Mitigating disagreements in second language computer-mediated discourse: Applying and revising Brown and Levinson's theories of face

In this dissertation I examine situated language use by English as a Second Language (ESL) students in class discussions through electronic mail (e-mail). There were three purposes in this study: (1) to understand from an ethnographic standpoint how linguistic usages are linked with social relationships in an emerging speech event, (2) to examine the politeness strategies used by ESL students to mitigate their disagreements in e-mail discussion, and (3) to evaluate the applicability of Brown and Levinson's (1987) theory of politeness to these e-mail data.; The e-mail discussions and interviews of fifteen ESL students from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds were collected and analyzed for the ways politeness strategies were employed to mitigate disagreements. Definitions of politeness strategies were drawn from Brown and Levinson's influential theories regarding "negative face" and "positive face."; The participants' e-mail discourse was characterized by conversational strategies; there was an abundance of data on disagreement and associated ways of mitigating the disagreement. Of special interest were mitigation strategies which arose from the character of the event. For instance, the multiparty format and pre-determined turn-taking system in e-mail allowed the participants to manipulate both participant frameworks and participation frameworks to provide mitigation of disagreement.; Brown and Levinson's concept of "face" as dichotomous--either "positive" or "negative"--caused problems in interpreting many of the politeness acts in the data. I argue that, instead of dichotomy, there is a continuum between positive and negative face and the associated politeness strategies.; This study provides unique data on an important speech event, electronic mail, which has emerged with great rapidity in recent years as the potential of computer-mediated communication has been recognized. The analysis documents politeness strategies of a particularly important nature: those used to mitigate disagreement. Such discourse strategies are essential to successful use of a second language. Finally, this study suggests the necessity for significant modification of Brown and Levinson's influential theories of politeness and face.