Positive Politeness And Positive Politeness

People always communicate using language. In communication, people share their feeling and thought through a system which makes their interlocutors understand what they speak. Wardhaugh (2006) state people constantly choose what they want to say, how they want to say it, and the use of specific linguistic items which best for the way they say things. People need to manage their relationships with the interlocutors as well. It makes them consider who their interlocutors are, the settings in which the communication occurs, and the appropriateness of language being used.

As social beings, people are expected to be capable of managing their relationships with others. To maintain their relationships, people can use language as a means of communication

This strategy will also be achieved if the speaker does not fear retribution from the hearer. That is, where the danger to the hearer’s face is very small or where the speaker has superior power over the hearer such as between a Commander and one of his soldiers.

2. Positive Politeness Strategy

Positive politeness is an appeal to solidarity towards others. It is how to make the hearer feel good or to make him feel that his values are shared. Positive politeness utterances are used to achieve intimacy, to imply common ground or to share wants. By using positive politeness strategy, someone can show that the speaker wants to come closer to the hearer. There are three major strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson in this category:

• First is that the speaker claims common ground with the hearer by indicating that both can share specific wants, including goals and

(1) OK, put your hands back down.

(2) In general, I ask anyone this.

(3) So, the idea “compromise” is not always gonna be your way.

(4) For Monday, make sure that you have read pass chapter one. But, keep reading ahead.

(5) If you are a student council’s class rep and alternate, you are staying here.

Utterances (1)-(5) are very direct, clear, and unambiguous. These utterances are purposed to be effective delivered. Additionally, the teacher has more power than the students, so this strategy must be commonly used though the occurrence in only four times in thirty minute discussion. Utterances (1), (2), (4), and (5) are used for their function to give command to the students, while utterance (3) seems to be used to disagree with the student directly to prevent misconception.

The Use of Positive Politeness Strategy

From analyzing the data, the English teacher’s utterances which are classified as using positive politeness strategy are presented as the followings.

(6) What we are going to do is we are going to share of some of your reflections that you’ve just done.

(7) Then, we’re gonna have a bit conversation about