Politeness Strategies Used in Ellen DeGeneres’s TV Talk Show with Barack Obama as the Guest Star
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DOI: 10.24843/JH.2018.v22.i01.p21
ISSN: 2302-920X
Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud
Vol 22.1 Pebruari 2018: 142-146
Politeness Strategies Used in Ellen DeGeneres’s TV Talk Show with Barack Obama as the Guest Star
Ni Kadek Eni Dharmayanti1*, Ni Wayan Sukarini2, Putu Weddha Savitri3 English Department – Faculty Of Arts – Udayana University 1[[email protected]]2[[email protected]]3[[email protected]] *Corresponding Author
Abstract
This undergraduate thesis is entitled Politeness Strategies Used in Ellen DeGeneres’s TV Talk Show with Barack Obama as the Guest Star. Ellen DeGeneres is an American comedian, television host, actress, writer, and producer. The aims of this study are to analyze the type of politeness strategies used in Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show script with Barack Obama as the guest star, and to identify the factors influence the choice of strategies.The data in this study were obtained from a talk show entitled Ellen DeGeneres. The process of collecting data was done through documentation method. The theories applied to support this study are theory proposed by Brown and Levinson (1978) used to analyze the types of politeness strategies, and also the same theories used to identify the factors influence the choice of strategy. The sentences which were used as the data were the sentences of the conversation applied the politeness strategy in script. Politeness strategies and the factors that influence the choice of strategies have a close connection to each other, whether when the speakers talks to female or male, have different social status, have a close relationship, or they always try to act politely in every situations. In two episodes of Ellen DeGeneres talk show with Barack Obama as the guest star the politeness strategy mostly applied in the positive politeness strategy. It also has the connection with the factor influence the choice of strategy.
Keywords: talk show, politeness strategy, factors.
Abstrak
Judul dari tulisan ini adalah “Politeness Strategy yang digunakan di Acara Bincang-bincang Ellen DeGeneres dengan Barack Obama sebagai Bimtang Tamu”. Ellen DeGeneres adalah seorang komedian Amerika, pembawa acara televisi, aktris, penulis, dan produser. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis jenis strategi kesantunan yang digunakan dalam naskah acara Ellen DeGeneres dengan Barack Obama sebagai bintang tamu, dan untuk mengidentifikasi faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi pilihan strategi. Data dalam penelitian ini diperoleh dari talk show yang berjudul Ellen DeGeneres. Proses pengumpulan data dilakukan melalui metode dokumentasi. Teori yang digunakan untuk mendukung penelitian ini adalah teori strategi kesantunan yang diajukan oleh Brown dan Levinson (1978) digunakan untuk menganalisis jenis strategi kesantunan yang digunakan dan faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi pilihan strategi. Kalimat yang digunakan sebagai data adalah kalimat percakapan yang menerapkan strategi kesopanan dalam naskah. Strategi kesantunan dan faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi pilihan strategi saling berhubungan satu sama lain, apakah saat pembicara berbicara dengan wanita atau pria, memiliki status sosial yang berbeda, memiliki hubungan yang dekat, atau mereka selalu berusaha bersikap sopan dalam setiap situasi. Dalam dua episode talk show Ellen DeGeneres dengan
Barack Obama sebagai bintang tamu, strategi kesantunan kebanyakan diterapkan dalam strategi kesantunan positif. Ini juga berkaitan dengan faktor dan bagaimana faktor-faktor tersebut mempengaruhi pilihan strategi.
Kata kunci: Acara bincang-bincang, Strategi kesantunan, Faktor.
In doing communication, it is important for people to know how to make their conversation run well and smoothly. Consequently, people need to use politeness strategy to get a good response from the hearers. Based on Brown and Levinson (1987: 68), there are four types of politeness strategy, namely: Bald on Record, Negative
Politeness, Positive Politeness, and Off-Record-indirect strategy. In addition, Brown and Levinson list two factors that influence the choice of strategies. They are: the intrinsic payoff (a priori
consideration) and the circumstances (sociological variables). This research tries to look at the positive and negative politeness strategies, the factors and how the factors influence the choice of strategies used in a special episode in which Ellen has to do an interview with American’s President Barack Obama since they are coming from different social backgrounds and having different power. Ellen is an ordinary citizen while Barack Obama is the president of the United States.
The problems of the study are formulated as follows:
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a. What types of politeness strategies are used in Ellen DeGeneres’s tv talk show with Barack Obama as the guest star?
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b. What are the factors influence the choice of strategies in Ellen DeGeneres’s tv talk show with Barack Obama as the guest star?
Having looked at the problems above, the aims of the study are:
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a. To identify the types of politeness strategies used in Ellen DeGeneres’s tv talk show with Barack Obama as the guest star.
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b. To analyze the factors, influence the choice of strategies in Ellen DeGeneres’s tv talk show with Barack Obama as the guest star.
The procedure is known as research method, it can be defined as the procedure, which in this case includes the method of determination of the source of data, the process of collecting data, and how the data will be analyzed.
The data source of this study was taken from Ellen DeGeneres TV Talk Show. Two special episodes with Barack Obama as the guest star were analyzed. The Ellen DeGeneres Talk Show is often shortened to and stylized as ellen is an American television talk show hosted by comedian/actress Ellen DeGeneres. The Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show with Barack Obama occurred on television on March 19th, 2014 and on February 12th, 2016. These Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show were chosen as the data source because Ellen DeGeneres is known as one of the most famous tv talk show.
The data of this study were collected by using documentation method from the script of the talk show. The method in collecting the data in this writing was documentation method. The talk show was watched for several times to gain the information and take notes of the type of politeness strategyies. Besides, talk show script was read carefully in order to supporting this study.
The data were analyzed by using qualitative method which did not involve measurement or statistics. The data that had been collected were classified according to the theory from Brown and Levinson (1987) to find the types of politeness strategies used in the conversation of the talk show scripts. Then this study also used the theory proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987) about the factors that influence the choice of strategies used in Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show scripts with Barack Obama as the guest star.
In this research, two scripts from Ellen DeGeneres TV talk show with the same guest star were used, the guest star was Barack Obama taken from different episode. The first episode was aired on March 19th 2014, and the second episode was aired on February 12th 2016. The data are classified into the types of politeness strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson. The strategies were found in this talk show scripts were positive and negative politeness strategies. But not all of the types of each strategy were applied in Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show scripts.
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5.1 Positive and Negative Politeness used in Ellen DeGeneres’s TV Talk show with Barack Obama as the guest star on March 14th 2014
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a. Positive Strategy – Seek Agrement Obama: Well, I thought they were pretty nice sweaters.
Ellen: Yeah
Based on the conversation above we could say that the way Obama started the conversation with the sentence “Well” indicates that he is seeking for an agreement, and then followed with the words “I thought” which is also seeking for an agreement. Ellen then answering “yeah” and it can be concluded that she agreed with the statement said by Obama. Strategy 2 (seek agreement) is applied in their conversation.
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b. Strategy 1 – Be conventionally
indirect
Obama: You should pledge to also get a tattoo with us.
Ellen: Yeah, well, you know what, if that happens I will, but other than that I’m not into tattoos.
Negative politeness strategy 1 – Be
conventionally indirect is sentencing in sentence “Yeah, well, you know what, if that happens I will, but other than that I’m not into tattoos.” This conversation shows that this strategy is used to show the desire to give H an “out” by being indirect and the desire to go on record. Ellen DeGeneres as S wants to communicate her desire to be indirect even though in fact the utterance goes on record. Ellen’s desire is to reject Obama’s offer of getting a matching tattoos with his family.
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5.2 Positive and Negative Politeness Strategies used in Ellen DeGeneres’s TV Talk Show with Barack Obama as the Guest Star
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a. Positive and Negative Politeness Positive Strategy - Notice, attend to H (his interest, wants, needs, goods).
Ellen : We have a little presidential expert and she is never met a president before and her name is Macey Hensley and I’d like you to meet her.
Obama: How you doing Macey? You look great.
Macey : Thanks
Based on the conversations above it is known that there is an additional guest star in the talk show, her name is Macey. This little girl is a child who is interested in things related to president who once led the state of America. Positive politeness strategy 1 – Notice, attend to H (his interest, wants, needs, goods) is sentencing in sentence “How you doing Macey? You look great”. This is often done in which S takes notice of aspect of H’s condition (noticeable, changes, remarkable possessions, anything which looks as though H would want to notice and approve of it).
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b. Negative Strategy – Minimize the imposition
Ellen : I just thought it would work, and- I’ve had to stick with it, because people responded well.
Obama : Sort of like the dancing thing
From the dialogue, negative politeness strategy 4 – Minimize the imposition is applied in sentence “I just thought it would work, and I’ve had to stick with it, because people responded well.” In those sentences, Ellen use that strategy to avoid insulting her hearer which is in this case the president of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama.
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5. 3 The Factors Influence the Choice of Strategies in Ellen DeGeneres talk show scripts with Barack Obama as the guest star on March 14th 2014
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a. The Intrinsic Payoffs
The analysis of the Intrinsic Payoffs: a priori consideration used in Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show with Barack Obama is showed in dialogue “Let’s also talk about you went shopping.” In sentence (1) “Let’s also talk about you went shopping” was included in the positive politeness strategy 12- Include both S and H in the activity. That sentence is used by Ellen as the speaker to persuade the hearer, also to convince the hearer that the speaker considered herself as ‘of the same kind’.
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b. The circumstances
In the sentence “So, the first Lady is in China, how is she doing?” uttered by a speaker to a hearer to ask politely about a question she wants to know. The questions which were asked are not concerned about something or adverse events that have been experienced by the listener. Therefore, the speaker uses those phrase to ask the hearer.
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5.4 The Factors Influence the Choice of
Strategies in Ellen DeGeneres talk show scripts with Barack Obama as the guest star on February 12th 2017
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a. The Intrinsic Payoffs
The analysis from the intrinsic payoffs: a priori consideration used in Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show with Barack Obama is “Yeah, exactly” is included in the positive politeness strategy 7 –
Presuppose/raise/assert common ground. In sentence“Yeah, exactly” used by Ellen as the hearer to answer the statements coming out of the speaker before. The
hearer replied with words to convince the recipient that S considered himself as ‘of the same kind’. That she agreed with the speaker’s opinion about her. The speaker used “Yeah, exactly” and being explicit because the speaker is agreeing with the hearer’s statement.
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b. The circumstances
In the sentence “Will you tell me something about Roosevelt” uttered by a speaker to hearer, a speaker asked politely by using a soft tone and gentle speech to the hearer. That is because the speaker appreciates the position of hearer as an invited guest star on her talk show.
The analysis of the politeness strategies used in Ellen DeGeneres TV Talk Show with Barack Obama as the Guest Star, the following points can be drawn as conclusions; Positive and negative politeness strategies being analyzed. However, not all of each strategy was found. The factors influencing the choice of strategies were also applied in Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show script in delivering the topic of talk show. There are two factors being analyzed from the Ellen DeGeneres’s TV talk show, they are Intrinsic Payoffs and Sociological Circumstances.
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