Language and Power research

Grice's Maxims:

Paul Grice was a Philosopher of language. His theory of Grice's Maxims were a way of maintaining harmonious conversation between two people. These are his set of guidelines:

The Maxim of quantity/information: where one tries to be as informative as possible and gives as much information as needed, but no more.

The Maxim of quality/truth: the speaker only says what he/she knows is true and can be supported by evidence, they do not give any false information.

The Maxim of relevance: they only say things that are relevant to the conversation and do not go off-topic.

The Maxim of manner/clarity: where one tries to be as clear as possible to the listener and so makes what they're saying brief and easy to understand.


Brown and Gevinson's Politeness/Face Theory:

In 1987, Brown and Levinson researched the social norm of politeness. They based their theory on an individuals desires' and how that reflects on their politeness. Simultaneously, they formed the concept of the 'face' which is described as the self-image one displays during conversation with another person. Brown and Levinson discovered three different types of faces and attitudes:

:) Positive face: the desire to be appreciated and liked - an extra effort put in to be polite.

:( Negative face: the desire to have freedom and not be imposed upon - personalty not altered by opinions of others.

:/ Face threatening act (FTA): an act which deliberately threatens the face needs of others.