Negative Faces Research Articles

Hedging as one of Negative Politeness Strategies in German Languaculture

The article deals with the problem of negative politeness and corresponding politeness strategies in German languaculture on the basis of modern fiction and also elaborates on the analysis of linguistic means of implementation of a negative politeness strategy known as hedging.Purpose of research: study of communicative situations in which a threat to the negative face of one of the speakers is present, and a review of politeness strategies that are used in such cases. The negative face means the desire of an interlocutor not to be bothered by others during communication (as an example, a request, an order or advice can damage the negative face of the addressee). Special attention is given to hedging as one of the most commonly used negative politeness strategy.Methods: the practical part of the research is based on a linguacultural analysis of the material.Results: using the analyzed materials we discover language (including grammatical, lexical and phonetical ones) tools and mechanisms that are used to perform such strategies in a speech act and also reasons to use hedges in communication and their functions in it.Conclusion: based on the theoretical, practical materials and the results that have been found in the course of the research we can state the importance of mastering (among all the linguacultural features being one of the key components of acquiring any foreign language on a par with grammar, vocabulary, phonetics etc.) the complex and frequently used for a lot of different communicative purposes phenomena known as hedging – one of the negative politeness strategies, that has quite a unique ways of usage depending on languaculture in question, and thus requiring a more deep and thorough studying in each particular case. The relevance of research of that particular element in the system of negative politeness strategies is due to the fact that while acquiring languages of western Europe (German, English and others – that means languages of cultures of an individualistic type) – an incorrect knowledge of hedging mechanisms can be the cause of problems and failures in communication, because in such cultures that element of communicative politeness has quite an important role (more important that in cultures of collectivist type – i.e. the Russian one and others).

Facework display of a political leader: Linguo-rhetoric approach (the case study of Julia Gillard's speech on misogyny)

This article focuses on the cognitive rhetoric features of the politician's facework that incorporate face threatening acts, communicative strategies, and discursive functions in a political speech. The data were taken from the speech on misogyny delivered in 2012 by the 27th Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Throughout the article we disclose the interaction of the politician's face, politeness, and power in the institutional discourse. Julia Gillard does her facework actively engaged into the misogyny argument which provides a persuasive ground to confront the opponent's face through reinforced employment of both positive and negative face threatening acts. The findings suggest that doing facework through rhetorical practices Gillard signals her identity in three faces: a political leader, a female politician and her individual social self-image of a woman and daughter. Gillard's face claims are closely bound with her sense of sociality rights and obligations. This entails her relational and collective self-construal prevail over her individual face. The symbolic power obliges Gillard to protect her collective self-credibility and makes the ground for undermining the self-worth of the opponent in a rather straightforward manner. The politeness Gillard exercises is mainly prescribed by the institutional goal and status which directly impact the use of the linguistic means employed by the politician.

A Pragmatic Social Verbal Project: Character Language for the National Harmony

This article has explored use of the Indonesian language pragmatically within its related theories, and formulated the so-called character language for the national harmony. This descriptive qualitative research employed three main methods, i.e. observation, literature review, and auto-expert judgments and applied two types of assumptions in the development of a new theory, i.e. the empirically logical assumptions and the theoretically critical assumptions. The results of actual and potential data under researchers’ observation and the related theories were then analyzed through a coding technique, which consisted of three steps: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding to come to and present a structured form of the project, the distant and the close Indonesian languages as the main aspects of the character language. The project for the national harmony was then visualized and accounted for towards its predicted efficacy or eligible application through a six-phase projection, namely (1) in-family interaction phase, (2) in-classroom teaching-learning process phase, (3) in-school evaluation phase, (4) in-school re-evaluation phase, (5) in-public verification phase, and (6) in-society selection phase. Each phase with all the parties or the agents involved in this social verbal project was described and justified for its efficacy to contribute to the national harmony. Theoretically, this research develops the application of politeness or face-saving paradigm in pragmatics, while empirically, this research aims to encourage safe verbal interactions towards the national harmony, or international harmony to some extent. Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the Indonesian language pragmatically within its related theories, and to formulate the so-called character language for the national harmony. Theoretical Framework: In this pragmatic social verbal project, the Indonesian language is pragmatically formulated into Distant Indonesian Language (DIL) and Close Indonesian Language (CIL). DIL is spoken to superiors or used in the formal setting, while CIL is spoken to close people or used in the informal setting. The formulation of DIL and CIL is based on the theories of negative and positive face, negative and positive politeness strategies, respect and solidarity politeness, and politeness and camaraderie. Meanwhile, the formulation of superiors (and strangers) and close people is based on the theories of types of hearer with the aspects of power and solidarity. Method: This descriptive qualitative research employed three main methods, i.e. observation, literature review, and auto-expert judgments and applied two types of assumptions in the development of a new theory, i.e. the empirically logical assumptions and the theoretically critical assumptions. The results of actual and potential data under researchers’ observation and the related theories were then analyzed through a coding technique, which consisted of three steps: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding to come to and present a structured form of the project, the distant and the close Indonesian languages as the main aspects of the character language. Results and Discussion: The project for the national harmony was then visualized and accounted for towards its predicted efficacy or eligible application through a six-phase projection, namely (1) in-family interaction phase, (2) in-classroom teaching-learning process phase, (3) in-school evaluation phase, (4) in-school re-evaluation phase, (5) in-public verification phase, and (6) in-society selection phase. Each phase with all the parties or the agents involved in this social verbal project was described and justified for its efficacy to contribute to the national harmony. Research Implications: Theoretically, this research develops the application of politeness or face-saving paradigm in pragmatics, while empirically, this research aims to encourage safe verbal interactions towards the national harmony, or international harmony to some extent. Originality/Value: This character language project proposition has potential contributions for the (inter)national harmony, among others, as pragmatic behaviors or good manners against hate speech and hoaxes, for a guideline for text interactions in the virtual world, and metaphorically as the clothes that we wear in public or in private, within formal or informal situations.

자기불일치가 물질주의에 미치는 영향

Objectives This study aimed to explore the mediating effect of negative evaluation and face sensitivity in the relationship between self-discrepancy by college students and materialism.
 Methods From December 4, 2023 to December 15, 2023, 369 male and female college students who voluntarily participated in the study collected survey data on variables related to self-discrepancy, fear of negative evaluation, face sensitivity, and materialism. after collected survey data, descriptive statistics analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and mediating effect analysis were performed using SPSS 28.0 and AMOS 28.0 programs, and bootstrapping was performed to verify the significance of indirect effects.
 Results The main research finding were as follow: First, self-discrepancy, fear of negative evaluation, face sensitivity, and materialism showed positive correlation. Second, the partial mediating effect of face sensitivity was confirmed in the relationship between self-discrepancy and materialism. Third, the double mediating effect of fear of negative evaluation and face sensitivity was confirmed in the relationship between self-discrepancy and materialism.
 Conclusions This study can be used to help understand of the process in which college students who highly perceive self-discrepancy experience materialism and by revealing the internal mechanisms of fear of negative evaluation and face sensitivity that mediate this relationship, presented evidence to organize counseling goals and programs for a client who have complain of pain due to highly materialism.

Arousal and valence have dissociable effects on responses to schematic emotional faces.

Studies examining behavioural responses to emotional stimuli usually report one of two patterns of responses to negative stimuli. Some studies find faster responses to negative material. Other studies find slower responses to negative stimuli. While the attentional mechanisms proposed to explain these findings (attentional capture in the former case, delayed disengagement in the latter) are not at odds with one another, the behavioural findings do need to be reconciled. We posit that arousal, being the primary differentiator of threatening and nonthreatening stimuli, needs to be more carefully considered. To this end, two experiments were conducted evaluating the role of stimulus arousal and valence in the processing of schematic emotional faces. In Experiment 1, stimulus arousal was manipulated via the presence or absence of eyebrows in the schematic faces in a faces flanker task. Results showed faster responses to faces with eyebrows but no differences in the faces flanker asymmetry between faces with and without eyebrows. In Experiment 2, participants rated the faces on an evaluative space grid. Results showed the presence of the eyebrows had a greater impact on negative ratings for negative faces than for the other expressions. This suggests that stimulus valence and arousal were manipulated by the eyebrows and the reaction time differences could not be attributed purely to perceptual differences. Together these results suggests that both valence and arousal impact the processing of emotional schematic faces, and that these effects are dissociable. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The LGBTQ+ Employee Mental Load Dilemma: Captive Identity and Adaptive Responses

Conceptualizations of mental load argue that marginalized employees may experience heightened mental load demands in the workplace (Sanders, 1979). Using the theories of facework, frontstage, and backstage performance (Goffman, 1978), we examine how workplace interactions may constrain or enable the performance of an LGBTQ+ identity in the workplace. We interviewed 35 U.S.-based LGBTQ+ employees to understand how mental load pressures shape identity presentation choices. Data were thematically analyzed using an iterative process based on principles of grounded theory. Two themes emerged: the Captive, or negative face threats, that LGBTQ+ employees described (including subthemes of professionalism and feelings of inescapability) and Adaptive strategies promoting negative face (including subthemes of making choices where possible, identity artifacts selections, and use of strategic ambiguity). Both captive and adaptive aspects of facework are considered for potential impact on increasing employee mental load.

Face-threatening and Face-saving Speech Acts of Teachers: A Discourse Analysis of Classroom Interactions

Politeness is fundamental to social order production and social interaction precondition. However, it is inevitable to encounter impoliteness in communication that could threaten a person's self-image. Hence, this study aims to explore the face-threatening acts of teachers in terms of positive and negative faces, as well as how they exhibit face-saving acts in classroom talks. This study employed a discourse analysis approach to investigate how teachers use language to threaten or save students' face needs during classroom interactions. The researchers collected the data from the video recordings taken by researchers from the twelve (12) research subjects' classroom discussions with their students at La Filipina National High School in Tagum City, Davao del Norte. The data was analyzed using the politeness theory of Brown and Levinson (1987) and revealed that the teachers' face-threatening acts in terms of positive face are an insult, disapproval, criticism, bringing bad news, threat, non-cooperation, and unleashed negative emotions. While in terms of the negative face, they employed reminders, accepting compliments, giving offers and suggestions. The analysis also showed that teachers exhibited face-saving acts (Bald- on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record) directly and indirectly by telling jokes or giving hints. These study findings contribute to our understanding of the complex nature of face-to-face communication in the classroom and provide insights into how teachers threaten or manage face needs in their interactions with students.

The effect of training to target cognitive biases towards social rejection in eating disorders.

This study examined the effect of cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I) training in Korean women with eating disorders (EDs). Sixty-three women with EDs participated in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention group where they received six sessions of CBM-I training (n=31) in addition to treatment-as-usual or were put on a waiting list (n=32). Participants' interpretation and attention biases, emotion regulation, affect, and ED psychopathology were assessed at baseline, end-of-intervention (4weeks), and follow-up (8weeks). Participants who completed the CBM-I training displayed greater reductions in negative interpretation bias (Δη2 =0.107) and emotion dysregulation (Δη2=0.085) with medium to large effect sizes compared to the control group, which were maintained from baseline to follow-up. Disengagement from negative faces and a focus on positive faces was found in the intervention group with a moderate effect size at the end-of-intervention (Δη2=0.090). Both intervention and control groups showed improvements in ED psychopathology. Baseline neuroticism was positively correlated with CBM-I effect. The results suggest that modifying interpretation bias towards ambiguous social stimuli might be an effective adjuvant treatment to reduce negative expectations of social situations and improve emotion regulation in women with bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa.

Preserving Face Threatening Acts in the English Translation of Bumi Manusia

This research aims to find the types of FTA contained in the English translation of the novel Bumi Manusia. Apart from that, this research also analyses translation techniques and the level of translation accuracy. The research method used is descriptive qualitative. The research results state that there are two main types of FTA, namely Positive Face Threatening Acts (PFTA) and Negative Face Threatening Acts (NFTA). There is a predominance of PFTAs in human interactions, indicating that more actions aim to strengthen and enhance positive aspects of relationships and personal development. The findings from the English translation technique of the novel "Bumi Manusia" show a total of 1357 data, divided into 13 types of techniques. The most dominant translation technique is Equivalence with a percentage of 73.2% of the total data found. These results are that the English translation of the novel "Earth of Mankind" has an adequate level of accuracy, acceptability and readability.

Comparing the Use of Linguistic Hedging Devices (LHDs) in English and Bahasa Indonesia: Gender and Pedagogical Perspectives

The use of Linguistics Hedging Devices (LHDs) serves a notable function in our daily conversations and thus is thought-provoking to analyze. Although its occurrence tends to be more prominent in spoken communications, the use of this linguistic feature is still frequently apparent in written conversations. Although they do not add much to the proportional content of an utterance, their occurrence remains unique in terms of variations, frequency, and functions across languages. This study examines the use of LHDs by native speakers of English and Bahasa Indonesia in short spontaneous expressions. The data were obtained through Oral Discourse Completion Tasks (ODCTs) involving 40 participants from the two language speakers (20 in English and 20 in Bahasa Indonesia). English respondents expressed their responses in English, while the Indonesian speakers used Bahasa Indonesia in their responses. Each respondent was asked to respond to an apologetic expression from a close friend using a mini-digital tape recording. All responses were transcribed and analyzed, focusing on the number and types of LHDs used by the respondents in their expressions. The results revealed that the two language communities used various LHDs in their responses, mostly intended to show indirectness and reduce threats toward the hearers’ negative faces. English respondents were likely to use these linguistic features more frequently and varied in types than their Indonesian counterparts. A remarkable trend in the study is that Indonesian speakers tended to be more direct in their expressions than their English counterparts, challenging previously reversed claims. Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Indonesia is recommended to introduce various types and uses of these markers and emphasize how they can be used appropriately in authentic contexts.

Altered mechanisms of adaptation in social anxiety: differences in adapting to positive versus negative emotional faces

ABSTRACT Social anxiety is characterised by fear of negative evaluation and negative perceptual biases; however, the cognitive mechanisms underlying these negative biases are not well understood. We investigated a possible mechanism which could maintain negative biases: altered adaptation to emotional faces. Heightened sensitivity to negative emotions could result from weakened adaptation to negative emotions, strengthened adaptation to positive emotions, or both mechanisms. We measured adaptation from repeated exposure to either positive or negative emotional faces, in individuals high versus low in social anxiety. We quantified adaptation strength by calculating the point of subjective equality (PSE) before and after adaptation for each participant. We hypothesised: (1) weaker adaptation to angry vs happy faces in individuals high in social anxiety, (2) no difference in adaptation to angry vs happy faces in individuals low in social anxiety, and (3) no difference in adaptation to sad vs happy faces in individuals high in social anxiety. Our results revealed a weaker adaptation to angry compared to happy faces in individuals high in social anxiety (Experiment 1), with no such difference in individuals low in social anxiety (Experiment 1), and no difference in adaptation strength to sad vs happy faces in individuals high in social anxiety (Experiment 2).

Disrupted properties of functional brain networks in major depressive disorder during emotional face recognition: an EEG study via graph theory analysis.

Previous neuroimaging studies have revealed abnormal brain networks in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) in emotional processing. While any cognitive task consists of a series of stages, little is yet known about the topology of functional brain networks in MDD for these stages during emotional face recognition. To address this problem, electroencephalography (EEG)-based functional brain networks of MDD patients at different stages of facial information processing were investigated in this study. First, EEG signals were collected from 16 patients with MDD and 18 age-, gender-, and education-matched normal subjects when performing an emotional face recognition task. Second, the global field power (GFP) method was employed to divide group-averaged event-related potentials into different stages. Third, using the phase transfer entropy (PTE) approach, the brain networks of MDD patients and normal individuals were constructed for each stage in negative and positive face processing, respectively. Finally, we compared the topological properties of brain networks of each stage between the two groups using graph theory approaches. The results showed that the analyzed three stages of emotional face processing corresponded to specific neurophysiological phases, namely, visual perception, face recognition, and emotional decision-making. It was also demonstrated that depressed patients showed abnormally decreased characteristic path length at the visual perception stage of negative face recognition and normalized characteristic path length in the stage of emotional decision-making during positive face processing compared to healthy subjects. Furthermore, while both the MDD and normal groups' brain networks were found to exhibit small-world network characteristics, the brain network of patients with depression tended to be randomized. Moreover, for patients with MDD, the centro-parietal region may lose its status as a hub in the process of facial expression identification. Together, our findings suggested that altered emotional function in MDD patients might be associated with disruptions in the topological organization of functional brain networks during emotional face recognition, which further deepened our understanding of the emotion processing dysfunction underlying MDD.

Short-run Labor Market Integration of Venezuelan Immigrants to Peru

We study the negative wage premium Venezuelan immigrants face in the Peruvian labor market, the second largest receiving country of Venezuelan migrants. Consistent with an imperfect transfer of skills, we find that the higher the education level, the larger the negative wage premium. Also, as in south-to-north migration processes, foreign work experience has a negligible value in the host country. We find evidence that immigrants with a valid work permit tend to earn more per week than immigrants who do not. Though our analysis focuses on Venezuelans’ short-run assimilation, we find initial evidence that the longer the immigrants stay, the smaller the negative premium to their education.

The enhanced emotional negativity bias in parents of atypically developing children: Evidence from an event-related potentials study.

Parents of atypically developing children such as parents of children with ASD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and intellectual disability experience higher levels of parenting stress than parents of typically developing children. However, whether they possess enhanced emotional negativity bias was unclear. In the present study, 28 parents of typically developing children and 29 parents of atypically developing children were recruited. The emotional Stroop task and event-related potentials were adopted to measure their emotional negativity bias, in which participants were required to respond to the borders' color of face pictures. Behaviorally, the impact of parenting stress on emotional negativity bias was not found. At the electrophysiological level, the P2 differential amplitude (negative minus positive) was greater in parents of atypically developing children than in parents of typically developing children, reflecting an enhanced early attentional bias toward negative faces. N2 amplitude for the emotionally negative face was smaller than the positive face in parents of atypically developing children, indicating a too weak attentional control to inhibit distractors. Furthermore, sustained attention to negative faces was observed in parents of atypically developing children, that is, the emotionally negative face elicited greater frontal P3 (300 ~ 500 ms) than the positive faces. These findings revealed that compared to parents of typically developing children, parents of atypically developing children owned an enhanced emotional negativity bias at the early and late stages of information processing.

Amygdala and cortical gamma-band responses to emotional faces are modulated by attention to valence.

The amygdala might support an attentional bias for emotional faces. However, whether and how selective attention toward a specific valence modulates this bias is not fully understood. Likewise, it is unclear whether amygdala and cortical signals respond to emotion and attention in a similar way. We recorded gamma-band activity (GBA, > 30 Hz) intracranially in the amygdalae of 11 patients with epilepsy and collected scalp recordings from 19 healthy participants. We presented angry, neutral, and happy faces randomly, and we denoted one valence as the target. Participants detected happy targets most quickly and accurately. In the amygdala, during attention to negative faces, low gamma-band activity (LGBA, < 90 Hz) increased for angry compared with happy faces from 160 ms. From 220 ms onward, amygdala high gamma-band activity (HGBA, > 90 Hz) was higher for angry and neutral faces than for happy ones. Monitoring neutral faces increased amygdala HGBA for emotions compared with neutral faces from 40 ms. Expressions were not differentiated in GBA while monitoring positive faces. On the scalp, only threat monitoring resulted in expression differentiation. Here, posterior LGBA was increased selectively for angry targets from 60 ms. The data show that GBA differentiation of emotional expressions is modulated by attention to valence: Top-down-controlled threat vigilance coordinates widespread GBA in favor of angry faces. Stimulus-driven emotion differentiation in amygdala GBA occurs during a neutral attentional focus. These findings align with a multi-pathway model of emotion processing and specify the role of GBA in this process.

Less attention to emotional faces is associated with low empathy and prosociality in 12-to 20-month old infants.

The development of empathy and prosocial behavior begins in infancy and is likely supported by emotion processing skills. The current study explored whether early emerging deficits in emotion processing are associated with disruptions in the development of empathy and prosociality. We investigated this question in a large, diverse sample of 147, 11- to 20-month-old infants (42% female; 61% Black; 67% low socioeconomic status). Infants completed two observational tasks assessing prosocial helping and one task assessing empathy and prosocial comforting behavior. Infants also completed an eye-tracking task assessing engagement and disengagement with negative emotional faces. Infants who attended less to angry, sad, and fearful faces (i.e., by being slower to look at and/or quicker to look away from negative compared to neutral faces) engaged in fewer helping behaviors, and effect sizes were larger when examining infants' attention toward the eye regions of faces. Additionally, infants who were quicker to look away from the eye regions of angry faces, but not the whole face, displayed less empathy and comforting behaviors. Results suggest that as early as 12months of age, infants' decreased attention toward negative emotional faces, particularly the eye regions, is associated with less empathy and prosociality during a developmental period in which these abilities are rapidly maturing.

Positive Face and Negative Face in Chinese and Japanese

Positive Face and Negative Face in Chinese and Japanese

Diverging Grammaticalization Patterns across Spanish Varieties: The Case of perdón in Mexican and Peninsular Spanish

This study investigates the contemporary grammaticalized uses of perdón (‘sorry’) in two varieties of Spanish, namely Mexican and Peninsular Spanish. Methodologically, the investigation is based on a taxonomy of offenses, organized around the concept of ‘face’ and based on spoken data of Spanish from Mexico and Spain. This taxonomy turns out to be a fruitful methodological tool for the analysis of apologetic markers: it does not only offer usage-based evidence for previous theorizing concerning the grammaticalization process of apologetic markers, but also leads to a refinement of these previous results from a contrastive point of view. Evidence from both corpora suggests a more advanced stage in the grammaticalization process of perdón in Mexican Spanish, where it can be used not only as a self-face-saving device geared towards the positive face of the speaker, but also in turn-taking contexts oriented towards the negative face of the interlocutor. Peninsular Spanish, on the other hand, resorts to a more varied gamut of apologetic markers in these contexts.

Exploring how received gratitude and apologies meet a benefactor’s psychological needs of face and competence

In Japan, when a beneficiary receives benefits from a benefactor, it is not unusual for the beneficiary to use apologies to express gratitude. However, literature has not fully investigated how received gratitude and apologies impact Japanese benefactors’ perceptions. This experimental study examined how received gratitude and apologies influenced 671 Japanese participants’ (benefactors) negative and positive face as well as their self-efficacy. The results showed that the participants who received a message with gratitude or both gratitude and apologies perceived that their negative and positive face were less threatened than those in a control condition. Contrary to literature, those who received gratitude did not have high levels of self-efficacy. However, their self-efficacy was high after they received apologies only when they put more effort into helping a beneficiary. This study revealed unique roles of gratitude and apologies in meeting various psychological needs of Japanese.

Realizing Politeness via Impoliteness: The Use of “akhs” as a Positive Politeness Marker in Karaki Arabic

This study is aimed at examining the contextually variable meanings of the word akhs in Karaki[i] Arabic. The data of the study, which is based on authentic situations where the researcher was involved, was analyzed within the domain of politeness theory. Besides its main use as a swear word and as an abusive form of language that threatens the negative face of the addressee, akhs was found to be used as a tool to achieve relational work and politeness among associates and relatives. The usage of akhs as a positive signal of politeness was also found to be largely dependent on the dialogue parties' degree of familiarity, common background, and contextual features. Akhs could be used in some contexts as a tool to express camaraderie and as a device to evoke enthusiasm in the addressee, highlighting social solidarity and closeness and maintaining the social ties among friends and relatives. Keywords: Politeness, Familiarity, Relational work, Swear words, Social solidarity.