Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 available at http://jurnalfahum.uinsby.ac.id/index.php/nobel/article/view/366 DOI: 10.15642/NOBEL.2021.12.1.112-135 POLITENESS STRATEGIES USED BY THE STUDENTS WITH REGIONAL MULTICULTURAL BACKGROUND Ribut Surjowati  Wijaya Kusuma University, Jl. Dukuh Kupang XXV No.54 Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia Article Info Abstract This study aimed to describe the politeness strategy used by the students of Language and Science Faculty in Wijaya Kusuma Surabaya University with different regional multicultural backgrounds. The data in this qualitative study were taken from 20 participants, in which 10 participants were non-Javanese, and 10 participants were Javanese. The data were collected, documented, transcribed, reduced, and coded to make the analysis easier. The analysis was done by following these procedures 1) the data were classified based on the students’ place of origin, types of politeness, and the strategies they used and displayed 2) the data were analyzed using Brown’s and Levinson’s theory of politeness strategies. The finding reveals that both groups of students used negative and positive politeness strategies; however, the types of strategies are different. The non-Javanese students used strategies of apologizing and being pessimistic in negative politeness strategy while the Javanese students used strategies of apologizing, hedging, and giving deference. In positive politeness strategies, the non-Javanese students used strategies of avoiding disagreement, promising, exaggerating, and seeking agreement; meanwhile, the Javanese students used avoiding disagreement, exaggerating, and giving for reason strategies. Article History: Received March 2021 Accepted April 2021 Published April 2021 Keywords: politeness strategies, positive politeness, negative politeness, regional multiculture ©2021 UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya Correspondence: p-ISSN 2087-0698 Email: surjowati88@gmail.com e-ISSN 2549-2470 http://jurnalfahum.uinsby.ac.id/index.php/nobel/article/view/ Ribut Surjowati NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 112 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 INTRODUCTION Politeness is the expression of the speakers’ willingness and intention to lessen face threats done by certain face threats being acted towards another (Mills, 2003). It is the ability to please others through external actions. It is also a social skill whose purpose is to confirm that everyone feels encouraged in social interaction (Whatt; 2003 and Foley; 1997). Furthermore, Yule (1996) states that politeness is a polite way of social behavior, which differs from culture to culture. Every culture has a different perception of politeness concept. In other words, speakers of the same culture share similar assumptions and backgrounds. Still, they differ between cultures, resulting in different perceptions of politeness. This interesting finding triggers some research about politeness strategy in a different culture by linguists (Baresove, 2008, Sukarno, 2018, Anderson, 2009, Aubed, 2012, Salvesen, 2015). For example, Sukarno (2018) investigated politeness strategies, linguistic markers, and social context to deliver requests in Javanese. It showed that the social context determined four types of politeness strategies found; direct, indirect, less direct, and most direct. The linguistic markers found are sentence moods, speech levels, passive voice, and supposition/condition, which function as politeness strategies. Furthermore, Baresove (2008) explored politeness strategies in two different cultures, American and Japanese, in delivering rejections in letters. It is found that different mechanisms underlying the rejection require different politeness strategies. It means that there are different ways of using politeness strategies in rejections between Americans and Japanese. Moreover, Aubed (2012) investigated five different patterns of direct polite requests, rendering these patterns from English into Arabic to see how they are realized politeness request in English and Arabic. He found that polite markers, which give the utterances the force of polite requests, in Arabic are more than those in English. Indonesians are always taught to practice politeness in their daily life either in behaving and communicating. The Eastern culture, and particularly Indonesian, plays a major role in influencing politeness strategies. The youngers respect the elders, the inferiors respect the superiors, such as doctor and patient, students, and lecturers. As Eshghinejad and Moini (2016) say in their research, most participants used a negative strategy when they sent in text messaging to their professors to show respect, deference, and distance. This means that while the students communicated with their lecturers, they preferred using negative politeness strategies to demonstrate their respect to their lecturers. Politeness Strategies NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 113 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 The various studies mentioned previously have focused on the influence of different cultural backgrounds in politeness strategies, such as the strategies used by Japanese vs. Americans, English vs. Arabic, Norwegians vs. English (Baresove, 2008, Aubed, 2012, Salvesen, 2015). The current study is focusing on using politeness strategies based on a smaller scope of cultural background. The writer tries to observe more details about politeness strategies by considering the participants’ regional multicultural backgrounds. Knowing that Indonesia consists of islands, it is assumed that various politeness strategies will be identified. Thus, people will get information about politeness strategies that can be used to communicate well. Politeness is then a culturally defined phenomenon that applies good manners and behavior intended to save the speaker’s or the addresses’ face (Makejeva, 2017). Brown and Levinson (1987) point out that American culture is generally referred to as a culture highly applying positive politeness, which is quite different from Japanese culture that emphasizes indirectness and politeness to prefer using negative politeness strategy (Takano, 2005; Fukushima, 2000). Furthermore, various researches have shown that in Japanese, direct realizations of acts that impose on the hearer, such as requests, refusals, or permission, are commonly used when the hearer has a different status from the speakers. Meanwhile, indirect realizations must be implemented when the hearer is superior or a social distance between the communicators (Barešová, 2008). This study aims to examine the use of politeness strategies by students having a different regional cultural background in the Faculty of Language and Science, Wijaya Kusuma University Surabaya. Furthermore, this study did not analyze why a certain group of students using certain politeness strategies. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Pragmatic Competence The concept of pragmatic competence originates from pragmatics, a subfield in linguistics which is the study of a language from the user point of view (Crystal in Kasper, 1997). Al-Erayani (2007) recognized pragmatics competence as the learners’ ability to use appropriate speech acts in a given speech act event and use appropriate linguistic forms. Pragmatic competence is an essential part of communicative competence (Lihui and Jianbin, 2010). As Kasper (2001) states, pragmatic competence refers to acquiring pragmatic knowledge, which is a basis for proper communication in real-time. Ribut Surjowati NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 114 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 Politeness Politeness is a social phenomenon that promotes good interpersonal relations is, at present, undoubted. It is part of the socio-cultural knowledge of the people of society, a knowledge which is needed to have a normal life in that society (Kazerooni and Sams, 2015). As politeness has both non-linguistic and linguistic realizations, it is, therefore, regarded as part of the sociolinguistic, sociopragmatic, or communicative competence of the speakers of a certain language. Based on this perspective, politeness is seen as the verbal actions by societies to facilitate interaction (Lakoff, 1973). Brown and Levinson (1978) mention that politeness strategies are developed to save the hearers’ ‘face’ during the conversation. In other words, politeness is the use of some strategies through which humans understand and cooperate. Holmes (1992) adds another definition of politeness which is as an act emphasizing the effort of being good to others. A polite person makes others feel comfortable. It is an act of being linguistically polite while building verbal communication with other people well. Politeness, according to Holmes, is an attempt to emphasize shared attitudes, values, and the effort to avoid intruding on other people. Politeness strategies Face in Brown’s and Levinson’s (1978) concept means the public self-image of a person. It leads to that emotional and social sense of self that every person has and expects everyone else to recognize (Yule, 1996). In this case, all the people involved in communication intend to maintain two types of ‘face’ during interaction: positive face and negative face. Positive face refers to the need to be accepted and liked by others and feel that the social group shares common goals. Meanwhile, a negative face refers to the right to independence of action and the need not to be imposed on others. Applying this notion of ‘face,’ politeness consists of positive politeness and negative politeness. Brown and Levinson (1987) propose four types of politeness strategies. The first strategy is positive politeness, defined as redress directed to addressee’s positive face, his main desire to his wants or actions acquisitions and value resulting from them should be thought as desirable. It is usually identified in groups of friends or where people in the given social situation know each other quite well. This strategy tries to minimize the distance between the speaker and hearer, which is carried out by expressing friendliness and solid interest in the hearer’s need to be respected (minimize the FTA). The second strategy is negative politeness, which is the basic claim to Politeness Strategies NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 115 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 territories, personal preserves, and rights to non-distraction (Brown and Levinson, 1978). The negative politeness strategy empathizes with the hearer’s negative face and emphasizes avoiding imposition on the hearer. Types of negative politeness strategy are indirect - asking forgiveness, minimize imposition, and indirect - using indirect speech acts, asking questions, hedge, be pessimistic about things, giving deference, apologize to the other person, impersonalize things, state the imposition as a general social rule or obligation by using ‘request’ as a noun rather than ‘want’ as a verb, go ‘on record’ as incurring debt, or not ‘indebting’ to the other person, nominalize things. The third strategy is bald on record, which, unlike the negative and positive politeness strategies, does not try to minimize the threat to the hearer’s face, although there are ways that bald on-record politeness can be used in minimizing face-threatening acts implicitly, such as advising on a non-manipulative way. It is a direct way of saying things without any ministration on the imposition in a direct, clear, unambiguous, and concise way of saying things (Brown and Levinson, 1978). The last strategy is the off-record strategy, a communicative act in which people use indirect utterance to be polite. Factors Influencing the Choice of Strategies Some speakers have certain reasons for choosing certain politeness strategies in communicating with others (Brown and Levinson, 1992) because the particular strategies intrinsically afford certain payoffs or advantages, and the relevant circumstances are those in which one of these payoffs would be more advantageous than any others. A priori considerations By applying a particular politeness strategy, a speaker can potentially get some advantages. For example, when he/she chooses bald on record strategy, he/she can enlist public pressure against the addressee or in support of himself. He can be regarded as being honest for indicating that he trusts the addressee. He gets credit for his outspokenness and avoids the danger of being seen as a manipulator. He can avoid being the danger of being misunderstood, and he can have the opportunity to pay back in the face whatever he has potentially taken away by the FTA. By going off record, a speaker can profit in the following ways: he can get credit for being tactful, non-coercive; he can run less risk of his act entering the ‘gossip biography’ that others keep of him; he can avoid responsibility for the potentially face-damaging interpretation Ribut Surjowati NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 116 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 Using positive politeness, a speaker can minimize the face-threatening aspects of an act by assuring the addressee that the speaker considers himself to be ‘of the same kind,’ that he likes him and wants his wants. Furthermore, by using this strategy, a speaker can avoid or minimize the debt implications of FTAs such as requests and offers, either by referring (indirectly) to the reciprocity and ongoing relationship between the addressee and himself or by including the addressee and himself equally as participants in or as benefactors from the request or offer. Using negative politeness, a speaker can benefit in several ways: he can pay respect, deference to the addressee in return for the FTA, and can thereby avoid incurring a future dept; he can maintain social distance and avoid the threat of advancing familiarity towards the addressee; he can give a real ‘out’ to the addressee. The circumstances: Sociological variables Three factors influence the certain choice of strategies. The first is the social distance (D), which is the composite of psychologically real factors (status, age, sex, degree of intimacy) in which all of them determine the overall degree of respectfulness in a given speech situation. The social distance is based on the symmetric relation between the speaker and the hearer. The second factor is the relative ‘power’ (P), which is the general point that a speaker tends to use a greater degree of politeness with superior people. The relative power is based on the asymmetric relationship between the speaker and the hearer. These types of power are mostly found in a hierarchical setting such as the military and workplace. The third factor is absolute ranking, which is politeness regarding the context of the situation. For example, borrowing money from the boss is hard, but someone will do it in an urgent situation. There will be different strategies someone will use. They will use polite utterances in the first context, but they will not consider using polite utterances in the second context because the situation is urgent. The last factor is cultural background, which is a factor that can not be neglected because this factor plays a vital role in determining a speaker in using politeness strategies. Some studies in communicative acts indicate that social norms might vary from one culture to another. Therefore, it is possible for seeing what is accepted in one culture could be rejected in another (Banikalef, Alladin, and Al- Natour, 2015; Sukarno, 2010 in Sukarno, 2018). The speech act is determined by universal pragmatic principles, as Searle (1975), Brown and Levinson (1987), Leech (1983) claim. However, they may be released differently across languages and cultures (Lee, 2003; Wierzbicka, 1992). Research from non-English speaking cultures reveals some Politeness Strategies NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 117 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 findings that many speech acts are perceived differently in politeness in these cultures (Alsulami, 2015) because language and culture are inseparable (Wierzbicka, 1992 in Sukarno, 2010). Furthermore, Chen (2001) in Eshghinejad (2016) says that language people use is an indicator of their social and cultural identity, so in the context of English learning contexts, students’ social and cultural identities determine the language used in the environment and the language reflects their identity. METHOD This study is a descriptive qualitative study. The focus is on the types of politeness strategies used by the students with regional multicultural backgrounds. The data source was the students who study in the Faculty of Language and Science at Wijaya Kusuma Surabaya University. The data were taken from the students’ politeness strategies used while communicating with the lecturers via WhatsApp. Due to limited participants, the data were divided into two allotments; those collected from the Javanese participants and non-Javanese participants. Ten non-Javanese students and ten Javanese students participated in this study, and they are from Java and outside Java. Data collection procedures are as follows: as the role of the researcher was the data collector, after deciding the source of the data, the valid data were collected, documented, transcribed, and reduced to sort the utterances containing politeness strategies. The data were coded to make the analysis easier. Every datum was given codes based on the types of politeness strategies, the name of students which indicates the original place they are from, for example, (N/AG/Rr/J) which means that the data identified is from Rara, who are Javanese, categorized as a negative politeness strategy and belongs to avoid disagreement type. By identifying the students’ names, the writer was automatically able to identify where they are from. The procedures of data analysis are 1) the data were classified based on the students’ place of origin, which is divided into two, namely Java and non-Java, 2) the data were reclassified based on the types of politeness strategies the students used, 3) after classification was done, the data were then displayed. By displaying the data, the writer could identify what data would be analyzed and how they were analyzed. The last activity after displaying the data was analyzing them using Brown’s and Levinson’s theory of politeness strategies. Ribut Surjowati NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 118 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Results After the data were collected and classified, the writer found that there are only two types of politeness strategies that the students used, namely negative politeness, positive politeness. Tables 1 and 2 display the politeness strategies used by the non-Javanese students and Javanese students based on the data. The data exposes the findings that both groups of students used negative and positive politeness strategies but different strategies. Negative politeness Negative politeness strategies are intended to avoid giving offense by showing deference (Brown and Levinson, 1978). The main focus for using this strategy is to assume that the speakers (hereby the S) may not be imposing on the hearers (hereby the H) and intruding on their space. The finding also reveals that the types of negative politeness strategies implemented by the students do not belong to one certain type of strategy, but mostly, they consist of several types of negative politeness strategies in one utterance. Here, non-Javanese students implemented apologizing and being pessimistic strategy in communicating with the lecturer, while Javanese students used the strategy of apologizing, hedging, and giving deference. Table 1. Negative politeness No Types of Politeness Strategies Non-Javanese Students Javanese-Students 1 Apologizing √ √ 2 Being Pessimistic √ 3 Hedging √ 4 Giving Deference √ Apologizing Excerpt 1: Selamat siang mam, maaf mengganggu waktunya mam. Mam apakah saya boleh ijin membuat grup seminar on ELT? Terima Kasih (NP/A/Dc/NJ) Good afternoon ma’am, sorry to bother you, Ma’am, may I make a group for seminar on ELT? Thank you (NP/A/Dc/NJ) From the datum above, it is identified that the S uses the strategy of apologizing after she opens the question by saying selamat siang (good afternoon). The utterance stating her apologize to the H is used to indicate her powerless position as a student compared to the H, who happens to be her lecturer. The S realizes that asking such a question may cause the H’s disappointment Politeness Strategies NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 119 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 because it may interpret that the students did not pay attention to the instructions. There is a big barrier in the relationship between them since the S has no equal position with the H. Therefore, the S seems to have no courage to impose the H to answer the question. The above question implements a negative politeness strategy because the S has no intention to build a closer relationship with the H by saying selamat siang (good afternoon) before asking the lecturer. The opening term the S uses sounds formal and indicates a distance relationship she has with the H. The strategy of apologizing can also be seen in that utterance as the student says maaf mengganggu (sorry to bother). This strategy was done to avoid image of offending the lecturers. The student was very careful to interact with the lecturer. She keeps a distance from the lecturer as the one who controls the class. Therefore, apologizing is a strategy that is used to omit an impingement between speaker and hearer. In implementing this strategy, the S from the data above expresses it by giving a reason, begging forgiveness, and begging for explanation. In short, by apologizing for doing the FTA, the S can indicate her reluctance to impose on the H’s negative face and therefore redress the imposition. Ribut Surjowati NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 120 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 Excerpt 2 Selamat siang mam, mohon maaf mengganggu waktunya. Assigment meringkas bab konteks multidimensi upload dimana ya mam? (NP/A/Fr/J) Good afternoon ma’am, I am sorry to bother you, where should I upload the assignment entitled Chapter multidimension context (NP/A/Fr/J) It can be identified from that datum that an S opens her question by saying selamat siang (good afternoon) and asking for forgiveness as she realizes that she has bothered the H by saying mohon maaf menggangu waktunya (I am sorry to bother you). By saying such terms, she expects that the positive face of the H. therefore, this strategy is carried out to minimize the H’s FTA and avoid the image of offending the H as the S wants to look more polite than if she uses a positive politeness strategy by maintaining her distance to the H. Being Pessimistic A different negative strategy implemented is also identified in this research. The difference lies in the way the S constructs the utterance showing her pessimism by giving some excuses why she could not submit the task on time, as seen below: Excerpt 3 Selamat malam mam, ini saya Dorci Sepurlina. Maaf mam saya ngirim tugasnya telat dan menggunakan wa teman saya karena hp saya eror dari kemarin mam. Terima kasih mam. (NP/Pe/Dc/NJ) Good evening mam. I am Dorci Sepurlina. I am so sorry; I am late in submitting the task, and I used my friend’s phone because mine has been broken since yesterday (NP/Pe/Dc/NJ) It can be seen that the student begs for forgiveness for her inability to submit the task on time. She begs the lecturer to give her dispensation to submit the task the next day because she has to be in the hospital for being late in submitting the task and her handphone was broken. By telling the reason and asking for forgiveness, the student expects forgiveness from the lecturer, and she would permit the students to submit the task the following day. The utterance above gives a signal that there is a social distance between the two interlocutors. Each of them is in their position as a student who is less powerful and the lecturer who is powerful. The powerless S, the student, has no courage to impose the powerful H, the lecturer, to accept her reason for not submitting the task on time. The reasons addressing the lecturer have a purpose of saving her face from being threatened by the lecturer. Politeness Strategies NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 121 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 The S might feel guilty and disappointed because she realized that it was her fault for not submitting the task on time. The strategy of showing her pessimist feeling is used by telling the H why she did not submit the task on time. Although the utterance sounds useless for influencing the H’s decision, it implicitly carries a meaning that the S still expects the H’s generosity to forgive the S. In short, the strategy of being pessimistic is used by the S to manipulate her upset and her intention to impose the H but have no courage to do so as she has quite distance relationship with the H. Hedging Similar to positive politeness, negative politeness also considers the face. However, positive politeness is related to a positive face, while negative politeness is related to a negative face. This means that the speaker wants to have absolute freedom but at the same time soften the imposition on the hearer and redress the negative face threat (Bousfield, 2008). One of the negative politeness strategies is hedges. Hedging devices are how linguistic politeness can be manifested as one of the subgroups of pragmatic markers. The function is “to soften the propositional content of the message.” In other word, hedges are those pragmatic markers which attenuate (weaken) the strength of an utterance (Willamova, 2005). The hedges identified in this research can be seen in the datum below. Several data reveal that the students use this device to minimize the imposition on the H, who is the lecturer. Excerpt 4: Assalamualaikum mam, maaf mengganggu, permisi, saya ini mau bertanya mam, kok ini nilai saya CCU dapat D ya mam? Padahal saya sering submit tugas via email mam, ada buktunya, mohon sedikit pencerahannya ya mam. (NP/H/Rr/J) Assalamualaikum ma’am, sorry to bother you. Excuse me. I want to ask ma’am about my CCU score. I got D, didn’t I, ma’am? As a fact, I often submit the assignment via your email. Please explain to me a little (NP/H/Rr/J) The utterance is delivered when the S wanted to confirm the score she received in her CCU subject. She felt that the lecturer was not supposed to give her such a low score because she felt that she had collected all the assignments. However, she had no courage to complain directly to the lecturer. She has to keep a distance from the lecturer because of the different positions they have. Ribut Surjowati NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 122 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 The hedges are a particle, word, or phrase that modifies the degree of membership of a predicate or a noun phrase in a set, and it is called partial (Brown and Levinson, 1987). The hedge used in the data above is the word sedikit ( a little) which means a little. Instead of directly saying, “I need your explanation,” she said she needed a little explanation about her problem. The word sedikit (a little) implicitly reveals a purpose to restrict the extent of FTA that means not much explanation, which will take the H’s time. The next word that shows the negative strategy is ‘please,’ which, according to Brown and Levinson (1987), is an example of negative politeness to indicate a conventionally indirect instruction. This utterance is used to soften her want to the H’s explanation, and she tries to save the H’s negative face and reduce the threat of imposition. In other words, this strategy is expected to avoid coercing the H (the lecturer). Excerpt 5: Assalamualaikum mam saya alfira, mau menanyakan mam masih di kampus mam, kan? saya dan yudha mau krs mam,ini saya sudah dijalan.Terimakasih mam maaf mengganggu. (NP/He/Rr/J) Assalamualaikum ma’am, my name is Alfira. You are still in campus, aren’t you? Yudha and I want to consult about KRS. We are on the way, ma’am. Thank you, sorry to bother you. (NP/He/Rr/J) There is a different way of opening an interaction. The student might open the conversation by saying good afternoon while others greet and introduce herself. The word choice used in excerpt five is considered a proper greeting for Muslims, and it shows that the student respects the lecturer, who is also a Muslim. Assalamualaikum is an Arabic word that has a beautiful meaning; peace be upon you. Therefore, by saying assalamualaikum, implicitly, the student expects the lecturer not to feel annoyed because they would bother her. The students’ struggle to respect the lecturer is expressed again in closing the conversation: “Thank you and sorry to bother you.” The point that the S wants to stress is the question she delivers to the H. It is a strategy for being humble to the H, therefore saying assalamualaikum is important to cover her only want. The question, mam ada di kampus, kan? (you are still in campus, aren’t you?) is the second indication if the S does not want to impinge the H to do what she wants to. Though actually, the question carries a meaning that damages the H’s face, the S successfully makes it indistinct because of such strategy. Politeness Strategies NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 123 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 Giving Deference Giving deference is a strategy used by an S to satisfy the H’s wants to be treated as superior. Since the H is treated as more powerful and superior than the S, the S will choose some lexical features that are humble and pleasing. She will also create friendly verbal communication. Excerpt 6: Assalamualaikum mam, maaf mengganggu, permisi, saya ini mau bertanya mam, kok ini nilai saya CCU dapat D ya mam? Padahal saya sering submit tugas via email mam, ada buktinya, mohon sedikit pencerahannya ya mam. (NP/Gd/Rr/J) Assalamualaikum ma’am, sorry to bother you. Excuse me. I would like to ask ma’am about my CCU score. I got D, didn’t I, ma’am? As a fact, I often submit the assignment via your email. I need a little of your explanation, please (NP/Gd/Rr/J) The above datum consists of some word choices that tend to show the S inferior position, such as assalamualaikum and ma’am. Those identified words are usually used as an opening conversation with someone whom the S respects. Assalamualaikum is a good greeting for Muslims, which carries a good meaning and can create Face Saving Act (FSA). By saying assalamualaikum as an opening in a conversation, the S wants to show that she is humble to the H and expects to help the H satisfy her want as a superior. Another word choice that shows the S’s intention to be humble to the hearer is ‘ma’am’. As a specific addressing term, ma’am is usually used to respect someone who is superior to her and deserves respect. Therefore, this strategy is specific and focused; it performs the function of minimizing the particular imposition that the FTA unavoidably affects (Brown and Levinson, 1992). In other words, it is a strategy that prioritizes respect behavior. The various type of giving deference strategy is identified in which the S uses universal greeting in Indonesia; permisi (excuse me) ma’am. That phrase is used when somebody feels that he will make someone else give an unexpected reaction or answer to the question he has made. In the above context, the S is sure that she bothers the H. It implicitly indicates the S’s concern about the H’s feeling. She is afraid of bothering the H, so to look polite and respect the H, she opens the question by asking permission first. In that way, there will be a clear position between the S and the H. The S puts herself in a safe position as a student, and she puts the H in a higher position than hers. This also indicates the S’s way of satisfying the H’s wants to be treated as superior. Ribut Surjowati NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 124 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 Positive politeness Positive politeness is a politeness strategy that is implemented to function the social relationship run smoothly with others. This politeness strategy is politeness that deals with the positive face. Yule (1996) says that positive politeness is “a face-saving act concerned with the person’s positive face.” This strategy is intended to show solidarity and emphasize that both the interlocutors expect the same thing and have a common goal. Brown and Levinson (1978) add that positive-politeness utterances are used as an expression of intimacy. It means that by using a positive politeness strategy, the S wants to minimize the distance between her and the H. Table 2 shows no-Javanese students tend to use more positive politeness than Javanese students. There are four types of politeness strategies employed by non-Javanese students. Meanwhile, there are only three types of politeness strategies used by Javanese students. When people decide to communicate using a positive politeness strategy, they determine to offer friendship because this strategy is considered solidarity (Yule, 1996). Table 2. Positive Politeness No Types of Politeness Strategies Non-Javanese Students Javanese Students 1 Avoiding Disagreement √ √ 2 Promising √ 3 Exaggerating (interest, approval, sympathy with hearer) √ √ 4 Seeking agreement √ 5 Giving for reasons √ Avoiding disagreement This is one type of positive politeness strategy which stresses the harmony between the S and H. Brown and Levinson (1992) say that FTA can be redressed by expressing the willingness to agree with the H or avoid disagreement with the H. In this case, the S can show her agreement with the hearer, although implicitly, she has a different perspective about something. Excerpt 1: Mam, kalau saya pakai judul ini boleh apa gak? Improve Comprehension Students listen to songs to increase vocabulary for English. Mam klau ini bisa apa gk (PP/Av/Kr/NJ) Politeness Strategies NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 125 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 Is it okay, ma’am, if I use this title? Improve Comprehension Students listen to songs to increase vocabulary for English. How about this? (PP/Av/Kr/NJ) In the above data, the S is making a conversation with the H. They are discussing the title for her scientific writing. The research titles the S proposes are always rejected by the H. However, she keeps trying to impose the H with the same questions to get a “yes” answer. This strategy of avoiding disagreement can be identified by using pseudo-agreement kalau (if) when they ask questions to the H. The purpose of using that strategy is to avoid conflict with the H because before asking a question, this S had dissatisfied the H for the mistakes she had made many times. Therefore, she realizes that the strategy of avoiding disagreement by using pseudo agreement such as if is believed can create a good atmosphere in the communication with the H because this strategy has something to do with the notion of self-politeness, which means that the S typically attends to their own and their partner’s face during interaction (Johnson, 2007). Asking such questions will avoid blunt disagreement and lessen the H’s negative face. Excerpt 2 Di elena ditulis untuk buka buku halaman 26-29, tapi konteks yang dibuku dengan pertanyaan di elena berbeda. Saya pikir paragrafnya based on book, makanya saya tanya kembali (PP/Av/Bry/NJ) There is an instruction in ELENA to open page 26-29, but the context in the book and the question in ELENA is different. I thought the paragraph is based on the book. That is why I ask you again (PP/Av/Bry/NJ) Two signals represent the use of strategy to avoid disagreement in the above data, namely by repeating the previous sentence stated by the H and using the pseudo; tapi (but) and makanya (that is why). Both of them are used to confirm that the S has the intention to satisfy the H’s positive face, although the questions implicitly express his different perception about the task given by the H. Doing such strategy, the S is confirmed to be able to build a friendly relationship with the hearer. Excerpt 3: Owh, jadi kita harus cari di internet dulu ya (PP/Av/Rr/J) Owh, so, we have to find the source from the internet, right? (PP/Av/Rr/J) Ribut Surjowati NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 126 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 A student produced the above utterance while she discussed with the lecturer the topic for her paper. All of the students in the class, including the S, had difficulty finding the appropriate topics, so they all had to read some previous studies on the internet. It was not easy for the lecturer to guide the students to find the appropriate topics and titles for their paper, and surely, this condition triggers the lecturer’s impatience. To achieve the lecturer’s positive face, a student uses a strategy of avoiding disagreement. That strategy was implemented by the S to show to the H that she understood the H’s wants and expectations and wanted to convince her that she will do as the H has instructed. The pseudo- agreement jadi (so) is a sign that there is a disagreement between the S and H. However, the S does not want to show it as she is a student who is supposed to obey the lecturer. Therefore, the term Jadi is functioning as a face-supporting device. It is expected to satisfy the H’s positive face wants. Pragmatically, the utterance shows the S’s failure in understanding the H’s wants and expectations, but she is successful in getting support and in offering a common ground with the strategy she implements. Therefore, harmonious and smooth interaction can be done successfully. Promising The next politeness strategy identified in the research is giving promise. This strategy is implemented to minimize the potential threat and show that the H and the S are in a good relationship. The S can offer or promise something to the H. The S may tell that she certainly does something for the H. In other words, this strategy shows the S’s good intention in satisfying the H’s wants. The following datum shows how this strategy can maintain a good relationship between them. Excerpt 4: Ohh maaf mam, kemarin jaringan tidak stabil jadi saya tidak mendengar penjelasan dengan baik, oke mam, nanti saya ganti. (PP/P/Dc/NJ) Ohh, sorry ma’am, yesterday, the network was not good, so I could not hear your explanation well, okay mam, I will change it (PP/P/Dc/NJ). Excerpt 5: H: Kamu cari buku tentang spinning wheel S: Oke mam. Nanti coba saya cari lagi S: Oke terimakasih mam (PP/P/Dc/NJ) H; you find a book about spinning wheel S: Okay, ma’am. I try to find it again Politeness Strategies NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 127 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 S; Thank you, ma’am (PP/P/Dc/NJ) The S says that she would change the topic and find a book about the spinning wheel, in this case, by promising to find that book and read it. The S has an intention to build good cooperation with the H. By not showing her disagreement and argumentation when the H told the S to read a book of spinning wheel, she certainly shows her goodwill to obey the H’s instruction. This strategy is used to redress the potential threat of some FTAs; therefore, it can minimize her imposition to the H and satisfy her positive face. Exaggerating (interest, approval, sympathy with hearer) Exaggerating is a politeness strategy used when an S wants to save an H’s positive face. This strategy is possibly be done by showing that something seems important than it is. An S uses this strategy to highlight her feelings toward an H by showing her similar interest, approval, or sympathy. Excerpt 6: Assalamualaikum, ini saya Kristina Latiurlina Turnip sudah mengirimkan tugas English for Hotel and Tourism di ELENA ya (PP/Ex/Kr/NJ) Assalamualaikum, I am Kristina Latiurlina Turnip has submitted English for Hotel and Tourism assignment in ELENA (PP/Ex/Kr/NJ) The conversation above took place when a student was instructed to do some exercises of a certain subject online. To redress the FTA, she implemented a politeness strategy by using exaggerated expressions. She says that she has submitted the exercise on time on the LSM platform. By doing such a thing, the S expects the H to get satisfied and happy since she shows that she obeys the H’s instruction. Informing the lecturer that she has submitted the task is not necessary as the lecturer does not instruct her to do so; therefore, such an action is not important for the lecturer, but the S does it to take the H’s interest and sympathy so that there will be a good relationship between them. Excerpt 7: Mam saya Dian Ayu sudah mengumpulkan tugas saya ke ELENA (PP/Ex/Da/J) Ma’am I am Dian Ayu has submitted the assignment in ELENA (PP/Ex/Da/J) A student is trying to show the lecturer that her want is admirable by exaggerating her statement with exaggerating stress that she has submitted her task. The S here wants to satisfy the Ribut Surjowati NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 128 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 H’s positive face and claim common ground so that the H will be pleased. Informing that the S has finished doing the task and submitted it on time is not instructed by the H. Therefore, it is only the S’s strategy to have the H’s sympathy. Seeking Agreement To save an H’s FTA, an S may use a strategy of seeking agreement. It is a strategy that makes the S find a possibility in which she can agree with the H’s statement in safe topics or doing repetition, for example, repeating a hearer’s sentences or request, as the agreement may also be stressed by reacting part or all the Speaker utterance (Brown and Levinson, 1987). Excerpt 8: Jadi Hotel and Tourism tidak wajib kah mam? (PP/Sa/Dc/NJ) So Hotel and tourism subject are not compulsory, isn’t it ma’am? (PP/Sa/Dc/NJ) Berarti hari ini ada web meeting kan mam? (PP/Sa/Dc/NJ) It means that there is no web meeting today, right, ma’am? (PP/Sa/Dc/NJ) The datum above shows how an S tries to show her cooperation with an H by repeating what the H has told her. In the conversation between an S and H, the H, who happens to be the S’s advisor, told her not to program that subject because it is just optional; therefore, the S tries to save the H’s positive face by seeking an agreement from the H’s statement. She uses a strategy of seeking agreement by making repetition of the H’s utterances. This situation is also similar to the datum in excerpt six, in which a speaker wants to satisfy the positive face of the hearer by giving a positive response to the hearer’s utterance. The speaker expresses her agreement indirectly by repeating what the hearer instructed using question tag, berarti hari ini ada web meeting kan? (It means that there is no web meeting today, right, ma’am?) The speaker’s response gives an implied meaning that she has understood the instruction but to satisfy the hearer’s wants, the speaker needs to emphasize it by repeating her words. The strategy is also meant that the speaker can minimize the threat of being judged as a lazy student. Giving for reason Giving reason is one of the positive politeness strategies that emphasize a speaker’s good will to cooperate with a hearer by giving reasons. The speaker does this to make her wish understandable by the hearer. Therefore, the hearer agrees to help the speaker in making her wish. Politeness Strategies NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 129 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 Excerpt 9: Mam, mohon maaf sebelumnya ini kan saya lagi mengunjungi nenek saya di desa dan baru saja datang sekalian membenahi taman yang kemarin dibikin oleh anak anak KKN. Saya mendapat laporan kalau bannernya roboh. Disini saya juga tidak tau transportasi umumnya ada atau tidak, mungkin saya bisa dijemput ayah agak siang karena ayah masih kerja. Kalau tugas saya kumpulkan hari kamis bisa mam? (PP/Gr/Rr/J) Ma’am, I apologize, right now I am in my grandmother’s house in the village, and I just arrived. I had to fix the garden, which was built by KKN students. It was reported that the banner was damaged. There are also no public transportations in this place. Therefore, I have to wait for my father to pick me up in the afternoon. Is it okay if I submit the task on Thursday, mam? (PP/Gr/Rr/J) This S is one of the Cross Cultural Understanding (CCU) students who was late for submitting the task. She was informed by the H that she failed in CCU class because of an incomplete task she submitted; however, she tries to impose the H by saying a reason for being late in submitting the tasks. The strategy used by the S is giving reasons for her actions, and it is meant to convince the hearer’s that she did it because of an important reason. She also wants to show the H that she did not neglect the H’s instruction just like that. In this way, the S has satisfied the H’s positive face because she has expressed her solid interest in the H’s need to be respected. Discussion Linguistic politeness is defined as how language is used in verbal interaction/communication to show consideration for the feelings and desires of the speakers to create good interpersonal relationships. Therefore, a speaker employs a certain politeness strategy to maintain good relationships with the hearers. Moreover, Gleason and Ratner (1998) observe that politeness means acting to concern others’ feelings and involves both those actions related to the positive and negative face. Brown and Levinson (1987) distinguish between positive and negative politeness. These two types of politeness involve redressing threats to—negative and positive faces. A negative face is defined as the addressee’s want to have his freedom of action unhindered and not imposed by others. Meanwhile, a positive face is defined as the addressee’s desire to be liked and approved by others. Positive politeness is employed to show solidarity, familiarity, symmetry, balance, the horizontal feature of communication, or it can be said as a highly sociable environment. However, negative politeness is employed to show respect, impersonalization, and avoidance behavior (Brown and Levinson, 1987). Ribut Surjowati NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 130 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 The data have revealed that the students who are from Java prefer using negative politeness strategies compared to the ones from outside Java. Table 1 shows that though both of those two different groups of students use negative politeness strategies, they differ in numbers and types as Yule (1998, 60) redefined the notion of politeness as a polite way of social behavior, which differs from culture to culture. Javanese people have recognized the concept of politeness and implemented this concept in their daily activities. For example, when talking to older people or someone respectful, a speaker must be careful in choosing diction and sentence structures because the Javanese are concerned with tata krama (manners) and andhap asor (humble). Furthermore, Grice (1981) in Sukarno (2010) introduces the term implicature, which means that what the speaker means, implied or suggested, differs from what the speaker wants. Therefore, it is often considered less polite when a speaker expresses his idea directly. Meanwhile, negative politeness is defined as strategies in which a speaker addresses other people’s negative faces by showing distance and impersonality (Vinagre in Hobjila, 2012). When a speaker uses this strategy, there is an intention not to be close to the hearer. She wants to keep her distance from the hearer because of some considerations such as social status and social distances. Therefore, when Javanese students use politeness strategy, for example, in datum (NP/H/Rr/J), the S used hedging strategy to show that she did not want to impose the H and so not make the H felt irritated. The S realized that the word sedikit (a little) could avoid coercing the H. The students determine using this negative politeness strategy because they may feel some differences in degree, age, and position. After all, a person will employ politeness utterance when he interacts with a person he has not known well or older or has a higher position than her (Brown and Levinson, 1987). The data about positive politeness strategy used by Non-Javanese students and Javanese students show that Non-Javanese students used more positive politeness strategy. They are students who prefer showing familiarity although they communicated with their lecturer. It shows that age, social distance, and relative power do not influence them to determine their strategy. As Brown and Levinson (1987) stated, though politeness is controversially universal, it has different definitions and implications from culture to culture. Every language community has a politeness system, but the details related to that system are varied since the face is related to the most important cultural ideas concerning the social persona, virtue, redemption, and religious concepts (Brown and Levinson; 1987 and Saeed (2009). Non-Javanese students in the Faculty of Language Politeness Strategies NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 131 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 and Science in this research are the ones from Papua, Maluku, Makassar, and Lampung in which they do have a different concept of politeness as Javanese have tata krama (manners) and andhap asor (humble). Therefore, these concepts influence their way of practicing politeness in their daily activities. This finding is similar to the one found by Saeed (2009) in Mansoor (2018), who mentions research carried out by Sifianou in 1992 finds positive face strategies are the most predominant in the Greek politeness system while negative face strategies are what the English system of politeness is more oriented towards. It may mean that cultural background influences the interlocutors employ politeness strategies while communicating with others The findings explained have revealed that there are differences in politeness strategies the students prefer to use. It is indicated that several factors influenced their decision to use different strategies such as relative power and sociological variables such as status, age, and cultural background. Some Javanese students who prefer to use negative politeness to non-Javanese students are believed that their culture strongly influences the politeness strategies they used. As Aziz (2017) in Sukarno (2017) says, some fundamental values in Javanese culture play an important role in determining how the Javanese speak and act politely. One of the values is andhap asor (lowering oneself while exalting others), which means that while communicating with someone who has a different status, age, position, and social distance, one must be able to please him/her by not imposing their wants and not underestimate him/her. This situation can be seen from the students’ strategy in opening the questions by saying assalamualaikum and asking for an apology. The way they open the question implicitly reveals that the students want to respect the lecturer as someone who has a higher position and older than them. Another value is tanggap ing sasmito (the ability to interpret the hidden will of the speech partner). This statement can be interpreted as unnecessary for people to directly say their wants to someone. Another value is tata krama means tatanan bhasa (the arrangements of language or speech levels). It means that the Javanese students are taught to consider the right language when they want to talk to someone else, either with a higher status, position, or older. These values may indirectly determine the Javanese students used negative politeness strategy when communicating with the lecturer since they realize that they have different academic status. The use of negative politeness strategy also reveals their value of adhap asor as they have goodwill not to give offense to the lecturer during the interaction. The S opens the question with a greeting and an expression of apologizing. These also reveal the values of tata krama the students Ribut Surjowati NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 132 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 from Java have because these two expressions are examples of showing lexical politeness to the lecturer. Similar research carried out by Habwe’s (2010) also reveals that different strategies are offered to behave politely, such as in culture-oriented politeness, in the Muslim’s culture, in the context of age, the younger is expected to greet the elders first when they meet as a reflection of their respect to the elders. Meanwhile, the positive politeness strategies were used more frequently by the non-Javanese students. These strategies highlight the S’s wants to build a friendly friendship with the H (Yule, 1996). In their culture, they are not introduced to the exact cultural values such as those found in Java, but it does not mean that they ignore polite lexical behavior because it may be possible that their way of expressing politeness is different from Javanese, as some researchers claim that social norms might differ from one culture to another (Banikalef, Alladin, and Al- natour, 2015; Sukarno, 2010 in Sukarno, 2018). For them, openness, solidarity, and friendship are the reflections of politeness, and they showed those values without considering the different status, ages, or even positions as found in the positive politeness strategies the non-Javanese students have done. CONCLUSION Studying politeness strategies used by the students with regional multicultural backgrounds is interesting as it will give information about the different types of strategies they used when communicating with the lecturer so that the results of this study can be used as a recommendation to both of the interlocutors to communicate properly. This current study finds that both groups of students used the same politeness strategies, namely negative and positive politeness strategies. However, they used different types of strategies in negative and positive politeness strategies. The non-Javanese students used strategies of apologizing and being pessimistic in negative politeness strategy while the Javanese students used strategies of apologizing, hedging, and giving deference. Furthermore, for positive politeness strategies, the non-Javanese students used strategies of avoiding disagreement, promising, exaggerating, and seeking agreement, while the Javanese students used avoiding disagreement, exaggerating, and giving for a reason. From those results of the study, it is identified that non-Javanese students used more positive politeness strategies than Javanese students, and cultural background is believed to determine this different choice of strategies they use. Politeness Strategies NOBEL: Journal of Literature and Language Teaching 133 Volume 12, Number 1, April 2021, 112-135 REFERENCES Al-Eryani, A. A. (2007). Refusal strategies by Yemeni EFL learners. 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