ABSTRACT
Dinnertime provides opportunities for both the negotiation of and the socialization for cultural styles of politeness. In the research tradition following the publication of Brown and Levinson’s (1987) seminal book on politeness, politeness is taken to mean the culturally appropriate ways for what is said and how it is said relative to interactional goals, participants, and context. In other words, politeness is embedded in all aspects of human social interaction and as such is central to pragmatic socialization.
