Politeness plays a vital role in maintaining class differences. In this highly original account, Sara Mills analyses the interrelationship between class and linguistic interaction, uncovering the linguistic ideologies behind politeness in British English. She sheds light on the way politeness and rudeness interrelate with the marking of class boundaries, and reveals how middle-class positions in society are marked by people's use of self-deprecation, indirectness and reserve. Systematically challenging received wisdom about cross-cultural and inter-cultural differences, she goes beyond the mere context of the interaction to investigate the social dimension of politeness. This approach enables readers to analyse other languages in the same way, and a range of case studies illustrate how ideologies of politeness are employed and judged.

'English Politeness and Class provides a timely contribution to the growing body of work in the field of politeness research that charts intra-cultural diversity. Demonstrating the applicability of recent developments in the theorization of linguistic (im)politeness and offering a fresh approach to the ideologies that inform politeness evaluations, Mills' book will be of great value to scholars across a wide range of disciplines who are interested in the relationship between language and culture.' Christine Christie, Loughborough University

Sara Mills is Emeritus Professor in Linguistics at Sheffield Hallam University. Her field of interest is the differences and similarities between linguistic forms of expression in different languages, particularly in reference to what is considered polite. She is the author of Gender and Politeness (Cambridge, 2003) and has published many books and articles on politeness and discursive approaches to the analysis of politeness. She has also published on feminist linguistic theory, most notably Language and Sexism (Cambridge, 2008) and, with Louise Mullany, Language Gender and Feminism (2011).