Some Aspects of “Face-Saving” in Dialogue Discourse

Abstract

During the last two decades human communication has become a topic of interest for language analysts. Language and environment have a significant impact on the way people communicate trying to establish good relations with each other. Language has in store various means that help communicants not only to achieve felicitous communication but also save face in the process of interpersonal communication. The article deals with language and speech means aimed at saving face in Modern English conversational discourse. It describes theoretical grounds of investigation based on the politeness theory and cooperation principles and focuses on defining and analyzing “face-saving” strategies and tactics in Modern English conversational discourse. Understanding the effect “face-saving” strategies and tactics produce will benefit interpersonal communication on different levels. Hence this subject is germane and most topical to education in general and language teaching in particular.