Politeness Theory

A theory that accounts for the redressing of the affronts to face posed by face-threatening acts.

They are developed in order to save the hearers' "face." (Brown & Levinson 1987)

Where people in a group know each other well so use positive politness to communicate, minimizing distances between them

Imposing of the speaker and intruding their space, automatically assuming that there may be awkwardness between them

e.g. I am terribly sorry

A child may use positive face/politness with everybody. This is because they do not understand the concept of awkwardness so negative face does not affect them.

e.g. And then he taped his face/ /
/ / this a funny story mummy

Used to formulate messages in order to save the hearer’s face when face-threatening acts are inevitable or desired

Bald-on-bald record - doesn't attempt to minimize FTA's but still can

Positive Politness - seek to minimize threat to positvie face

Negative Politness - oriented towards negative face

Off-record (Indirect) - uses indirect langauge to remove potential to be imposing