Politeness Strategies Used by Characters in Cinderella, 2015 Movie
By
Sendi Pamungkas
Gabriel Elishama
Ninda Roudlotul
Fenny Mahmudah
Aninda Violin Biru
Wijaya Kusuma University
A. INTRODUCTION
Talking about politeness, it cannot be
separated from the culture itself.
Different cultures bear different codes of politeness. Politeness can be
represented through how people use their language. Some cultures might perceive
that being indirect is polite, yet others might see
that being direct is more polite than indirect. Two different cultures in this
world are East Culture and West Culture. We absolutely consider that both
of them are different indeed in being polite to communicate each other. For example,
the way we ask someone to take out the rubbish by saying things like “It would be very kind of you to take out
the bin”, or “ I know it's a pain,
but would you be so kind as to take out the rubbish?”. The focus is on the
relations between speakers and the importance of the context in which
interaction is produced, as well as individuals' different characteristics and
cultures.
Politeness strategy is
one of the important elements in the use of language, accurately to construct
how a communication can run well. Some of us probably ever speak rudely such as
taboo words, indirect speech, using jargon or even slang to the hearers. It can
be rude if we use it to the eldest people, yet it has no meaning for some
friends as hearers. Politeness strategies are used to formulate messages in
order to save the hearer’s positive face when face-threatening acts are
inevitable or desired. It has been arranged in the types of politeness
principles that categorized in four such as positive politeness, negative
politeness, bald on record, and off-record (Brown & Levinson, 1978).
According
to the psychology’s perspective, politeness can be influenced by some ways,
such as environment, social media, chatting, television, and film. From that
all ways, only film can show the politeness clearly. Because one of the media
which can describe the conversation and action is film. It can reproduce of the information media, the
media of a message to be conveyed to the general public on a picture, idea,
information, phrase or expression that can be discussed, examined and analyzed
as the discourse of the motion process of human civilization. Film can provide
information about how people interact one another using their language to
perform their politeness. Film is a series of moving pictures, usually shown in a cinema or on television and often
telling a story. In a film,
politeness strategy can occur through conversations when the actors play
scenes. Every films has politeness
strategies itself but some certain genre of film are more provide information
about politeness strategies such as drama, legend, and fantasy.
Cinderella is one of the most well-known legend from Europe
(West) with hundreds of version being told all over the world. One of the
versions has been released in the recently days entitled Cinderella, 2015 movie. Nowadays, Cinderella, 2015 Movie is booming in Indonesia. As a drama-fantasy,
Cinderella, 2015 movie has some
points to consider which concern to politeness strategy. Cinderella is not only attends kindness involved but also consist a
lot of Western culture includes politeness. This film suits to foster
cross-cultural comparisons politeness of the East Culture and West Culture. It
is proved by the conversation in the film which contains many politeness
strategies that are performed by the characters of movie. For example,
Cinderella as the main character is described as kind, humble, brave and indeed
has politeness to the others. It is not only Cinderella but also some
characters of this film have politeness. They are The Prince, Cinderella’s
father, The King, and The Fairy God Mother. Dealing with the fact above, the
aim of this paper is to examine politeness strategies that are used by
characters in Cinderella, 2015 movie.
Ferrara defines that pragmatics is the
systematic study of the relations between the linguistic properties of
utterances and their properties as social action (Ferrara, 1985 : 138). Another
definition of pragmatics is as the study of language from the point of view of
users, especially the choices they make, the constraints they encounter in
using language in social interaction and the effect their use of language han
on other participants in the act of communication (Crystal, 1985:240). Simply
to say, pragmatics is the study of the use context to make interferences about
meaning (Fasold, 1990:119).
The use of pragmatics is to analysis the
language in use of interaction in the other words, it prioritizes the
functional or communicative purpose of a speakers’ talk as a core feature as
the speakers’ cognitive desicions are made on the basis of what the message
intends to communicate. For example, the meaning of words like “oh”, “well”,
and “anyway” in English cannot be explicated simply by statements of context-
independent content. Rather one has to refer to pragmatic concepts like
relevance, implicature, or discourse structure. So, either grammars must make
reference to pragmatic information, or they cannot include full lexical
description of a language.
As described in a book entitled “Introducing Pragmatics in Use” (Anne
O’keefefe et all.,2010) that some major areas of investigation associated with
pragmatics are deixis, speech act theory, and politeness. Politeness is one of
the most researched branches of contemporary pragmatics. It is reasonable that
politeness is as a part of pragmatics
studies for we learn about how the way we doing an interaction each others in
society through politeness. Human beings cannot avoid communicating about
themselves and how they want to be perceived as they engage in displaying
politeness. Learning how to behave politely in society especially in another
language is not easy task because it is also influenced by people’s first
language. That’s why people need to learn about pragmatic in the sub field
politeness to save their face or minimize threats to self-esteem in particular
social context. The following is how politeness strategies are put into
discussion.
In
communication, politeness can be defined as the means to show awareness of
another person’s face. Face means public self-image of person. It refers to
that emotional and social sense of self that every person has and expects
everyone else to recognize (Yule, 1996:134). According to Fasold (1996:160),
face means something that is emotionally invested. It can be lost, maintained,
or enhanced, and must be constantly attended to in interaction. The most
well-known and dominant theory on linguistic politeness is that of Brown and
Levinson (1987). According to Brown and Levinson (1987: 61-2), everyone has a face,
“the public self-image” that they want to maintain. Face is the public self-image that every adult tries to protect. In their
1978 book chapter, Brown and Levinson defined positive face two ways: as
"the want of every member that his wants be desirable to at least some
others executors" (Brown & Levinson, 1978). The term face is
divided into two different categories: negative and positive face.
- Negative face
Negative face is the
desire to have freedom of action, freedom of imposition, and not to be impeded
by others.
- Positive face
Positive
face is the need to be appreciated and accepted, to be treated as the member of
the same group, and to know that his or her wants are shared by others.
According to Brown and Levinson, positive and
negative face exists universally in human culture. They state that certain speech act is liable to damage or threaten
another person’s face; such as known as Face Threatening Acts (FTAs). In social interactions,
FTAs
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. Most of these acts
are verbal; however, they can also be conveyed in the characteristics of speech
(such as tone, inflection, etc.) or in non-verbal forms of communication. At minimum, there
must be at least one of the face threatening acts associated with an utterance. It is also possible to have multiple acts working
within a single utterance.
Meanwhile, in a conversation, the interlocutor
could be a threat to someone's face and the face of his own by making a
question, suggestion, criticism, reveling mistake, thanking, and so on. All of
these so called Face Threatening Act (FTAs). Therefore politeness
strategies are strategies which adopted by the speaker and the hearer to avoid
and minimizing the FTAs that occured in communication. They analyzed four broad
strategies, namely positive politeness, negative politeness, bald on-record and
off- record as bellow :
- Positive Politeness
Positive politeness strategies seek to minimize the threat to the hearer’s
positive face. They are used to make the hearer feel good about himself, his
interests or possessions, and are most usually used in situations where the
audience knows each other fairly well. For example :
Situation :
You are at a lecture and you forgot your pen. Your
lecturer has several in front of him/her on the desk.
From those situation, the way how you ask something
(pen) according to the type of positive politeness are as follows :
“Excuse me, Ma’am. I’m sorry to bother you but I just
want to ask you if I could use one of those pen ? ”
“ Excuse me. Would you mind lending me one of your
pen, Ma’am ? ”
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. It usually tries to minimize the distance between them by
expressing friendliness and solid interest in the hearer's need to be respected
(minimize the FTA).
- Negative Politeness
The main focus for using this strategy is to assume that you may be
imposing on the hearer, and intruding on his space. Therefore, these
automatically assume that there might be some social distance or awkwardness in
the situation.
Situation :
You are at a lecture and you forgot your pen. Your
lecturer has several in front of him/her on the desk.
From those situation, the way how you ask something
(pen) according to the type of negative politeness are as follows :
“ I don’t want to bother you but can I borrow your pen
? “
“ I was wondering if I could borrow one of your pen “
- Bald on-record
These provide no effort by you to reduce the impact of the FTA's. You will
most likely shock the person to whom you are speaking, embarrass them, or make
them feel a bit uncomfortable. However, this type of strategy is commonly found
with people who you know each
other very well, and it is very comfortable in the environment such as close friends. For example :
Situation :
You are at a lecture and you forgot your pen. Your
lecturer has several in front of him/her on the desk.
From those situation, the way how you ask something
(pen) according to the type of bald on record are as follows :
“Give me that, Ma’am!”
“Ooh, I want to use one of those, Ma’am !”
- Off-Record ( Indirect )
The final politeness strategy outlined by Brown and Levinson is the
indirect strategy; this strategy uses indirect language and removes the speaker
from the potential to be imposing. This strategy uses indirect language and removes the speaker from the
potential to be imposing. For example :
Situation :
You are at a lecture and you forgot your pen. Your
lecturer has several in front of him/her on the desk.
From those situation, the way how you ask something
(pen) according to the type of off record are as follows :
“ Hmmm, I left
my pen.” That is indicating that you
need a pen without asking her/him for it.
And another example is a speaker using the indirect strategy might merely say “ wow,
it’s getting cold in here ! “ indicating
that it would be nice if the hearers would get up and turn off the thermostat
(AC) without directly asking the heraers to do so
3. Cinderella 2015, the Movie
Cinderella movie firstly appear
in 1950 as an animation movie from Disney,
in Indonesia, Cinderella movie has be shown
for several times in Indonesia’s television. In 2015, Disney produces a Cinderella movie again but in different way. That movie is not animation anymore. Disney uses a real actors and actress to play it. Indeed, through this way people all around the world interest to
watch Cinderella movie, include the Indonesian. This year, especially in March,
Indonesian is busy talking about Cinderella as the “new” movie. Even for their curiousity of it, they gathered to go
to cinema for watching Cinderella, 2015 movie. This movie is very
booming. No one is overlooking this movie from childern to adults.
Cinderella, 2015
movie is related to the politeness strategies. Cinderella is not only attends kindness involved but
also consist a lot of Western culture includes politeness. This film suits to
foster cross-cultural comparisons politeness of the East Culture and West
Culture. It is proved by the conversation in the film which contains many
politeness strategies that are performed by the characters of movie. For
example, Cinderella as the main character is described as kind, humble, brave
and indeed has politeness to the others. It is not only Cinderella but also
some characters of this film have politeness. They are The Prince, Cinderella’s
father, The King, and The Fairy God Mother.
The politeness in Cinderella, 2015 movie as like showed in the pictures (a) this
picture show the low profile of Ella, she lives in her own house but her
stepmother treat her as a servant.
Amazingly ella serve her stepmother and sister
with her best. She has a good attitude of all. Another, in the picture (b) when
the Prince and Ella meet for the first time. Ella communicate in polite way as
foreigner, as follows :
C . METHOD
This research is content analysis
library research which is research that discussion of the content by doing a
literature study, researcher can take advantage of all the information and
ideas that are relevant to the research. The purpose of this research is to
analyze and describe how politeness strategies are used by some characters in Cinderella, 2015 movie. Therefore, later
the writer will describe the result of analysis which tries to find out the
types of politeness strategies.
The data sources were taken from the
utterances of some characters in Cinderella,
2015 movie containing the politeness strategies. The data were collected from
the transcript of the Cinderella, 2015
movie and taken by watching movie carefully proved by the conversation
in the film which contains many politeness strategies that are performed by the
characters of movie. For example, Cinderella as the main character is described
as kind, humble, brave and indeed has politeness to the others. It is not only
Cinderella but also some characters of this film have politeness. They are The
Prince, Cinderella’s father, The King, and The Fairy God Mother. In
analyzing the data, the writer used some steps as follows:
1. Identifying the words that consider
as politeness strategies found in the dialogues.
2. Classifying the types of politeness
strategy based on Brown and Levinson’s theory.
3. Describing the context in which politeness
strategies uttered by movie’s picture.
4.
Drawing a conclusion of the analysis.
As
mentioned in introduction, this study aims at finding out the types of
politeness strategies are used by some characters of the Cinderella, 2015 movie. The followings are some findings of the
analysis upon politeness strategy used in this film. There are four strategies
applied by the characters of the film, namely, Cinderella (Ella), The Prince,
Grand Duke, Cinderella’s Father, Cinderella’s Mother, Lady Tremaine
(Cinderella’s stepmother), Cinderella’s Stepsisters (Anastasia and Grisella), and
The Fairy God Mother.
11. POSITIVE POLITENESS
In
this film, positive politeness was shown by some characters, like, The Prince,
Cinderella, Lady Tremaine, Fairy God
Mother, and Grand Duke.
Data
1
First,
The Prince showed his politeness by asking a permission to Princess Shalina to
leave her for a while. He did it by taking a bow politely. Below is the clipped
part of the film showing such politeness.
The
Prince : “Excuse me.”
Princess
Shalina : (she
just reply with nodding means “Yes” and giving a bow.)
Those
conversation shows that The prince use
positive politeness to Princess Shalina when he is going to leave her.
He excuses very polite by taking a bow. Positive politeness is redress directed
to the addressee’s positive face, his perennial desire that his wants (or the
action/acquisition from them) should be thought as desirable
(Brown&Levinson,1987:101)
Data
2
Lady
Tremaine showed her politeness by asking a forgiveness to Grand Duke because of
eveasdropping. She did it by taking a bow politely. Below is the clipped part
of the film showing such politeness.
 |
Duke :
(When Duke looked backward, he saw Lady Tremaine as Cinderella’s
stepmother who was eavesdropping)
Lady Tremaine : “Oh, I’m sorry,
Grand Duke. I do not mean to eavesdrop.” (while taking a bow).
Duke
: “Yes. It’s allright, Lady.”
This
conversation shows that Lady Tremaine as Cinderella’s Stepmother use positive
politeness. By say sorry and take a bow it means for her do not want to
eavesdrop
Data 3
Cinderella
showed her politeness by asking a forgiveness to The King because of She
accidentally hits The King when she runs quickly. He did it by taking a bow
politely. Below is the clipped part of the film showing such politeness.
Cinderella : “ Ouchh, I’m sorry,
Your majesty.” (She said sorry to The King while taking a bow)
The
King : “It’s allright, dear ”
Those
conversation shows that Cinderella use positive politeness when she meets The
King. She said sorry then taking a bow as reverence.
Data
4
The
Prince showed his politeness by asking to the Captain to do a favor for him
politely. He asked to the Captain in politely although he is a prince. Because
the Captain is more older than him. Below is the clipped part of the film
showing such politeness.
The
Prince : “ Captain, could you please to investigate?”
Captain : “ It would be my pleasure. Your majesty”
Those
conversation shows positive politeness that is used by The Prince when he asks
Captain to investigate. Although he is a Prince, he still use politeness to
speak to the elder people as like Captain.
Data 6
The
Fairy God Mother showed her politeness by asking a permission to Cinderella for
decorate her dress in a little bit. Below is the clipped part of the film
showing such politeness.
Fairy God Mother : “ Would you mind if I
give a little touch to your dress? What if I change it with blue ?”
Cinderella : “ No. It’s okay”
Those
conversation shows a positive politeness that is used by Fairy God Mother to
Cinderella. She said polite to her because she might want to respect
Cinderella’s dress which is the only one from her mother. So, she is trying to
be careful to treat Cinderella’s dress.
Data 7
In
this picture, The Fairy God Mother who pretends to be a very old beggar asks
Cinderella milk when Cinderella cries for not allowing to join the party. She
showed her politeness when she asked to Cinderella about asking a small piece
of bread or a glass of milk. Below is the clipped part of the film that showing
such politeness.
Fairy God Mother : “Excuse me, Could
you help me, miss? I think a small piece of
bread or a glass of milk.”
Cinderella : “Yes. Yes. Yes, I think I
have something for you.”
Those
conversation shows a positive polieteness that is used by The Fairy God Mother
to Cinderella while she is asking milk to drink. Then, Cinderella with her
kindness replies politely and go to take the milk for her.
12. NEGATIVE POLITENESS
In
this film, negative politeness was shown by some characters, like, Cinderella
and her mother.
Data
1
First,
Cinderella’s mother showed his
politeness by asking a forgiveness to her daughter, Ella for leaving her very
soon. Below is the clipped part of the film showing such politeness.
Cinderella’s mother :
“ I must go very soon, my love. Please,
forgive me !”
Cinderella (Ella) :” Of course, I forgive
you.”
Those
conversation shows that Cinderella’s mother use negative politeness to her daughter, Cinderella. It
emphasizes that she is really sorry to her daughter about leaving her very soon
because of illness.
Data
2
Cinderella
asks her friends which are the mice to accompany her for dinner. Below is the
clipped part of the film showing such politeness.
Cinderella
: “Hello, guys. Let’s have dinner with me, please come
on....” ( Then, the mice eat the food on the table that has been prepared
by Cinderella.)
Those
conversation shows that Cinderella use negative politeness to her friends which
are animals. Then, the negative
politeness is signed by not precided by question words such as “please come on!”
Data 3
In
this picture, Cinderella gets that the mice are go on foot in the cold. So, it
makes her feeling of pity then asks them to lift up in the glass shoes. Below is clipped part of the film that
showing such politeness.
Cinderella : “Hi, Sorry. Come
here. You will be very comfortable inside” ( Then, the mice lift up to the
glass shoes.)
Those
conversation shows that Cinderella use negative politeness to her friends which
are animals. Then, the negative
politeness is signed by not precided by question words such as “come here!”
3.
BALD
ON RECORD
In
this film, bald on record strategy was shown by some characters, like, Cinderella’s
stepsisters and cinderella’s father.
Data
1
In this picture,
Cinderella asks her stepsisters to see the house but they are mocking by saying
maybe not house but exactly farm house. Because for them, their previous house
is more than Cinderella’s house. Below is clipped part of the film that showing
such politenes.
Stepsister
2 (Grisella) : “ She wants to lead
us see the farm house.”
Stepsister 1 (Anastasia) : “ Ouch, a lot of pets ?”
Those conversation
shows a bald on record strategy that is used by Cinderella’s stepsister to
express their opinion about Cinderella’s house that for them it’s like a farm
house with alot of pets inside.
Data
2
In
this picture, Cinderella’s stepsister (Anastasia) asks to Father about why the
house likes too old without ever
decorating. Below is clipped part of the film that showing such politeness.
Stepsister
1 (Anastasia) : “How long your
family lived in the house ?”
Cinderella’s
Father : “ Oh, twenty
years.”
Stepsister 1 (Anastasia) : “ Then for twenty years, you
never thinking of decorating?”
Those
conversation shows a bald on record strategy that is used by Cinderella’s
stepsister, Anastasia to express their feeling about the house.
In
this picture, Cinderella’s stepsisters tells her that there is ash on her face.Below
is clipped part of the film that showing such politeness.
Stepsister
1 (Anastasia) : “Ella, There’s ash on your face.”
Lady
Tremaine : “ Go to
clean your face first !”
Stepsister
2 (Grisella) : “ Ella,
you put the ashes in our tea ! ”
Those
conversation shows a bald on record strategy that is used by Cinderella’s
stepsister which telling directly to Cinderella about ashes on her face without thinking of her embarassment of it.
for ... off record in direct please see in the next part !
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