DISCOURSE AND PRAGMATICS

THE ANALYSIS OF POLITENESS STRATEGY IN A SHORT MOVIE ENTITLED HAPPILY EVER AFTER This research is submitted to fulfill the final assignment of Discourse and Pragmatics Course

SINTA HOERUN NISA 2010041206

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION KUNINGAN UNIVERSITY 2014

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1. Background of Study An important thing to create a good communication between speaker and an addressee is a politeness. In politenesss, there are some strategies used in utterance in order to create a meaningful communication and to respect the addressee. Brown and Levinson (1987 : 60) stated that politeness strategy is used not only to respect the addressee but also to avoid the face threatening act (FTA). Face Threatening Act is an act that is thretening the face of the addressee because of feeling bad things by the speakers utterance. In this mini research, the writer is interested in researching the politeness strategy in directive speech act in a short movie. The directive speech act is a kind of speech act whose purpose is to make the adresee doing something, such as request, command, force, warn, an so on (Yule, 1996). Those kinds of directive speech act will be analysed in terms of politeness strategies that consists of bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness and off record (Brown and Levinson, 1987 : 60). The writer choose the short movie Happily Ever After produced by Design Molvie as a data source because the story is interesting and unique. The short movie was uploaded in Youtube (youtube.com) in 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 directive speech act in the short movie.

4. Theoritical 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 descriptive method by qualitative approach. The data source in this research is a script of Happily Ever After short movie produced by Design Molvie. The data is a speech act that expresses directive speech act. In deciding the sample, the writer uses 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 Yule (1996:60) stated that Politeness, in an interaction, can be defined as the means employed to show awareness of another persons face. In pragmatics, politeness is a way to respect face or image of someone. In utterance, politeness is an essential concept to be emerged so that the image or face of speaker is looked well and to keep the listener being respected. Brown and Levinson (1987) stated that politeness is an act of avoiding and managing the speech act threatening addressees and speakers faces (Face Threatening Acts). 2. Face Face can be simply defined as an image of someone. The face concept will always be talked about when explaining politeness. Yule (1996:60) said that Face means the public selfimage of a person. Brown and Levinson in Stockwell (2002:23) divided face into two kinds; negative and positive face. 2.1.Negative Face Negative face is a desire of someone not to be disturbed by others, to be independent and to have a freedom to act. For example, a leader is sure that he has best decision and he does not want his decision to be rejected by others. 2.2.Positive Face Positive face means the desire of someone to be respected and accepted by others. For instance, in dressing, when someone wears particular dress and asks an opinion, she wants the addressee, who is being asked, are pleased when looking at her dress.

3. Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) Yule (1996:61) stated that, If a speaker says something that represents a threat to another individual's expectation regarding self-image, it is described as a face threatening act. This statement shows that politeness strategy is important to do so that the image (face) of speaker and listener can be respected. For example, in a meeting, an employer does not agree with the leaders opinion, so he should use the FTA. The politeness thah he shows is a negative politeness. 4. Politeness Strategy Politeness strategy is a strategy used to avoid or reduce the effect of image caused by face threatening acts which are done by the speaker. Brown and Levinson (1987:60) defined four strategies of politeness; bald on-record, positive politeness, negative politeness and off-record. 4.1.Bald On-Record (Direct Strategy) In this strategy, the speaker does not do anything to minimize his FTA. The speaker do the clear and direct speech act. According to Brown and Levinson (1987:95), The prime reason for bald on-record usage may be stated simply: in general, whenever S wants to do the FTA with maximum efficiency more than he wants to satisfy Hs face, even to any degree, he will choose the bald on-record strategy. It means that by using this strategy, the desire of speaker to maximize the effeciency from the speech act in any condition is larger than his desire to respect his face. The example is the utterance such Bring me my book. This utterance indicates the speaker said it directly and clear without minimize the threatening and does not care about the face of the speaker. 4.2.Positive Politeness In positive politeness, the speaker can give a positive face to the listener. Brown and Levinson (1987:101-103) stated that positive politeness comes in a group whose participants has the ame purpose, desire and background knowledge. This strategy is emerged because the speaker want to show a good impression to the adressee and wants to have closer social relationship through the same point of view and desire between the speaker and the listener. Brown and Levinson (1987:103-129) divided the positive politeness strategy into fifteen kinds,

those are Notice, attend to H (his interests, wants, needs, goods), Exaggerate (interest, approval, sympathy with H), Intensify interest to H, Use in-group identity markers, Seek agreement, Avoid disagreement, Presuppose/raise/assert common ground, Joke, Assert or presuppose Ss knowledge of and concern for Hs wants, Offer, promise, Be optimistic, Include both S and H in the activity, Give (or ask for) reasons, Assume or assert reciprocity, dan Give gifts to H (goods, sympathy, understanding, cooperation) . 4.3.Negative Politeness According to Brown and Levinson (1987:129), Negative politeness is redressive action addressed to the addressees 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 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, the negative politeness has some strategies. Those strategies are Be inconventionally 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 a debt, or as not indebting H. (Brown dan Levinson (1987:129-211)). 4.4.Off-record (Indirect Strategy) The usage of FTAs is done through off-record if it needs some ways to understand the meaning of the communication since the speech act will be felt like ambiguous and the addressee will get confused and difficulty to understand it. This strategy is commonly used in the indirect speech act so that the situation and context of utterance becomes important points in understanding this politeness strategy. 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 ellipsis .

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 purposive sampling technique which means the sample is taken in particular consideration (Sugiyono, 2000.) In this case is only directive speech acts becoming the sample because the directive speech act represents the politeness strategys criteria of Brown and Levinson (1987). Politeness strategy includes bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness and off record. In short movie whose 10.08 minutes length, there are 30 (thirty) utterances occurred. The writer found 11 (eleven) utterances which are categorized as directive speech acts. It means that those eleven utterances are used as the sample to be analysed 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) Dont worry ! (1) Code of (1) indicated that the utterance spoken by the speaker uses bald on recored strategy. It shows the speaker doesnt have the desire to maintain someones 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. 4.1.Politeness Strategy Analysis Code (1) (2) (3) (4) Politeness Strategy Bald on record Positive Politeness Negative Politeness Off record Frequency Percentage (%) 4 5 1 0 40 50 0 0

Utterances of directive speech act that exist in the short movie are classified by the politeness strategy. 4.2.Bald On-record Strategy No. (1) (2) (4) Utterance Hey, that would have broken my head ! Listen to me, listen to me ! . Honey, honey. Look ! womens nature is different from mens.

(6)

Dont worry.

4.3.Positive Politeness No (3) (5) Utterance (please tell me you are suffering from the same thing) 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) (10) Both husband and wife should try to manage their lives by the give and take rule. We should take the life of prophet Muhammad shalallahu alaihi wa salam as an example.

4.4.Negative Politeness No (9) Utterance 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 addressees 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) (2) (4) (6) Hey, that would have broken my head ! Listen to me, listen to me ! . Honey, honey. Look ! womens nature is different from mens. Dont worry.

The underlined words (hey, listen, look and dont) 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.

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

1. Conclusion and Suggestion This study explored about strategy of politeness based on the theory of Brown and Levinson (1987) in the short movie entitled Happily Ever After. The most common politeness strategy in directive speech act in that movie is positive politeness strategy which indicates the speaker to be directed to the addresees positive face through the strategies of seeking agreement, offering and giving a reason. Studying about politeness and its strategies are important in order to make a meaningful communication and to respect the addressee. The deeper someone learns about politeness, the more he or she could respect someone or people to talk to. The suggestion is the writer hopes there will be other researchers who are willing to study about politeness in order to create better attitude in people, particularly about how to respect and save the face of a speaker and an addressee.

REFERENCES

Brown, F dan Levinson, S. 1987.Politeness, Some Universals of Language Usage. London: Cambridge University Press.

Yule, George. 1996. Pragmatics . Oxford: University Press.

APPENDICES Here are some directive speech acts (yellow marked) in a script to be analyzed based on the politeness strategy. SCRIPT OF HAPPILY EVER AFTER Main participants in the short movie are 1. Aftab 2. Shahdaz 3. Abu Tuurab : a main actor (First person) : Aftabs friend : A scholar

Happiest days on ones life is getting married. Thats what they say. So here it was. Finally, my nikkah. Aftab : I accept.

I cant explain how happy I was. But besides me, my cousins and friends look happier than me. Im talking about my bachelor friends. But my friends who were already married had a kind of different smile on their face as if something was hidden behind. I didnt realize that until later. All I knew was that I was happy and I wished I would live happily ever after. But, even failr tales dont tell you what happens after that. *** (Few years back) I was in my 20s, an age which every single person you see is involved in some kind of unlawful relationship, but I kept my self away from all these things. I was looking for a halal way out. Therefore, marriage. I used to spend my time searching for every possible lecture on marriage. The more I searched, The more I got motivated.

I was too eager to get married. If you are going through this age now, you will understand my feelings. But what I had missed were the consequences.

Aftab (to his wife) : (1)Hey, that would have broken my head !(1)

If you are wondering why that cup came flying to me, well, its only because I came half an hour late from the time prescribed by my wife.

Aftab

: (2)Listen to me, listen to me ! . Honey, honey.(1)

This has become my daily routine. But what I was fed up with were my friends. Friend 1 : Hey aftab, hows your married life, huh? I know its great, right? Friend 2 : When I see you, I really get jealous. I know, I know, its great, right? My reply was same for all, Aftab : Alhamdulillah, everything is good.

And then there was the experienced guy, Shahzad. Shahzad : So, hows your married life? (3)(please tell me you are suffering from the same thing)(2) Aftab Shahzad Aftab Shahzad Aftab : Alhamdulillah, good. : hmmm (liar.) : No, really. : Did I say anything? : No, I mean, everything is fine.

Well, things are not getting any better. I couldnt play games, neither se Facebook, nor meet my friends. I couldnt take this anymore.

(on the phone) Aftab : Assalamualaikum ! how are you? I was wondering if we could meet.

(In a coffee shop) Aftab Shahzad Aftab Shahzad : Okay, I admit. I too am facing the same problem as you are. : Thank God ! I though that would take forever. : So, now what? : Well, in this situation, I think only one person can help us. He was smart during school times plus he has Islamic knowledge as well. Bu turab. *** (at Bu Tuurabs house) Bu Tuurab :Hmm so thats your problem. You want your wife to give you some space? : Yes. : Play games with you, Xbox, fifa, or call of duty, etc? : Yes. : Let you watch TV and use Facebook all day long? : Yes. : And you want your wife to allow you to hang out with friends late night? : Yes. :Then why didnt you get married with your own selves instead? When you get married, you are actually making a commitment to love and take care of your wife, not yourself. (4)Look ! womens nature is different from mens.(1) They are not into guns, video games, etc. all they want is you.(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.(2) For her, you are the only family she will ever have. She wants you to take care of her, be with her. For her, you are her game, her computer, her facebook and her best friend ever. Rasulullah shalallahu alaihi wa salam said, O people, fear Allah with regards to your wives. You have taken them into your possession. With Allahs permission. In other hadits, Rasulullah Shalallahu alaihi wa salam said, Amongst the most perfect mumins in Iman is he who is kindest to his wife .. : He is taking our lesson instead, Man. :(6)Dont worry.(1) Im coming to the other part as well.(7)Wives, on the other hand should also understand that they have not married with their own selves.(2)And that the nature of boys is different from theirs. Men are not as romantic as women. Theyre not so fond of flowers, teddy bears, all these kind

Shahdaz and Aftab Bu Tuurab Shahdaz and Aftab Bu Tuurab Shahdaz and Aftab Bu Tuurab Shahdaz and Aftab Bu Tuurab

Shahdaz Bu Turab

of things. They work all day long to take care of their family, and when they come back home, they need rest and sometimes, space. (8)Both husband and wife should try to manage their lives by the give and take rule. (2)Relationship is like a thin thread. And if both of you try to pull your side of the end all the time, one day the thread will break. And that was Syaitan wants.(9)Would you stop that?(2) Shahdaz Bu Tuurab : Well, I thought, it would give better effect to your words. May be not. : As I was saying,(10)we should take the life of prophet Muhammad shalallahu alaihi wa salam as an example.(2)

After speaking to Bu Turaab, many things got clear. We understood that a successful marriage, is only possible by following the give and take rule and following the sunnah. Advice, verily benefits of believers.