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Thus far, politeness in Old and Middle French and in older languages in general has not been closely examined. This dissertation therefore presents a detailed linguistic analysis of politeness in Medieval French. Relying heavily on data from a wide range of texts from Latin to Middle French, this dissertation discusses several aspects of linguistic politeness that traditionally have been misinterpreted or not considered. First and foremost, the evidence indicates that polite and deferential speech existed from early Latin onward, although its representation could vary from one period to another. The analysis of the linguistic systems of Latin and Medieval French introduces non-pronominal linguistic devices used to express politeness, the role of the pronominal address system in polite speech, and the evolution of the pronominal address system after the emergence of the deferential pronoun vous. Moreover, a diachronic analysis of the data reveals the spread of conventionalized polite and formal language, which was an instrument representing upper class society, to middle class society and the generalization of the polite linguistic devices in Middle French. This observation shows that, paradoxically, in the Classical period, conventional polite language could no longer be associated merely with upper class society. Subsequently, in contrast to the majority of previous studies, it is argued that the alleged inconsistency in the use of the pronominal address system of Old French was not significant and that it in fact followed a regular pattern. As a result, the Old French pronominal address system did not represent an irregular or isolated system, but a system in evolution. Finally, from a sociolinguistic perspective, this study partially supports the theory of a universal view of politeness postulated by Brown and Levinson (1987), because some of polite linguistic devices put forth in their theory (e.g. honorifics, impersonal structures, hedges, etc.) are found in older languages. Yet, this dissertation emphasizes that strategies used to express politeness changed over time, indicating that politeness is culturally defined.

Over the past three decades, the Vietnamese language has undergone substantial changes, both in Vietnam, and in diasporic contexts such as Australia. Yet the nature of the variation resulting from those changes at the sociopragmatic level in expressing politeness is little researched. The question of whether there are differences in the politeness expressed by Vietnamese speakers living in Vietnam and Australia is the focus of this research.

It has been generally recognized in pragmatics that the speech act request, i.e., asking someone to do something, can be a face-threatening act (FTA); thus studies of requests have been traditionally associated with research on linguistic politeness, the mitigation of FTAs. Every culture has each own way of appropriately presenting the requests in different contexts; people from other cultures tend to perceive the social variables somewhat differently and interpret the behavior or utterances based on their own native language systems or culture conventions. As a result, misunderstandings are likely take place in cross-culture communication involving requests. This study endeavors to explore the similarities and differences in requests in academic settings in three different languages—English, Russian and Chinese. A written questionnaire was designed to elicit request locutions made by 25 students who were native speakers of each language; in order to ensure that the requests were sensitive to contexts, the questionnaire included 14 everyday situations in an academic setting. The questionnaire also included a rating scale for the native speakers of each language to assess the weight of each situation; this elicited evidence for the native perception of each requestive situation and allowed comparison of cultural differences in assessment. The dissertation compares and reveals the ways of making requests in the three languages in each requestive situation in terms not only of the strategies used in the core requests, but also of internal and external modifications within the request locutions. While the primary goal of the dissertation is a linguistic comparison and analysis, it is the author's belief that such research has the potential to enhance, to some extent, mutual understanding in people of different cultures. In particular, being aware of how a second language phrases requests differently from one's native language can greatly reduce the potential for misunderstanding, increase the likelihood of obtaining one's requestive goal without causing offense, and in general enhance cross-cultural communication.

Research on how Russian aspect functions in the imperative has revealed contradictory opinions on the emotive nuances that the aspectual forms can express in different contexts. These contradictions, however, turn out to be illusory if we consider the various approaches from the point of view of Functional Grammar, i.e., as complimentary to each other. Context, and intonation in particular, are shown to be of critical importance in resolving these contradictions, especially if there is to be an adequate discussion of the nuances of politeness/impoliteness. However, my study shows that much of the previous research on the issue has continuously neglected contextual factors. The reason for this neglect is shown to be rooted in the fact that most studies of linguistic politeness, including those by Russian scholars, are based on traditional politeness theories, in which lay conceptualizations of politeness merge with scientific notions. Thus, politeness studies become imposition theories which are subjective, evaluative and prescriptive in nature. After critiquing the traditional models, I consider alternative approaches to linguistic politeness. The latter view politeness as practice, and focus on how evaluations of (im)politeness occur in real interaction. I adopt the position reflected in the alternative approaches. However, my study's narrow focus on imperative utterances dictates the following modification: I analyze examples embedded in movie contexts which prove to be the most reliable data source for obtaining actual hearers' evaluations. Further, I demonstrate how the alternative models of linguistic politeness can be combined with the insights into aspectual semantics provided by various Russian studies on how aspect functions in the imperative. Though the alternative approach suggested in this work remains relative, as it does not allow researchers to make any definitive claims about the role of the aspectual form itself in the polite/impolite interpretation of an imperative utterance, it allows us to focus on (im)politeness as a discursive struggle which occurs in each particular instance of a real human interaction.