Linguistic politeness and face‐work in computer‐mediated communication, Part 1: A theoretical framework

Our daily social interaction is anchored in interpersonal discourse; accordingly, the phenomenon of linguistic politeness is prevalent in daily social interaction. Such linguistic behavior underscores the fact that linguistic politeness is a critical component of human communication. Speech participants utilize linguistic politeness to avoid and reduce social friction and enhance each other's face, or public self‐image, during social interaction. It is face‐work that underlies the interpersonal function of language use and encompasses all verbal and nonverbal realizations that bring forth one's positive social value, namely, face. Face‐work is founded in and built into dynamic social relations; these social and cultural relations and context directly affect the enactment of face‐work. Analysis and a subsequent understanding of sociointerpersonal communication are critical to the fostering of successful interaction and collaboration. Linguistic politeness theory is well positioned to provide a framework for an analysis of social interaction and interpersonal variables among discourse participants inasmuch as it is applicable not only to face‐to‐face social interactions but also to those interactions undertaken through online communication.