A Study of Face Threatening Acts in Communication Strategy from TV Election Debate

This study seeks to examine how face-threatening acts manifest in televised debates as active interaction among its participants, and explore their dimensions and influence through identification of formal categories. The explicit mechanisms employed in the dialogues in televised debates were categorized, and the characteristics and effects of face-threatening acts were analyzed case by case. To this end, face-threatening acts and their scope were redefined, and elements which can influence the dynamics between debaters were identified. Moreover, based on interaction between debaters, the factors that can influence face-threatening acts were classified into two types, in accordance with formal categorization and explicit mechanisms: 1) face-threatening through the structure of discourse, 2) face-threatening using lexicon and grammar- enabled discourse by. Based on these factors, the distribution and effects of face-threatening acts, which appear on TV debates, were analyzed, besides the change in dynamics and discursive effects they inspire. Furthermore, base on how such characteristics and elements affect one''s social face, a communication strategy regarding face-threatening was suggested.