The impolite utterances with respectful attitude are to be studied in this thesis under the Adaptation Theory proposed by Jef Verschueren.

An interpretation of impolite speech acts in the light of AT

In various expressions of being polite,different understandings of individualism in Chinese and English cultures produce each own politeness language.

It extends the concept of FTAs (face-threatening acts) into FTAs and non-FTAs, and then demonstrates that politeness language can roughly be divided into five categories as its different levels.

Differences of polite language exists because of differences between oriental historical and cultural background,geographical environment and thinking manner and those of western.

Based on a brief study of Grice s conversational implicature and Leech s polite principle,this paper explores the scale of polite language from the angle of linguistics.

People,coming from different cultural background,will have different understanding to courtesy language with the differences in moral value view,cultural custom and regulation in behavior.