Abstract
In conversations, turns that are dispreferred (e.g., refusing an offer) are marked in various ways (e.g., with delays, prefaces, more complex syntax, etc.). The purpose of this research was to examine the impact of one such marker-a "well" preface-on the comprehension of nonliteral meanings. One possible psychological function of dispreferred markers is that they signal the operation of face management concerns. As a result, the presence of dispreferred markers should facilitate recognition of a face-threatening interpretation of an utterance. Consistent with this logic, participants in Experiment 1 were significantly faster at verifying a face-threatening interpretation of a reply when the reply contained a "well" preface than when it did not. This effect was replicated in a 2nd experiment that used a more indirect measure of comprehension (sentence verification speed).
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