Politeness Strategies Of Criticizing A Study On A Movie The Ugly Truth (Pragmatics Study)

Oleh :
Susi Anjarsari - C0306050 -

The research is conducted to analyze the politeness strategy of criticizing employed by the characters in the movie The Ugly Truth. The research explores the politeness strategy to extend criticism, the politeness strategy to respond the criticism and the factors which influence the choice of strategy. The research uses pragmatics study to analyze the speech act of criticism. The descriptive qualitative research is employed in this research. All of criticism utterances in the movie The Ugly Truth are taken as the data. There are 17 data which have been analyzed by Brown and Levinson theory of politeness strategy. The findings of the analysis can be seen as follows: First, there are three strategies employed by the characters in the movie The Ugly Truth to extend criticism. The strategies are bald on record, positive politeness and negative politeness strategy. Bald on record strategy is mostly used by the participants in the movie. There are 14 data which show that the speakers employ bald on record strategy to extend criticism to hearers. Positive politeness strategy is used twice by the speakers to send criticism. Then, there is one occurrence of negative politeness strategy used by the speaker to extend criticism. Second, there are three strategies used by the hearers to respond the criticism. They are bald on record strategy, positive politeness and off record strategy. Most hearers use bald on record strategy to refuse and to ignore the criticism. There are 15 data which show that the hearers use bald on record strategy to respond the criticism. Positive politeness strategy is chosen once by the hearers to accept speaker’s criticism. Then, there is one occurrence of off record strategy used by the hearer to accept the criticism. Third, there are several factors which influence the speakers to the choice of strategy. In choosing strategies to extend criticism, the speakers are influenced by several factors. The use of bald on record strategy is influenced by the legitimate power, the expert power and the close relationship between the participants. The speakers who have two competing goals and big rank of imposition tend to choose positive politeness strategy to deliver criticism. Then, the use of negative politeness strategy is influenced by the social distance relationship between speaker and hearer. The choice of strategy to respond the criticism is also influenced by many factors. The choice of bald on record is influenced by the close relationship between the interlocutors, the legitimate power owned by the hearer and the situational context. The hearers who have two competing goals use positive politeness to respond the criticism. Then, the hearer who has subordinate status tends to choose off record strategy to respond speaker’s criticism. This research is expected to be beneficial for the readers in studying politeness strategy of criticism. It is suggested that other researchers conduct other studies about criticism done by subordinate status to superior status in order to know the real description of politeness strategy in today’s communication.