Try some direct politeness.
As if reaching for some distant politeness she had said, ÂHow was Greece? Now she was standing, with the tissue paper crumpled around the horse, which she had not fully unwrapped.
As if reaching for some distant politeness, she had said, "How was Greece?" Now she was standing, with the tissue paper crumpled around the horse, which she had not fully unwrapped.
A woman who could not possibly have been younger than 85, sitting on the same banquette as I and two feet away, caught me eyeing her tête de veau and turned directly toward me, saying "Voulez-vous essayer?" I declined, out of some idiotic politeness.
It felt like Groundhog Day and by the sixth repeat of this procedure I'd lost some of my politeness: "Dear Rachel, I'm afraid your takedown procedure appears to be completely pointless.
Consistent with an adaptation of Brown and Levinson's [1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Use.
With this expression, not only is the subjective orientation foregrounded, but some sense of politeness or social distance is also added.
A further goal is to relate these trends in historical data to such contemporary views as Brown and Levinson's [Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987] politeness theory, Comrie's [Linguistic politeness axes: speaker addressee, speaker referent, speaker bystander.
While her advice may be a little outdated ("A lady must accept an invitation to dance, or spend the rest of the evening sitting out all the dances"), some hints for politeness, such as never being tardy and never showing up to parties you weren't invited to, have thankfully stood the test of time.
The piece asks for a uniform politeness, which some of the men managed to break through with personal authority and good humor.
