Face : an Interdisciplinary Perspective
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Title: Face : an interdisciplinary perspective Author: Ewa Bogdanowska-Jakubowska Citation style: Bogdanowska-Jakubowska Ewa. (2010). Face : an interdisciplinary perspective. Katowice : Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. Contents 1 To my Mother, my Sister Nika and Tomek 2 Contents NR 2790 Contents 3 Ewa Bogdanowska-Jakubowska Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego Katowice 2010 4 Contents Editor of the Series: Językoznawstwo Neofilologiczne Maria Wysocka Reviewer Anna Lubecka After this edition runs out, the book will be available online: Śląska Biblioteka Cyfrowa www.sbc.org.pl Contents 5 Contents Acknowledgements ................... 11 The list of abbreviations and notational conventions ......... 12 Preface ...................... 13 Introduction ..................... 15 Justification of the approach ................ 15 Methods of collecting empirical data ............. 17 Outline of the book ................... 20 Chapter 1 A cognitive study of the concept of FACE in English and Polish ...... 23 1.1. Introduction .................... 23 1.2. Face and twarz — two words for one concept? ..........25 1.3. A theoretical framework ................ 29 1.4. FACE as a radial category ............... 32 1.5. FACE metaphors in English and Polish ........... 34 Chapter 2 The face as a part of the body ................ 53 2.1. Introduction .................... 53 2.2. Is the face exclusively human? .............. 54 2.3. The face as a person ................. 57 2.4. The face as a mirror of the soul ............. 59 2.4.1. Reading faces in ancient China ............ 60 2.4.2. Physiognomy in ancient Greece and Rome ........ 61 2.4.3. Physiognomy in Europe .............. 64 2.5. The face and expression of emotions ............ 75 6 Contents 2.6. Face and mask .................. 82 2.7. The face of the other ................ 92 2.8. Face-blindness ................... 95 2.9. The face and beauty ................. 97 2.10. The “troubled” face .................104 2.10.1. The face as a display of illness symptoms ........104 2.10.2. The face as a symbol of split personality ........105 2.10.3. Face and shame, guilt and embarrassment ........106 2.10.4. The stigmatized face ..............110 2.11. The hidden face ..................113 2.12. The “wrong” face ..................114 2.12.1. The “mismeasured” face .............114 2.12.2. The “racial face” in Germany ............117 2.12.3. The criminal face ...............119 Chapter 3 The concept of self ...................123 3.1. Introduction ....................123 3.2. The definition of self .................124 3.3. The self and its components ...............128 3.4. Self-presentation ..................131 3.5. The self and the body .................134 3.5.1. Body—soul/mind dualism ..............135 3.5.2. The body and the soul/self in modern philosophy ......137 3.5.3. The body — the symbol of the self ...........138 Chapter 4 Face as a folk concept ..................141 4.1. Introduction ....................141 4.2. Face, morality and related social concepts...........142 4.2.1. Face and morality ................143 4.2.2. Face and pride, dignity, tact, respect and (self-)esteem .....146 4.2.3. Face and honour ................148 4.3. Defining culture ..................151 4.3.1. Cultural traditions and belief systems ..........152 4.3.2. Dimensions of cultural variability ...........153 4.3.3. Culture-specific concepts of self ............156 4.3.4. Emic and ethic approaches to cultural concepts .......159 4.4. The Chinese concept of face ..............160 4.4.1. Chinese culture and its Confucian roots .........160 4.4.2. Face in Chinese culture ..............163 4.5. The Anglo-American concept of face ............167 4.5.1. Culture of the United States ............167 4.5.2. Interpersonal relations and facial expressions in Anglo-American culture 171 Contents 7 4.5.3. Face in Anglo-American culture ............174 4.6. The Polish concept of face ...............178 4.6.1. Polish culture .................178 4.6.2. Interpersonal relations and facial expressions in Polish culture . 185 4.6.3. Face in Polish culture ...............189 Chapter 5 Face as an academic concept ................195 5.1. Introduction ...................195 5.2. Goffman’s world of social encounters ............196 5.2.1. Social interaction in a dramaturgical perspective .......196 5.2.2. Social interaction as a game .............199 5.2.3. The ritual organization of interpersonal contacts .......201 5.2.4. Frames ...................205 5.2.5. Goffman’s concept of self .............207 5.2.6. Face ....................208 5.2.7. Facework ..................210 5.3. Face theories — an overview ...............212 5.3.1. A sociolinguistic approach to face ...........213 5.3.1.1. Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness ......213 5.3.1.2. Criticisms of Brown and Levinson’s conceptualization of face . 217 5.3.1.3. Face theories inspired by Brown and Levinson’s model . 228 5.3.2. A relational approach to face ............235 5.3.3. A cross-cultural approach to face ...........244 5.3.4. A socio-psychological approach to face..........250 5.3.5. A communicative approach to face ...........253 5.4. The Cultural Face Model — an approach to face interpretation and mana- gement .....................259 5.4.1. Face and interaction ...............260 5.4.2. Face as a property of the individual ..........261 5.4.3. Face and culture ................262 5.4.4. The Cultural Face Model — presentation .........263 5.4.5. Types of facework ................265 5.4.6. The applicability of the Cultural Face Model ........268 Conclusions .....................291 References ......................295 Index of names ....................325 Subject index .....................333 Streszczenie .....................339 Résumé .......................341 8 Contents Contents 9 Everything is in the face. Cicero Contents 11 Acknowledgements This book would not have been written without my great fascination with the works of Erving Goffman, which were the main source of my general ideas. I owe a very important debt to Professor Roman Kalisz, who many years ago turned my attention to the problem of culture-specific face and in this way inspired me to write this book. My special thanks go to Professor Janusz Arabski for his inspiration, ideas and constant encouragement. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Kościuszko Foundation, which awarded me a Fellowship for the Academic Year 2006/2007 at the University of California, Berkeley, where a large portion of my book was prepared. My thanks go to the Department of Linguistics, the University of California, Berkeley, where I was invited as a visiting scholar, and to my faculty sponsor there, Professor Robin Lakoff. I would like to thank Professor Anna Lubecka, who reviewed the manuscript and helped me with many inspiring comments. I would not be able to complete this book without the great support from my Mother, Wanda Bogdanowska. I acknowledge the tremendous contribution of my Sister, Nika Bogdanow- ska. I am indebted to her for her thoughtful readings and helpful suggestions. Many ideas in this book have emerged from discussions with Nika. Finally, I would like to mention Tomek, whose presence was very important to me. 12 Contents List of the most common abbreviations and notational conventions BNC — British National Corpus dim. — diminutive FFA — face-flattering act FTA — face-threatening act H — the hearer L1 — first language L2 — second language LDCE — Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English OALD — Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English OED — Oxford English Dictionary Online OPWN — Wielki słownik polsko-angielski PWN-Oxford S — the speaker SJP — Słownik języka polskiego Italics are used when words are used metalinguistically, e.g., face, twarz, or when new concepts or phenomena are introduced, e.g., physiognomy. CAPITALS are used for concepts and conceptual elements, e.g., THE FACE FOR THE PERSON. Preface 13 Preface This book is to show the concept of face from many distinct perspectives. Paul Ekman, who studied the face and facial expression for more than fifty years, said in an interview for the San Francisco Chronicle (2002) that “Everyone is interested in faces.” My fascination with faces is the main reason why I have taken up the concept. As a linguist whose main research interests focus on sociocultural conditioning of language use, I cannot concentrate exclusively on the physicality of face. Therefore, I decided to create a picture of the concept which would include its most important aspects. Although my intention is to provide a thorough presentation of face, the key issue is to be the role it plays in social interaction. Entering into contact with other people, we have to take into account: • the face as a part of the body, with its stable features and transient expressions, • face understood as an image of self which every person creates during social interaction. The social significance of these two aspects of face is indisputable and deserves a close analysis. Thus, the topic of the book is face, and the main objective is to carry out an analysis of this complex, multi-dimensional concept in an interdisciplinary perspective (interdisciplinarity is understood here as the diversity of practices and relations among disciplines (Fairclough and Duszak, 2008)). The concept of face has been the subject of many academic papers and monographs in different disciplines, e.g., psychology, sociology, cultural and historical anthropology, philosophy, literary studies,