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ABSTRACT
Elisabeth, Conny. 2014. Politeness Principles in Barrack Obama’s Interview. A Thesis. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan.
This study was focused on the types of politeness principles. This research was conducted by using descriptive qualitative design. The data were the transcript of Barrack Obama’s interviews which were downloaded from the internet. The findings showed that there were 31 utterances which contained 6 types of politeness principles. Obama tended to use the expressions of agreement maxim (51,61%), approbation maxim (22,58%), generosity maxim (12,9%), tact maxim (6,45%), modesty maxim (3,22%), and sympathy maxim (3,22%). The most dominant type of politeness principles was agreement maxim which means that Obama tried to minimize disagreement between self and other and maximize agreement between self and other.
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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ... 1
A. Background of Study ... 1
D. Politeness Principle (PP) ... 11
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G. CNN ... 19
1. Chris Cuomo ... 20
H. Biography of Barrack Obama ... 23
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 27
A. Research Design ... 27
B. The Source of Data ... 27
C. Technique of Collecting Data ... 28
D. Technique of Analyzing Data ... 28
CHAPTER IV: DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS ... 30
A. The Data ... 30
B. Data Analysis ... 30
C. Research Findings ... 37
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 39
A. Conclusions ... 39
B. Suggestions ... 40
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LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1 Table of Barrack Obama’s Interview Script Analysis 43
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of The Study
Language is the most important tool of communication in our daily
life. By using language, people can do an interaction to share their idea,
express their feeling, inform the news, and to build up their social relationship.
Language can make people easier in communicating to each other.
In communication, speaker has a message that needs to be conveyedto
the hearer. The message sometimes cannot be found in his words and
utterances literary so that there is a study called pragmatics. Pragmatics is a
study of contextual meaning. Yule (1996:3) said that pragmatics necessarily
involves the interpretation of what people mean in particular context and how
the context influences what is said. It means that how speaker organizes what
s/he wants to say appropriately with whom s/he talking to, when, where, and
what the circumstance.
One of discussions in pragmatics is politeness. Grundy (2000:146)
states that politeness phenomena are one manifestation of the wider concept of
etiquette or appropriate behavior. One has to follow some important strategies
to be successful in interaction and to be polite. Lakoff (1972), Leech (1983)
and Brown and Levinson (1987) were some of the earliest linguists to study
politeness. Since then, many other theorists have built on their ideas and
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Rahardi (2005:59) states that politeness principles that until now was
considered as the most complete, most established, and relatively most
comprehensive have been formulated by Leech. That is why the writer
decided to apply Leech’s theory in this study.
Leech (1983:15) characterized the present approach to pragmatics as
rhetorical. The use of this term refers to the study of effective use of language
in communication which deals with the focus it places on a goal-oriented
speech situation, in which speaker uses language in order to produce a
particular effect in the mind of hearer. As a set of conversational principles
which are related by their functions, it is divided into interpersonal and
textual. Rhetoric interpersonal is divided into three principles: Cooperative
Principle (CP), Politeness Principle (PP), and Irony Principle (IP). In this
thesis, the writer will focus on PP.
According to the philosopher Leech (1983:132), there are six maxims
of PP; (1) tact maxim, (2) generosity maxim, (3) approbation maxim, (4)
modesty maxim, (5) agreement maxim, and (6) sympathy maxim.
The center of PP concept is the effect of what the speaker said to the
people. So the speaker may speak untruth in order to make the hearer become
pleased. PP also teaches us how to produce utterances without making the
hearer angry. In another word, the speaker is allowed to speak a white lie to
avoid conflict and get respect from others.
According to Rosenthal (1996:999), individuals would be more polite
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(2008:97) also states that generally, we act politely in order to show our
wishes to start a friendly relation with someone, or to maintain it if it is
already existing, or to mend it if it is being threatened for some reasons. To
maintain the kind of smooth, harmonious interpersonal relationships called for
by any human community, politeness serves as a ready means. It means that
whenever we want someone to do us a favor we have to make the request in a
polite manner.
A conversation not only depends on the speaker who is trying to
deliver a message, but also on the listeners who draw a conclusion from the
implication of the utterance and depending on the context in which it occurs.
Conversation itself consist of two kinds; written such as movie script and
spoken such as talk show or interviews in television. The politeness of
someone can be shown when they are talking. It can be seen from their face,
body gesture, intonation, and word choosing. Barrack Obama as the President
of America was often being interviewed. That is why he needs to be polite in
his interview.
There have been some previous researches related to the PP. One of
them is An Analysis of Politeness Principles in SBY’s Speech by Sitanggang (2010). Her study is intended to describe the types of PP and its meaning in
SBY’s speech. In her research, she found that the most dominant PP that was
used by SBY in his speech is the tact maxim which means that SBY tried to
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study of Elida inspires the writer in establishing the procedure of the data
analysis.
Pakzadian (2012:357) in his study on Politeness Principle in the
Presidential Debates between Mc Cain and Obama concluded that there was a
complex situation for audience in responding scientific articles. He also
considered politeness principle as a crucial factor which contributes to the
candidates face in debates.
Related to the explanation above, it is interesting to analyze PP in
Barrack Obama’s interview because as a president, he must consider the
importance of politeness in his language, especially in his interview. He must
be careful of it because politeness can raise his popularity to the people of
America and even to the people in the entire world. Barrack Obama should be
careful and being polite in his interview because almost all people in the
world, especially in America will hear him and every single word from him
will give impact to all aspect.
The writer chose President Barrack Obama’s interview as the data,
because Obama was rated as the most respected and popular world leader. His
choice of word is usually polite. That is why he won the election twice. The
writer assumed that he is the best example for Indonesian youth who want to
be a president or politician.
By doing this research, it is expected that the public especially the
Indonesian youth can understand how a politician should speak. Being polite
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educated one. It is expected for students to speak politely because being polite
can decrease enemy and minimize conflict that may be found in
communication. Thus, being polite is not only for the people in high class but
also for those in middle and even low class. That is because politeness is
universal. No matter how someone’s social status, gender or age, all people
must speak and interact politely each other because when someone being
polite, people will feel glad and comfortable with you.
B. The Problem of the Study
Based on the background above, the problems of the study can be
formulated as follows:
1. What kinds of politeness principles are used in the utterance of President
Barrack Obama’s interview?
2. What kind of politeness principle is the most dominantly used in the
utterance of President Barrack Obama’s interview?
C. The Objectives of The Study
The objectives of the study are:
1. To find out the kinds of politeness principles in the utterance of President
Barrack Obama’s interview.
2. To find out the most dominant politeness principle in the utterance of
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D. The Scope of The Study
The discussion of the study is limited to politeness principles in the
interview of President Barrack Obama. The data is the transcript of Barrack
Obama’s interview in Morning Show at CNTV on August 23, 2013 and
September 17, 2012. This study focuses on Leech’s theory which introduces
six maxims. They are tact maxim, generosity maxim, approbation maxim,
modesty maxim, agreement maxim, and sympathy maxim.
E. The Significance of the Study
The finding of this study is expected to give both theoretical and
practical contribution in pragmatics studies, especially in analyzing politeness
principles that were used by Barrack Obama in his interview.
Theoretically, the finding of the research is expected to be one of the
sources in pragmatic studies, particularly on the analyzing politeness principles
used by Barrack Obama in his interview.
Practically, it is expected to be more practical. The students who learn
English are expected to be able to recognize and to analyze politeness principles
used in spoken language. In addition, to the teachers, the result of the research will
be an additional material in studying and understanding the types of Politeness
Principles. Also the result of the study is expected to be a contribution to others
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
A.
Conclusion
Based on the previous chapter, the conclusion can be formulated as follows:
1.
There are six types of politeness principles used in the interview of Barrack
Obama; it consists of 2 (6,45%) expression of Tact Maxim, 4 (12,9%) expressions
of Generosity Maxim, 7 (22,58%) expressions of Approbation Maxim, 1 (3,22%)
expressions of Modesty Maxim, 16 (51,61%) expressions of Agreement maxim
and 1 (3,22%) expressions of Sympathy Maxim. Therefore, there are 31
expressions of politeness principles that are found in the Obama’s interview.
2.
The most dominant type of politeness principles that is used by Barrack Obama in
his interview is agreement maxim. It means Barrack Obama minimized
disagreement between self and others; maximized agreement between self and
other. He used agreement maxim to get respect from others because people
usually will be glad and welcome someone who have the same understanding and
point of view. It also aimed to reduce conflict between him and the interview and
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B.
Suggestion
In relation to the conclusions, suggestions are presented as the following:
1.
It is suggested that everyone who wants to do a similar research should focus the
attention to politeness principles used in the interview so that they could get fuller
understanding about the types and the function of politeness principles.
2.
It is also suggested that other researchers should conduct further researches on
politeness principles in other setting of communications to complete the study
about politeness principles, so the reader could be comprehend about it.
3.
It is advised that students who have studied in applied linguistics should use
politeness principles in their daily life because people will feel comfortable to
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