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3. Negative Politeness NP Strategy in Twilight Movie
Negative politeness strategy was a strategy that addre ssed to hearer‟s
negative face. Brown and Levinson 1987, p. 129 defined that negative politeness strategy intended to create distance between a speaker and the hearers to show
respect. It focused on redressing an action that contained threat to hearer‟s
negative face. It also performed the functions of minimizing particular the impositions on the hearers. Negative face was
one‟s desire of being not imposed or the desire of freedom to act. In addition, negative politeness was also the way
to maximize the social distance and it was generally used to put a social brake in the interaction. The examples of negative politeness strategies were formality and
indirectness. Therefore, hedges and questions were also used in this strategy. The negative politeness strategy was used by all of the main characters in
Twilight movie. The strategy used when the characters were aware that the action
they wanted to do was kind of threat to the hearer negative faces. There were five mechanisms of negative politeness namely being direct, avoiding assumption,
avoiding coercion to the hearer, communicating speaker‟s want to not impinge on hearer, and redressing other wants of hearers. The example of the strategy showed
when the speaker was about to ask or to order something from the hearer. This strategy presumed that the speaker would be imposing on the listener.
The way of conveying thing which had meaning more than or different from what it literally means called conventional indirectness. One of the examples
of this strategy was showed in the scene where Edward and Bella met again in the class on another day. Edward was apologizing for her because not having the
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chance to introduced himself to Bella when they first met in the class. The findings and discussions of negative politeness strategy were explained as
follows.
Dialogue 10 Time
:00:17:29 – 00:17:56
Setting : Biology Class
Situation : Edward pushed microscope toward Bella
Participants : Bella and Edward
Edward : Ladies first. Bella
: You were gone. Edward
: Yeah, I was out of town for a couple of days, personal reasons. Bella
: Prophase. Edward
: Do you mind if I look?
Bella shakes her head. It‟s prophase. Bella
: Like I said.
After Edward said “ladies first” to Bella, she grabbed the microscope and snapped the first slide in, adjusting the lens. Then, she began to remove the slide.
Edward wanted to check it, whether she was right or not that it was a prophase. Bella slided him the microscope, and he glanced through the lens. She was right,
it was prophase. The conversation above happened in Biology class, when they had to
check the onion cells through microscope. In his speech, Edward used negative politeness strategy by stating the FTA as a general rule. Edward asked Bella to
look the onion cells through microscope. However, he did not used direct words PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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to ask her in order to save Bella‟s negative face. Edward decided to state general rule by saying “ladies first” to Bella. In dialogue, Edward said, “Do you mind if I
look?” to Bella. The question was kind of conventional indirectness. He actually meant by asking that was an order for Bella to let him looked at the microscope.
In addition, Edward redressed the threat to the negative face that was carried within the actual meaning. Edward used a normal intonation in order to soften the
command to Bella.
Dialogue 11 Time
:00:23:37 – 00:23:47
Setting : Hospital
Situation : Charlie and Bella had just exit from the treatment area.
Participants : Bella and Edward
Bella : Can I talk to you for a moment?
Edward : What?
The conversation above happened at the hospital after Bella had just finished her treatment from almost getting an accident. When she walked turn the
corner and saw Edward, Rosalie, and Charlie were talking, she wanted to talk with Edward about how he saved her so fast. In her speech, it could be considered that
Bella used negative politeness strategy. She was minimizing the expression of beliefs which implied
cost to other. She asked Edward‟s agreement first before she talked to him. Bella recognized Edward
‟s negative face and did not want to threat it, although she had a will to talk to him. Thus, Bella said
“Can I talk to you for a moment?” instead of saying “I have to talk to you”.
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The dialogue above showed that Bella employed negative politeness strategy by being conventionally indirect to Edward. She used this strategy to ask
Edward to came closer to her. She wanted to know about how he could move so fast for saving her. Bella also used a normal intonation in order to soften the
command to Edward and to minimize the negative FTA.
Dialogue 12 Time
:01:12:13 – 01:12:24
Setting : In a restaurant
Situation : Bella entered the restaurant, while Charlie had been waiting for
her.
Participants : Bella and Charlie
Bella :
Sorry, I’m late. Biology project.
Edward : I ordered you the spinach salad, I hope
that‟s okay. Cora puts their meals on the table.
Bella : You should order for yourself next time. Cut back on the steak.
Charlie : Hey, I‟m as healthy as a horse.
Before Bella arrived in the restaurant, she had an appointment with Charlie to have lunch together. Therefore, she was late because she had a project from
biology class. However, Charlie seemed not bother about it. He just said that he already ordered the spinach salad for Bella, and hoped Bella like it. Otherwise,
Bella also wanted Charlie to order the same food by saying he should order for himself next time. Therefore, they just enjoyed their meals.
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The conversation above showed that Bella employed negative politeness strategy, apologizing. She tried to beg forgiveness from Charlie for made him
waiting for her in the restaurant. She apologized to him in normal intonation. Thus, the social distance between them made Bella applied negative politeness in
conducting the utterance for her mistake for being late. By apologizing for doing FTA, the speaker could indicate his reluctance to impinge on hearer‟s negative
face and by redress that impingement. Brown and Levinson 1987 state that by apologizing the speaker can show the unwillingness to threat the face of the hearer
to impinge on hearer.
4. Off Record OR Strategies in Twilight Movie
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