MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI KHANH

A STUDY OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN THE
CONVERSATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF THE COURSE BOOK “NEW
CUTTING EDGE”
(ELEMENTARY, PRE-INTERMEDIATE AND INTERMEDIATE)

(NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ ĐƯỢC SỬ DỤNG TRONG
CÁC BÀI HỘI THOẠI CỦA GIÁO TRÌNH GIAO TIẾP NEW CUTTING
EDGE ELEMENTARY, PRE-INTERMEDIATE VÀ INTERMEDIATE)

M.A. THESIS

Field: English Language
Code: 60220201
Supervisor: Dr. Nguyen Thi Van Dong

HANOI – 2013

I would like to acknowledge and express my appreciation to my
colleagues at Quang Ninh University of Industry, English department for their
enthusiastic support and constructive suggestions in completing this research.
I also wish to thank all the staff members of the Faculty of Post
Graduate, Hanoi Open University for giving me the best environment to fulfill
my thesis.
Last but not least, my gratitude is extended to my parents for their
endless love, constant support and encouragement.
I realize that this thesis is still far from prefect. I will be glad to receive
criticism and suggestion to make this thesis better. Finally, I expect that this
thesis is useful to the writer and everyone who is interested in linguistic study.
iii ABSTRACT
This study is to focus on positive and negative politeness strategies in
conversations of the course book “New Cutting Edge Elementary, Pre-
Intermediate, Intermediate”, with an aim to help the students at Quang Ninh
University improve their awareness of politeness strategies in conversational
activities in the course book mentioned above, thus to apply these strategies
in their everyday conversations in English. The thesis lists three most popular

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale of the study 1
2. Aims of the study 3
3. Research questions 3
4. Scopes of the study 4
5. Methods of the study 4
6. Design of the study 4
PART II: DEVELOPMENT 6
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 6
1.1. Language and culture 6
1.2. Speech acts 7
1.2.1. Locutionary Acts 9
1.2.2. Illocutionary Acts 9
1.2.3. Perlocutionary Acts 11
1.3.4. Direct and indirect speech acts 11
1.3. Cooperative Principle and Grice’s Maxims 12
1.4. Politeness 14
1.4.1. General ideas of politeness 14
1.4.2. Face 15
1.4.3. Politeness rules of Lakoff 16
1.4.4. Politeness Principle Maxims of Leech 17
1.4.5. Politeness strategies of Brown and Levinson 19
i) Don’t do the FTA (say nothing) 20
ii) Bald on-record 21

vi iii) Positive strategies 22
iv) Negative strategies 29

include English as one of their major subject and the number of people
learning English for different purposes such as finding a job, doing businesses
or traveling is continually on the increase every day. Therefore, different
kinds of English teaching and learning are available over the world especially
in Vietnam.
In Vietnam, English becomes the core language to communicate with
other countries over the world so English becomes a compulsory subject at
many schools at many levels such as: schools, colleges and universities from
major to non-major in English. However, the basis method is used in teaching
in Vietnam is more concentrating on vocabulary and grammar than on
communication. Therefore, learners do not know what to say to have
contextual, situational and cultural appropriateness in communication.
Consequently, learners have a certain limit when communicating or
interacting in an appropriate way or even being culture shock although they
can read well or have a good grammar.
Nguyen Quang [20, 2] states that one cannot master a language
without profound awareness of its cultural background and in both verbal
and non-verbal communication, culture makes itself strongly felt. So in order
to acquire the second language-English, it is necessary to learn not only

2 linguistic knowledge and interaction but also knowledge of English culture
which described as the ideas, customs, skills, arts and tools which
characterize a given group of people in a given period of time (Marie Emmitt
and John Pollock, cited from Dang Thanh Phuong [18, 39]. Nowadays, some
cultural factors are included in the course design in universities and schools
only. When understanding the cultural factors students have chances to
expose themselves to natives speaking environments. Normally, Vietnamese

New Cutting Edge which contains a lot of useful conversational
activities with many real life situations, is an English course book written by
Sarah Cunningham and Peter Moor. This course book is employed at the
Faculty of English (Quang Ninh University of Industry) where thesis author
works as a teacher of English so as to improve the teaching and learning of
verbal communication in English.
2. Aims of the study
The study aims at the following objectives:
- To study different kinds of politeness strategies
- To classify politeness strategies used in the interaction activities in the
course book “New Cutting Edge”
- To provide suggestions for effective teaching and learning
- To adapt and design some cross-cultural activities to help students
avoid misinterpretations and misunderstandings in cross-cultural
communication.
3. Research questions
In order to achieve the aims stated, the study is meant to find out the
answers to the following research questions:
- Which are the main types of politeness strategies?

4 - What types of politeness strategies are used in interaction activities of
the course book “New Cutting Edge”?
- What are the suggestions for effective teaching of politeness strategies?
4. Scopes of the study
The study focuses only on major politeness strategies found in the
interaction activities of the course book “New Cutting Edge” (Elementary,
Pre-intermediate and Intermediate [see at next page]) which for a long time,
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Language and culture
The term culture is a too large area to give a satisfying definition.
Pioneer English Anthropologist Edward Tylor defined culture is that complex
whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any
other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society [27, 1].
According to Fanz Boas, culture is defined as the totality of the mental
and physical reactions and activities that characterize the behavior of
individuals composing a social group collectively and individually in
relations to their natural environment, to other groups, to members of the
group itself and of each individual to himself. It also includes the products of
these activities and their role in more, for its elements are not independent,
they have a structure [3, 149].
Another widely – accepted definition is that language is an inseparable
part of our everyday lives. It is the main tool used to transmit messages, to
communicate ideas, thoughts and opinions. It situates us in the society we live
in; it is a social affair which creates and further determines our position in all
kinds of various social networks and institutions. Nguyen Quang [20, 3]
defined that culture enables us to communicate with each other since it is a
shared language background (e.g. national, religions), resulting from a
common language and communication styles, customs, beliefs, attitudes,
values.
In certain circumstances we are literally dependent on its appropriate
usage and there are moments when we need to be understood quite correctly.
Language is involved in nearly all fields of human activity and maybe that is

7
language one must understand the speaker’s intention and by understanding the
speaker’s intention, it is possible to capture the meaning and establish a speech
act.
Austin, the pioneer of speech acts theory and an American language
philosopher, states that speech acts are not just acts such as making a word,
but also having more meaning behind the words uttered, as suggested in How
to Do Things with Words in which he introduces basic terms and areas to
study and distinguishes locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts [1,
101]. According to Lyons [17, 173], Austin’s main purpose was to challenge
the view that the only philosophically (and also linguistically) interesting
function of language was that of making true or false statements). Austin
proves that there are undoubtedly more functions language can exercise. The
theory of speech acts thus comes to being and Austin's research becomes a
cornerstone for his followers (cited from Justova, [5, 6]).
According to Leech, locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts
are three basic components with the help of which a speech act is formed.
And Leech [14, 199] briefly defines them like this:
Locutionary act: performing an act of saying something;
Illocutionary act: performing an act in saying something;
Perlocutionary act: performing an act by saying something.
E.g.: Turn off the light!
In the above example, locutionary act of this utterance is simply a
question with a clear content (Turn off the light).
Illocutionary act: He urged/required me to turn off the light.
Perlocutionary act expresses the speaker’s desire that the H should go
and turn off the light.

9
E.g.: a. Can you close the window?
b. Will you close the window?
c. Could you close the window?
d. Would you close the window?
For better understanding and orientation, some linguists proposed their
classification in which Searle’s division is the most popular one. Searle
(1976) divided illocutionary acts into five major categories:
- Representatives are such utterances which commit the H to the truth of
the expressed proposition (e.g. asserting, concluding,…)
E.g.: The name of the American president is Obama.
- Directives are attempts by the S to get the addressee to do something
(e.g.: ordering, requesting…)
E.g.: Would you make me a cup of tea?
- Commissives commit the S to some future course of action (e.g.:
promising, offering)
E.g.: I promise to come at 12 am and pick you up.
- Expressives express a psychological state (e.g.: thanking,
congratulating)
E.g.: Thank you for your enthusiasm help.
- Declarations effect immediate changes in the institutional state of
affairs which tend to rely on elaborate extra-linguistic institutions (e.g.
christening, declaring war)
E.g.: I bequeath all my property to my beloved-husband.

11
B: I have to do my homework.
In this situation, B used an indirect speech act to reject the proposal.
This is indirect because the literal meaning does not entail any sort of
rejection. The S avoids rejection by using I have to do my homework.
The interplay of directness and indirectness is also an interesting factor
in social situations where some people know each other better and some are
new acquaintances. Using direct speech to your old friends and indirect
speech to the newcomers is an efficient way to be polite.
According to Leech, Indirectness is a widely used conversational
strategy. People tend to use indirect speech acts mainly in connection with
politeness since they thus diminish the unpleasant message contained in
requests and orders for instance [cited from Justova, 5, 17].
1.3. Cooperative Principle and Grice’s Maxims
In social science generally and linguistics specifically, the cooperative
principle describes how people interact with one another.
Grice [7, 45] proposes that participants in a conversation obey a general
“Cooperative Principle”, which is expected to be in force whenever a
conversation unfolds: Make your contribution such as it is required, at the
stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk
exchange in which you are engaged.
The cooperative principle goes both ways: Speakers (generally)
observe the cooperative principle, and listeners (generally) assume that
speakers are observing it. This allows for the possibility of implicatures,
which are meanings that are not explicitly conveyed in what is said, but that
can nonetheless be inferred.

13



1.4. Politeness
1.4.1. General ideas of politeness
Durkheim (1915) pointed out that The human personality is a scared
thing; one dare not violate it nor infringe it bounds, while at the same time the
greatest good is in communion with other (cited from Brown and Levinson,
[2, 1]). So the way people choose to speak and how the Hs react to their
speech is very important and it is the reason why linguists and anthropologists
have given the politeness definitions.
Lakoff (cited from [31, 106] defined politeness as a system of
interpersonal relations designed to facilitate interaction by minimizing the
potential conflict and confrontation inherent in all human interchange.
Leech defines politeness as a type of behaviour that allows the
participants to engage in a social interaction in an atmosphere of relative
harmony. Besides, he states that politeness as crucial in explaining why
people are often so indirect in conveying what they mean (in Thomas [24,
158].
Thomas sees that politeness interpreted as a genuine desire to be
pleasant to others, or as the underlying motivation for an individual’s
linguistic behaviour [24, 150].
Yule [31, 60] said that “politeness, in an interaction, can then be
defined as the means employed to show awareness of another person’s face.”
Face can be defined as the public self-image of a person.
In short, Politeness is one of the most important aspects of human
communication and people can only exist in a peace if the basic conventions
of politeness are observed. 15



Negative face was defined as the want of every “competent adult
member” that his actions be unimpeded by others, or the basic claim to
territories, personal preserves, rights to non-distraction - i.e., to freedom of
action and freedom from imposition. (cited from Brown and Levinson, [2,
61])
Positive face was defined as the want of every member that his wants
be desirable to at least some others executors, or alternately, the positive
consistent self-image or “personality” (crucially including the desire that this
self-image be appreciated and approved of) claimed by interactants. (cited
from Brown and Levinson, [2, 61]).
It is believed that when we communicate, participants will co – operate
with each other due to the mutual vulnerability of face. However, there are
acts that by nature run contrary to the face wants of the addressee and/or of
the speakers. Brown and Levinson (1987) defined the performance of such
utterances as Face threatening acts. The S need to consider how it should be
uttered when need to perform an FTA.
1.4.3. Politeness rules of Lakoff
Lakoff was one of the first linguists to study politeness and gave birth
to the notion that politeness is an important aspect of interaction that needs to
be studied. Many theorists following Lakoff have focused on either expanding
on his maxims or contesting them.
Lakoff’s theory of politeness gave some set of rules that people should
use when interact with each other, which prevent interaction from breaking
down. As outlined in “Politeness theory”, Lakoff proposes that there are two
rules of politeness: Be clear and be polite, which aim at minimizing conflict in

17
interpretation that the center of the study is on the effect of the H rather than
S.
Leech [14, 132] stated that politeness principle consists of six maxims,
i.e. tact maxim, generosity maxim, approbation maxim, modesty maxim,
agreement maxim, and sympathy maxim, those are:
i) Tact maxim: This maxim aims at minimizing costs to the S and
maximizing benefits to the audience.
E.g.: Let’s carry the luggage for you.
This utterance is spoken to ask the H to carry his luggage. The S uses
indirect utterance to be more polite and minimizing cost to the H.
ii) Generosity maxim: This maxim aims at maximizing the benefits for others
and minimizing benefits for self.
E.g.: I can lend you my car.
In this case S gives more priority the H’s advantage and implies the
disadvantage of the speaker.
iii) Approbation maxim/Praise: This maxim aims at minimizing
dispraise of the audience and maximizing praise/approval of the audience.
E.g.: A: The performance was great!
B: Yes, wasn’t it!
In the example, A gives a good comment about the performance. He
talks the pleasant thing about other. This expression is a congratulation
utterance that maximizes praise of other.
iv) Modesty maxim: This maxim aims at minimizing praise of self and
maximizing dispraise of self.
E.g.: Please accept this small gift for you