More Than Words: Linguistic and Nonlinguistic Politeness in Two Cultures.

The article presents a study on the linguistic and nonlinguistic aspects of politeness, in the Korean and American cultures. Politeness theory suggests that speakers will be more polite when the relative power of the target over the speaker increases, the social distance between the target and the speaker increases, and the degree of imposition on the target increases the size of a request. The study attempted to explore the linguistic as well as nonlinguistic cues and strategies used to communicate politeness. Strategies used were other--orientation, affiliation, and circumspection. Americans and Koreans were more affiliative toward peers and more circumspect toward superiors whereas reverse while delivering good news. Both Americans and Koreans, circumspection was more apparent from the purely nonverbal channel of behavior. Koreans pay more attention to interpersonal and relational cues. Americans are affected more by the content of the message than by their relationship with the target of the message.