Politeness Principle 礼貌原则

Politeness is universal to all cultures, according to Brown and Levinson, largely because all people have the need to be appreciated and protected. However, Politeness in language may not be limited to such rather obvious instances，but may actually be more pervasive than often assumed. Geoffrey Leech recognizes this，and regards what he calls the Politeness Principle as one of the fundamental Pragmatic Principles that one usually observes when one communicates in language. So in conversation speakers and listeners should follow Politeness Principle to express their attitude. According to Leech, Politeness Principle tells us to minimize the effects of impolite statements or expressions and to maximize the effects of polite illocutions; all the time directs the ongoing conversations. Leech’s Politeness Principle includes six maxims:

1) The tact maxim

a. minimize cost to other

b. maximize benefit to self;

2) The generosity maxim

a. minimize benefit to self

b. maximize cost to self;

3) The approbation maxim

a. minimize dispraise of other

 b. maximize praise of other;

4) The modesty maxim

a. minimize praise of self

b. maximize dispraise of self;

5) The agreement maxim

a. minimize disagreement between self and other

b. maximize agreement between self and other;

6) The sympathy maxim

a. minimize antipathy between self and other

b. maximize sympathy between self and other.

To follow Politeness Principle, we have some strategies, the positive- politeness strategy, the negative- politeness strategy and the indirect- politeness strategy.

Positive politeness strategies are intended to avoid giving offense by highlighting friendliness. They are used to make the hearer feel good about himself, his interests or possessions, and are most usually used in situations where the audience knows each other fairly well. In addition to hedging and attempts to avoid conflict, some strategies of positive politeness include statements of friendship, solidarity, compliments, and the following examples from Brown and Levinson:

You look sad. Can I do anything?

    You are right. I’ll think it over and let you know my decision.

    What lovely roses; I wish ours looked like that! How do you do it?

Negative politeness strategies are intended to avoid giving offense by showing deference. These strategies include questioning, hedging, apologizing and presenting disagreements as opinions. For example:

Would you know where Oxford Street is?

I’m sorry I didn’t come to upset you. But that’s a fact.

I wouldn’t buy that if I were you.

The final politeness strategy outlined by Brown and Levinson is the indirect strategy; this strategy uses indirect language and removes the speaker from the potential to be imposing. For example:

Rob: “You know, we’ve all been a bit peeved at having to kick in twenty- five dollars to brighten up our conference room.”

Julia: “The water just doesn’t seem as cold as it should be.”

In this conversation, please suppose that Rob and Julia are standing by the water cooler chattering about how employees are being treated. But what Julia had said violates the relevance maxim. And Rob will infer something about her response. So here comes Rob’s inside feeling that she must not want to talk about it, and what she is doing is telling me in a nice way that it’s none of my business. In this example Julia has taken the indirect politeness strategy.