The Game Theory of Politeness in Language: A Formal Model of Polite Requests

Abstract

Linguistic Politeness (LP) is a fascinating domain of language, as it directly interfaces with human social behavior. Here, we show how game theory, as a higher-order theory of behavior, can provide the tools to understand and model LP phenomena. We show this for the specific case of requests, where the magnitude of request and the resultant Rate of Imposition are subsumed under a more powerful explanatory principle: alignment of interests. We put forward the Politeness Equilibrium Principle (PEP), whereby the more disalignment there is between the interests of Speaker and Hearer, the more LP Speaker needs to offset the imbalance. In the second part of our paper, we flesh out our ideas by means of a formal model inspired by evolutionary signaling theory, and provide a mathematical proof showing that the model follows the PEP. We see this work as an important first step in the direction of reconciling theories of language with signaling theory, by incorporating language into more general models of communication.

Politeness and reputation in cultural evolution

“…A more generalized notion of status (rather than just competence) is also close to how utility-based accounts of politeness use the notion face. Clark (2012) makes this link expressly in hypothesizing that "face developed from dominance hierarchies in primate groups" (p. 278), and a similar construal is implied in several accounts of polite requests, which assume that a polite request effects a transfer of face from the requester, who loses some of it, to the requestee, who gains some (Asher and Quinley 2012;Quinley 2012;Quinley and Ahern 2012;Mühlenbernd et al 2019).…”