Negotiating social identity through politeness strategies in the film Basma: A brown and levinson perspective

Rahma, Selvy and Chotimah, Dien Nur ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1493-1418 (2026) Negotiating social identity through politeness strategies in the film Basma: A brown and levinson perspective. Ethical Lingua, 13 (2). pp. 1047-1062. ISSN 2540-9190

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Abstract

Language politeness is a sociopragmatic phenomenon representing speakers' social identity construction in interaction. This research analyzes the language politeness of the main character in the film "Basma" by Fatima Al-Banawi, aiming to describe politeness strategies and analyze their function in constructing and negotiating the character's social identity. Unlike previous research that only identified and classified types of politeness strategies, this study finds that language politeness in social practice can shape speaker positions, relationships, and identities. The methodology is qualitative descriptive, applying Brown and Levinson's theory, including bald on record, positive politeness, and off record strategies. Data consist of dialogues collected through observation, verbatim transcription, and documentation, analyzed using Miles and Huberman's model through data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. Results show the three strategies realize different identities: bald on record represents a firm, assertive individual identity amid relational pressure; positive politeness represents a relational identity oriented toward strengthening affective bonds and family solidarity; while off record represents social identity negotiation within an unbalanced power relationship. These findings indicate that politeness strategy selection is influenced not only by social distance and relative power, but also functions as a discursive mechanism for speakers to negotiate their identity.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Keywords:	linguistic politeness; social identity; brown & levinson’s politeness strategies; identity negotiation; basma the movie
Subjects:	20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2004 Linguistics > 200403 Discourse and Pragmatics 20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2004 Linguistics > 200403 Discourse and Pragmatics > 20040399 Discourse and Pragmatics not elsewhere classified
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities > Department of Arabic Language and Letters
Depositing User:	Dien Nur Chotimah
Date Deposited:	19 Oct 2026 08:47

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