A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Attainment of Sarjana Sastra Degree in English Language and Literature
Written by:
Fajar Subekti Zulkarnain11211141004
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE STUDY PROGRAM
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
YOGYAKARTA STATE UNIVERSITY
iv
PERNYATAAN
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya
Nama : Fajar Subekti Zulkarnain
NIM : 11211141004
Program Studi : Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris
Fakultas : Bahasa dan Seni
Universitas Negri Yogyakarta
Judul Skripsi : POLITENESS STRATEGIES OF COMMANDS USED BY
VANESSA KELLER AND DARIUS HAYES IN THE
FIRST SEASON OF THE LOTTERY TV SERIES
menyatakan bahwa karya ilmiah ini adalah hasil pekerjaan saya sendiri. Sepanjang
pengetahuan saya, karya ilmiah ini tidak berisi materi yang ditulis oleh orang lain,
kecuali bagian-bagian tertentu yang saya ambil sebagai acuan dengan mengikuti
tata cara dan etika penulisan karya ilmiah yang lazim.
Yugyakarta,23 Februari, 2016
Penulis
v
in themselves.” -QS Ar Ra’ad (13): 11
“If you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of
vi To my Parents
For their endless love, supports, and their blessing in every choice that I take,
To my Brothers and Sister
Who always support me to finish my study although they do not really know
vii
Almighty, The lord of the Universe, who gives me His guidance to finish this
thesis. In completing this thesis, I owe many people for their support, guidance,
help and prayer. Therefore, I would ike to express my deepest gratitude to the
following parties:
1. Titik Sudartinah M. A., my first supervisor as well as my academic
advisor and Nandy Intan Kurnia M. Hum., my second supervisor, who
have given me their valuable time, knowledge, and guidance in
composing this thesis;
2. to all lecturers and staff of English Education Department who have
given me their knowledge and helped me during my study;
3. to my family, who have motivated me with their love and comfort to
finish this thesis;
4. my friends in English Language and Literature 2011, particularly my
classmates in SASING A and linguistics class for their accompaniment
in all these years;
5. Efa Nuryani and Fahma Chimayasari for their help and patience as my
peer reviewer in composing this thesis, and
6. everybody whose name I cannot mention one by one, who
viii
readers, especially to those who are interested in linguistics and pragmatics.
Yogyakarta, February 23, 2016
ix
MOTTOS ... v
DEDICATION ... vi
AKNOWLEDGMENTS ... vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... ix
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ... xi
ABSTRACT ... xii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ... 1
A. Background of the Study ... 1
B. Research Focus... 4
C. Objectives of the Study ... 7
D. Significance of the Study ... 7
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ... 9
A. Literature Review ... 9
1. Pragmatics ... 9
a. Definition of Pragmatics ... 9
b. The Scope of Pragmatics ... 10
2. Speech Acts ... 12
a. Locutionary, Illocutionary, Perlocutionary Act ... 12
b. Classification of Speech Acts... 13
1) Assertive ... 13
a. Politeness Strategies and the Realizations ... 17
1) Bald on Record ... 18
2) Off Record ... 19
3) Positive Politeness ... 20
4) Negative Politeness ... 22
b. Factor Influencing the Choice of Politeness Strategies... 24
5. The Lottery TV Series ... 26
B. Previous Study ... 27
C. Conceptual Framework ... 29
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ... 31
A. Research Type ... 31
B. Forms, Context, and Source of Data ... 31
x
B. Discussion ... 40
1. Types of Politeness Strategies ... 40
a. Bald on Record ... 41
b. Off Record ... 43
c. Positive Politeness ... 45
d. Negative Politeness ... 47
2. The Realizations of Politeness Strategies ... 48
a. Non Minimization ... 49
b. Inviting Conversational Implicature ... 50
c. Claiming for Common Ground ... 52
d. Conveying that Both Participants are Cooperators ... 53
e. Being Direct ... 55
3. Factor Influencing the Choice of Politeness Strategies... 56
a. Social Distance ... 56
b. Relative Power ... 57
c. Ranking of Imposition ... 59
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 74
A. Conclusions ... 74
B. Suggestions ... 77
REFERENCES ... 79
APPENDICES ... 81
A. Data Sheet of Politeness Strategies of Command in the first season of The Lottery TV Series ... 81
xi
Figure 1. The Poster of The Lottery TV Series Season 1 ... 26
Figure 2. Analytical Construct ... 30
Tables
Table 1. Sample Data Sheet of Politeness Strategies of Command in the First
Season of The Lottery TV Series ... 32
Table 2. Types, Realizations and Factors of Politeness Strategies Performed by
xii
Fajar Subekti Zulkarnain
11211141004
This research investigates the use of politeness strategies of command performed by Vanessa Keller and Darius Hayes in the first season of The Lottery TV Series. It aims to describe three major problems. The first is to describe the types of politeness strategies of command. The second is to describe the realizations of politeness strategies of command. The third is to describe the factor influencing the performance of politeness strategies.
The research employed descriptive qualitative method and use pragmatics as the approach to analyze the data. The data were in the form of utterances and the context of data was the dialogues which involve Vanessa and Darius. The source of data were five episodes of the first season of The Lottery TV Series and the transcript. Triangulation was used to obtain the credibility and the reliability of the data.
The results of the research are stated as follows. (1) All types of politeness strategy of command are used by both Vanessa and Darius in The Lottery TV Series. They are bald on record, off record, positive politeness and negative politeness. Bald on record politeness strategy becomes the most frequent strategy since the speakers get the advantages for being direct in giving commands. (2) There are only five out of nine realizations used by the characters to perform politeness strategies of command. These five realizations are non minimization, inviting conversational implicature, claiming for common ground, conveying that both participants are cooperators, and being direct. Vanessa mostly performs the utterances with non minimization by 11 data out of 20 utterances in order to serve three different purposes. It is used to threat the hearer, to warn the hearer and to avoid ambiguity in the utterances. On the other hand, Darius mostly realizes politeness strategies in the form of claiming for common ground by 4 data out of 10 utterances. By claiming for common ground, the addressees tend to follow the order without any complaint since they feel the same way as the speaker. (3) All three factors of politeness influence the speakers to perform certain strategies. These factors are social distance, relative power and ranking of imposition. Both Vanessa and Darius are mostly influenced by the relative power in uttering their command. It is because the characters mostly deliver their command to someone who works for them. Therefore, they need to show their power over the addressee.
1 A. Background of the Study
Communication is an interaction between two or more people in order
to achieve certain goals. Therefore, to make the process of communication
running, at least there are two participants needed as a speaker and the
addressee. Moreover, both participants should have the ability to understand
each other since the process of communication is like playing ping-pong
which means that each participant has an opportunity either to be a speaker or
a hearer.
There are several elements which are possible to affect the
understanding among participants in a communicative event. The first
element is a language speaking society, the process of communication will be
running easier when both participants use the same language. An
understanding toward language will help them understand the topic and the
theme. Moreover, it also makes them easy to take their turn whether to speak
or to listen. The second element is the setting of a communication process.
For example, in setting A, the participants are students. They gather in a
cafeteria and they talk to each other informally. On the other hand, in setting
B, the participants are the members of an organization. They have an
situations will influence the way participants produce utterances in order to
adapt to the circumstances. Therefore, the understanding toward the setting is
crucial. They will experience problems in communicating if they fail to
understand the setting. The third element is an understanding toward the
social norms. There are rules in the society that the participants should
understand in communications. They should be able to avoid taboo words and
they also have to be polite by producing an appropriate utterance based on the
social norms. The last element is the purpose of the communication itself.
The participants usually have certain purpose in communication such as
greeting, requesting, or commanding. The purpose will strongly affect the
speaker’s utterances and hearer’s responses toward the speaker’s wants. Since
different purpose of communication will give different impact toward the
addressee, therefore, a speaker needs to perform certain strategies in order to
create an intended impact toward the addressee.
There are some strategies that can be used to accomplish the purpose of
communication and one of them is called politeness. Basically, politeness
strategy has two opposite functions. It can be used to soften the bad impact
toward other’s public image. However, it can also be used to intentionally
attack or threat other’s public image. It is interesting to analyze the use of
politeness strategy in a society, especially when the purpose of
communication is to give a command.
In linguistics, a command is a part of speech act which has a function to
1979:13-14). Similar to command, request and suggestion has the same
function which is to make the hearer do something for the speaker, but they
have less power to force the hearer compared to a command. When the hearer
gets a request or a suggestion, he has more power to obey or reject it.
However, when it comes to the act of command, the hearer has a less chance
or even he has no chance to reject it. It is because the speaker who has power
to give a command must be more powerful than the addressee. For example,
the president of an organization has a full authority to give a command to his
staff. In contrast, a staff has no power at all to force his boss to do something
for him. Thus, politeness strategy of command is an interesting linguistic
phenomenon to be studied further since it can be used to soften or even
damage the addressee’s public self image. In this research, the first season of
The Lottery TV Series was taken as the object of the analysis for two reasons.
First, after watching all the episodes, the researcher found some
linguistic phenomena in The Lottery TV Series related to the study of
pragmatics and sociolinguistics. Second, reason is that the prominent
characters in The Lottery TV Series season 1 have significant political
positions which make them have power to perform the speech act of
commands.
The researcher limits the investigation on the two most prominent
characters of The Lottery TV Series, Vanessa Keller and Darius Hayes. There
are three prominent characters in this TV series, Vanessa Keller as the Chief
Commission, and Dr. Allison Lennon a scientist who becomes the head of the
Department of Humanity (DOH). As a scientist, Dr. Lennon has less power
compared to Vanessa Keller and Darius Hayes who are officers of the
government. That is the reason why the researcher decides to choose Vanessa
Keller and Darius Hayes.
B. Research Focus
There are two types of communication: verbal and non-verbal
communication. Both are found in The Lottery TV Series season 1. The verbal
communication can be seen through the dialogues or conversation among the
characters in order to deliver their intentions, while non-verbal
communications can be found in the form of written language which
functions to provide additional information to the audience. Related to both
types of communication, there are some linguistic phenomena found in The
Lottery TV Series season 1.
The first problem is related to speech act phenomenon. There are many
utterances expressed by the characters to convey their intentions such as
thoughts and feelings. In order to achieve the purpose of communication, they
perform various types of speech act. According to Yule (1996:53), there are
five types of speech act: declarations, representatives, expressives, directives
and commissives. Speech acts which are performed by the characters are in
the form of apology, complaint, compliment, promise, invitation or
The second phenomenon is politeness strategies. It is a strategy of
communication which is usually used by a speaker in order to soften the
damage to the hearer’s public self image although it can also be used to
intentionally damage the public image of the hearer. The speaker has a full
control to do any communication strategies including politeness to convey
their feeling and thoughts.
The third problem is politeness principles. According to Leech
(1983:132), there are six types of politeness principles: tact maxim,
generosity maxim, approbation maxim, modesty maxim, agreement maxim,
and sympathy maxim. In communication, participants tend to follow certain
maxims in politeness principles in order to get more advantages. For
example, a speaker follows the maxim of agreement, therefore, he will seek
agreement and tries to avoid disagreement with the addressee in the process
of communication. In the first season of The Lottery TV Series politeness
principles can be investigated through the utterances of the characters.
The last problem is the use of taboo words. Taboo is anything which
people usually avoid in a society because it can cause anxiety,
embarrassment, or shame the members of the society. Thus, the performance
of taboo words can be considered as an impolite behavior. In The Lottery TV
Series season 1, some characters utter taboo words in certain conditions and
purposes, such as to show dislike toward others or to emphasize something.
Since there are many linguistic phenomena found in the first season of
problems in a single work. Thus, in this study, the researcher focuses on
investigating two main issues only. These issues are politeness strategies and
directive speech act of command. The researcher limits the discussion into
three points. First, it focuses on investigating the types of politeness strategies
of speech act of commands performed by both Vanessa Keller and Darius
Hayes. Second, it focuses on describing the way politeness strategies are used
by Vanessa Keller and Darius Hayes to perform speech act of command. The
last focus is on revealing the possible factors which influence the speakers to
perform certain politeness strategies in expressing speech acts of commands.
Based on the limitation of problems, the researcher formulates the
problems as follows.
1. What are the types of politeness strategies of commands performed by
Vanessa Keller and Darius Hayes in the first season of The Lottery TV
Series?
2. How are politeness strategies realized in Vanessa Keller and Darius
Hayes’s speech acts of command in the first season of The Lottery TV
Series?
3. What are the factors which influence Vanessa Keller and Darius Hayes to
choose certain types of politeness strategies to perform speech acts of
C. Objectives of the Study
In relation to the formulation of the problems, the objectives of the
research are stated as follows:
1. to identify the types of politeness strategies of commands performed by
Vanessa Keller and Darius Hayes in the first season of The Lottery TV
Series,
2. to describe the realization of politeness strategies used by Vanessa
Keller and Darius Hayes to perform speech act of commands in the first
season of The Lottery TV Series, and
3. to reveal the factors which influenceVanessa Keller and Darius Hayes to
perform certain types of politeness strategies in performing speech act of
commands in the first season of The Lottery TV Series.
D. Significance of the Study
Regarding the background and the objectives, it is expected that this
research can gives some contributions for the readers. In relation to the study
of linguistics and pragmatics, this research has two major significance listed
as follows.
1. English Department
For English Department, this research gives contribution as an
additional teaching resource to the study of pragmatics, especially on
politeness strategies of directive speech act of commands.
This research has two significance for the students of English
Department. First, for students of English Department in general and
those who focus on studying linguistics, this research gives deeper
understanding on the study of pragmatics especially politeness
strategies of command. The second, This research can be used as an
additional reference for students who want to conduct a research
under the same topic.
9 CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK A. Literature Review
1. Pragmatics
a. Definition of Pragmatics
Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics study. According to Yule
(1996:03), there are four definitions of pragmatics. First, he defines it as a
study which concerns with the meaning of speaker’s utterances and how it is
interpreted by a listener. Second, it is a study of contextual meaning. In
human communications, a single word can have multiple meanings. It means
that a particular context will influence how the speaker produces utterances
and how the listener interprets them. Third, he states that pragmatics is the
study of relative meaning. A very short utterance may have multiple
meanings and sometimes even a silence or an eye contact is meaningful. The
last definition is that it is the study of relative distance.
In line with Yule, Leech (1983:6) argues that pragmatics is the study of
relative meaning since it is influenced by the context of communication.
Similarly, Mey (2001:6) considers pragmatics as the study of human language
in use which is connected by the context in a society. Thus, it can be conluded
that the study of pragmatics covers two main aspects in communication. First,
it concerns on how the speaker produces utterances. Second, it also concerns
pragmatics is the study of meaning in communication which is influenced by
the sociological context.
b. The Scope of Pragmatics
As a branch of linguistics study, pragmatics covers several domains.
They are deixis, presupposition, implicature, speech acts and politeness.
First domain is deixis. The term deixis is taken from Greek word which
has an original meaning of “pointing or indicating” (Levinson, 1983:54). In
line with Levinson, Yule (1996:9) states that in pragmatics, deixis is an
expression which is used by by the speaker to point or indicate something.
Yule (1996:9) adds that any utterance used to point is called a deictic
expression. Further, he classifies deixis into three types. The first type is
personal deixis. It is a linguistic form used by a speaker to point or to indicate
the existence of a person such as the pronoun ‘he’ to indicate a male person or
‘she’ to indicate a female person. The second type is spatial deixis. It is a type
of deixis used to point to a location such as the term ‘here’ to indicate any
places near to him. The last one is temporal deixis. It is an expression used to
indicate time is called as temporal deixis. Terms such as ‘now’, ‘today’, and
‘yesterday’ are the examples of temporal deixis because they are pointing
something related to the time.
The second domain is presupposition. According to Yule (1996:25), a
presupposition is something that the speaker believes to be the background in
making an utterance. Similarly, Caffi (2006:759), defines presupposition as a
In this case, the speaker assumes that there is certain information which
already known by the listener before he produces an utterance. Yule (1996:
26) gives the example, when the speaker says “Mary’s dog is cute” it means
that he assumes that the listener knows that Mary has a dog.
The third domain is implicature. Grice (in Chapman 2005:102) draws
important and clear distinctions between two points, a speaker meaning and a
sentence meaning. There is a distinction between what a speaker means and
what a sentence or another expression means. For example, the speaker utters
“Your book” then he puts the book on the table. The expression of “your
book”can mean that the book is the listener’s book. Yet, it is possible for the
speaker to convey a meaning more than what he said. The expression of
“your book” can mean “this is your book, I give it back to you” or it can also
mean something else. According to Yule (1996:36), implicature is defined as
process of interpreting the speaker’s intention.
The fourth domain is speech acts. Communication is an inferential
process. When a speaker produces utterances, the addressee will interpret
those utterances based on the speaker’s reference. To speak a language is to
express ideas or thoughts in the form of utterances by following a set of
linguistic rules. According to Capone (2006:1015), in communication, there
are expressions which have the function to change the current state of things
known as speech act.
The last domain is politeness. According to Yule (1996:60), politeness
Further, he explains that in pragmatics, the public self image is known as
“face”. Thus, in communication people try to respect and fulfil the others face
wants in order to maintain a good social relationship.
2. Speech Acts
a. Locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary act
Austin (1962:94) defines locutionary act as the act of producing
utterances. Similarly, Yule (1996:48) adds that the speaker may perform a
locutionary act by uttering a purposeful utterances or expressions.Further, he
adds that when people form an utterance, there must be certain functions in
their mind known as illocutionary act. When a speaker performs a speech act,
it consist of locutionary act as the utterance and illocutionary act as the
function of the utterance. Moreover, there is a consequential effect after the
performance of speech act known as perlocutionary act. As stated by Cruse
(2006:168), perlocutionary act is an act performs by the adressee as the
effects of the speaker’s utterance. In short, it can be said that locutionary act,
illocutionary act and perlocutionary act are related to one another. Thus, it is
possible that these three different act found in a single utterance. For
example, when a speaker says “close the door”, it consist of these three acts.
First, the locutionary act is the utterance itself. The second, the illocutionary
act or the function in mind of the utterance is commanding or requesting the
addressee to close the door. Finally, the perlocutionary act or or the effect of
b. Classifications of Speech Acts
Searle (1979:12-20) classifies speech acts into five classes. They are
assertive, directive, commissive, expressive, and declaration.
1) Assertive
It is a kind of speech act which is used to express the speaker belief
(Searle, 1979:12). Further, he says that the purpose of assertive class is to
express the speaker belief which contain facts or something being the case.
For example, when a speaker says “it is raining”, it contains the fact that the
rain is falling. Stating, boasting, deducing, and concluding are some verbs
that belong to this class.
2) Directive
Directive is various acts which consist of the fact that a speaker
attempts to make the hearer do some future actions (Searle, 1979:13). Further,
he adds that the speaker can perform directive speech acts in various degrees.
For example, the utterance “I suggest that you should give up on smoking
immediately” and “I command you to stop smoking immediately” have a
different impact to the hearer although they convey the same basic function
Both utterances attempt to make the hearer stop smoking. However, the
second utterance has a stronger illocutionary force since it contains a
command. The verbs that denote the member of this class are asking,
3) Commissive
It is a kind of speech act used by a speaker to make himself does some
future actions (Yule, 1996:54). For example, the speaker promises to his
friend by uttering “I’ll be back” which means that he commits himself to do a
future action which is coming back to pick up his friend. Thus, commisives
are the expressions of a speaker’s intention. The expression such as promise,
threat, and refusal are parts of this class.
4) Expressive
According to Searle (1979:15), expressives are the expressions of a
speaker’s psychological state. It is a kind of speech act which expresses the
speaker’s feeling. It can be the expression of pleasure, pain or sorrow. The
expressions which belong to this class are the expression of regret,
condolence,and gratitude. For example, a speaker says “I’m really sorry” to
express his feeling when he made a mistake. Another example is when a
speaker expresses his gratitude by saying “Thank you so much”.
5) Declaration
It is a type of speech act that can be used by a speaker to change the
current state of world via his utterance (Yule, 1964:53). Cruse (2006: 62)
gives the example, when a priest succesfully points the hearer as a husband
and wife by stating “I now pronounce you as a husband and wife” then
automatically they will be husband and wife. This utterance can only be
c. Speech Act of Command
Speech act of command is a part of directive class of speech act. Since
directive speech act has the basic function to make someone do some future
action for the speaker, therefore, command possesses the same function.
According to Searle (1979:3), command and request have the same
illocutionary point or purpose. Both attempt to make someone do something.
However, they differ in terms of their illocutionary force. When a speaker
performs a command, he assumes that the hearer has the duty to carry out the
command.
In summary, a command can only be performed by someone who has
the duty or authority over the addressee(Cruse, 2006:62). Moreover, it should
be performed in the right circumstances. There are certain expected or
appropriate circumstances for the performance of speech act which are
technically known as felicity condition (Yule, 1996:50). Since speech act of
command may threat the hearer’s face, the application of politeness strategies
are therefore needed to redress the negative impact.
3. Face
According to Goffman (1967:5), face is a positive social value of a
person that he claims for himself. It is an image of self that a person shows to
fulfill the social norms. Yule (1996:60) adds that the term face refers to the
public self image which contains both emotional and social sense that
In everyday interactions, people generally behave according to their
expectation on how they want their public image to be accepted or
recognized. They behave in a certain way in order to show others how their
self image or face looks like. This desire of showing image of self is known
as face wants. Additionally, the act of saying or doing something which
represents threat to addressee’s face is known as face threatening act. On the
other hand, the act of doing or saying something in order to lessen the impact
of a threat toward a speaker’s face is known as face saving act. Further,
Brown and Levinson in Goody (1978:62), assume that every individual has
two types of face. They are negative face and positive face.
According to Brown and Levinson in Goody (1978:61), negative face is
the basic claims of territories, personal preserves, and right to non-distraction.
In contrast, positive face is the desire of being appreciated and approved by
interactants. Similarly, Yule (1996:62) argues that positive face is a need to
be accepted by others as the same member of a certain social group.
4. Politeness
According to Lakoff (in Watts 2003:50), politeness is defined as a set of
values or rules in societies which is used to develop the social harmony in
communications. Similarly, Leech (in Watts, 2003:50) states that politeness is
a strategy to avoid any conflict in a process of communication. Basically
people tend to avoid threat to other face or they will choose to employ a
certain strategy to minimize the impact because people face are vulnerable
politeness is a strategy to minimize face threatening into a very minimum.
Moreover, Holmes (2006:711) argues that politeness is a matter of linguistic
choices that can be used by the speaker to convey his needs or wants.Thus, it
can be concluded that politeness is a linguistic strategy in communication
which has two possible impacts on the hearer’s face. First, it can be used to
threat participant’s face want. Second, it can also be used to minimize the
threat on participant’s face want. However, it is mostly used to establish and
maintain a good social relationship among participants.
a. Politeness Strategies and The Realizations
According to Brown and Levinson, there are four types of politeness
strategies in interactions. They are bald on record, off record, positive
politeness, and negative politeness (Brown and Levinson in Goody, 1978:69).
Politeness strategies are applied by a speaker when the circumstances in
communication force him to perform a face threatening act. In doing so, he
can choose the strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson. First, he can go
on record baldly without any means of minimizing the negative impact on
addressee’s face want. Second, he can go on record with redressive action by
taking the addressee’s positive face wants which is known as positive
politeness strategies. Third, a speaker can also perform negative politeness
strategies by going on record with redressive action to minimize the threat on
the addressee’s negative face want. The last strategy is being off record, or
1) Bald on Record
According to Brown and Levinson in Goody (1978:69), bald on record
is the most direct, clear, unambigous, and concise strategy in politeness. It is
an explicit face threatening act without any effort to minimize the impact on
the addressee’s face. Moreover, the realization of bald on record strategy is in
the form of non minimization of the face threat.
Brown and Levinson in Goody (1978:95-97) state that there are some
possible circumstances which make the speaker chooses to perform non
minimization of face threat. First, the speaker is powerful and not afraid of
non cooperative action from the hearer, or he does not care about the hearer’s
face. Second, it is performed by a speaker when the maximum efficiency is
very important. Another possibility is that the speaker wants to be rude and
does not care about the other face wants. For example, a wife calls her
husband to inform something very important. Yet, the channel is not very
good, then she shouts “Come home right now!” (Brown and Levinson in
Goody, 1978:97). In this example, the circumstances of communication show
that the maximum efficiency is needed for two reasons. First, the information
is very important. Second, the channel is not good, so the husband cannot
hear her voice clearly. Therefore, she chooses the most direct, concise, and
efficient utterance by saying “Come home right now!”.
2) Off Record
According to Brown and Levinson in Goody (1978:69), off record
means the act of saying something by saying or doing something else.
Further, they explain that off record can be in the form of metaphor, irony,
rhetorical question and all kinds of hints that indicate the speaker’s intention.
Furthermore, there are two sub strategies which can be use as the realization
of off record politeness strategies. They are inviting conversational
implicature and being vague or ambiguous.
First is inviting conversational implicature. It means the act of saying
something which is indirectly related to a speaker’s intention (Brown and
Levinson in Goody, 1978:213). Further, they add that a speaker can invite
conversational implicature in two ways, by giving hints and giving
associated clues. For example, there are students in a class, then one of them
says “It’s cold in here”. When he says that, it can mean more than one
meaning. It is possible that he only wants to convey that it is really cold in the
class. However, it is also possible that he wants the addressee to respond by
doing a certain act, such as closing the window, or switching off the air
conditionioner. In this example, it can be seen that the speaker already gives
the hint and an associated clue to convey his intention although he does not
say it directly.
Second is being vague or ambiguous. According to Brown and
Levinson in Goody (1978:225) it means stating something unclearly which
establish an efficient communication processs, participants will avoid
obscurity and ambiguity of expressions. They explain further that participants
tend convey their intention in a brief and in an order manner in order to
makes communication process running. Thus, being vague or ambiguous
means violating the need of being clear in communication. For example,
when a speaker gets a headache and he tries to ask an aspirin to his friend by
saying “oh damn, a headache...” rather than “oh damn, I get a headache, can
you help me?” or “oh damn, I get a headache, get me your aspirin please”,
this incomplete utterance leaves more rooms of interpretations for the
addressee. Yet, the context of communication will help the addressee
understand the speaker’s intention. Since both participants know that the
addressee has an aspirin, the hearer will understand that the the speaker wants
to ask an aspirin to reduce his headache.
3) Positive Politeness
According to Brown and Levinson in Goody (1978:70), possitive
politeness is a strategy which is oriented to satisfy the hearer’s positive face
wants. It leads the speaker to seek a common goal or even friendship (Yule,
1996:64). This strategy appears when a speaker tries to recognize the
addressee’s positive face wants in order to soften the face threatening act.
Brown and Levinson classify positive politeness strategy into two sub
strategies. They are claiming for common ground and conveying that both
Claiming for common ground is a strategy when a speaker performs an
action which indicates that both participants in communication belong to the
same social group and they share the same specific wants, goals, and values
(Brown and Levinson in Goody, 1978:103). Further, they elaborate that one
of the strategy to claim for common ground is attending or noticing the
addressee’s interests or wants. For example, a speaker says to his staff in an
office “Jim, you’re really good at solving computer problems, I wonder if you
could just help me with a litle formating problem I’ve got” (Watts, 2003:89).
In the first utterance, the speaker recognizes the addressee’s positive face
wants by praising his skill in solving computer problems. Yet, he shows his
real intention in the second utterance by directly demanding the addreessee to
help him. Other strategies to show the common ground are exaggerating
(interest, approval, and sympathy to the hearer), using in-group identity
makers, seeking agreement, avoiding disagreement, and presupposing the
common ground.
According to Brown and Levinson in Goody (1978:125), there is a
condition when both speaker and addressee want to show that they are
cooperators in communications. The realization of this strategies can be in the
form of offering and promising utterances. For example, when a speaker says
to his wife “I’ll take you out to dinner on Saturday. If you’ll cook the dinner
this evening” (Watts, 2003:90), the speaker wants to ask his wife to make a
dinner this evening. Yet, in order to soften the face damage on his wife, he
show how the speaker conveys that both participants can get a mutual benefit
in the interaction by being cooperative. Moreover, conveying that both
participants are cooperators can be performed in five more strategies. They
are presupposing the hearer wants, being optimistic, including the participants
in the same activity, giving or asking for a reason, and giving gift to the
hearer (goods, sympathy, understanding, and cooperations).
4) Negative Politeness
Negative politeness is a strategy that concerns on the addressee’s
negative face wants. Thus, to perform this strategy a speaker has to realize the
addressee’s negative face wants and takes them into consideration (Brown
and Levinson in Goody, 1978:70). The realization of negative politeness
classified into four sub strategies. They are, being direct, not presuming or
assuming, avoiding to coerce the addressee, and the last one is
communicating the speaker’s want to not impinge on the addressee.
First realization is being direct. According to Brown and Levinson in
Goody (1978:130), it is a combination between on record strategy and the
need to minimize the negative impact on the addressee’s face. Thus, the result
of this strategy can be seen when a speaker states his intentions indirectly on
record which also known as conventionaly indirect strategy. For example,
when a speaker wants to ask about a particular time to a stranger or someone
who has a higher authority or status than him, he will perform a polite
the addressee’s negative face because it does not directly damage the
addressee’s face. However, the second utterance is clearer and direct.
However, it can harm the addressee’s face.
The second realization is not presuming or assuming. Brown and
Levinson in Goody (1978:144) say that a speaker can respect the addressee’s
negative face wants by avoiding to presume or assume the addresse’s wants
or desires. In other words, to performs this strategy means the speaker
keeping a certain distance in communication with the addressee. The
realization of this strategies can be in the form of questions and hedges. For
example, a speaker states “I wonder wheteher if I could just sort of ask you a
little question” (Watts, 2003:90). The speaker wants to ask a question to the
addressee, yet he is afraid to bother the addresse’s negative face wants. Thus,
in this utterance, the speaker shows his respect by not performing any effort
to assume the addressee’s wants.
The third realization is avoiding to coerce the addresse. Brown and
Levinson in Goody (1978:172) argue that a speaker may redress the face
threatening act toward the hearer’s negative face by avoiding to coerce the
addresse’s response on his utterance. The realizations of this strategies are in
three forms. They are being pessimistic, minimizing the imposition, and
giving the deference. Being pessimistic means a speaker expresses his doubt
in the performance of his speech act. For example, a speaker says “If you had
a litle time to spare for me this afternoon, I’d like to talk about my paper”
shows that the speaker hesitates whether the addresse wants to help him or
not.
The fourth realization is communicating the speakers’s want to not
impinge on the addressee. Brown and Levinson in Goody (1978:187) explain
that there are two ways that can be used by a speaker to covey his intention to
not impinge the addresse’s negative face wants. They are apologizing and
impersonalizing the speaker and addressee. A speaker can lessen the face
threat by performing an apology or avoiding to use the pronoun “I” and
“You”. It is intended to show that the participants are not alone but they are
only inclusive of a certain group. For example, a speaker says “Sorry to
bother, but can I borrow your money?”. In this utterance, the speaker wants to
borrow the money, yet, he starts his utterance by apologizing to show that he
does not force the addressee to grant his request.
b. Factor Influencing the Choice of Politeness Strategies
The circumstances where a communication occurs also influence the
participants to perform politeness strategies. Brown and Levinson in Goody
(1978:74) recognize three fundamental sociological variables in relation to
the relative weight of different face threatening acts. These three sociological
variables are, the social distance among participants, the relative power that
the addressee has over the speaker, and the ranking of imposition expressed in
the utterance.
Holmes (2006:713), explains that each of sociological variable
Thus, the assesment of appropriate strategy or degree of politeness is needed
to express the speaker’s intended message. Holmes (2009: 713), gives the
example as illustrated bellow.
Context : Son to Mother in the family’s living room
Son (S) : um mum, do you think um I could just possibly borrow your car?
Mother (H) : (FROWNS)
Son (S) : um just for a litle while Mother (H) : um well (FROWNS)
Son (S) : it’s just that I need to get this book to Elen tonight
The context of the conversation is that there is a boy who wants to
borrow his mother’s car. Further, Holmes (2009: 713) explains that in this
family relationship the social distance among the participants is low since
their frequency of communication is relatively high. However, in their
relationship as a family, the mother has a higher power compared to the
speaker. Moreover, he asks a big favor to borrow his mother’s car which
means the ranking of imposition is high. Based on this circumstances, he is
therefore select a more linguistically polite way of asking.
In making his request, S includes negative politeness strategies. He
avoids to assume H’s wants by performing hedges or mitigating devices
(hesitation maker “um”, modal verb “could”, particle “possibly”, and
minimizers “just” and “a litle”). Morover, S also performs positive politeness
strategies by using group identity marker “mum” and providing the reason for
a request. If the context changes, for example, if it is the mother who wants to
borrow a car from his son then the form of the utterance will be different.
rather than negative or positive politeness. It is because the addressee has a
relatively lower power compared to the speaker
5. The Lottery TV Series
Figure 1. The poster The Lottery TV Series Season 1
The Lottery is an American TV series which directed by Timothy J.
Sexton. Its first season was broadcasted on Lifetime TV network from July
20 to September 28, 2014. The story was set in 2025 when women stops to
have children due to a vertility crisis.
The invertility pandemic is firstly noticed by the world’s government in
2016. In 2019, the last six children born all over the world. All countries does
a lot of research and try to find the cure otherwise the human exsistance will
be extinct in less then a hundred years. Then, in 2025, the US Government
make a breakthrough. Dr. Alison Lennon and her team who works for the US
embryos. Soon, the president makes a meeting in White House in order to
discuss the best plan for the embryos.
The head of the US DOH, Darius Hayes, argues that the government
should keep the information secret from the outside world and involve the
U.S military to protect it. However, the chief of staff, Vanessa Keller does not
agree with him. From the political perspective, she believes that the
government should do exactly the opposite of Darius’s idea. She suggests that
the government should create the public lottery to find 100 women who will
carry the embryos. She adds, the public lottery will minimize the protests
from the citizen and it will increase the popularity of the president. Moreover,
public lottery will create a new hope for the people to have a children in the
future days. Finally, the president agrees with the idea of the lottery and
appoints Vanessa to prepare the project.
B. Previous Studies
The research on speech acts and politeness have been conducted for
several times. These research show different results since they focus on
different points. Here, the researcher presents previous research related to the
discussion on speech act and politeness. The first research is conducted by
Annisa Dewi Widowati (2012), entitled A Pragmatic Analysis of Speech Act
of Commands by the Main Character in the Film Elizabeth:The Golden Age.
The research focuses on three points. They are, identifying the types of
commands, finding the form of commands, and analyzing how speech acts of
After conducting the research, Annisa Dewi Widowati found that there
are two types of commands performed by the main character, direct and
indirect commands. According to the researcher, direct commands are mostly
used by the main character. Further, she found that there are seven forms of
commands used by the main character in the film Elizabeth:The Golden Age.
They are, base form of verb, you+imperative, present participle form of verb,
verb elipsisis, imperative+modifier, let+first person pronoun, embedded
agent, and hints. Then, at last she found that the main charater performs the
speech act of commands in four ways. They are, bald on record, off record,
positive politeness, and negative poiteness.
Another investigation is conducted by Mifta Hasmi (2013) that is A
Pragmatic Analysis of Politeness Strategies Reflected in Nanny Mcphee
Movie. This research focuses on analyzing the use of politeness strategies.
The result presents two important points. First, there are four politeness
strategies employed by the main character in the movie. They are, bald on
record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record. Second, in
realizing the politeness strategies, the main character utilized their own sub
strategies. Bald on record are realized by showing disagreement, giving an
advice, request, warning/threatening, and using an imperative form. Positive
politeness strategies are performed by claiming for common ground,
conveying that speaker and hearer are cooperators, and fulfilling the hearer’s
face wants. Negative politeness strategies are realized by being indirect, not
impinge on the hearer, and reddressing other wants of the hearer. Lastly, off
record strategies are realized by inviting conventional implicature, and being
vague or ambiguous.
This research is different from the previous studies since it is not only
investigating speech act of commands and politeness strategies in general.
Otherwise, the researcher tries to combine both discussions. In short, this
research observes the role of politeness strategies used by the main characters
in the first season of The Lottery TV Series to express the speech act of
commands.
C. Conceptual Framework
The object of analysis in this study is the first season of The Lottery TV
Series. The research uses pragmatic approach. The focus of the research is to
observe the role of politeness strategies as expressed in speech act of
commands performed by Vannesa Keller and Darius Hayes in the first season
of The Lottery TV Series.
In this research, the researcher formulates the objectives into three
points. First, it is to identify the types of politeness strategies of commands
performed by Vannesa Keller and Darius Hayes. The second is to describe the
realization of politeness strategies performed by Vannesa Keller and Darius
Hayes. The last is to find out the possible factors which influence the
speakers to perform certain politeness strategies. The researcher used the
politeness theories proposed by Brown and Levinson in Goody(1978) to
Figure 2: Analytical Construct
Claiming for common ground
Conveying that both participants are cooperators
Being direct/conventionaly indirect
Not presuming/assuming
Avoiding to coerce the addressee
Communicating the speakers want to not impinge on addressee
Relative power
31 CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD A.Research Type
To analyze the data, descriptive qualitative method was employed in
this research since it focused on investigating the human behavior related to
the performance of politeness strategies of command. As stated by Kothari
(2004:2-3), qualitative research is a type of research which concerned with
qualitative phenomenon such as investigating the reasons of certain human
behavior. Furthermore, descriptive method includes surveys and different
kinds of questions as the inquiry to find the fact. In addition, according to
Vanderstoep and Johnston (2009:167), the purpose of qualitative research is
more descriptive than predictive. It focuses on in depth understanding of the
research participants’ point of view. In addition, quantitative method was also
used to measure the frequency of data occurance. As stated by Vanderstoep
and Johnston (2009:7), quantitative method used to specifies numerical
assigment of certain phenomena in the research study. Moreover, pragmatics
was used as the approach to analyze the data in this research.
B.Forms, Contexts, and Source of Data
The data in this research were in the form of utterances uttered by two
main characters, Vanessa Keller and Darius Hayes in the first season of The
Lottery TV Series. The context of data was the dialogues among the
characters which contain politeness and the performance of speech act of
episodes of the first season of The Lottery TV Series, i.e. Pilot, Rules of the
According to Lincoln and Guba in Vanderstoep and Johnston (2009:188), the
best instrument in qualitative research is human. Moreover, Merriam
(2009:15) explains that the characteristic of qualitative research includes the
researcher as the primary instrument for data collection and data analysis. As
the main instrument, the researcher had the role of planning, collecting,
analyzing and reporting the research findings.
In this research, a data sheet was used as the secondary instrument. The
data sheet was in the form of a table and was used to note the utterances that
contain politeness strategies of command performed by Vanessa Keller and
Darius Hayes in the first season of The Lottery TV Series. The model of data
sheet is shown as follows.
Table 1: Sample Data Sheet of Politeness Strategies of Command in the first season of The Lottery TV Series
N
drugs? understand that selling counterfeit fertility drugs is a serius crime, she decides to perform bald on record politeness strategy. She directly and intentionally attacks Nick’s face want in order to warn him that selling counterfeit fertility drugs is a serious crime. The most influential factor is the social distance among them. In this conversation, Vanessa Keller goes baldy on record since
CI : Inviting Conversational Implicature VA : Being Vague or Ambiguous
CG : Claiming for Common Ground
PC : Conveying That Both Participants are Cooperators BD : Being Direct
PA : Not Presuming or Assuming AC : Avoiding to Coerce the Addressee
SW : Communicating the Speaker’s Want to not Impinge on the Addressee
D. Data Collection Techniques
In this research, content analysis was used as the data collection
technique. According to Kothari (2004:96), there are several methods of data
questionnaires and other methods which include (a) warranty cards; (b) distributor
audits; (c) pantry audits; (d) consumer panels; (e) using mechanical devices; (f)
through projective techniques; (g) depth interviews, and (h) content analysis.
Content analysis consists of analyzing the contents of documentary materials and
all verbal materials which can be either spoken or printed. Thus, in collecting the
data from the series, the researcher conducted several steps as follows.
First, the researcher watched the series. Second, the researcher
downloaded the transcripts. Third, the researcher re-watched the series and
checked the accuracy of the transcripts. At the same time, the researcher
marked all the utterances which indicated the performance of speech act of
command in the series. Last, the researcher classified the collected data into a
data sheet.
E.Data Analysis Techniques
In analyzing the data, qualitative method uses inductive approach.
According to Vanderstoep and Johnston (2009:168), inductive approach is a
process of reasoning where observation came first, then followed by theory,
hypothesis and interpretation.
After data collection, the researcher did four procedures in data
analysis. First, the data were classified based on the three objectives of the
research. Second, data trustworthiness was checked by consulting to the
linguistics students and lecturers. Third, the researcher analyzed, described,
and interpreted the data. Fourth, the researcher deriveed the conclusions
F. Data Trustworthiness
The researcher employed triangulation technique to create data
trustworthiness. According to Vanderstoep and Johnston (2009:179),
triangulation is a method of using more than one methodology to address the
same question in order to create or develop the validity and reliability of the
research data. There are four types of triangulation. They are data
triangulation, investigator triangulation, methods triangulation, and theory
triangulation.
In order to gain reliability of the data, this research employed an
investigator triangulation. By using investigator triangulation, the researcher
used more than one investigator to investigate the data. The researcher
discussed and consulted the data with his supervisors. Furthermore, the
researcher also asked other linguistics students to triangulate the data.
Moreover, theory triangulation was also achieved by using multiple theories
in the process of data analysis and data interpretation. Searle’s theories on
speech act and politeness theories from Brown and Levinson were used as the
36 CHAPTER IV
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION A. Findings
This section presents the findings of the analysis of politeness strategies
of commands performed by Vanessa Keller and Darius Hayes in The Lottery
TV Series. The data were classified based on the three research objectives: to
identify the types of politeness strategies, to describe the realizations of each
politeness strategies, and to identify the factors which initiate the performance
of politeness strategies. This research reveals 30 data based on the utterances
of Vanessa and Darius. Vanessa performs 20 utterances and Darius performs
10 utterances as presented in Table 2. The table presents the frequency of
occurrence of types, realizations, and factors of politeness strategies.
Table 2. The frequency of occurrence of types, realizations, and factors of politeness strategies performed by Vanessa and Darius in The Lottery TV Series
Types : Factor :
BR : Bald on Record D : Social Distance
OR : Off Record P : Relative Power
PP : Positive Politeness R : Ranking of Imposition
NP : Negative Politeness
Speaker Types and the Realization Total
Data
Factor Total
Data
BR OR PP NP D P R
NM CI VA CG PC BD PA AC SW
Vanessa 11 3 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 20 7 12 1 20
Darius 3 1 0 4 2 0 0 0 0 10 0 9 1 10
Realizations:
NM : Non Minimization
CI : Inviting Conversational Implicature
VA : Being Vague or Ambiguous
CG : Claiming for Common Ground
PC : Conveying that Both Participants are Cooperators
BD : Being Direct
PA : Not Presuming or Assuming
AC : Avoiding to Coerce the Addressee
SW :Communicating the Speaker’s Want to Not Impinge on the Addressee
Brown and Levinson in Goody (1978) propose four types of politeness
strategies. They are bald on record, off record, positive politeness and
negative politeness. In relation to the speech act of command, each type of
politeness strategies is found in the data. Moreover, the frequency of
occurrence of each type of politeness strategies is different.
The most frequent strategy performed by the speakers is bald on record
politeness strategy with 14 data. In this strategy, Vanessa performs 11
utterances and the other 3 utterances are performed by Darius. Since there is
only one way to perform bald on record which is without minimization of
face threat, therefore, the form of bald on record politeness strategy will be
very clear without any ambiguity. Thus, the directness of bald on record
politeness strategy gives more advantages for the speakers in giving a
command.
The second most frequent strategy is positive politeness strategy with 9
data. Six of them are performed by Darius. He performs 4 utterances of
positive politeness strategy by claiming for common ground and 2 more
utterances by conveying that both participants are cooperators. On the other
strategy and she realizes it in the form of conveying that both participants are
cooperators. By using positive politeness strategy, the speakers get some
benefits. First, both the speaker and the addressee can get a mutual benefit by
being cooperative. Second, when the speakers convey to the addressee that
they belong to the same group and have the same goals, it redresses the
negative impact on the hearer’s face.
The next most frequent strategy is off record politeness strategy by
inviting conversational implicature with 4 data, and 3 of them are performed
by Vanessa. There are two ways that can be used to realize off record
politeness strategy. Inviting conversational implicature and being vague or
ambiguous. However, the performance of being vague or ambiguous is not
found in the first season of The Lottery TV Series. Both Vanessa and Darius
perform speech acts of command by inviting conversational implicatures
when the context of the conversation is clear. Thus, they can still convey their
intention clearly although some of the utterances contain multiple
interpretations.
The least frequent strategy to occur is negative politeness with 3 data.
All of them are performed by Vanessa in the form of being direct. Being
direct means saying something directly on record with an attempt to reduce
the negative impact by taking the hearer’s negative face into consideration.
Therefore, the speaker can get an advantage for being polite in a certain
degree. However, there are three more realizations of negative politeness
are not presuming or assuming, avoiding to coerce the addressee, and
communicating the speaker’s want to not impinge on the addressee. There are
two possible factors which make these realizations do not occur. First, when
the speakers perform a command, most of their addressees are people who
work for them, thus, they do not have to be afraid of non cooperative actions
from the addressee. Second, to perform a command means to coerce the
addressee to do something for the speakers and most of the speakers perform
it directly in order to prevent multiple interpretations.
In relation to the third objective, Brown and Levinson in Goody (1978)
propose that there are three factors which can influence the speaker to choose
a certain strategy of politeness. They are social distance, relative power, and
ranking of imposition. All of these factors are found in the first season of The
Lottery TV Series. Relative power becomes the most dominant factor with 21
data; 12 of them are found in Vanessa’s utterances. Relative power strongly
influences the speakers since most of their audiences are people working for
them. In some utterances, the addressee is probably socially close to the
speakers but the setting and the topic is formal. The second most dominant
factor is social distance with 7 data and all of them are performed by Vanessa.
Social distance never influences Darius because he rarely performs speech
acts of command except to someone who works for him. Finally, the least
factor to occur is ranking of imposition with 2 data. Both Vanessa and Darius
