1. TOPIC: POLITENESS STRATEGY IN REAL-TIME CHAT (MY ENGLISH CLUB)
INTRODUCTION:
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is defined as “communication that takes
place between human beings via the instrumentality of computers” (Herring, 1996). It is now
becoming more and more significant in teaching and learning process since technology has
become an essential tool of communication in this technological advancement era. This research
paper will precisely examine on MyEnglishClub chat, one of the chat rooms that is used by those
who are interested in improving, learning, and sharing their knowledge of the English language.
The corpus will further be analyzed on language politeness based on Penelope Brown and
Stephen Levinson’s politeness theory and the findings of this research will be presented in
tabulated form.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:
The objectives of the research are as follows:
1) To investigate whether there is a language politeness strategy in real-time chat.
2) To identify which politeness strategies occur frequently in communication through real-
time chat.
3) To categorize the chosen data into two major politeness category (positive and negative
politeness) as listed by Brown and Levinson.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
1) Is there any politeness strategy used by the chatters in the chat room?

2. 2) Which politeness strategies frequently used by the chatters in their chatting; positive or
negative politeness.
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM:
There are many researches in computer-mediated communication (CMC) done by
previous researchers that focuses more on impoliteness than politeness theory. Hence, this paper
analyzes the politeness theory used by people in the real-time chat. The interest area is in terms
of politeness strategies, whether the chatters in real-time chat use more positive or negative
politeness in their conversations. In addition, this paper will also try to examine whether the
real-time chat users adhere to the netiquette or not when chatting.
LITERATURE REVIEW:
This chapter reviews about the relevant literature on politeness strategy especially in the
real-time chat.
Computer-mediated communication (CMC)
According to Lane (1994), computer-mediated communication (CMC) is defined as
“synchronous or asynchronous electronic mail and computer conferencing, by which senders
encode in text messages that are relayed from senders' computers to receivers.” CMC has also
been described as "any communication patterns mediated through the computer" (Metz, 1992).
Walther and Burgoon (1992) argue that, "for many of us, CMC is no longer a novelty but a
communication channel through which much of our business and social interaction takes place,
and this transformation is expected to continue" (p. 51). They note, "CMC produces much

3. different affective and relational patterns than do other types of communication, due to the
reduction and types of cues available to participants" (p. 51).
Real-time Chat
Wikipedia defined real-time chat as “a form of communication over the Internet that
offers quick transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver. In push mode between
two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients, instant
messaging basically offers real-time direct written language-based online chat. The user's text is
conveyed over a network, such as the Internet. It may address point-to-point communications as
well as multicast communications from one sender to many receivers. More advanced instant
messaging allows enhanced modes of communication, such as live voice or video calling, video
chat and inclusion of hyperlinks to media.
Politeness
According Yule (1996), politeness can be defined as the means employed to show
awareness of another person’s face. In this sense, politeness can be accomplished in situations of
social distance or closeness.
One of the most important aspects in communication strategies—politeness strategies
have not received much attention in CMC with only a few exceptions. Although Pintel ＆
Pittam’s research (1997) focuses on phatic communication which involves politeness, they do
not pay particular attention to politeness itself in CMC. Therefore, this paper will be focusing on
identifying the use of language politeness in term of politeness strategy.

4. In addition, according to Carlo and Yoo (n/a) as cited by Burke and Kraut (2008), they
stated that “ they found significantly more negative and fewer positive politeness strategies
online than in face-to-face transactions”. However, their views are different with Simmons’s
research whereby he suggested that “over time, people show more positive-face saving strategies
online, as people adjust to this “faceless” medium” (1994).
RESEARCH FRAMEWORK
This research paper will focus on language politeness specifically on politeness theory by
Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson. Thus, a data will be chosen to be the instrument of the
research and the data analysis will be based on Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness
strategies. In this theory, there are two major categories which are positive and negative
politeness. They are defined as below:
i. Negative Politeness: a face saving act which is oriented to the person’s negative face
will tend to show deference, emphasize the importance of the other’s time or concerns ,
and even include an apology for the imposition or interaction.
ii. Positive Politeness: a face saving act which is concerned with the person’s positive face
will tend to show solidarity, emphasize that both speaker want the same thing, and that
they have a common goal.
METHODOLOGY
In order to fulfil the objectives of this research, a set of data consisting 15 pages of real-
time chat was taken from My English Club chatroom. My English Club chat room is one of the
chat room designed for those who are interested in learning, practicing, improving and sharing

5. knowledge of English. The participants in the chat room were entirely random people who
shared common interest regarding the chat topic. However, there is no specific topic being
discussed in this real-time chat room. Intrigued by this factor, the data were taken and analyzed
later.
In order to establish the relationship of whether the messages posted in the chat room
follows any forms of politeness, the data were analyzed based on Brown and Levinson’s
politeness strategies. Firstly, the messages in the chat page were analyzed and categorized
according to positive and negative politeness strategies. The analysis was meant to cater to not
only answer the objectives of this whole research but also to find out what are the chatters’
tendency politeness strategies.
This corpus, consists of 15 pages long messages from the chat, was taken and analyzed in
order to find out if there is any correlation between the chatter and the politeness used. The
results were organized in the form of tabulated data. The participants involved in the
conversation were not informed earlier that the messages will be used for this research study.
However, their anonymity is kept in confidential so that their personal rights is maintained and
not exploited.
One of the main reasons why random chatters were picked in this research is that they are
heavy users of the chat room when compared to other internet users for many of them have their
personal account there.

6. FINDINGS
POLITENESS STRATEGIES ELEMENTS FREQUENCY
POSITIVE Joke 4
Ask for a reason 1
Solidarity strategy 1
NEGATIVE Hedging devices 9
Minimizing the imposition by 5
using mitigating device
Apologizing 3
Table 1: Frequency Of Politeness Strategy
Table 1 shows the frequency of politeness strategies used by the users of My English
Club chat room. From the table above,we found out that more negative politeness were used by
the users compared to positive politeness. As we can see from the table, the negative politeness
strategy occurs about 17 times in the corpus and it was divided into several elements which are
Hedging devices (9 times), Minimizing the imposition by using mitigating devices (5 times), and
apologizing (3 times). In contrary, positive politeness shows lesser occurrences compared to
negative politeness which are 6 times. Similarly to the negative politeness, there are three
elements of positive politeness used by the users which are related to making jokes (4 times), ask
for a reason (1 times), and solidarity strategy (1 times). In summary, it is undeniable that in My
English Club chat room, more negative politeness is used than positive politeness.

7. DISCUSSION
The goal of this research is to identify whether the users of chat room use language
politeness strategies or not and if they did use it, which politeness strategies are frequently used
by them, positive or negative.
From the table above, we found that language politeness did appear in My English Club
chat room. As one of the computer-mediated communication tools, the spoken words are
expressed through writing. The findings that we have completed are based on analyzing the
language politeness on the network itself which includes politeness strategies, negative and
positive, as well as the elements of both strategies.
The result describes that the users of My English Club chat room use more negative
politeness in comparison with the positive politeness. This finding is in line with the previous
research done by Carlo and Yoo whereby they stated that “more negative and fewer positive
politeness strategies used in online chat” (n/a). However, this finding contradicts with
Simmons’s research whereby he suggested that “over time, people show more positive-face
saving strategies online, as people adjust to this “faceless” medium” (1994).
Based on our observation, the reason for the users of My English Club chat room in using
more negative politeness is because they are bound by the chatiquette of the site. They are not
allowed to use obscene words and vulgar language. Also, they have to respect, polite, and
considerate towards each other. The rationale of this chatiquette is because they are actually
talking to the real people. These people may have different opinions from them and the fact that
they are coming from very different cultures, hence, proper treatment should be implied to them
as well as respecting and accepting their opinions and ideas even though there is certain degree

8. of disagreement. So, by using negative politeness, it depicts how respectable a person towards
other members or chatters when they are conversing with each other.
Moreover, in this “faceless” medium, the social distance between the users is larger than
those in the real world. Because the real-time chat is a virtual world, people tend to hide or
change their identity and most of them are anonymous in that virtual world, more negative
politeness are needed due to the fact that they do not know each other. One way of determining
their social gap is through the use of hedging devices and apologies to minimize the imposition
or interruption they might do to the other members as evident in the findings of this research.
In addition, though negative politeness dominate the strategies used by the users of online
chat, there are several times when positive politeness was used. For example, when the users are
telling jokes, they tend to use positive politeness. This proves that by implying the positive
politeness, the social distance can be reduced and that their relationship is closer. This is similar
as what is said by Simmons, because after some time, they will become close to each other,
therefore, positive politeness was used unlike those who are still new in the chat room who uses
more negative politeness as they are not close enough.
CONCLUSION:
In conclusion, language politeness strategies in real-time chat varies since it is a
communication medium involving different people. Based on our result, it is proved that both
politeness strategies, either positive or negative, play a vital role in encouraging good interaction
between the users of the chat room. Furthermore, by applying politeness strategies, we will able
to identify the social relationship that they have whether they are close to each other or not.

9. Thus, it is pertinent to note that politeness strategies is very important not only in the face-to-face
communication but also in computer-mediated communication (CMC).
REFERENCES:
Burke, M., & Kraut, R. (2008). Mind Your P’s and Q’s: When Politeness Helps and Hurts in
Online Communities. Retrieved on March 25, 2013 from
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1360000/1358830/p3195-
burke.pdf?ip=210.48.222.13&acc=ACTIVE%20SERVICE&CFID=192089738&CFTOK
EN=17586125&__acm__=1363396407_f95de16a6a93854765af3ec3b54e3cc7
Carlo, J.,& Yoo,Y. (in press). “How may I help you?” Politeness in Computer-mediated and
Face-to-face Reference Transactions. Information and Organization
Chat Room. (2013). In wikipedia. Retrieved March 30, 2013, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chat_room
Herring, S. C. (1996). Computer-mediated Communication. Philadelphia: John Benjamins
Instant Messaging. (2013). In wikipedia. Retrieved March 30, 2013, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messenger
Metz, J. M. (1992, November). Computer mediated- communication: Perceptions of a new
context. Paper presented at the Speech Communication Association
annual conference, Chicago
Online Chat. (2013). In wikipedia. Retrieved March 30, 2013, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_chat

10. Pittam, J. ＆ Pintel, E. S. (1997). Strangers in a Strange Land: Interaction Management on
Internet Relay Chat. Human Communication Research. Vol.23(4). P.507-534.
Simmons, T. (1994). Politeness Theory In Compute-Mediated Communication: Face-
Threatening Acts in a “Faceless” Medium. Unpublished masters thesis, Asthon
University, Birmigham, England. Retrieved March 31, 2013 from http://eric.ed.gov/
ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED381005
Walther, J. B. (1992). Interpersonal effects in computer-mediated interaction: A relational
perspective. Communication Research, 19, 52-90.
Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. United Kingdom : Oxford University Press