An alternative model and ideology of communication for an alternative to politeness theory

Brown & Levinson opened their 1987 commentary on their theory of politeness by reemphasizing not only that their framework presumed “that Grice’s theory of conversational implicature and the framework of maxims that give rise to such implicatures is essentially correct” (p. 3), but also that their theory presupposed “the other great contribution by Grice, namely his account of the nature of communication as a special kind of intention designed to be recognized by the recipient” (p. 7; cf. Levinson 1983: 16-18; 1995: 227-232). Brown & Levinson also closed their 1987 commentary with a projection for future development of their theory