politeness - Should one ever use the word "please" in an order or demand?


A police officer who pulls over a driver might ask to see his “license and registration, please.” Similarly, a border official might ask for a “passport, please.” However, in these situations, the asked party doesn’t have the option to refuse.


Does the word “please” imply that the addressee has the option not to obey the request?



Answer



Please serves to distinguish a request from a command, but just because something is phrased as a request, that doesn't mean you can refuse it. A business owner who says "Ma'am, I'll have to ask you to leave" is being more polite than one who just says "Out!", but neither can be denied.


In your specific examples, I think that politeness is a major factor, but another factor might be that an utterance like "Passport" is very open-ended — passport what? — whereas "Passport, please" is more clearly a request. (It's still vague, in that it doesn't specify exactly what the passport-related request is, but I'm guessing that it's less liable to cause confusion.)


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