Analysis of Face Theory and Politeness Principle

Based on Liu Xin and Trish Regan’s TV Debate

Abstract

At 8:25 a.m. on May 30, 2019 (8:25 p.m. EST on May 29), CGTN female anchor Liu Xin was invited to talk with Trish Regan, the female anchor of Fox Commercial Channel, on the Sino-US trade and other related topics, which draws widespread international attention. The conversation was presented in the form of a television interview. The paper mainly uses Face Theory and Politeness Principle to conduct research and analysis on the cross-cultural interview on TV programs between the two anchors of China and the United States— Liu Xin and Trish Regan. Through the analysis, it is found that the both parties of the conversation violated the principles of politeness, which would generate the implicature and let the hearer guess what the speaker’s real intention is. Due to some uncontrollable factors, such as the context, the difference of the common knowledge between the hearer and the speaker and the cultural idea of the two parties, the implicature may not be understood. This paper also discusses the common discourse strategies and techniques used in cross-cultural interviews from the perspective of politeness and face-saving theory, which can help the participants in intercultural interview to communicate and exchange more reasonably and better present the image of China, as well as promote the viewer better comprehend and appreciate the cross-cultural TV talk shows, and improve the pragmatic ability of foreign language learners.