Brown & Levinson (1987) put forward Politeness Theory based on Goffman’s theory of face。 They propose the theory that politeness strategies are chosen according to the degree of face threats。

Brown & Levinson summarize the politeness strategies as the following:

Do the FTA: (1) on record; without regressive action, badly; with regressive action positive politeness negative politeness (2) off record。 Don’t do the FTA。 (Brown & Levinson,1987; 60)

According to Brown & Levinson’s opinion, in business communication the Hearer and the Speaker want to build and maintain a friendly and comfortable business atmosphere, and the Speaker will try his best to satisfy the Hearer’s interest, wants, and needs, or on the other hand the Hearer wants the Speaker’s notice and approval (Brown & Levinson, 1987 :103)。

Brown & Levinson believe that “face is the public self-image that every member wants to claim for himself。” “Face is something that is emotionally invested, and that can be lost, maintained, or enriched, and must be constantly attended to in interaction”(Brown & Levinson, 1987:61)。 They believe that people save face in mutual cooperation 。文献综述

Brown & Levinson also make a distinction between positive and negative face and believe they are interrelated。 Positive face refers to an inpidual’s desire for approval, which means one hopes to get other people’s approval, love, appreciation and respect; negative face refers to an inpidual’s desire for autonomy, which means one does not want to be interrupted by other people but has his own freedom of choice (Brown & Levinson, 1987 : 62)。 In order to achieve face, people tend to apply appropriate strategic actions。 This politeness strategy includes bold on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, off record, non-performance。

Brown & Levinson also propose Face Threatening Acts which pose a threat to the self-image of the other party in the process of communication。 Face threatening acts can be found both in positive and negative face。 Speech acts posing a threat to a listener’s positive face mean that speaker pays little attention to the listener’s feelings, needs, and interest, which include objection, criticism, scorn, ridicule, complaint, insult and etc。 Speech acts which pose a threat to a listener’s negative face mean that speaker asks listener to do something and makes him feel under pressure。 These kinds of speech acts include order, request, suggestion, remind, threatening, warning and etc。

 Brown & Levinson believe that their face and politeness theory is a universal theory which applies to any culture。 Yet this needs to be proven。 In cross-cultural business communication, it can not be denied that confrontation and cooperation both exist side by side。 Brown & Levinson’s theory can be used to explain which speech acts threaten face, to which extent and what strategies should be taken as response。