“Do you have a conscience?”: Ostensible offence in hybrid interactions of live streaming commerce

Abstract

This study investigates ostensible offence, a distinctive form of mock impoliteness that couples apparently offensive elements with underlying affiliative intent. Although mock impoliteness has received considerable scholarly attention, ostensible offence within the hybrid institutional context of Chinese state-affiliated live streaming commerce (LSC) remains underexplored. Drawing on 5476 min of transcribed LSC interactions, this study identifies four recurring types of mixed messages: (1) criticizing + reinforcing consumer trust, (2) complaining + highlighting product features, (3) relation-threatening + fostering community solidarity, and (4) staging embarrassment + facilitating cultural socialization. To explain how ostensible offence functions in this context, we propose a three-step pragmatic mechanism. First, mismatch occurs when incongruent interpersonal messages generate evaluative dissonance between surface offence and affiliative intent. Second, collaborative resolution emerges through institutional hybridity in identity, interactional framework, and communicative goals. Third, strategic recontextualization fulfills institutional functions, including enhancing credibility, sustaining engagement, and supporting cultural messaging. The findings demonstrate how strategic language use in LSC serves both commercial and sociocultural goals, contributing to pragmatic research on mock impoliteness in digital institutional discourse.