THE DIFFERENCES OF POLITENESS STRATEGY USED BY MALE AND FEMALE ...

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1
The Background of Study

Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics studying of the aspects of meaning
and language use that are dependent on the speaker, the addressee and other
features of the context of utterance. Another definition of pragmatics given by
(Parker 1986:11) says that pragmatics is the study of how language is used for
communication.
People usually communicate their ideas through conversation. A
conversation is communication between multiple people which consists of
speaker(s) and hearer(s) or addressee(s). Speaker is person who speaks particular
words. Hearer is person who hears the words spoken by the speaker. Addressee is
person to whom the words addressed. In a conversation, an addressee must be the
hearer too, but a hearer is not always the addressee. It depends on the amount of
people involved in the conversation. In having conversation, people are advisable to
be careful in using strategy in order to maintain the communication. They also must
be aware of the politeness strategy to make their communication more acceptable by
the others.
The theory of politeness strategy is one of the topics discussed in
pragmatics. According to Brown and Levinson, politeness strategies are
developed in order to save the hearers' "face." Face refers to the respect that an
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individual has for him or herself, and maintaining that "self-esteem" in public or
in private situations. Usually people try to avoid embarrassing the other person, or
making them feel uncomfortable. Face Threatening Acts (FTA's) are acts that
infringe on the hearers' need to maintain his/her self esteem, and be respected.
Politeness strategies are developed for the main purpose of dealing with these
FTA's.
Some studies (Lakoff, 1976; Beeching, 2002) have shown that women are
more likely to use politeness formulas than men, though the exact differences are
not clear. Most current research has shown that gender differences in politeness
use are complex, since there is a clear association between politeness norms and
the stereotypical speech of middle class white women, at least in the UK and US.
It is therefore unsurprising that women tend to be associated with politeness more
and their linguistic behaviour judged in relation to these politeness norms.
In this thesis, the writer considers it is important to analyze the differences
of politeness strategy used by the male and female characters of Twilight Movie.
The male characters are Edward Cullen and Charlie Swan, while the female
characters are Isabella "Bella" Swan and Jessica Stanley. They are selected
because they are involved mostly in the conversation though they have never been
in good relationship before. Twilight Movie is a two-and-a-half hour film adapted
from a novel by Stephenie Meyer. The original Twilight movie was released on
November 21, 2008.

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1.2
The Problem of Study
This thesis aims to know the differences of politeness strategy used by
male and female characters in Twilight movie. Therefore, the writer states the
problem of study, as follows:
1. How does the politeness strategy used by the male and female characters
of Twilight movie differ?
2. What is the politeness strategy most frequently used by the male and
female characters of Twilight movie?

1.3
The Objective of Study
In accordance with the problem of study, the objectives of the study are as
follows:
1. To find out how the politeness strategy used by male and female
characters of Twilight movie differs
2. To find out the politeness strategy most frequently used by the male and
female characters of Twilight movie

1.4
The Scope of Study
In order to be focus, the writer makes the scope of the study. The writer
focuses on the differences of politeness strategy used by the two male and two
female characters of Twilight movie. The writer uses the combination of
politeness strategy of Brown and Levinson, and Leech’s politeness maxims to
analyze the politeness strategy.
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1.5
The Significance of Study
The writer hopes this study will be significant theoretically and practically.
The theoretical significances are:
1. to show the readers the kinds of politeness strategy used in conversation
2. to show that people usually use the politeness strategy in their daily
conversation whether they realize it or not
The practical significance of the study is to encourage another study of politeness
strategy in other created discourses like novels, short stories or even field research
about politeness strategy. The writer hopes this thesis can be one of the references.

1.6
The Method of Study

In writing this thesis, the writer did not conduct any field research though
the thesis analyzes the use of language to express politeness strategy. Instead, the
writer applied library research since all the data are in written form which were
taken from http://www.raindance.co.uk/site/picture/upload/image/books/Twilight.
pdf. Then, the writer gathered some information from other relevant books which
can provide ideas and theories to do the study.

1.7
Review of Related Literature

In completing this thesis, the writer read some relevant books containing
information about politeness strategy; women, men, and language.
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1. Politeness: Some Universals in Language
According to Brown and Levinson (1987:65-68) that positive and negative
face exist universally in human culture. In social interactions, face-threatening
acts are at times inevitable based on the terms of the conversation. A face
threatening act is an act that inherently damages the face of the addressee or the
speaker by acting in opposition to the wants and desires of the other. Politeness
theory is the theory that accounts for the redressing of the affronts to face posed
by face-threatening acts to addressees.
This book describes the theory of Face Threatening Acts (FTA’s) and
politeness strategy which provides most ideas and theories to analyze the data.

2. Principles of pragmatics
Geoffrey Leech (1983) states that the role of politeness strategy is very
important to explain cooperative principle, and it is also the complement of
cooperative principle (politeness principle). He lists six maxims: tact, generosity,
approbation, modesty, agreement, and sympathy.
This book enriches the theory of politeness that used to complete the
study. The Leech’s theory of politeness principle or called Leech’s Maxims was
used by the writer rather than the cooperative principle by Grice (1975) or called
Gricean Maxims which has been existed before. The writer tends to use Leech’s
maxims since it is more appropriate to the Brown and Levinson’s politeness
strategy. Moreover, Leech (1993:120) says that cooperative principle of Grice
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cannot always answer why in a conversation the speakers tend to use indirect
ways to say what they intend to say.
3. Thesis: The Hedges Used By the Main Characters in Armageddon

Miftachul Hasana (2009) in her thesis discusses about one of the negative
politeness strategies, especially hedges that are focused on the dialogs of the main
characters in Armageddon movie. She uses qualitative descriptive analysis in her
thesis “The Hedges Used by the Main Characters in Armageddon”. The result
shows that from 62 data, not all types of hedges appear in the main characters
utterances. Three types of hedges are not found in the conversation. They are
introductory phrase (IP), compound hedges (CH) and relevance-hedges (RH).On
the other hand, the types of hedges that are used by the characters are modal
auxiliary verb (50%), If-clause (24.1%), modal lexical verb (9.7%), hedges
combined with the use of emphatics (6.5%), approximator (3.2%), prosodic and
kinesic hedges (3.2%), adverbial, adjectival, and modal noun phrase (1.6%), and
strong words (1.6%).

This thesis helps the writer to decide the method of analysis used in
completing her thesis.






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