SKBI
6004
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
Proposed
Title:
An
Investigation of (Im)politeness:
13th Malaysia General Election Issues on SNS
Pages among Non-Political Observers
Prepared
By: Intan Norjahan Binti Azman (P71765)
Prepared
For: Prof. Madya Dr. Sallehhudin Abdul Aziz
1.0 Introduction
Politeness
is one of the issues which vastly discussed in sociolinguistics area. It is an
area in which many research done on the use of language in society. It is also associated
with a few concepts such as face, culture, contexts and emotion. However, there
is another term in sociolinguistics which its fundamental concept is politeness:
impoliteness. Based on the researcher’s readings, impoliteness is a linguistics
term used to address ‘rude’ and ‘aggressive behaviour’ in different fields. This
concept of ‘impoliteness’ is an issue much discussed lately. Politeness among
people is getting eroded; people are being impolite. They are not only being
impolite through their behaviour, but also verbally impolite through other
communication means, including what they post in the Social Network Sites (SNS).
This
study intents to investigate the (im)politeness
phenomenon in SNS, specifically the posts on Facebook pages, towards the 13th Malaysia general election pages which
are administered by non-political observers.
‘Non-political observers’ in this
context is defined as those who are administrating the Facebook pages; they are functioned to update any information or issues
towards the 13th Malaysia general election day. They are those who did
not get involved in election: non-candidates.
By
specifying the above-mentioned context, hence, in this chapter, the researcher
will briefly discuss on the statement of problems, research objectives, the
research questions, theoretical framework, the scope and significance upon the completion
of the study.
1.2 Statement
of Problems
To
recap, impoliteness is a linguistics term used to address ‘rude’ and
‘aggressive behaviour’ in different fields (Culpeper: 2009). In this study, the
researcher will be focusing on the (im)politeness
phenomenon in SNS, specifically the posts on Facebook pages, towards the 13th Malaysia general election pages which
are administered by non-political observers. This study will be focusing on the
level of utterances and words in the posts which are posted by the respective pages
administers.
From
the researcher’s observations and readings online, some pages do post issues which
contained of the (im)polite terms. These terms or words have
a different implications and implicatures to the readers. Languages used in most of the pages are Malay
language and English. The different implications and implicatures might
be varied. They are either accepted or rejected by the readers who are of the
same paradigm of the political issues or not. Some of the identified issues are
race/ethnicity, Malay rights, new
policy and economy. The differences of the stated matter just now can be
analyzed through the responds given by the ‘likers’
or fans of the pages. ‘Likers’ are
those who are most probably not the fans, but only liking to any post to their favour
or preference. Problems could be recognized when the fans started to argue on
each other and also, used (im)polite words to respond to the posts. These hot argumentations on the posts shared have created a
virtual inharmonic ambiance (chaos). Through the researcher’s observation as
well, she has identified that the administers used:
i)
different issues on posts towards the general
election to ‘catch’ voters
ii)
different approaches used in delivering the message
across the audience
For an instance, sometimes, the administers ignored
the proper linguistics way to post their issues.
Figure
1.0 – A few evidences printed screen, and in respond to the post shown.
(accessed on 16th
October 2013 via https://www.facebook.com/AnalisisPolitikTerkini)
Based
on readings also, there are insufficient discussions on impoliteness in
linguistics. Most of the scholars have focused
on the politeness than impoliteness. In impoliteness area, scholars borrow the
term politeness, and adapt the frameworks of politeness in order to justify the
findings of their research. This statement is supported by Culpeper’s (2001 in
Culpeper, 2009) note, where the problem in explaining impoliteness area is the
inability to adequately discuss impoliteness as vast as in politeness concepts.
Culpeper is one of the pioneers in this sociolinguistics area of impoliteness.
He has studied on impoliteness from the Western perspectives. In this research,
the researcher will be focusing on Malaysian context. The findings will later be
filling in the gap of one of the Asian countries: Malaysia.
These
highlighted evidences clearly indicate that impoliteness does really a crucial
issue not only for Malaysia identity, but also, should be unveiled and
discussed, with respect to the area of sociolinguistics.
1.3 Research
Objectives
There
are two objectives set for this research which are:
- to analyze the (im)polite strategy(s) used in SNS Pages among the non-political observers in Malaysian context, and
- to identify the reasons they posted in such (im)polite way(s).
1.4 Research
Questions
There
are two questions set for this research which are:
- What are the (im)polite strategy(s) used in SNS Pages among the non-political observers in Malaysian context?
- Why did they posted in such (im)polite way(s)?
It
is important to investigate the (im)politeness
phenomenon in SNS, specifically the posts on Facebook pages, towards the 13th Malaysia general election pages which
are administered by non-political observers to understand the underpinned
perspectives, paradigms, reasons, and effects of the controversial issues
posted.
The reasons for choosing
these pages are: they are not professionals who are ‘well-educated’, or ‘self-conscious’ on the issue of (im)politeness,
and the implications of their posts in the pages, and some of them are ‘favoured’ of biased towards the
political party. The utterances and words used in the pages will later be
analyzed by using Culpeper’s (im)politeness results (which
are discussed from Western perspective). The findings later will be a new input
in pragmatics, the insights from Malaysian perspective. This would be one of
the significances of the findings. Due to different social norms, it is hoped
that the data collected will answer the research questions.
To
answer question number 1 to 2, the researcher will use the Understanding Impoliteness
Model by Culpeper (2009) and which involves the concepts of face, social norms and rights, intention and
emotion in (im)politeness and Approaches to Politeness (Brown
& Levinson, 1978, 1987).
1.5 Theoretical Framework
1.5.1 Understanding
Impoliteness Model by Culpeper J., 2009
This model
for the understanding of impoliteness is actually adapted based on the model of text comprehension described
in van Dijk and Kintsch 1983, and van Dijk's work on racism, 1987. This model
is in fact incorporates the “notion of face and the notion of social norms” to
be used in impoliteness area.
Quality face
(personal positive values, cf. Spencer- Oatey 2008) turned out to be
overwhelmingly the most important type of face relating to impoliteness. Social
norms as authoritative standards of behaviour are the basis of sociality
rights. I argued that these rights relate to morality, and that this is an
important feature of impoliteness. For some definitions of impoliteness,
intentionality is criterial... Emotions are key to impoliteness. Van Dijk
(1987: 188-89) claims that evaluative beliefs, which constitute attitude schemata,
may be associated with emotive aspects, such as like and dislike.
(Culpeper, 2009: p. 15)
The
statements above precisely describes on the elements involved in impoliteness
as suggested by Culpeper. Some important elements in this model are quality face,
social norms, intentionality, and emotions.
1.5.2 Approaches to Politeness
There
are a few approaches to politeness including Brown and Levinson’s Theory of
Politeness which will be used to answer the research questions.
1.6 Scope
of the Study
- Samples - Only restricted to a 3 respondents who are the admonisters
- Contexts – The research focuses on 5 samples of each Facebook page.
Hence,
based on these limitations, the findings of the research cannot be generalized
to all youths in Malaysia as the samples and context do not represent them
holistically.
1.7 Significance
of the Study
The
contributions of this study are:
i.
adds value - serves as a new input in
pragmatics of swearing words from Malaysian context
ii.
benefits
sociolinguists generally, and pragmaticians, specifically
iii.
assists society in educating them on the
issue of impoliteness
iv.
helps in elevating an awareness on
impoliteness among Malaysian
1.8 Conclusion
In
this chapter, the researcher has briefly discussed on the statement of
problems, research objectives, the research questions, theoretical framework, the
scope and significance upon the completion of the study.
References/resources:
Cresswell,
J., W.,1994. Research Design Qualitative
and Quantitative Approaches. California.
Sage Publications.
Culpeper., J. 2009. Impoliteness: Using language to cause offence: Full Research Report ESRC End of Award Report, RES-063-27-0015.
Swindon: ESRC
Culpeper J,. et. Al. 2013. Aspects of Linguistic Impoliteness. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Jamet, D, & Jobert, M. Introduction:
“Do you wanna talk about impoliteness? How rude!!”
accessed on 15th September 2013 from http://lexis.univ-lyon3.fr/IMG/pdf/Lexis_special_2_-_Introduction.pdf
Jay,
T., & Janschewitz K., 2008. in Journal of
Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture,
Volume 4 (2) de Gruyter – Jul 1, 2008 Proceedings.
Kitamura,
N,. 2000. Adapting Brown and Levinson’s
‘Politeness’ Theory to the Analysis of Casual
Conversation. Proceedings of ALS2k,
the 2000 Conference of the Australian
Linguistic
Society
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A., V., 2002. The Advantages of Employing
Qualitative and Quantitative Methods
in
an Intercultural Research: Practical Implications from the Study of Perceptions
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