THE IMPOLITENESS STRATEGY OF THREE YEAR OLD
CHILDREN
A Thesis
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Magister Humaniora
By:
SITI MARLINA
Registration Number: 8136112077
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
MEDAN
ABSTRAK
Marlina, S. NIM: 8136112077. Ketidaksantunan Bahasa oleh Anak Usia Tiga Tahun.Tesis. Linguistik terapan Bahasa Inggris, Sekolah Pascasarjana, Universitas Negeri Medan.2015
ABSTRACT
Marlina, S. NIM: 8136112077. Impoliteness Strategy by Three Year Old Child. Thesis. English Applied Linguistics Study Program, Post Graduate School, State University of Medan. 2015.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim
Alhamdulillahi rabbil ‘alamin, the researcher expresses her highest
gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala for blessing, love, opportunity, health, and mercy to complete this thesis. Shalawat is also sent to Prophet
Muhammad shallallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam who had delivered the truth to human beings in general and Muslim in particular.
In arranging this thesis, a lot of people have provided motivation, advice, support, and even remark that had helped the researcher. In this
valuable chance, the researcher aims to express her gratitude and
appreciation to all of them. First, the researcher presents her sincere appreciation goes to her first advisor Dr.Sri Minda Murni, M.S, who has
given advise and motivation and taught her about discipline. Then to her second advisor Dr. T.Thyrhaya Zein, M.A, who has helped her patiently
finishing this thesis by giving suggestion, guidance, and correction since the preliminary of manuscript until the completion of this thesis.
The researcher greatest thanks go to the Head and Secretary of the English Applied Linguistics Study Program, Prof.Dr. Busmin Gurning,
M.Pd and Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S for thei administrative assistance during the process of conducting the study. Her gratefulness is also given to
Prof. Dr. H. Abdul Muin Sibuea, as the Director of Postgraduate School Study Program of State University of Medan.
The writer would like to express hergratefulness to prof. Jonathan Culpeper from Lancaster University, UK, for his suggestion and his
Furthermore, the writer would like to thank Dr. Zainuddin, M. Hum, Dr. Siti Aisyah Ginting, M,Pd, and Dr.Syahron Lubis, M.A for their
suggestion and constructive comments.
The writer also would like to express her deepest appreciation goes to her beloved husband, Majrul Afandi for his always support mentally and
financially. To her little sons, Habiburrahman Afandi and Fatiha Rizki Afandi, for their support and understanding.
Special thanks are conveyed to her beloved parents, her mother Sumiati for the endless love, pray, and support, and her father Sumardi (the
late) who has become the researcher’s inspiration to keep learning especially in academic level as he desired before, and her step father Ahmad
for his support.
Her sincere thanks go to her siblings Mery Yusnila and Andreansyah
for their advice, kindness, and even critique to encourage her to be better person. Last but no least, Her thankfulness also goes to all her beloved
friends in B4 Class, Applied Linguistics study Program, Post graduate School at State university of Medan, Yeni Purtika Simanjuntak, Ersika
Puspita Dani, Ika Swantika, Mia Rizana, Muvidah, Fitri Erawati, and Adinda Zoraya Alvin. Thank you very much for their support, prayers,
encouragement and for the assistance in finishing this
study. Finally, may Allah always blesses us. Aamiin
Medan, August 2015
The Writer
Siti Marlina
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.5 The Significance of the Study ... 5
CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1. Pragmatics ... 7
2.2 Language Attitude ... 8
2.3 Culpeper’s Impoliteness theory... 9
2.4 Impoliteness Strategies ... 12
2.4.1 Bald on Record Impoliteness ... 12
2.4.2 Positive Impoliteness ... 12 for three year old children ... 21
2.8 Children Three Year Old ...23
2.8.1 Impoliteness is Part of language Acquisition...24
2.9 Relevant Studies... ...25
III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research Design ... 28
3.2 The Data and Source of Data ... 28
3.3 The Instrument of Data Collection ... 28
3.4 The Technique of Data Collection ... 29
3.5 The Technique of Data Analysis ... 29
3.6.1 Credibility ... 32
3.6.2 Confirmability ... 34
CHAPTER IV. DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1 Data Analysis ... 35
4.1.1 Types of Impoliteness Strategies ... 35
4.1.1.1 Bald on Record Impoliteness ... 36
4.1.1.2 Positive Impoliteness Strategy ... 40
4.1.1.3 Negative Impoliteness ... 42
4.1.1.4 Sarcasm ... 43
4.1.1.5 Withhold Politeness ... 43
4.1.2 The Process of Impoliteness Strategies ... 44
4.1.2.1 Direct Speech Acts ... 44
4.1.2 2 Indirect Speech Acts ... 45
4.1.3 The Reasons of Using Impoliteness Strategies ... 47
4.2 Findings ... 51
4.3 Discussions ... 53
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1 Conclusions ... 55
5.2 Suggestions ... 56
REFERENCES ... 57
LIST OF TABLE
Pages
Table 3.1. The Table of Data Analysis ... 31
Table 4.1. Impoliteness Strategies Used by Children Three-year old ... 36
Table 4.2. The Process of Using Impoliteness Strategies ... 46
Table 4.3. The Reasons of Using Impoliteness Strategies ... 47
LIST OF FIGURE
Pages
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1The Background of the Study
Language is the human ability to acquire and use complex systems
of communication. Language is made up of socially shared rules. Language is the
most important aspect in the life of all beings. Language is used to express inner
thoughts and emotions, make sense of complex and abstract thought, to learn to
communicate with others, to fulfill our wants and needs, as well as to establish
rules and maintain the culture. Language can be defined as verbal, physical,
biologically innate, and a basic form of communication. Behaviourists often
define language as a learned behaviour involving a stimulus and a response
(Ormrod,1995).
The most impolite children tend to be those under the age of six, and for
good reason, these children are in a stage of development of their power of
attention. Often, they actually do not have the power to shift their focus of
attention from what interests them. What impolite behavior is regarded, as when
the child does not politely greet someone they did not expect to see, is often the
child engaging in developmentally appropriate behavior. That is, sustaining the
point of focused attention on something that interesting.
Moreover, according to Mugford (2008), language learners have the
communicative right to be rude if they want to, as long as they are aware of the
consequences of their actions. And to be able to do so, parents need to take the
lead by preparing learners to communicate in pleasant, not so pleasant, and even
abusive interactional and transactional situations. Preparation involves helping
learners identify potentially impolite practices and offering ways of dealing with
impoliteness. Mugford also illuminates the parents, by not teaching the
impoliteness aspect of language, are potentially allowing language learners to be
dominated by the target language users.
Impoliteness is a negative attitude towards specific behaviours occurring in
specific contexts (Culpeper 2011, 254). He adds that it is sustained by
expectations, desires and/or beliefs about social organisation, including, in
particular, how one person’s or a group’s identities are mediated by others in
interaction. Situated behaviours are viewed negatively—considered “impolite”—
when they conflict with how one expects them to be, how one wants them to be
and/or how one thinks they ought to be. Such behaviours always have or are
presumed to have emotional consequences for at least one participant, that is, they
cause or are presumed to cause offence.
Impolite linguistic behaviour can be seen as speech acts that attack the face
of another (see Culpeper, 1996). However, Mills (2003: 139) states that “…
politeness and impoliteness cannot be taken to be polar opposites, since
impoliteness functions in very different and context-specific ways.” Thus, one
could claim that politeness and impoliteness are complex concepts that need
deeper analysis.
Culpeper (2011: 3) introduces impoliteness as a multi-disciplinary field of
study. According to Culpeper (1996), scientific fields such as psychology,
sociology, conflict studies, media studies, business studies, history and literary
studies can be related to the field of impoliteness. Thus, impoliteness is a complex
Locher and Bousfield (2008: 3) describe impoliteness like this:
“Impoliteness is behaviour that is face-aggravating in a particular context”.
However, they then state that this definition is probably too vague and needs more
elaboration. Locher and Bousfield (1996) continue by stating that one of the key
elements that arises in impoliteness studies is that impoliteness is caused
intentionally (see, e.g. Bousfield 2008: 132, Culpeper 2008: 36).
The phenomena dealing with impoliteness strategies come from different
language users such as adults, teenagers, or children and it also relates to culture.
In this study, especially children in three year old will be focus. It is in line with
different subjects with different ages investigated so it produces different findings
by those researchers.
In this research, the researcher will introduce a few important aspects and
theories about impoliteness. Importantly in this study firstly, the researcher will
try to define the term impoliteness that use by the three year old children.
Secondly, the researcher will present how impoliteness use by the three year old
children. and third, the researcher will present why the children use the
impoliteness strategy.
At the age of three year, the children begin to pay attention to others in
communication. They begin to imitate the language from people in their
environment. They have mastered their first language as learners. Three year old
typically display an unending thrist for knowledge and will have an innate
curiosity and excitement about things in the world. They often ask questions about
everything from why the sky is blue to where babies come from. But in this study
impoliteness, in this study just find out what kind of the strategy that used by the
children in three year old in their activities, by listing and labelling the utterances
by using the Culpeper’s theory.
For example, the children of three year old sometimes use impoliteness
strategy such the following :
Ibu tetangga : “Adek kenapa?” Anak : Apa au?
In this case, the children imply something and infer some others without
giving any celar linguistic evidence. The child know what the purpose of the
question, but the child do not answer based on the question. The utterance will
analyze by Culpeper’s theory in impoliteness. In this study the researcher will
choose five children in three year old to find the data.
This type of adult-child interaction, which may be recognized as naturally
occurring, It seemed obvious that children mastered impoliteness forms as a part
of language acquisition, because of they were motivated to be impolite, and
hence socially accepted by people around them (Gleason and Ratner, 1998:376).
For that reason, the researcher choosen five children of three year old as her
subject. The children at the ages never investigated yet by other researchers.
1.2The Problem of the Study
The problems of the study are formulated as in the following:
1. What are the types of impoliteness strategies expressed by three years old
children at home?
3. Why do the children of three years old used the impoliteness strategy at
home?
1.3The Objectives of the Study
In line with the problem of the study, the objectives are:
1) To find out the types of impoliteness strategies that expressed by three
years old children at home.
2) To find out how the strategies implemented by the children.
3) To find out the reasons of using impoliteness strategies by three years old
children at home.
1.4The Scope of the Study
In this study, the researcher only deals with the impoliteness strategies used by
the three year-old children. And in this study, the researcher only focuses on
the children’s impolite utterances to (a) their peers and (b) people who are
older than them. She doesn’t include any other aspect like gender or
environment.
1.5The Significance of the Study
The findings of the study are expected to be useful theoretically and
practically.
1. Theoretically, these studies are expected to be significantly relevant
theoretical aspect and enrich the knowledge of children’s language
development, particularly the impoliteness strategies that used by three
year old children.
2. Practically, the findings of this study could be more information for
and how to deal with impoliteness, how impoliteness may potentially be
countered, controlled and managed, especially for children in their golden
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusios
This study is concerned on language impoliteness by children three year-old. It is
aimed at describing language impoliteness by children three year-old. This study
shows the types of impoliteness strategy that used by children three-year old, how
they used and why they used the impoliteness strategy. After analzing the data,
conclusions are drawn as the following.
1. There are four types of impoliteness strategy that expressed by the three
year-old children, namely Bald on record Impoliteness, Positive
Impoliteness, Negative Impoliteness, and Withhold Impoliteness. Bald on
record Impoliteness is the most dominant strategies used by the three
year-old children.
2. The three year-old children used direct speech act and indirect speech acts
in producing impoliteness strategies. Direct speech acts is the dominant
used by the three year-old children.
3. The three year-old children used impoliteness strategies in their interaction
because of two things, internal and external factors.
5.2 Suggestions
Based on the conclusion stated above, this study has some suggestions to the
master politeness and to prevet the child from the factor that affect the children to
use impoliteness strategies as follows:
1. To other research, who want to elaborate the study about language
impoliteness in other field, it will have good contribution for language
development.
2. And to all the readers, this study shows that the impoliteness language
phenomenon happened not only in adult interaction but in children
interaction also. It means that all of us should beware with this condition,
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