Politeness and Face

Question 1

What is negative politeness?

Answer 1

Pays people respect and avoids intruding on them

Question 2

Define politeness

Answer 2

“The use of regressive language designed to compensate for face threatening behaviour”

Question 3

Who came up with the politeness theories?

Answer 3

Brown and Levinson

Question 4

What is face?

Answer 4

Peoples self esteem, prestige, dignity, honour, respect or status. People feel good when their face is maintained.

Question 5

Who came up with “face-work”?

Answer 5

Erving Goffman

Question 6

What is the theory of positive face?

Answer 6

People wanting to be thought well of

Question 7

What is the theory of negative face?

Answer 7

Wanting to not be imposed on and be respected

Question 8

What are FTAs?

Answer 8

Face threatening acts; utterances that other people say to someone to affect their face.

Question 9

What are Grice’s 4 maxims that people use when they interact?

Answer 9

1) Quality = truth
2) Quantity = enough information for the audience to understand
3) Relevance = related to the purpose of the exchange
4) Manner = what we sat is clear and comprehensible

Question 10

What is positive politeness?

Answer 10

Emphasises shared values and attitudes