Revisiting Politeness Theories: Advice in the setting of reality TV in Mexican Spanish

Abstract

This paper will attempt to revisit and question traditional ‘politeness’ theories. One of the major criticisms of traditional politeness theories such as those of Lakoff (1973) and Brown & Levinson (1987) is that they are mostly based on westernized cultural behaviors. Therefore, they may not be applicable to other cultural communities, for example, the Latin (or Hispanic) community. In this study, we therefore attempt to examine whether traditional politeness theories are applicable to Mexican society examining a common speech act, the giving of advice, in a pseudo-realistic setting.