Gendered Politeness in Directive Speech Acts: Social Class Representation in Toer’s Bumi Manusia

Abstract

This study investigates the use of politeness strategies in directive speech acts in Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Bumi Manusia, focusing on how gender and social class shape their realization. Grounded in speech act theory and Brown and Levinson’s politeness framework, the study analyzes directive utterances produced by male and female characters in the novel. The findings show that both genders predominantly employ mitigated directive forms, particularly negative politeness strategies such as permission-seeking expressions, interrogative structures, and politeness markers. While gender influences the stylistic realization of directives—male characters tending toward indirect, permission-based requests and female characters frequently combining mitigation with relational markers—these differences are not absolute. More importantly, social class and power relations play a decisive role in determining politeness strategy selection. Characters in subordinate positions consistently rely on indirect and deferential strategies, whereas those with higher social or economic authority are pragmatically licensed to issue more direct, though still polite, directives. The study concludes that in Bumi Manusia, directive politeness is primarily shaped by class-based hierarchy rather than gender alone, highlighting how colonial social structures are interactionally constructed through everyday speech.

Keywords: directive speech acts; politeness strategies; gender; social class