ISSN: 2302-920X

E-Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Sastra dan Budaya Unud

Vol 15.3 Juni 2016: 45-50

POSITIVE POLITENESS STRATEGIES OF CRITICISM IN A MOVIE ENTITLED “FURY”

I Wayan Gede Karyasuta email: karyasuta@gmail.com

English Department, Faculty of Letters and Culture, Udayana University

Abstrak

Penelitian ini berjudul Strategi Kesopanan Positif dalam Kritik pada Film Berjudul “Fury”. Pembahasan pada penelitian ini difokuskan pada analisa untuk mencari tahu jenis strategi kesopanan positif yang digunakan oleh karakter pada film “Fury” ketika memberikan dan menanggapi sebuah kritik. Data yang digunakan pada penelitian ini diambil dari sebuah film tentang perang dunia kedua yang berjudul: "Fury". Analisis dalam penelitian ini menggunakan teori strategi kesopanan positif yang merupakan bagian dari teori strategi – strategi kesopanan dan faktor – faktor yang mempengaruhi pembicara menggunakan strategi kesopanan yang diciptakan oleh Brown dan Levinson serta teori oleh Tsui tentang tanggapan terhadap kritik yang diberikan.

Dari hasil analisis dalam penelitian ini ditemukan bahwa penggunaan strategi kesopanan positif ketika memberikan dan menanggapi kritikan sangat efektif apabila dilakukan oleh dua orang yang memiliki hubungan kekerabatan yang dekat. Strategi kesopanan positif juga digunakan oleh pendengar yang menanggapi kritikan yang diberikan oleh pembicara.

Kata kunci: kritik, strategi – strategi kesopanan, strategi kesopanan positif

  • 1.    Background of the Study

When people notice something wrong that comes from their friends or family members, they tend to criticize that wrong thing by giving a set of feedbacks, comments, evaluations, or opinions. The feedbacks, comments, evaluations, or opinions that is being said, given, or expressed, in this case, are known as criticism. According to Tsui (1994), criticism is defined as a kind of assessment which gives negative judgment or evaluation of certain people, events, or objects toward the addressee. Further, the hearer who is being criticized mostly feels that the way the speaker criticizes him considered as harsh or rude. In order to avoid being rude to the hearer who will be criticized, the speaker uses politeness strategies to extend criticism. Politeness strategies are used in criticism on purpose

as a way to express one’s opinions or evaluation in a smooth way as well as building rapport to the hearer.

The act of criticism can also be found in movie because sometimes movie represents the daily life conversations of someone with others. Based on those facts, this study used a historical-fiction movie entitled “Fury” as a data source. As mentioned before, to extend criticism, the speaker will use politeness strategies as a way to deliver his criticism in a polite manner. Therefore, the politeness strategies, specifically positive politeness strategies, were applied to analyse the data that came from the dialogue of the Fury’s characters.

  • 2.    Problems

Based on the background above, the problems of this study are limited to:

  • 1.    What types of positive politeness strategies are used to extend criticism by the characters in movie entitled “Fury”?

  • 2.    What types of positive politeness strategies are used to respond criticism by the characters in movie entitled “Fury”?

  • 3.    What factors that influence the choice of positive politeness strategies by the characters in movie entitled “Fury”?

  • 3.    Aims

Based on the problems that are found in this study, there are two aims of this study as follows:

  • 1.    To find out the types of positive politeness strategies used by the characters to extend criticism in movie entitled “Fury”.

  • 2.    To find out the types of positive politeness strategies used by the characters to respond criticism in movie entitled “Fury”.

  • 3.    To analyze the factors that influence the choice of politeness strategies by the characters in movie entitled “Fury”.

  • 4.    Research Method

The data used in this study were taken from the conversation between the characters in a World War II movie entitled Fury (2014). The data were collected by applying documentation method and analyzed descriptively using qualitative method.

  • 5.    Result and Discussion

The bolded sentences below indicate that the speaker is extending the criticism, while the underlined sentences indicate that the hearer’s response toward the criticism

  • 5.1    Conversation 1 (00:05:55 – 00:06:15)

    Gordo

    : Vamonos, cabron, vamonos. (Gordo speaking

    Spanish)

    Don

    : Hey, you want to talk Mexican? Join another tank, a Mexican tank. This is an American tank, we talk American.

    Gordo

    : Who put the fucking nickel in you, top? You talk Kraut! You talk German! I can't talk Spanish?

    Don

    : Bible, what country we in?

    Boyd ‘Bible’ Don

    : Germany.

    : Germany, they speak German. Could you explain to him it's a tool of war?

    Boyd ‘Bible’

    : It's a tool of war, Gordo.

  • 5.2    The Description of Context

The conversation between Gordo and Don takes place inside of the tank when their tank is being repaired by Graddy. There are also Graddy who is trying to fix the busted Fury tank; and Boyd who remains silent when the conversation occurs. Before the conversation begin, Don, who is the tank crew leader, and Graddy who is a gun

loader, are arguing about the death of their friend, Red. Gordo who is tired of them breaks the conversation by saying words in Spanish that literally means, “Come on, you bastards, come.” The words said by Gordo makes Don upset and he starts by giving a comment to Gordo. He says that when Gordo wants to talk in Spanish, he should find another tank that contains people who are able to talk in Spanish.

In this case, Don means Mexican tank. Don says so due to the fact that the entire members of his tank crew are Americans who speak only American-English. He also adds that they are currently fighting for American which make Fury is American Tank. Gordo responds by saying who gives Don the rights to command him to do the things he wants. Besides that, he is also not allowed to speak in Spanish which is his mother tongue by Don, while Don allows himself to talk in German. Then, Don asks Boyd a question to confirm why he allows himself to speak in German. The reason Don speaks in German is simple, because at that time they are in Germany whose people entirely speak in German.

  • 5.3    The strategy used by the speaker to extend criticism

The criticism on the above conversation is done by Don when he is hearing Gordo talking in Spanish. Don extents his criticism to Gordo because the fact that there is no one speaking in Spanish in his team. As a leader of the tank crew, it seems that Don has the right to send criticism to Gordo, since he has higher rank than Gordo. In response to Gordo’s words in Spanish, Don roughly replies, “Hey, you want to talk Mexican? Join another tank, a Mexican tank. This is an American tank, we talk American.” Through his saying, Don emphasizes that in his team whose most used language is English, one is supposed to speak in a language that can be understood by the other members of the team. Moreover, Don asks Gordo if he still insists to

speak in Spanish, then Gordo should join another tank whose members mostly speak in Spanish, like Mexican tank for instance.

From the analysis, it is known that Don criticizes Gordo by using positive politeness strategy, which to intensify interest to H. Don uses the strategy because he wants to satisfy Gordo’s face and also Don has a higher status in Army than Gordo’s which makes him powerful.

  • 5.4    The strategy used by the hearer to respond criticism

As a response to Don’s criticism, Gordo responds by saying, “Who put the fucking nickel in you, top? You talk Kraut! You talk German! I can't talk Spanish?” Gordo’s sentences can be considered as a negative response towards criticism because he rejects the criticism which is given by Don in a weak form. Gordo’s response is considered as a weak form of negative response because there is no use to talk Spanish in the country whose people speak in German and no one understands Spanish in his team. From his response which refuses to Don’s criticism, it can be considered that Gordo refuses criticism sent by Don by using use in-group identity makers type of positive politeness strategy. It can be seen from his words when he addresses Don by calling him “Top”.

However, by using positive politeness strategy, Gordo also tries to challenge Don’s criticism by saying that nobody has a right to command him to speak in his mother tongue. The factor which influences Gordo to use positive politeness strategy to respond Don’s criticism is the payoffs: a priori considerations, because Gordo tries to satisfy Don’s face as if he wants what his leader’s wants

  • 5.5    The factors which influence the speaker to choose the strategy

There are several factors which influence Don extends his criticism towards Gordo. First, Don has legitimate power over Gordo since he is the leader of the tank’s crew. Hence, he has more authority to criticize

one of his teammates directly. Next factor is the close relationship between Don and Gordo since the two of them have been together since the previous campaigns. It makes Don and Gordo know each other very well.

  • 6.    Conclusion

It can be concluded that the positive politeness strategies are best used when people trying to extend or respond a criticism sent by others to them. Positive politeness strategies are very effective when used by the speaker to the hearer if both participants have a very close relationship. Therefore, social distance between the speaker and the hearer plays an important role in terms of giving and responding the criticism.

  • 7.    Bibliography

Brown, Penelope; and Levinson, Stephen. 1987. Politeness, some universal in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Holmes, Janet. 1992. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Pearson. Educational Limited

Hornby, A.S. 2005. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary; 7th Edition. London: Oxford University Press.

Riekkinen, N. 2009. Softening Criticism: The Use of Lexical Hedges in Academic Spoken Interaction. Downloaded on 3rd January 2015, from http:// uta.fi/laitokset/kielet/engf/research/elfa/research_nr.pdf

Tsui, A. B. M. 1994. English Conversation. London: Oxford University Press.

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