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CHAPTER
I
FACE AND FACEWORK: CONCEPT, CONTEXT,
1.0 Introduction
CULTURE
In recent years 'face', 'facework', and associated issues have been the
focus of numerous empirical studies of face-to-face spoken interaction. These
have given rise to much conceptual and methodological debate across a variety
of disciplinary fields including Socio-linguistics, Pragmatics, Second Language
Teaching, Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology. Facework studies have
addressed a wide range of contexts, settings, and discourse types, and have
employed various conceptualisations of face. As a result, the extant body of
scholarly literature variously employing the terms 'face' and 'facework' is huge,
and can only be partially addressed by even the most enthusiastic scholar (see
Cupach and Metts 1994; Earley 1997; Metts 1997; Spiers 1998; Tracey 1990;
and Ting-Toomey 1994).
More specifically, there has been a veritable explosion of studies
specifically addressing face and facework in and across various cultures.
Subsequently, the concept of face, and the identification facework strategies
directed at face, have proved to be powerful conceptual tools for understanding
how members of different cultures communicate with each other in a range of
interpersonal contexts. Face has become a truly universal concern.
Despite its ubiquity of use as a conceptual framework, the study of
facework remains what Ting-Toomey (1994) rightly termed a challenge'.
Fundamental conceptual and empirical questions have been raised about the
real nature of face itself. For instance, what exactly is face?, how is facework
realised in discourse, and can we take face and facework to be the same thing
for all people across all cultures? These and other questions will be the focus of
this chapter.
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