Politeness-Logo Brown & Levinson 1987: strategies doing FTAs

on record

An actor goes on record in doing an FTA if it is clear to participants what communicative intention led the actor to do A (i.e. there is just one unambigously attributable intention with which witnesses would concur). - 'I (hereby) promise to come tomorrow'

 

off record

In contrast, if an actor goes off record in doing A, then there is more than one unambigously attributable intention so that the actor cannot be held to have committed himself to one particular intent.
'Damn, I'm out of cash, I forgot to go to the bank today', I may be intending to get you to lend me some cash, but I cannot be held to have committed myself to that intent …
linguistic realizations: metaphor and irony, rhetorical questions, understatement, tautologies …

 

baldly baldly

Doing an act baldly, without redress, involves doing it in the most direct, clear, unambigous and concise way possible (for eaxample, for a request, saying 'Do X!'). This we shall identify roughly with following the specifications of Grice's Maxims of Cooperation (Grice 1967, 1975) suspended:

  1. urgency or efficiency;
  2. danger to H's face is very small - in H's interest & no great sacrifices of S (e.g., 'Come in' or 'do sit down');
  3. S vastly superior in power to H
 

redressive redressive

By redressive action we mean action that 'gives face' to the addressee, that is, that attempts to counteract the potential face damage of the FTA by doing it in such a way, or with such modifications or additions, that indicate clearly that no face threat is intended or desired …

 

pos.-politeness pos. politeness

Positive politeness is oriented toward the positive face of H, the positive self-image that he claims for himself. PP is approach-based;
treating as a member of an in-group, a friend, a person whose wants and personality traits are known and liked

 

neg.-politeness neg. politeness

Negative politeness,  , is oriented mainly toward partially satsifying (redressing) H's negative face, his basic want to maintain claims of territory and self-determination. NP avoidance-based characertized by self-effacement, formality & restraint   hedges on the illocutionary force
There is a natural tension in negative politeness, however, between (a) the desire to go on record as a prerequisite to being seen to pay face, and (b) the desire to go off record to avoid imposing. A compromise is reached in conventionalized indirectness,

Literatur

Brown, Penelope & Levinson, Stephen (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge u.a.: Cambridge University Press
Grice, H. Paul (1975) Logic and Conversation. In: Cole, P. & Morgan, J. (eds.) Syntax and Semantics, Vol. 3. New York: Academic Press; weitere Literatur