The Occurence of Tense Atmosphere Due To The Miscalculation of The Weightiness of The FTA in 'Twenty Four'.

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Maranatha Christian University ii

ABSTRACT

Dalam tugas akhir ini, saya akan menganalisis tentang ketidaktepatan dalam penggunaan strategi kesantunan kepada mitra tutur lewat penelitian tentang peranan strategi kesantunan dalam serial aksi Amerika berjudul Twenty Four.

Saya mengumpulkan teori mengenai kesantunan dari beberapa sumber, seperti sejumlah buku dari perpustakaan dan internet. Saya juga mengaplikasikan teori yang berkaitan dengan Pragmatics dan juga teori spesifik mengenai kesantunan dan muka, yang dalam Meaning in Interaction: an Introduction to Pragmatics disebut dengan politeness and the management of face. Face

Threatening Act (FTA) adalah tindakan mengancam muka. Guna menghindari

tindakan mengancam muka, penutur harus terlebih dahulu mengenal empat macam kesantunan.

Guna mengetahui strategi kesantunan yang tepat dalam menyampaikan keinginan penutur, penutur harus menghargai muka mitra tutur (hearer’s face). Sebelum menghargai tentang muka mitra tutur, penutur harus mengenal the

Weightiness of the FTA based on the three parameters (tolak ukur FTA yang

didasarkan dalam tiga parameter) yakni Power (kuasa), Distance (jarak) and Rate

of Imposition (tingkat imposisi). Setelah mengetahui tolak ukur dari FTA, penutur

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Maranatha Christian University iv

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39

APPENDIX

Data 1

David Palmer: You were part of it, weren’t you? When all is and done, you’re on Prescott’s side.

Mike Novick : No sir, I’ m on your side and always be. This could be a good thing, a chance to correct a mistake of historic proportions. David, I’m begging you reconsider your position on this. David Palmer: I’m the president, Mike. You don’t call me by my first name. Mike Novick : Yes, sir. Jack Bauer: You are packing the fuses a little tight, sport. Dave : What did you say?

Data 3

David Palmer : Wayne, we have to be patient. Anne is not going anywhere and are not changing our strategies.

Wayne Palmer: David, we really…

David Palmer : Right now, it’s Mr. President. Wayne Palmer: Yes sir, Mr. President.

Data 4

Ivan’s technician: Our real enemy is Rusia. We should be figuring out another way to get back home not wasting time trying to use the gas against the Americans.

Ivan Erwich : Question my orders again and I will kill you. Do you

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they find us. So if we cannot use the gas against Russia, we will use it against America. Get up!

Data 5

Bill Buchanan: What is it Lynn? I’m up to my ears trying to coordinate this hostage situation.

Lynn McGill : Sit down Mr. Buchanan.

Bill Buchanan: Would you stop with the Mr. Buchanan? We need to get this assault in motion now! Lynn McGill : Sit down Bill.

Data 6

Chloe O’Brian: Edgar what’s the new password for the central server? Edgar Stiles : I’ll get you on.

Chloe O’Brian: No, don’t get me on. Just give me the password so I can access it whenever I want to.

Edgar stiles : It’s not your area anymore.

Chloe O’Brian: What are you talking about? You work for me.

Edgar Stiles : No, I worked for you. Worked! With an ‘ed’ at the end, past

Tony Almeida: Chassell stand up! Please stand up! Get off! Chassell : We’re gonna get her to talk!

Tony Almeida: She’s gonna in shock before she does. Just relax! Jack Bauer : Agent Chassell, step outside. Now! I want prints and photographs send to CTU immediately.

Chassell : He has no right to give me order.

Data 8

Bill Buchanan: Jack can be disciplined later. Taking him out of the field right now is a mistake.

Lynn McGill : Don’t tell me how to do my job.

Bill Buchanan: He was authorized by the president, Lynn.

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41 Data 9

Barry : You’re not helping her. You’re just making things worse. Jack Bauer: I am sure that you are qualified to help someone through this kind of distress over an extended period of time but you see we do not have an extended period of time. So if you don’t mind stepping aside so I can do my job. I would appreciate it.

Barry : Believe or not Jack, you don’t have to be qualified to help people. You just have to be there for them.

Jack Bauer: Like you were for there for my daughter. Barry : What does that mean?

Jack Bauer: You’re twenty years older than she is. I know exactly what you’re doing.

David Palmer: Cut the euphemisms, Joseph. What are you trying to say?

Joseph : Sir, we are concerned about the fact that you ordered the death of a high ranking member of our intelligent.

David palmer: Joseph, No one’s more aware than I am of the moral ambiguity of my decision. I did it to buy CTU more time to find Saunders and to delay for as long as possible the slaughter of millions.

Data 11

Charles Logan: When did this happen?

Evelyn : A few minutes ago I came back in and I found her on the bed.

Charles Logan: What do you mean came back in? You mean you left her alone!

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Maranatha Christian University 1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

We converse with a lot of people in our daily lives. In other words, we communicate with others in the daily lives. We produce utterances to express our intention to others within our communication to express our needs, to ask something, to have someone to do something, to invite someone and others. We will make others angry if we simply reveal our intention without paying attention to politeness. That is why; politeness has important roles in our communication.

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not have uttered the utterance because such an utterance only fits for a man who has power over the woman or if the man has a close relationship with the woman. According to Brown and Levinson, Face is the public self-image of a person. When a speaker reveals his or her intention to a hearer, there is a possibility of threat to the hearer’s face. This is usually known as Face Threatening Act or can be called FTA. In order to avoid the threat to the hearer’s face, one needs to apply the appropriate politeness strategy. (Thomas 168-169)

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The corpus of the data for my analysis is speech events in Twenty Four movie series. Twenty Four are action movie series. They are concerned with Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) and politics. These movie series present a lot of tense atmospheres. The tense atmospheres are built by gun fight, physical combat, betrayal, terrorist’s threat, time limit, conversations and others. Yet, in my thesis, I want to specifically analyze the conversations that lead to the occurrence of tense atmosphere in the movie series. I choose these movie series because in the movie series, I can find statements in which a speaker miscalculates the Weightiness of the FTA. The miscalculation results in the speaker’s applying the politeness

strategy inappropriately, which means that although the speaker has chosen a

certain politeness strategy to apply to the hearer carefully, the hearer’s face is still threatened. This gives rise to the tense atmosphere of the characters in the movie series. Although the miscalculation of the Weightiness of FTA is not the main elements to result in the tense atmospheres, the miscalculation is one of the elements which gives rise to the tense atmospheres in Twenty Four movie series. Therefore, my thesis topic is “The miscalculation of the Weightiness of the FTA in Twenty Four”.

My topic belongs to Pragmatics. Pragmatics is meaning in interaction. This definition is formulated from the process of speaker’s meaning. Pragmatics as the study of speaker’s meaning means message produced by a speaker and interpreted by a hearer. The specific theory I use is politeness strategy and the management of face. According to Jenny Thomas, politeness means that one shows awareness to another person's face and try to avoid damage to the hearer’s

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Statement of the problems

1. Who are the participants involved in the speech events?

2. How does the miscalculation of the Weightiness of the FTA appear in the

speech events?

3. How does the miscalculation of the Weightiness of the FTA help to the

occurrence of tense atmosphere to the story?

Purpose of the Study

1. To know the participants involved in the speech events.

2. To know how the miscalculation of the Weightiness of the FTA appear in the speech events.

3. To know how the miscalculation of the Weightiness of the FTA help to the occurrence of tense atmosphere to the story.

Methods of Research

The source of data is conversation in Twenty Four movie series. I want to find out some utterances which contain miscalculation of the Weightiness of the FTA in the movie series. First, I watch Twenty Four movie series and then I analyze some conversations in the movie series. Afterwards, I look for the theory from the Internet and read some books at library concerned with politeness. I look for the theory from Meaning in Interaction: an Introduction to Pragmatics book and Pragmatics book. Finally, I write the research report about the politeness

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Organization of the Thesis

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CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I would like to draw some conclusions concerning the occurrence of tense atmosphere due to the miscalculation of the Weightiness of the FTA in Twenty Four. After having analyzed some data, I find out when the speaker wants to reveal his or intention, there is possibility of threatening the hearer’s face. Thus, there are four strategies to perform in order to minimize or to avoid damage to the hearer’s face in Twenty Four.

I would like to point out that there are some different kinds of features of

politeness strategies applied by the speakers in Twenty Four. Performing

bald-on-record politeness strategy is the most direct form politeness strategy. It is because

I find that there is not identity marker; on the contrary, what is important only the content of the messages. For example: when Chloe ask new password to Edgar, she utters: “No, don’t get me on. Just give me the password so I can access it

whenever I want to.” I also point out that there are three features to indicate

positive politeness strategy. The first one is identity markers that emphasize

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The second one is showing interests to hearers. The third one is claiming common ground. There are a lot of features to indicate negative politeness strategy, for examples: shows deference, use of hedge and impersonalize speaker and hearer. Three features to indicate off-record politeness strategy are giving hints, using metaphors and being ambiguous.

I also conclude five things. The first one is I find that sometimes the speaker is not aware of the Weightiness of the FTA in Twenty Four. The Weightiness of the FTA is based on three parameters of Power, Distance and Rate of Imposition. In the data, the speakers at least miscalculate one of the three parameters. In Twenty Four, Most of the speakers are not aware of the parameters of Power, Distance and Rate of Imposition because of the closeness between speaker and the hearer, Power, Distance, and Rate of Imposition becomes similar. If the speakers choose to perform bald-on-record strategy or off-record strategy, the speakers have to pay more attention to the three parameters. In the film, for example: When Tony Almeida performs bald-on-record strategy to agent Chassell, Chassell becomes angry with him because he gives order to his commandant. It is because Tony miscalculates parameters of Power and Distance. This leads the speakers to perform an inappropriate politeness strategy to the hearers.

The secondly I find out that sometimes the speakers misinterpret the hearers’ face wants in Twenty Four. I am of the opinion that the speaker has to pay more attention to the Weightiness of the FTA based on three parameters of Power, Distance and Rate of Imposition if the speaker chooses to perform positive

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determine what the hearers’ face wants, whether it is negative face wants or

positive face wants. The hearer’s face wants sometimes can change according to

the situation. Hearers’ face wants can change according to speech event; therefore, the speakers must pay attention to it. I find that usually the hearer expects negative face at formal situation. In Twenty Four, sometimes this happens even though the speakers are relatively close with the hearer. In Twenty Four, for an example: When Wayne Palmer calls David Palmer with ‘David’ at formal situation; David feels his face threatened. It is because the closeness between them, Power, Distance, and Rate of Imposition becomes similar. In fact, the hearer wants to be independent. I also would like to point out that sometimes the hearers expect positive face at formal situation. It is because of the closeness between speaker and the hearer, the hearer wants to be similar to the speaker. In Twenty Four, for an example: Bill Buchanan becomes angry with Lynn McGill when he calls him with Mr. Buchanan. These factors usually lead to the speakers misinterpreting the hearer’s face wants.

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situation even though they have close relationship outside their work. Therefore, in most cases, the speakers threat the hearer’s negative face. Yet, sometimes the hearer expects positive face at formal situation. Usually it happens if there are only a speaker and a hearer at a room in their office.

The fourth is I am of the opinion that politeness strategies according to the degree of the threat from the low ones are bald-on-record strategy, positive

politeness strategy, negative politeness strategy, and off-record strategy. If the

possibility of threat in speakers’ utterances is very high, the speakers have to perform the most indirect strategy to the hearers. Performing off-record strategy is the most indirect way to show the speaker’s intention. If the speaker performs a

politeness strategy without paying attention to the degree of the threat, the hearer

will feel his or her face threatened. This leads to the speakers performing inappropriate politeness strategies to the hearers.

The last is miscalculating of the Weightiness of the FTA can affect the atmosphere of the story in Twenty Four. If the speakers perform inappropriate

politeness strategies to the hearers, the hearers will feel his face threatened. I am

of the opinion that the speakers themselves usually do not know that the hearers can become angry with them. The tense atmosphere is raised for several reasons. If the speakers threaten the hearers’ face, the hearers will become angry.

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Weightiness of the FTA helps to the occurrence of tense atmosphere in Twenty Four

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Textbook:

♦ Thomas, Jenny. Meaning in Interaction: an Introduction to Pragmatics.

London: Longman. 1995.