A Politeness Theory Analysis of Cell-Phone Usage in the Presence of Friends

Politeness theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987) provided the framework for analyzing focus-group transcripts in which college students discussed their perceptions of cell-phone use by friends while in one another's presence and their responses to friends' usage. Findings revealed that this context is inherently face threatening in terms of both positive and negative face. Consequently, participants reported often using hybrid politeness strategies for managing positive and negative face threats, although they also used bald-on-record and going off-record strategies as well as not engaging the face-threatening act.