Comparing the Perception of Indirectness and Politeness in German, British English and American English

Is indirectness the key to politeness or rather an obstacle in intercultural communication? This book is part of the first cohort of a student research project on the perception of politeness and constitutes a restudy with modifications of the renowned CCSARP project by Blum-Kulka (1987). The aim of this study was to examine the (non-)linearity of indirectness and politeness in requests using an online questionnaire with ranking tasks, and to explore the resulting differences between three varieties of English (Canadian, British, and American English) as well as German. Following the underlying theoretical concept of face as a core feature of human behavior and interaction defined by Brown & Levinson (1987), the study explores the extent to which politeness correlates with indirectness and how this relation is shaped by situational variables such as power and social distance as well as cultural differences in politeness norms. The thesis particularly focuses on Preparatory strategies and introduces a model of routinized politeness, proposing that highly conventionalized request forms could become perceived as default strategies, prompting speakers to adopt newer forms to signal increased politeness.