Politeness and [Im]Politeness Reactions of Facebook Online Comments on Greta Thunberg’s Speech

This paper presents on the face-threatening acts (FTA) committed by Greta Thunberg that have challenged Brown & Levinson’s Politeness Theory. The objectives of this study are to identify the face-threatening acts (FTA) committed by Greta Thunberg in her speech at the United Nations (UN) Climate Action Summit as well as to identify politeness or [im]politeness in the comments of Facebook users towards the speech. The study adapted Brown & Levinson’s Politeness Theory in analysing the FTAs committed by Greta Thunberg and further analyse the classifications of politeness and [im]politeness which were interpreted from the comments of Facebook users towards the speech using Brown & Levinson’s Politeness Theory as well as Culpeper’s Politeness and [Im]politeness Theory. The findings show that FTAs were identified as the cause for [im]politeness to occur on Facebook comments where Greta has violated the combination of three main variables of politeness theory which are power, distance, and rank. Hence, based on the results, the study highlights parts of the speech that have shifted the power relationship in the world economic settings towards Greta Thunberg’s belief in an unbounded economic expansion that is destroying the world climate.