face theory, politeness theory

1. Face Concept &
Politeness Theory and
Its Critics
Eda Nur ÖZCAN

2. WHAT IS POLITENESS?
Everyone has self-public image which has relation to emotional and social
sense of self and expects everyone else to recognize (Brown & Levinson
1987).
FACE

3. Politeness in interaction can be defined as
the means employed to show awareness
of another person’s face.

4. Examples of Politeness can be...
Student: Excuse me Mr. Buckingham, but can I talk to you for a minute?
Teacher: Sure.
----------------------
Friend 1: Hey Katie, got a minute?
Friend 2: Yes

5. Positive Politeness
● A positive politeness strategy leads the requester to appeal to a common goal, even friendship, via
expression:
A: How about letting me use your pen?
B: Hey, Dude. I would appreciate it if you let me use your pen.
● Positive politeness gives a greater risk for the speaker of suffering a refusal and maybe preceded by
some “getting-to-know-you talk”.

6. Negative Politeness
● The FSA commonly uses a negative politeness strategy.
● It generally uses a modal verb.
Speaker A: Could you lend me a pen?
Speaker B: I’m sorry to bother you, but can I ask you for a pen or something?
Speaker C: I know you’re busy, but might I ask you if-eeemm-if you happen to have an extra pen for me?

7. Face Wants
● People generally behave as if their expectations concerning their public
self-image, or their face wants, will be respected.
● If some actions might be interpreted as a threat to another’s face, the speaker
can say something to lessen the possible threat, this is face-saving act (FSA).
● If a speaker says something that represents a threat to another person’s
expectations regarding self-image, this is face-threatening act (FTA).

8. Kinds of Face Saving Act
● Negative Face
● Positive Face

9. Negative Face is the need to be independent to have
a freedom of action and not to be imposed by others.
Your friend asks for a ride to the airport.
Negative face needs: You think, this is not favorable, I don’t feel
like driving this guy to the airport. I have other stuff that I could be
doing, like sleeping, or saving the gasoline in my car. He can find his
own ride (Goffman, 1967).

10. Positive face is the need to be accepted, even liked by others, to
be treated as a member of the group and to know that his or her
wants are shared by others.
Your friend asks for a ride to the airport.
Positive face needs: You think, I better take him because I want
him to like me, and I want the reputation of being a reliable
person (Goffman, 1967).

11. Negative face is the need
to be independent and
positive face is the need
to be connected.

12. Face Types
Fellowship Face is want to be included (positive face)
Competence Face is a want to have one’s abilities reflected by others (positive
face)
Autonomy Face is a want to not be imposed on (negative face)

13. Face Threatening Act (Losing Face)
Goffman (1955)
● in the wrong face
● to be out of face
● shamefaced
● threats to face

14. Example
After telling a funny story, one of your friends say,
“You are not really funny, you know.”
● Your friend’s comment challenges your face (image) as a funny person; one for which
you expected support.

15. Three levels of FTAs
● Unintentional
● Maliciously
● Spitefully intentional

16. Self and Other: Say Nothing
● Many people seem to prefer to have their needs recognize by others without having to
express those needs in language.
You arrive at an important lecture and pull out your notebooks to take notes, but you discover
that you don’t have anything to write with. You think that the person sitting next to you may
provide the solution. In this scenario, you are going to be “self”, and other people next to you
is going to be “other”.
You: (looking inside the bag)
Other person: (Offering a pen), here you can use it.

17. Say Something: Off Record
Even if you decide to say something, you don’t have to ask for anything. You can simply produce a statement:
(After you search through your bag)
A: I forgot my pen.
B: I forgot where I put my pen.
● This example is the example of Off Record as others can act as it they have not heard.

18. Say Something: On Record
If the speaker directly addresses the other as a mean of expressing the speaker needs, it means the speaker
uses the on record technique.
Speaker: Give me a pen.
to soften the demand…
Speaker: Would you/please .. give me a pen?

19. Brown & Levinson (1987)
Politeness theory deals extensively with
FTAs, which they define as “those acts that
by their very nature run contrary to the
face wants of the addressee and/or
speaker (p.65).”

20. Example
If a friend asks you to help her move to a new apartment next Saturday, she is
threatening your negative face (autonomy) because you will have to give up
whatever you might have planned. If you say, “No, I’m sorry. I’m busy
Saturday,”you have threatened her negative face (interfered with the actions
she wanted to take-moving), and you might have threatened your own
positive face if she sees you as not being a very good friend (if you had a
face of being a good friend).

22. What might be the
pedagogical
implications of
FTAs?

23. Guiding Principles
● Faces are contextually bound (the situation, culture, society…)
● We depend upon other people to accept and validate our face
(facework)
● Numerous strategies are utilized in facework, when managing
FTAs, in repairing or restoring face, and by offenders responding
to challenges.

24. Strategies people use to manage threats to
other people’s faces
● Discretion
● Circumlocutions Deceptions
● Joking
● Explanation
● Approbation
● Solidarity
● Tact

25. Strategies people use to manage threats to
their own faces
● Accepting and Correcting
● Ignoring and Denying
● Diminishing
● Apology and/or compensation

26. Criticism
Politeness theory has been criticized for not really being
as universally applicable as claimed because of limited
validity in non-western cultures. In essence, the way
politeness in managed in Japan or Thailand does not
match that of the United States or United Kingdom.

27. How rational are humans
in their interactions?

28. Related Theories
● Face Management Theory
● Face-Negotiation Theory
● Identity Management Theory

29. References