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In order to complete this basic framework for the analysis of facework as
alignment, I now want to briefly show how such a heuristic might relate to the
concept of the self outlined above. In Chapter 11 drew on two conceptual isations of
selfhood. The first related to the self as image -on
loan from society' as Goffman
(1967) phrased it. In this sense, the self is contingent on the recognition,
ratification, and support from fellow conversational i sts. In terms of face, the self can
be seen as indexing prevailing positive social values. Thus, if we contrive the same
reading of facework as alignment, we can speculate with some degree of legitimacy
that the self relies on the alignment of co-participants for its ratification and support
during sociable episodes.
The second conceptual isation was the notion of the self-construal. Thus is
somewhat different notion of the self, but one the less, one which, as with the self
as image, is one which forms the basis for face, and towards which facework
practices are directed. Although this reading was initially invoked to form the basis
for East-West differences, it was suggested that the collectivist-individualist
paradigm might be seen to operate in all cultures to varying degree. Thus, I would
like to propose that the self-construal can also be accommodated within the
framework as alignment framework. That is, during moments of positive claims, the
status of the self-construal is skewed more in the direction of an individualist entity,
and at moments of positive alignment, the self is skewed more in the direction of a
collectivist one. In each case, the conversational manifestation might be expected
to resemble talk commonly associated with individualistic and collectivist
communicative styles (see tables 1.3 and 1.4).
In either case, such selves depend for their survival on the recognition and
ratification by others. This ratification in itself can be conceptualised as a process of
alignment. It is these properties of the self in both conceptualisations as an
'alignable' and 'align-dependent' entity that will form the basis of my own quite
specific treatment here.
Thus, facework as alignment can be regarded as the positive and negative
alignment of selves as both images and construals. Such alignment practices allow
participants to sustain a state of sociable equilibrium. This proposed reading of
facework as alignment of selves can now be formally set out (see fig. 3.6).
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