Politeness - Techniques To Show Politeness

Techniques To Show Politeness

• Expressing uncertainty and ambiguity through hedging and indirectness.
• Polite lying
• Use of euphemisms (which make use of ambiguity as well as connotation)
• Preferring tag questions to direct statements, such as "You were at the store, weren't you?"
  • modal tags request information of which the speaker is uncertain. "You didn't go to the store yet, did you?"
  • affective tags indicate concern for the listener. "You haven't been here long, have you?"
    • softeners reduce the force of what would be a brusque demand. "Hand me that thing, could you?"
    • facilitative tags invite the addressee to comment on the request being made. "You can do that, can't you?"

Some studies have shown that women are more likely to use politeness formulas than men, though the exact differences are not clear. Most current research has shown that gender differences in politeness use are complex, since there is a clear association between politeness norms and the stereotypical speech of middle class white women, at least in the UK and US. It is therefore unsurprising that women tend to be associated with politeness more and their linguistic behaviour judged in relation to these politeness norms.