"This study is aimed at describing and explaining the variation of the realization of politeness strategies on the directive in the Indonesian language produced by members of the Minangkabau ethnic group in Padang. The sources of the data are Indonesian speakers who originally belong to the Minangkabau ethnic group. In addition, there are also data taken from documents. The data consist of utterances performing directives in Indonesian produced by members of the Minangkabau ethnic group in Padang. The data were collected using survey questionnaire, interview, participant observation and from documentary sources. The main method of data analysis was quantitative and supported by qualitative analysis.
The results of the study reveal that the cues showing the phenomena are as follows. In the realization of directives in Indonesian, the respondent uses the various types of utterances that can be grouped into five categories as suggested by Brown and Levinson (1987). The frequency distribution among categories is different. The five main speech act categories are (1) bald on record, (2) on record with redressive action using positive politeness, (3) on record with redressive action using negative politeness, (4) off record, and (5) not doing the face-threatening act (FTA).
The use of speech strategies is in-line with the degree of politeness, namely the awareness to show that the speaker saves the face of the participants, specifically the face of the addressee from the acts threatening his face. The respondents of this study (possibly the other speakers as well) minimize the threat to participants' face by mitigating the illocutionary force of the utterance. Basically, they mitigate the illocutionary force in two ways, namely (1) minimizing the distance between speaker and addressee (in-group ness) and (2) maximizing the distance between speaker and addressee (distancing).
The speaker chooses a certain speech strategy based on the potential weight of the threat to the participants face. The weight of the threat is calculated on the basis of two main parameters, namely (1) degree of power differences between speaker and addressee (+ P or -P) and (2) degree of solidarity between speaker and addressee (+S or -S). If the power of the speaker is higher than that of the addressee and the solidarity between the speaker and the addressee is low and other factors remain constant, the weight of the face threat is high. On the contrary, if the power of the speaker is lower than that of the addressee and the degree of solidarity is high while the other factors remain constant, the weight of the face threat is low. If the weight of the face threat is high, the respondents tend to choose more indirect speech strategies. On the other hand, if the face threat is low, the participants tend to choose the more direct speech strategies.
Among the five main speech strategies, the strategy on record with redressive action using negative politeness is the most frequently used for realizing directive in Indonesian. The plausible explanation for this choice is the fact that this strategy contains medium level indirectness; the utterances produced are not too direct as in bald on record, nor is it too indirect as in hints. Bald on record strategy produces a strong illocutionary force that can be perceived by the addressee as imperative. On the other hand, hints are considered as utterances, which are so indirect that the addressee as irony can perceive them. Both imperative and irony might threaten the addressee's face. The selection of speech strategies in the realization of directive speech act in Indonesian by the respondents is influenced by the use of the Minangkabau language that recognizes four types of register so-called longgam kato non ampek (four types of Minangkabau register which functions to differ the level of politeness). The influence of langgam kato nary ampek on the selection of speech strategy can clearly be observed in the use of address terms and the use of indirect speech acts.
The findings show that there are inter-group differences within the Minangkabau ethnic community in Padang in the realization of directives on the basis of age group and social class, but the difference is not significant in terms of gender variable. Respondents who are younger and those who come from lower social class use indirect speech strategies more frequently than those who are older or those who come from the higher social class. The younger respondents and those who come from the lower social class possess higher awareness to save the participants' face, specifically the addressee's face as compared to the older respondents and those who come from the higher social class. The tendency to use indirect speech act in the realization of directives by the younger respondents and those who come from the lower social class results from their evaluation that more indirect speech strategies tend to have a lower probability to threaten the face than direct speech acts.
The differences in the realization of speech strategies by the respondents on the basis of age group and social class show that there is an on-going shift in the way of viewing the politeness principle by Minangkabau ethnic group in Padang. Politeness principle, which used to be adhered to by minimizing the social distance between the speaker and the addressee (in-group ness), is slowly replaced by the politeness principle which is observed by maximizing the social distance between the speaker and the addressee (distancing). The shift is hypothesized to result from the fact that the younger respondents and those from the lower social class feel unsafe when they use on record with redressive action using positive politeness strategy, whose basic principle is to minimize the social distance between the speaker and the addressee."
