THE ANALYSIS OF POLITENESS STRATEGY IN A SHORT MOVIE ENTITLED
“HAPPILY EVER AFTER”
COMPOSED BY:
Mohammad Taufig Puji: 321418127
Mid-Term SEMANTICS and PRAGMATICS
UNIVERSITAS NEGERI GORONTALO
FAKULTAS SASTRA DAN BUDAYA
PENDIDIKAN BAHASA INGGRIS
2020
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1. Background of Study
Politeness is a crucial factor in establishing excellent communication between a speaker
and an audience. In order to produce meaningful communication and respect the addressee,
various tactics are utilized in an utterance in politeness. According to Brown and Levinson (1987:
60), the politeness approach is utilized not only to respect the addressee but also to avoid the
face-threatening behaviour (FTA). Face Threatening Act is an act that threatens the addressee's
face because the speaker's speech makes them feel unpleasant. YouTube (youtube.com) on
October 21, 2013.
The writer is interested in exploring the politeness technique in a directed speech act in a
short film in this mini-research. The directive speech act is a type of speech act in which the
addressee is forced to do something, such as request, demand, compel, warn, and so on (Yule,
1996). These types of directed speech acts will be evaluated using politeness tactics such as bald
on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record (Brown and Levinson, 1987:
60). Because the plot is engaging and distinctive, the writer chose the short film "Happily Ever
After" made by Design Molvie as a data source. The short film was posted on YouTube
(youtube). on the 21st of October 2013.
2. Research Question
In this research, the research question is “What kind of politeness strategies used by the
speaker in directive speech act in that short movie”?
3. Objective of the Study
The purpose of this study is to find out the politeness strategy used in the directive speech
act in the short movie.
4. Theoretical View
The theory used in the research is a theory of politeness strategy of Brown and Levinson
(1987) which is divided into four strategies, such as bald on record, positive politeness strategy,
negative politeness strategy, and off record.
5. Research Method
This research uses a descriptive method by qualitative approach. The data source in this
research is a script of the “Happily Ever After” short movie produced by Design Molvie. The
data is a speech act that expresses a directive speech act. In deciding the sample, the writer uses
the purposive sampling technique because the sample used is a directive speech act that
represents the criteria of politeness strategy.
CHAPTER II
THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
1. Politeness
According to Yule (1996:60), "politeness in an encounter might be described as the
measures taken to express awareness of another person's face." In pragmatics, politeness is a
manner of respecting someone's "face" or image. In utterance, politeness is a necessary idea to
emerge so that the speaker's image or face is well looked at and the listener is respected.
According to Brown and Levinson (1987), politeness is an act of avoiding and controlling the
speech act that threatens the faces of addressees and speakers (Face Threatening Acts).
2. Face
A face is merely a representation of someone. When discussing civility, the notion of the
face will always be mentioned. According to Yule (1996:60), "the face is a person's public self-
image." In Stockwell (2002:23), Brown and Levinson classified the face into two types: negative
and positive.
Negative Face
A negative face represents someone's wish to not be bothered by others, to be autonomous,
and to behave freely. A leader, for example, feels certain that he has made the right option and
does not want his choice to be criticized by others.
Positive Face
A positive face means the desire of someone to be respected and accepted by others. For
instance, in dressing, when someone wears a particular dress and asks an opinion, she wants the
addressee, who is being asked, to be pleased when looking at her dress.
3. Face Threatening Acts (FTAs)
According to Yule (1996:61), a face-threatening conduct occurs when “a speaker says
anything that creates a danger to another individual's expectation of self-image.” This comment
demonstrates the need of employing a politeness technique in order to respect the speaker's and
listener's image (face). For example, if an employer disagrees with the leader at a meeting, he
should use the FTA. He is courteous, but it is a negative kind of politeness.
4. Politeness Strategy
Politeness strategy is a tactic used to prevent or lessen the influence of the speaker's image
created by face-threatening activities. Brown and Levinson (1987:60) classified politeness into
four categories: plain on-record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off-record.
Bald On-Record (Direct Strategy)
In this method, the speaker does nothing to reduce his FTA. The speaker performs the act
of clear and direct discourse. “The fundamental rationale for bald on-record usage may be stated
simply: in general, anytime S wants to perform the FTA with maximum efficiency more than he
wants to satisfy Hs face, even to whatever degree, he will pick the bald on-record strategy,” write
Brown and Levinson (1987:95). It indicates that when utilizing this method, the speaker's drive to
enhance the effectiveness of the speech act in whatever situation outweighs his desire to respect
his face. As an example, consider the phrase "Bring me my book." This phrase suggests that the
speaker stated it clearly and immediately.
Positive Politeness
In positive politeness, the speaker might put on a happy smile for the listener. According to
Brown and Levinson (1987:101-103), positive politeness emerges in a group whose members
share the same goal, desire, and background knowledge. This technique occurs as a result of the
speaker's goal to make a positive impression on the addressee and to establish a tighter social
relationship with the listener by sharing the same point of view and goal. Brown and Levinson
(1987:103-129) classified positive politeness strategies into fifteen categories. Pay attention to H.
(his interests, wants, needs, goods), Exaggeration (interest, approval, sympathy with H), Increase
your interest in H. Make use of in-group identity indicators. Seek consensus, avoid dissent, and
Assume/raise/assert common basis Make a joke, assert or assume Ss understanding of and
concern for Hs desires, Make an offer, a promise Be positive, Participate in the activity with both
S and H. Give (or request) reasons, Dan, assume or assert reciprocity. Give H goodies (goods,
sympathy, understanding, cooperation).
Negative Politeness
According to Brown and Levinson (1987:129), “ Negative politeness is redressive action
addressed to the addressee‟s negative face: his want to have his freedom of action unhindered and
his attention unimpeded.” It means that negative politeness is a speech act of avoiding and
minimizing the FTA to the negative face of the listener. When a speaker wants the listener to do
something, so the freedom and desire of the speaker will be burdened. Same as positive
politeness, negative politeness has some strategies. Those strategies are Be unconventionally
indirect, Question, hedge, Be pessimistic, Minimize the imposition, Give deference, Apologize,
Impersonalize S and H: Avoid the pronouns „I‟ and „you‟, State the FTA as a general
rule, Nominalize, dan Go on record as incurring debt, or as not indebting H. (Brown dan
Levinson (1987:129-211)).
Off-record (Indirect Strategy)
The use of FTAs is done off-record if some methods are required to comprehend the
meaning of the communication since the speech act will be perceived as ambiguous and the
addressee will get confused and difficult to grasp it. This method is widely utilized in the indirect
speech act, thus the setting and context of the utterance are crucial elements to consider while
comprehending this politeness approach. In off-record strategy, there are fifteen kinds according
to Brown dan Levinson (1987:211); Give hints, Give association clues, Presuppose, Understate,
Overstate, Use tautologies, Use contradictions, Be ironic, Use metaphors, Use rhetorical
questions, Be ambiguous, Be vague, Over generalize, Displace H, dan Be incomplete, and use an
ellipse.
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1. Research Design
The research uses linguistic research which focuses on pragmatics. In this research the
writer more emphasizes on politeness strategy usage in directive speech acts. The method used in
this research is a descriptive method using qualitative approach (Sugiyono, 2007).
2. Data Source and Population
The data source in this research is a Happily Ever After short movie produced by Design
Molvie, Pakistan in 2002. The data used is got from directive speech acts in the short movie. The
population of the data is all speech acts in the script of the short movie. In taking the sample, the
writer uses the purposive sampling technique which means the sample is taken into particular
consideration (Sugiyono, 2000.) In this case, is only directive speech acts becoming the sample
because the directive speech act represents the politeness strategy‟s criteria of Brown and
Levinson (1987). Politeness strategy includes bald on record, positive politeness, negative
politeness, and off record.
In short, the movie whose 10.08 minutes in length, there are 30 (thirty) utterances occurred.
The writer found 11 (eleven) utterances that are categorized as directive speech acts. It means that
those eleven utterances are used as the sample to be analyzed based on politeness strategy by
Brown and Levinson (1987).
3. Data Analysis Method
In analyzing the data, the writer uses method based on the linguistics research, in this case
is called pragmatics. The analysis done in this research is by collecting the directive speech acts
as the data and giving the code for each directive speech act. This code-giving technique is used
to make the writer easier to know the politeness strategy used by the speaker. The code (1) is
used for bald on record, (2) is for positive politeness, (3) is for negative politeness, and (4) is for
off record. The example of analysis is done as follow.
(7) “Don’t worry !” (1)
Code of (1) indicated that the utterance spoken by the speaker uses bald on recored
strategy. It shows the speaker doesn‟t have the desire to maintain someone‟s face. This utterance
also indicates the addressee (Shahzad) are asked by the speaker (Abu Tuurab) to do something,
that is not to worry.
4. Data Analysis
The data analysis in the script of “Happily Ever After” short movie are found as follows.
Politeness Strategy Analysis
Code Politeness Strategy Frequency Percentage (%)
(1) Bald on record 4 40
(2) Positive Politeness 5 50
(3) Negative Politeness 1 0
(4) Off record 0 0
Utterances of directive speech act that exist in the short movie are classified by the
politeness strategy.
Bald On-record Strategy
No. Utterance
(1) “Hey, that would have broken my head !”
(2) “Listen to me, listen to me ! …. Honey, honey.”
(4) “Look ! womens nature is different from mens.”
(6) “Don’t Worry”
Positive Politeness
No Utterance
(3) (please tell me you are suffering from the same thing)
(5) Imagine if you were told to leave your home and your family with whom you lived
your whole life and settle with a family you never knew.
(7) Wives, on the other hand should also understand that they have not married with their
own selves.
(8) Both husband and wife should try to manage their lives by the give and take rule.
(10) We should take the life of prophet Muhammad shalallahu alaihi wa salam as an
example.
Negative Politeness
No Utterance
(9) Would you stop that?
CHAPTER IV
FINDING AND DISCUSSION
Based on the data analysis provided in the chapter III, it was found that the common
politeness strategy used in directive speech acts between three men in the short movie of
“Happily Ever After” is positive politeness strategy with frequencies are 5 out of 10. In other
words, about 50% in directive speech act has been uttered in that short movie. Firstly, the
utterance
(3) “please tell me you are suffering from the same thing.”
indicates the speaker to be directed to the addressee‟s positive face. This utterance is also
identified as positive politeness strategy because the speaker is trying to seek agreement of the
listener. Secondly, the utterance
(5) “Imagine if you were told to leave your home and your family with whom you lived
your whole life and settle with a family you never knew.”
tells the speaker asked the addressee to imagine. In other words, the speaker is trying to offer the
listener to imagine something. The speaker directly said imagine, without using please, indicates
the relationship between them is close and has more intimacy. Thirdly, the utterances
(7) Wives, on the other hand should also understand that they have not married with
their own selves.
(8) Both husband and wife should try to manage their lives by the give and take rule.
(10) We should take the life of prophet Muhammad shalallahu alaihi wa salam as an
example.
identify that the speaker is trying to give reason and notice on what they should do to solve the
problem. the speaker uses should instead of must as the reason that the speaker gives less stressing
and obligationand let the listeners to choose, whether to take or leave the advice, altough thos
advices are highly recommended.
The next politeness strategy that emerges in directive speech act in the short movie is bald-on
record. It has four utterances out of ten by the percentage of 40%. The utterances are as follow.
(1) “Hey, that would have broken my head !”
(2) “Listen to me, listen to me ! …. Honey, honey.”
(4) “Look ! womens nature is different from mens.”
(6) “ Don’t worry.”
The underlined words (hey, listen, look and don‟t) are identified as imperative forms. Besides of
that, they also do not have ambiguous, clear, direct and without minimize the imposition.
The last politeness strategy found in the short movie is negative politeness strategy with the
utterance
(9) “would you stop that?”
The directive utterance indicates the negative politeness strategy since it expresses a
consideration. The strategy used in this negative politeness is strategy of questioning.
REFERENCES
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https://journal.unnes.ac.id/nju/index.php/jpi/article/view/14574
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