This article reviews the research literature on politeness, so as to makesuggestions for future research in the field of politeness and communication. Among the extensive literature on politeness for the last three decades, Brown &Levinson (1978, 1987)’s model of politeness has been considered the mostinfluential view of politeness but has also faced severe criticim from a newlyemerging body of politeness research. | JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, Hue University, Vol. 70, No 1 (2012) pp. 181-191 REVISITING LINGUISTIC POLITENESS THEORIES: SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ON POLITENESS PHENOMENA Pham Thi Hong Nhung, Pham Thi Tuyet Nhung College of Foreign Languages, Hue University Abstract. This article reviews the research literature on politeness, so as to make suggestions for future research in the field of politeness and communication. Among the extensive literature on politeness for the last three decades, Brown & Levinson (1978, 1987)’s model of politeness has been considered the most influential view of politeness but has also faced severe criticim from a newly emerging body of politeness research. In the well-established literture on politeness, politeness phenomenon is considered to be universal, and so it is possible to form a common model of politeness for every culture and language (Terkourafi, 2005). The current review presents a critical evaluation of relevant literature in order to build the foundation on which suggestions for future research on politeness are made. 1. Literature on linguistic politeness: A state of arts It was not until the late 1970s that politeness became an important issue in pragmatic studies (Kasper, 1990). When Grice first introduced his conversational Maxims in 1975, he established one of the most important foundations on which leading theories of politeness have been built (Brown & Levinson, 1978, 1987; Lakoff, 1973, 1975, 1990; Leech, 1983). These researchers, and those working in their framework, tend to function toward a universal model of politeness. Although they do not necessarily claim the universality of their model, they all propose a common model for politeness, either implicitly in the form of Principles (., Leech, 1983), Rules (Lakoff, 1973, 1990), or explicitly in a universal model (Brown & Levinson, 1978, 1987). What all of these theories have in common is their emphasis on the linguistic presentation of politeness (., .
