POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH COMMUNICATION
Keywords:
Politeness strategies; English communication; pragmatics; Brown and Levinson; positive politeness; negative politeness; face; direct requests; indirect requests; formal communication; informal communication; context; polite expressions; conflict avoidance; social relationship; pragmatic competence.Abstract
Politeness is an important part of successful communication. People use language not only to exchange information, but also to show respect, avoid conflict, and maintain good relationships. In English communication, politeness is especially important because the same idea can sound rude, neutral, or polite depending on the way it is expressed.
For example, the sentence “Give me your pen” is grammatically correct, but it may sound too direct or even impolite. A more polite version would be “Could I borrow your pen, please?” Both sentences have the same basic meaning, but the second one sounds softer and more respectful. Politeness strategies are studied in pragmatics because they show how people choose language according to context, social distance, speaker’s intention, and relationship between speakers. A polite speaker understands not only what to say, but also how to say it appropriately.
