NOBUO IGNACIO LÓPEZ SAKO

Universidad de Granada

On the notions of face and face-threatening acts in politeness theory: In search of a universally valid model

Sociolingüística / Sociolinguistics

Since Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) first proposed their theory of politeness, there has been controversy about the claimed universality of their notion of ‘face’. Although there are voices that still argue for its validity (e.g., O’Driscoll, 1996), many scholars have found that Brown and Levinson’s conceptualization of ‘face’ does not apply to many non-Western societies (Gu, 1990; Ide, 1989; Mao, 1994; Matsumoto 1988, 1989; Nwoye 1992, Spencer-Oatey, 2000, 2002, 2005; Yu, 2003). Most criticisms have been directed toward the negative aspect of ‘face’ – i.e., freedom of action and freedom from imposition – for being individualistic in its conception, and their account of face-threatening acts. As a response to this critique, the present paper has a dual aim: On the one hand, a more elaborated model of face is proposed drawing from studies in Japanese Anthropology (Bachnik, 1992; Sugiyama Lebra, 1992, 2004), Psychology (Doi, 1973; D. Matsumoto, 1996) and Linguistics (Loveday, 1986; Maynard 1997, Watanabe 1993, Wetzel 1994). Additionally, the notion of “face-threatening act” is revised, and an alternative definition suggested that may account for acts that are apparently non-threatening.



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