Leech (1983) formulates ‘Politeness Principle’, or PP for short, trying to remedy Grice’s (1975) Cooperative Principle (CP) which is presumed to be unable to interpret why, for instance, people are prone to use indirect ways of saying things. To Leech, it is politeness that motivates it.Social acts like competitives (ordering, asking, begging, etc.) demand politeness far more than other kinds like convivials and collaboratives, because the former makes a threat to the audience’s face, or negative face (in Brown and Levinson’s (1978/1987) terms). V arious politeness strategies, thus, are employed to mitigate the face-threatening power. According to Leech, the greater the cost an act is (be it verbal or non-verbal) to the audience, the more polite the speaker ought to try to make the utterance. 1) is a request, and it is (made) polite by (means of) the smallness of the cost to the other person, and the politeness particle please. 2) is an order, impolite in nature. So is 3), ruder and more dangerous for it is robbery.1) Give me ten cents, please.2) Put up your hand!3) Give me all your money and get out of the house.If the act is benefit (beneficial) to the hearer, the speaker does not have to sound polite, or extremely so, for the benefit speaks for itself. 4-5) are polite requests, so please as a token of politeness is not necessary, least so with 6) which is a huge if not impossible benefit.4) Y ou can take this newspaper.5) Take this bike.6) Drive my car away as you please.The PP of Leech has six maxims (below is adapted from Leech: P. 132):(1) Tact Maxim: Minimize cost to hearer; maximize benefit to hearer.(2) Generosity Maxim: Minimize benefit to speaker; maximize cost to speaker.(3) Approbation Maxim: Minimize dispraise of hearer; maximize praise of hearer.(4) Modesty Maxim: Minimize praise of speaker; maximize dispraise of speaker.(5) Agreement Maxim: Minimize disagreement between speaker and hearer; maximize agreement between speaker and hearer.(6) Sympathy Maxim: Minimize antipathy between speaker and hearer; maximize sympathy between speaker and hearer.We do not have to exemplify all the maxims, for most of them are self-evident, and we can easily detect that these maxims are not equally true with all cultures. Between the east and the west there may be found some noticeable differences, but in spite of that, Leech doubts if there is any ‘divide’. (Leech 2005) According to him, the PP as a principle is universal across cultures. Differences lie only in the social parameters of politeness like age, sex, rank of imposition represented by the saying, social distance between the two people or sides, relative power of one person over the other, and so on. When Americans and Chinese receive the same praise, for instance, the former like to thank or appreciate the praiser, while the latter try all means to minimize their own praise-worthy merit. But this does not mean that Americans disobey the Modesty Maxim. Thanking in this case implies modesty by thanking the praiser or other people (like the good director or teacher of the praised), and over-dispraising self is a typical (extreme) modesty model in the eastern culture. So the skepticism about the universality of PP all over the globe, which seemed to be gaining ground in the two or three decades after the appearance of Leech (1983), does not really hold under scrutiny.作为社会的人、社交的人、合作的人——作为人，我们需要礼貌。
Grice（1975）论述了“合作原则”，但是没有讨论礼貌原则（Politeness Principle，简称PP），是Leech（1983）把接力棒接了过来，以图弥补或拯救“合作原则”难以解释人们有时使用间接表达式的倾向。
根据Leech，这其实就是为了礼貌。
他把语用原则分为“篇章修辞”（textual rhetoric）——即布局谋篇、巧说俗话的策略，和“人际修辞”（interpersonal rhetoric）——即为人处世的策略，而合作原则和礼貌原则都属于后者。
假如言语分为“竞争类”（competitive）——命令、请求等，“和谐类”（convivial）——祝福、感谢等，“合作类”（collaborative）——告诉、通报等，“冲突类”（conflictive）——咒骂、威胁等，那么“竞争类”是最需要礼貌策略的行为。
比较而言，“和谐类”本质上是礼貌的，“合作类”一般无所谓礼貌不礼貌，而“冲突类”本质上是不礼貌的。
“礼貌原则”有6条准则（改编自Leech：132页）：（1）策略准则（Tact Maxim，也叫“得体准则”——用于指令和承诺）：尽力缩小对方的损失，尽力扩大对方的好处。
如例1）。
要求越大，就越要礼貌和策略。
（2）慷慨准则（Generosity Maxim，也叫“宽宏准则”——用于指令和承诺）：尽力缩小自己的好处，尽力扩大自己的损失。
如例4-6）所示。
（3）褒奖准则（Approbation Maxim，也叫“赞扬/赞誉准则”——用于表情和表述）：尽力缩小对对方的诋毁，尽力扩大对对方的赞扬。
如例7）中Allen的话——哪怕对方唱歌很平常，也要赞扬。
（4）谦逊准则（Modesty Maxim，也叫“谦虚准则”——用于表情和表述）：尽力缩小对自己的赞扬，尽力扩大对自己的诋毁。
如例7）中Marie的话。
中国人和日本人此时会说“其实很难听”之类的自我诋毁话语。
（5）赞同准则（Agreement Maxim，也叫“一致准则、同意准则”——用于表述）：尽力缩小与对方的分歧，尽力扩大与对方的一致。
如例8）乙所说的话，即使听到的是胡扯，也不能说是胡扯。
（6）同情准则（Sympathy Maxim——用于表述）：尽力缩小对对方的厌烦，尽力扩大对对方的同情（和好感）。
如例9）中乙的话语。
7）Allen: Y ou have a nightingale’s voice.Marie: Thank you. I used to have a good teacher in college.8）甲：重庆是中国最大的城市。