Honorific references as politeness markers in official documents.

Language politeness is a necessity in order to maintain the survival of a harmonious society. This state of politeness can be manifested through the radiance of a sincere heart that is represented through conduct as well as the use of polite language that does not offend the audience; which may come in the form of a reader or listener. At present, the importance of language politeness has been widely discussed which aims to maintain the harmony and well-being of the Malaysian nation as one close knit family. Accordingly, this study was conducted to examine the language politeness used within administrative and management affairs. Research was conducted on the practice of honorary reference as a marker of politeness in official documents. The study approach consist of text analysis through the examination of the management documents obtained from selected government departments. Linguistic politeness writing will be classified based on honorific references written on or before a person's title, position, rank or personal name. The findings demonstrate that there is still room for improvement by the party issuing the document to refine the use of language to be at a higher level of politeness by emphasizing the use of respectful references as gazetted through the General Circular Letter No. 4 of 2014 by the Prime Minister's Department, Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]