Theoretical perspectives used to investigate linguistic mitigation are discussed in Chapter 3. In particular, the chapter discusses Politeness Theory, Speech Act Theory, the Psycho-Social-Affective Theory, the Socio-pragma-rhetorical cultural and the Theory of Pragmatic Variation. It parts from the premise that the foundations of mitigation are situated in human psychology, anthropology, and sociology, and, as such, researchers are obligated to couch theoretical perspectives with one that can approach and embrace the realization of mitigation in its broadest sense. After examining these theories, the chapter concludes that any theory applied to the study of mitigation must take into account the interactional dimensions, the cultural context, degrees of imposition and certitude, the psycho-social, and the affective or emotional dimensions. The chapter also considers the importance of pragmatic variation in the realization of mitigated communication as mitigating linguistic features may vary among speakers of same and different dialects.