An Analysis of Positive Politeness Strategies by Oprah Winfrey in Super Soul Sunday Talk Show

Abstract

This research examines the politeness strategies that happens in a talk show. This research aims to discover the types of politeness strategies employed by Oprah Winfrey, the host of Super Soul Sunday. When the conversation is going on, politeness strategies are used to save the H's face or to respect the H's self-image. Such strategies are important in a talk show since the questions asked in the discussion may be considered as face-threatening acts. The objects of this descriptive qualitative research were the utterances of the host of Super Soul Sunday. Three episodes of the talk show were chosen as the source of the object for this research. The researcher instrument was used, which was accompanied by an observation sheet. To analyze the data, the researcher used Brown and Levinson's politeness framework, which includes fifteen positive politeness strategies. During the interview with the host of Super Soul Sunday, the researcher discovered 135 utterances of positive politeness strategies. The result show that there are 13 strategies out of 15 strategies used by the host to her guests. It found that Seek Agreement has become the most used type of the strategies which was used by Oprah. She used this strategy 37 times in the three episodes. It means Oprah Winfrey, as the host, used various positive politeness strategies when interviewing her guests to save the hearer’s face and tried to make their conversation comfortable.