Politeness strategies used in “The Social Network” movie

ABSTRACT

Politeness cannot be separated from daily life. Politeness strategies are used in communication to show the respect to other people and satisfy the hearer. It is very important to consider those in communication for avoiding a conflict as well as creating good harmony. Those phenomena can appear in any kinds of conversations. Politeness phenomenon appears in the dialogues of a 2010 American drama movie entitled The Social Network. Therefore, this research focuses on finding out the kinds of politeness strategies used in The Social Network movie.

This study uses descriptive qualitative because it seeks to understand a certain phenomenon, namely the politeness strategies in The Social Network movie. Therefore, the main instrument of this research is the researcher himself. The source of the data in this research is the transcript of The Social Network movie. The data were analyzed inductively done by the researcher himself. The approach for analyzing the politeness strategies is based on Brown and Levinson’s Theory of Politeness.

The results of this research shows that all four types of politeness strategies are applied though not all strategies are used. Bald on-record is used when the speakers do not minimize the FTA delivered to the hearers. It is used by the speakers without paying any attention to the hearer’s face. Positive politeness is used when the speaker wants to impede the FTA by showing the closeness as best friends and maximizes the efficiency of the hearer’s positive face. Negative politeness is used when the speaker does not minimize the social distance with the hearer. In this case the speaker does not want to disturb the hearer’s face, but the speaker is forced by the circumstance. Off-record is used when the speakers want to say something in other dictions in order the hearers interpret what the speakers mean. In other words, the speakers let the hearers understand by their own interpretations.

This research explores politeness strategies as proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987) and a movie as a subject. Therefore, the researcher suggests for the next researcher to analyze the social factors of politeness strategy by using other experts’ theories and different subjects.