ABSTRACT

This research uses Pragmatics approach, focusing on suggestions as the object of
the analysis. This research applies descriptive qualitative research which takes
purposive sampling technique. The data are taken from the dialogues containing
suggestions uttered by both male and female characters. There are 32 data which
are analyzed.
This study gains three findings. The first finding shows that there are three types
of suggestions presenting in the data, they are direct suggestion, conventionalized
form of suggestion and the last is indirect suggestion. All the direct suggestions
are issued by female characters, while conventionalized form of suggestions are
mostly employed by female characters. Surprisingly, indirect suggestions are
mostly spoken by male characters in the novel.
Second, in terms of politeness strategy, the research shows that all of the direct
suggestions always employ bald on record. On contrast, the indirect suggestions
can never use bald on record strategy. While the other type, suggestions in
conventionalized form are mostly loaded with bald on record, but can be
occasionally loaded with another politeness strategy, such as positive politeness.
Finally, the last finding shows that although gender is not a significant factor, but
gender may influence the choice of suggestions. Other factors which influence the
choice of suggestions are power, social distance and the size of imposition.

Keywords : suggestions, speech acts, politeness, gender, novel.