Politeness in face-to-face interaction: An exploratory study

In this paper, I will briefly describe B&L’s politeness theory and identify some of their politeness strategies, particularly those of the intrinsic face-threatening acts. I will then go on to analyze a small segment of verbal exchange between some participants and a facilitator of a workshop for teacher education development. Adaptation of this theory to this particular verbal episode/exchange reveals some of the types of politeness phenomena described by Brown and Levinson. This paper concludes that these politeness phenomena can be identified and that they help explain breakdowns in face-to-face interaction if we utilize Brown and Levinson’s theory