Politeness on Twitter: A Pragmatic Study of President Trump's Posts

This report provides a pragmatic analysis of President Donald Trump's Twitter posts, focusing on politeness and impoliteness strategies. It examines how Trump uses language to communicate, interact, and potentially threaten the 'face' of others. The study draws on sociolinguistic concepts like Brown and Levinson's politeness theory and Culpeper's impoliteness strategies to assess the implications of Trump's online communication for his followers and the broader American public. The research investigates the research questions: What are the politeness or impoliteness strategies used by President Trump? What are the implications of those politeness or impoliteness strategies to the audience? It explores how power dynamics influence the use of language in social media, considering concepts like face-saving and face-threatening acts. The report aims to contribute to the understanding of online communication norms and the impact of political discourse on social media platforms.

Running head: POLITENESS ON TWITTER 1
(Im)politeness On Twitter: A Pragmatic Study of the Posts Made by President Donard Trump
Name
Institution

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Politeness On Twitter: A Pragmatic Study of the Posts Made by President Donard Trump
Introduction
Technology has revolutionized how humans learn, move, work, and communicate.
Notably, in the context of linguistics, it has changed how people make communications, interact,
and interpersonal connections. Sociolinguistics and online ethnography in social media are new
domains in language use studies which seek to question and analyze how intercultural
communication and interactions take place. Most importantly, the digital era with the emergence
of social platforms has annihilated both spatial and temporal distances by the use of a mix of
images and texts through mobile devices. Mobiles devices have been used to facilitate
communication in institutional meetings, politics, networking with friends, among other things.
The communication and language use are understood by the perspective of actors themselves and
the researcher who intend to question the context, text, and practice regarding pragmatism. The
pragmatic study of language use in social media forms a significant basis for understanding
norms in communications and social life.
In contemporary technological communications, social networking platforms are
undoubtedly the most prevalent methods of communication. The commonly used social
platforms are Facebook and Twitter. Although these platforms generally seem different in their
human interfaces in format and functions, they all share a common ground of giving users the
ability to make posts on their timelines and comments on their friends’ posts. The user-generated
content and ability to comment on other people’s posts, which subsequently brings about
conversations and interactions are the basis of pragmatic studies.
Twitter is the focus of this paper, as it seems the most famous in social networking. A
social media platform is a web-based service that allows people to create an online profile,

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connect with friends, share posting, either images or texts, and comment on other people’s posts.
Twitter satisfies the criteria of being called a social platform since it has capabilities to create a
user profile, connect with friends, interact, and exchange messages. The platform also allows
users to create and join groups and pages which they find a common interest. Such groups and
pages are organized as politics, educations, workplace, school, and more. In a Twitter handle,
users and their networks have bi-directional connections that are not tied to who follows who but
can contribute to the posts texts, images, videos, and other formats on the Twitter handle. In
essence, space allows Twitter users to interact by posting messages of their reactions towards a
specific post made by the space profile. For the case of Donard Trump’s Twitter handle, the
posts are visible to the public and those who follow him. Space also allows the new feed to the
followers in case of any new posts made on the wall. However, there is a private discourse where
users can send messages to the inbox and is only visible to the sender and recipient.
President Donald Trump is a well-known politician for his controversial posts on his
Twitter feeds. He is mostly known for his offensive posts, which elicit threats on people or
groups. He uses his elite power to delegitimize people, groups, communities, institutions, and
other countries. Regarding his various posts, impoliteness is displayed since they are face
threatening tweets by his political power as president of the US. Hence, the president seems
“safe” but post threatening posts that are categorized as impolite. The posting by Trump raises
the question of how power and authority can be used to perpetuate impoliteness to the powerless.
Statement of the Problem
The problem addressed by this study of politeness issues with the posts made President
Donard Trump on his Twitter handle. Twitter posts and comments speak volume of one's identity
and other orientations. The language used is evaluated in terms of cultural backgrounds and

POLITENESS ON TWITTER 4
relationships to assess the level of politeness. At a personal level, the use of language is own
creativity, and therefore, one can choose to use either save or threaten another face. Intuitively or
otherwise, one use politeness strategy in communication. Undoubtedly, while some people may
use face-saving strategy, others may not shy away from using a face-threatening strategy in
social media postings such as those made by President Donard Trump. On his Twitter handle
people in retrospect respond using direct speeches to threaten the face of the president as a
defensive mechanism. In language use and communication, people choose what to say or write
and what to abstain all-together and hence aim to uncover what A says that B misses. In this
regard, there is need to pragmatically research the post and comments made by President Donard
Trump in his Twitter handle using politeness theory. Therefore, the paper will answer the
question such as, what are the politeness strategies used by the president? What is the effect of
those strategies to his followers and Americans at large? The main objectives are to investigate
the politeness strategies used by President Trump and evaluate their impacts on followers and
Americans.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this empirical and qualitative study was to identify pragmatic issues with
the language used by President Donard Trump in his social media posts. The paper will evaluate
the face-saving and threatening of the post to the Americas and world audience in the context of
the underlying intercultural differences in audience. As such, the solution will see the difference
in understanding the annotated and connoted meanings in various posts he makes. The
knowledge will contribute to the vast knowledge of social media politeness, which is an
emerging topic in linguistics. Thus, readers and scholars can use the findings to critically analyze
various social media interactions to establish their position in online communications.

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The paper used a broader aspect of language use in online communications. The
specificity in the logical analysis of Trump’s posts on Twitter contributes to the understanding
the contexts of communications, culture, and intended influence on the audience. Therefore, the
paper will focus on his recent online opinions and directives and their implications regarding
politeness. The findings will be analyzed for politeness or impoliteness and results presented for
interpretations and conclusion.
Research Questions
The main question includes:
 What are the politeness or impoliteness strategies used by president Trump?
Other questions include:
 What are the implications of those politeness or impoliteness strategies to the audience?
Research Objectives
The primary objective of this research includes:
i. Investigate the impoliteness tactics by Donard Trump.
ii. Evaluate the implication of impoliteness strategies to followers.
Literature Review
To carry out pragmatic analysis posts made by Trump based on the language use,
concepts, and contexts, a frame of reference needed to be established. The study in this paper
was based on the sociolinguistic categorization and implications of Brown & Levinson’s (1987)
politeness strategies, Culpeper’s (1996) impoliteness strategies, and basic concepts of politeness
strategies as applicable in political discourse as discussed by Culpeper (2005). Also, the paper
will use the concept is face-saving and threatening to explain the politeness categorizations.

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Therefore, this section will analyze impoliteness in social platforms, social media, and politics,
impolite posts, (im)politeness strategies, face-threatening concept, and power and impoliteness.
(Im)Politeness Strategies
Politeness is a critical aspect of human communication. It is a concept of pragmatism
which ensures there is peace. Brown and Levinson first published politeness theory in 1978.
Their study illuminated on two aspects of politeness, including basic politeness theory and
politeness strategies. Broadly, Brown and Levinson came up with the concept of “face” to make
the illustration of politeness. The participants in the interaction have two types of “faces,” which
are the positive face and negative face. A positive face is positive and image a person have of
him/herself and desire to approve. On the other hand, they defined a negative face as territory,
preserve, and rights that one claims and need no distraction. In the studies of linguistic
politeness, the face is considered a fundamental level of analysis. That is, ones face in pragmatic
perspective is ones face identity in public. It is an emotional and social sense of self one
identifies him/herself with for everyone to recognize.
However, there is criticism against politeness theory. The criticism is vested on the claim
by Brown and Levinson that politeness is universal. Politeness has different meanings varying
with cultures. In Japan, politeness constitutes respecting others regarding social positions. On the
contrary, American culture means politeness as respecting other people’s rights and freedom.
Therefore, since different cultures have different definition and application of politeness, then it
means they use different strategies or no strategies to express politeness or express face-
threatening messages.
On the other hand, impoliteness has received less attention, unlike politeness. Culpeper
first developed it in 1996. Impoliteness is the opposite of politeness, and hence opposite of

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politeness model. Nevertheless, Culpeper defined impoliteness as “the use of strategies that are
designed to [cause] social disruption” (Culpeper 1996). Culpeper developed six impoliteness
strategies to include bald, on-record impoliteness, positive impoliteness, negative impoliteness,
off-record impoliteness, sarcasm politeness, and withholding politeness.
Notably, the intention of the speaker is the main consideration in impoliteness. However,
impoliteness can be viewed from the perspective of speaker intention and listener perception of
the message. Culpeper (2010) confirmed that impoliteness is a deliberate face attack and the
ability of the hearer to perceive the message as face attack. Culpeper further affirmed that
impoliteness is likely to occur when there is a conflict of interests during interactions.
Additionally, impoliteness is connected to social power. That means the speakers can use
impoliteness to gain power over others. Although power is dynamic and hence negotiable, those
in power be it legitimate or/and expertise, tend to use impoliteness. In this context, it has been
observed that there exists a thin line between impoliteness and rudeness. There is a difference
between politeness and rudeness. However, Culpeper (2010) stated the difference between
impoliteness and rudeness as dependent on the intention of the speaker and the perception of the
hearer. Hence, impoliteness is intentional, and rudeness is unintentional. Nevertheless,
impoliteness researches have remained the focus of studies in enriching language use in people.
(Im)Politeness on Twitter
Impoliteness in social platforms is an emerging issue in communication. Twitter, in this
case, is used as a reference to social media impoliteness since elite social groups mainly use it.
The platform has been used to face-attack others through impolite statements. According to
Culpeper (1996), impoliteness is the speech act where one attack the face of the another. In this
regard, impolite act not only intend to attack the audience’s face but also selectively use

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language to carry out an attack. Human behavior is drastically changed when there is no direct
interpersonal connection between the hearer and speaker, particularly in the application of
technology, mainly social media. About Avcevedo’s (2017) article, since most people can access
and own modern communication devices that use the internet, social networking will continue
being a popular method of communication, connection, and interaction in the world.
Contrary to face-to-face interactions, social media communication reduces meaningful
connections, increase sedentary behavior through display time, internet addiction, lowering self-
esteem through unhealthy interactions and comparisons (Christakis & Shakya, 2017). The use of
social communication has various effects because sometimes it can cause betterment of the
worse while in others it is a source of convenience in networking, commenting, making
criticisms, arguments, votes, and more. Thus, most people have ignored how social media should
run. According to Christakis and Shakya, people believe that their rights are guaranteed when
making communication or interactions in social media and hence go along their online activities
without being mindful of others and ignore the importance of politeness.
Arguably, privacy in social media lacks a sheer scale since information spreads quickly
and can last forever. A user cannot deny negativity since attempts to squash, hide comments can
be detected by other users who may respond provocatively. Also, social networking involves the
sharing of personal data, so it is visible when one uses impolite language in media such as
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and others.
For example, social media like Twitter are used to know what is happening with the
corrupt governments in Africa and is used to build flash online mob to pressure authorities, carry
out a discussion on sexual offenses, cybercrimes and war in America and Europe as well as

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privacy issue with government collecting and carrying out public surveillance and more. Social
media has been used point to know it all by modern society.
Interestingly, there is a regulation Kenya on social media use that states one can risk a
fine of $20,000 or five years in jail or both for the use of impolite language, inciting, slandering,
and another foul language in social media (Graphic.com, 2017). The government of Kenya
insisted on using neutral language that is void of hate speech, incitement, the civilized, and polite
language in social media posts and comments. The reason for the legislation is the prevalence of
most Kenyans to use unhealthy, inciting, slandering language that led to post-election violence in
2007/08 (Dailynews, 2017). The action by the government of Kenya is an indication that Twitter
and other social media can use impolite language that can provoke, offend, and spark the
audience for violence or retaliation. Impoliteness is a wildfire that can cause a rapid blaze in the
people.
Twitter in Politics
Jack Dorsey founded Twitter, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and has ever
since grown to popularity, especially in the political arena. It has grown to as a well-established
and highly recognized social platform in the digital landscape (Highfield et al., 2013). Twitter is
convenient, and hence, people use it to share reports, events, emotions, news, critics, and more
regarding politics and life.
Twitter has not failed politicians when it comes to politics. One good instance is Barack
Obama, who becomes the 44th president of the United States. Obama used Twitter to post his
candidature in the presidency and hence market the emergence of social media in political
influence (Newkirk, 2016). Ten years after the paradigm shift in the use of Twitter for political
purposes, it has tremendously grown to the popularity of bolstering ground conversations, disrupt

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the status quo in leadership, propagate propaganda, and is used as a voice interest groups
concerns (Graham, 2018). Twitter has revolutionized voicing, identity, power, and politics.
Emphatically, the power of Twitter in politics has been shown in several examples. First,
there was an eruption on Twitter when Anthony Weiner, who is a former Democratic
congressman, sent a photograph on his Twitter page that was sexually suggestive (Anton, 2013).
He was forced to resign after the incident regardless of him being a rising star among the
Democrats. Secondly, a president of Chili, Sebastian Pinera requested all the cabinet ministers to
have a Twitter to be used in the politics (Anton, 2013). The next election showed that the
politicians had Twitted regular since then with an increasing trend. It shows that Twitter is an
emerging political movement.
Therefore, as technology development in social media and internet device, Twitter has
continued to grow as a political tool, and people have come to accept the reality. Although it is
an essential and curious topic of research, it is difficult to thoroughly discuss its contribution and
use in politics (Daniels & Jackson, 2017). It has also helped people rediscovering that they are
not alone and hence have to be mindful of others.
Impoliteness Strategy According to Culpeper
These strategies were proposed by Culpeper and included:
a. Bald on Record Impoliteness
It is one of the face-threatening act (FTA), threats hearer’s face, it is direct, clear, concise,
and has no ambiguity where face is relevant (Brown and Levinson, 1987). This type of
impoliteness is most straightforward, owing to its language use and intention. An excellent
example in Donald Trump on this tweet stated:

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Mainstream Media in the U.S. is being mocked all over the world. They’ve gone
CRAZY!
Posted 12.33 A.M. –4thMar 2018 from
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/969989251537481730
The president was expressing his anger towards United States mass media. The
statement has not clearly stated why the media is mocked and in which manner.
However, his summarize with “They’ve gone crazy,” which mention someone or
something has a mental problem. Trump used these words regardless of the word
likelihood of eliciting offense or hurt. The US media feel threatened by these
words. It also seeks to embarrass the hearer.
b. Positive Impoliteness
The strategy aims to destroy the hearer’s positive face want or need for recognition or
approval. It involves ignoring and excluding people so that the speaker is shown disinterests,
unconcerned, and lack sympathy and hence use negative or ambiguous words to create
disagreement (Culpeper, 1996). The speaker tries to ignore and exclude some people from what
he/she is doing or saying. Trump used positive impoliteness as follows:
Why is A.G. JeffSessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially
massive FISA abuse? Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already
late with reports on Comey, etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use
Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!
Posted 9:34 PM -28 Feb 2018 via
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/968856971075051521

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Trump was showing his critics and disappointment on FISA abuse. His
statement directs the blame to Obama. He uses the wrong identity marker instead
of offending Obama directly. It is impolite since he used narration to give a
negative response to a case. Although the use of names in statements is not
impolite, the context makes it impolite to do so. Therefore, he has attacked a
person’s face making the statement impolite.
c. Negative Impoliteness
The strategy attacks the hearer’s face. It is considered a fundamental way of claiming
territories, personal preserve, and the right not to be distracted. The primary aim of this strategy
is to frighten, condescend, ridicule, contemptuous, disregard, belittle, invade personal space, or
associate negatively. The example below illustrates this:
Why are A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially
massive FISA abuse? Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already
late with reports on Comey, etc. Isn't I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice
Department 25lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!
Posted 9:34 PM -28 Feb 2018 via
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/968856971075051521
The Tweet qualifies to be a negative impoliteness because according to
Culpeper, the output condescends, scorn, or ridicule. The hearer is not treated less
severe or disregarded in the activity. Trump’s statement is just a short statement
showing his feeling without explicit harm to anyone.
d. Sarcasm or Mock Impoliteness