Hapsari, Veronica Niken Puspita Dwi (2026) AN ANALYSIS OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN ASSERTIVE SPEECH ACTS TO REVEAL POWER RELATIONS IN LEGALLY BLONDE (2001). Undergraduate thesis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya.

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Abstract

Legally Blonde (2001) is a film about Elle Woods, a sorority girl who follows her
ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law School but becomes a clever lawyer. This study
analyses the politeness strategies used by Elle Woods in her assertive speech acts
using Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Politeness Theory and Searle’s (1979) Speech
Acts Theory. The purpose of this study is to examine how Elle Woods’ politeness
strategies in her assertive speech acts reveal power relations across different social
contexts in the film. The observation method with a note-taking technique was
used in collecting the data, while the analysis was done through a socio-pragmatic
approach. The results show that Elle Woods uses all four types of politeness
strategies across seven types of assertive speech acts: bald-on-record (50,00%),
negative politeness (23,33%), positive politeness (16,67%), and off-record
(10,00%), with claiming as the most dominant assertive speech act (53,33%). The
findings show that Elle’s politeness strategies reveal her transformation from a
powerless to a powerful person, shifting from deferential strategies such as
negative politeness and off-record to protect herself, toward direct strategies such
as bald-on-record to assert her authority as she gains legal knowledge and
confidence. Her shift from deferential to direct strategies shows that the way
people speak is not just a reflection of who has power, but can also be a tool to
change power relations in schools and workplaces.
Keywords: Legally Blonde, Brown and Levinson, politeness strategies, assertive
speech acts, power relations

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