Politeness and power: Making and responding to requests in institutional settings

This article aims to explore the usefulness of politeness theory in understanding institutional discourse in power-laden contexts and how politeness strategies are realized in discourse practices which are closely related to institutional norms. It is also concerned to establish the relationship between the use of redressive linguistic forms and institutional power and the extent to which participants with externally 'given' power employ mitigation while at the same time claiming power in relation to their 'clients'. On the basis of data recorded in three diverse British institutional contexts, i.e., magistrates courts, doctors' surgeries, and the reception area of a police station, it is argued that: (i) politeness theory is a useful way of approaching institutional discourse which can enable us to begin to define more explicitly the nature of institutional norms and to interpret interactional behavior in power-laden institutional settings; (ii) informative and interpersonal modes of linguistic communication interpenetrate in the discourse practices of institutional settings that differ substantially in the ways in which such relationships are manifested and negotiated; and (iii) not only do redressive linguistic forms provide a powerful means of encoding these crucially important relational and interpersonal elements of language but powerful institutional members make extensive use of politeness strategies.