Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Human being and language cannot be separated from each other. Human needs language to socialize with people around him. They interact to communicate and know each other, for it is improbable to live in the world without interaction. That is the function of language as the only device of communication. Besides, people use language in almost of their activities, either they are routine activities, such as working, studying, and playing, or the particular one, such as wedding ceremony, general election and so on. Beside language, people life is entirely related to culture. Culture is the ideas, customs, skills, art, etc., of a people or group that are transferred, communicated, or passed along as in or to succeeding generation, 1 therefore whatever people do continually from their ancestors can be named as a culture. Language is a product of people; accordingly it is a part of a culture. As a system of arbitrary vocal symbols language is not only for human communication, but also for expressing the cultural reality. 2 Two people who meet for the first time may realize their different culture from their language. One of the cultural realities expressed through language is politeness. Politeness is the way people preserve harmony by showing good intentions and consideration for the feelings of others. Politeness will create comfort and harmony between the speaker and the hearer. It is very important 1 Michael Agnes. Webster’s New World College Dictionary. 4 th ed. Ohio: Wiley Publishing Inc. 2002, p.353. 2 Claire Kramsch. Language and Culture Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 3. aspect of human social interaction for it is affecting linguistic and other social behaviors. If the speaker wants to get something done from the hearer he must be polite to himher, unless he will impede the hearer wants or lose his face which is the public self image. 4 Losing someone’s face in the other word is embarrassing or humiliating him. So it is a must to pay attention for people wants in order to keep social relationship well. Politeness is universal phenomenon because every society has the same sort of norms for the appropriate behavior, although these norms are varied. 4 For instances, British shows politeness by using indirect speech in contrast with German, who considers direct speech as the more polite utterance than the indirect one. 5 Japanese, who is always described as the extremely polite person uses negative politeness with the long utterance, the way French does. The longest the utterance, the more polite it would be. 6 Being polite is not just saying “please”, “I am sorry” or “thank you” to the hearer as there are many strategies to express politeness, i.e., speaking directly, showing the solidarity, using indirect speech or giving hints. Even so, studying politeness is not only required understanding of the language but also of the culture and social values of community. 5 Therefore the speaker must know whom he speaks to. The relationship between the speaker and the hearer affects very much in choosing the strategies, either they are close friend, the boss and the worker or two people who meet at the first time. He also must know the 3 Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson, Politeness: Some Universal in Language Usage, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, p. 61 4 http:www.academon.comlibpaper4635.html , accessed on 4 May 2007 5 Leo Hickey and Miranda Stewart. Politeness in Europe Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd., 2005, p.128. 6 Ronald Wardhaugh. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. 3 rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1998, p. 276. 7 Janet Holmes. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics London: Longman, 1992, p. 296 sociological factors consist of social distance D between the speaker and the hearer, relative power P of the hearer over the speaker and ranking of imposition R as they are the determinations of the level of politeness. 8 By knowing those factors, the speaker will find the easiness in choosing the strategies then. The explanation above shows that politeness is important in communication. Thus the writer is interested to make a study about it with the film of Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement as the subject. Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, a film by Garry Marshall, outlines Mia’s new life as the princess that no longer will substitute her grandmother’s role as a queen of Genovia. Yet, the parliaments insist her to be married before being crowned as it is the law for hundreds years. Therefore Mia tries to seek her husband to be to become a queen. The film sets in kingdom that it contains many polite utterances like compliment, the use of deference, i.e. Your Majesty, Your Highness, Lord, Ma’am, etc and other politeness strategies. Thereby, the writer names the study as : The Analysis of Politeness Strategies in the Movie of “Princess Diaries

2: Royal Engagement”

B. Focus of the Study