Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory: Strategies
Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory
Brown and Levinson’s study examines verbal interaction strategies from a cross-cultural perspective. They establish that strategies for conducting interaction are superficially culture-specific, based on a universal principle of politeness. Conventions are often reasons for doing things, which is the outcome of rational choices made by individuals.
To explain why speakers often use certain strategies, Brown and Levinson introduce the concept of “face.” Face is the public self-image that every individual wants to claim for themselves. Face has two aspects:
- Negative face: This refers to the desire to be unimpeded by others. Future actions where the hearer may dislike something, such as a directive act that interferes with the listener, can negatively impact this.
- Positive face: This refers to the desire to be approved of by others. For example, criticizing oneself. Positive face is also threatened when someone doesn’t want others to know something about them or doesn’t want to appear to be something other than what they are.
Furthermore, we can distinguish between acts that threaten negative face and those that threaten positive face:
- Acts that predicate a future action A by hearer (H): orders and requests, suggestions and advice, reminders, warnings, and dares. These occur when the hearer performs an action.
- Acts that predicate some desire of the speaker (S) toward H or H’s goods: compliments, expressions of envy and admiration, and expressions of strong (negative) emotion toward H.
- Acts that predicate some positive future act of the speaker toward the hearer: These can be offers (e.g., “Do you want me to scrub?”) or promises (e.g., “I promise to marry you in a year.”).
We can also distinguish between acts that primarily threaten H’s face and those that primarily threaten the speaker’s (S) face. These include:
- Those that offend S’s negative face: expressing thanks, accepting offers, and unwilling promises and offers.
- Those that directly damage the speaker’s positive face: apologies, self-contradictions, confessions, and admissions of responsibility.
Regarding face-work in discourse, participants will seek to avoid threats to face or will employ certain strategies to minimize the threat. The speaker has to consider conflicting aims:
- The aim to efficiently communicate the content of the face-threatening act (FTA). This occurs when you know the threatened person is going to act.
- The aim to maintain the hearer’s and speaker’s face.
Face-work takes two forms, depending on which aspect of face (positive or negative) is being stressed. Positive politeness is oriented toward protecting the hearer’s positive face, the positive self-image they claim for themselves.
Positive Politeness Strategies
- Strategy 1: The speaker initially interacts with the hearer in a way that carries positive connotations. For example: “Goodness, you cut your hair! … By the way, I came to borrow some flour.”
- Strategy 2: Exaggerate interest, approval, or sympathy with the hearer. For example: “I’m going to Madrid this weekend!” “It’s unbelievable, what a surprise!”
- Strategy 3: Use in-group forms of address, as if belonging to the same group. For example, using the same jargon and slang within a group of friends.
- Strategy 4: Seek agreement and avoid disagreement to create unity. Examples include discussing the weather, the beauty of gardens, or the incompetence of bureaucracy.
- Strategy 5: Avoid using negative particles in disagreement. For example, “That’s where you live, Florida?” “That’s where I was born.” This creates a fictitious agreement.
- Strategy 6: Create common ground, such as through gossip, by sharing personal information about a third person who is not present.
Negative Politeness Strategies
Negative politeness performs the function of minimizing the particular imposition that the FTA unavoidably effects. There are five strategies of negative politeness:
- Strategy 1: Use conventionally indirect directives. For example: “Can you please take me home?”
- Strategy 2: The hearer performs an action that benefits the speaker. For example: “Could I borrow your notes?”
- Strategy 3: Use hedges that enforce several opinions, such as adverbial clauses like “in fact,” “in a way,” “in a sense,” “as it were,” etc.
- Strategy 4: Use polite pessimism. For example: “Perhaps you’d care to help?” or “I doubt you can.”
- Strategy 5: Minimize the imposition, acknowledging that it is interfering against the hearer’s will. For example: “I just wanted to ask you if you could lend me a tiny bit of paper.”