Politeness theory - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Politeness theory is the theory that accounts for the redressing of the affronts to face posed by face-threatening acts to addressees. First formulated in 1978 by Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson

Stephen C. Levinson

Stephen C. Levinson is one of the scientific directors of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. He received a BA in Archaeology and Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge and received a PhD in Linguistic Anthropology from the University of...

, politeness theory has since expanded academia’s perception of politeness. Politeness

Politeness

Politeness is best expressed as the practical application of good manners or etiquette. It is a culturally-defined phenomenon, and therefore what is considered polite in one culture can sometimes be quite rude or simply eccentric in another cultural context....

is the expression of the speakers’ intention to mitigate face

Face (self image)

Face, idiomatically meaning dignity/prestige, is a fundamental concept in the fields of sociology, sociolinguistics, semantics, politeness theory, psychology, political science, communication, and Face Negotiation Theory.-Definitions:...

threats carried by certain face threatening acts toward another (Mills, 2003, p. 6). Another definition is "a battery of social skills whose goal is to ensure everyone feels affirmed in a social interaction". Being polite therefore consists of attempting to save face

Face (self image)

for another.

Positive and Negative Face

Face

Face (self image)

is the public self image

Self image

A person's self-image is the mental picture, generally of a kind that is quite resistant to change, that depicts not only details that are potentially available to objective investigation by others A person's self-image is the mental picture, generally of a kind that is quite resistant to change,...

that every adult tries to project. In their 1987 book, Brown and Levinson defined positive face two ways: as "the want of every member that his wants be desirable to at least some others", or alternately, "the positive consistent self-image or 'personality

Personality type

Personality type refers to the psychological classification of different types of individuals. Personality types are sometimes distinguished from personality traits, with the latter embodying a smaller grouping of behavioral tendencies. Types are sometimes said to involve qualitative differences...

' (crucially including the desire

Desire (emotion)

Desire is a sense of longing for a person or object or hoping for an outcome. Desire is the fire that sets action aflame. The same sense is expressed by emotions such as "craving" or "hankering". When a person desires something or someone, their sense of longing is excited by the enjoyment or the...

that this self-image be appreciated and approved of) claimed by interactants". Negative face was defined as "the want of every 'competent adult member' that his actions be unimpeded by others", or "the basic claim to territories, personal preserves, rights

Rights

Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory...

to non-distraction--i.e. the freedom

Liberty

Liberty is a moral and political principle, or Right, that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions...

of action and freedom from imposition". Ten years later, Brown characterized positive face by desires to be liked, admired, ratified, and related to positively, noting that one would threaten positive face by ignoring someone. At the same time, she characterized negative face by the desire not to be imposed upon, noting that negative face could be impinged upon by imposing on someone. Positive Face refers to one's self-esteem

Self-esteem

Self-esteem is a term in psychology to reflect a person's overall evaluation or appraisal of his or her own worth. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs and emotions such as triumph, despair, pride and shame: some would distinguish how 'the self-concept is what we think about the self; self-esteem, the...

, while negative face refers to one's freedom to act. The two aspects of face are the basic wants in any social interaction, and so during any social interaction, cooperation

Cooperation

Cooperation or co-operation is the process of working or acting together. In its simplest form it involves things working in harmony, side by side, while in its more complicated forms, it can involve something as complex as the inner workings of a human being or even the social patterns of a...

is needed amongst the participants to maintain each others' faces.

Face-Threatening Acts

According to Brown and Levinson, positive and negative face exist universally in human culture

Culture

Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

. In social interactions, face-threatening acts (FTAs) are at times inevitable based on the terms of the conversation. A face threatening act is an act that inherently damages the face of the addressee

Addressee

In linguistics, an addressee is an intended direct recipient of the speaker's communication. A listener is either an addressee or a bystander.Second-person pronouns refer to an addressee or a group including an addressee...

or the speaker by acting in opposition to the wants and desires of the other. Most of these acts are verbal, however, they can also be conveyed in the characteristics of speech (such as rrf3wwewqetone

Tone (linguistics)

Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...

, inflection

Inflection

In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...

, etc.) or in non-verbal forms of communication

Communication

Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...

. At minimum, there must be at least one of the face threatening acts associated with an utterance

Utterance

In spoken language analysis an utterance is a complete unit of speech. It is generally but not always bounded by silence.It can be represented and delineated in written language in many ways. Note that in such areas of research utterances do not exist in written language, only their representations...

. It is also possible to have multiple acts working within a single utterance.

Negative Face Threatening Acts

Negative face is threatened when an individual does not avoid or intend to avoid the obstruction of their interlocutor's freedom of action. It can cause damage to either the speaker or the hearer, and makes one of the interlocutors submit their will to the other. Freedom of choice and action are impeded when negative face is threatened.

Damage to the Hearer

An act that affirms or denies a future act of the hearer creates pressure on the hearer to either perform or not perform the act.

Examples: orders, requests, suggestions, advice, remindings, threats, or warnings.

An act that expresses the speaker’s sentiments of the hearer or the hearer’s belongings.

Examples: compliments, expressions of envy or admiration, or expressions of strong negative emotion toward the hearer (e.g. hatred, anger, lust).

An act that expresses some positive future act of the speaker toward the hearer. In doing so, pressure has been put on the hearer to accept or reject the act and possibly incur a debt.

Examples: offers, and promises.

Damage to the Speaker

An act that shows that the speaker is succumbing to the power of the hearer.

Expressing thanks
Accepting a thank you or apology
Excuses
Acceptance of offers
A response to the hearer’s violation of social etiquette
The speaker commits himself to something he or she does not want to do

Positive Face Threatening Acts

Positive face is threatened when the speaker or hearer does not care about their interactor’s feelings, wants, or does not want what the other wants. Positive face threatening acts can also cause damage to the speaker or the hearer. When an individual is forced to be separated from others so that their well being is treated less importantly, positive face is threatened.

Damage to the Hearer

An act that expresses the speaker’s negative assessment of the hearer’s positive face or an element of his/her positive face. The speaker can display this disapproval in two ways. The first approach is for the speaker to directly or indirectly indicate that he dislikes some aspect of the hearer’s possessions, desires, or personal attributes. The second approach is for the speaker to express disapproval by stating or implying that the hearer is wrong, irrational, or misguided.

Examples: expressions of disapproval (e.g. insults, accusations, complaints), contradictions, disagreements, or challenges.

An act that expresses the speaker’s indifference toward the addressee’s positive face.

The addressee might be embarrassed for or fear the speaker.

Examples: excessively emotional expressions.

The speaker indicates that he doesn’t have the same values or fears as the hearer

Examples: disrespect, mention of topics which are inappropriate in general or in the context.

The speaker indicates that he is willing to disregard the emotional well being of the hearer.

Examples: belittling or boasting.

The speaker increases the possibility that a face-threatening act will occur. This situation is created when a topic is brought up by the speaker that is a sensitive societal subject.

Examples: topics that relate to politics, race, religion.

The speaker indicates that he is indifferent to the positive face wants of the hearer. This is most often expressed in obvious non-cooperative behavior.

Examples: interrupting, non-sequiturs.

The speaker misidentifies the hearer in an offensive or embarrassing way. This may occur either accidentally or intentionally. Generally, this refers to the misuse of address terms in relation to status, gender, or age.

Example: Addressing a young woman as "ma’am" instead of "miss."

Damage to the Speaker

An act that shows that the speaker is in some sense wrong, and unable to control himself.

Apologies: In this act, speaker is damaging his own face by admitting that he regrets one of his previous acts.
Acceptance of a compliment
Inability to control one’s physical
Physical body
In physics, a physical body or physical object is a collection of masses, taken to be one...

self
Inability to control one’s emotional self
Self-humiliation
Confessions

Politeness Strategies

Politeness strategies are used to formulate messages in order to save the hearer’s face when face-threatening acts are inevitable or desired. Brown and Levinson outline four main types of politeness strategies: bald on-record, negative politeness, positive politeness, and off-record (indirect).

Bald On-record

Bald on-record strategies usually do not attempt to minimize the threat to the hearer’s face, although there are ways that bald on-record politeness can be used in trying to minimze FTAs implicitly. Often using such a strategy will shock or embarrass the addressee, and so this strategy is most often utilized in situations where the speaker has a close relationship with the audience, such as family or close friends. Brown and Levinson outline various cases in which one might use the bald on-record strategy, including:

Instances in which threat minimizing does not occur

Great urgency or desperation

Watch out!

Speaking as if great efficiency is necessary

Hear me out:...

Task-oriented

Pass me the hammer.

Little or no desire to maintain someone's face

Don't forget to clean the blinds!

Doing the FTA is in the interest of the hearer

Your headlights are on!

Instances in which the threat is minimized implicitly

Welcomes

Come in.

Offers

Leave it, I'll clean up later.

Eat!

Positive Politeness

Positive politeness strategies seek to minimize the threat to the hearer’s positive face. They are used to make the hearer feel good about himself, his interests or possessions, and are most usually used in situations where the audience knows each other fairly well. In addition to hedging and attempts to avoid conflict, some strategies of positive politeness include statements of friendship, solidarity, compliments, and the following examples from Brown and Levinson:

Attend to H’s interests, needs, wants

You look sad. Can I do anything?

Use solidarity in-group identity markers

Heh, mate, can you lend me a dollar?

Be optimistic

I’ll just come along, if you don’t mind.

Include both speaker (S) and hearer (H) in activity

If we help each other, I guess, we’ll both sink or swim in this course.

Offer or promise

If you wash the dishes, I’ll vacuum the floor.

Exaggerate interest in H and his interests

That’s a nice haircut you got; where did you get it?

Avoid Disagreement

Yes, it’s rather long; not short certainly.

Joke

Wow, that’s a whopper!

Negative Politeness

Negative politeness strategies are oriented towards the hearer’s negative face and emphasize avoidance of imposition on the hearer. These strategies presume that the speaker will be imposing on the listener and there is a higher potential for awkwardness or embarrassment than in bald on record strategies and positive politeness strategies. Negative face is the desire to remain autonomous so the speaker is more apt to include an out for the listener, through distancing styles like apologies. Examples from Brown and Levinson include:

Be indirect

Would you know where Oxford Street is?

Use hedges or questions

Perhaps, he might have taken it, maybe.

Could you please pass the rice?

Be pessimistic

You couldn’t find your way to lending me a thousand dollars, could you?

Minimize the imposition

It’s not too much out of your way, just a couple of blocks.

Use obviating structures, like nominalizations, passives, or statements of general rules

I hope offense will not be taken.

Visitors sign the ledger.

Spitting will not be tolerated.

Apologize

I’m sorry; it’s a lot to ask, but can you lend me a thousand dollars?

Use plural pronouns

We regret to inform you.

Favor seeking, or a speaker asking the hearer for a favor, is a common example of negative politeness strategies in use. Held observes three main stages in favor-seeking: the preparatory phase, the focal phase, and the final phase:

The preparatory phase is when the favor-seeking is preceded by elaborate precautions against loss of face to both sides. It often involves signals of openings and markers to be used to clarify the situation (e.g. ‘You see,’ or ‘so,’). The request is often softened, made less direct, and imposing (e.g. past continuous ‘I was wondering’; informal tag ‘What d’you reckon?). The speaker must also reduce his own self-importance in the matter and exaggerate the hearer’s (down-scaling compliments).
The focal stage is subdivided into elements such as asker’s reasons or constraints (e.g. ‘I’ve tried everywhere but can’t get one’), the other’s face (e.g. ‘You’re the only person I can turn to’), and more.
The third stage is the final stage which consists of anticipatory thanks, promises, and compliments (e.g. ‘I knew you would say yes. You’re an angel.’).

An example that is given by McCarthy and Carter is the following dialogue from the Australian television soap opera, "Neighbours

Neighbours

Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera first broadcast on the Seven Network on 18 March 1985. It was created by TV executive Reg Watson, who proposed the idea of making a show that focused on realistic stories and portrayed adults and teenagers who talk openly and solve their problems...

Clarrie: So I said to him, forget your books for one night, throw a party next weekend.

Helen: A party at number 30! What will Dorothy say about that?

Clarrie: Well, what she doesn't know won't hurt her. Of course, I'll be keeping my eye on things, and (SIGNAL OF OPENING) that brings me to my next problem. (EXPLAIN PROBLEM) You see, these young people, they don't want an old codger like me poking my nose in, so I'll make myself scarce, but I still need to be closer to hand, you see. So, (ASK FAVOR) I was wondering, would it be all right if I came over here on the night? What d'you reckon?

Helen: Oh, Clarrie, I...

Clarrie: Oh (MINIMIZATION) I'd be no bother. (REINFORCE EXPLANATION) It'd mean a heck of a lot to those kids.

Helen: All right.

Clarrie: (THANK WITH BOOST) I knew you'd say yes. You're an angel, Helen.

Helen: Ha! (laughs)

All of this is done in attempt to avoid a great deal of imposition on the hearer and is concerned with proceeding towards a goal in the smoothest way and with sensitivity to one’s interlocutors. An English (‘Excuse me, sir, could you please close the window’) is associated with the avoidance or downplaying of an imposition; the more we feel we might be imposing, the more deferential we might be. It is clearly a strategy for negative politeness and the redressing of a threat to negative face, through things like favor-seeking.

Off-record (indirect)

The final politeness strategy outlined by Brown and Levinson is the indirect strategy; This strategy uses indirect language and removes the speaker from the potential to be imposing. For example, a speaker using the indirect strategy might merely say “wow, it’s getting cold in here” insinuating that it would be nice if the listener would get up and turn up the thermostat without directly asking the listener to do so.

Choice of Strategy

Paul Grice

Herbert Paul Grice , usually publishing under the name H. P. Grice, H...

argues that all conversationalists are rational beings who are primarily interested in the efficient conveying of messages. Brown and Levinson use this argument in their politeness theory by saying that rational agents will choose the same politeness strategy as any other would under the same circumstances to try to mitigate face. They show the available range of verbal politeness strategies to redress loss of face. FTAs have the ability to mutually threaten face, therefore rational agents seek to avoid FTAs or will try to use certain strategies to minimize the threat.

Speaker (S) will weigh:

the want to communicate the content of the FTA in question
the want to be efficient or urgent
the want to maintain H's face to any degree

In most cooperative circumstances where 3. is greater than 2., S will want to minimize the FTA.

The greater potential for loss of face requires greater redressive action. If the potential for loss of face is too great, the speaker may make the decision to abandon the FTA completely and say nothing.

The number next to each strategy corresponds to the danger-level of the particular FTA. The more dangerous the particular FTA is, the more S will tend to use a higher numbered strategy.

No redressive action
- Bald On-Record- leaves no way for H to minimize the FTA
Positive Redressive action
- S satisfies a wide range of H’s desires not necessarily related to the FTA
  - Shows interest in H
  - Claims common ground with H
  - Seeks agreement
  - Gives sympathy
Negative Redressive action
- S satisfies H’s desires to be unimpeded—the want that is directly challenged by the FTA
  - Be conventionally indirect
  - Minimize imposition on H
  - Beg forgiveness
  - Give deference
- This implies that the matter is important enough for S to disturb H
Off-Record
- S has the opportunity to evade responsibility by claiming that H’s interpretation of the utterance as a FTA is wrong
Don't do the FTA

Payoffs Associated with each Strategy

In deciding which strategy to use, the speaker runs through the individual payoffs of each strategy.

Bald on record

enlists public pressure
S gets credit for honesty, outspokenness which avoids the danger of seeming manipulative
S avoids danger of being misunderstood
- Positive Politeness
minimizes threatening aspect by assuring that S considers to be of the same kind with H

criticism may lose much of its sting if done in a way that asserts mutual friendship

when S includes himself equally as a participant in the request or offer, it may lessen the potential for FTA debt

“Let’s get on with dinner” to a husband in front of the TV
- Negative Politeness

Helps avoid future debt by keeping social distance and not getting too familiar with the addressee
pays respect or deference by assuming that you may be intruding on the hearer in return for the FTA

"I don't mean to bother you, but can I ask a quick question?"
- Off record

get credit for being tactful, non-coercive
avoid responsibility for the potentially face-damaging interpretation
give the addressee an opportunity to seem to care for S because it tests H's feelings towards S

If S wants H to close the window, he may say "It's cold in here." If H answers Ill go close the window then he is responding to this potentially threatening act by giving a “gift” to the original speaker and therefore S avoids the potential threat of ordering H around and H gets credit for being generous or cooperative
- Don’t Do the FTA

S avoids offending H at all
S also fails to achieve his desired communication
no overt examples exist

Sociological Variables

Take into consideration three sociological factors when deciding whether and how to use the various strategies in real life situations

Depends on three factors:

Social distance
Social distance
Social distance describes the distance between different groups of society and is opposed to locational distance. The notion includes all differences such as social class, race/ethnicity or sexuality, but also the fact that the different groups do not mix...

between parties (symmetric relation
Symmetry
Symmetry generally conveys two primary meanings. The first is an imprecise sense of harmonious or aesthetically pleasing proportionality and balance; such that it reflects beauty or perfection...

)
- Distinguish kin or friend from a stranger with whom you may be of the same social status, but who is still separated by social distance
- Different FTAs are used depending on the social distance between interlocutors
- Example: We may use less elaborate positive strategies or we may choose to use positive rather than negative politeness when speaking with family
Power relations between parties (asymmetric relation
Asymmetry
Asymmetry is the absence of, or a violation of, symmetry.-In organisms:Due to how cells divide in organisms, asymmetry in organisms is fairly usual in at least one dimension, with biological symmetry also being common in at least one dimension....

)
- we are inclined to speak to our social equals differently than those whose status is higher or lower than our own in a given situation
- Example: If a professor is working in her office and people are being very loud and disruptive in the next room, she will go over there and tell them to be quiet but the way she does it will differ depending on who it is
If they are students she will use the bald on-record strategy to make sure there is no confusion in what she is asking

Example: “Stop talking so loud!”

If they are colleagues she will claim common ground with them using the positive politeness strategy or frame an indirect request for them to stop talking

Example: “I’m working on a lecture and it’s really hard to concentrate with all this noise.”

If they are really high status directors of the department she may end up saying nothing at all or apologize for interrupting them

Example: No FTA
The absolute ranking of the threat of the FTA
- Some impositions are greater than others. Highly imposing acts like requests demand more redress to mitigate their increased threat level.

Positive and Negative Face

Face-Threatening Acts

Negative Face Threatening Acts

Damage to the Hearer

Damage to the Speaker

Positive Face Threatening Acts

Damage to the Hearer

Damage to the Speaker

Politeness Strategies

Bald On-record

Positive Politeness

Negative Politeness

Off-record (indirect)

Choice of Strategy

Payoffs Associated with each Strategy

Sociological Variables

Further reading

See also