Politeness in Iranian Native Speakers’ Interactions

Abstract

The study of politeness is crucial to the study of social interaction. In this regard, this study aims to analyze the speech of 20 Iranian native speakers from the south of Iran in order to investigate the extent of politeness in their speech. In order to elicit the participants’ speech, a researcher-made discourse completion task was used.  In order to analyze the data, Brown and Levinson’s (1987) faced-based model was used. The results of the test indicated that Iranian native speakers’ speeches were polite and the participants used negative and bald strategies in their interactions more than other strategies. The study showed that Iranian speakers use politeness strategies when required.