Mikayla Marriott-Smith
“Wow, I like your hair! Where did you get it cut?”
Positive politeness strategies. What are they? How do we do them? Are they universal?
What are positive politeness strategies?
You might choose to use positive politeness strategies to appeal to the listeners ‘positive face’ and expresses solidarity towards them. Positive face is “the want of every member that his wants to be desirable to at least some others” (Brown & Levinson, 1987:62). So, positive politeness strategies are great for when you want to get someone on your good side, or you want to be on their good side. You can usually do this by making them feel good about themselves or expressing an interest in them.
How do we do positive politeness strategies?
As Brown & Levinson (1987) did with negative politeness strategies, they also gave us a list of positive politeness strategies:
- Notice, attend to the hearer (their interests, wants, needs, goods)
Doing this strategy means you should be aware of how the listener is or if anything has changed with them
What a beautiful vase this is! Where did it come from? - Exaggerate (in interest, approval, and sympathy)
“This is often done with exaggerated intonation, stress, and other aspects of prosodics (Brown & Levinson, 1987:104)
How absolutely márvellous! - Intensify interest to the listener
This means that you might make one of your stories even more interesting or dramatic
I come downstairs, and what do you think I see? – a huge mess all over the place - Use in-group identity markers
Using these will form a bond with members in the group
Mate, bud, love, babe - Seek agreement
Being able to agree with another member of the group will form a common ground and build a stronger relationship - Avoid disagreement
This means you may hide disagreement or avoid directly saying ‘no’
a. Can you hear me? b. barely - Presuppose/raise/assert common ground
You can find common ground by using small talk, gossip, or discussing interests - Joke
“Since jokes are based on mutual shared background knowledge and values, jokes may be used to stress that shared background or those shared values” (Brown & Levinson, 1987: 124) - Assert or presuppose speaker’s knowledge of and concern for hearers wants
This means to be aware of the hearer’s preferences and try to fit your wants around theirs
I know you can’t bear parties, but this one will really be good – do come! (request/offer) - Offer, promise
Making an offer or promise shows cooperation and willingness for the relationship even if the offer/promise is false
I’ll drop by sometime next week - Be optimistic
This means to assume that the listener will cooperate with you
Look, I’m sure you won’t mind if I borrow your typewriter - Include both the speaker and hearer in the activity
You can do this easily by using the collective pronouns for instance ‘we’ ‘let’s’
Let’s have a cookie, then. (i.e. me)
(Brown and Levinson, 1987:103-128)
Are they universal?
As with negative politeness strategies, positive politeness strategies differ between cultures and are not universal as Brown and Levinson (1987) state.
For instance, American English culture has a stronger preference to using the positive politeness strategies and building a relationship than British English culture does. Although, alternatively to American English culture, Chinese culture again use positive politeness differently.
In China, “politeness is through damaging the positive face of one’s own self” (Cheung, 2009:51). This can be done through people insulting something about themselves because “appearing humble will help maintain and enhance their face and image” (Chen, 1993: 55). This shows how you can use positive strategies to appeal to the positive face of the person you are speaking to or to save your own face.
That being said, speakers who are in communities which commonly use more positive politeness strategies may “come across as unsophisticated or vulgar if they find themselves in a community that is more orientated to negative face wants” (Meyerhoff, 2015:294). So, when you are going to use politeness strategies, be conscious of the cultural differences between yourself and the person you are speaking to as what they find polite can differ to what you find polite.
Intercultural Politeness 