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Extending politeness theory, lolcats style

In the late seventies, two researchers described a series of linguistic strategies that people use when trying to be polite. People add mitigating words (e.g., "kind of" or "maybe"), phrase requests as questions, and joke, all to save the face of the person they're talking to.

The power of the interwebs has once again brought us new extensions to theory. In this case, I've caught myself using the elegant simplicity of the lolcats construction. Instead of saying "Hurry up and give me back that CD you borrowed months ago," I say, "I can has CD back?" Or, for a friend who was running late, "I be heerz. Where u is?"

On a related note, Anil Dash discusses kitty pidgin consistency.