POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN 2014 PRESIDENTIAL
DEBATES BETWEEN JOKO WIDODO AND
PRABOWO SUBIANTO
A THESIS
Submitted to Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Sarjana Sastra
By:
MARISCHA DWI FERGINA
Registration Number 2113220027
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTEMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The greatest thanks to the Almighty Father for the blessing and the
strength given to the writer to complete her thesis as the partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra at English and Literature
Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and the
help of several individuals who always contributed and extended their valuable
assistances in the preparation and completion of this thesis. The writer would like
to express her special gratitude to:
Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., the Rector of State University of Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature Department, Dra. Meisuri, MA., the Secretary of English and Literature
Department and Thesis Examiner, Syamsul Bahri, S.S., M.Hum., the
Head of English Literature Program and Nora Ronita Dewi, S.Pd., S.S.,
M.Hum., the Head of English Education Program, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
Dra. Sri Juriaty Ownie, M.A., as her Thesis Supervisor. Dra. Tjut Ernidawati, M.Hum., as her Academic Supervisor
Dr. I Wayan Dirgeyasa T, M.Hum., and Drs. Elia Masa Gintings, M.Hum., as her Thesis Examiners.
All Lecturers of English and Literature Department for the lessons, advices, and useful knowledge.
Eis Sri Wahyuni, M.Pd., as the Administration Staff of English Department for helping the writer in preparing all the fulfillment in
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Beloved parents, Tanjung Marihot Simanjuntak, SH and Elfrida Faradischa Sembiring for the patience, affection, prayer, financial support and taught the writer many worth things in facing the life.
Her lovely brothers, Tokanda Maha Perdicha Simanjuntak and Tri Mario Yolanda Simanjuntak for their prayers, support, motivation given to the writer as long as she did this thesis.
Her friends in English Literature A 2011 Lana, Ucha, Sofyan Fernandes, Yohana, Martha Simanjuntak, Ayu and all her friends in English Literature A and B who can’t be mentioned one by one for their support and prayers.
Her friends in “A.Y.A.M” group, Angelica, Yunella and Astrid for their spirit, motivation and prayers to the writer.
Medan, September 2015 The writer,
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ABSTRACT
Fergina, Marischa Dwi. 2113220027. Politeness Strategies in 2014 Presidential Debates between Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto. A Thesis. English Department. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan. 2015
This study analyzed the politeness strategies employed by Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto in 2014 Presidential Debates. The instrument of collecting data was video recording of Debat Capres Cawapres Jokowi Jk- Prabowo Hatta at Metro TV on July 5, 2014. Particular attention was given to candidate’s use of bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, off record and do not do speech act or do the FTA (face threatening act) as defined by Brown and Levinson theory. The focus of the paper was on the types of politeness strategies that used in debate, the dominant type of politeness strategies, and the reason of dominant type usage in debate. The result showed that the most dominant type was Positive politeness (61,53%). Then there was also Negative politeness (30,76%), On record (3,84%), Off record (3,84%) and Do not do the FTA (0%). The president candidates mostly used positive politeness because want to reduce face-threatening act besides how the two candidates can convey their wants smoothly without making one party feels threatened.
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E. The Significance of the Study ... 5
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE
1) Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies ... 10
a. Bald on record ... 11
B. Conversational Expectation ... 18
C. Debate ... 20
1. Steps of Debate ... 21
2. Types of Debate ... 21
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A. Research Design ... 22
B. The Source of Data ... 22
C. Technique of Collecting Data ... 22
D. Instrument of Collecting Data ... 23
E. Technique of Analyzing Data ... 23
CHAPTER IV DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS A. The Data ... 24
B. Data Analysis ... 24
C. Research Findings ... 38
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CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions ... 41
B. Suggestions ... 42
REFERENCES ... 43
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LIST OF TABLE
Page
Table 4.1 Politeness Strategies in 2014 Presidential Debates between Joko Widodo and Prabowo
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LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX A Table of Politeness Strategies in 2014 Presidential Debates between Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto’s Analysis
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Language is absolutely central in our communication. By using language,
we can do interaction to share our ideas, express our feeling, inform the news, and
to build up our social relationship.
When people are communicating they should have communicative
competence that comprises not only linguistic competence but also
social-cultural, interactional, formulaic and strategic competence
(Celce-Murcia,2007,p.45). Socio-cultural, interactional and strategic competence refer to
the speaker‟s pragmatic knowledge. The pragmatic perspective can be particularly
defined as knowledge of communicative action and how to carry it out, and the
ability to use language appropriately according to context (Kasper,1997). It means
how speakers organize what they want to say in accordance with who they are
talking to, where, when, and under what circumstances.
Pragmatics is learned by the writer in the sixth semester, so that is a
reason which motivated the writer to use pragmatics as the subject. Another
reason is the writer realized that when people are debating especially in politicals
debate, they are trying to reach the goal and win that debate. But they are forgot
how to keep the hearer/listener face but stil defend themselves. So that bring up
confrontation among of them.That is why important to learn pragmatics in our
daily life.
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Pragmatics entail some fields, they are deixis, speech acts, implicature,
and politeness. Those are interested to be investigated and one of them will be the
focus on this study which is called politeness.
In 1978 Brown and Levinson proposed a theory of politeness, which
created a model for protective conversational politeness. The model examined
how one can go about producing a face-threatening act in a (Western) polite
manner. Brown and Levinson believed that all interaction is characterized by
concern over the other person's autonomy needs and his or her desire to be liked,
which manifests into strategies that demonstrate those needs (i.e., politeness)
The center of strategies politeness is the used of appropiate politeness
strategy from a variety of perspectives. So the speaker may minimise FTA (face
threatening acts) by choosing an appropiate linguistic strategies. Politeness
strategies will therefore be those which aim (a) at supporting or enhancing the
addressee‟s positive face (positive politeness) and (b) at avoiding transgression of
addressee‟s freedom of action and freedom from imposition (negative face).
Conversation itself consist of two kinds; spoken such as talk show,
attention of audiences but also to minimalise the confrotation may be found in the
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One of the some previous researches related to Politeness Strategies is
Kesantunan Berbahasa Dalam Acara Debat Kontroversi Surat Keputusan
Bersama Ahmadiyah Di TV One by Saragih (2010). His study intended to
describe the types of positive politeness and negative politeness are used by
politicals debate and the context with communication ethic Islam. In his research
he found that the most dominant politeness strategies that was used by politicals
debate is positive politeness; Give or Ask for reasons. He also found that there are
correlation between politeness strategies and communication ethic Islam.
The other previous interesting study is Politeness Strategies Used by
Obama in a Great Open Debate “The First Presidential Debate” on September
26th, 2008 by Tri (2014). The finding of the study elucidates that Barack Obama
in his debate used positive politeness dominantly. It reached 80%. It indicated that
Obama used positive politeness because he wanted to be closer to the hearers.
Moreover, Obama wanted to persuade the hearers or audience in his debate by
using positive politeness dominantly to hearers.
Related to the explanation above, it was interesting to analyze politeness
strategies in 2014 presidential debates between Joko Widodo and Prabowo
Subianto because they are rated as the most popular leaders in the Goverment of
Indonesia. Jokowi is popular with „blusukan‟ leader when he was a Mayor of Solo
and Governor of Jakarta. Prabowo also known as Commandant of the Special
Command Force General (Kopassus). The writer assumed that they are the best
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president candidate, they must consider the importance of politeness in their
language, especially in presidential debate.
The writer thought that is important to be learned by Indonesian youth especially
to still maintain the polite language in every single life. Because with polite
language we can accept other people and live in a peace.
B. The Problem of the Study
Based on the background above, the problem of the study are formulated as
follows:
1. What types of politeness strategies used by Joko Widodo and Prabowo
Subianto in 2014 presidential debates?
2. What is the most dominant type of politeness strategy used by Joko
Widodo and Prabowo Subianto in 2014 presidential debates ?
3. Why is it dominantly used by Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto in
2014 presidential debates ?
C. The Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the study are described as follows:
1. To know the types of politeness strategies used by Joko Widodo and
PrabowoSubianto in 2014 presidential debates
2. To find out the most dominant strategy used by Joko Widodo and Prabowo
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3. To explain the reasons of the dominant strategy in 2014 Presidential
Debates between Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto
D. The Scope of the Study
The discussion of this study limited to politeness strategies in 2014
Presidential Debates between Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto. The data were
collected by downloading the video of Debat Capres Cawapres Jokowi JK-
Prabowo Hatta at Metro TV on July 5, 2014. This study focused on Brown and
Levinson‟s theory.
E. The Significance of the Study
The finding out of this study is expected to give both theoritical and
practical contribution in pragmatics studies.
Theoretically, the finding out of this research is expected to be one of the
sources in pragmatics studies, particulary on the analyzing politeness strategies in
presidential debates.
Practically, the research could be useful for students who are interested in
learning politeness strategies. In addition to the teachers, the result of this research
is expected to be an additional material in studying the types of politeness
strategies and for the others who want to do similar field of the research as a
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions
After analyzing the data, conclusions could be drawn as the following :
1. There are four types of politeness strategies used in 2014 Presidential Debates
between Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto. They were : (1) Positive
politeness strategies 16 (61,53%) with many substrategies such as Intensify
interest to the hearer, Include both speaker and hearer, Be optimistic, Seek
agreement, Presuppose/raise/assert common ground, Assert or presuppose S’s
knowledge of and concern for H’s wants, Offer ; promise, and Give or ask for
reason. (2) Negative politeness strategies 8 (30,76%) with many
subcategories such as Question ; hedge, Be pessimistic, Minimise the
imposition, State the FTA (face threteaning acts) as a general rule, and Go on
record as incurring a debt or as not indebting hearer. (3) On record 1 (3,84%)
and (4) Off record 1 (3,84%).
2. The most dominant type of politeness strategy used by Joko Widodo and
Prabowo Subianto in 2014 Presidential Debates was Positive politeness
strategy with total number 16 (61.53%) utterances, particulary on Intensify
interest to the hearer, Include both speaker and hearer, Be optimistic. The
writer found some motives that cause president candidates more often used
Positive politeness strategies in presidential debates. It because they
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want to reduce face-threatening act so the two of president candidates can
conveye their wants smoothly without making one party feels threatened.
B. Suggestions
Suggestions were presented as the following :
1. It suggested that students who have studied in applied linguistics can use
this study not only to get more knowledge but also can practice politeness
strategies in our daily life as the strategy to minimise the confrotantion that
may be found in daily conversation.
2. It suggested that the teachers can use this research as additional material in
studying the types of politeness strategies.
3. It suggested that other researchers who want to do similar fiels especially
in politeness strategies in order to enlarge knowledge. This thesis would be
as the main reference in order to make further research about politeness
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REFERENCES
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http://debate.wikipedia.org (Accessed on March 13, 2015)
