AN INVESTIGATION INTO

POLITENESS STRATEGIES USED IN

CONVERSATIONS IN THE BOOK
REAL LISTENING AND SPEAKING
3

Student: Bui Anh Duong

Class: 62A
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Tran Xuan
Diep

OUTLINE
PART I: INTRODUCTION
o RATIONALE, AIMS, SCOPE AND ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

o CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
SPEECH ACTS
POLITENESS
PREVIOUS RELATED STUDIES
o CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY
DATA COLLECTION, RESEARCH METHOD, PROCEDURE
o CHAPTER III: FINDINGS
PRESENT AND DISCUSS THE POLITENESS STRATEGIES USED IN
CONVERSATIONS IN THE SELECTED BOOK THROUGH THEIR FREQUENCY

PART III CONCLUSION

o RECAPITULATION
o LIMITATION
o SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES

PART I:
INTRODUCTION
I. RATIONALE:
POLITENESS PLAYS A DOMINANT ROLE IN COMUNICATION, ESPECIALLY
CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION.
LANGUAGE

LEARNERS

SOMETIMES

CANNOT

COMMUNICATE

EFFECTIVELY AND APPROPRIATELY BECAUSE OF:

THE LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF POLITENESS
THE TRADITIONAL WAY OF TEACHING:

LANGUAGE IS TAUGHT

WITHOUT ANY CONNECTION WITH ITS CULTURE.

PART I:
INTRODUCTION
II. AIMS OF THE STUDY
1. AIMS

RAISING ENGLISH LEARNERS AWARENESS OF THE ROLE OF

POLITENESS
PUTTING FORWARD SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNING AND
TEACHING

2. OBJECTIVES

EXPLORING WHAT KINDS OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES ARE USED

DESCRIBING THEIR FREQUENCY

3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
WHAT KINDS OF POLITE STRATEGIES ARE USED IN CONVERSATIONS IN
THE CHOSEN MATERIAL?
HOW FREQUENTLY ARE THE IDENTIFIED STRATEGIES USED?

PART I:
INTRODUCTION
III. SCOPE OF THE STUDY:
MAIN FOCUS: POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN
DIFFERENT TYPES OF SPEECH ACTS IN
CONVERSATIONS.
THEORETICAL FOUNDATION: MODEL OF
POLITENESS PROPOSED BY BROWN AND
LEVINSON
ANALYSIS BASED ON TRANSCIPTION =>
TONE, INTONATION, NOVERBAL ASPECTS
ARE OUT OF THE SCOPE.

PART II:
DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

I. SPEECH ACT
THEORY

WHAT IS SPEECH
ACT
FRISTLY PROPOSED BY AUSTIN (1962): BY
SAYING SOMETHING, WE DO SOMETHING
YULE (1996): ACTIONS VIA UTTERANCES
SPEECH ACTS CONSIST OF THREE RELATED
ACTS: LOCUTIONARY ACT, ILLOCUTIONARY
ACT, PERLOCUTIONARY ACT

WHAT IS SPEECH ACT

LOCUTIONARY ACT
THE ACT OF PRODUCING A MEANINGFUL
LINGUSTIC EXPRESSION

WHAT IS SPEECH ACT

ILLOCUTIONARY ACT
THE INTENDED MESSAGE OF THE SPEAKER
(ILLOCUTIONARY FORCE)
HOW TO RECOGNIZE ILLOCUTIONARY FORCE
IFIDs (ILLOCUTIONARY FORCE INDICATING DEVICES
PERFORMATIVE VERBS: I PROMISE THAT, I PREDICT THAT
WORD ORDER, STRESS, INTONATION
FELICITY CONDITIONS
APPROPRIATE CIRCUMSTANCES FOR THE PERFORMANCE OF A
SPEECH ACT TO BE RECOGNIZED AS INTENDED
5 TYPES OF FELICITY CONDITIONS (ACCORDING TO YULE)
GENERAL
PREPOSITIONAL CONTENT
PREPARATORY
SINCERITY
ESSENTIAL

WHAT IS SPEECH ACT

PERLOCTIONARY ACT
THE EFFECT THAT AN UTTERANCE HAS ON
THE LISTENERS THOUGHTS, FEELING OR
ATTITUDES.

WHAT IS SPEECH
ACT
locutionary act
illocutionary act
perlocutionary act
3 DIMENSIONS OF A SPEECH ACT
CANT BE SEPARATED
FOUND IN ANY UTTERANCES

SPEECH ACT
CLASSIFICATION
ACCORDING TO THE FUNCTIONS PERFORMED:
THERERE 5 TYPES OF SPEECH ACTS
o representatives
o directives
o commissives
o expressives
o declaratives

REPRESENTATIVES
The speaker asserts a proposition to be true
Statements of facts, assertions, conclusions
The speaker makes words fit the world
Ex:
o The earth goes around the sun.
o It rains a lot in this area.

DIRECTIVES
the

speaker

tries

to

make

the

hearer

something
Commands, orders, requests, suggestions
The speaker makes word fit the world.
Ex:
o Give me the book.
o Could you show me the way to the station?

do

COMMISSIVES
the speaker commits himself (or herself) to a
(future) course of action
Threatens, warnings, refusals
The speaker is responsible for making words fit
the world.
ex:
o I wont give you any money.
o Ill be back soon.

EXPRESSIVES
the speaker expresses an attitude to or about a
state of affairs
The states caused by either the speaker or the
hearers action but experienced by the speaker.
Statements
of
pleasure,
likes,
dislikes,
compliments, praises
The speaker makes words fit the world.
Ex:
o Im sorry.
o That sounds great!

DECLARATIONS
the speaker alters the external status or condition
of an object or situation, solely by making the
utterance
the speaker has to have a special institutional
role
Excommunicating, declaring war, christening,
firing from employment, and pronouncing
someone guilty or pronouncing someone husband
and wife
Ex;
o Youre fired.

DIRECT AND
INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS
CLASSIFY SPEECH ACTS ACCORDING TO THEIR
BASIC STRUCTURE
DIRECT SPEECH ACTS

INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS

DIRECT SPEECH
ACTS
A DIRECT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE
FUNCTION OF A SPEECH ACT WITH ITS
STRUCTURAL FORM
3 TYPES OF DIRECT SPEECH ACTS
SPEECH ACT

SENTENCE TYPE

FUNCTION

ASSERTIONS

DECLARATIVE

CONVEY INFO

QUESTIONS

INTERROGATIVE

ELECIT INFO

ORDER AND REQUESTS IMPERATIVE

GET OTHERS TO
BEHAVE IN CERTAIN
WAYS

INDIRECT SPEECH
ACTS
NO DIRECT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A
STRUCTURE AND A FUNCTION
AN UTTERANCE CONTAINING AN IFID FOR ONE
KIND OF ILLOCUTION BUT FUNTIONING AS
ANOTHER

II. POLITENESS

WHAT IS
POLITENESS?
Brown

and

Levinson:

participants

have

tendency to maintain the 'face' of one another

Yule: means employed to show awareness of
anothers face

THE NOTION OF
FACE
Yule: face is the public self-image that everyone
expects others to recognize
Brown

and

Levinson:

face

is

something

emotionally invested, and that can be lost,

maintained,

or

enhanced,

and

must

conventionally attended to in interaction

be

THE NOTION OF
FACE
Face consists of two related aspects:
Negative face: the desire for freedom of action and

freedom from imposition

Positive face: the desire for appreciation and approval

by others
Face threatening acts: speech acts that threaten the

face wants

POLITENESS
STRATEGIES
Used to save the hearers face or avoid face
threatening acts
4 types of politeness strategies (Brown and Levinson)
Bald On Record
Negative Politeness
Positive Politeness
Off-Record-indirect

BALD-ON RECORD
does nothing to minimize threats to the hearer's
face
Mitigating devices: would you/please => soften
the demand.
Categorized

into

two

types

(by

Brown

Levinson)
Cases of non-minimization of the face threat
Cases of FTA-oriented bald on-record

and

BALD-ON RECORD
EX:
Lend me your pen!
I want to use your pen.

POLITENESS
STRATEGY
recognizes hearers face
admits that S is in some way imposing on hearer
concerns with distance and formality
Could you lend me a pen?
Im sorry to bother you, but can I ask you for a pen or
something?

POLITENESS
STRATEGY
shows S recognize that the hearer has a face to
be respected.
confirms that the relationship is friendly and
expresses group reciprocity
Ex:
Is it O.K. if I use one of your pens?
How about lending me one of your pens?

OFF-RECORD
S tries not to directly impose the hearer
the hearer infers the implicated meaning in their
utterances
Ss intention might be misunderstood.
Ex:
Oh, I left my pen at home.
It seems Ive lost my pen.
Hmm, I wonder where I put my pen.

THE CHOICE OF
STRATEGIES
the choice involves the three following factors:
the social distance,
the relative power,
the ranking of impositions.

SOCIAL DISTANCE
the relationship between the participants
Higher degree of social distance => the use of
more formal language
Excuse me sir, can you explain this to us?
Hey, tell me what this means!

POWER
each person in society has a different rank of
power
The more power an individual has, the more
respect that person can earn from the
surroundings
there are five types of power: (according to
Thomas J):
Reward power
Coercive power
Legitimate power
Referent power
Expert power

THE SIZE OF
IMPOSITION
the importance or degree of difficulty in the
situation
The higher the size of imposition => the more
polite S is expected to be.

III. PREVIOUS
RELATED STUDIES

PREVIOUS RELATED
STUDIES
Leech, Brown and Levinson: famous for their
studies on politeness
Many studies related to politeness built upon their
theories
Suko Winarsih (2009) explored the cooperative
principle and politeness principle in radio
broadcasting conversations
Yongliang Huang (2008) carried out a study on
politeness
strategies
in
cross-cultural
communication to help language learners avoid
misunderstanding caused by cultural barrier

PREVIOUS RELATED
STUDIES
Ivona Baresova (2008), explored politeness
strategies employed to convey rejection in two
different cultures, American and Japanese
Liu Peng, Lingling Cai, and Xianjun Tan (2012) did
a Research on College Teachers' Politeness
Strategies in EFL Classrooms
Nguyen Mai Nha Trang (2012) did a research to
compare
politeness
strategies
used
by
Vietnamese and America teachers in giving
advice

CHAPTER 2:
METHODOLOGY

TYPE OF RESEARCH
quantitative and qualitative method
o qualitative method: the data are utterances taking the
form of words and sentences
o quantitative method: synthesizing conversations and
determining the frequency of politeness strategies

SOURCE OF DATA AND

DATA COLLECTION
SOURCE:

the

transcription

of

conversations

appearing in listening section in the book "Real

Listening and Speaking 3" by Miles Craven
DATA

COLLECTION:

using

the

tape-script

listening section at the end of the book

of

DATA ANALYSIS
The following steps are conducted to examine the
data:
Classify utterances from the conversations in the
book according to the type of illocutionary acts
Describe the frequency of politeness strategies
proposed by Brown and Levinson in each type of
illocutionary acts.
Draw conclusions: which kind of politeness
strategies is the most often used in each kind of
speech acts and in total

NO.

ILLOCUTIONARY ACT

TYPES OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES

B

REPRESENTATIVES

1
2
2

DIRECTIVES

1
2
3

COMMISISVES

1
2
4

EXPRESSIVES
1
2

DECLARATIVES

CHAPTER 3:
FINDINGS

politeness strategies in
representatives
No. Types of PT

Number

Percentage

Bald-on record

40

32.26%

Positive

45

36.29%

Negative

39

31.45%

Off-record

124

100%

Total:

politeness strategies
in directives
No. Types of PT

Number

Percentage

Bald-on record

64

38.32%

Positive

67

40.12%

Negative

30

17.97%

Off-record

3.59%

167

100%

Total

politeness strategies in
expressives
No.

Types of PT

Number

Percent

Bald-on record

23.08%

Positive

12

46.15%

Negative

30.77%

Off-record

0%

26

100%

Total:

politeness strategies in
commissives
No. Types of politeness strategies Number

Percent

Bald-on record strategy

13.64%

Positive politeness strategy

15

68.18%

Negative politeness strategy

18.18%

Off-record strategy

0%

22

100%

Total:

politeness strategies in
declaratives
no declarative speech acts are found

of politeness
strategies
No.

Types of PT

Number

Percentage

Bald-on record strategy

113

33.34%

Positive politeness

139

41%

Negative politeness

81

23.89%

Off-record strategy

1.77%

339

100%

Total

PART 3:
CONCLUSION

SUMMARY
IN THIS PAPER, THE AUTHOR AIMS AT
o Discovering what types of politeness strategies are
applied in general and in certain types of speech acts in
conversations in listening section of the book Real
Listening and Speaking 3
o Describing the frequency of the strategies

MAIN FINDINGS:
o All politeness strategies in Brown and Levinsons model
are used; among them positive politeness strategy is the
most dominant.
o In directives,
Speakers use all types of strategies.
However,
in
representatives,
expressives
and
commissives, off-record strategy is not exploited.

SUMMARY
IMPLICATIONS:
o equip students with an understanding of cross-cultural
communication and the role of politeness strategies
o teaching a language should be closely connected with
teaching its functions rather than focus too much on
structure

LIMITATIONS
this study focuses only on investigating the politeness

strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987) and

analyzing the conversations in listening section in the
book Real listening and speaking 3 by Miles Craven
many other aspects of politeness have yet to be

thrown the light on

Suggestions for further

studies
Analysis based on the tape-script => many
important issues that are unanswered such as
nonverbal factors, tone, stress, intonation

THANK YOU FOR

YOUR
LISTENING