A Pragmatic Study Of Compensatory Utterances For The Lost Face In Conversation

The present study focuses on compensatory utterances chosen by conversation participants for the lost face in conversation.It seems that a lot of studies are about how to avoid face-threatening in communication. How to make compensation after one's face has been lost is seldom concerned. Apology is the most studied compensatory means for the lost face. However, it is only one form of making compensation. No systematic study of compensatory utterances has been carried out.Wang Hong and Shu Dingfang (1994) point out that it is known that self-praising, giving a request, complaining and criticizing the hearer, and expressing thanks can make the position of the speaker higher or lower than that of the hearer, which results in imbalance or disequilibrium, and various utterances which conversation participants adopt to restore equilibrium are called compensatory means. Leech (1983: 125) claims that the goal of some speech acts, such as apologies, can be seen as the restoration of equilibrium, or at least the reduction of disequilibrium, between the speaker and the hearer.When one party produces an utterance that damages his/her hearer's face, disequilibrium appears in conversation, with the position of the face loss causer higher than that of the face loss sufferer. The compensatory utterance for the lost face is the means chosen by conversation participants to restore equilibrium after disequilibrium has arisen from the face loss in communication. It is the object of the present study.Without preset model in mind or subjective hypothesis proposed in advance, the present study is both data-driven and theory-driven. It belongs to a qualitative study based on the data, which are all spoken discourses, collected from novels, magazines, and daily conversations, and will be carried out on the basis of Jef Verschueren's Linguistic Adaptation Theory. By analyzing the adaptability of compensatory utterances, we answer the question: Why dopeople make compensation to restore equilibrium? It is found that when disequilibrium appears in a conversation, any conversation participant on the scene------a bystander, the face loss causer and the face loss sufferer------can make compensation to restore equilibrium. They choose compensatory utterances to adapt to the mental world and the social world. By making classification of compensatory utterances, we try to explore how people make compensation. The functions of compensatory utterances are also investigated. We have found that a compensatory utterance can be used to save the face of the face loss sufferer, avoid conflict, dissolve embarrassment and create humour. Finally, we discuss the negotiability in interpreting compensatory utterances. A compensatory utterance reflects the subjective intention of the compensator, yet whether it is effective also depends on the interpreter. The interpreter may be willing or unwilling to accept the compensation. There exists indeterminacy in interpreting compensatory utterances.Face loss is unavoidable in communication, so compensatory utterances are frequently used. Therefore, the present study has practical implications.