What is politeness theory in simple terms?

It explains how people adjust their words when making requests, refusing or criticizing, by hinting, apologizing or adding compliments, so that the other person's feelings and face are not hurt.

How do positive and negative face differ?

Positive face is the wish to be approved of and liked; negative face is the wish to act freely without interference. Compliments attend to positive face, while expressions that reduce imposition attend to negative face.

Politeness Theory

👥 Sociology By CampusDown Wiki Editorial Team Last updated October 27, 2026

Politeness theory is a linguistic and sociological theory explaining how people choose and adjust their words in conversation to protect their own and others' face. The best-known version is Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson's theory, first published in 1978 and expanded as a book in 1987. Borrowing sociologist Erving Goffman's concept of face, they argued that when people say things that threaten another's face, such as requests, criticism or refusals, they use various politeness strategies to reduce the threat.

Contents

1. Face and face-threatening acts
2. Politeness strategies and the weight of threat
3. Critiques and extensions
4. FAQ
5. References

Face and face-threatening acts

Goffman (1955) called the positive social image a person claims in interaction their face, and the activities by which people protect each other's face facework. Brown and Levinson (1987) divided face into two kinds. Positive face is the desire to be approved of and liked by others; negative face is the desire to act freely without being impeded by others. Requests and orders threaten negative face because they restrict the hearer's freedom of action, while criticism and disagreement threaten positive face because they damage the hearer's self-image. Such utterances are called face-threatening acts.

Politeness strategies and the weight of threat

Brown and Levinson identified five strategies speakers can choose when performing a face-threatening act: saying it baldly without redress; positive politeness, which attends to the hearer's positive face through compliments or expressions of solidarity; negative politeness, which minimizes imposition and apologizes, as in 'if it's not too much trouble'; going off record by hinting and leaving interpretation to the hearer; and not doing the act at all. Which strategy is chosen depends on the weight of the threat, calculated from the social distance between speaker and hearer, the hearer's relative power and the degree of imposition of the act in that culture. Leech (1983) instead proposed a politeness principle made up of maxims such as tact, generosity, approbation and modesty.

Critiques and extensions

Brown and Levinson claimed universality for their theory, but Matsumoto (1988) argued that the notion of negative face fits Japanese poorly, because recognition of one's position and relationships within a group matters more than individual freedom. Ide (1989) argued that discernment, following socially prescribed forms suited to situation and relationship, as in the use of honorifics, is as important as strategic choice. These debates also help in understanding Korean honorifics. Culpeper (1996) inverted the theory to analyze impoliteness strategies that deliberately attack face. Watts (2003) proposed a discursive approach in which what counts as polite is judged by participants in interaction rather than by theorists.

FAQ

What is politeness theory in simple terms?: It explains how people adjust their words when making requests, refusing or criticizing, by hinting, apologizing or adding compliments, so that the other person's feelings and face are not hurt.
How do positive and negative face differ?: Positive face is the wish to be approved of and liked; negative face is the wish to act freely without interference. Compliments attend to positive face, while expressions that reduce imposition attend to negative face.

Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26

References

Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The foundational text on face-threatening acts and strategies.
Goffman, E. (1955). On face-work: An analysis of ritual elements in social interaction. Psychiatry, 18(3), 213–231. The source of the concept of face that the theory builds on.
Leech, G. N. (1983). Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman. Leech's politeness principle and maxims, for comparison.
Matsumoto, Y. (1988). Reexamination of the universality of face: Politeness phenomena in Japanese. Journal of Pragmatics, 12(4), 403–426. Challenges the universality of face using Japanese data.
Ide, S. (1989). Formal forms and discernment: Two neglected aspects of universals of linguistic politeness. Multilingua, 8(2–3), 223–248. Discernment politeness and honorifics, beyond strategic choice.
Culpeper, J. (1996). Towards an anatomy of impoliteness. Journal of Pragmatics, 25(3), 349–367. Inverts the model to analyze impoliteness strategies.
Watts, R. J. (2003). Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The discursive turn: politeness as participants' judgments.

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This article was last updated on October 27, 2026. It is based on widely recognized original works and textbooks; when citing it in a paper, please check the original sources listed in the references.