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Strategy 11: Be optimistic that the hearer wants what the speaker wants,
i.e. that the FTA is slight:
I know you‟re always glad to get a tip or two on gardening, Fred.
Strategy 12 Include both S and H in the activity.
Example: I‟m feeling really hungry. Let‟s stop for a bite.
Strategy 13 Give or ask for reasons
: I think you‟ve had a bit too much to
drink, Jim. Strategy 14 Assert reciprocal exchange.
For example: I‟ll mow the lawn after school tomorrow. → FTA if you help me with my math homework.
Strategy 15 Give gifts to H goods, sympathy, understanding, and cooperation
. Example:
A: Have a glass of malt whiskey, Dick. B: Terrific Thanks.
A: Not at all. Watts 89-90
C. Negative Politeness:
This is usually oriented from the hearer‟s negative face. Negative face is the desire to remain autonomous so the speaker is more
appropriate to include an out for the listener, through distancing styles like
apologize Mills, 2003. Strategy 1: Be conventionally indirect.
Example: Could you tell me the time, please?
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Strategy 2: Do not assume willingness to comply. Question, hedge.
Example: I wonder whether I could just sort of ask you a little question. Strategy 3: Be pessimistic about ability or willingness to comply. Use the
subjunctive. Example: If you had a little time to spare for me this afternoon,
I‟d like to talk about my paper.
Strategy 4: Minimise the imposition . Example: Could I talk to you for just a
minute?
Strategy 5: Give deference . Example: to a police constable Excuse me,
officer. I think I might have parked in the wrong place.
Strategy 6: Apologise. Example: Sorry to bother you,but...
Strategy 7: Impersonalise the speaker and the hearer. Example:
A: That car‟s parked in a no-parking area.
B: It‟s mine, officer. A: Well, it‟ll have to have a parking ticket.
Strategy 8: State the FTA as an instance of a general rule
. Example: Parking on the double yellow lines is illegal → FTA I‟m going to have to
give you a fine.
Strategy 9: Nominalise to distance the actor and add formality. Example: Participation
in an illegal demonstration is punishable by law. → FTA Could I have your name and address, madam?
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Strategy 10: Go on record as incurring a debt, or as not indebting H .
Example: I‟ll buy you a beer at lunchtime. → FTA If you could just sort out a problem I‟ve got with my formatting. Watts 90-91
D. Off record: This strategy includes metaphor and irony rhetorical questions,
understatement, tautologies, and uses connotations instead of direct requests. For example, a speaker might say „my home is too far from here‟, which
would imply to the listener to take an action, such as drive the speaker home or let the speaker stay in hearer‟s place, without directly asking himher to do
so. Brown Levinson 69
Strategy 1: give hints
. Example: it‟s cold here shut the window
Strategy 2: give association clues. The act of implied something associated
with S-
H‟s mutual knowledge irrespective of their interactional experience.
Strategy 3: presuppose. An utterance of this strategy can be almost wholly
relevant in context. Strategy 4: understate.
Example:
A: what a beautiful house B: oh I don‟t know it‟s a house
Strategy 5: overstate. Example: I have seen
it thousand times, but she‟s not there.
Strategy 6: use tautologies.
Example: if I won‟t say it, I won‟t.
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Strategy 7: use contradictions.
Example: so happy that my teacher doesn‟t care about be.
Strategy 8: be ironic.
Example: Abrar‟s a real genius after he just done stupid things
Strategy 9: use metaphor.
Example: Abrar‟s real fish He drinks swims like a fish
Strategy 10: use rhetorical questions. Example: how many times do I have
to tell you about that?
Strategy 11: be ambiguous.
Example: Frank‟s a pretty smooth cookie.
Strategy 12: be vague.
Example: I‟m going to you-know-where.
Strategy 13: over-generalize. Example: people who live in glass houses
shouldn‟t throw stones
Strategy 14: displace H. Example: he never comes here for a long time.
Strategy 15: be incomplete, use ellipsis.
Example: well, I didn‟t see you in class this morning. Brown Levinson
E. Do not do FTA or zero strategy: if the speaker decides that degree of the
