ABSTRACT
In the final section of the previous chapter, Mick Short, following the philosopher Grice, suggests that there is an important politeness maxim in conversation. Grice himself points out that there are, in addition to the four sets of conversational maxims he proposes, all sorts of other maxims, such as ‘Be polite’, which are normally observed by participants in talk exchanges. (Grice 1975:47). Politeness may thus be seen as a departure from ‘maximally efficient’ conversation, drawing, as it frequently does, on hints and indirections. However, the strategies of politeness are not arbitrarily chosen by speakers in interaction. On the contrary, their choice is constrained by important contextual features, such as the relative power of the speakers, the social distance of the speakers and what the speakers happen to be negotiating at the time. Short, again, touches on this in the previous chapter when he comments on how interactive rights are not always shared equally by participants in interaction. He notes, for instance, that
A servant cannot, given normal circumstances, threaten a master. If he does so in a play, it signals a change in their relationship.
