POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN JAVANESE.
-. , .. ;
ENGLISH APPLlKD LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POS1~RADUTECHL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2009
A THESIS
POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN JAVANESE
PUAN SURI MIRA ANNISA SEMBIRING
Registration Number: 082188330002
English Applied Linguistics Study Program
State University of Medan
This Thesis was examined on September 2°d, 2009 by the Board of Examiners
Approved by
Adviser Commission
Prof. Amrin Saragih,
NIP. 131119 832
Head of En lish Applied Linguistics
Study Prog am
Prof. Dr.
;~
- W~l8
i
ferik Manullang
778
Appro\'al
This Thesis was examined on
2nd
September 2009 by the Board of Examiners
Board of Examiners
Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A., Ph.D
Prof. Tina Mariany Arifin, M.A., Ph.D
Dr. Busmin Gurning, M. Pd
.93
Dr. Eddy Setia, M.Ed., TESP
Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writer would like to express her gratitude to Allah SWf for the opportunity
and possibility to complete this thesis.
Someone to whom she owes real debt of
gratitude is Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A.,Ph.D., being the first Adviser, whose advice,
encouragement, robust criticism and suggestions have been a feature of the writing
process from the very beginning of this thesis. His unerring ability to spot problems of
both style and substance has saved him from many mishapes and inspired her to go
further that might otherwise have done.
The writer wishes to express her deepest gratitude to Prof. Tina Mariany Arifin,
M.A., Ph.D., her second Adviser, for her suggestions, interest, catchy eyes, cheerful,
guidance, direction, revision, and correction of the organization and the concept of this
thesis.
She would like to express her thanks to all lecturers who have given the valuable
knowledge during her study at the English Applied Linguistics Study Program of
Postgraduate Program, State University of Medan. Thanks are also directed to Dr.
Busmin Gurning, M.Pd., Dr. Eddy Setia, M.Ed, TESP and Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing,
M.Pd., her reviewers and examiners, for their valuable input to improve the thesis.
In addition, she would like to express his deepest thanks and endless
appreciations to her parents, her oldest brothers and her young sister thanks for their
support, materials, praying, and endless loves. Also to her beloved friend, Nazly Yusuf,
S.Pd thanks for his love, support and prayer for the success in finishing her study.
Her thanks also goes to her friends, K. Debora, Ade, Angel, Hanim, Hamka,
Steva, Dini, Apri, Ipur, K. Mey and all her friends who cannot be mentioned one by
one.
Finally, the writer must admit that the content of this thesis is still far from being
perfect, but she warmly welcomes any constructive ideas and critics that will improve
the quality of the thesis. She also hopes this thesis would be useful for the those who
read it, especially majoring in English.
Medan, August 27 th 2009
The writer,
Puan Suri Mira Annisa Sembiring
Registration Number 082188330002
11
ABSTRACT
Sembiring, Puan Suri Mira Annisa. Politeness Strategies in Javanese. AThesis.
English Applied Linguistics Study Program. Postgraduate School.
State University of Medan. 2009.
This research was conducted to discover the politeness strategies of
Javanese peoples. The subject was taken 8 Javanese speakers who lived in TembungBandar Klippa, Medan consisting of 4 females and 4 males. The age was 30-50 years
old. They come from various professions: lecturer, trader and house wife. The
instruments of collecting data were interview and record adopted by Bogdan & Biklen
(1982). The researcher observed the subject closely and interviewed them. Then
responses were classified a verified with reference to the criteria of politeness strategies
as determined by Brown & Levinson (1987); cover the bald on record strategy, positive
strategy, negative strategy and off- record strategy. The finding show that there were
four types of politeness strategies used by Javanese speakers in different of types of
illocutionary acts: in representatives were positive strategy (68.75%),bald on record
strategy (3 1.25%), negative strategy (0%), off- record strategy (0%). Politeness
strategies in directives were positive strategy (71.87%), bald on record strategy
(20.32%), off- record strategy (4.68%) and the lowest score was negative politeness
strategy (4.68%). Politeness strategies in commisives were positive strategy (67.86%),
bald on record strategy (16.07%), negative strategies (16.07%), off- record strategy
(0%). Politeness strategies in expressives were positive strategy (75%), bald on record
strategy (25%) and negative strategy (0%) and off- record strategy (0%). Politeness
strategies in declaratives were positive strategy (75%), Bald on record strategy (1 2.5%)
negative strategy (12.5%), off- record strategy (0%). Positive politeness strategy was
dominant types used by Javanese speakers in daily life. The representatives (68.75%),
directives (7 1.87%), commisives (67.86%) and the lowest were expressives (75%) and
declaratives (75%). The use of the dominant type was due to the fact that the speakers in
interaction try to get closer to the hearer. They use the group identity marker in
addressing someone so there is no distance relationship between the speaker and the
hearer. They also gave the reasons when they speak in order to satisfY the hearer.
iii
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Background ofthe Study
Javanese language is one of 746 languages in Indonesia. It is the mother tongue
for 70,000,000 people mostly living in Central Java, the Special Territory of Yogyakarta
and East Java. There are also Javanese communities in the Northwestern part of West
Java, North Sumatera and Lampung as well as in other Indonesia provinces where
Javanese have been resettled from the densely populated island of Java.
Javanese belongs to the Western Austronesian language family, whose members
include Indonesian, Malay, Batak, Minangkabau, Balinese, Sundanese and Madurese, to
cite just a few, and many languages in the Philiphines, including Tagalog. Javanese
differs from many other languages in the world, in that it has well- standardized speech
levels, the use of which are dictated by an aggregate of factors such as status of the
hearer or addressee (including that of persons talked about), the social distance between
the speaker and the hearer and, to a certain extent, the degree of formality of the speech
event.
Javanese is the most politically dominant ethnic group which has strong culture.
According to Geertz (1961), quoted by Magnis- Suseno (1 984:38), there are two basic
cultural rules that are most determined in shaping the patterns of social intercourse in the
Javanese community, they are Magnis- Suseno terms principle of kerukunan (harmony)
and that of hormat (respect).
The former refers to the duty of each and every member of the community to
endeavor to maintain social harmony, and the latter refers to responsibility of all
community members to show respect to others on every occasion in accordance with
their status and standing in community. The use of speech levels of the language is very
much influenced by various degrees of social distance between speaker and hearer. The
degrees of social distance are influenced by the three factors of are, age, social status and
formality.
A Speaker may say words clearly and use long complex sentences with correct
grammar, but still have a communication problem if she/ he have not mastered the rules
for social language known as pragmatics. In this line, the speakers should understand
appropriately the concept of the language which is included in the area of pragmatics.
Pragmatics deals with the speakers "communicative competence" (Traugott &
Pratt, 1980:226). Speakers use their knowledge of a language to convey and interpret
meanings. In the area of pragmatics the speakers interpret their utterance in social
contexts, knowing what to say, how to say it, and when to say it, and how to be with
other people. This knowledge enables them to produce and understand utterances in
relation to specific communicative purposes and specific speech context.
When speakers perform utterances in contexts, basically they accomplish two
things, interaction acts and speech act. In one side, the international acts impose
structure on the discourse by ensuring that one utterance leads smoothly to another. On
the other, speech acts constitute attempts by language users to perform specific action, in
particular interpersonal function. In this case, speech act is one of the study of
pragmatics.
2
Speech acts in one fonn of utterances can be used by the speakers of
interlocutors to convey the meaning of their purposes in communication. Thomas
(1983:96) states that the pragmatic competence has an important role in communication.
In this way, the pragmatic competence as the ability to perfonn speech acts should be
mastered in different the types of speech act, such as representatives, directives,
commisives, expressives and declaratives.
Furthennore, the way people communicate is different. It depends on its own
culture. Each culture influences the way its people talking. Brown ( 1999: 165) describes
the two follows: 'A language is a part of a culture and a culture is a part of a language;
the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the
significance of either language or culture. In a word, culture and language are
inseparable. That is why; the degree of politeness in speaking is not the same in every
people. It is based on their culture and habit. Culture has the significant actor in
politeness.
Politeness strategies are very important. Politeness involves talking account of
the feelings to others (Brown, 1987:296). Specifically, it means that one should be pay
attention to the politeness strategies otherwise there will be miscommunication. If
miscommunication happens, it can disturb the relationship. However, being polite is a
complicated business in any language. It is difficult to learn because it involves
understanding, not only the language, but also the social and cultural values of the
community (Brown, 1987). Besides, politeness strategies are important in avoiding or
minimizing the treat of addressee's face.
3
Politeness refers to socio- cultural matter and is crucially reflected in language.
There are many alternative ways possibly used by people to have politeness strategies
and politeness value in using language over the entire world (Chen, 1989). Politeness is
one of the characteristics of our culture. Thus, it is important to study about politeness.
By studying the politeness strategies in speech acts, people can be polite to determine
the choice of words and phrases or linguistic variant in expressing the ideas or meaning
in a given context. They also understand the nature of language in relation to politeness
value.
Politeness strategies are ways to convey the utterances as polite as possible. To
achieve that, there are a number of strategies that can be applied and at the same
condition to reflect the culture of an individual in certain society. Brown & Levinson's
(1987) divide four types of politeness strategies; bald on record strategy, positive
politeness, negative politeness and off- record indirect strategy. It is agreed that the
politeness is attributed with those strategies.
There are some reasons for choosing the Javanese speech acts as the object of the
study. First, this speech community is renowned for indirection in their linguistics
behavior, especially when it comes to communicating about unfavorable things. Second,
Javanese are ethic groups in Indonesia, to have a penchant for avoiding excessiveness as
evident. And the third, the Javanese politeness can be regarded from their habit while
interacting with others. They appreciate really the people who have given valuable
services to them. They use politeness speech acts in daily conversation. It is
unavoidable, that politeness strategies are dominantly used by Javanese peoples.
4
Studies focused on the politeness strategies in Javanese by native speakers are
rarely found, specifically by Javanese native speakers. As stated by Chen (200 l) that an
aspect of politeness that has not been explored is the use of politeness strategies. This
fact has motivated the writer to conduct a study dealing with politeness strategies
particularly the speech acts which are conveyed by Javanese native speakers in order to
find out what types of politeness strategies which are used by Javanese
1.2 The Problems of the Study
In relation to the background, the problems are formulated as the following.
1) What types of politeness strategies are used by Javanese?
2) What types of politeness strategies is dominantly used by Javanese?
3) Why is the type dominantly used?
1.3 The Objective of the Study
In relation to the problems, the objectives of the study are
1) to describe politeness strategies used by Javanese,
2) to explain the dominant type of politeness strategies used by Javanese, and
3) to elaborate the reason for the dominant use.
1.4 The Scope of the Study
This study attempts to investigate the politeness strategies used by Javanese
speakers when they express their speech acts in every day context of situation
specifically in spoken language. The main aspect to be observed is the speech acts in
5
illocutionary act, what politeness strategies they use in conversation. Whether they tend
to use the (I) bald on record strategy where the speakers do the acts of saying directly, it
is regarded such as impolite way (2) positive politeness; the speakers give any reasons or
explanation in speech and attempt to do something (3) negative politeness refers to the
acts done by the speakers without giving reasons to his/ her speech, and (4) off-record
indirect strategy where the speakers do not say directly what they want to say but with
doing the obscure acts.
A speech acts is an utterance which serves as a functional unit in communication.
Austin (1 962) distinguishes the performance of speech act involves three types of speech
acts "locutionary act", illocutionary act" and perlocutionary act". Illocutionary acts
become the major investigation related to the intention of utterances or performance of
particular language function. Furthermore, Searle (1976) categorized the illocutionary
acts into five, representatives, directives, commisives, expressives, and declaratives.
The pattern of speech acts is based on the Javanese speakers. The expressions
consist of question, offer, and suggest, etc which are used by 8 Javanese native speakers
in daily conversation.
1.5 The Significance of the Study
Findings of the study are expected to be significantly relevant theoretical and
practical aspects. Theoretically, the research findings are expected to enrich the theories
of linguistic politeness strategies, specifically the spoken language in spoken medium by
certain community, mainly the Javanese society. This study considers being useful
initially to provide the information of what politeness strategies used by Javanese native
6
speakers when they express the speech acts in everyday context of situation.
Consequently, it will give better understanding and new insight on how politeness
strategies is related to the aspect of pragmatic study. This contribution will in tum give
tentative framework for a comprehensive analysis of politeness.
Practically, since this research focuses on Javanese native speakers in expressing
statement, question, offer, apologize, etc; hopefully it is useful for teachers and lectures
of sociolinguistics to apply the politeness strategies specifically in speech acts to the
sociolinguistics students either in University or high school which occur in daily
conversation. And also practice the patterns of speech acts which are used by Javanese
native speakers. This will accelerate them to speak Javanese, thus they will not be
clumsy to speak directly to the Javanese native speakers.
7
CHAPTERV
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
After analyzing the types of politeness strategies in Javanese speech acts, the
conclusions are drawing in the following.
All the types of Politeness Strategies were used by Javanese speakers who are
lived in Tembung. It showed that they also use politeness strategies in daily
activities among them. The total numbers of politeness strategies in
representatives were positive strategy (68.75%), bald on record strategy
(31.25%), negative strategy (0%) and off- record strategy (0%). Politeness
strategies in directives were positive strategy (71.87%), bald on record strategy
(20.32%), off- record strategy (4.68%) and the lowest score is negative strategy
(3.13%). Politeness strategies in commisives were positive strategy (67.86%),
bald on record strategy (16.07%), negative strategies (16.07%) and off- record
strategy (0%). Politeness strategies in expressive were positive strategy (75%),
bald on record strategy (25%), negative strategy (0%) and off- record strategy
(0%). Politeness strategies in declaratives were positive strategy (75%). Then
in the same percentage were bald on record strategy (12.5%) negative strategy
(12.5%) and off- record strategy (0%).
80
(2)
Positive politeness strategy was the most dominant type used by Javanese
speakers. The percentage of positive politeness strategy in representatives
(68.75%), directives (71.87%), commisives (67.86%), expressives (75%) and
declaratives (75%).
(3)
Positive politeness strategy dominantly used by Javanese speakers. It means
that Javanese is regarded as the polite people. When they can to communicate
they try to get closer to the hearer. They use the group identity marker in
addressing someone so there is no distance relationship between the speaker
and the hearer. They also gave the reasons or explanation to do something. It
was used to satisfy the hearer and to avoid the conflict.
5.2. Suggestions
Related to the conclusions, suggestions are presented as the following:
(1) People should use politeness strategies when they want to speak to other people.
Due to the fact there are many people differ in age, education, status, etc.
(2) Parents should give the attention and always use soft language to their children,
because parents as the basic of education for the children.
(3) Teachers in schools should be able to teach their children in using polite
language in order to make the politeness become a habitual action.
81
ENGLISH APPLlKD LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POS1~RADUTECHL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2009
A THESIS
POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN JAVANESE
PUAN SURI MIRA ANNISA SEMBIRING
Registration Number: 082188330002
English Applied Linguistics Study Program
State University of Medan
This Thesis was examined on September 2°d, 2009 by the Board of Examiners
Approved by
Adviser Commission
Prof. Amrin Saragih,
NIP. 131119 832
Head of En lish Applied Linguistics
Study Prog am
Prof. Dr.
;~
- W~l8
i
ferik Manullang
778
Appro\'al
This Thesis was examined on
2nd
September 2009 by the Board of Examiners
Board of Examiners
Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A., Ph.D
Prof. Tina Mariany Arifin, M.A., Ph.D
Dr. Busmin Gurning, M. Pd
.93
Dr. Eddy Setia, M.Ed., TESP
Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writer would like to express her gratitude to Allah SWf for the opportunity
and possibility to complete this thesis.
Someone to whom she owes real debt of
gratitude is Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A.,Ph.D., being the first Adviser, whose advice,
encouragement, robust criticism and suggestions have been a feature of the writing
process from the very beginning of this thesis. His unerring ability to spot problems of
both style and substance has saved him from many mishapes and inspired her to go
further that might otherwise have done.
The writer wishes to express her deepest gratitude to Prof. Tina Mariany Arifin,
M.A., Ph.D., her second Adviser, for her suggestions, interest, catchy eyes, cheerful,
guidance, direction, revision, and correction of the organization and the concept of this
thesis.
She would like to express her thanks to all lecturers who have given the valuable
knowledge during her study at the English Applied Linguistics Study Program of
Postgraduate Program, State University of Medan. Thanks are also directed to Dr.
Busmin Gurning, M.Pd., Dr. Eddy Setia, M.Ed, TESP and Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing,
M.Pd., her reviewers and examiners, for their valuable input to improve the thesis.
In addition, she would like to express his deepest thanks and endless
appreciations to her parents, her oldest brothers and her young sister thanks for their
support, materials, praying, and endless loves. Also to her beloved friend, Nazly Yusuf,
S.Pd thanks for his love, support and prayer for the success in finishing her study.
Her thanks also goes to her friends, K. Debora, Ade, Angel, Hanim, Hamka,
Steva, Dini, Apri, Ipur, K. Mey and all her friends who cannot be mentioned one by
one.
Finally, the writer must admit that the content of this thesis is still far from being
perfect, but she warmly welcomes any constructive ideas and critics that will improve
the quality of the thesis. She also hopes this thesis would be useful for the those who
read it, especially majoring in English.
Medan, August 27 th 2009
The writer,
Puan Suri Mira Annisa Sembiring
Registration Number 082188330002
11
ABSTRACT
Sembiring, Puan Suri Mira Annisa. Politeness Strategies in Javanese. AThesis.
English Applied Linguistics Study Program. Postgraduate School.
State University of Medan. 2009.
This research was conducted to discover the politeness strategies of
Javanese peoples. The subject was taken 8 Javanese speakers who lived in TembungBandar Klippa, Medan consisting of 4 females and 4 males. The age was 30-50 years
old. They come from various professions: lecturer, trader and house wife. The
instruments of collecting data were interview and record adopted by Bogdan & Biklen
(1982). The researcher observed the subject closely and interviewed them. Then
responses were classified a verified with reference to the criteria of politeness strategies
as determined by Brown & Levinson (1987); cover the bald on record strategy, positive
strategy, negative strategy and off- record strategy. The finding show that there were
four types of politeness strategies used by Javanese speakers in different of types of
illocutionary acts: in representatives were positive strategy (68.75%),bald on record
strategy (3 1.25%), negative strategy (0%), off- record strategy (0%). Politeness
strategies in directives were positive strategy (71.87%), bald on record strategy
(20.32%), off- record strategy (4.68%) and the lowest score was negative politeness
strategy (4.68%). Politeness strategies in commisives were positive strategy (67.86%),
bald on record strategy (16.07%), negative strategies (16.07%), off- record strategy
(0%). Politeness strategies in expressives were positive strategy (75%), bald on record
strategy (25%) and negative strategy (0%) and off- record strategy (0%). Politeness
strategies in declaratives were positive strategy (75%), Bald on record strategy (1 2.5%)
negative strategy (12.5%), off- record strategy (0%). Positive politeness strategy was
dominant types used by Javanese speakers in daily life. The representatives (68.75%),
directives (7 1.87%), commisives (67.86%) and the lowest were expressives (75%) and
declaratives (75%). The use of the dominant type was due to the fact that the speakers in
interaction try to get closer to the hearer. They use the group identity marker in
addressing someone so there is no distance relationship between the speaker and the
hearer. They also gave the reasons when they speak in order to satisfY the hearer.
iii
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Background ofthe Study
Javanese language is one of 746 languages in Indonesia. It is the mother tongue
for 70,000,000 people mostly living in Central Java, the Special Territory of Yogyakarta
and East Java. There are also Javanese communities in the Northwestern part of West
Java, North Sumatera and Lampung as well as in other Indonesia provinces where
Javanese have been resettled from the densely populated island of Java.
Javanese belongs to the Western Austronesian language family, whose members
include Indonesian, Malay, Batak, Minangkabau, Balinese, Sundanese and Madurese, to
cite just a few, and many languages in the Philiphines, including Tagalog. Javanese
differs from many other languages in the world, in that it has well- standardized speech
levels, the use of which are dictated by an aggregate of factors such as status of the
hearer or addressee (including that of persons talked about), the social distance between
the speaker and the hearer and, to a certain extent, the degree of formality of the speech
event.
Javanese is the most politically dominant ethnic group which has strong culture.
According to Geertz (1961), quoted by Magnis- Suseno (1 984:38), there are two basic
cultural rules that are most determined in shaping the patterns of social intercourse in the
Javanese community, they are Magnis- Suseno terms principle of kerukunan (harmony)
and that of hormat (respect).
The former refers to the duty of each and every member of the community to
endeavor to maintain social harmony, and the latter refers to responsibility of all
community members to show respect to others on every occasion in accordance with
their status and standing in community. The use of speech levels of the language is very
much influenced by various degrees of social distance between speaker and hearer. The
degrees of social distance are influenced by the three factors of are, age, social status and
formality.
A Speaker may say words clearly and use long complex sentences with correct
grammar, but still have a communication problem if she/ he have not mastered the rules
for social language known as pragmatics. In this line, the speakers should understand
appropriately the concept of the language which is included in the area of pragmatics.
Pragmatics deals with the speakers "communicative competence" (Traugott &
Pratt, 1980:226). Speakers use their knowledge of a language to convey and interpret
meanings. In the area of pragmatics the speakers interpret their utterance in social
contexts, knowing what to say, how to say it, and when to say it, and how to be with
other people. This knowledge enables them to produce and understand utterances in
relation to specific communicative purposes and specific speech context.
When speakers perform utterances in contexts, basically they accomplish two
things, interaction acts and speech act. In one side, the international acts impose
structure on the discourse by ensuring that one utterance leads smoothly to another. On
the other, speech acts constitute attempts by language users to perform specific action, in
particular interpersonal function. In this case, speech act is one of the study of
pragmatics.
2
Speech acts in one fonn of utterances can be used by the speakers of
interlocutors to convey the meaning of their purposes in communication. Thomas
(1983:96) states that the pragmatic competence has an important role in communication.
In this way, the pragmatic competence as the ability to perfonn speech acts should be
mastered in different the types of speech act, such as representatives, directives,
commisives, expressives and declaratives.
Furthennore, the way people communicate is different. It depends on its own
culture. Each culture influences the way its people talking. Brown ( 1999: 165) describes
the two follows: 'A language is a part of a culture and a culture is a part of a language;
the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the
significance of either language or culture. In a word, culture and language are
inseparable. That is why; the degree of politeness in speaking is not the same in every
people. It is based on their culture and habit. Culture has the significant actor in
politeness.
Politeness strategies are very important. Politeness involves talking account of
the feelings to others (Brown, 1987:296). Specifically, it means that one should be pay
attention to the politeness strategies otherwise there will be miscommunication. If
miscommunication happens, it can disturb the relationship. However, being polite is a
complicated business in any language. It is difficult to learn because it involves
understanding, not only the language, but also the social and cultural values of the
community (Brown, 1987). Besides, politeness strategies are important in avoiding or
minimizing the treat of addressee's face.
3
Politeness refers to socio- cultural matter and is crucially reflected in language.
There are many alternative ways possibly used by people to have politeness strategies
and politeness value in using language over the entire world (Chen, 1989). Politeness is
one of the characteristics of our culture. Thus, it is important to study about politeness.
By studying the politeness strategies in speech acts, people can be polite to determine
the choice of words and phrases or linguistic variant in expressing the ideas or meaning
in a given context. They also understand the nature of language in relation to politeness
value.
Politeness strategies are ways to convey the utterances as polite as possible. To
achieve that, there are a number of strategies that can be applied and at the same
condition to reflect the culture of an individual in certain society. Brown & Levinson's
(1987) divide four types of politeness strategies; bald on record strategy, positive
politeness, negative politeness and off- record indirect strategy. It is agreed that the
politeness is attributed with those strategies.
There are some reasons for choosing the Javanese speech acts as the object of the
study. First, this speech community is renowned for indirection in their linguistics
behavior, especially when it comes to communicating about unfavorable things. Second,
Javanese are ethic groups in Indonesia, to have a penchant for avoiding excessiveness as
evident. And the third, the Javanese politeness can be regarded from their habit while
interacting with others. They appreciate really the people who have given valuable
services to them. They use politeness speech acts in daily conversation. It is
unavoidable, that politeness strategies are dominantly used by Javanese peoples.
4
Studies focused on the politeness strategies in Javanese by native speakers are
rarely found, specifically by Javanese native speakers. As stated by Chen (200 l) that an
aspect of politeness that has not been explored is the use of politeness strategies. This
fact has motivated the writer to conduct a study dealing with politeness strategies
particularly the speech acts which are conveyed by Javanese native speakers in order to
find out what types of politeness strategies which are used by Javanese
1.2 The Problems of the Study
In relation to the background, the problems are formulated as the following.
1) What types of politeness strategies are used by Javanese?
2) What types of politeness strategies is dominantly used by Javanese?
3) Why is the type dominantly used?
1.3 The Objective of the Study
In relation to the problems, the objectives of the study are
1) to describe politeness strategies used by Javanese,
2) to explain the dominant type of politeness strategies used by Javanese, and
3) to elaborate the reason for the dominant use.
1.4 The Scope of the Study
This study attempts to investigate the politeness strategies used by Javanese
speakers when they express their speech acts in every day context of situation
specifically in spoken language. The main aspect to be observed is the speech acts in
5
illocutionary act, what politeness strategies they use in conversation. Whether they tend
to use the (I) bald on record strategy where the speakers do the acts of saying directly, it
is regarded such as impolite way (2) positive politeness; the speakers give any reasons or
explanation in speech and attempt to do something (3) negative politeness refers to the
acts done by the speakers without giving reasons to his/ her speech, and (4) off-record
indirect strategy where the speakers do not say directly what they want to say but with
doing the obscure acts.
A speech acts is an utterance which serves as a functional unit in communication.
Austin (1 962) distinguishes the performance of speech act involves three types of speech
acts "locutionary act", illocutionary act" and perlocutionary act". Illocutionary acts
become the major investigation related to the intention of utterances or performance of
particular language function. Furthermore, Searle (1976) categorized the illocutionary
acts into five, representatives, directives, commisives, expressives, and declaratives.
The pattern of speech acts is based on the Javanese speakers. The expressions
consist of question, offer, and suggest, etc which are used by 8 Javanese native speakers
in daily conversation.
1.5 The Significance of the Study
Findings of the study are expected to be significantly relevant theoretical and
practical aspects. Theoretically, the research findings are expected to enrich the theories
of linguistic politeness strategies, specifically the spoken language in spoken medium by
certain community, mainly the Javanese society. This study considers being useful
initially to provide the information of what politeness strategies used by Javanese native
6
speakers when they express the speech acts in everyday context of situation.
Consequently, it will give better understanding and new insight on how politeness
strategies is related to the aspect of pragmatic study. This contribution will in tum give
tentative framework for a comprehensive analysis of politeness.
Practically, since this research focuses on Javanese native speakers in expressing
statement, question, offer, apologize, etc; hopefully it is useful for teachers and lectures
of sociolinguistics to apply the politeness strategies specifically in speech acts to the
sociolinguistics students either in University or high school which occur in daily
conversation. And also practice the patterns of speech acts which are used by Javanese
native speakers. This will accelerate them to speak Javanese, thus they will not be
clumsy to speak directly to the Javanese native speakers.
7
CHAPTERV
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
After analyzing the types of politeness strategies in Javanese speech acts, the
conclusions are drawing in the following.
All the types of Politeness Strategies were used by Javanese speakers who are
lived in Tembung. It showed that they also use politeness strategies in daily
activities among them. The total numbers of politeness strategies in
representatives were positive strategy (68.75%), bald on record strategy
(31.25%), negative strategy (0%) and off- record strategy (0%). Politeness
strategies in directives were positive strategy (71.87%), bald on record strategy
(20.32%), off- record strategy (4.68%) and the lowest score is negative strategy
(3.13%). Politeness strategies in commisives were positive strategy (67.86%),
bald on record strategy (16.07%), negative strategies (16.07%) and off- record
strategy (0%). Politeness strategies in expressive were positive strategy (75%),
bald on record strategy (25%), negative strategy (0%) and off- record strategy
(0%). Politeness strategies in declaratives were positive strategy (75%). Then
in the same percentage were bald on record strategy (12.5%) negative strategy
(12.5%) and off- record strategy (0%).
80
(2)
Positive politeness strategy was the most dominant type used by Javanese
speakers. The percentage of positive politeness strategy in representatives
(68.75%), directives (71.87%), commisives (67.86%), expressives (75%) and
declaratives (75%).
(3)
Positive politeness strategy dominantly used by Javanese speakers. It means
that Javanese is regarded as the polite people. When they can to communicate
they try to get closer to the hearer. They use the group identity marker in
addressing someone so there is no distance relationship between the speaker
and the hearer. They also gave the reasons or explanation to do something. It
was used to satisfy the hearer and to avoid the conflict.
5.2. Suggestions
Related to the conclusions, suggestions are presented as the following:
(1) People should use politeness strategies when they want to speak to other people.
Due to the fact there are many people differ in age, education, status, etc.
(2) Parents should give the attention and always use soft language to their children,
because parents as the basic of education for the children.
(3) Teachers in schools should be able to teach their children in using polite
language in order to make the politeness become a habitual action.
81