Politeness theory

Hiya,
I was wondering if anyone knows who actually came up with the politeness theory and the idea of Face Threatening Act's. Was it Brown&Levinson or Goffman? Or both?! If both, who was the first to propose the idea?

Thanks in advance!

Suzie

Politeness theory was formulated in 1978 by Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson. I don't know who was the firs to propose the idea.

Thanks :) I discovered that they developed the idea from Goffman's definition of face. So Brown&Levinson came up with the actual theory but from a concept adapted from Goffmans idea of face :)

Geoffrey Leech suggests that their ideas are 'at variance' with Goffman and that it is 'claimed' that he is the source rather than being it:
http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/doc_...politeness.pdf
(You'll find that at the foot of page 2)

Thankyou very much for the link to that. It is both useful and interesting. Thankyou again for your help :)