INTRODUCTION 7 // I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND // 1 Politeness as a Central Phenomenon in Pragmatics 9 // 1.1 Towards a definition of politeness 9 // 1.2 Politeness as a concept in pragmatics 12 // 1.2.1 The social-norm view of politeness 12 // 1.2.2 The indirectness approach to politeness 13 // 1.2.3 Politeness as strategic conflict avoidance 14 // 1.2.4 Politeness as prepatterned speech 15 // 1.2.5 Politeness as ritual 15 // 1.3 Modem accounts of politeness in linguistics 16 // 1.3.1 Delimiting the concept of linguistic politeness 16 // 1.3.2 The conversational-maxim view 17 // 1.3.2.1 Lakoff s Logic of Politeness 18 // 1.3.2.2 Leech’s Theory of politeness 19 // 1.3.3 The face-management view 23 // 1.3.4 The conversational-contract view 25 // 2 The Interrelation of Speech Act Theory and Politeness Theory 26 // 2.1 The nature of indirect speech acts 26 // 2.2 Indirectness as a central issue in pragmatics 29 // 2.2.1 Delimiting the notion of indirectness 30 // 2.2.2 Motivation for indirectness 30 // 2.2.3 Functions of indirectness 31 // 2.2.4 The measurability of indirectness 32 // 2.3 Politeness as a matter of relation between sense and force 33 // 3 // II TEXT ANALYSIS // 3 Research Methodology 35 // 3.1 Characteristics of the research data 35 // 3.2 Methods 36 // 4 Structural Lexico-Grammatical Devices and their Function in Negatively Polite // Discourse 38 // 4.1 Criteria for classifying linguistic expressions as polite 39 // 4.2 ...Your avoidance strategy 41 // 4.2.1 Nominal ization 41 // 4.2.2 Using ... as a subject 43 // 4.2.3 THERE + TO BE construction 45 // 4.2.4 Personal pronoun choice as a politeness strategy 47 // 4.2.4.1 The inclusive ’we’ 47 // 4.2.4.2 The choice of ’I’ or ’you’ as a linguistic strategy 48 // 4.2.5 Using impersonal or indefinite subjects/objects 50 // 4.3 Distancing strategy 53 // 4.3.1 Distancing verb tense 54 //
4.3.2 Distancing demonstrative 55 // 4.4 Modal verb choice strategy7 55 // 4.4.1 Expressing obligation or prohibition 57 // 4.4.2 Asking for permission 58 // 4.4.3 Expressing volition 58 // 4.4.4 Expressing ability 62 // 4.4.5 Expressing tentative possibility 62 // 4.4.6 . Hypothetical usage 63 // 4.5 Stylistic choice as a politeness strategy 64 // 4.5.1 Stylistic choice of polite formulae 65 // 4.5.1.1 Openings 65 // 4.5.1.2 Closings 67 // 4.5.2 Lexical and syntactic choices 68 // 4 // 4.6 Formality as a key notion in linguistic politeness 71 // 4.6.1 Formality, appropriacy, length and complexity of the utterance in relation to politeness 72 // 4.7 Impolite politeness 74 // 4.8 Frequency of occurrence of structural lexico-grammatical devices 76 // 5 Pragmatic Markers in Negatively Polite Discourse 80 // 5.1 Hedging and boosting devices 81 // 5.1.1 Hedging devices 82 // 5.1.1.1 Subjectivity markers 82 // 5.1.1.2 Performative hedges 85 // 5.1.1.3 Pragmatic idioms 87 // 5.1.1.4 Clausal mitigators 88 // 5.1.1.5 Downgraders 94 // 5.1.1.6 Tentativizers 97 // 5.1.1.7 Hedges on politeness maxims 102 // 5.1.2 Boosting devices in service of negative politeness 104 // 5.1.2.1 Emphasizers 105 // 5.1.2.2 Assurances 107 // 5.2 Frequency of occurrence of pragmatic markers // 108 // 6 Apology, Thanking and Asking for Permission as Negatively Polite Speech Acts 113 // 6.1 Typology of polite formulae 113 // 6.2 The nature of apology as a negatively polite speech act 115 // 6.2.1 Linguistic apology strategies 117 // 6.3 The nature of thanking as a negatively polite speech act 121 // 6.3.1 Functions of thanking 121 // 6.3.2 Linguistic strategies of thanking 123 // 6.4 The nature and functions of asking for permission as a negatively polite speech act 125 // 6.4.1 Linguistic strategies of asking for permission 127 //
6.5 Apology, thanking and asking for permission in relation to the concept of deference 128 // 6.6 The interplay of length and elaborateness of an utterance in relation to the weightiness of an FT A 131 // 7 Context-Sensitive Politeness Strategies 134 // 7.1 Motivations and impact of context-sensitive politeness strategies 136 // 7.2 The Tact maxim and its interplay with other maxims as a negative politeness strategy 136 // 7.2.1 Politeness strategies exploiting the Tact maxim 137 // 7.2.1.1 Polite pessimism 138 // 7.2.1.2 Polite regret 139 // 7.2.2 Politeness strategies exploiting Tact and Generosity maxim 139 // 7.2.2.1 Polite deference 140 // 7.2.2.2 Polite insistence 143 // 7.2.2.3 Complimenting 145 // 7.2.3 Politeness strategy exploiting Tact and Modesty maxim 146 // 7.2.3.1 Polite modesty 146 // CONCLUSIONS 148 // BIBLIOGRAPHY 155