‘Successful linguistic communication depends on participants’ capacity for rational, purposeful... - page 3
Keywords: Sociolinguistics; talk; language; politeness theory; face; communication
By sth202 on 25/09/2008
Level: Bachelor Honours Degree (BA, BEng, BSc etc)
Page Number: 3 of 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
same significance. “Face is the negotiated public image, mutually granted each other by participants in a communicative event” (Scollon and Scollon 2001: 45). It is “something that is emotionally invested, and that can be lost, maintained, or enhanced, and must be constantly attended to in interaction” (Brown and Levinson 1978, quoted in Fasold 1990: 160 and Jaworski and Coupland 1999: 321-2). Wardhaugh (1998: 290) adds that conversation, as well as making use of the cooperative principle, is also cooperative in another manner. Speakers and listeners have a tendency to recognise each other in the role that they build for themselves, that is to say they believe the face that the other displays. From this, we can conclude that ‘face’ in linguistic terms primarily means the part of ourselves we permit others to see in interaction. It is “the public self-image that every member [of a conversation] wants to claim for himself” (Wardhaugh 1998: 272) and is in part based on the relationship of the speaker to the listener and vice versa, because contributors are then able to make certain assumptions about the face they wish to uphold for themselves and are prepared to give to the other contributors in any given interactive situation (Scollon and Scollon 2001). Why, then, is face important for successful communication in spoken language? As Foley (1997) suggests, "face is linguistically constructed," and the capability to employ verbal skills effortlessly is how we are able to take control of a group meeting to make the most of our face achievements and decrease any damages to our face as seen by ourselves and others. As each member of a group is expected to have self-respect and to be considerate both to him/herself and to other members of the discussion, it is evident that it is in his or her best interests to maintain this and help others to do the same. The same idea applies for face. Goffman (1967, in Jaworski and Coupland 1999: 309) affirms that:
“(...) Maintenance of face is a condition of interaction, not its objective. Usual objectives, such as gaining face for oneself, giving free expression to one’s true beliefs, introducing depreciating information about the others, or solving problems and performing tasks are typically pursued in such a way as to be consistent with the maintenance of face. To study face-saving is to study the traffic rules of social interaction (...)”
In short, a person
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