POLITENESS AND FACE THEORY

(Brown & Levinson, 1987)

Pecore, Meraflor O., Dadul, Lennox

BAEL INTERNS
Face Theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987)
“the public self-image that every member wants to
claim for himself,” Brown and Levinson (1987) as
cited in Dewi, et.al. (2021, p. 328)
Face Theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987)
Two (2) Aspect
1) Positive Face (personality claimed by interactants)
2) Negative Face (‘basic claim to territorial personal
preserves and rights to non-distraction’ )
Shahrokhi and Bidabadi (2013, p. 23)
Politeness and Face Theory
(Brown & Levinson, 1987)

“assumes that most speech acts inherently threaten either the

listener or the speakers‟ face-wants and that politeness is
involved in redressing those face threatening acts (FTA).”
Sadeghoghli and Niroomand (2016, p. 31)
Politeness and Face Theory
(Brown & Levinson, 1987)

Face Threatening Acts (FTA) occurs in social

interactions which intrinsically threaten the face of the
speaker (S) or hearer (H).
Politeness and Face Theory
(Brown & Levinson, 1987)
Factors
othe social distance
othe relative power
othe absolute ranking of imposition in a particular
culture.
Cutrone (2011,p. 52)
Politeness and Face Theory
(Brown & Levinson, 1987)

Strategies for performing speech acts

1. Positive Politeness - aims at supporting or
enhancing the addressee's positive face,
2. Negative Politeness - satisfying negative face in
terms of indicating respect for the addressee’s
right not to be imposed on.
Implications to ELT
Politeness and Face theory serve as a guidance
on the linguistic behavior of the learners
necessary for the maintenance of the face.
References

Cutrone, P. (2011). Politeness and Face Theory: Implications for the Backchannel Style of
Japanese L1/L2 Speakers. Language Studies Working Papers, Vol. 3. pp. 51-57
Sadeghoghli, H., & Niroomand, M. (2016). Theories on Politeness by Focusing on Brown
and Levinson’s Politeness Theory. International Journal of Educational Investigations,
3(2): 26-39.
Shahrokhi, M., and Bidabadi, F.S. (2013). Overview of Politeness Theories: Current Status,
Future Orientations. American Journal of Linguistics, 2(2): 17-27. DOI:
10.5923/j.linguistics.20130202.02
Q&A
Thank you for
listening.