Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 3,0 (C), http://www.uni-jena.de/ (Institut für Anglistics/ American Studies), language: English, abstract: 1. Overview of the Politeness Principle In everyday situations we have to communicate with other people to get information, to gain knowledge about a topic or to reach a variety of goals. To be successful, one has to follow some important strategies. Beside the rule of the language philosopher H.P. Grice, which is called the Cooperative Principle, there exists another concept that served when people are talking. It is called the Politeness Principle which has above all been developed by Leech. In the centre of this concept does not stand the information of a conversation, but the effect of what is said on the people. [...]