Politeness strategies as persuasive tools used in Lombok commercial magazines

Abstract

This research aimed to illuminate the pragmatic function of politeness in the world of advertising. Politeness theory posits that politeness is a key factor for successful communication and persuasion. In this research, a corpus of 91 advertisements, both in English and Indonesian, was collected from Lombok Guide, Lombok Magazine and Majalah Bandara magazine. Each advertisement was then analyzed in terms of category and sub-category of politeness strategy in the two languages. The research found that the use of politeness strategies indicated that English advertisements exploited more “off record”, “bald on-record,” and “positive face strategies,” while Indonesian advertisements tended to use a negative politeness strategy.