Content-Based Resources for Giving Face Sensitive Advice in Troubles Talk Episodes

Abstract

Advice is a common but potentially face threatening response to a friend or loved one who is upset about a problem. Consequently, it is useful to identify ways a speaker may show regard for face in this kind of episode. This article examines how content accompanying advice may show regard for face. In so doing, the article accounts for sources of face threat and resources for face work that are overlooked in Brown and Levinson's (1987) politeness theory. Study 1 found there are common types of topics in college students' responses to a friend who has experienced a problem. Study 2 shows how some types of topics are associated with students' perceptions that an advice giver shows greater or lesser regard for an advice recipient's face.