Introduction: Advancing linguistic politeness theory by using Chinese data

Abstract

The present introduction provides an overview of the field of linguistic politeness research. Since Acta Linguistica Academica has diverse scope of inquiries, and linguistic pragmatics has been only one (and perhaps not the most central) of the various areas featured in the journal, it is relevant to provide such an up-to-date overview. My goal is not only to point out how the contributions advance politeness theory, but also to make the research featured in the special issue relevant to academics working in other areas of linguistics.