CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents research context,
focuses of the study, objectives of the
study, significances of the study, scope and limitation of the study, and operational definition of the key terms.
1.1 Research Context One important point of being
human is to know how to behave and to interpret
the behavior of others in the social interaction in the society. When we speak, we should notice the information we are
trying to convey, and the effect of the
words that we are using. That is why there are certain conventions which both speaker and hearer must understand in
communication. Politeness is one of the most
important conventions to deal with others in communication. Holmes in Mills states
that politeness is behavior which actively expresses positive concern for others, as well as non imposing distancing
behavior.
In accordance with above
explanation, in holy Qur’an surah Al -Baqarah verse says;
Kind words and the covering of faults are better than charity followed by injury. Allah is free of all wants, and He is
Most Forbearing.
Sara Mills, Gender and Politeness. Cambridge;
Cambridge University Press, 2003, A
Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur’an-Text Translation and Commentary. 1983.
Create PDFfiles without this
message by purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) This surah
explains about the superiority of good words. Allah demands us as human being to be polite. Being polite means
expressing respect towards the person
you are talking to and avoiding offending him/her .
Politeness is mainly viewed as a
way of smoothing social interaction and avoiding
conflict between people in communication because it involves takin g account of the feelings of others . Leech
defines politeness as a form of behavior that established and maintained comity that is
the ability of participants in social interaction
to engage in interaction in an atmosphere of relative harmony.
Goffman in Renkema
states that every participant in the social process has the need to be appreciated by others and the need
to be interfered with. Mills states that politeness cannot be understood simply as
property of utterances, or even as a set
of choices made solely by individuals, but rather as a set of practices or strategies which communities engage with in
order to come an assessment of their own
and others’ behavior and position within the group.
Within the interaction,
politeness can be accomplished in the situations of social distance and closeness . For example, if someone wants to refuse
his/her friend who asks him/her to have
dinner with him/her, he/she can say “I think it’s a good idea, but unfortunately I’m busy
nowadays, maybe next time”. This kind of refusal will keep the hearer’s face since the
speaker uses reason and promise. In contrast,
the person possibly hurts the hearer’s feeling if he/she says, “No, I’m not Mills, Gender and Politeness. Cambridge;
Cambridge University Press, Janet
Holmes, Introductions to Sociolinguistics. London: Longman. 2001, Geoffrey N Leech. Principles of Pragmatics.
London: Longman. 1983, Jan Renkema.
Discourse Studies. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1993, Sara Mills. Gender and Politeness. Cambridge;
Cambridge University Press, 2003, George
Yule. Pragmatics. Widdowson, H.G (series editor) th Imp. Hongkong: Oxford University Press. 1998, Create PDFfiles without this message by
purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) interested”. In addition,
he/she can be considered as an impolite person and his/her attitude will result in a feeling of
disrespect and dislike to him/her.
Brown and Levinson claim that there are certain social
principles that guide human
communication. They state that there are three sociological factors in determining the level of pol iteness;
social distance, power and the rate of imposition.
They also argue that as we communicate with others, we are constantly aware of our own and others’ face.
Here, face refers to the public-self image
that every member wants to claim for himself
. Yule states that face refers to emotional and social sense of self
that everyone has and expects everyone
else to recognize. Showing awareness of another person’s face when the person is socially distant can be considered
showing the respect or deference.
Meanwhile, showing awareness of
person’s face when the person is socially closed is called friendliness, camaraderie or
solidarity. There are two kinds of face that
everyone possesses: positive face and negative face. Brown and Levinson (1987) state that positive face is a person
with to be well think of. Its manifestations
may include the desire to have what we want to be admired by others and desire to be treated as a friend
and confidence. Negative face is our wish
not to be imposed on by others and to be allowed to go about our business unimpeded with our right to be free and self
determined action intact. While Goffman
states that positive face is the need to be appreciated and negative face is Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson.
Politeness; Some Universal in language Use.
Cambridge. Cambridge University
Press. 1987, 15- Ibid., 61.
George Yule. Pragmatics. Widdowson, H.G
(series editor) th Imp. Hongkong: Oxford
University Press. 1998, Create PDFfiles without this message by
purchasing novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com) the need not to be
disturbed.
Negative face is familiar as the formal
politeness that the notion ‘politeness’
immediately conjures up. But positive face and its derivate forms of positive politeness are less
obvious. Next definition of positive face
is adequate only if certain interpretations are born in mind.
Furthermore, some acts that threaten other’s positive and
negative face are called Face Threatening
Acts (FTAs). Face Threatening Acts are acts that infringe on the hearer’s need to maintain his or her self
-esteem or to be respected .
Dealing with the circumstances
where it may occur, politeness is not applied
in daily conversation only. In fiction, where the author usually creates writing based on life experiences, politeness
can be also applied. Here, a fiction is constructed
from many conflicts which enable politeness phenomena to occur since fiction can be considered as the
representation of the natural events.
Therefore, politeness phenomena
in a fiction is an interesting issue for some researchers to conduct a study in the use of
politeness strategies. This might be because
politeness strategies can be identified much clearer in the fiction.
In this research, the researcher
only investigates the phenomenon of politeness
strategies used by main characters in “Spartacus” movie. However, the primary reason of choosing Spartacus movie is
because this movie tells about the struggle
of slaves to be free human beings. Spartacus as the main character in this movie invites another slaves to get their
freedom by fighting the Roman Empire.
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