I institutionella samtal såsom närståendesamtal mellan en logoped, en närstående till en person med afasi och personen med afasi råder en asymmetri gällande maktförhållandet. Asymmetrin som uppstår i det institutionella samtalet kan innebära att samtalsdeltagaren med minst makt upplever ansiktshot. I samtal ses förståelse som en dynamisk process och när förståelsen innebär ett problem i konversationen störs den pågående aktiviteten. Mottagaren kan lösa problemet som uppstått genom att ge talaren en candidate understanding. Hur kommunikativa strategier används i närståendesamtal är ett relativt obeforskat område och ett viktigt område då närståendesamtal är en vanligt förekommande för logopeder. Syftet med föreliggande studie var därför att undersöka ett antal kommunikativa strategier för att få en gemensam förståelse och minska ansiktshot  vid delgivning av testresultat och rådgivning i närståendesamtal. Tre närståendesamtal mellan logopeder, närstående och i två fall personer med afasi spelades in, transkriberades och analyserades enligt samtalsanalytiska principer (CA). Två logopeder, tre närstående och två personer med afasi medverkade i studien. Totalt omfattade det inspelade materialet en timma och 37 minuter. Deltagande logopeder fick även fylla i ett frågeformulär. Strategier för avdramatisering och förståelse identifierades. Strategierna delades in i två kategorier; avdramatisering av råd och förmedling av testresultat och candidate understandings för att uppnå förståelse. I studien framkom det att candidate understandings ofta initierades av den närstående. Det framkom även att de positiva testresultaten som förmedlades inte avdramatiserades samt att dessa istället ofta framhävdes och att face threatenings acts vid delgivning av negativa testresultat ofta avdramatiserades med hedging. / In institutional interactions such as conversations between a speech and language therapist, a person closely related to a person with aphasia and the individual with aphasia there is an asymmetry considering the power. The asymmetry arising in institutional interactions may mean that the participant with the least power will experience a face threatening act. Understanding is seen as a dynamic process and when understanding is a problem in the conversation the ongoing activity is disturbed. The receiver can solve the problem by giving the speaker a candidate understanding. How these strategies are used in conversations between a speech and language therapist with a person closely related to a person with aphasia is a relatively unexplored field and an important area which is a common for speech therapists. The aim of the present study was to investigate a number of communication strategies in the conversation with a person closely related to a person with aphasia; how understanding was reached and how face threatening acts were reduced when the speech therapists delivered test results and gave counseling. Three conversations between speech and language therapists, persons closely related to a person with aphasia and in two of the recordings the person with aphasia were recorded, transcribed and analyzed according to principles of Conversation Analysis (CA). Two speech and language therapists, three persons closely related to a person with aphasia and two persons with aphasia participated in the study. In total, the recorded material is one hour and 37 minutes. Participating speech and language therapists also filled in a questionnaire. Strategies for mitigation and understanding were identified. The strategies were divided into two categories; strategies to mitigate FTA:s when delivering the test results and counseling, the other categorie was the use of candidate understandings for gaining an mutual understanding. The study revealed that candidate understandings were often initiated by the person closely related to a person with aphasia. The study also revealed that the test results with positive outcome where not mitigated and often emphasized and test results that could be perceived as negative were mitigated with hedging.

In a world which continuously becomes more globalised, the need to adapt one's language depending on context becomes increasingly important. This is acknowledged in the Swedish syllabus for the upper-secondary school, which emphasises communicative competence and the need to adapt to situation and hearer. This study uses a foundation based on politeness theory, where the act of requesting is considered a threat to the notion of face. The concept of face that is being used is based on the work of Brown and Levinson (1987) and the idea is that everyone has a positive- and negative face where the former is the need for one’s self-image to be respected and the latter is the freedom to act without imposition from others. By role-playing different scenarios, the participants of the study, all students of the English 7 course, were asked to perform requests which varied in imposition and which targeted hearers of different statuses. The results were analysed using a qualitative approach, which leads to the conclusion that half of the six participants adapted their language appropriately to the communicative situation. Those three had managed to show an increase in face-saving acts where the imposition was greater, or the hearer was of a higher status. That only half of the participants managed to do this shows a lack of success in teaching the students the necessary pragmatic skills encoded in the syllabus and more focused studies in this area are recommended to address this issue. Due to the small number of participants, further studies are needed to fully confirm the results presented in this study.

The chief aim of this study is to investigate the impact of context on written peer response. A second aim is to explore students’ attitudes towards peer response. The investigation has taken place at an upper secondary school in the south-east of Sweden, involving 20 students in grade 2 and 3 in the course Swedish C. The investigation is based on the students’ comments on their peers’ speech drafts and six qualitative interviews. The material embraces 211 comments, all of which are analysed by use of methods from SFL. The theoretical frame is founded on Grice’s (1975) principle of communication and Brown & Levinson’s (1987) principle of politeness. The investigation shows, among other things, that in the choice between giving effective response (according to the principle of communication), or giving response that maintain the social balance (according to the principle of politeness), the students in general choose the latter. This is reflected in the results of the linguistic analysis and confirmed in the six interviews.

This paper investigates the use and function of intertextuality in the television series Suits, and examines the interplay between intertextuality and politeness. Intertextuality allows a text to incorporate other texts and to draw upon connotations that belong to those texts. Politeness theory offers a tool to analyse the pragmatic use of language in social interaction. Analysing occurrences of intertextuality from the first episode of the television series, the paper explores in what ways the fictional characters use intertextuality and for what purposes. It explores if, and how, intertextuality can be used as a politeness strategy. Findings suggest that intertextuality is used for three main purposes, and functions as characterisation and as a means to establish and/or maintain social relations. Detailed analyses of instances of intertextuality propose that intertextuality can be used as a politeness theory, but only in certain ways. The paper discusses these findings and offers a possible explanation for why intertextuality is only used in this restricted way.

This study examined how racism and racial tensions potentially threatened the face needs of Black and White interracial couples. Specifically, this study investigated the benefit of family approval of one's interracial relationship. Couples use of corrective face work in response to prejudice was also examined. This research used a qualitative, interpretive method to gather and analyze data from 14 personal interviews. The interview schedule enabled interviewees to use storytelling to share their experience of being in a Black and White interracial relationship. Interviewees were asked questions surrounding their experience as the partner in an interracial relationship. Couples shared how they told their family that their romantic partner was a different race and shared how they encountered prejudice when they are out in public. Further, they spoke about how people stare at them and make comments about their interracial relationship. The data underwent a thematic analysis (Owen, 1984) where I reviewed the data and searched for themes that were recurrent and repeated by interviewees. There were several themes that emerged. First, the very presence of racial tensions and racism affects interracial couples. Second, family support seemed to mitigate threats to couples' positive and negative faces and enabled couples to engage in open and honest dialogue with their family and their significant other. Finally, even couples with family support, engaged in corrective face work to respond to the face threats posed by racism and racial tensions.

長期以來，有關新聞訪問中的模糊語言實際運用並無具體化分析成果，本研究藉由現任總統馬英九接受國際媒體CNN專訪之研究，以論述分析法逐一分析問句及答句，具體歸納出了模糊語言之運用方式。 本研究在文獻回顧章節透過面子威脅、雙避衝突及組織框架等理論來探討官方消息來源如何使用模糊語言，再以論述分析法逐一探討提問者問句與受訪者答句間之對應情形，並納入語境因素，試圖尋找出官方消息來源常見之模糊語言形式。 本研究結果顯示，國內官方消息來源在衝突性提問中確實經常引用模糊語言作為回應媒體提問之方式，不論國內或是國外消息來源均偏愛採取「製造政策重點」之模糊語言方式回應，國內官方消息來源尤其青睞採取「製造政策重點」中之「提出新的論點」、「自我肯定」及「未來作法及期待」等項目，主要是基因於模糊語言類型的運用具有「看似言之有物」、「轉移焦點」、「離開情境」、「不冷場」及「較不容易出錯」等優點，至於負面效應則是引發媒體的「追問」，但由於問答劇本之設定及訪問時間等有利因素，消息來源之模糊語言並無礙於專訪之進行。 / This study focuses on the concept of equivocal communication, especially on the effect of equivocal language and source credibility, ininterviews between the press and its official sources. An unedited version of CNN interview with President Ma Ying-jeou on April 30, 2011, was used in this study in order to find out how equivocal language, if any, was involved. After going through the literature of face-threatening theory, avoidance- avoidance conflict and frame analysis, this research centers on two levels: first, how the officials choose/manipulate the wording of answers in interviews; and second, what the syntax differences are between questions and answers. The results of the study show that official sources, when facing harsh questions, usually turn to equivocal language and intend to induce avoidance towards certain questions. The technique that an official frequently adopted is “making political points,” i.e., to divert attention by “presenting policies,” “talking up one’s own side,” and “making pie in the sky.” The negative effects of equivocal language, therefore, are mainly resulted from the fact that it might trigger more aggressive follow-up questions from the press. Nevertheless, officials still maintain an upper hand over the pres in the wake of Q&A time restraints and the constant stress to beat deadline.

本研究旨在討論新聞記者如何運用語用學之「前提」概念來引導受訪者回答，藉由「丟面子問題」質疑並挑戰受訪者「答非所問」之迴避回應。個案研究以一則平面政經新聞報導為言說分析之例，從主張與前提兩個語言單位來探究前提在訪談問答間扮演何種角色與功能。 相關語言學文獻討論曾指出記者前提影響受訪者之回應面向。本文進一步認為，記者訪談前提往往誘導受訪者針對該前提回應(而非針對問題本身)，並藉助記者的背景知識與訪談對話以預設前提並挑戰受訪者。 歸納個案文本的言說分析與個案記者訪談後，本研究發現，記者前提所產生的命題確實影響並誘導受訪者回應，並以記者的前設知識來探討前提技巧如何獲得受訪者更多、更深入的回應。整理上述提問、回應模式，本研究擬出語用前提作為「問好問題」之言談方法及雙方互動的橋樑，盼能提供訪談者一套語言策略。 / The goal of this research aims to explore how pragmatic presuppositions in news interviews influence the interaction of interlocutors, conducted by discourse analysis on assertions and presuppositions within each pair of questioning. By identifying the face-threatening questions which ends up leading the interviewee to non-reply responses, the case study concentrates on one public-figure interview in attempts to unveiling the tactics of placing presuppositions, added by the in-depth interview with the journalist of the case to take the speaker’s meaning into account. The result of this research enabled the author to discover the interaction of presupposition in the form of propositions between the interlocutors that leads the interviewee’s response to challenge the journalist’s presuppostions. The researcher also found evidences indicating the presumption of the journalist produces presuppostion as well as the response, which enables this research to develop a pragmatic strategy of news interview based on the use of presuppositions.

This essay aim to examine face-threatening acts (FTA) during two lessons with a group of students in class 9 in Sweden. The purpose of the study is to identify and analyze sharp face-threatening acts, how they emerge in the classroom and whatkind of strategies the teacher uses to maintain classroom management. The material is based on sound recordings from October 2021 which have been transcribed and analyzed based on Brown & Levinsons politeness theory. Two participants, one student and one teacher, act as front figures to illustrate examples. Results show that sharp face-threatening acts occur during classes due to possible reasons such as impatience, fewer present adults and the structure of the lesson. The teacher is using a variety of strategies to handle the FTA, among which the strategy of ignoring and continue with the lesson seems to be the most successful to assuage the conflicts. Although it is plausible to assume that a variation of strategies is necessary to maintain authority. / Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka ansiktshotande handlingar under två lektioner i en klass i årskurs 9. Syftet med studien är att identifiera och analysera skarpa ansiktshotande handlingar, hur de uppstår i klassrummet och vilken typ av strategier läraren använder för att upprätthålla klassrumsordning. Materialet är baserat på ljudinspelningar från oktober 2021 som har transkriberats och analyserats utifrån Brown & Levinsons artighetsteori. Två deltagare, en elev och en lärare, fungerar som frontfigurer för att illustrera exempel. Resultaten visar att skarpa ansiktshotande handlingar förekommer under lektionerna på grund av möjliga orsaker som otålighet, färre närvarande vuxna och lektionens struktur. Läraren använder olika strategier för att hantera ansiktshoten, varav strategin att ignorera och fortsätta med lektionen verkar vara den mest framgångsrika för att lindra konflikterna. Det är dock rimligt att anta att en variation av strategier är nödvändig för att behålla auktoritet.

Syftet med föreliggande studie var att studera de avdramatiserande strategier som förekommer under logopedisk afasi- och barnintervention samt att jämföra dessa interventionstyper. Vidare syftade studien till att beskriva hur dessa strategier påverkar interaktionen mellan logoped och patient. Vald analysmetod har influerats av Conversation Analysis (CA) eftersom det är en metod som kan användas för studier av interaktionen mellan människor. Materialet för analysen har utgjorts av sex samtal inom afasiintervention och åtta samtal inom barnintervention. Vid analysen av materialet till föreliggande studie blev det tydligt att det främst är logopeden som använde avdramatiserande strategier och detta skedde något oftare inom barnintervention än inom afasiintervention. I samma material var det relativt ovanligt att patienten använde avdramatiserande strategier. I de fall detta förekom bland patienter var det för att skydda sitt eget ansikte, till skillnad från logopedens användning som främst syftade till att skydda patientens ansikte. I resultaten framkom inga större skillnader gällande vilka avdramatiserande strategier som användes, däremot fanns skillnader i hur ofta de användes samt i hur de tillämpades. En annan tydlig skillnad vid jämförelse av interventionstyperna var att logopeden inom barnintervention oftare använde en stigande grundton som en artighetsstrategi, vilket i vissa situationer fungerar avdramatiserande. Gällande interaktionen ser de avdramatiserande strategierna till att samtalet fungerar och förs framåt inom de båda interventionstyperna. Behovet av de avdramatiserande strategierna blev tydligt när de inte fungerade och patienten till följd av detta upplevde ansiktshot. Sammanfattningsvis låg den största skillnaden mellan de studerade interventionstyperna i hur logopeden anpassade de olika strategierna till en vuxen person med afasi respektive ett barn med språkstörning.

This dissertation seeks to address the multiple ways face or one’s public self-image is attacked, supported and maintained in Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca, My Children! My Africa! and Valley Song, and through this discussion demonstrate how the notion of face can make a contribution to the study and understanding of Athol Fugard’s work. In the pursuit of their goals/objectives, interactants perform speech acts which may threaten the face of other participants. The choice of strategies available to participants in the performance of these face-threatening acts (FTAs) includes going on record, off record (indirectly) or avoiding the FTA altogether (saying nothing). Each text offers a fresh perspective from which face can be analysed: rebelliousness against conformism (The Road to Mecca); the perspective of the cross-racial, cross-cultural relationships (My Children! My Africa!); and the context of a closely-knit family relationship (Valley Song). / English Studies / M.A. (Theory of Literature)