The two studies reported here investigated the notion of politeness as perceived by native speakers of English and advanced learners of English. The questions which concerned us included: (1) Are ...

Research in pragmatics and politeness explores how individuals manage social interactions through contextually sensitive language strategies. It interrogates the subtle interplay between speech acts ...

Despite its fondness for elaborate rituals, higher education really isn’t all that polite. Every campus has its faculty or staff member(s) who are notoriously fractious and hard to work with, and, ...

A useful polite strategy that women employ is the lengthening of requests. Women usually accomplish this with the incorporation of particles (will you, please, won ’ t you). The shorter the request, ...