Politeness in the courtroom discourse

Abstract

When talking about politeness in terms of models or theories, the Politeness Principle, a systematic effort made by Geoffrey Leech (1983), out of his desire to rescue the Cooperative Principle,9 from serious trouble, will naturally come to our mind first. The Principle is expressed in two forms, with its negative form being ‘Minimize (other things being equal) the expression of impolite beliefs’ and the positive form ‘Maximize (other things being equal) the expression of polite beliefs’, which are substantiated by the following six maxims: