الفهرس 
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Abstract
This study examines the deep relation between linguistic politeness and social power in customary-law court sessions. It aims at providing a comprehensive understanding of how language varies according to the change in power. The study is an attempt to exhibit the different realizations of linguistic politeness in relation to power in the language used by both judicator and litigants. The study also investigates the universality of politeness strategies proposed by Brown & Levinson; and Leech. They suggested that high power interactants are always less polite than low power interactants and vice versa. Applying a qualitative type of analysis, the results obtained in this study provides counter evidence to what Brown & Levinson (1987); and Leech (1983) suggest in their premises regarding linguistic politeness. The judicator tends to use the high ratednegative politeness strategies in the form of questions most of the time, in addition to low rated positive politeness strategies, but had to employ bald-on-record strategies for urgency and organizational reasons. Attendants, similarly, employed low rated positive strategies mixed with negative politeness strategy in their use of address terms. The analysis of the data has also provided a genuine image about the Arab culture and how it affects their use of language.
Key Words:
Sociolinguistics, Politeness,Power,Politeness Strategies, Conversational Analysis, Gender, Formality of Context, Customary-law Court Sessions.