Politeness and sex difference: A study on politeness used by the female and male broadcasters of Andika Lugas Swara (Andalus) FM Malang

ABSTRACT

As a means of communication, language is used to reach human purposes that enable them to interact and to cooperate with other, either in the office, market, school, or in the family. Language is not simply a means of communicating information but also a very important means of establishing and maintaining relationship with other people.

In the case of communication, people try to say anything in the fine linguistic detail of their utterance. They use politeness in order to make their conversations run well and go smoothly. They try to make others feel calm and comfortable.

As there are many factors that can influence the language usage and development, such as age, education, religion, district, sex and many others, however, this study wants to know the usage of politeness based on the sex difference of the speaker. Therefore, this study is intended to know the use of politeness of female and male broadcasters of Agasi program in Andalus FM radio station Malang. This study is focused on finding the answer of the terms of politeness used by them.

The design of this study is descriptive. It is conducted to describe the usage of politeness of female and male broadcasters who host the Agasi program. The population of the study is all the broadcasters of Andalus FM Malang and one female broadcaster and one male broadcaster who host the Agasi program are as a sample.

There are two instruments used in this study, namely observation and interview. Observation is the main instrument to collect the data. It is conducted to get the data by recording the presentation of both broadcasters in radio, and then the recording speech is transcribed. Observation is done to get natural and real speech or conversation done by the broadcasters. Interview is conducted to know further about the broadcasters who are as the informants of this study. It is also conducted to know deeply about the Agasi program and about Andalus FM Malang.

The results of this study deal with the terms of politeness used by female and male broadcasters. However, the female broadcaster uses both positive politeness and negative politeness. From the occurrences of politeness, however positive politeness is 87.3 % used and negative politeness is 12.7 % used. The positive politeness strategies used by female broadcaster are repetition, include both s and H in the activity, offer and promise, exaggeration and intensify interest to H. From the occurrences of positive politeness forms or strategies of female broadcaster, repetition is 61.3 % used, include both s and H in the activity is 24.2 % used, offer and promise is 8.1 % used, exaggeration is 4.8 % used and intensify interest to H is 1.6 % used. The negative politeness strategies used by female broadcaster are apologize and passive voice forms. However, from the occurrences of negative politeness, apologize is 33.3 % used and passive voice forms are 66.7 % used.

Moreover, the male broadcaster also uses both positive politeness and negative politeness. Based on the occurrences of politeness found in his two hours presentation, the positive politeness is 90.9 % used and negative politeness is 9.1 % used. The positive politeness used by male broadcaster, based on the occurrences of positive politeness, are repetition that is 67.5 %Lused, include both S and H in the activity that is 20 % used, offer and promise that is 5 % used and exaggeration that is 7.5 % used. However, the negative politeness used by male broadcaster are apologize and passive voice. Based on the occurrences of negative politeness, apologize is 25 % used and passive voice forms are 75 % used in the conversation.