191 Celtic: A Journal of Culture, English Language Teaching, Literature and Linguistics Vol. 9, No. 2, December 2022 http://ejournal.umm.ac.id/index.php/celtic/index POLITENESS STRATEGIES USED BY THE MAIN CHARACTER IN THE FILM ONWARD Muhammad Lukmanul Hakim, Nine Febrie Novitasari* Universitas Abdurachman Saleh Situbondo, Indonesia ABSTRACT It is essential to pay attention to the use of politeness strategies in communication, especially if the speaker and listener come from different cultures. People and cultures have been successfully visualized by Disney Pixar in their films that often expose their audiences to different cultural backgrounds of their characters. This research aimed at analyzing the politeness strategies used by the main character in a Disney Pixar animated adventure film Onward. The data in this descriptive qualitative research were analyzed by using the theories of politeness strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987). The results indicate that Ian Lightfoot, the main character, uses a lot of bald- on-record strategies in communicating. This is closely related to the theme of the film in which there are many scenes showing emergencies that require quick action and orders for the safety of the main characters. In addition to that, the most-frequent-used politeness strategies done does not necessarily imply emotional closeness between speakers. The linguistic choices made by the main character were affected by the socio-cultural aspects formed in his society. Keywords: Ian Lightfoot; Onward; politeness strategies ABSTRAK Penggunaan strategi kesopanan dalam berkomunikasi penting untuk diperhatikan, terlebih jika pembicara dan pendengar berasal dari budaya yang berbeda. Sehubungan dengan hal tersebut, Disney Pixar telah sukses memproduksi film-film yang mengenalkan penontonnya terhadap perbedaan budaya dari tokoh-tokohnya. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis penggunaan strategi kesopanan yang digunakan oleh tokoh utama dalam film animasi Disney Pixar Onward. Data dalam penelitian kualitatif deskriptif ini dianalisis dengan mengacu pada teori tentang strategi kesopanan yang dinyatakan oleh Brown dan Levinson (1987). Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa Ian Lightfoot, tokoh utama dalam film ini banyak menggunakan strategi langsung tanpa basa-basi (bald-on-record) dalam berkomunikasi. Hal ini erat kaitannya dengan tema film yaitu petualangan di mana terdapat banyak adegan yang menunjukkan situasi gawat darurat yang membutuhkan tindakan dan perintah cepat untuk keselamatan tokoh-tokoh utamanya. Selain itu, strategi kesopanan yang paling sering dilakukan tidak serta merta mengimplikasikan kedekatan emosional antar penutur. Pilihan Bahasa yang dibuat oleh tokoh utama ditentukan oleh aspek social budaya yang terbentuk pada masyarakat. Kata Kunci: strategi kesopanan; Ian Lightfoot; Onward E-ISSN: 2621-9158 P-ISSN:2356-0401 *Correspondence: ninefebrie@gmail.com Submitted: 13 December 2022 Approved: 28 December 2022 Published: 30 December 2022 Citation: Hakim, M.H., & Novitasari, N.F. (2022). Politeness Strategies used by the main character in the film Onward. Celtic: A Journal of Culture, English Language Teaching, Literature and Linguistics, 9(2),191- 204. Doi: 10.22219/celtic.v9i2.23436. mailto:ninefebrie@gmail.com Muhammad Lukmanul Hakim, Nine Febrie Novitasari Politeness Strategies used by the main character in the film Onward 192 INTRODUCTION One of the important aspects of communication is politeness as it maintains the relationship of the conversation participants (Borris & Zecho, 2018). Politeness is an act of having or showing good manners or respect for other people by considering the language expressions made (Natanael & Putranti, 2019). It shows how we, the speaker show respect and values to the hearers (Rosari, 2017; Daulay et al., 2022). It is about how we show awareness and consideration of another person’s ‘face’ (Yule, 1996; Setyawan & Wiraatmaja, 2018). This is in line with what is said by Muslimin (2015) saying that good communication requires the speaker to be careful in producing a language as what they speak may affect the interlocutor. Brown and Levinson (1987) define politeness as a way of behaving well by considering the feelings of the people that are being addressed. Supporting that, Holmes (2013) says that that politeness deals with how people use language appropriately toward their addressees. Thus, simply said that showing a politeness act is not only, for example, by saying ‘thank you’ or ‘please’ in the right place but also how to use those words or the language appropriately. It is to build social interaction, too (Kamlasi & Sahan, 2022). The act showing politeness can be found in daily life. How we address older or senior people, ask for a request, respond to an order, or send emails requires politeness, and thus, it indicates if we have a good personality or not. Further, politeness is important if we communicate with people whose cultures are different from ours as each culture has distinct cultural norms and values (Marsih, 2010; Fitri, 2018; Zhang, 2019). Different society functions their own normative politeness notion and that apply differently to other societies (Fitriah & Hidayat, 2018; Yuliyawati, 2020). People speak according to the acceptable rules or customs applied in their society (Malo, 2016). Previous works on politeness strategies have been conducted to analyze the characters in literary works. Novels and films are the top two literary works that have been used the most as the research data source. However, it is important to include animation films as many of them are made particularly for children. It is good to introduce and teach politeness strategies to children at an early age. Films can provide authentic and varied source of language, and hence, provides examples of the use of English in ‘real life’ conversation. In addition to that, the visuals enable children to learn the language and comprehend the context (Donaghy, 2014). As the development of children’s cognitive is indicated by their language development (Noermanzah, 2017; Rahayu, 2019), the language they acquire portrays their socio-cultural condition (Supriyanti, 2016). As politeness plays a big role if the communication involves speakers from different cultural backgrounds, the film chosen to analyze is the one that fits this requirement. Onward is an example of an animation film that has many children viewers. Produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney, Onward managed to top the position at the box office and grossed $ 141 million worldwide with the most viewers are children and received generally positive reviews from critics (The Disney Wiki, 2020). Having reviewed some literatures, no research on politeness strategies has been conducted using this film as the data source. Regardless of the decision to choose Onward as the data source in this current research, other Disney Pixar’s animated films have been used in previous research on politeness strategies. Celtic: A Journal of Culture, English Language Teaching, Literature and Linguistics Vol. 9, No. 2, December 2022 http://ejournal.umm.ac.id/index.php/celtic/index 193 A review on previous research bringing up the topic of politeness strategies in Pixar’s films reveal that most of them aimed at quite similar objectives. Finding Nemo is the first Pixar’s film used as a research data source focusing on politeness strategies. Musahadah (2016) investigated the frequencies of politeness strategies in directive speech acts and what illocutions that frequently used in film Finding Nemo. However, it was not clearly mentioned if the data were focused on the main character’s utterances. Putra et al. (2018) analyzed a film entitled Finding Dory, aiming at describing the types of positive politeness strategies used by the characters to extend and respond to utterances and describing the factors that influenced the use of positive politeness strategies used by the main character in the film. They focused on analyzing the positive politeness strategies. Then, Cahyadi (2019) conducted a research aiming at investigating what types of politeness strategies shown by the characters in the film The Incredibles. He also investigated what maxim violations made by the characters in showing the politeness strategies. The types and reasons of the use of politeness strategies in Ratatouille were also studied by Rizki (2020). However, this study analyzed not only the main character, but also the other major characters. The latest research on politeness strategies conducted by using Pixar’s film was the one by Nur’Imani (2020). She studied Toy Story 4 to see the types of politeness strategies that were used by the characters in the film and what factors that influenced the choice of these strategies. All of these previous research employ the theory on politeness by Brown and Levinson (1987). Brown and Levinson (1987) say that the ability of enter a social relationship requires the mindfulness of the self-image of the people we talk to. This implies that we need to avoid making the other person embarrassed or uncomfortable when having a conversation. In other words, it is vital to develop politeness strategies in order to save the hearer’s self-image/ ‘face’(Siburian, 2016). Accordingly, the idea of the participant's face is a vital instrument to describe politeness (Hidayah, 2021). Whatever action hitting the degree of one’s face is termed Face Threatening Acts (FTA) (Darta, 2018). Hence, Brown and Levinson suggested that any Face Threatening Acts (FTA) be avoided in the conversation by the use of some types of politeness strategies: bald-on-record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off-record Bald-on-record is an utterance in the form of order or request addressed directly to others. It uses imperative forms that are directly addressed to the hearer in order to ask something, for example, when borrowing a pen, the speaker will say, “Give me a pen!”. The example shows the imperative utterance in it. The strategy is directly, clearly, and unambiguous in saying. However, this form may be followed by mitigating device expressions like “please” and “would you?” to soften the demand. Positive politeness is an act to please the hearer’s positive self-image/ ‘ face’. It helps the speaker show their appreciation, approval, interest, and solidarity with the hearer which can be shown by engaging to friendship, expressing intimacy, making the hearers feel good, or showing that the speaker has a common goal with the hearer. The example of this is “Hi, Anne. You’re good at sewing. I wonder if you could help me with this hole in my skirt.” The speaker Muhammad Lukmanul Hakim, Nine Febrie Novitasari Politeness Strategies used by the main character in the film Onward 194 knows that Anne has a good sewing skill, so before she asks for some help, she tries to satisfy her. Negative politeness focuses on the negative face by signifying the distance existing between the speaker and the hearer. It also avoids intruding on each other’s ground. Negative politeness is used to give the hearer options and to avoid imposing or presuming. This is a specific and focused strategy as it achieves the function of minimizing the particular burden that the FTA inescapably affects. Off-record is an indirect way of politeness, an indirect speech act. A speaker who uses this strategy will say an indirect speech act to ask someone to do something for them like in “Oh I'm so sleepy. A cup of coffee would help.” The sentence implies that the speaker asks the hearer to give them a cup of coffee. Without saying it directly, the meaning of the sentence is negotiable. Since in off- record the speaker leaves it up to the hearer to decide how to interpret the act, the speaker need to give the hearer some hints so that the hearer will pick up on them and therefore is able to interpret what the speaker wants to say. Inviting some conversational implicatures and violating them and being ambiguous are the basic ways to give hints. Besides giving hints and association clues, presupposing, understating, and overstating, some methods that belong to the former are by using tautologies, a contradiction, metaphors, rhetorical questions, and irony. On the other side, the methods belonging to the latter are being ambiguous, being incomplete, being vague, over-generalizing, displacing the hearer, and using ellipsis. When it comes to Disney Pixar, their success in the animation film industry makes people wonder what makes the company to be so appealing. Upon its establishment, Disney Pixar targeted children, but then expanded its target audience comprising people from different age brackets, gender, and different backgrounds. In addition to that, the best thing about them is that they have made the effort to engage their audiences through the contents of the films. No wonder their films have had a high propensity for influencing children’s development concerning cultural beliefs (IvyPanda, 2020); therefore, this has become one of the rationales to conduct this research. Another consideration to choose Onward as the data source of this current research is because no research on politeness strategies has been conducted on Disney Pixar’s films after Toy Story 4 in 2020. Contemplating its main character who is awkward and shy even to converse with his classmates, Onward shows how Ian Lightfoot’s characteristics develop as he ventures into many unexpected-to-encounter situations. The results of this research are expected to provide new insights into the potential forms of linguistic politeness shown by a reserved person to cope with situation that requires quick thinking and decision making. METHOD This descriptive qualitative research aimed at finding what politeness strategies that were employed by the main character, Ian Lightfoot, in the film Onward. The data were in the form of utterances containing politeness strategies and the methods indicating the strategies. To answer the research question, politeness strategies theory proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987) was used in the data analysis process. Celtic: A Journal of Culture, English Language Teaching, Literature and Linguistics Vol. 9, No. 2, December 2022 http://ejournal.umm.ac.id/index.php/celtic/index 195 The data were collected through several steps: watching the film and noting down the utterances containing politeness strategies used by the main character and how he used them in utterances. The collected ‘data’ were then analyzed by referring to the underlying theory of politeness strategies to make sure if they were really data. Since this research was conducted by two researchers, Theory triangulation was used to compare the obtained information with relevant theoretical perspectives to avoid the individual bias of the researchers on the findings or conclusions generated. FINDINGS The findings of this research are of two kinds: the types of politeness strategies used by the main character in film Onward and how the main character used the strategies in his utterances. Thirty data were obtained from the film. The most dominant type of politeness strategy used by the main character in the film Onward was bald-on-record with eleven data, followed by positive politeness with seven data, negative politeness with six data, and off-record with six data. Table 1. Findings No Politeness Strategies Frequency 1. Bald On Record 11 2. Positive Politeness 7 3. Negative Politeness 6 4. Off Record 6 TOTAL 30 Bald-on-record In bald-on-record, the speaker forms an order or a request addressed directly to the hearer(s). The researcher found that the main character, Ian Lightfoot, used this strategy in some conversations. There are eleven data of this type of politeness strategies. The examples of this strategy are shown in the following elaboration. Datum : 002/00:04:36 Barley : “A boy 16 would have his strength tested, in the Swamps of Despair.” Ian Lightfoot : “I'm not testing anything. Just let me go!” The dialogue occurred when Barley came and strangled Ian's neck while teasing him, and told that in the past, a sixteen-year-old young man had his strength tested in the swamps of despair where at this time Ian turn sixteen. Then Ian, slightly annoyed, replied “I'm not testing anything. Just let me go!” The underlined utterance is the direct request from Ian to Barley, implying that he needed Barley to take him off. Here it can be seen that Ian used a direct request in his utterance to show his politeness strategy which belongs to type bald-on- record. Datum: 004/00:06:20 Barley : “You can be a wizard. I shall cast a spell on thee!” Ian : “Hey! Careful of Dad's sweatshirt!” Muhammad Lukmanul Hakim, Nine Febrie Novitasari Politeness Strategies used by the main character in the film Onward 196 Barley was very enthusiastic hugging Ian while teasing him with a wizard toy with a fairly pointed tip. However, Ian was worried that his father's sweater would tear if Barley tore his father’s sweatshirt by accident with his toy. Ian told Barley to be careful by stating a direct request “Careful”. This strategy belongs to bald-on-record. Datum : 026/00:47:59 Barley : “I think the spell is wearing off” Ian Ligthfoot : “Get off my face!” The conversation in Datum 029 occurred when Ian and Barley were on a car. Ian was driving on the highway. Barley was accidentally hit by Ian's magic and turned into a dwarf. The magic began to fade when Barley was on Ian's shoulder, until finally Barley returned to his original size and blocked Ian's view. Being unable to see the view, Ian uttered a direct request “Get off my face!” to ask Barley to move away from his sight. Ian employed a direct request to show his politeness, which belongs to type bald-on-record. Positive Politeness The second type of politeness strategies is positive politeness. This type occurs when the speaker acts to satisfy the hearer’s positive face. It can be shown by claiming interests that are shared by each of two or more parties, conveying that the speaker and the hearer are cooperators and satisfying what the hearer desires. There are eight data of positive politeness found in the film Onward. The examples of this type of politeness strategies can be seen in the following dialogues. Datum : 008/00:10:01 Ian Lightfoot : “Hey, what’s up, Gang?” Friends : “Uh, oh..hey, Ian.” This conversation occurred when Ian wanted to invite some friends to his birthday party. Ian was thinking about how he could address his friends to sound closer and he decided to use the term “Gang”. This belongs to positive politeness, particularly on the use of a group identify maker (address form). Datum : 009/00:12:26 Teacher : “Now, take this on-ramp for the freeway.” Ian Lightfoot : “Okay, yeah. I'm, uh, super ready for that.” The conversation in Datum 009 occurred during a driving lesson. The teacher needed a volunteer to drive and Ian decided to be one. When the teacher gave the signal to go to the highway, Ian said that he was very ready to do that. The phrase “super ready” is a positive politeness shown by exaggerating. Ian said that to show his interest with what the teacher said. Datum : 011/00:11:31 Barley : “Hi, Ian!” Ian Lightfoot : “Hi, Buddy!” The conversation in Datum 011 occurred when Barley and Ian met each other. The underlined word “Buddy!” is a positive politeness shown by using a group identify maker (address form) as the word “buddy” carries such an in-group membership. Barley was Ian’s brother, so Ian used a positive politeness toward Barley. Celtic: A Journal of Culture, English Language Teaching, Literature and Linguistics Vol. 9, No. 2, December 2022 http://ejournal.umm.ac.id/index.php/celtic/index 197 Negative Politeness The third type of politeness strategies is negative politeness. When a speaker wants to avoid imposing or presuming and to give the hearer options, negative politeness occurs. This strategy focuses on negative face by signifying the distance between interlocutors and avoiding intruding on each other as well. The examples of negative politeness can be seen in the following dialogues. Datum : 005/00:06:054 Barley : “Wait, wait. By the laws of Yore, I must dub thee a man today.” Ian : “Oh! That's okay. I gotta get going. “ An incident happened after Barley tore Ian's sweater. Without feeling guilty, Barley still teased him. Ian, who was starting to get annoyed, took the initiative to immediately go to school and left Barley. He did that to minimize the imposition. This is an example of a politeness strategy that is negative politeness. Datum : 007/00:09:07 Ian Lightfoot : “Hey, uh, Gorgamon. Um... would you mind not putting your feet on my chair today?” Gorgamon : “Sorry, Dude, got to keep them elevated, gets the blood flowing to my brain.” The dialogue occurred on Ian’s first day of school. He was so excited because he started the great new day of school. When he arrived in his classroom and was about to go to his seat, he saw Gorgamon blocking his seat. Ian very carefully said “Hey, uh, Gorgamon. Um... would you mind not putting your feet on my chair today?”. The phrase “would you mind” is a negative politeness shown by giving deference. It happened because Ian as the speaker acted to avoid imposition on his hearer. It was the first time Ian met Gorgamon, so he attended the negative face when delivering his order. Datum : 025/00: 42:15 Fairy : “Answer me when I’m talking to you!” Ian Lightfoot : “I’m sorry, I don’t really know!” The conversation in Datum 025 occurred when one of the fairies was accidentally touched by Ian's father's body. Ian's father could not speak because only some of his body parts could be resurrected. Ian finally apologized for his father's unintentional actions. The underlined utterance “I’m sorry” is a negative politeness depicted by an apology because the speaker can show his unwillingness to impinge on the hearer’s negative face by apologizing. Off-record Off-record happens when the speaker expresses something general or different from the speaker's true meaning. Thus, it relies on how the hearer interprets the messages. The example of off record can be seen in the following dialogue. Datum : 003/00:05:43 Officer : “Hey there, Birthday Boy. So, you workin' hard or hardly workin'?” Ian Lightfoot : “I'm just, you know, making toast!” The conversation in Datum 003 occurred when an officer came to Ian's house and asked what big thing Ian had done at age of just turning sixteen. Ian was Muhammad Lukmanul Hakim, Nine Febrie Novitasari Politeness Strategies used by the main character in the film Onward 198 doing nothing besides making toast for breakfast. The underlined phrase “making toast” is an off-record. Ian showed politeness by using an irony because by saying the opposite of what Ian really means, the speaker can indirectly convey his intended meaning. Datum : 008/00:09:16 Ian Lightfoot : “It just makes it a little hard for me to fit in there.” Gorgamon : “Well, if I don't have good blood flow, I can't concentrate on my schoolwork.” The conversation in Datum 008 occurred when Ian hinted to Gorgamon that his legs were completely blocking his seat and he could barely sit on it. Because Gorgamon was very selfish, he still stuck to his reasons. The underlined words “a little hard” is an off-record with the strategy “give hints”. It happened because as the speaker, Ian wanted to fulfill the purpose of the speaker’s request. Datum : 010/00:10:53 Ian : “You like cake like I like cake, I've got a cake at my house.” Friend : “Are you inviting us to a party?” This is a conversation between Ian and his friend. Ian tried to invite his friends to come to his birthday party, but Ian uttered an awkward and lousy request. Fortunately, his friend understands what Ian means. The underlined phrase is a tautology that belongs to the off-record politeness strategy as it is repeated twice. DISCUSSION The researcher found thirty data on politeness strategies used by Ian Lightfoot, the main character in the film Onward. Bald-on-record appeared eleven times and was the most dominant politeness strategy found to be used by Ian Lightfoot as he uttered so many direct requests to his hearers. He used many direct requests mostly to his friend, Barley, as he had a close social status with him. It was also found that Ian Lightfoot used so many direct requests when he was in an urgent situation, like when Barley was about to tear his father’s sweatshirt with his toy or when Ian warned Barley to be careful when he was in a dangerous situation. It is in line with what Brown and Levinson (1987) say about bald-on-record that most likely occurs when both the speaker and the hearer are in a close relationship such as between close friends and family. In addition to that, as Onward is an adventure film, it has many scenes that depict emergencies that led to the frequent use of direct requests that include requests to escape from dangerous situations. In line with the result of Musahadah's (2016) research, if an illocution indicating a direct request or an order is uttered for the sake of the speaker and the hearer’s safety, the hearer’s face is ignored. Positive politeness is the second most frequently used politeness strategy. It is used seven times by Ian Lightfoot. The strategy that belongs to positive politeness was mostly the use of a group identify maker (address form), particularly the ones used in a family relationship, such as the word “Mom and Dad”. This is because the film focuses on Ian Lightfoot and his family members: his brother, his ‘shade’ father, and his mother. Some identification markers were also used by Ian Lightfoot for people he met like his friends and some creatures during his quest. The identify makers used by Ian Lightfoot were “Gang, Dudes, and Guys”. Celtic: A Journal of Culture, English Language Teaching, Literature and Linguistics Vol. 9, No. 2, December 2022 http://ejournal.umm.ac.id/index.php/celtic/index 199 These address forms were used to show the same group by its members as what is defined by Brown and Levinson (1987). Negative politeness and off-record have the same frequency of use in the film. The negative politeness strategy was mostly used by Ian Lightfoot when he was talking to strangers by giving deference. Ian Lightfoot used this strategy at some places when he met the fairy, Manticore, Gorgamon, and the shopkeeper. The use of this politeness strategy was effective when asking for a request or information from other people to show awareness of the hearer’s negative face (Njuki & Ireri, 2021). Moreover, it was the first time Ian met the fairy, Manticore, Gorgamon, and the shopkeeper. Thus, even though Ian Lightfoot wanted to get an advantage from them, he needed to remain polite without showing the imposition. If the hearer(s) did not feel imposed, they would feel good and behave friendly as well. In addition to that, these people Ian met during his quest were superior to him, so he had to show respect and not offend them. He did it as part of his efforts to bring his father back to life, so he needed to make sure that everything he did would help him achieve his goal. If a person goes off record, there is more than one possible intention attributable to the speaker, so blaming the person for making a certain intention cannot be done (Brown & Levinson, 1987). When using the off-record politeness strategy, Ian Lightfoot meant things indirectly to his hearers, for example when he wanted to invite his friends to his birthday party and when mentioning what he did on his birthday. Ian did such a strategy the most because he felt shy and inconvenient to say the truth. Compared to the results of some previous studies analyzing politeness strategies in Disney Pixar’s films, some thin lines can be drawn. In one of its adventure films The Incredibles (Cahyadi, 2019), the result is the same as the result of this current research. Bald-on-process is the most dominant politeness strategy used. It is because both films have many scenes that depict an emergency situation that requires the use of direct commands. In this context, the speaker does not have to be aware of the hearer’s face. Both films also have positive politeness as their second-most-dominant politeness strategy being used by the main character. The sub-strategy used is the identify makers. However, in other genres of Disney Pixar’s films, the politeness strategies used by the characters varied from positive politeness, to negative politeness, and off-record (Musahadah, 2016; Putra et al., 2018). The variations of the types of politeness strategies used to reflect the conversational implicature and politeness are affected by some socio-cultural factors. Holmes (2013) says that politeness influences the choice of the use of various forms of address and that the social dimension influences what is considered polite in different situations and societies. In other words, the consideration to use a particular politeness strategy can be different, depending on the cultural reasons, such as age, gender, educational background, and financial background. Even if some expressions and gestures are similarly understood globally, some are different and culturally prejudiced. This implies that the ability to be aware of the notion of politeness and others’ background is vital to determine the appropriate strategy to use in a conversation (Suyono & Andriyanti, 2021). The factors causing the different uses of politeness strategies comprise three reasons Muhammad Lukmanul Hakim, Nine Febrie Novitasari Politeness Strategies used by the main character in the film Onward 200 as what have been voiced by Brown and Levinson (1987), they are social distance, relative power, and absolute ranking of imposition in a certain culture. These three socio-pragmatic parameters determine what kind of politeness strategies that will be used (Yaqin et al., 2022). The culture of a society is influential in determining how power is distributed and how the social distance is among conversation participants and the imposition that is associated with an action. Related to social distance, how Ian Lightfoot communicated with his close people such as family members was different from how he communicated with strangers. With his family members, he spoke informally as there was no great social distance between them. This is also what made Ian use bald-on-record more to Barley, his brother, as Ian thought he was wiser, smarter, and more thoughtful than he was. The low social distance they had enabled Ian to order Barley to do anything freely. Meanwhile, the high social distance between Ian and some strangers he met triggered a higher degree of politeness he used. As social distance can be defined as the differing degrees of familiarity between the speaker and the hearer (Brown & Levinson, 1987), it shows a continuum with two ends: one of which is the closest (like when we talk to a family member) while the other is the opposite (when we talk to a stranger). Therefore, the higher the social distance between the speaker and the hearer is, the more polite the strategy used and vice versa. Usually, the off- record is mostly used when the level of the interlocutors’ social distance is high, and bald-on-record is mostly used by interlocutors who have a close social distance (Alsulami, 2015). In this case, as a shy person, the high social distance lying between Ian and people other than his family members seemed so visible. Ian always talked awkwardly to people. Even to his classmates with the same culture, Ian used the phrase “Would you mind….” to ask for a favor. He always thought thoroughly before speaking to them. This happened because Ian has never been close with his classmates as he thought himself a nerd. This illustrates that how well the speaker knows his interlocutor (and vice versa) affects the linguistic choices he makes (Yulia, 2016). The relative status of the speaker determines the interaction between the two. To add, how social status can affect the politeness strategies used can be seen by the use of bald-on-record in this film. Bald-on-record was used by Ian mostly in circumstances that required him to save himself (and sometimes his brother, too). The frequent use of bald-on-record shows that Ian and his brother had a close social distance. Therefore, the necessity level to look polite is low. However, at the time when Ian felt annoyed and disappointed with his brother, he felt the social distance between them increasing. He felt that his brother wasted his short and precious time. Feeling upset, Ian chose to avoid talking to his brother to avoid any imposition. He chose to leave and not to trust his brother anymore. He had known that he should not believe and listen to his brother. In this situation, Ian’s emotional closeness with his brother was decreased. Here we can see that the strategies of politeness that were employed in every scene are suitable to be applied and associated only in a particular contextual situation. This is also evident that a close social distance as between family members does not necessarily make someone use particular politeness strategies. Emotional closeness does matter. It also proves that even though Brown and Levinson (1987) say that the notion of face is universal, it can be varied depending on socio-cultural factors. Ian who was Celtic: A Journal of Culture, English Language Teaching, Literature and Linguistics Vol. 9, No. 2, December 2022 http://ejournal.umm.ac.id/index.php/celtic/index 201 raised without his father, grew differently from his brother who had a chance to ‘have’ a father. Unlike his brother, Ian grew into a quiet, sad boy because he had never seen his father. In turns out that the same family can be different homes to its members and affected how they socially and culturally behave. The level of politeness used by Ian Lightfoot also depended on the relative power existing between him and the strangers he met on the quest. The more power these strangers (the fairy, Gorgamon, and Manticore) owned and the great favor Ian requested from them made Ian positioned himself less powerful and determined the politeness strategies he used. Brown and Levinson (1987) categorize impositions into two ranks: rank of the order of imposition that requires services and rank of order of impositions that requires goods (including information). Thus, the politeness strategies used by Ian Lightfoot also depended on what rank of the order of imposition he needed. This is shown when Ian asked Manticore to give him the map to Raven’s Point. At first, he said, “My brother and I seek a map to a Phoenix Gem.’ Then, when it seemed that Manticore did not want to give him the map, he said, “Please, we need that map.” This implies a change in the type of politeness from off-record (Ian let Manticore perceive what he said) to bald-on-record (directly request for a map to the Raven’s Point). The change was in the use of more formal language shown by the use of the word “please”. Another change in politeness shown by Ian also occurred after the meaningful quest he took with his brother. He finally realized that he had his brother who was always with him, took care of him, and taught him many things. It made him realize that it was more precious than “meeting” his father. This changed how Ian viewed his life. Since then, he became more confident and socially open. He could talk freely to anyone. Let alone a society. The changes of politeness Ian used in this film imply that each individual himself may have different cultures that depend on how their views are formed in society (Fitriah & Hidayat, 2018). CONCLUSION In this film, Ian whom we firstly know was a sweet-and-determined-but- unconfident-and-nervous lad had developed his personality into a strong-and- grown-up one. The journey he had with his brother has changed him. The old Ian who always felt awkward socializing and even could not talk to people was replaced by the confident and social Ian. The situations during the journey of finding his father, which was mostly urgent and made him out of desperation, forced Ian to push himself to express his needs. Apparently, since this film focuses on Ian and his brother’s relationship, the viewers can see how the politeness strategies Ian employed towards his brother changed according to the contextual situation they were in. Even though Ian and Barley were family that supposed to be socially close, the different childhood they spent results in two boys with different cultural backgrounds: one was raised with a father and the other was not. The emotional closeness Ian had to his brother easily changed as he did not realize his brother’s true feeling for him which affected the choice of politeness strategies he employed when talking to him in different situations. From this movie, we can learn that emotional closeness is apparently not determined by the close social distance between two people. Family, which is supposed to be a society with a Muhammad Lukmanul Hakim, Nine Febrie Novitasari Politeness Strategies used by the main character in the film Onward 202 close social distance, deceptively determines what kind of cultural background one can have. As Disney Pixar’s films are animated and rated parental guidance, they tend to be seen as family films in the sense that they are skewed young. However, if we can see the films deeper, they are not merely ‘family’ films with educational purposes, including introducing politeness to viewers. Pixar can delve deeper into this basic ‘family’ theme to find and present a universe of meaning. This paper confines its analysis to politeness strategies used by the main character of the film Onward. Relating to this, potential future researchers can investigate the politeness strategies in other Disney Pixar films to see if there is any thin line that can show the universe of meaning Pixar has been trying to reveal to its viewers. 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