ABSTRACT

This chapter considers how sociolinguists can handle the phenomenon of politeness. It finds that some Japanese sociolinguists consider discernment to be a key factor in helping produce and maintain the norms for polite behaviour in Japanese society more generally. The specific linguistic and non-linguistic strategies that display attention to either the speaker's or the addressee's face wants can be referred to as 'positive' and 'negative politeness strategies'. A Japanese term introduced to the study of politeness by Sachiko Ide refers to the attention paid to people's interdependence and to the reciprocity of relationships, and, specifically, the discernment of appropriate behaviour based on this. A vertical relationship is between speaker and hearer in Penelope Brown and Steven Levinson's theory of politeness. Along with distance and cost of imposition, power determines how much and what kind of redressive action the speaker might take with a face-threatening act.