Politeness strategies of refusals to marriage proposals found in the novel Pride and Prejudice based on Brown and Levinson’s theory and the factors that contribute to the choice of politeness strategies to such refusals.
THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DANG THI HIEN POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN REFUSALS OF MARRIAGE PROPOSALS IN THE NOVEL “PRIDE AND PREJUDICE” BY JANE AUSTEN M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN – 2023 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DANG THI HIEN POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN REFUSALS OF MARRIAGE PROPOSALS IN THE NOVEL “PRIDE AND PREJUDICE” BY JANE AUSTEN M.A THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION) Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Nguyen Trong Du, Ph.D THAI NGUYEN – 2023 ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN TRƯỜNG NGOẠI NGỮ ĐẶNG THỊ HIÊN CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ Ở LỜI TỪ CHỐI CẦU HÔN TRONG TIỂU THUYẾT “KIÊU HÃNH VÀ ĐỊNH KIẾN” CỦA JANE AUSTEN LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ (Định hướng ứng dụng) Ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8220201 Cán hướng dẫn: TS Nguyễn Trọng Du THÁI NGUYÊN – 2023 DECLARATION I hereby state that I have not made any copies or duplicated any parts of the other enclosed masters’ theses without being permitted by the authors I have completed my thesis under the supervision of my supervisor Author’s signature Approved by SUPERVISOR PhD Date,…… 2023 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thesis could not have been completed without the supervision of my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Trong Du It is one of my luckiest opportunities to have him as my supervisor and I believe my other classmates and other teachers also agree His board knowledge in applied linguistics has enriched my mind from the time we texted during the time of Covid-19 to the time we met to discuss my research His multi-perspectival research orientation, support, and encouragement provided me with important directions More importantly, based on the methodological orientations that he has provided, he has also allowed me to learn independently without being constrained by any stereotypes which help me have chances to discover a lot of knowledge not only within the content of the research paper but gain also many other important insights about life and cognitive thinking I am again so proud of being guided by him I would like to thank the Thai Nguyen University- School of foreign languages for providing me with the best learning environment Special thanks would go to my homeroom teacher, former teachers, and classmates at Thai Nguyen University- School of foreign languages who supported me and shared useful ideas Finally, I am grateful to my family members who always support me, especially my mom, who has sacrificed silently her life to raise four children with a lot of difficulties and understands me throughout my learning journey ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION .i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS .iii LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix ABSTRACT x CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of problem ………………………… …….… …… … Research objectives …………………………… …………… …… .3 Research questions ……………………… 4 Object and scope of the research …………………….………… … …4 Significance of the research……………… …….…….……… Structure of the thesis CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW Overview of relevant theories …….…………………………… … 1.1 The speech act ……… ……………… ……….……… …… … 1.2 Refusals as a speech act ……………………… ……… ……… .….7 1.3 Classifications of refusals ….………………………… … ….8 1.4 Refusal sequences …………………………………… …… .… .9 1.5 Marriage proposals ……………………………………… … .… 10 1.6 Politeness theory …………………………………… …….… .10 1.6.1 Face ……………………………………… …… 10 1.6.2 Face threatening acts ………………………… … .11 1.6.3 Politeness strategies as Brown and Levinson’s (1987) … .11 1.6.3.1 Bald- on record ……………………… … .11 1.6.3.2 Positive politeness …………………… ….…… 12 1.6.3.3 Negative politeness ………………… … 14 1.6.3.4 Off record ………………………… 15 1.6.3.5 Don't the FTA 15 1.7 Factors affecting the choice of politeness strategies ………….… .…15 iii 1.8 Politeness significance in English language practices …….… … 17 1.9 Impoliteness theories ……………………………………… …… …17 1.9.1 Impoliteness strategies ………………………………… .…….… 18 Review of studies on research topic …………………… ……….…… .… 19 Review of extra studies ……………………… .… 21 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 24 Research design …………………………… …… ……………… ….24 Research data …………………………… …… ……… .25 Data collection technique ………………… …………………… 25 Research Instrument ……………………………… ………………… 26 Data Analysis procedure …………………… ……………… …… … .28 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .29 Politeness strategies in refusals to marriage proposals in Pride and Prejudice novel …………………………………………………………………………………29 1.1 Bald-on record………………… ……… …………………………… 29 1.2 Postive politeness strategies in refusals to marriage proposals in Pride and rejudice .30 1.2.1 Strategy 1: Notice, attend to H (his interests, wants, needs, goods) … 30 1.2.2 Strategy 2: Exaggerate (interest, approval, sympathy with H) ……… ….30 1.2.3 Strategy 3: Intensify interest to H …………………….….……… … ….31 1.2.4 Strategy 4: Use in-group identity markers ……………… ………… …31 1.2.5 Strategy 5: Seek agreement …………….………………… ……… … 32 1.2.6 Strategy 6: Avoid disagreement ………………………… ………… …33 1.2.7 Strategy 7: Presuppose/raise/assert common ground …… ………… …35 1.2.8 Strategy 8: Joke ……………………………………………………… ….37 1.2.9 Strategy 9: Assert or presuppose S's knowledge of and concern for H's wants ………………………………………………………………………… 37 1.2.10 Strategy 10: Offer, promise … ……………………………….…… ….38 1.2.11 Strategy 11: Be optimistic ……… ……………………………….… 38 1.2.12 Strategy 12: Include both S and H in the activity…………… ….… …38 1.2.13 Strategy 13: Give or ask for reasons …………… ………….……… 38 1.2.14 Strategy 14: Assume or assert reciprocity … … …………………… 39 iv 1.2.15 Strategy 15: Give gifts to H (goods, sympathy, understanding, cooperation)…….……………………………………………………………… 39 1.3 Negative politeness strategies in refusals in marriage proposals in Pride and Prejudice …………………………………………………… ………….…… 40 1.3.1 Strategy 1: Be conventionally indirect … …….………….…………… 40 1.3.2 Strategy 2: Question, hedge …… …………… …… …… ……… …40 1.3.3 Strategy 3: Be pessimistic ……………… …….……………… …… …42 1.3.4 Strategy 4: Minimize the imposition, Rx ………………… …….…… 42 1.3.5 Strategy 5: Give deference ……………….…… ….…….….… … ……43 1.3.6 Strategy 6: Apologize ………….…………….…………… … … …43 1.3.7 Strategy 7: Impersonalize S and H ………….….….…….….… … ……44 1.3.8 Strategy 8: State the FTA as a general rule …………….………… … 47 1.3.9 Strategy 9: Nominalize ……………………………………… .… … 47 1.3.10 Strategy 10: Go on record as incurring a debt, or as not indebting H … 48 1.4 Off-record 48 1.4.1 Strategy 1: Give hints …….……….……… ….……… ……….…… …48 1.4.2 Strategy 2: Give association clues …….………….……… …… … …48 1.4.3 Strategy 3: Presuppose ….………….……… ……………… … … … 49 1.4.4 Strategy 4: Undersate …….……….……… ….…………… …… ……49 1.4.5 Strategy 5: Overstate …………………….…… ………………… .….49 1.4.6 Strategy 6: Use tautologies ……….………… …………………… 50 1.4.7 Strategy 7: Use contradictions ………… … …………………… … 50 1.4.8 Strategy 8: Be ironic ……………….………… ………………… … 51 1.4.9 Strategy 9: Use metaphors …………………….… ……………… …51 1.4.10 Strategy 10: Use rhetorical questions …………………………… …….51 1.4.11 Strategy 11: Be ambiguous ………………… ……………… …… ….51 1.4.12 Strategy 12: Be vague …………………….……… …………… …52 1.4.13 Strategy 13: Over-generalize …………………….….………… .… 52 1.4.14 Strategy 14: Displace H …………………………… ……… … … 52 1.4.15 Strategy 15: Be incomplete, use ellipis ……………… ….……… … 52 1.5 Don't the FTA ………… … ……………………………………….… 53 Impoliteness Strategies …………… …………… ……………………… ….….54 v The impact of sociocultural factors … 59 3.1 Sociological Varriables Brown and Levinson (1987) …………… … 59 3.2 Matrix for Intra-culture & Cross-cultural Communication of Nguyen Quang (2004) …………………………………………………………………………… 61 3.3 According to research “ Tro lai van de the hien va Lich su giao tiep” by Nguyen Quang (2019) ………………………………………………………… 66 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ………….…….…70 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………… … …70 Recommendation ………………………………………………………… … 72 REFERENCES .… … 74 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Beebe et al (1990), three main refusal sequences ……………………………8 Table 2: 15 positive politeness strategies as Brown and Lenvinson (1987) ………… 12 Table 3: 10 negative politeness strategies as Brown and Levinson (1987) ……………13 Table : Matrix for Intra-culture & Cross-cultural communication of Nguyen Quang (2004) …………………………………………………………………… 15 Table 5: Research analysis process …………………… …………………24 Table 6: % each politeness strategies used in refusals to marriage proposals …… .54 Table 7: % all politeness strategies used in refusals to marriage proposals …… 56 vii his marriage proposal, which imposed Elizabeth and controlled her way of choosing politeness strategies to reject Mr.Collins’ twice marriage proposals in a drastic way In terms of Darcy’s first marriage proposal to Elizabeth, there is no evidence that Darcy imposed her to accept his 3.1.3 The Power of S and H P is an asymmetric social dimension of relative power that is the degree to which H can impose his plans and his self-evaluation at the expression of S’s same categories In the novel, both Mr Collins and Elizabeth evaluated themself from their perspectives In Mr.Collins’ society position, he is ranked in Middle raking and he also gets support from the de Bourge family, so in comparison to Elizabeth's regard to Economic Power, he is aware fully his position in correlation to the power of finance to Elizabeth and he imposed his self-evaluation to her as well via “My situation in life, my connections with the de Bourgh family, and my relationship to your own, all make my proposal a very suitable one And you should remember that in spite of your many admirable qualities, it is not certain that you will receive any other offer of marriage, as you have very little money of your own.” (p.38) After being refused the first proposal to Elizabeth, Mr.Collins turned his marriage proposal into a warning “and I’m sure that when both your excellent parents agree, you will accept my proposal!” (p.38) with his suitable reasons for the right thing for Elizabeth to accept his marriage proposal, which imposed Elizabeth and controlled her way of choosing politeness strategies to reject Mr.Collins’ twice second marriage proposal in a drastic way In terms of the power correlation between Darcy and Elizabeth, we can see that in comparison to economic power, Darcy is the man with a much more lavish fortune than Elizabeth, who inherited the business and many other real estates after his father’s death While Elizabeth inherits nothing after her father passes away, on account of the social norm at that time all his property would pass to a distant male relation 3.2 Nguyen Quang’s Matrix for Intra-culture & Cross-cultural Communication 61 As pointed out in “Mot so va de giao tiep Noi van hoa va Giao van hoa” by Nguyen Quang, relative Power, Social Distance, and Ranking of imposition are not convincing enough to examine all actions, events, and communicative contexts Within the range of the research, the researcher referred to fourteen communication components in Nguyen Quang’s Matrix for Intra-culture & Cross-cultural Communication to determine the impacts of socio-cultural on the choice of politeness strategies by Elizabeth in refusals to marriage proposals (1) Age In the novel, Elizabeth is introduced as a young girl aged from 15 to 20 years old And Darcy appears as a tall, handsome man, who it was said, had an income of ten thousand pounds a year, and was in need of a wife (p.4) When Collins is presented as a “ he was tall, heavy-looking young man of twenty-five (p.22) (2) Gender The novel introduced Elizabeth as the second girl of four girls of Mr Bennet And Darcy and Collins are two young men (3) Occupation In the novel, Collins works as a priest, while Darcy just appears as a young rich man who inherited his business after his father’s death, with a big fortune and an income of ten thousand pounds a year Although Jane Austen doesn't mention her job, Elizabeth is a young girl who lives with her four sisters and their parents (4) Education As mentioned in her novel (p.67), Darcy is college educated And, Elizabeth was raised along with her other sisters by a private governess, as Collins is not explicitly mentioned in the novel, only his job as a priest (5) Residence Elizabeth Bennet’s family lives in the small Hertfordshire village of Longbourge, while Darcy and Collins are not explicitly mentioned in the novel (6) Participants’ relationship: While the relationship between Elizabeth and Collins is a distant kinship of Mr Bennet’s and, they don’t even visit each other frequently, her relationship with Darcy 62 is just at first a normal friendship who Elizabeth first met at a ball, but then it tended to develop as a very bad relationship with pride and prejudices that both gave to each other (7) Power over two participants P is an asymmetric social dimension of relative power that is the degree to which H can impose his plans and his self-evaluation at the expression of S’s same categories In the novel, both Mr Collins and Elizabeth evaluated themself from their perspectives In Mr.Collins’ society position, he is ranked in Middle raking and he also gets support from the de Bourge family, so in comparison to Elizabeth's regard to Economic Power, he is aware fully his position in correlation to the power of finance to Elizabeth and he imposed his self-evaluation to her as well via “My situation in life, my connections with the de Bourgh family, and my relationship to your own, all make my proposal a very suitable one And you should remember that in spite of your many admirable qualities, it is not certain that you will receive any other offer of marriage, as you have very little money of your own.” (p.38) After being refused the first proposal to Elizabeth, Mr.Collins turned his marriage proposal into a warning “and I/m sure that when both your excellent parents agree, you will accept my proposal!” (p.38) with his suitable reasons for the right thing for Elizabeth to accept his marriage proposal, which imposed Elizabeth and controlled her way of choosing politeness strategies to reject Mr.Collins’ twice second marriage proposal in a drastic way In terms of the power correlation between Darcy and Elizabeth, we can see that in comparison to economic power, Darcy is the man with a much more lavish fortune than Elizabeth inherited the business and many other real estates after his father’s death While Elizabeth inherits nothing after her father passes away, on account of the social norm at that time all his property would pass to a distant male relation In terms of status power, Darcy belongs to the landed classes with business and one of many real estates – Pemberly park with beautiful wood, at the top of the hill with the first view of Pemberly House situated on the other side of a valley, with a line of high, wooded hills behind The House was a large, stone building (p.75) While 63 Collins is placed in the middle class as he is a priest working in a church based on The Family, Sex and Marriage (1500-1800) by Lawrence Stone And, Elizabeth was finally just a non-property inherited girl and has no rank in society at that time (8) Communicative Mood Elizabeth’s mood before Collins’ marriage proposal is described in the novel as little amusement when she and her family enjoys the ball She could not even go and talk to people she knew, as Mr Collins seemed determined to stay close by her side all evening (p.35) Elizabeth's feelings before Darcy's first marriage proposal were that she was very angry with Darcy when she found out him the reason for her heartbreak of her beloved sister, as she had a small talk to Colonel Fitzwilliam who is Darcy’s cousin “oh, yes, Mr Darcy is extremely kind to Mr Bingley, and takes very good care of him”, said Elizabeth drily “Yes, I believe Darcy does take care of Bingley I’m thinking of a recent situation, that Darcy was telling me about on the journey here He was congratulating himself on having saved a friend from a most foolish marriage Of course, I’m not sure the friend was Bingley, as Darcy didn’t mention the name “Did Mr Darcy give you his reasons for interfering?” “ I understood that there were some very strong objections to the lady” Elizabeth could not speak for a moment When she was able to control her anger, she changed the conversation” (p.59) (9) Participants’ temperament In the novel, Elizabeth Bennett is portrayed as a brave, intelligent, and independent girl with a witty sense of humor She considers herself a decent young woman and a good judge of her character, but throughout her novel, Lizzie finds herself imperfect She sometimes misunderstands people and her pride draws out those mistakes As her novel progresses, Elizabeth Bennett's character develops into a more humble and sensitive being while maintaining her signature confidence in herself Collins is a clergyman who is a cousin of the five Bennett sisters After Mr Bennett's death, he is to inherit Bennett's estate in Longbourn Collins is described as a tall, chunky young man of his twenty-five His demeanor was solemn and dignified, and his manners were very formal They find him very boring, especially when he insists on reading 64 the sermon aloud after dinner with very drab solemnity Elizabeth and her sisters not believe Mr Collins to be particularly intelligent or rational He seems oblivious when others become bored or uncomfortable, and often submissively speaks of his patron, Lady Katherine Bourge Fitzwilliam Darcy is a very arrogant English upper-class man He is the lord of Pemberley, an expensive estate in Derbyshire He is tall and handsome, but his demeanor is surly, distant, and distant Jane Austen compares him to her friend Mr Bingley several times in the novel He seems arrogant and demanding On the other hand, Mr Bingley is popular because he is friendly Jane Austen distinguishes Mr Darcy from Mr Bingley in Pride and Prejudice (10) Participants' attitudes to each other Mr Collins, who will inherit all of Elizabeth’s father’s property when he dies, is a distant cousin to Elizabeth’s family After his visit to Elizabeth’s family, she and her family consider him a non-sensible man, even foolish She thinks he is peculiar and sounds too pleased with himself Regard to Collins, when he proposed to her for the second time, he presented his thought to her “ My situation in life, my connections with the de Bourgh family, and my relationship to your own, all make my proposal a very suitable one And you should remember that in spite of your many admirable qualities, it is not certain that you will receive any other offer of marriage, as you have very little money of your own.” (p 38) At the first meeting, It seems that both Elizabeth and Darcy had not a good impression of each other: Elizabeth's previous observations of Darcy are arrogance, conceit, and selfish disdain for the feelings of others, which has caused her to dislike him intensely while Darcy doesn’t think her attractive enough to dance with him in “ she’s not attractive enough to tempt me” (p 5) However, their pride and prejudice to each other change in the following chapters of the novel (11) Foreign language Acquisition This research is done on the internal culture novel which is British in the late 18th century, So the researcher doesn’t analyze this category deeply in the study (12) Communicative topic 65 A sensitive conversational topic is also a factor affecting the politeness strategies choices Mentioned these topics include propose, religious content, sexual topic, etc (13) Communicative form Elizabeth, Darcy, and Collins communicated together verbally directly, but conversations among them were written in the novel (14) Communicative setting In this excerpt, Mr Collins visits Elizabeth Bennet’s family in the small Hertfordshire village of Longbourge His two proposes to Elizabeth Bennet occurred, during her family breakfast, at her house Mr Darcy also proposes to Elizabeth twice, but Elizabeth Bennet refuses his first proposal at Mr.Collins’ house when Elizabeth Bennet visits Charlotte who is her best friend after Elizabeth refused Mr Collins’ proposals twice, Mr Collins finally proposed and married Charlotte When Darcy realizes that Charlotte with her husband going out 3.3 “ Tro lai van de the dien va Lich su giao tiep” by Nguyen Quang (2019) Face and politeness are products of a human's conscious nature, expressed through three aspects: cognitive, affective, and behavioral domains In his writing, he mentions, in interpersonal interactions, the communicator's awareness of "I" - "the self" and "the other" - "the other" will have a strong impact on face decisions made by the Speaker as well as those of the other party, thereby determining what type of politeness and politeness technique to employ in that communication + "I" of the subject of communication: A1 Who I suppose I am A2 Who I really am A3 Who the other thinks I am In terms of the “I” in the rejection conversation with Mr Collins, Elizabeth considered herself the subject of communication in which she showed understanding of herself clear that she knew what she was looking for and wanted She once confided with her older sister Jane: “ I am determined that nothing but a very deepest 66 love will induce me into matrimony” She also knows what Mr Collins thinks of her and her family in terms of A3: Who the others think I am Once Mr.Collins said to her " You should remember that in spite of your many admirable qualities, it is not certain that you will receive any other offer of marriage, as you have very little money of your own" (p.38) Whereas, concerning the relationship between Elizabeth and Mr.Darcy, The "I" that Elizabeth also thinks the same as Mr.Collins; Elizabeth considered herself the subject of communication in which she showed out understanding of herself clearly She knew what she was looking for and wanted And, A3: Who the other thinks I am, in the first ball in Meryton, Elizabeth accidentally heard Darcy share his opinion toward her with his best friend Mr.Bingley that “She is not attractive enough to tempt me” (p.5) + "The other" of the communicative object - Hearer includes: B1 Who the other thinks he/she is B2 Who she/he really is B3 Who I think the other is In terms of "The other", Mr.Collins always acted gently and appeared as much polite and serious as he could As regards the public, Collins worked as a determined priest With Mr Bennets’ family, Collins could be a man of servility and selfimportance Mr.Bennet once said, “He appears to be a most polite and serious man” (p.21) And, Elizabeth at first thinks he is peculiar (p.21); however, during the time Collins stayed in Mr.Bennets’ house, they realised that Collins was as foolish as he had hoped; he was not a sensible man, end neither education nor society had improved him (p.24) The respect he felt for his patron, and his very good opinion of himself and his new position, made him proud and servile at the same time (p.24) In the relationship between Elizabeth and Mr.Darcy, Darcy at the first meeting at the ball held in Meryton is a tall, handsome man, who had an income of ten thousand pounds a year; however, he was proud and disagreeable and considered himself superior to country people (p.4) For Elizabeth and her family, because she misinformed him at first, Darcy was a man of pride with a strong sense of superiority 67 And, Darcy looked down on her family’s members and property However, some things seemed to be changed when she visited Derbyshire, in which Elizabeth heard something that changed her mind about Darcy his housekeeper Darcy is such a kind brother, the best master that ever lived His housekeeper’s opinion of him was totally favorable (p.76-77) As mentioned in The Family, sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800, Selfawareness, Individualism in society developed mightily at the time the novel was written This change in society started in the early 16 century but reached its peak in the 1800s Individual autonomy- contemporaries called it “freedom” or “liberty”therefore, was a new luxury that could now safely be indulged in by the well-to-do, and which modified and mitigated the rigidities of a society Individualism means two rather distinct things: first: a growing introspection and interest in the individual personality; and second: a demand for personal autonomy and respect for an individual’s right to privacy, self-expression, and free exercise The emergency in late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England developed a different set of a value that prioritized the individual over the kin, the family, the society The novel Pride and Prejudice brought the Renaissance ideal of the individual hero which is presented clearly through the character Elizabeth Bennet Therefore, Elizabeth was portrayed differently from other female characters in the other novels at the same time, in understanding exactly what she looked for in her love, her marriage, and her life As pointed out by the book The Family, Sex, and Marriage in England 15001800 by Laurence Stone, the influence of Individualism in society in the period of 1500-1800, grew strongly in many aspects of life; firstly, Self-awareness caused changing attitudes toward romantic love and marriage The growth of marriage for love in life at that time was common in both romantic love and the novel Real love before marriage was one of the main reasons Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice determined herself before any marriage proposals before she found a man to fall in love with That caused the decision-maker in marriage, also Traditionally, before 1500, the submission of children to their fathers in arranged marriages was popular in English society; however, with the growth of Individualism, the younger was 68 turning against parental dictation of a marriage partner that contrasted with parental control over marriage before In the novel, Elizabeth disobeyed her mother’s order to accept Collins’ proposal In her switch to true love, she finally received support from her father on the way to finding her true love Her father said: “I’ve sent for you on a very important matter I understand that Mr Collins has made an offer of marriage, and you have refused You now have an unhappy choice to make, Elizabeth From this day on, you must be a stranger to one of your parents Your mother will never see you again if you not marry Mr.Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.” (p.40) In conclusion, in this chapter, the researcher concludes the results of the study and describe and interpret the data obtained on the two research questions All data has answered two research questions in two main parts.(1) Politeness strategies in the character of Elizabeth's refusal of marriage proposal in Brown and Levinson's (1987) Pride and Prejudice (2) Socio-cultural factors and their impact on choosing polite strategies for rejecting marriage proposals in Pride and Prejudice 69 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION In this chapter, the major findings of the research are summarized and provide conclusions regarding the analysis Besides, it also spells out some recommendations for other researchers and English learners as well to apply politeness knowledge in other social reactions and activities to get successful use Conclusion Based on the preceding chapters, the results present that the character Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice novel employed four out of five Politeness strategies in Brown and Levison’s theory (1987), respectively Don’t the FTA, Off-record, With redressive action (Negative politeness, Positive politeness), also the presence of Impoliteness strategies as Culpeper et al (2003) determined, in rejecting marriage proposals of Darcy and Collins The frequency of occurrences indicates that Elizabeth utilized Don’t the FTA on her refusal 5% in total with Collins while there are no occurrences of this strategy used with Darcy; Off-record was employed on her refusal of Collins’ marriage proposals with 25 % whereas this strategy was used to reject Darcy’s first proposal with 13 % Negative politeness strategies were utilized in her utterances to refuse Collins’ two proposals by 33.33% while those techniques were used by 37% to reject Darcy’s first one by Elizabeth While Positive politeness strategies were employed in her refusal utterances to Darcy’s first time with 50%, an equal percentage as the used percentage of Negative politeness strategies was employed to reject Collins’ two times of proposals with 33.33 % The data confirmed that the positive strategy was considered the most frequently employed strategy with 40 % among five super politeness strategies based on Brown and Levinson (1987) on Elizabeth’s utterances to refuse marriage proposals of both Collins and Darcy However, besides Politeness strategies, there was the presence of the Impoliteness strategy found in Elizabeth’s refusal utterances to marriage proposals to Darcy only two times of occurrence To sum up, Elizabeth is supposed to get to the maximum well-mannered degree of politeness with Collins via way of means of her use of politeness rating from redressive action to Don't the FTA with Collins via way of means of leaving away in silence, whereas Elizabeth is supposed to get the maximum 70 efficient verbal exchange with Darcy via way of means of even the usage of a number of the impoliteness techniques with him Research of politeness strategies of refusals to requests by the Amboness Community draws some conclusions on the politeness strategies of refusals to requests used by the Ambonese in Indonesia In comparison to this research, my research also finds out some similar ideas First, speakers tend to combine more than two or three politeness strategies in refusals And, people tend to use negative politeness strategies in lower status such as apologies, giving deference, and being indirect in refusals However, my research also finds out a difference which shows that in the interaction between strangers, Ambonese speakers tend to employ positive strategies to accentuate the closeness by expressing gratitude by addressing form or offering new solutions, while in my research, S tries to use direct ways to reject marriage proposal by giving reasons as blaming, even impoliteness strategies to the strangers In addition, speakers tend to use direct strategies to refuse to interact with strangers on sensitive communication issues The factors presented to show their influence on the choices of politeness strategies are based on the Sociological variables of Brown and Levinson (1987), mainly focused on three big categories namely social Distance, relative Power, and ranking of Imposition In addition, Nguyen Quang’s Matrix for Intra-culture and Cross-cultural Communication and The Family, sex, and Marriage in England 15001800 were mentioned as references to clarify the impact factors on Elizabeth’s selections of courteous techniques on her refusal utterances to marriage proposals In Sociological variables, Elizabeth showed her initial senses of her social Distance with Collins and Darcy was relatively strange; the greater, the social distance is, the more S intends to use redresses, but Elizabeth seemed to try to convey her opinions and prejudices to Darcy directly without redresses that seem to contradict the previously mentioned theories In terms of relative Power, she also reacted to Darcy completely directly by employing impoliteness strategies to refuse his first marriage proposal, even though she knew Darcy was far distant regarding economic power than hers, which makes my research go out of the limited size of graduation thesis, and I can 71 not go further deep to explore that in this novel Ranking of Imposition is the last factor influencing the selection of politeness strategies of Sociological variables Collins showed his complete imposition on her with his reasons for her accepting his proposals which made the conversation culminate when Elizabeth walked away without saying anything She chose to use the last politeness strategy Don’t the FTA to demonstrate his proposals Recommendation Courteous strategies are vital aspects in maintaining any relationships among participants in any conversation After the research, the researcher not only achieved a larger view of politeness use in the classical communicative society for herself but hopes to provide more channels to others to understand more politeness in correlation with modern life communication as well Nowadays, with the big support of media technology, we can get new acquaintances anytime and, anywhere with only a stable wifi connection, so we seem to ignore to think twice so much about the element affecting communication We just try to progress any activities in rush and obtain the final results as soon as possible Understanding the way how politeness strategies affect the eventual outcome of communication makes participants more sensible and exquisite in managing their relationships and what affects the choice of Hearer’s language can help participants easily sympathize with each other In terms of education fields, understanding the way how courtesy works can help teachers create a positive and open class atmosphere to build a good relationships with each other in the classroom On top of that, this also can contribute to and encourages the learners to develop their inner ability naturally and master essential strategies to build up decent relationships outside of school To sum up, choosing an appropriate language when dealing with politeness makes sure for participants successfully convey information and obtain the ultimate communicative target The researcher after studying this realm of applied linguistics has had the desire to learn more about the differences between the sexes in using language and conveying messages that affect daily communication, especially in the relationship 72 between men and women and the relationship between husband and wife Topics from this direction of the research with an 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