Japanese Language Directive Utterance Politeness Scale based on the

Perception of Japanese Literature’s 4th Semester’s Students of Binus

University

Timur Sri Astami

Japanese Department, Faculty of Humanities, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480

Keyword: Japanese Language, Directivem Utterance, Politeness Scale, Perception of Japanese Literature

Abstract: The use of directive speech within the campus environment is an interesting research subject. This study

aims to examine the use of directive speech in accordance to Binus University's 4th semester's students

based on the politeness scale. Quantitative and qualitative methods are used in this study; quantitative

method is used to clarify data analysis qualitatively. Data collecting was done with questionnaire. This

study's data analysis technique is descriptive statistic with data gathering phase, processing, analysis and

presentation of data. Based on the analysis' result, the directive speech politeness order, from polite to

impolite according to the students' perception, is 1) mitigated statement, 2) explicit request, 3) strong cues, 4)

imperative modus, 5) implicit desire statement, 6) invitation speech, 7) explicit desire statement, 8) direct

imperative modus.

1 INTRODUCTIONS

One way of the daily communication activities

between individuals is by command speech or

directive speech. Politeness in speaking is a

regulatory factor that keeps the conversation going

well and smooth. The definition of the word

directive in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI)

is commanding or to give command; having the

right to give commands; is oblige. So the directive

speech, viewed from the meaning given above,

means a speech that contains commands in it.

Command speech is defined as a sentence which

contains something that can ask or forbid someone

from doing or not doing something.

A directive speech can be categorized as a form

of command if viewed from the intonation of the

conversation. The directive speech is spoken by

speaker, with a high tone or intonation, while written,

directive language is marked by the usage of the

exclamation mark (!) at the end of sentence.

However, it is not impossible for the directive

sentence to be spoken with a flat intonation

depending on the particular condition.

The directive speech is a speech that requires

the speech partner to do something expected by the

speaker, either explicitly or implicitly. In their daily

activities within campus environment, students

always use the directive speech, either directly or

indirectly. In general, this study aims to describe the

politeness of the student’s use of directive speech

within the campus environment. In particular, this

study aims to describe (1) the form of the directive

speech used by the students, (2) the scale of the

speech chosen by the students describes their

understanding in using directive speech, (3) the

politeness of directive speech based on the student’s

perception.

The scale or level of politeness according to

Brown and Gilman is “Politeness means putting

things in such a way as to take account of

feelings of the hearer.” There are 3 factors of

sociolinguistic encompassed in politeness

shown by the speaker to his partner, they

are;power, or authority between the speaker and

his partner, social distance between the speaker

and his partner, and position. Furthermore, the

principle of politeness in speaking proposed by

(Leech G, 1993 ), divides the principle of

politeness based on the level of effort to avoid

conflict, i.e.,

1) Wisdom Maxim, minimizes other’s burden,

maximizes advantage

136

Astami, T.

Japanese Language Directive Utterance Politeness Scale based on the Perception of Japanese Literature’s 4th Semester’s Students of Binus University.

DOI: 10.5220/0010003800002917

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities (BINUS-JIC 2018), pages 136-139

ISBN: 978-989-758-515-9

2) Generosity Maxim, minimizes self-advantage,

maximizes burden

3) Appreciation Maxim, minimizes critics for

others, maximizes praise appreciation.

4) Modesty Maxim, minimizes praise,

maximizes critics

5) Compatibility Maxim, minimizes

disagreement between one’s self with others,

maximizes agreement

6) Sympathy Maxim, minimizes antipathy

between self and others, maximizes sympathy

In Leech’s politeness model, each and every

interpersonal maximum there can be used to decide

a speech’s politeness ranking, (Rahardi K, 2005)

stated that Leech’s politeness scale is divided in

five. i.e.;

1) Cost benefit scale, or loss and profit scale, points

to how big or small the benefit or advantage

caused by a speech act to a speech. The more

disadvantageous the speech is to the speaker, the

more polite that speech would be

considered.Conversely, the more advantageous

the speech is to the speaker, the more impolite

that speech would be considered.

2) Optionality Scale, or choice scale, points to how

many options are delivered by the speaker to his

partner in a conversation. The more the speech

allows the speaker or his partner to decide as

much as they want, or freely, the more the

speech would be considered as polite.

3) Indirectness Scale, points to the rank of

directness or indirectness the meaning of a

speech is. The more direct a speech is, the more

it is considered to be impolite.

4) Authority scale, points to the relation of the

speaker and his partner’s social status relation.

The farther the social rank (rank rating) between

the speaker and his partner, the speech used

tends to be more polite.

5) Social distance scale, points to the social relation

rank of the speaker and the partnerinvolved in a

speech. The closer their social rank is, the less

polite the speech tends to be.

Next, according to Blum Kulka(Pranowo, 2009)

politeness of a speech used to state a directive act

could be seen from the choice of wordand nonverbal

things accompanying the speech based on the

existing principles of politeness. The principles of

politeness said above are (1) the speech should not

force and should not give an arrogant impression

(Formality Scale), (2) the speech should give an

option (Optionality scale), (3) the speech should

give a friendly impression, (4) the speech should

show respect to one with the higher social status, (5)

the speech should be advantageous or not be

disadvantageous to the speaker’s partner, (6) the

speech should be indirect or mitigated, so that it

won’t be offensive to the speaker’s partner.

2 METHOD

The combination of quantitative and qualitative

approach method is used. Quantitative approach is

used to help clarify the data analysis qualitatively,

i.e.in the form of calculation of numbers and

percentage level or scale of politeness in speaking.

The qualitative approach is used to describe the data

clearly with the help of simple statistics so that the

data analysis techniques used in this research are

descriptive statistical analysis techniques. The

analysis technique is purposefully used as it can

provide the most accurate illustration possible of an

individual, the state of the language, symptoms or a

particular group. Its phases include data collection,

processing, analysis, and data presentation without

generalization (Ruswendi H E T, 1998).Data

collecting was done with questionnaire. The data

taken for this study is politeness’ scale data based on

the perception of students of Binus

University’sfourth semester, class LB 62 in the

amount of 30 respondents with purposive sample.

The questionnaire contains directive speech forms

based on the respondents’ judgement.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The following is a directive speech questionnaire in

Japanese that the author has spread to the

respondents.

Table 1 : Directive speech questionnaire in Japanese.

Speech Scale

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

) その

にもつ

,荷物をとなり

や

,部屋へ

はこび

,運びなさい。

b) その

にもつ

,荷物を

となり

へや

,部屋へ

Japanese Language Directive Utterance Politeness Scale based on the Perception of Japanese Literature’s 4th Semester’s Students of Binus

University

137

はこんで

,運んでくださ

い。

c) その

にもつ

,荷物を

となり

へや

,部屋へ

はこんで

,運んでくれま

せんか。

d) その

にもつ

,荷物を

となり

へや

,部屋へ

はこんで

,運んで！

e) その

にもつ

,荷物を

となり

へや

,部屋へ

はこんで

,運んでくださ

いませか。

f) その

にもつ

,荷物を

となり

へや

,部屋へ

はこぶ

,運ぶするように

していただけません

か。

g) その

にもつ

,荷物を

となり

へや

,部屋へ

はこんで

,運んでほしい

んですが…

h) ここはちょっと

せまい

,狭いので、すみ

ませんが、その

にもつ

,荷物はここに

おかないで

,置かないで

ください。

i) その荷物をとなり

部屋へ

はこ

,運びましょ

う。

j) その

にもつ

,荷物を

となり部屋へ運べ。

Based on the data of the 30 respondents' answers

in the questionnairethat the author has summarized

from, the perception of directive speech politeness is

constructed as follows, 1) imperative construction, 2)

exclamativeconstruction, 3)emphatic construction.

Mostly found in imperative construction with the

average of 73% of respondents, and direct command

formulationof 83% respondents answering to the

least polite.

a) PolitenessPerception in Imperative

Construction.

Based on the first-degree perception of politeness

with imperative construction, standing as the most

polite is mitigated demand and explicit request with

96% of the respondents’ answers. Next is using

strong cues with 70% of the respondents’ answers,

using imperative modus with 50% of the

respondents’ answers, and using implicit desire

statement with 43% of the respondents’ answers. In

contrast, the use of explicit imperative modus, with

83% of the respondents’ answers, considered

imperative direct speech as impolite.

Table 2: Politeness Perception in Imperative Construction.

Speech type Questionn

aire

Respon

Mitigated

deman

E 96%

Explicit request F 96%

Stron

cues H 70%

Imperative

modus

B 50%

Implicit desire

statement

C 80 %

Explicit desire

statemen

G 43%

Direct explicit

imperative modus

J 83%

b) Politeness Perception in Exclamative

Construction

Then second-degree perception of politeness

with exclamative construction,which is the use of

the exclamation mark in command sentence, most

respondents with 93% agree that using the

exclamation markin a command sentence is

considered to be impolite. The respondents

understand that direct command sentences are

usually used between friends or someone whom they

have close relationship with, so that chit chat won’t

be necessary, and even might upset the

speaker’spartner (threatening the partner’s face).

BINUS-JIC 2018 - BINUS Joint International Conference

138

Table 3: Politeness Perception in Exclamative

Construction.

Speech type Questionn

aire

Respon

Direct explicit

imperative modus

D 93 %

c) PolitenessPerception in Emphatic

Construction

Then second-degree perception of politeness

with emphatic construction,which is direct invitation,

most respondents with 60% agree that the direct

invitation sentence is considered to be impolite. The

respondents understand that emphatic sentences are

usually used between friends or someone whom they

have close relationship with, so that chit chat won’t

be necessary, and even might upset the speaker’s

partner (threatening the partner’s face).

Table 4: Politeness Perception in Emphatic Construction.

Speech type Questionn

aire

Respon

Direct

invitation

I 60 %

4 CONCLUSION

Politeness is related to one's culture. Every person in

particular and society in general hasdifferent speech

politeness perception. The degree of directive

politeness based on the student’sperception, the one

marked as highest is the speech in the imperative

form with mitigated demand speech type and

explicit request speech type as the one considered to

be the most polite, while direct command are

considered to be the least polite. Speech situations

do have effect in choosing speech strategy. The need

to maintain the face (politeness) in expressing things

without offending the partners is one of the the

things needed to be considered in choosing the

respondents’ variety of speech. In other words,

thepositive politeness in the chit chat strategy,

maintains the positive image of the partners, and the

negative politenessin the chit chat strategy saves half

of the partners’ face or image, both became the main

factors of the respondents’ thought.

Related to the statement above, the author hopes

this research can give input on the subjects related to

Japanese language skills especially to introduce

politeness as early as it can to the beginner level

students, in order to keep both the applicable norm

of language in Japanese society, and in the society of

the digital era both orally and written, so that in the

future, the respondents will understand the ethic in

speaking and writing. In the futurethe author

intended to develop and broaden her research, about

how the directive speech politeness perceptionused

or spoken by the entire Binus University’s Japanese

Literature’s students, within the campus and home

environment, is connected with the cultural

factorsbackground surrounding it.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author would like to say thank you for the help

of various parties, especially Bina Nusantara

University that has helped the author until the paper

can be completed.

REFERENCES

Leech G 1993 Prinsip –prinsip PragmatiktransM.D.D Oka

(Jakarta: Universitas Indonesia) pp 206-207

RahardiK2005 Pragmatik: Kesantunan Imperatif Bahasa

Indonesia(Yogyakarta: Erlangga) p 66

Pranowo 2009 Berbahasa Secara Santun ( Yogyakarta:

Pustaka Pelajar) p 30

Ruswendi H E T 1998 Statistik Dasar Penelitian

Pendidikan (Bandung: IKIP Bandung Press) p 3

Japanese Language Directive Utterance Politeness Scale based on the Perception of Japanese Literature’s 4th Semester’s Students of Binus

University

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