摘要
The theory of politeness and face-saving proposed by Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) has been up to now the most influential politeness model. Brown and Levinson's politeness theory contains three basic notions: face, FTAs (face threatening acts), and politeness strategies. According to the authors, "face" refers to the public self-image of a person. Negative face shows the need to be independent, to have freedom of action, and not to be imposed on by others. Positive face shows the need to be accepted, even liked, by others, to be treated as a member of the same group, and to know that his or her wants are shared by others. It plays a leading role in the study of speech acts Brown and Levinson introduced five super strategies for politeness in relation to FTAs: bald on-record, positive politeness, negative politeness, off-record, and don't do the FTAs. The theoretical framework of this paper is based on Brown and Levinson's politeness theory and strategies