ABSTRACT
Politeness and impoliteness can be defined in many (often significantly different) ways. Since politeness research has become one of the most popular areas in pragmatics (see an overview in Culpeper et al., 2017), it would be unproductive to attempt to claim that there is a single authoritative definition of these phenomena, and this chapter provides a simple and relatively broad working definition for politeness and impoliteness, in order to aid the reader:
Essentially, politeness is not limited to conventional expressions by means of which polite intentions are indicated, or which display the status of the addressee, but it also encompasses all kinds of interactional behaviour through which one indicates that one takes the feelings of the other as to how they want to be treated in account. In a similar fashion, impoliteness covers interactional behaviour through which offence is caused.
Readers with further interest in technical definitions of (im)politeness are advised to consult Kádár and Haugh (2013).