POLITENESS PRINCIPLE:
Politeness Maxims
Politeness Notions
Two notions of politeness should be differentiated:
 Common politeness
Being polite means showing good manners and consideration for
other people (e.g. open the door for a lady, give your seat to an
elderly person in public transport)
 Linguistics politeness
The way people choose to speak and how the hearers react to their
speech.
Politeness is essentially asymmetrical: what is polite with respect to
hearer or to some third party will be impolite with respect to speaker,
and vice versa.
Politeness Scales
The degree of politeness of an illocution can be measured by different
scales:
• Cost-benefit scale
This indicates cost and/or benefit of proposition to hearer (benefit
to hearer = greater politeness; cost to hearer = less politeness)
• Indirectness scale
This indicates degree of politeness on the basis of evaluating the
same propositional content under increasingly indirect kinds of
illocution (higher indirectness = greater politeness)
• Optionality scale
This indicates how far the performance of an illocution is at the act
choice of hearer (higher optionality = greater politeness)
Lakoff’s Politeness Maxims
Lakoff proposes three maxims of politeness:
 Don’t impose
‘ I’m sorry to bother you but … ‘
 Give options
‘ Would you mind if … ‘
‘ Could you possibly … ‘
‘ Can I ask you to … ‘
 Make your receiver feel good
‘ You’re better at this than me … ‘
Leech’s Politeness Principle
A very general formulation of Leech’s Politeness Principle is as follows:
 Minimize (other things being equal) the expression of impolite
beliefs.
 Maximize (other things being equal) the expression of polite beliefs.
Leech’s Politeness Principle is described as a set of maxims that speakers
assume are following.
• Tact Maxim (Bidal Ketimbangrasaan)
Minimize cost to other [maximize benefit to other]
Have another sandwich
* Hand me the newspaper.

Generosity Maxim (Bidal Kemurahhatian)
Minimize benefit to self [maximize cost to self]
You must come and have dinner with us.
*We must come and have dinner with you.

Approbation Maxim (Bidal Keperkenaan)
Minimize dispraise of other [maximize praise of other]
Her performance was outstanding
*Her performance was not so good as it might have been.

Modesty Maxim (Bidal Kerendahhatian)
Minimize praise of self [maximize dispraise of self]
How stupid of me!
*How clever of me!


Agreement Maxim (Bidal Kesetujuan)
Minimize disagreement between self and other [maximize agreement
between self and other]
A : It is an interesting exhibition, wasn’t it?
B : Yes, definitely.
B : *No, it was very uninteresting.
Sympathy Maxim (Bidal Kesimpatian)
Minimize antipathy between self and other [maximize sympathy
between self and other]
I’m terribly sorry to hear that your cat died.
*I’m terribly pleased to hear that your cat died.