Politeness

Politeness is the teaching or acting of good manners so as not to offend others. What is thought to be polite may be different or event rude depending on many cultures.

Types

• Negative politeness: Making a request less rude, such as "If you don't mind..." or "If it isn't too much trouble..."
• Non-assertive politeness: when a person does not stop from making a comment or pushing their beliefs during a discussion.
• Assertive politeness: when a person offers their opinion in a positive way to be assistive and helpful during an interaction. Or
• Positive politeness: Seeks to create a positive relationship between people.

Some cultures seem to prefer one of these kinds of politeness over the other. In this way politeness is culturally bound.

Related pages

• Bowing
• Curtsey

Other websites

• Model Citizenship Archived 2021-10-19 at the Wayback Machine Real-life Examples of Civil Politeness
• Sociolinguistics: Politeness
• Sociolinguistics: Politeness in Spanish Archived 2006-10-26 at the Wayback Machine
• wiki project in comparative politeness: European Communicative Strategies (ECSTRA) (directed by Joachim Grzega)
• Politeness, BBC Radio 4 discussion with Amanda Vickery, David Wootton & John Mullan (In Our Time, Sep. 30, 2004)