Speak of the Devil’s Right Hand: Emily Charlton’s Assertion of Dominance Through Culpeper’s Impoliteness Theory

Abstract

Impoliteness is defined as communicative strategies designed to create social disharmony. Impoliteness strategies often occur in daily interactions, including in the workplace. This study applies Jonathan Culpeper’s (1996) theory of impoliteness to identify which types of impoliteness superstrategies are employed by the character Emily Charlton in The Devil Wears Prada film. Furthermore, this study aims to explain how these impoliteness superstrategies are expressed through language and identify the functions of these impoliteness superstrategies in maintaining her social hierarchy in the workplace. This study applies qualitative descriptive research approach and purposive sampling to obtain data. The analysis of this study reveals that Emily Charlton only uses three out of five impoliteness superstrategies, which are negative impoliteness, mock politeness, and bald-on record impoliteness. Emily Charlton expresses her use of impoliteness superstrategies through rhetorical questions, criticism, insult, and sarcasm. Moreover, Emily Charlton only uses two out of three functions of impoliteness superstrategies, namely the affective and coercive impoliteness functions. The findings of this study suggest that Culpeper’s (1996) impoliteness superstrategies can be employed effectively to maintain and strengthen social hierarchy in the workplace.