Publications

Publication details [#65998]

Murphy, M. Lynne and Rachele De Felice. 2019. Routine politeness in American and British English requests: use and non-use of please. Journal of Politeness Research 15 (1) : 77–100.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
e-mail communication | face maintenance | language variety | politeness | request | workplace conversation
Language as a subject
English, American | English, British
Place, Publisher
De Gruyter
Journal WWW
www.degruyter.com/journal/key/JPLR/html

Annotation

This study explores the (non-)use of please in American and British English workplace email requests. The conduct of please is assayed with reference to factors like modal verb type, sentence mood and imposition level. Contrasts in use of please between the two English varieties can be explained by regarding this as conventional politeness marker rather than face-threat mitigation in BE and as relationship asymmetry marker in AE.