Topic 12 - Meaning between the lines (Session B) > Top Girls revisited - with politeness in mind > Task A > Answers

Top Girls revisited - with politeness in mind

Task A – Our answers

Win’s goal is to find out in detail about Louise and her experience in order to help her in her quest for a new job. This goal, although it should have longer-term benefits for Louise, also involves short-term threats to her face, as she has to tell Win things she does not want to. As we have just described it, this threat constitutes a threat to Louise’s negative face. But some of the things she may not want to disclose appear to be because they throw an unflattering light on her, in which case her positive face is being threatened too. If Win is to be successful in helping Louise we would expect her have to use linguistic politeness to mitigate the threats to Louise’s negative and/or positive face.

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