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This study makes use of Brown and Levinson's (1978; 1987) theory of politeness. More specifically, it focuses on how the model they lay down as guiding language users is actually exploited in various ways by these users. Therefore, four different operationalisations of the basic hypothesis of politeness theory are proposed, ranging from the possibility that linguistic choices are totally determined by social norms to one allowing considerable freedom of choice for individual language users. The article reports on a questionnaire study carried out with adolescents in two urban multicultural areas: Rotterdam in The Netherlands and Køge in Denmark. In both cities, two groups of adolescents took part: one with a Turkish migrant background and one without a migration background. The questionnaire was based on Hill et al. (1986). Only one of the four groups, the Turkish adolescents in Rotterdam, showed an answering pattern that confirms politeness theory. The Køge adolescents with no migration background were the most extreme in not doing what the theory predicts them to do. Instead, they seem to be claiming and constructing equality. The other two groups of respondents also appear to be involved in a process of levelling; with their linguistic choices, they soften the effects of social hierarchies. All four groups of adolescents attenuate the linguistic encoding of social hierarchies, as far as they even acknowledge them, and thus cast doubt on the universality of the determinative relationship between social context and language, a relationship which has generally been assumed to be a necessary cornerstone in any theory of sociolinguistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]