We can think of politeness in general terms as having to do with ideas like being tactful, modest and nice to other people. In the study of linguistic politeness, the most relevant concept is “face.” Your face, in pragmatics, is your public self-image. This is the emotional and social sense of self that everyone has and expects everyone else to recognize. Politeness can be defined as showing awareness and consideration of another person’s face.

If you say something that represents a threat to another person’s self-image, that is called a face-threatening act. For example, if you use a direct speech act to get someone to do something (Give me that paper!), you are behaving as if you have more social power than the other person. If you don’t actually have that social power (e.g. you’re not a military officer or prison warden), then you are performing a face-threatening act. An indirect speech act, in the form associated with a question (Could you pass me that paper?), removes the assumption of social power. You’re only asking if it’s possible. This makes your request less threatening to the other person’s face. Whenever you say something that lessens the possible threat to another’s face, it can be described as a face-saving act.