ABSTRACT
The Culpeper chapter excerpt discusses the characteristics of impoliteness. Impoliteness has also been described in terms of appropriateness. The ‘non-polite’ behaviour is appropriate behaviour that is not felt as unusually polite or exceeding the norms of politeness, whereas ‘non-politic’ is inappropriate behaviour. Locher and Watts acknowledge in a footnote that their hypothesis that over-politeness and rudeness/impoliteness will have similar effects needs to be investigated empirically, but predict that "it is almost certain that they will both be negative". Moreover, the perception of intention is a crucial factor in an evaluation of potentially face-attacking behavior. The Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary, would seem to support the author usage of the terms. Readers may wish to note that Terkourafi presents a case for using the labels rude and impolite conversely, with respect to intention, from that which the author has just described. .
