CLASS ETHOS AND POLITENESS

This article lends quantitative support to the notion that politeness is variable across social strata, and provides linguistic evidence for the notion of a ''social class ethos.'' This difference is shown to b e encoded in ordinary usage, within the genre of direction giving. Int erpretation of the natural language data collected is based here on Br own and Levinson's ''politeness theory'' (1978, 1987). The data give e vidence that middle-class speakers are more likely to make use of the more elaborated negative politeness strategy, with suggestions being i ssued in an indirect way. Working-class speakers tend to choose the '' bald-on record'' strategy, suggesting directions in the form of direct bald imperatives. Variable speaker perceptions of social distance acr oss the two classes give the results found in the data.