Entry 6 : Face and Politeness

So this is another entry that's coming pretty late, sorry about that!


The concept that stuck with me the most is that of negative and positive politeness and the actions or speech acts which result in them being on or off record. Negative politeness recognises the individual's need to be independent and also to possess freedom of action. Positive politeness on the other hand leverages on the need of individuals to be accepted and treated as a member of the group.


When we are faced with Face Threatening Acts (FTA), we can choose to react in a way that is off or on record. Off record refers to carrying out the next action in an indirect manner, however on record refers to doing things in a direct manner. Taking for example seeking help, we can go about it in a direct manner (on record) or an indirect manner (off record).

As described in the lecture, an off record manner of seeking help would be to ask in a loud voice, a question which is not directed at any particular person. This seeks to ensure that the distance between each party is observed and in no way is the speaker infringing on the rights of the people around him. On the other hand, an on record manner of seeking help would be to just ask directly for the help required.

For certain scenarios, it would be more suitable and effective to practice on record actions. Take for example if you were in the canteen and you would like to know what time it was as you had a class coming up. Assuming you did not have a watch with you, it would be a lot more effective to ask someone next to you directly for the time instead of standing in the middle of the canteen and exclaiming loudly " oh gosh, I have no idea what time it is!" It would be tons more likely that you would attract stares and weird glances than you would actually find out the actual time. Thus, for some situations, going on record would be better than going off record.

However, in selecting each method, we have to ensure that we firstly recognise the needs of each individual. For those who value their individualism and space, we have to make sure that negative politeness is used in dealings with them. On the other hand for those who have a more collectivist attitude, positive politeness should be employed in interactions with them.