The role of language play in realization of category of politeness in English directive and instructive notices

The article deals with the role of language play in realization of category of politeness in English directive and instructive notices. Language play is used in the notices of less formal register to introduce the strategy of positive politeness through irony or humour and appealing to culturally important concepts. Lexical and phraseological language play is mostly used in directive and instructive notices in this function; language play at the level of phonetics and graphics can be observed in some cases as well.