Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, University of Munster (Englisches Seminar), language: English, abstract: Today, the concept of politeness is not associated with class consciousness or social discrimination anymore, but in the sixteenth century this term was commonly linked to deference and showing respect (Watts 34). Thus appropriate language behaviour was of utmost importance to Elizabethan society. People of that time were always anxious to please their interlocutors, especially with reference to forms of...