ABSTRACT

Our notion of ‘face’ is derived from that of Goffman (1967; [see Chapter 21]) and from the English folk term, which ties face up with notions of being embarrassed or humiliated, or ‘losing face’. Thus face is something that is emotionally invested, and that can be lost, maintained, or enhanced, and must be constantly attended to in interaction. In general, people cooperate (and assume each other’s cooperation) in maintaining face in interaction, such cooperation being based on the mutual vulnerability of face. That is, normally everyone’s face depends on everyone else’s being maintained, and since people can be expected to defend their faces if

that assure the other participants that the agent is heedful of the assumptions concerning face given under (1) above. . . .