The document discusses politeness and defines it as actions taken to counteract face-threatening acts. It summarizes Brown and Levinson's politeness theory, which is based on the concept of "face" or social identity. The theory outlines two types of face - negative and positive - and describes four politeness strategies - bald on-record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off-record language. It also discusses Accommodation Theory and how convergence and divergence relate to social differences. Finally, it notes some gender differences in how politeness is expressed.

1. POLITENESS
GROUP 9:
SANTI WIJAYANTI (A1B211007)
TITIN ROHAYATI (A1B211013)
ADE PERMATA SARI (A1B211014)
EVITA KRISTIN S. (A1B211020)
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2. POLITENESS

Brown and Levinson (1987) defined politeness as
redressive action taken to counter balance the
disruptive effect of face threatening acts.

Politeness means having or showing good manners
and respect for the feelings of others (Wehmeier
2000, p. 976).
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3. POLITENESS THEORY
One influential model of politeness is based on the
notion of face (Brown and Levinson 1987)
 “Face” refers to a speaker‟s sense of linguistic and
social identity. There are two kinds of “face” :

◦ Negative face is your desire to be unimpeded in your
actions.
◦ Positive face is your desire for identification with the
community.
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4. ACCOMODATION THEORY
This theory is concerned with the links between
“language, context and identity”.
 There are two main accommodation processes
described by this theory.

◦ Convergence refers to the strategies through which individuals
adapt to each other‟s communicative behaviors, in order to
reduce these social differences.
◦ Divergence refers to the instances in which individuals
accentuate the speech and non-verbal differences between
themselves and their interlocutors.
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5. POLITENESS STRATEGIES
Levinson (1978: 61) divided human politeness behavior in four
strategies:
 Bald on-record
It usually does not attempt to minimize the treat to the
hearer‟s face.
 Positive Politeness
It seek to establish a positive relationship between parties;
respect a person‟s need to be liked and appreciated.
 Negative politeness
Make request less infringing and respect a person‟s right to
act freely.
 Off-Record (Indirect)
It uses indirect language and remove the speaker from the
potential of being imposed.
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6. PARAMETERS OF POLITENESS
Status
The higher the status, the more politeness from the
lower status participant.
 Age
The relative ages of the speaker and the hearer
determine how politeness is expressed.
 Sex
Sex or gender differences exist in all cultures with
respect to polite language.
 Social Distance
The more intimate , the less polite they are to each
other.

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7. POLITENESS IN DIFFERENT
GENDER


Drawing on Brown and Levinson‟s work, Janet Holmes
argues that in general women are more polite than
men.
There is different perceptions of what language is used
for:
◦ Most women enjoy talk and regard talking as an important
means of keeping in touch,
◦ Men tend to see language more as a tool for obtaining and
conveying information
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8. POLITENESS IN DIFFERENT
GENDER
There are some differences between men and women:
 Men are more likely to interrupt others,
 Men speak more than women, both in terms of wordtotal and number of turns,
 Men make jokes and women laugh at them,
 Women are more likely to frame their turns as
questions,
 Women use more hedges („kind of,‟ „sort of,‟ „I think…,‟
„maybe‟)
 Women are more likely to repair the conversation after
a silence.
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