Politeness has been brought to center-stage of linguistics for a long time, and it has been a rapidly developing field of linguistics. Many attempts have been made by significant researchers and scholars to define the notion of linguistic politeness, while the work of this article is not on the definition of politeness but a review of some vital politeness theories (although the politeness theories to be reviewed are a piece of an iceberg), so as to outline a continuum of linguistic politeness, which could be favorable to study certain linguistic phenomena or language behaviors. In this article the marked strategy exerted in an interaction for the consideration of satisfying speaker’s or hearer’s wants is generalized as politeness. Many attempts have been made by significant researchers and scholars to define the notion of linguistic politeness, while the work of this article is not on the definition of politeness but a review of some vital politeness theories (although the politeness theories to be reviewed are a piece of an iceberg), so as to outline a continuum of linguistic politeness, which could be favorable to study certain linguistic phenomena or language behaviors. In this article the marked strategy exerted in an interaction for the consideration of satisfying speaker’s or hearer’s wants is generalized as politeness.