ABSTRACT

Ni’mah, Hayatun. 2021. An Analysis of Positive Politeness Strategies by Oprah Winfrey in Super Soul Sunday Talk Show. Sarjana’s Thesis. English Language Education Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Lambung Mangkurat University, Banjarmasin. The first advisor: Dr. Nanik Mariani, M. Pd., the second advisor: Dr. Novita Triana, M.A.

Keywords: politeness strategies, talk show, and utterances

This research discusses the politeness strategies in a talk show. This research was conducted to find out the types of politeness strategies used by the host of Super Soul Sunday, Oprah Winfrey. Politeness strategies are used to save the hearer’s face or to respect the hearer’s self-image when the conversation is going on. Such strategies are important in a talk show since the questions asked in the discussion may be considered as face-threatening acts.

This is descriptive qualitative research where the objects of this research were the utterances of the host of Super Soul Sunday. Three episodes of the talk show were chosen as the source of the object for this research. The instrument used was the researcher instrument supported by an observation sheet. The researcher used Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory, with fifteen kinds of positive politeness strategies, to analyze the data found. 

It is found that Seek Agreement has become one of the strategies which were used the most by Oprah. She used this strategy 37 times from 135 utterances of positive politeness strategies during the interview. The result of this research showed that there are 13 strategies out of 15 positive politeness strategies used by the host to her guests. They are: Notice Attend to Hearer, Exaggerate, Intensify Interest in the Hearer, Use In-group Identity Markers, Seek Agreement, Avoid Disagreement, Presuppose/Raise/Assert Common Ground, Joke, Assert Speaker’s Knowledge of Hearer’s Wants and Willingness to Fit One’s Own Wants in With Them, Be Optimistic, Include Both Speaker and Hearer in the Activity, Give or Ask for Reason, and Give Gifts to Hearer. The use of various positive politeness strategies when interviewing means that Oprah Winfrey, as the host, save the hearer’s face and tried to make their conversation comfortable.