Politeness theory

[suzie07]

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

[fighting spirit]

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

[suzie07]

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 :)

[Tdol]

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)

[suzie07]

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