"Politeness theory, proposed by Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson..."
The study of how speakers use language to maintain social relationships, show respect, and avoid conflict.
Speech Acts: Speech acts are the actions performed through language like requesting, making offers, apologizing, and expressing gratitude. The study of speech acts helps in understanding how politeness is achieved through language use.
Face: Face refers to an individual's social identity and image. Politeness theory states that individuals strive to maintain their own face while respecting the face of others. Understanding face helps in comprehending how individuals use language to save their face and others.
Positive and Negative Politeness: Positive politeness is using language to convey friendliness, praise, and admiration. Negative politeness is using language to avoid being intrusive or offensive. These concepts help in understanding how polite behavior is influenced by different cultural and social contexts.
Face Threatening Acts: Face threatening acts are situations where individuals are at risk of losing face, experiencing embarrassment or shame. Understanding these acts can help in comprehending how individuals use politeness strategies to mitigate the potential negative effects of these acts.
Grice's Maxims: Grice's maxims refer to the four cooperative principles of communication like quality, quantity, relevance, and manner. These principles guide in understanding how conversation is organized and how politeness can be achieved via cooperation.
Brown and Levinson's Politeness Strategies: Brown and Levinson's politeness strategies are indirectness, negative politeness, (use of hedging or tag questions), and positive politeness (compliment, offer gratitude, etc.). This concept helps in understanding how individuals use language to save their face and others.
Power and Politeness: Power plays a critical role in understanding politeness. Politeness theory asserts power strategies can be used to maintain or create power relationships. Understanding this association helps in understanding the manifestation of politeness in different social contexts.
Culture and Politeness: The concept of politeness varies according to different cultures. Understanding cultural-specific norms helps in understanding how individuals use language to respect the cultural practices of others.
Gender and Politeness: Gender expectations influence the use of language and polite behaviors. Understanding the relationship between gender and politeness helps in understanding how gender roles affect politeness.
Impoliteness: Impoliteness occurs when people intentionally or unintentionally violate the politeness norms. Understanding impoliteness helps in comprehending how individuals employ different strategies of impoliteness to express negative emotions like anger, frustration, and rejection.
Positive Politeness: This refers to the use of language or actions that show concern for the other person's face (i.e., self-image or sense of dignity), such as offering compliments, showing interest in their opinions, and giving praise.
Negative Politeness: This refers to the use of language or actions that emphasize on the speaker's respect for the other person's autonomy and freedom, or their desire not to impose on, or inconvenience them. Examples include using indirect requests, offering apologies, or using modal verbs (could, would, should, etc.) to show tentativeness.
Bald on Record: This is a pragmatic strategy that involves speaking bluntly, directly, and with no concern for-face-saving actions or the listener's ego. This type of politeness is often used in situations where directness is appropriate, such as when giving orders or commands.
Off Record: This type of politeness is a strategy that involves communicating indirectly or subtly, with the aim of showing respect or giving the listener a sense of autonomy, while also avoiding face-threatening acts. Indirect strategies include sarcasm, humor, irony, and euphemisms.
Positive Face-threatening Acts (FTA): This refers to language or behavior that can threaten or offend a person's positive face, i.e., their desire to be liked, appreciated, and respected by others. Examples include offering unwelcome advice, criticizing someone, or making demands.
Negative Face-threatening Acts (FTA): This refers to language or behavior that can threaten or offend a person's negative face, i.e., their desire to be free from others' imposition, control, or interference. Examples include asking for a favor, making a request, or expressing a need for help.
Indirectness: This refers to the use of language that is not straightforward or explicit, with the aim of avoiding offense or reducing face-threatening acts. Indirect strategies include hedging, question-preposing, or using euphemisms.
Indirect Speech Acts: This refers to language that has more than one meaning, with the actual message being indirect or understated. For example, when a speaker says, "It's cold in here," they may be indirectly implying that the listener should close the window.
Face: This refers to the concept of face-saving or face-threatening acts, which is a central aspect of politeness theory. Face-saving strategies aim to maintain or enhance a person's positive and negative face, while face-threatening acts disregard, damage, or challenge them.
"...centers on the notion of politeness, construed as efforts on redressing the affronts to a person's self-esteems or effectively claiming positive social values in social interactions."
"...such self-esteem is referred as the sociological concept of face..."
"...politeness as a response to mitigate or avoid face-threatening acts such as requests or insults."
"Notable components in the framework of the theory include positive and negative faces, face-threatening act (FTA), strategies for doing FTAs, and factors influencing the choices of strategies."
"Penny Brown and Stephen Levinson's politeness theory..."
"...has become very influential."
"Though Brown and Levinson proposed their model as universally applicable..."
"...their theory has been challenged by other scholars in varied aspects..."
"Their theory has been challenged by other scholars..."
"...in a variety of cultures for many years..."
"...ways to interpret and conceptualize politeness."
"...to discuss politeness as a response to mitigate or avoid face-threatening acts such as requests or insults."
"...such as requests or insults."
"...strategies for doing FTAs..."
"...claiming positive social values in social interactions."
"Notable components in the framework of the theory include positive and negative faces..."
"...factors influencing the choices of strategies..."
"...their theory has been challenged by other scholars..."
"...such as its cross-cultural applicability or ways to interpret and conceptualize politeness."