Face Constitution In Conflict Talk In The Context Of Live Streaming Shopping

Conflict talk frequently occurs on the live screen in the timely conversational message interaction of live streaming shopping due to the rise of live streaming media and the gradual pan-socialization of shopping.Better resolving disputes and creating a harmonious shopping community has emerged as a new challenge in live streaming shopping.In recent years,an increasing number of scholars have adopted an interpersonal pragmatics perspective to analyze interpersonal communication in online conflict talk;however,no attention has been paid to interpersonal discourse research on live streaming shopping.This paper combines Arundale’s(2015)Face Constituting Theory and SpencerOatey’s(2008)Rapport Management Theory to analyze the 111 conflict talk fragments from LI-NING and Anta’s live streaming booths on We Chat and Tik Tok.It uses both quantitative and qualitative research methods to provide answers to the following three questions:(1)What kinds of speech acts of conflict talk are presented in live streaming shopping?(2)What interpersonal relationships are reflected by conflict talk between anchors and viewers?(3)How does face constitute interpersonal relationships during interpersonal conflict negotiation?The major findings are as below: The conflict talk in live streaming shopping is reflected in three categories,namely,assertive speech acts,expressive speech acts,and directive speech acts.Among them,expressive speech acts are used most frequently,followed by assertive speech acts and directive speech acts.The study further finds that in live streaming shopping,there are four different kinds of relationships between anchor and viewer: separation with a third party,separation without a third party,connection of viewer,and connection of anchor.Among them,the separation with a third party and the connection of viewers are the most frequent.The analysis also finds that when anchors face interpersonal conflicts,they mostly neglect or respond in an item-oriented way.Finally,the study finds that in interpersonal conflicts,quality face threat through expressive speech acts prevalently causes relational separation.In the meantime,face threats and face support from third-party viewers frequently coexisted to keep the anchor’s face and forge interpersonal connections.The findings above suggest that viewers typically use face threats to initiate various types of conflict talk against the anchor in live streaming shopping,which creates relational separation;additionally,non-conflict initiating viewers act as a third party to provide face support to the anchor,creating a relational connection between them;and finally,the anchor’s viewers-oriented and prompt responses have a positive impact on developing interpersonal relationships.This study has implications for scholars who are interested in studying live streaming shopping discourse and practitioners of live streaming shopping.