General Strategies of Politeness in the Directive Utterances of How to Train Your Dragon (2025)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24256/ideas.v14i2.12250Keywords:
Pragmatics; directive utterances, general strategies of politeness, Leech, pragmatics, How to Train Your Dragon (2025)Abstract
Politeness plays an important role in maintaining harmonious interpersonal relationships, particularly when speakers produce directive utterances that have the potential to impose on hearers. This study aims to analyze the General Strategies of Politeness employed in the directive utterances of the main characters in How to Train Your Dragon (2025). The study applied a qualitative descriptive method using Searle's (1979) theory of directive illocutionary acts to identify the directive types and Leech's (2014) General Strategy of Politeness to analyze the politeness strategies. The data were collected through observation and note-taking techniques from the movie script and selected based on representative directive utterances 10 representative utterances were analyzed in detail. The findings reveal that M2 (Tact Maxim) is the most frequently employed strategy, accounting for five occurrences (50%), followed by M1 (Generosity Maxim) with two occurrences (20%). Meanwhile, M3 (Approbation Maxim), M7 (Agreement Maxim), and M9 (Sympathy Maxim) each occur once (10%). These findings indicate that the main characters tend to reduce imposition while maintaining supportive interpersonal relationships when expressing directive utterances. This study demonstrates that the realization of politeness strategies is closely influenced by the communicative context and the relationship between the speaker and the hearer.
References
Abdul Aziz, A. K., S Hashim, H. U. (2025). Politeness strategies in film: A pragmatic analysis of dialogue in The Social Network. International Journal of Linguistics of Sumatra and Malay, 4(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.32734/ijlsm.v4i1.20786
Aspitasari, F., Budiarsa, I. M., S Rajeg, G. P. W. (2022). The positive and Neg-Politeness strategies by the characters in Every Waking Breath movie. Humanitatis: Journal of Language and Literature, 8(2), 187–198. https://doi.org/10.30812/humanitatis.v8i2.1911
Chaerdiani, N. A. A., S Ekawati, A. D. (2024). An analysis of politeness strategies of the main characters in Enola Holmes 2 movie. IDEAS: Journal on English Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics and Literature, 12(2), 2479–2499. https://doi.org/10.24256/ideas.v12i2.5278
Creswell, J. W., S Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Hakim, M. L., S Novitasari, N. F. (2022). Politeness strategies used by the main character in the film Onward. Celtic: A Journal of Culture, English Language Teaching, Literature and Linguistics, 9(2), 191–204. https://doi.org/10.22219/celtic.v9i2.23436
Imama, F. M., S Shofiyuddin, M. (2024). Politeness strategies in Enola Holmes 2 movie script. Journal Albion: Journal of English Literature, Language, and Culture, 6(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.33751/albion.v6i1.9886
Isabella, R. A., Munthe, E. J. B., Sigalingging, D. J. N., Purba, R., S Herman. (2022). Learning how to be polite through a movie: A case on Brown and Levinson's politeness strategies. Indonesian EFL Journal, 8(2), 147–154. https://doi.org/10.25134/ieflj.v8i2.6438
Kirana, D. P. S., S Satwika, I. G. A. A. (2024). The maxim of quantity application in The Valley of the Lanterns movie. Prosiding Seminar Nasional Sastra, Bahasa dan Budaya (SEBAYA), 4, 264–276.
Leech, G. (2014). The pragmatics of politeness. Oxford University Press.
Putra, I. P. W. A., S Sedeng, I. N. (2022). Directive illocutionary acts found in the movies
21 and 22 Jump Street. Humanis, 26(2), 180–187. https://doi.org/10.24843/JH.2022.v26.i02.p03
Putri, S., S Fitrawati. (2022). An analysis of politeness strategies used in Yes Day (2021) movie. English Language and Literature, 11(4), 504–515. https://doi.org/10.24036/ell.v11i4.114210
Searle, J. R. (1979). Expression and meaning: Studies in the theory of speech acts.
Cambridge University Press.
Yule, G. (2017). The study of language (7th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Hosiaa, H., Oktaviani, A., S Yulfi. (2024). Illocutionary speech act analysis in the Nightbooks movie. Pragmatik: Jurnal Rumpun Ilmu Bahasa dan Pendidikan, 2(4), 62–69. https://doi.org/10.61132/pragmatik.v2i4.1019
Pratama, I. B. B. I., S Pratiwi, D. P. E. (2024). Exploring illocutionary acts in “The Menu” movie: A critical analysis. Proceedings: Linguistics, Literature, Culture and Arts International Seminar (LITERATES), 2024.
Putri, L. A. H., Rajistha, I. G. N. A., S Damayanthi, M. S. (2025). The illocutionary acts found in Pearl movie. Journal of English Language Literary Studies.
Sita, I. G. A. A. A., S Suastini, N. W. (2026). Directive illocutionary acts used by the characters in You People movie. RETORIKA: Jurnal Ilmu Bahasa, 12(1), 101–115. https://doi.org/10.22225/jr.12.1.2026.101-115
Tumbol, C. C. R. A., S Satwika, I. G. A. A. S. (2025). An analysis of politeness used in the Red One movie. ELYSIAN Journal: English Literature, Linguistics and Translation Studies, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.36733/elysian.v6i1.12522
Widyasari, K. M., Sukarini, N. W., S Maharani, S. A. I. (2024). Illocutionary acts performed by Meilin in Turning Red the movie. Apollo Project: Jurnal Ilmiah Program Studi Sastra Inggris, 13(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.34010/apollo.v13i1.9675
Wiguna, I. B. S. A., S Maharani, P. D. (2025). Style in delivering directive illocutionary act in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One movie. ELYSIAN Journal: English
Literature, Linguistics and Translation Studies, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.36733/elysian.v5i1.10106
Lubis, S. E. (2024). Illocutionary acts in The Fault in Our Stars movie. Journal of Applied Linguistic and Studies of Cultural, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.65787/jalc.v2i1.420
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
Citation Check
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Sebastian Otniel Santoso, I Gusti Ayu Agung Sintha Satwika
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under an Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See the Effect of Open Access)
