Brown And Levinson's Theoretical Analysis

Brown and Levinson came up with four different politeness strategies in which people use to express messages in order to preserve the listener’s positive face when face-threatening acts are anticipated. These four strategies include: bald on-record, negative politeness, positive politeness and off record (indirect). By looking at each genders language in their response tweets I noticed how the majority of women began their tweets with the subordinating conjunction “because”. By using this conjunction it connects the views in their tweets to the events that took place in May. By also using ‘because’ it sardonically ameliorates their point of view, turning the problem on women and not men. By using this indirect language it relies mainly on pragmatics