POLITENESS AS UNIVERSAL - CROSS-CULTURAL PERCEPTIONS OF REQUEST STRATEGIES AND INFERENCES BASED ON THEIR USE

Brown and Levinson's (1987) politeness theory attempts to explain how face-management processes (and the variables that affect it) motivate the manner in which speakers in any culture will phrase their remarks. Several hypotheses derived from this theory were tested with subjects from the United States and Korea. Subjects in Experiments 1 and 2 indicated their perceptions of different remarks that could be used for performing the same request. Perceptions of the politeness of these remarks covaried with the extent to which the remarks encoded concern for the hearer's face, and this occurred for both Americans and Koreans. There was only mixed support for predictions that the size of the request (Experiment 1) and the hearer's relative power and distance from the speaker (Experiment 2) will affect perceptions of remarks. The results of Experiment 3 indicate that inferences of speaker power and relationship closeness can be made on the basis of request forms, and this effect is similar for both Americans and Koreans.