51 than the other strategies when speaking. This solidarity-oriented strategy was
frequently used because all of the main characters intended to maintain their relationship by avoiding conflicts which might happen within them and to make
their addressees feel good about themselves by showing solidarity, uttering statement of friendship, and giving compliments, for examples.
In addition to Brown and Levinson’s 1987 point of view that politeness is determined by the context, society, and culture, there were other four factors
proposed by Holmes 2001 found in the main characters’ utterances. They were social distance, status, formality, and two functions of the interaction: referential
and affective. When applying the politeness strategies, all of the main characters’ utterances were affected by those factors.
B. Implications
Politeness is essential in language teaching and learning. The use of politeness strategies suggested by Brown and Levinson 1987 could be a good
strategy in order to be able to speak appropriately in the light of relationship between speakers and hearers. Teachers and students can apply those politeness
strategies based on certain social contexts in order to maintain their relationship. When a teacher needs a help from a student to clean up the whiteboard, she can
apply Negative Politeness in asking for help, e.g. “Would you clean up the board?” The sentence uttered is considered as a polite form because it contains
would you which has become a common polite expression of asking for help in English. Furthermore, the sentence is structurally complex and minimizes the
52 imposition on the student who is being asked for. In case of asking for help, using
Negative Politeness will be an appropriate strategy rather than using Bald-on Record, “Please, clean up the board” Yet, when it comes to giving instructions,
which is supposed to be clear and direct, the use of Bald-on Record could be the best choice. It will help the students know and understand what they have to do
distinctively. In conclusion, the appropriate use of politeness strategies is very helpful for teachers and students, especially on language teaching and learning
process.
C. Recommendations
Since the study conducted was about the use of politeness strategies by the main characters and the factors affecting it in the novel Eat Pray Love 2010, the
researcher would like to give some recommendations as regards the benefits of this study to English learners, English teachers, and future researchers.
1. English Learners
Politeness has been known as a complicated thing to deal with when speaking to speech community. As English learners, pragmatic competence and
sociolinguistic competence are required in order to be able to speak appropriately and maintain relationships. Thus, the researcher encourages English learners to be
more aware of and recognize the language use in certain social contexts since politeness does matter in a society. It will help them to use English appropriately.
