The Politeness Strategies used by Bree van de Kamp in Desperate Housewives TV Series

The research focuses on the concepts of pragmatics and politeness. The main objective of this study is to investigate the use of politeness strategies in TV series Desperate Housewives. Specifically, this study is designed to find out the kind(s) of politeness strategies used by Bree van de Kamp in the conversation and to find out the reasons why these politeness strategies are used by Bree van de Kamp. Bree is chosen among the four main characters since she is the one who fulfill the criteria of a polite person as defined by Holmes. The research design of this study is descriptive-qualitative since the data are collected, analyzed, and described in the form of words rather than numerical scores or statistics. The study is descriptive because it tries to describe the way politeness strategies are used by a native female adult.The data of the research are the utterances, which contain politeness strategies employed by Bree van de Kamp. This study has one primary data source which is the drama script of Desperate Housewives TV series from the first season taken from the internet. The research result shows that Bree uses four kinds of politeness strategies as proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987), namely: Positive Politeness(40%), Negative Politeness ( 31%), Bald on Record (18%) and, Off Record (8%). In using Bald on Record, the most common situation that occur are Task-oriented, S’s want to satisfy H’s face is small, and Urgent. In Positive Politeness, Bree uses Group identity marker more often than Avoid disagreement and Give gifts to H. In Negative Politeness, Hedge is in the top use followed by Be indirect and Give deference. In Off Record, Bree uses Give association clues, Irony and Overstatement. The possible reason why Bald on Record is chosen is the distance between Bree and H is close or the rate of imposition is small. Therefore, this strategy can be used in different circumstances depending on Bree’s motives in doing the FTA. Meanwhile, the reason of using Off Record strategy is mainly influenced by the social factor, which is the rate of imposition. The use of this strategy becomes one sign of her character as a wise person. Positive Politeness is used by Bree when she and her addressee know each other fairly well. The dominant social factor which influences the use of Positive Politenessis is distance. Besides, Bree shows herself as a caring, affectionate, and understanding person. In line with this reason, by choosing Negative Politeness, Bree can be marked as a pleasant person who respects others. Towards her husband and her close friends, the rate of imposition of a particular topic becomes the dominant social factor which influences the use of Negative Politeness. In contrast, towards her acquaintances and unfamiliar addressees; distance becomes a dominant social factor which determines the use of Negative Politeness. In conclusion, all of these strategies are proposed to minimize the FTA done by Bree. Her reason of choosing a certain strategy of politeness is determined by her motives to do an FTA and factor of distance, power, and rate of imposition. In addition, the author is successful in shaping the character of Bree as a polite person through her language, and the way she speaks and interacts with other characters. For pragmatics students, they still have to be aware of social factors which influence the use of a specified strategy of politeness. The pragmatics lecturers need to give more examples of politeness strategies from various contexts to their students. Future researchers are expected to conduct research of politeness not only in real life, but also in created discourses. A comparative study on the use of politeness strategies between English and Indonesian in daily lives, or between English and Indonesian’ fictions can become challenging issues for the study of politeness