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php/home/index Hidden meanings and subtle speech: Off-record politeness strategies in DisneyAos Tangled movie Larissa Kirana Syarief1.
Uswatun Hasanah1.
Dirham Abdul Azhim1.
Lusi Lian Piantari1 Universitas Al Azhar.
Indonesia *Corresponding author: larissa.
syarief@gmail.
ARTICLE INFO
Article history:
Received 12 September 2025 Revised 23 December 2025 Accepted 26 December 2025 Keywords:
Pragmatics Discourse analysis Politeness strategies Off-record politeness Hidden meanings.
ABSTRACT
Communication plays an essential role in everyday social interaction, particularly in maintaining harmonious relationships and protecting individualsAo social image or Auface.
Ay One-way speakers achieve this is through the use of politeness strategies, especially off-record strategies, which allow messages to be conveyed indirectly.
This study examines how off-record politeness strategies are used in DisneyAos animated movie Tangled through a discourse analysis approach.
The analysis focuses on how characters employ indirect speech to manage relationships, reduce conflict, and influence others while preserving social harmony.
Using a qualitative method, the study observes and interprets language use in its natural context, emphasizing meaning, identity, and social interaction rather than grammatical structure alone.
The findings show that offrecord strategies, such as hints, humor, irony, and metaphor, are frequently used by the characters to protect both the speakerAos and the listenerAos face.
These strategies enable the characters to achieve their communicative goals without causing confrontation.
Overall, the study highlights the importance of off-record politeness strategies in fostering respectful and effective communication, not only in fictional narratives but also in real-life social interactions.
Understanding these strategies can help individuals communicate more thoughtfully and maintain positive interpersonal relationships.
Introduction Communication in social interaction is not always built through direct expression.
instead, speakers often rely on implicit meaning to protect dignity, manage emotions, and preserve social relationships.
This phenomenon aligns with Brown and LevinsonAos .
theory of politeness, which defines off-record strategies as indirect utterances that allow speakers to convey intentions without stating them explicitly.
These strategies create interpretive space for listeners, reduce imposition, and minimize face-threatening acts, thus maintaining harmonious interaction.
Within this framework, indirectness becomes a strategic linguistic choice that enables speakers to criticize, refuse, negotiate, or persuade while maintaining relational equilibrium.
This study analyzes off-record politeness strategies in DisneyAos Tangled through discourse analysis, which views language not merely as structure, but as social action embedded in identity, power, and interactional context (Johnstone & Andrus, 2.
By examining character utterances, this research investigates how indirect speech protects face, navigates unequal authority, and expresses intention without direct confrontation.
The film presents diverse communication patternsAiranging from protective manipulation to humorous mitigationAithat provide valuable insight into how politeness operates as a negotiation of meaning, rather than a surface-level politeness marker.
Although politeness studies in film discourse have been explored previously, significant gaps remain.
Kusumah and Haryudin .
identified off-record strategies in Ratatouille, yet focused primarily on classification rather than Jurnal Bybasan.
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php/home/index interactional function.
Similarly.
Permadi et al.
examined politeness in Aladdin but lacked transcript validation and contextual explanation, limiting analytical depth.
These studies demonstrate that research has not sufficiently addressed how off-record strategies shape power relations, emotional positioning, and relational dynamicsAiparticularly in hierarchical interactions.
Therefore, a deeper examination of off-record strategies as social practices rather than linguistic labels is still needed.
The central question of this study is: How are off-record strategies used to protect the face of characters in the movie Tangled based on discourse analysis? The film Tangled was chosen not only for its engaging character dynamics but also for its rich representation of interpersonal communication.
The movie portrays various instances of indirect language that reflect both personal relationships and broader cultural values related to politeness, hierarchy, and emotional expression.
As a critically acclaimed and widely popular movie.
Tangled provides valuable insight into how politeness strategies operate in contexts of social negotiation and power balance.
Through this analysis, this study seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of how off-record politeness strategies function as tools for face protection in fictional narratives, providing insights into their relevance and application in real-life communication.
The study was conducted by Kusumah.
& Haryudin.
in their paper AuAn Analysis of Animation Movie AoRatatouilleAo that Reflects the Politeness of Off-Record StrategiesAy examines the use of off-record strategies in the animated film Ratatouille, focusing on how these strategies are used to maintain politeness and avoid direct Their research identified various forms of off-record strategies but did not explore in detail how these strategies function in social interactions and relationships between characters.
Further research conducted by Permadi.
Mulyati.
, & Hasibin.
Nur.
in a paper titled AuA DESCRIPTIVE STUDY ON POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE MOVIE AoALADDINAoAy examined various types of politeness strategies found in the animated film Aladdin.
This study focuses on identifying the findings of each politeness strategy used, but they do not provide transcripts of each character's speech, which undermines the reliability of the research results.
In addition, the lack of exploration of the strategies used in social interactions and relationships between characters is also a weakness of this paper.
This gap is theoretically relevant because, as Goffman .
emphasizes, facework is inseparable from the social structure that governs it.
linguistic choices reflect broader negotiations of identity and legitimacy.
Locher and Watts .
further support this argument by stating that politeness is not a static formula but a relational process negotiated moment by moment.
Accordingly, indirectness is not merely euphemism or politeness embellishmentAiit is a strategic tool for managing power, vulnerability, and social risk.
In Tangled.
Mother GothelAos subtle coercion.
RapunzelAos hesitant negotiation of autonomy, and FlynnAos humorous mitigation illustrate that off-record strategies perform psychological and narrative labor.
The limitations of both papers have been elaborated in our own paper, through a more in-depth exploration of the functionality of these strategies in social interactions and relationships between characters.
Moreover, this study employs discourse analysis as its framework, a method which examines not only the uses of language strategies but also the function of these strategies within the context of social interaction and face-saving between characters in the film Tangled.
The current study employs discourse analysis to provide a more profound understanding of how off-record strategies maintain social harmony and navigate power dynamics between characters.
Method This study employed a qualitative descriptive research design to investigate the use of off-record politeness strategies in the film Tangled.
The qualitative approach was selected for its capacity to describe language phenomena in depth and to capture meaning-making processes within authentic communicative contexts (Creswell & Creswell, 2.
Pragmatics provides the linguistic foundation of this study, as it examines how language users construct meaning through contextual interpretation (Bouk, 2.
, while Brown and LevinsonAos .
politeness theory offers the analytical framework for identifying face-saving strategies within dialogue.
Discourse analysis was applied as the primary analytical lens to examine how characters employ indirectness, implied meaning, and contextual cues as part of the off-record strategy (Gee, 2014.
Schiffrin.
Tannen, & Hamilton, 2.
This approach is appropriate because it allows for the interpretation of both linguistic and non-linguistic elementsAiincluding tone, gesture, and situational contextAithat contribute to the construction of politeness in interaction (Leech, 1.
The data were collected from the official screenplay of Tangled, complemented by systematic viewing of the film to capture multimodal elements such as intonation, facial expressions, and body language.
Dialogue containing indirect speech and implied meaning was identified and documented, from which thirty representative utterances were selected Jurnal Bybasan.
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php/home/index according to their relevance to Brown and LevinsonAos .
off-record politeness framework.
These utterances were categorized into eight operational strategy typesAisarcasm, hint, metaphor, humor, irony, hyperbole, overstatement, and rhetorical questionAiderived from Brown and Levinson .
and refined using LeechAos .
pragmatic The resulting categories served as the coding guideline for analysis.
To ensure trustworthiness, three researchers independently coded all data using the unified analytical criteria.
The coding results were then cross-verified to assess inter-coder agreement, and any discrepancies were resolved through re-examination of contextual evidence and reference to the established framework.
This procedure aligns with discourseanalytic principles asserting that analytical credibility is strengthened through iterative comparison and contextual validation (Gee, 2014.
Schiffrin et al.
, 2.
Documentation of coding matrices and revision notes was maintained to support methodological transparency in accordance with CreswellAos .
standards of qualitative rigor.
Result The analysis identified eight categories of off-record politeness strategies used by the characters in Tangled:
sarcasm, hint, metaphor, humor, irony, hyperbole, overstatement, and rhetorical questions.
These categories demonstrate the charactersAo preference for indirect expression as a means of protecting their own and othersAo face Rather than stating intentions directly, the speakers rely on implication, suggestion, and ambiguity to convey This strategy allows emotional expression, disagreement, warnings, and negotiation to occur without creating The distribution of these strategies shows that the characters frequently avoid direct statements when responding to criticism, negotiating personal desires, and expressing insecurity.
Sarcasm and humor tend to appear in moments of interpersonal tension, functioning as a playful shield that softens potential conflict.
Meanwhile, hints and rhetorical questions appear in scenes where the characters struggle to express fear, doubt, or personal boundaries.
These findings indicate that off-record politeness in the film is used not only for social politeness, but also as a narrative tool to reveal emotional states and relational dynamics.
Table 1.
Utterances of Off-Record from The Characters No.
Types of Off-Record Strategy Sarcastic Hint Metaphor Humor Irony Conveying emotions or judgments symbolically to mask direct Softening tension and maintaining positive face in uncomfortable Highlighting contradictions to criticize or reject ideas subtly.
Hyperbole Overstatement Rhetorical Question Exaggerating emotional reactions to avoid direct confrontation.
Amplifying an idea to imply dissatisfaction or doubt.
Challenging or resisting expectations without openly refusing.
Communicative Function in the Film Expressing disagreement or resistance indirectly to avoid open conflict.
Suggesting an implied request, warning, or expectation without stating it directly.
In this research, the novel analyzed contains numerous instances of personification, as Gibran frequently employs figurative comparisons in his works.
The Broken Wings illustrates many instances of personification within both the original text and its translation.
However, it is essential to note that not every instance of personification in the source language is translated as such in the target language.
some are interpreted as other figures of speech, like metaphor and simile, despite originating as personifications.
A total of 89 instances of personification were identified in the novel.
The researcher then classified each data point according to its translation form.
Based on this classification, personification can essentially be translated into figurative or non-figurative forms.
In this novel, however, the data reveal that personification was consistently translated into figurative forms: .
81 instances where personification in the source language is directly translated into personification in the target language.
5 instances where personification in the source text becomes metaphor in the target text.
3 instances where it shifts to simile in the target language.
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php/home/index The findings in Tangled show that all eight categories of off-record politeness contribute to the construction of meaning, power, and emotional negotiation.
Each category functions differently depending on speaker intention, social hierarchy, and narrative context.
Below, each strategy is elaborated based on representative data and theoretical Sarcasm Sarcasm in Tangled primarily appears in utterances by Mother Gothel and serves to critique, blame, or correct behavior without open confrontation.
Statements such as AuRapunzel.
I'm not getting any younger down hereAy and AuOh.
Now IAom the bad guyAy function as indirect reprimands.
Instead of issuing explicit commands.
Gothel uses sarcasm to delegitimize RapunzelAos emotions while protecting her own authoritative face.
This aligns with CulpeperAos .
notion of mock politeness, in which polite surface forms conceal hostility.
Sarcasm thus becomes a linguistic tool for emotional manipulation and power retention.
Hint Hints allow characters to influence decisions without directly instructing others.
GothelAos line AuOn your own, you wonAot surviveAy is not a prohibition, but an implied threat that constructs dependency.
Here, the hint functions coercively.
Meanwhile.
FlynnAos AuMaybe itAos time to start living a littleAy empowers Rapunzel by implying possibility rather than These contrasting uses reveal that hints are not inherently positive or negative.
their pragmatic value depends on intention, relational authority, and audience positioning.
Hints therefore reveal the moral and psychological direction of each character.
Metaphor Metaphors in the film work to disguise control behind emotional language.
When Gothel calls Rapunzel Aufragile as a flowerAy or refers to her independence as Auleaving the nestAy, the metaphors do not simply describeAithey categorize RapunzelAos identity.
Lakoff and JohnsonAos .
theory of conceptual metaphor helps explain how these utterances frame RapunzelAos worldview: fragility naturalizes dependence, and AunestAy implies that departure is premature or Metaphor therefore sustains the power imbalance by constructing RapunzelAos self-concept through poetic yet restrictive imagery.
Humor Humor operates as a relational buffer, especially through FlynnAos dialogue.
When he says.
AuDidnAot see that coming.
Her hair glows,Ay humor reduces the face threat of an unexpected situation.
Rather than fear or accusation, humor reframes tension as shared experience.
Tannen .
argues that humor can re-establish solidarity and reduce social this is evident in scenes where Flynn uses humor to maintain equilibrium.
Unlike GothelAos sarcasm.
FlynnAos humor invites participation rather than submission, demonstrating the ethical dimension of indirectness.
Irony Irony communicates dissatisfaction without overt criticism.
FlynnAos ironic remark.
AuThis is exactly according to plan,Ay indicates chaos without blaming Rapunzel.
Irony thus becomes a protective strategy, allowing disagreement while preventing escalation.
In Brown and LevinsonAos .
terms, irony is an off-record face-saving move that redirects emotional pressure away from interlocutors.
It frames conflict as situational rather than personal, which keeps relational damage minimal.
Hyperbole Hyperbole allows characters to express extreme emotional states while concealing the specific cause of the emotion.
RapunzelAos repeated AuI canAot believe I did this!Ay articulates panic and identity conflict without openly challenging Gothel.
Hyperbole creates emotional distance between the speaker and the event, allowing fear and excitement to coexist.
This reflects LeechAos .
observation that exaggeration can protect negative face by avoiding explicit statements of rebellion or blame.
Overstatement Overstatement manipulates perception by presenting information in exaggerated proportions.
GothelAos declaration that Authe outside world is a dangerous place, filled with horrible, selfish peopleAy is an example of ideologically motivated The exaggeration is not innocent.
it constructs an emotional reality that justifies containment.
Overstatement thus becomes a persuasive tool that masks coercion within the language of protection, sustaining authoritarian control while avoiding direct imposition.
Rhetorical Question Rhetorical questions communicate intention indirectly by implying rather than demanding answers.
FlynnAos line.
AuDid I ever tell you IAove got a thing for brunettes?Ay performs a relational move: it establishes emotional connection without forcing commitment.
The rhetorical form protects both speaker and listener, creating a Ausafe zoneAy of implication.
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The findings reveal that the eight off-record politeness strategies identified in Tangled do not merely function as stylistic linguistic choices, but rather operate as communicative mechanisms that shape character interaction, emotional dynamics, and narrative progression.
Characters consistently avoid direct and literal statements, particularly in situations where social authority, emotional security, or relational harmony are at stake.
This avoidance aligns with Brown and LevinsonAos .
core premise that speakers select indirect forms to minimize face-threatening acts by shifting the interpretive burden to the listener, thereby protecting both positive and negative face.
In this respect, off-record politeness serves as a linguistic equilibrium: it allows the speaker to convey messages, judgment, or persuasive intent, while simultaneously maintaining plausible deniability.
Such deniability becomes crucial in hierarchical or emotionally sensitive exchanges throughout the film.
The use of indirectness also reflects what Leech .
classifies as a politeness-maximizing compromise, where meaning is intentionally obscured to sustain social Rather than weakening communication, indirectness in this context becomes strategically productive.
A closer look at gender representation further deepens the analysis.
Female characters, especially Mother Gothel, employ off-record strategies as an instrument of relational governance.
Her communication patterns demonstrate how linguistic politeness can be weaponized, functioning simultaneously as affection and control.
Through sarcasm, metaphor, and overstatement, she maintains a persona of care while asserting hierarchical dominance.
This reinforces Lakoff and JohnsonAos .
argument that figurative language molds perception and enforces social roles.
RapunzelAos early responses mirror this pattern.
her indirectness reveals the struggle between obedience and the gradual pursuit of Thus, female indirectness in the film is closely tied to emotional negotiation and identity protection.
Male characters, in contrast, rely on off-record politeness to manage interpersonal vulnerability and maintain FlynnAos consistent use of humor, irony, and rhetorical questioning does not attempt to control, but rather to disarm tension, redistribute emotional pressure, and equalize relational footing.
This aligns with Tannen .
, who argues that humor functions as a solidarity-building device that reduces interpersonal risk.
Rather than asserting dominance.
FlynnAos indirectness enables co-presence and emotional accessibility, positioning him as a facilitator rather than a regulator of the interactional space.
Across these varied uses, the analysis indicates that off-record politeness in Tangled fulfills three interconnected Interpersonal Function: Relationship Maintenance and Social Harmony Off-record utterances allow disagreements, refusals, or criticisms to be expressed without overt confrontation.
This promotes social harmony and protects the speakerAos and hearerAos face, especially in asymmetrical relationships.
When Gothel disguises prohibition as concern, the threat of coercion is softened, making control appear voluntary.
When Flynn mitigates emotional tension through humor, both interlocutors retain dignity.
Emotional Function: Regulating Vulnerability and Psychological Distance Indirect forms provide emotional cushioning by enabling characters to express fear, guilt, or desire without complete self-exposure.
RapunzelAos reliance on hyperbole reveals the internal conflict between internalized obedience and emerging independence.
In this sense, off-record strategies measure how much emotional risk a character is willing to They regulate vulnerability by allowing feelings to be suggested rather than confessed.
Narrative Function: Character Construction and Plot Advancement Indirectness not only reflects interpersonal dynamics but also advances the storyline.
It becomes a narrative resource that exposes power imbalances and maps character development.
GothelAos metaphors symbolically reinforce FlynnAos rhetorical questions signal relational transition.
RapunzelAos exaggerated emotional expressions mark the shift from restraint to agency.
Thus, off-record politeness functions as an implicit narrative architecture: a mechanism through which character identity evolves before it is openly declared.
Taken together, these findings indicate that off-record politeness in Tangled cannot be reduced to politeness for its own sake.
It is a system of strategic ambiguity that distributes emotional, social, and narrative labor across dialogue.
What appears as gentle or humorous on the surface frequently encodes resistance, desire, fear, or manipulation.
In doing so, off-record politeness demonstrates how language constructs power and care simultaneously.
The film therefore exemplifies a communication ecology in which politeness is not merely ethical behavior, but a tool of negotiation, survival, and self-definition.
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php/home/index Conclusion This study examined how off-record politeness strategies are employed by characters in Tangled to protect face and manage interpersonal relations.
Through discourse analysis, the research demonstrates that indirect expressionsAi such as sarcasm, hints, metaphor, humor, irony, hyperbole, overstatement, and rhetorical questionsAienable characters to communicate intentions, emotions, and resistance without direct confrontation.
These strategies function as linguistic tools for minimizing face-threatening acts, maintaining social harmony, and negotiating relational boundaries.
The findings reveal that off-record politeness is shaped by character roles and power relations.
Mother Gothel frequently relies on sarcasm, hints, and overstatement to exert control and reinforce RapunzelAos dependency, showing how indirectness can be used manipulatively.
In contrast.
FlynnAos use of humor, metaphor, and rhetorical questions reflects a more cooperative and face-supportive interaction, contributing to rapport building rather than domination.
Thus, off-record strategies not only preserve face but also construct authority, emotional distance, or solidarity, depending on who uses them and for what purpose.
While this study provides insight into the use of off-record strategies in the motherAedaughter and peer dynamics presented in the film, future research may expand the scope by examining a wider range of relational configurationsAi such as friendships, romantic partnerships, or hierarchical interactions between superiors and subordinates.
Exploring different power structures would deepen our understanding of how indirectness adapts to varying social expectations and communicative demands.
In addition, future studies are encouraged to incorporate multimodal analysis.
Non-verbal cues such as facial expressions, gaze direction, gesture, body positioning, and tone of voice significantly influence how indirect messages are interpreted.
Integrating these elements would offer a more comprehensive account of how off-record politeness operates not only linguistically but also socially and visually.
Such extensions would contribute to a broader understanding of face-saving strategies and the role of indirectness in real-world communication.
Conflict of interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Acknowledgement First and foremost, all praise and thanks are due to Allah Swt for the guidance, blessings, and strength throughout this We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Miss Lusi for her invaluable help and guidance throughout this research.
We also want to thank ourselves for the hard work and perseverance in completing this paper together.
References