Name : Mu’anifah Hanim

NIM :195300094
Class : 2019 A

Politeness

According to Brown and Levinson (1987) everyone has self-public image has relation to
emotional and social sense of self and expects everyone else to recognize. Politenes (Brown and
Levinson 1987) in interaction can be defined as the means employed to show awareness of
another person's face. Politeness is an abstract quality that lies in expressions, lexical items
or
morphemes without concern for the circumstances that govern their use (Mey, 2000:80).
Paltridge (2006:72) argues that the importance of politeness and face are to understand why
people choose to say things in a particular way in spoken and written discourse. Mey (2000:81)
argues that one function of politeness is “to create a distance between the interlocutors, as in the
case of socialhierarchical placements that have to be maintained…” Paltridge (2006:72) quoted
from Lakoff (1973) and also Cook (1989:33) give the three maxims of politeness. They are:
‘don’t impose’, ‘give option’, and ‘make your hearer feel good’.
The operation of politeness involves valences: when people behave in what they perceive as
polite in a given situation, they attempt to enactment shared values with others, hence triggering
positive emotions. The interactants use valenced categories as a benchmark for their production
and evaluation of language and behavior, and valence reflects the participants’ per ceived moral
order of an interactional context/event, that is, their perceptions of ‘how things should be’ in a
given situation. Thus, the examination of politeness reveals information about the broader in-
group, social, and cultural values that underlie the productive and evaluative interactional
behavior of individuals.
In our everyday social interaction, people generally behave as if their expectations concerning
their public self image (face) Will be respected. There are 2 kinds of politeness face :
a. FSA (Face Saving Acts) if some actions might be interpreted as a threat to another's
face,
the speaker can say something to lessen the possible threat, this is called face saving
b. FTA (Face Threatening Acts) if a speakers something that represents a threat to another
individual's expectations regarding self-image it is describe as face threatening

According to Leech, Politeness Principle is minimizing the expression of impolite beliefs, and
there is a corresponding positive version or maximizing the expression of polite beliefs which is
somewhat less important.
According to Peccei (1999:64) Brown and Levinson (1987) proposed a framework about
politeness. Cutting (2008:43) quoted Brown and Levinson (1987) that it is a convention across
cultures that speakers should respect each other’s’ expectations about self-image, consider their
feelings and avoid Face Threatening Acts. In their analysis, politeness involves an awareness of
other people’s Face Wants. Face refers to the public self-image. There are two aspects about
self-
image (Peccei, 1999:64).
a. Positive face refers to the need to be accepted and liked and the need to feel that our
social group has the same goals. Positive politeness means to preserve the positive face of
other people. It means that the speech strategy is used to emphasize the solidarity with the
hearer that involves informal pronunciation, shared dialect or slang expressions,
nicknames, use more reference we, and less indirect requests (Peccei, 1999:64).
b. Negative face refers to “our right to independence of action and our need not to be
imposed on by others” (Peccei, 1999:64). Then, Peccei adds that negative politeness has
an orientation to preserve the negative face of other people. This is like the existence of
social distance between the speaker and the hearer. Things that involve in it for examples,
nicknames, slang and informal pronunciation are more likely to be avoided and requests
tend to be more indirect and impersonal. Negative politeness also involves expressions
like please, possibly, might, I’m sorry but…etc.

There are four types of positive politeness strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987).
They are bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record.
1. Bald on Record

Bald on-record strategies usually do not attempt to minimize the threat to the addressee’s
face. According to Brown and Levinson (1987) bald on record strategy is a direct way of
saying things, without any minimization to the imposition, in a direct, clear, unambiguous
and concise way. Bald on record strategies consist of: great urgency; speaking as if great
efficiency is necessary; task-oriented; little or no desire to maintain someone’s face;
alerting; welcomes; offers; and request. For Example:
a) Strategy 1 : Great urgency
For example: Watch out!
b) Strategy 2 : Speaking as if great efficiency is necessary
For example: Hear me out: ...
c) Strategy 3 : Task-oriented
For example: Pass me the hammer.
2. Positive Politeness
Positive politeness strategy is usually seen in groups of friends, or where people know
each other fairly well. Brown and Levinson (1987) state that positive politeness strategy
attempts to attend the hearer’s interest, wants, and goods. Positive politeness strategies
consist of: notice, attend to hearer; exaggerate; intensify interest to the hearer; use in-
group identity marker; seek agreement; avoid disagreement; presuppose/ rise / assert
common ground; joke; conveying that the speaker and the hearer are cooperators; assert
or presuppose speaker’s knowledge of and concerns for hearer’s wants; offer, promise; be
optimistic; include both speaker and hearer in the activity; give or ask for reason; assume
or assert reciprocity: fulfilling hearer’s wants; and give gifts to the hearer. For example:
a) Notice, Attend to Hearer (His Interest, Wants, Needs and Goods)
For example: What a beautiful vase this is! Where did it come from? (Brown and
Levinson, 1987: 103)
b) Exaggerate (Interest, Approval, Sympathy with the Hearer)
For example: What a fantastic garden you have! (Brown and Levinson, 1987: 104)
c) Strategy 3: Intensify Interest to the Hearer
For example: I never imagined that there were thousands beautiful girls in Jim’s party
last night! (Brown and Levinson, 1987: 106)
3. Negative Politeness

According to Brown and Levinson (1987) negative politeness is “the heart of respect
behavior” and it is “more specific and focused”. Negative politeness consists of: be
conventionally indirect; question, hedge; be pessimistic; minimize the imposition; give
deference; apologize; impersonalize speaker and hearer state the FTAs as an instance of a
general rule’ nominalize and go on record as not incurring a debt or as not indebting
hearer. For example:
a) Question, Hedge
For example: Won’t you open the door? (Which could be glossed as, “I request that
you open the door) (Brown and Levinson, 1987: 145)
b) Minimize the Imposition
For example: Could I have a taste (a slice) of that cake? (Brown and Levinson’s
example, 1996: 177)
4. Off Record
Brown and Levinson (1987) assert that off-record uses indirect language and removes the
speaker from the potential to be imposed. In this case, the hearer must make an inference
to recover what is intended. Besides, it indicates that if the speakers want to avoid their
responsibility of doing FTAs they can employ the strategy. Off record strategies consist
of: give hints; be vague; and be sarcastic; or joking.
a) Give Hints
For example : it is cold in here.
b) Be Vague
For example : perhaps someone should have been more responsible.