Face-threatening Act

Jūratė Ruzaitė, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
jurate.ruzaite@vdu.lt

Face threatening acts (FTAs) are a focus of politeness theory developed by Brown and Levinson. When speakers communicate with others in a crude or offensive way or impede their personal freedoms, they commit face-threatening acts. A face-threatening act is defined as an act that challenges or damages a person’s face wants.

Face-threatening acts may threaten either the speaker’s or the listener’s face, and either positive or negative face. When speakers admit and apologise for their own shortcomings, they commit face-threatening acts directed at themselves. When speakers criticise, disagree with the hearer, or impose on their freedom, they threaten the hearer’s face.

Acts that threaten the listener’s negative face include such acts as making a request or making a threat. Damage to the speaker’s negative face can be caused in interaction when the speaker is obliged to perform such acts as apologising, confessing a fault, or expressing gratitude. Acts that can harm the listener’s positive face include criticism, disapproval, complaints, accusations, disagreements, taboo topics, interruptions, insults, etc. FTAs threatening the speaker’s positive face include apologies, loss of emotional control, self-criticism, confession, etc.

Such face-work suggests that during social interaction cooperation is needed between interlocutors to maintain the face of both the speaker and of the listener(s).

Face-threatening acts can be verbal (the content of the message, word choices, and linguistic patterns used), paraverbal (the tone, pacing, and volume of the speaker’s voice), or non-verbal (facial expressions or body language). In digital communication, FTAs may also be conveyed through written tone, punctuation, emojis, or the absence of a response, which is often interpreted as intentional silence and thus can pose a threat to the interlocutor’s face.

Keywords: face, politeness, cooperation

Related Entries: Face, Face-saving Act, Impoliteness, Slurs

References:
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press.
Culpeper, J. (2011). Politeness and impoliteness. In K. Aijmer & G. Andersen (Eds.), Sociopragmatics (pp. 391-436), Handbooks of pragmatics (Vol. 5) W. Bublitz, A. H. Jucker, & K. P. Schneider (Eds.). De Gruyter Mouton.
Goffman, E. (1967). Interactional ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior. Anchor Books.