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POLITENESS
STRATEGIES
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TOPICS OF DISCUSSION

1. The Significant of Politeness Strategies in Communication

2. Relation between Cooperative Principles (CP) and Politeness

Principles (PP)
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The Significant of Politeness Strategies
in Communication

 Politeness as an important part of a social interaction to maintain harmony

while socially interacting with one another Leech (1983) defines

 Politeness as behaviors form found in societies in order to avoid

resistance during the Interaction (Lakoff ,2005)

 Politeness as a universal phenomenon in social interaction especially in

verbal interaction (Brown and Levinson in Watts, 2003)
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Cooperative Principles (CP) +
Politeness Principles (PP)

 Cooperative principles to maintain cooperation between the speaker and

hearer during the conversation => clear information and same
understanding between speaker and hearer (Grice in Leech, 1983)

 Cooperative Principles are divided into four maxims;

1. Maxim of Quantity

2. Maxim of Quality

3. Maxim of Relation

4. Maxim of Manner.
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Examples

Elizabeth: Where is my box of

A: "Do you have a watch?" chocolate?
B: "Yes, I do," Mother : The children were in
your room this morning.

I’m not sure if this makes

sense, but the car had no
light
 Categories of Illocutionary Acts
Categories
z of Description
Illocutionary Acts
Assertive Expressing the truth of the proposition, including: suggesting, complaining,
claiming, and reporting => except ‘boasting’

Directives Producing some effects through the hearer’s action, including ordering,
commanding, requesting, advising, and recommending

Commissive expressing some future action, including promising, vowing, and offering=>
focusing more on someone else’s interest than the speaker’s own interest

Expressive Expressing the speaker’s psychological attitude toward a situation,

including thanking, congratulating, pardoning, blaming, praising, condoling,
etc, except. ‘blaming’ and ‘accusing’.

Declaration Bringing the correspondence between the propositions content and reality,
such as, resigning, dismissing, christening, naming, excommunicating,
appointing, sentencing, etc.
Maxims of Politeness Principles
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Maxim of Politeness Description
Principles
Tact maxim Determining the cost or benefit to s or h => minimize cost to h (negative
side) and maximize benefit to h (positive side) => on impositive and
commissive
Generosity maxim Minimizing benefit to self and maximizing cost to self => ‘self-centered’
on generosity maxim vs ‘other-centered’ in tact maxim => on impositive
and commissive
Approbation maxim Minimizing dispraise of other and maximizing praise of other => on
expressive and assertive
Modesty maxim Minimizing praise of self and maximizing dispraise of self => on expressive
and assertive
Agreement maxim Minimizing disagreement between self and other and maximizing agreement
between self and other

Sympathy maxim Minimizing antipathy between self and other and maximizing sympathy
between self and other => on condolences + congratulations
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Example 1
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Example 2
Sentences Note
You can lend me your car Impolite Offer (give cost to h, and benefit to s)
I can lend you my car Polite Offer (give cost to s, and benefit to h)
You must come and have a dinner with us Polite Invitation (give cost to s, and benefit to h)
We must come and have a dinner with you Impolite Invitation (give cost to h, and benefit to
s)
Could I borrow this electric drill? Polite Offer (give cost to s, and benefit to h)

Could you lend me this electric drill? Impolite Offer (give cost to h, and benefit to s)

Note: Both of generosity maxim and tact maxim lay on impositive and commissive, but
generosity maxim is less powerful because the impositive can be softened by omitting
the reference to the h’s cost.
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Example 3
Sentences Note

Her performance was magnificent! Approbation maxim

How stupid of me! Modesty maxim

How clever of me! Violating Modesty maxim

Please accept this small gift as a token of our Modesty maxim + generosity maxim
esteem.

Please accept this large gift as a token of our Violating Modesty maxim
esteem
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Example 4
Sentences Note
A: It was an interesting exhibition, wasn’t it? Agreement
B: No, it was very uninteresting.

A: A referendum will satisfy everybody. Complete Disagreement

B: Yes, definetely.

A: English is a difficult language to learn Partial disagreement

B: True, but grammar is quite easy.

A: The book is tremendously well written. Partial disagreement

B: Yes, well written as whole, but there are some
rather boring patches, don’t you thing?
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Example 5
Sentences Note

I’m terribly sorry to hear about your cat. Sympathy of misfortune

I’m delighted to hear about your cat. Sympathy of fortune

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Three pragmatic scales in politeness
 The cost-benefit scale:

cost/benefit to s (speaker) + cost/benefit to h (hearer).

 The optionality scale:

a. The degree of directness of speakers’ sending utterances + the amount of options in hearers’
receiving.

b. The less optional for h in favor of the hearer is, the more polite it is.

c. The more optional for the hearer the utterance in favor of the speaker is, the more polite it is.

 The indirectness scale

formulated from the h’s point of view => a close correspondence between h’s referential
strategy and s’s illocutionary strategy