POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN 2014 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES BETWEEN JOKO WIDODO AND PRABOWO SUBIANTO

This study analyzed the politeness strategies employed by Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto in 2014 Presidential Debates. The instrument of collecting data was video recording of Debat Capres Cawapres Jokowi Jk- Prabowo Hatta at Metro TV on July 5, 2014. Particular attention was given to candidate’s use of bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, off record and do not do speech act or do the FTA (face threatening act) as defined by Brown and Levinson theory. The focus of the paper was on the types of politeness strategies that used in debate, the dominant type of politeness strategies, and the reason of dominant type usage in debate. The result showed that the most dominant type was Positive politeness (61,53%). Then there was also Negative politeness (30,76%), On record (3,84%), Off record (3,84%) and Do not do the FTA (0%). The president candidates mostly used positive politeness because want to reduce face-threatening act besides how the two candidates can convey their wants smoothly without making one party feels threatened