Politeness as a research topic of much concern has been and is still enjoying much popularity with people specialized in the areas of pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and inter-cultural and intra-cultural communication.In order to get a clear picture of the studies in this field, I took a close look at the original major theories, namely, Goffman’s (1959,1967) face theory, Brown and Levinson’s (1978,1987) politeness framework, and Leech’s (1983) Politeness Principle, and the subsequent studies carried out using the frameworks proposed by those pioneering researchers.This thesis is a critical review of the previous politeness studies, especially in relation to Brown and Levinson’s politeness framework. Brown and Levinson’s framework has generated a large body of critical literature ever since it was put forward in 1978. The thesis presents and discusses the criticisms and defense of its face dualism, its ethnocentrism, its positive and negative dichotomy, etc. It attempts to look for the causes of such criticisms and the causes of the confusion in defining politeness.The thesis addresses the confusion and controversy over politeness studies. It discusses the opposing and supporting evidences of the universal claim and argues that various factors have contributed to researchers’ perception and conceptualization of politeness. It concludes that the study of linguistic politeness alone has its limitations and a number of social cultural factors should be taken into account in studying the politeness phenomenon.