POLITENESS STRATEGY

Submitted to fulfill the assignment of Linguistic for ELT Course

PAPER

Arranged By Group 12

Sri Wahyuni 2030104060

Resti Azizah 2130104057
Taufik Hidayat 2130104073

Lecturer:
Dr. Rita Erlinda, M. Pd

ENGLISH TEACHING DEPARTMENT TARBIYAH AND TEACHER

TRAINING FACULTY
UIN MAHMUD YUNUS BATUSANGKAR
2024
 POLITENESS STRATEGY

A. SUB-CPMK 11

Mampu menjelaskan konsep-konsep dasar dalam Politeness strategy

dengan tepat; menelaah model analysis politeness maxims dalam materi
ajar bahasa Inggris atau interaksi pembelajaran bahasa Inggris pada
artikel hasil penelitian terdahulu sesuai dengan rumusan indicator yang
benar, dan menunjukkan sikap religious dalam berkomunikasi, mandiri
dalam menyelesaikan tugas individu dan bekerjasama & berkolaborasi
dalam menyelesaikan tugas kelompok (C2, C5, A5, CPMK1-6)

B. INTRODUCTION
Politeness strategy are essential components of communication that
help in managing social interaction effectively. They are categorized into
four main types: Frankly/Without Strategy, Positive Politeness Strategy,
Negative Politeness Strategy, and Bald Record Strategy. Each strategy
serves different purposes and is chosen based on the context of the
conversation, the relationship between the speaker and the listener, and
the speaker's intentions.

In this unit, we will describe about politeness strategy. Here, there are
several points that will be elaborated, such as: (1) Face-Threatening Acts
(FTA); (2) Politeness Principles and Strategies; (3) Positive Politeness
Strategies (Brown and Levinson); (4) Negative Politeness Strategies
(Brown and Levinson).
C. MATERIAL
1. Definition/Concepts of Face-Threatening Acts (FTA)
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 (Brown and Levinson 1987
cited in Nuha, 2020). A ‘Face Threatening Act’ (FTA), as proposed by Brown
and Levinson (1987), should, as far as possible, be avoided in lingual
communication. In recognition of the fact that language is power, the
undemocratic use of language – i.e. language that marginalizes people – should be
avoided. In other words, when a language is used whether by native or non-
native, it should never devalue any parties.

When politeness researchers refer to an FTA, they refer to a communicative

act performed by the speaker that does not respect either the hearer’s need for
space (negative face) or their desire for their self-image to be upheld (positive
face) or both. One example of an FTA (marked in bold) can be seen in extract 4.5,
which features two colleagues discussing an incident which occurred involving an
ex-colleague at a party:

A: that was the year that guy was working there and got caught stealing the drink
and they thought it was Brendan stealing it.
B: I was there. What about him anyway?
A: Oh you came after.
B: I remember Brendan. I knew him like. I was up in the rooms and he often came
up there. I knew Brendan well.
A: No because the summer I was working there you weren’t working there.
B: Mary I know for a fact I was working there when he was working there

Speaker A is telling Speaker B about an incident of mistaken identity

involving Brendan, an ex-colleague. Speaker B claims that there is no need to tell
her the story as she was in fact at the party, knew Brendan and worked with him.
However, Speaker A is apparently unwilling to accept this. Speaker A disagrees
with Speaker B with the utterance No because the summer I was working there
you weren’t working there. According to Brown and Levinson, this constitutes an
unmitigated FTA on Speaker B’s positive face because Speaker A is refusing to
satisfy Speaker B’s (the hearer) desire to be right (see section on positive
politeness) and refusing to agree.
2. Politeness Principles and Strategies
Brown and Levinson (1987) proposed four types of politeness strategies as
follows:
a. Bald On-record.
The bald on-record strategy focused on clearness and effectiveness (Sülü,
2015). This strategy divided into two kinds as follow: (1) Cases of non-
minimization of the face threat. It is where the face is disregarded or
irrelevant; (2) Cases of FTA- oriented bald on-record usage. It is where
speakers decrease the face threat by suggestion.
b. Positive Politeness
Positive politeness is a direct action that appreciates the hearer, so the
hearer feels that the speaker and the hearer have similar interest (Chen, 2017).
Positive politeness allocated into fifteen strategies as follows: (1) Notice,
attending to the hearer; (2) Exaggerating, (3) Intensifying interest to hearer;
 (4) Using in-group identity markers; (5) Seeking agreement; (6) Avoiding
agreement; (7) Raising common ground; (8) Joking; (9) Asserting speaker’s
knowledge of and concerning for hearer’s wants; (10) Offering and promising;
(11) Being optimistic; (12) Including both speaker and hearer in the activity;
(13) Giving or asking for reason, (14) Assuming reciprocity; (15) Giving gifts
to hearer.
c. Negative Politeness
Negative politeness is concerned with the speaker's negative face, it
established chariness and aloofness (Mulyono, Amalia, & Suryoputro, 2019).
Negative politeness divided into ten strategies as follows: (1) Being
conventionally indirect; (2) Questioning and hedging; (3) Being pessimistic;
(4) Minimizing the imposition; (5) Giving deference; (6) Apologizing; (7)
Impersonalizing speaker and hearer; (8) Stating the FTA as a general rule; (9)
Nominalizing; (10) Going on record as incurring a debt or as not indebting
hearer.
d. Off-record
Off-record strategy happens when the hearer is letting to interpret the
meaning of the speaker's words during the face-threatening act (Mulyono et
al., 2019). Off- record strategies separated into fifteen strategies as follows:
(1) Giving hints; (2) Giving association clues; (3) Presupposing; (4)
Understating; (5) Overstating; (6) Using tautologies; (7) Using contradictions;
(8) Being ironic; (9) Using metaphors; (10) Using rhetorical questions; (11)
Being ambiguous; (12) Being vague; (13) Over generalizing; (14) Displacing
hearer; (15) Being incomplete, using ellipsis.

The examples below are the analysis of politeness from Brown and Levinson
1987 (cited in Nuha, 2020). What would you do if you saw a cup of pens on your
teacher's desk, and you wanted to use one, would you
a. say, "Ooh, I want to use one of those!"
b. say, "So, is it O.K. if I use one of those pens?"
c. say, "I'm sorry to bother you but, I just wanted to ask you if I could use
one of those pens?"
d. Indirectly say, "Hmm, I sure could use a blue pen right now."
There are four types of politeness strategies, described by Brown and
Levinson (1987), that sum up human "politeness" behavior: Bald On Record,
Negative Politeness, Positive Politeness, and Off-Record-indirect strategy. If you
answered A, you used what is called the Bald On-Record strategy which
provides no effort to minimize threats to your teachers' "face."
If you answered B, you used the Positive Politeness strategy. In this
situation you recognize that your teacher has a desire to be respected. It also
confirms that the relationship is friendly and expresses group reciprocity.
If you answered C, you used the Negative Politeness strategy which is
similar to Positive Politeness in that you recognize that they want to be respected
however, you also assume that you are in some way imposing on them. Some
other examples would be to say, "I don't want to bother you but..." or "I was
wondering if ..."
If you answered D, you used Off-Record indirect strategies. The main
purpose is to take some of the pressure off of you. You are trying not to directly
impose by asking for a pen. Instead you would rather it be offered to you once
the teacher realizes you need one, and you are looking to find one.

3. Positive Politeness Strategy (Brown and Levinson)

Positive politeness is intended to save something by applying closeness and
solidarity, usually in friendship, and this makes others feel safe and stresses that
the two parties have the same objective. For example, we are in the student center
and we need some help, now we need some favors from our friend, Achmad.
“Achmad, you have good and admirable memory, it will be better if you gives
me the addressof a site intended by Anton this morning” (Redmond, 2015).
Brown and Levinson on (O’Keeffe, 2011,cited in Erlinda, 2019) states there are
fifteen strategies to avoid threatening in positive face:
a) Pay attention to a hearer’s interests, wants, needs or goods.
This strategy suggests that the speaker should pay attention or notice to
aspect of hearer’s condition. It can be in the form of sympathy, care or even
compliment. For example: “We ate too many beans tonight, didn’t we?” The
example above shows that the speaker is paid attention to the hearer. It
indicates that the speaker notices the hearer’s condition
b) Exaggerate interest in, approval of or sympathy with a hearer.
This strategy can be done by saying something in a way that is higher than
its actual status using exaggerating adjective. For example: “What a fantastic
house you have!” The example above shows that the speaker exaggerated her
or his compliment about the hearer’s house. The word “fantastic” implied
that the hearer have a great house.
c) Employ exaggeration and dramatic effect in your speech in order to
interest and involve the hearer.
This strategy is used for the speaker to the hearer that she or he wants
intensify the interest of speaker’s by making a good story. For example: “I
come down the stairs, and what do you think I see? A huge mess all over the
place, thephone’s off the hook and clothes are scattered all over.”
d) Use in-group identity markers.
This strategy is done by using in-group identity markers are address form,
language dialect, jargon, and slang to indicate that speaker and hearer belong
to some of persons who share specific wants. For example: “Come here,
guys!” The example above shows that the speaker used in-group identity
markers by saying “guys” intended to the hearer.
e) Seek agreement/make small talk.
This strategy is to seek for hearer‟s agreement by raising „safe topic‟ that
the hearer will agree with. For example: “Isn’t your new car has a beautiful
color?” The example above showed that the speaker says a comment to a
neighbor’s new car. The speaker raises the topic which is safer instead of
stating the unsafe topic
f) Avoid disagreement.
This strategy showed that avoiding disagreement by stating false
agreement, indirect agreement, white lies, and hedging. For example: A :
That’s where you live, California? B : That’s where I wasborn. The speaker
asked for information to the hearer whether she lived there or not. Instead of
claiming what the speaker says as a mistake, the speaker states that she was
born there. The hearer answered by avoiding disagreement.
g) Find common ground.
This strategy explains that presupposing is the act of believing something
is true before it isproven. For example: “I had a really hard time learning to
drive, didn’t I?
h) Joke.
This strategy is a basic positive politeness technique used to minimize the
face threatening acts (FTA). Therefore, it is the form of claiming common
ground. For example: “How about lending me this heap of junk?”
i) Assert or imply knowledge of and concern for a hearer’s wants.
This strategy aims to presuppose what the hearer’s desire according to the
speaker‟s knowledge toward what hearer’s want. For example: “I know you
love roses but the florist didn’t have anymore, so I brought you geranium
instead.”
j) Offer, promise.
This strategy means that when the speaker makes a promise to the hearer,
the speaker has the intention to fulfill the hearer’s want. For example: “I will
treat you next week.” The speaker promises to the hearer that she or he would
treat next week.
k) Be optimistic.
In this strategy, the speaker becomes optimistic regarding the willingness
of the hearer to fulfill or wants to do something for the speaker. For example:
“You’ll lend me your car, right?” The example above shows that the speaker
was optimistic that hearer would lend her or him a car
l) Use inclusive “we” forms.
This strategy aims to make the speaker and hearer involve both of them in
the activity and eventually become cooperators. This strategy uses an
inclusive “we” form, when the speaker reallymeans “you” or “me”. For
example: “Let‟s have a coffee, then.” The example above shows that actually
the speaker wants the hearer to have a coffee. The speaker‟s request used
inclusive “we” form “let’s”. The request will be more polite because it
indicates the cooperation between the speaker and the hearer.
m) Give (or ask for) reasons.
This strategy shows that the speaker and hearer are cooperators through
the act of asking and giving reason. For example: “Why don’t we go to the
market?”
n) Assume or assert reciprocity.
This strategy can be done by creating mutual advantages among the
speaker and the hearer. For example: “I’ll lend you dictionary if you lend me
your book.” A reciprocity is a behavior in which two people give each other
help or advantages. In the example above, the speaker wants to lend the
hearer her or his dictionary if the hearer lends the speaker a book.
o) Give gifts.
This strategy shows that the speaker can satisfy hearer’s positive face by
actually satisfying some of the hearer‟s wants. For example: “I just know that
 your dog died yesterday. I’m sorry to hear that.” The speaker gave a gift to
the hearer by giving sympathy and understanding.
4. Negative Politeness Strategy (Brown and Levinson)
Negative politeness pays attention to negative face, by determining the
distance between a speaker and hearer and will not bother other‟s area. The
speaker uses it to avoid an coercion, and gives some choices to the hearer.
Speaker may avoid an image of coercing other’s by giving any stresses to others,
interest by using apology or by asking question that may arise “no” answer. For
instance, in a student center, we want some help to mention an address of a site
we need to Achmad: “Excuse me, I don’t mean to bother you, would you mind
letting me know the address of thesite of the lecturer we talked about this
morning?” Another example: “Excuse me, may I borrow five hundred rupiah,
ehmm, if you don’t need it now?” There is a choice that may influence the levels
of politeness. The higher the possibility of “no” answer, the better the politeness
of the utterance (Redmond, 2015).
Brown and Levinson on (O’Keeffe, 2011, cited in Erlinda, 2019) states there
are ten strategies to avoid threatening in negative face:
a) Be conventionally indirect.
This strategy includes indirect speech acts that contain of indirect request.
When a speaker produces an utterance in accordance with the negative
politeness, it means that speaker wants to achieve what they want through the
FTA but also wants to redress it. For example, “Can you please pass the salt?”
b) Do not presume/assume hearer
This strategy is done by not presuming and assuming that the FTA is
desired or accepted by the hearer. This strategy namely question and hedge.
Hedge may be functioned to soften command and turn it into a
politesuggestion. For example, “Won’t you open the door?”
c) Be pessimistic.
Do not coerce hearer means that the speaker does not persuade hearer to
do something forcefully. This can be done by stating an option for the hearer
that may not do the act. This also can be done by assuming that hearer does not
want to do theact. For example, “Could you jump over that five-foot fence?”
d) Minimize the imposition.
This strategy is used to minimize the imposition or the threat toward the
negative face of the hearer. The minimization can be done by choosing some
words which shows the minimum state of a matter. For example, “Could I
borrow your pen just for a minute”.
e) Give deference.
This strategy explained that giving difference is the act of humbling
oneself and fulfill hearer’s want of respect. This can be done by using
particular addressing form for someone that isuperior. For example, “Excuse
me Sir, would you mind if I close the window?”
f) Apologize.
By apologizing the speaker can show the unwillingness to threat the face
of the hearer or to impinge onhearer. For example, “I am sorry to bother you,
but please tell him to call me tonight.”
 g) Impersonalize.
This strategy deals with avoiding the pronouns “I” and “You”. For
example, “Do this for me.”
h) Stating the FTA as an istance of general rules.
This strategy shows that the speaker does not want to impinge the hearer.
The speaker omits the fact that impinge the hearer by emphasizes a notion that
the act is a general rule. For example, “I am sorry, but late-comers cannot be
seated till next interval.”
i) Nominalize.
Nominalizing is the act of changing a verb into a noun in a sentence. By
doing this strategy, the speaker can add more distance and formality. The more
formal utterance is, the more visible that the speaker does not want to impinge
the hearer. For example, “It is our regret that we cannot...”
j) Claim or disclaim indebtedness to the hearer.
This strategy is done by claiming speaker’s indebtedness to hearer or by
disclaiming any indebtedness of hearer. Hence, the speaker can redress the
FTA. For example, “I’d be eternally grateful if you would.”
D. PREVIOUS RELEVANT RESEARCH OF POLITENESS MAXIMS
1. (Murni Mahmud, 2019).

Authors
Murni Mahmud

Year : 2019
Title :
The use of politeness strategies in the classroom context by
English university students
Name of :
INDONESIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS
Journal
Volume : 8
No Issue :
Pages : 597-606
ISSN :
NO COMPONENTS DESCRIPTION
a. Research This study aims to explore the politeness
strategies of English students at one of
aims/purposes
the universities in Makassar.
[Tujuan
penelitian]
b. Methodology; Research type & design:
Research design; The researcher applied a descriptive
population; sample, qualitative research method to
instruments, and explore the politeness phenomena in EFL
data analysis classroom interaction.
techniques.
 Data & data sources:
The participants of this research were two
classes of English literature program
consisting of 50 students. The primary
sources of data were the individual
student presentations which had been
recorded.
Instrument:
There were fifty transcriptions of the
recording which lasted for five to seven
minutes for each presentation. The
transcriptions were analyzed and
discussed based on the theory of
politeness of Brown and Levinson (1987).

Techniques of data analysis:

The data analysis is based on the
framework of discourse analysis which
relies on data recording, data
transcription, data selection, and data
interpretation.
c. Result / Finding ofThe findings from this study revealed that
English students used different kinds of
the Articles expressions to encode their politeness in
the class. Those expressions were in the
forms of greetings, thanking, addressing
terms, apologizing, and fillers. There
were also some terms derived from
students’ vernacular language which were
used as a softening mechanism for their
presentation. These expressions were
categorized as positive and negative
politeness. The findings of this study
might be used as an input for teachers and
students in an effort to create effective
classroom interaction.

2. (Hari Kusmanto and Pratomo Widodo 2022)

Authors
Hari Kusmanto and Pratomo Widodo
Year : 2022
Title : Positive Politeness Strategies during Online Learning: A
Cyberpragmatic Study
Name of :
Journal
Volume :
No Issue :
Pages :
ISSN : 2461-0275
NO COMPONENTS DESCRIPTION
a. Research This study aims to describe the forms of
language politeness during online
aims/purposes
learning in higher education.
[Tujuan
penelitian]
b. Methodology; Research type & design:
The study used a descriptive qualitative
research design;
approach. The data of this study were
population; utterances consisting of language
politeness, and the data sources were
sample,
undergraduates’ utterances to their
instruments, and lecturer.
data analysis
Data & data sources:
techniques lecturer. The data were collected from
one of the Islamic higher education
institutions in Surakarta. Javanese culture
became the cultural background as the
focus of the learning communication
context because the undergraduates lived
in Java. The number of undergraduates as
the research subject was 121 students.

Instrument:
WhatsApp was chosen because it was
used as the main media to communicate
during online learning, and thus the data
of language politeness were easily
collected. In collecting the data, all
WhatsApp chats during the online
learning were exported. The study on
online learning language politeness is
vital as the shift from offline to online
learning tends to decrease communication
skills, especially in terms of language
impoliteness.

Technique of data collection:

The data collection techniques were
documenting, reading, and note-taking.
The data were analyzed through
referential identity, extra lingual
interactive model, and politeness
strategies proposed by Brown and
Levinson (1987) and Maricic (2000).
 c. Result / Finding of The findings indicate that positive
politeness strategies during online
the Articles
learning using cyberpragmatic approach
are represented in six forms: paying
attention, using identity markers, looking
for agreement, avoiding conflict, creating
humor, and showing an optimistic
attitude. This study recommends that
positive politeness strategies can be used
as a pillar of developing and
strengthening character education in
learning, especially in universities.

E. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, based Brown and Levinson theory, there are five types of politeness
superstrategies—baldly on record politeness, positive politeness strategy, negative
politeness strategy, offrecord politeness strategy and don’t do FTA. Positive
politeness strategy refers to how a speaker shows solidarity to the hearer’s face.
Negative politeness strategy means showing deference to listener’s face. These
politeness strategy functions to maintain faces of hearer—to avoid be littling others.
 F. REFERENCE

Erlinda, R. (2019). Introduction to English Pragmatics: Applying Research-Based Learning Models.

Prenadamedia Group.
Meiratnasari, A., Wijayanto, A., & Suparno. (2019). An analysis of Politeness Strategies in
Indonesian English Textbooks. ELS Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies on Humanities, 529-
540.
Nuha, U. (2020). Politeness of Speaking Introduced in Conversation Texts. Journal of English
Teaching and Learning Issues, 145 – 158.
Nuha, U. (2020). Politeness of Speaking Introduced in Conversation Texts. JETLI, 145-158.
O'Keefe, A., Clancy, B., & Adolphs, S. (2011). Introducing Pragmatics in Use. Abingdon: Routledge.
Purwanto, S., & Soepriatmadji, L. (2013). POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN MODEL
CONVERSATIONS IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
STUDENTS.