REVISITING LINGUISTIC POLITENESS THEORIES: SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ON POLITENESS PHENOMENA

This article reviews the research literature on politeness, so as to make suggestions for future research in the field of politeness and communication. Among the extensive literature on politeness for the last three decades, Brown & Levinson (1978, 1987)’s model of politeness has been considered the most influential view of politeness but has also faced severe criticim from a newly emerging body of politeness research. In the well-established literture on politeness, politeness phenomenon is considered to be universal, and so it is possible to form a common model of politeness for every culture and language (Terkourafi, 2005). The current review presents a critical evaluation of relevant literature in order to build the foundation on which suggestions for future research on politeness are made.