Treść książki
Przejdź do opcji czytnikaPrzejdź do nawigacjiPrzejdź do informacjiPrzejdź do stopki
Chapter1.Onculture,faceandpoliteness.Again
21
someonetobehaveinawaywhichgoesagainsttheirvalues.Forinstance,
amanexplaininghisdirefinancialsituationwonders“withwhatfacecan
Ilookatmyfamilymembers?”sincehissalarywasbelowthepovertylineand
couldnotprovidethemwiththeessentials,somethingheperceivedashisduty.
Itisofnotethatthecollocation“Ihaveface”israreinGreek,whichmay
indicatethathavingfaceistakenforgranted,andwhenitisuseditrefersto
havingintegritytypicallyrelatedtofinancialsolvency.Expressionsinvolving
“havingface”mostlyrefertoitsabsence,innegativeorinterrogativeconstruc-
tions.Boththenegativeδενέχωμούτρανατονδω“Idon’thavefacetosee
him”andtheinterrogativeμετιμούτρανατονδω;“withwhatfacetoseehim?”
pointtotheabsenceofface,bothbeingnegativeself-evaluations.
IttranspiresfromtheabovediscussionthatmostGreekcollocationsin-
volvingface(inthesenseconsideredhere)relatetotheideaoflackingrather
thanhavingface.Inotherwords,one’sverbalinvolvementwithone’sownor
somebodyelse’sfacetendstobenegative(cf.Ruhi,2010;André,2013).Thisis
alsoevidencedbythefactthattherearenocollocationsreferringtomaintain-
ing,giving,enhancingorsavingface.Faceismaintainedorsavedprobablyby
implication,thatis,byfollowingthesocialconventionspeoplehaveinternalised
fromtheresourcesavailableintheirsociety.Suchactionsarenotlexicalised,
whichmayindicatethattheyarenotassalientaslosingface.
4.Dataanalysis
Whenusingcollocationsincludingface,Greeksmostlytalkaboutthemselves
andtheiremotions.Theseincludefeelingsofembarrassment,shameorguilt,
whicharenegativeemotionsthatmayormaynotbevoiced.Thepresenceof
anaudienceandthepossibilityofnegativecommentsmayexacerbatesuch
emotions(Ho,Fu,&Ng,2004).Inotherwords,faceisondisplaywheninthe
presenceofothers(Holtgraves,2002,p.38),andifonelosesface,onemay
feelbadabouthowonemaybeseenbyothers(Culpeper,2011,p.25).The
presentdatalendfurthersupporttowhatIhavearguedelsewhere(Sifianou,
2011),namelythatinGreekfaceismostlyunderstoodasapersonalpossession4
constructedonthebasisof“approvedsocialattributes”(Watts,2005,p.xxix)
orofnormsandvaluesthatindividualsassumetoexistinsociety(Mills,2003,
4
Furtherevidencethatfaceisconceptualisedasanindividual’spossessionisprovided
byexpressionslikeπήρεταμούτρατουκαιέφυγε“hetook/pickeduphisfaceandleft,”which
meansthatoneleavesaninteractionoraplacefeelingembarrassedorshamefaced.
