Politeness Theory

Politeness

One of the essential parts in human communication is

Politeness (Brown and Levinson, 1987). But first let us define

the word, what is politeness? Filipinos used “PO” and “OPO” to

give respect to the receiver or hearer, Spanish address the “tu”

and “vou” to give respect to the people who has the title.

According to Merriam-Webster, being polite, is when a person

shows o characterizing by correct social usage, also it is marked

by an appearance of consideration, tact, deference or courtesy.

In communication, verbal or nonverbal, it is the showing of

the right (according to the culture), accommodating, and positive

face to the hearer or to the person you are speaking to.

When we speak or communicate with the others, strangers or

familiar people, we always start the conversation with

politeness. Admit it, though you are mad to a person, to start a

conversation with them, you will still use a little bit of

politeness.
Politeness Theory

Why do we use politeness? Simply because we protect our own

face. Face is understood as the “public self-image that every

member wants to claim for himself (Brown and Levinson, 1987; 61).

We always want to be perceived as good, formal, or the

appropriate so we use politeness when we converse with others.

Goffman (1967) proposed that the concept of face is a mask

that changes depending on the audience and the social

interaction. Thus, I agree. If we would converse to the people

who has a higher status or educational attainment in life,

mostly, but not all the time, we would speak more politely and

when we speak to the people who has lower status or educational

attainment, we would only be using just a bit of politeness. The

level of politeness will change depending on the audience or the

scenario.

Face can be damaged, maintained or enhanced through

interactions with others (Thomas, 1995: 169). We all are busy

protecting our face from other’s perspective; we all want them to

perceive us good. But (FTA) Face threatening act is inevitable,

our face might always be damaged or can damage other’s face.

The FTA requires a mitigating statement or some sort of

politeness; otherwise the communication will break (Brown and

Levinson, 1987). Example would be the sarcasm, if you will only

be reading it or understand it literally, there would be no

problem, but sarcasm is in a deeper level. If we can get the

sarcasm, a morsel of politeness is used to maintain the

communication.

Face is also negotiated. That is why people perceived us

differently. You may look classy with the person you met in an

elite party, you may also be perceived as slutty if they met you

in a club, these are by the places. But you can be perceived

smart if you want them to think that you are smart and anything

you want to be perceived, which depends on how you communicate

verbally and nonverbally.

There are two (2) kinds of face; 1.) Positive face and 2.)

Negative face. Positive face desires to be liked, approved and

appreciated by others. Though positive they can also harm or give

threat to the speaker’s face and hearer’s or addressee’s face.

Positive face threatened when the hearer or the speaker does

not care about the interactor’s feelings, wants of the other. For

example is when you disagree, insult, accuse, complain,

contradict or complain. There can be also threat when using a

topic to converse, like religions and races. The belittling or

boasting could damage the hearer.

Positive face also threatened the speaker itself when they

apologize, the face that they built, like being the “all good”

can be ruined. When they confess, the face could be damaged but

might be enhance. Self-humiliation, the face is damaged and it is

so hard to rebuild it. Also inability to control the emotions or

the action, for example, you might say bad words to a person and

you got so angry and hit him, the face was so damaged, if you are

known to be the good man.

Negative face threatened the hearers when you request,

command, suggest, advise, remind, threat or warn. The hearer is

given the dilemma to do the action or not. In the other hand,

Negative face threatened the speaker when they express thanks,

accept an apology, excuses, accept offers, and when s/he commits

him/herself to something that s/he does not really want to do.

There can be four (4) politeness strategies to save the

hearer’s ad speaker’s face when on the inevitable face threats.

1.) Bald on-record 2.) Positive Politeness 3.) Negative

Politeness 4.) Off-record (indirect).

The bald on-record is usually used when the speaker and the

hearer has close relationships. If it is urgent or you are in

desperation, like “look!”. If you have a less or little care to

maintain for anybody’s face, and when you welcome and offer.

Positive politeness is saving the hearer’s face. The concern

is to maintain the hearer’s face in the communication like

attending to the hearer’s interest, needs and wants, for e.g.

Anything you want?. Being optimistic also helps you to save the

hearer’s face, “You can do that and I’m sure of it”. Including

the speaker and the hearer in one activity, “we can do this if

we’ll help each other.” Offering and promising can do, “I’ll cook

for tonight and you’ll do the dishes” and by giving a joke.

Negative politeness is focused on towards the hearer’s

negative face and this also highlight the avoidance of annoyance

on the hearer. Like being indirect, using questions, being

pessimistic, by minimizing the impositions, by apologizing and by

the use of plural pronouns.

Off-record or indirect is by giving an indirect message like

just talking to the self but implying to do something. Like

giving a comment, for e.g. “You can dance, but take note of your

moves.” The speaker did not said anything that you are a bad

dancer but he implied to work on your moves or practice.

Politeness again is an essential part in human communication

because without it, there might no communication or if there is,

it is not a good one and would always end to nothing. Like in a

relationship, when couples argue or had a fight, the best thing

to do is to communicate, to have a good communication and one

should always think of the other’s face, like giving the respect

or care to the hearer’s feelings and interests.

References
Politeness Theory

Nor Fariza Mohd. Nor & Jamaluddin Aziz (2010). 3L The Southeast

Asian Journal of English Language Studies Vol 16 (2) 2010.

“Discourse Analysis of Decision Making Episodes in Meetings:

Politeness theory and Critical Discourse Analysis”.

Blitvich, P., DE GRUYTER MOUTON DOI 10.1515/pr-2013-0001 Journal

of Politeness Research 2013; 9(1): 1–33. “Introduction: Face,

identity and im/politeness. Looking backward, moving forward:

From Goffman to practice theory”

Politeness theory. Retrieved from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politeness_theory.