Discuss the Notion of Politeness Within the Context of Cross-Cultural Communication

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Before discussing the notion of politeness in the context of cross-cultural communication, it is imperative to define what politeness is and it is here, in which the first obstacle lies. What is politeness? Scholars such as Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson aim to define politeness and methodically categorize ways in which politeness can be handled but it does not come without it’s own criticisms, demonstrating that there is no universal definition nor way of categorizing politeness. It (politeness) is diversely interpreted and insinuated across cultures and thus can lead to pragmatic injunctions between native and non-native speakers of a given language. This essay will discuss the concept of “politeness” with regards to Brown and Levinsons’ politeness strategies, as well as works from Jenny Thomas, Deborah Tannen and Anna Wierzbicka. Brown and Levinson see politeness as a façade, that aids in preserving ones’ face as a result of a face threatening act(s) or FTA. In “Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage”, Brown and Levinson published their politeness theory claiming it to be universal (Longscope 1995, 69) and within this theory, Brown and Levinson developed politeness strategies to be used when one is encountering an FTA. Conversations, in which politeness is evident, do not necessarily consist of FTAs (Bowe and Martin 2007, 35) and thus highlights a flaw in Brown and Levinsons’ supposed “universal” theory of politeness. Brown and Levinson also seem to base their universal theory on three languages: English, Tamil and Tzeltal (Bowe and Martin 2007, 27). It is ironic to base a universal theory of politeness off just three languages, the third, of which is mostly likely unknown to the average person, again, this demonstrates why Brown and Levinson’s theory is under constant scrutiny and that there is no universal way of defining or categorizing

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