(A hedge is a "softening" of a statement by employing less-than-certain phrasing such as perhaps, might, can, or could.) Third, negative politeness can be employed by not coercing the hearer. These strategies include questions and hedges. A second approach is to not assume or presume. The first approach to negative politeness is to be direct by being conventionally indirect. This is also known as negative face redress. Where positive politeness enhances the hearer's positive and consistent self-image through recognizing the hearer's need for his or her wishes and desires to be appreciated socially, negative politeness addresses the hearer's need for freedom of action and freedom from imposition in making his or her own decisions. I think this other part might be a little stronger with a similar approach." In many of these cases, the speaker is bringing their own perspectives into the equation within his or her suggestions to the hearer in this way, the speaker is emphasizing similarity and familiarity with the hearer and the content under discussion. That's why I think we should pay attention to this piece a little," or, "I really like the way you approach this here. This can be induced through gift-giving, though these gifts can be material objects, as well as sympathy, understanding, or cooperation.Įxamples of positive politeness include compliments, and might also include statements such as, "I really like the way you've done this," or, "It took me forever to figure this out, but what I eventually came to was…" or,"You know it's always important to me to do the best job I can, and I know the same is true for you. Finally, in an effort to establish positive politeness, the speaker can seek to fulfill the hearer's wants in some way. These include asserting or presupposing the speaker's knowledge of, and concern for, the hearer's wants, offering or promising, being optimistic, including both speaker and hearer in a target activity, giving or asking for reasons, and assuming or asserting reciprocity. In addition to claiming common ground, the speaker can use some tools to convey that the speaker and hearer are cooperators. Another strategy to invoke familiarity between speaker and hearer is to use humor/joking. Further, the speaker can presuppose knowledge of the hearer's wants and attitudes, presuppose the hearer's values are the same as the speaker's values, presuppose familiarity in the speaker-hearer relationship, and presuppose the hearer's knowledge on the topic. On the flip side of that, the speaker can also seek to avoid disagreement with the hearer by employing a token agreement, a pseudo-agreement, a white lie, or hedging an opinion. An example might be, "Dude, you know…" or, "Brother, I'd like to discuss with you…" The speaker can also seek agreement with the hearer by choosing safe topics and using repetition. These can include forms of address, use of in-group language or dialect, use of jargon or slang, and linguistic contractions. The speaker can also use in-group markers, which demonstrate that both the speaker and hearer belong to the same social group, such as a work culture or religious affiliation. Third, the speaker can demonstrate an intensified interest to the hearer. Second, the speaker can exaggerate his/her interest, approval or sympathy with the hearer.
First, the speaker can notice and attend to the hearer's wants, interests, needs, or goods. There are many ways to accomplish this familiarity and claim common ground.
Positive politeness strategies highlight friendliness and camaraderie between the speaker and hearer the speaker's wants are in some way similar to the hearer's wants. This is also known as positive face redress. In positive politeness, the speaker's goal is to address the positive face needs of the hearer, thus enhancing the hearer's positive face. Drawing from these assumptions, researchers have identified three main strategies for performing speech acts: positive politeness, negative politeness, and off-record politeness.