Is that part why you are so upset about losing your marbles?

6. Dana : (nods)


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SCENE : 23 (The children playing) TIME : 03.33

PARTICIPANTS : The McRoberts SETTING : The dining room

1. Mom : Guys, stop jumping on the bed! (The boys are running) Stop running!

Hey…guys! (The boys are fighting) Hey, no fighting! Guys, stop it!

SCENE : 24 (Dinner time) TIME : 11.42

PARTICIPANTS : The McRoberts SETTING : The dining room

1. Dad : Don’t touch everything, guys… OK? This is a cup of green peas. OK? 2. Children: (screaming)

3. Dad : Stop it, Jacob. Stop crying, please. Stop throwing your food. Stop screaming, Joey.

4. Mom : Joey!

SCENE : 25 (Dad’s on the phone, children ) TIME : 03.45

PARTICIPANTS : The Priores SETTING : The dining room

1. Dad : I’m on the phone, Joseph. Shut up! 2. Joseph : (screaming)

SCENE : 26 (play time) TIME : 09.00

PARTICIPANTS : The Priores SETTING : The living room

1. Dad : Sit down and behave! 2. Joseph : No!

SCENE : 27 (play time) TIME : 12.20

PARTICIPANTS : The Priores SETTING : The living room

1. Dad : Put the pillow back and stop running around! 2. Children : (screaming and keep on running around)


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SCENE : 28 (play time) TIME : 35.50

PARTICIPANTS : The Priores SETTING : The living room

1. Dad : Come over here. I need to talk to you. Now turn around and look at me. I

expect you to behave. I expect you to listen. Ok? Don’t you want to have a nice relationship with Daddy?

2. Joseph : Yes

3. Dad : Alright. Look at me. Do you want to have fun? 4. Joseph : Yes

5. Dad : Do you want to get in trouble when you get older? 6. Joseph : Not

7. Dad : OK, come on. I love you very much, Joseph, but you got to stop and learn to behave better. All you do is just make it worse. Do you want me to scream a lot? 8. Joseph : No

9. Dad : You like better, I like better. Is it a deal? 10.Joseph : Yeah

11.Dad : Give me a kiss…

SCENE : 29 (shopping, the children pile shoes) TIME : 05.55

PARTICIPANTS : The Lorimors SETTING : The shop

1. Mom : Stop it. Pick them up right now! 2. Theron : (laughing) (push mama)

3. Mom : Don’t push me!

4. Theron : Go away, Mama! (running away)

5. Mom : Get back here. You don’t run away from me, Theron. Get back here right now!

SCENE : 30 (play time) TIME : 12.17

PARTICIPANTS : The Lorimor SETTING : The living room

1. Dad` : Clean up you mess! 2. Seersha : No

3. Dad : Go to you room.

4. Seersha : I wanna pick up the mess. I wanna pick up (crying) 5. Dad : Go to your room!


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SCENE : 31 (play time) TIME : 13.04

PARTICIPANTS : The Lorimor SETTING : The living room

1. Mom : Theron, that’s not nice. Stop it.

2. Theron : I got her! (throw something on his Mom)

3. Mom : (pick up Seersha) Get on this side so that you won’t get hit.

4. Mom : Ou…. (Theron hits Mom) Theron not nice, You don’t hit your mother.

You stop it. Go away. You don’t treat me that way. You don’t hit mommy, that’s


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101 Appendix 4

THE PICTURES OF THE NANNIES

The Picture of The First Season of Nanny 911


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102 Nanny Yvonne, Nanny Deborah, and Nanny Stella