Face and Politeness Theories Communication Context Interpersonal and Intercultural Questions It Addresses in Our Every Day Lives

THEORY SUMMARY 
 People claim a positive social value (face) by presenting themselves in certain ways to 
others, for which they adopt a pattern of verbal and nonverbal messages (their “line”). 
 
Theory Elements 
 Face has been defined in a variety of ways including the positive public image we seek to 
establish in social interactions, presenting a self that is worthy of dignity and honor, a 
desire to be approved and be unimpeded, and an image of ourselves we present to others. 
 Positive face is a desire to have our wants be desirable by others, while negative face is a 
desire that our actions won’t be obstructed by others. 
 Positive face can be further divided into competence face (having our abilities respected) 
and fellowship face (being included). Negative face has also been labeled our autonomy 
face. 
 Face-threatening acts are situations where the face a person is attempting to maintain is 
challenged or undermined in some way. 
 Face threats usually produce feelings of embarrassment, shame, humiliation, agitation, 
confusion, defensiveness, or chagrin. 

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 Through facework, we engage in a variety of actions to help us maintain the face we have 
presented. Such efforts are taken to counteract threats to the face, since face-threatening 
acts chip away at the face we are attempting to preserve. 
 
Guiding Principles 
 Principle 1: The faces people take are contextually bound (the situation, the culture or 
society, other participants) and produce a ritual process of orderly but constrained 
interaction. 
 Principle 2: We depend upon other people to accept and validate our face through a 
process called facework. 
 Principle 3: Numerous strategies are utilized in facework. We have strategies for 
managing face-threatening acts and repairing or restoring face.
 Options when threatening another person’s face include: not doing anything, being 
indirect (off-record), being direct but trying to offset face loss (on-record with redress), or 
being direct without concern for face loss (on-record without redress).  
 Strategies people use to manage threats to other people’s faces include: discretion, 
circumlocutions and deceptions, joking, explanation, solidarity, and tact. 
 Strategies (offerings/accounts) people use to manage threats to their faces from 
challenges or reproaches include accepting and correcting, ignoring and denying, 
diminishing, and apology and/or compensation.