FACE & FACE WORK Social & Cognitive Approaches to Based on chapter 4 Social & Cognitive Approaches to Interpersonal Communication Eds., Susan Fussell & Roger Kreuz

Positive Negative The Concept of Face A desire for autonomy or freedom from imposition A desire for connectedness or solidarity with others Negative Positive

Threats to Face (p.73) Requests threaten a hearer’s negative face--Why?--please explain Because requests impose upon a hearer Disagreements threaten a hearer’s positive face -- explain! Promises threaten a speaker’s negative face--explain! Apologies threaten a speaker’s positive face--explain!

Face Work Social interaction puts us in the position of maintaining one another’s face (positive and negative) and Performing acts that threaten one another’s face Hence, face work, or being polite

INDIRECTNESS Now, back to our old friend, “indirectness” Indirectness is one way that people resolve the dilemma of maintaining face while performing acts that threaten face-- E.g., requests are often performed indirectly Any form that reduces the imposition on the hearer functions as a negatively polite strategy to question preconditions underlying the performance of a request

More on Indirectness To perform the act on-record with positive face rituals--mechanisms that implicate solidarity with the hearer ingroup identity markers jokes slang familiar address presumptuous optimism

More on Indirectness To Perform the request off-record requests that are ambiguous and deniable

Disagreements & Face Work To disagree with another person is to threaten their positive face (p. 77) Hence, where there is controversy, people often seek “safe” topics hedge opinions, “I kind of think. . .”

Your Transcript Examine your transcript for examples of positive and negative face work