Negotiation of face in web chats

Abstract

Using conversation analytic methodology, this paper investigates how ‘politeness’ and ‘face’ are negotiated in web chats. Following previous conversation analytic research (Heritage 1984), we first tie the concepts face and social solidarity to the conversation analytic concept of preference organization. We then proceed to describe the system of communication of chats, delineating some technological constraints of the medium that have an impact on the resources available for participants for indicating preferred and dispreferred turns. Specifically, we indicate that some resources available in ordinary talk-in-interaction are not available in web chats, while web chats also allow for certain resources not available in ordinary talk-in-interaction. By analyzing requests (i. e., first pair parts) and second assessments (i. e., second pair parts), we demonstrate how participants adapt their interaction to the specific environment of web chats when negotiating issues of social solidarity.