Teaching Digital Pragmatics: Politeness Strategies and Face Negotiation in Real-Time Game-Based Interaction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31849/elsya.v7i2.25061Keywords:
Digital pragmatics, Face, Game-based language learning, Intercultural pragmatics, Politeness strategiesAbstract
In the context of increasingly dynamic digital communication, multiplayer online games have evolved into socially rich environments where real-time interaction reflects complex pragmatic behavior. This study investigates how players from Southeast Asian gaming communities negotiate face and utilize politeness strategies during live voice-based gameplay. Unlike previous research that centers on text-based or asynchronous interactions, this study addresses a critical gap by examining how paralinguistic elements such as tone, laughter, and vocal exaggeration influence pragmatic choices in synchronous digital communication. Grounded in Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory and Goffman’s concept of face, the study analyzes 120 naturalistic voice chat interactions collected from Overwatch 2 and Dota 2 using qualitative discourse analysis and thematic coding. The results demonstrate that players frequently rely on humor, indirect expressions, and culturally rooted metaphors to manage face-threatening acts and sustain group cohesion under competitive pressure. Rather than confronting errors directly, players use strategic tone modulation to reframe criticism as shared amusement, thus preserving social harmony. The study contributes to digital pragmatics by emphasizing the performative and relational aspects of game-based interaction. These findings carry broader implications for understanding emotional regulation, intercultural communication practices, and the development of socially aware interaction systems in online platforms that prioritize rapid, collaborative exchanges.
References
Abrams, D., Chen, T., Odriozola, P., Cheng, K., Baker, A., Padmanabhan, A., … Menon, V. (2016). Neural circuits underlying mother’s voice perception predict social communication abilities in children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(22), 6295–6300. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1602948113
Agustina, S. (2021). Face-saving and face-threatening negotiation by lecturers: Gender and teaching experience differences. Language and Literacy: Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching, 5(2), 590–599. https://doi.org/10.30743/ll.v5i2.4527
AlMamoory, S. M. A., & Al Khazaali, L. T. W. (2024). Linguistic strategy in online digital communication: A pragmatic study. Journal of Media, Culture and Communication, 4(3), 10–21. https://doi.org/10.55529/jmcc.43.10.21
Anthony, J. M. C., Pacate, D. J. B., Tulud, D. M., & Barbosa, E. B. (2025). Politeness strategies of President Duterte during inquest on war on drugs: Implications on teaching communication. Indonesian Journal of Education Research, 6(2), 234–246. https://doi.org/10.37251/ijoer.v6i2.1538
Arief, Y. (2023). Politeness in roasting: When humour meets power. Journal of Linguistics, Culture and Communication, 1(1), 67–78. https://doi.org/10.61320/jolcc.v1i1.
Arnhold, A., & Kyröläinen, A. (2017). Modelling the interplay of multiple cues in prosodic focus marking. Laboratory Phonology: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Phonology, 8(1), Article 8. https://doi.org/10.5334/labphon.78
Athuman, M., & Tibategeza, E. (2021). Politeness strategies in health care providers and patients’ communication. Sumerianz Journal of Education, Linguistics and Literature, 4(1), 30–39. https://doi.org/10.47752/sjell.41.30.39
Athuman, M., & Tibategeza, E. (2021). Politeness strategies in health care providers’ and patients’ communication. Sumerianz Journal of Education, Linguistics and Literature, 41, 30–39. https://doi.org/10.47752/sjell.41.30.39
Bhad, A. (2024). Politeness and face saving strategies: The pragmatic role of disclaimers in Chinese conversations SocArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/ak6qm
Björkenfeldt, O., & Gustafsson, L. (2023). Impoliteness and morality as instruments of destructive informal social control in online harassment targeting Swedish journalists. Language and Communication, 93, 172–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2023.11.002
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press.
Carrasco, A., Tamura, A., Pommer, S., Chouinard, J., Kurima, K., Barzaghi, P., … Wickens, J. (2019). Multiparametric assessment of the impact of opsin expression and anaesthesia on striatal cholinergic neurons and auditory brainstem activity. The Journal of Comparative Neurology, 528(5), 787–804. https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.24795
Cassinger, C., & Thelander, Å. (2020). Voicing the organization on Instagram: Towards a performative understanding of employee voice. Public Relations Inquiry, 9(2), 195–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X20920820
Castro, J. H. C., Duray, S. A., Tanguihan, K. A., & Syting, C. J. O. (2024). Pragmatic analysis of undergraduate male and female students’ politeness strategies in initiating and terminating conversations online. Journal Corner of Education, Linguistics, and Literature, 4(2), 262–281. https://doi.org/10.54012/jcell.v4i2.345
Chen, X., Shin, G. H., & Lee, J. (2025). Exploring metapragmatics of politeness lexemes using a computational approach. Journal of Politeness Research, 21(1), 167–192. https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2023-0021
Cornips, L. (2025). Embodied variation in the sequential greetings of the Ucholtz (dairy) cow. Language and Communication, 103, 34–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2025.04.003
Crasborn, O., & Kooij, E. (2013). The phonology of focus in Sign Language of the Netherlands. Journal of Linguistics, 49(3), 515–565. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226713000054
Dalisay, L., & Catoto, J. (2024). The face and politeness on Philippine press briefings: A content analysis. CSD Research Journal, 25(2), 32–48. https://doi.org/10.57260/csdj.2024.264877
Ducheneaut, N., & Moore, R. (2005). More than just “XP”: Learning social skills in massively multiplayer online games. Interactive Technology and Smart Education, 2(2), 89–100. https://doi.org/10.1108/17415650580000035
Duthler, K. W. (2006). The politeness of requests made via email and voicemail: Support for the hyperpersonal model. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 11(2), 500–521. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.00024.x
Dynel, M. (2023). Lessons in linguistics with ChatGPT: Metapragmatics, metacommunication, metadiscourse and metalanguage in human AI interactions. Language and Communication, 93, 107–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2023.09.002
Fitriani, I., & Hardjanto, T. D. (2023). Students’ politeness strategies in online learning classroom. Journal of Linguistic Phenomena, 1(2), 53–64. https://doi.org/10.24198/jlp.v1i2.43443
Fitriani, I., & Hardjanto, T. D. (2023). Students’ politeness strategies in online learning classroom. Journal of Linguistic Phenomena, 1(2), 53–60.
Francis, J., Chin, T., & Vella Brodrick, D. (2020). Examining emotional literacy development using a brief online positive psychology intervention with primary school children. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(20), 7612. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17207612
Fukkink, R., & Hermanns, J. (2009). Children’s experiences with chat support and telephone support. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 50(6), 759–766. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.02024.x
Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction ritual: Essays in face-to-face behavior. Anchor Books.
Gong, E. Y. (2025). Revisiting the “language part of work”: Taylorism and multilingualism in the AI-driven globalised economy. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2025(292), 143–155. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2024-0055
Gortari, A., & Griffiths, M. (2015). Auditory experiences in game transfer phenomena. In R. Kowert & T. Quandt (Eds.), The video game debate (pp. 1329–1345). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666 8200 9.ch067
Guldner, S., Lavan, N., Lally, C., Wittmann, L., Nees, F., Flor, H., … McGettigan, C. (2022). Human talkers change their voices to elicit specific trait percepts. OSF Preprint. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/afky7
Hellbernd, N., & Sammler, D. (2016). Prosody conveys speaker’s intentions: Acoustic cues for speech act perception. Journal of Memory and Language, 88, 70–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2016.01.001
House, J., Kádár, D. Z., & Xia, Z. (2025). Offering food and alcohol in Chinese and English: A contrastive pragmatic perspective. Journal of Politeness Research, 22(1), 95–126. https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2023-0077
Icht, M., Zukerman, G., Ben Itzchak, E., & Ben David, B. (2021). Keep it simple: Identification of basic versus complex emotions in spoken language in individuals with autism spectrum disorder without intellectual disability: A meta analysis. Autism Research, 14(9), 1948–1964. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2551
Keith, B. (2024). Speech acts in intercultural communication: A cross cultural comparison of politeness strategies. International Journal of Linguistics, 6(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.47604/ijl.3292
Kråkvik, B., Stiles, T., & Hugdahl, K. (2013). Experiencing malevolent voices is associated with attentional dysfunction in psychotic patients. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 54(2), 72–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12024
Lapadat, J. C. (2002). Written interaction: A key component in online learning. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 7(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2002.tb00158.x
Leitão, C., Souza, C., & Barbosa, C. (2007). Face to face sociability signs made explicit in CMC. In Universal access in human computer interaction: Applications and services (pp. 5–18). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74796-3_4
Li, M. (2012). Politeness strategies in wiki mediated communication of EFL collaborative writing tasks. IALLT Journal of Language Learning Technologies, 42(2), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.17161/iallt.v42i2.8510
Liu, P., & Pell, M. (2012). Recognizing vocal emotions in Mandarin Chinese: A validated database of Chinese vocal emotional stimuli. Behavior Research Methods, 44(4), 1042–1051. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-012-0203-3
McGettigan, C. (2015). The social life of voices: Studying the neural bases for the expression and perception of the self and others during spoken communication. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9, Article 129. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00129
Mirzaei, S., & Hayati, A. (2018). Effects of the computer mediated communication interaction on vocabulary improvement. Telkomnika, 16(5), 2217–2225. https://doi.org/10.12928/telkomnika.v16i5.10195
Mirzaei, S., & Hayati, A. F. (2018). Effects of the computer-mediated communication interaction on vocabulary improvement. TELKOMNIKA: Telecommunication Computing Electronics and Control, 16(5), 2217–2225. https://doi.org/10.12928/telkomnika.v16i5.10195
O’Connor, E., Longman, H., White, K., & Obst, P. (2015). Sense of community, social identity and social support among players of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs): A qualitative analysis. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 25(6), 459–473. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2224
Pannese, A., Grandjean, D., & Frühholz, S. (2016). Amygdala and auditory cortex exhibit distinct sensitivity to relevant acoustic features of auditory emotions. Cortex, 85, 116–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2016.10.013
Paul, J., & Farrell, O. (2012). The use of disclaimers in mitigating face-threatening acts in Mandarin. Journal of Politeness Research, 8(2), 153–170. https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2012-0001
Payne, B., Lavan, N., Knight, S., & McGettigan, C. (2020). Perceptual prioritization of self associated voices. British Journal of Psychology, 112(3), 585–610. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12479
Rains, S. A., Brunner, S. R., Akers, C., Pavlich, C. A., & Goktas, S. (2016). Computer-mediated communication (CMC) and social support. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 34(8), 1186–1205. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407516670533
Ratan, R., Chung, J., Shen, C., Williams, D., & Poole, M. (2010). Schmoozing and smiting: Trust, social institutions, and communication patterns in an MMOG. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 16(1), 93–114. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2010.01534.x
Shahzad, W. (2024). Effects of politeness strategies on ESL learners' English communication skills at BS level. Journal of Language Teaching, 8(3), 45–60. https://doi.org/10.33422/jlt.v8i3.589
Sharma, D. (2025). The style game: Control, cues, and anchors in real-time speech accommodation [Advance online publication]. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 29. 210-222. https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.12701
Shim, Y. (2007). Negotiation of meaning between an L2 teacher and students in face-to-face interactions and CMC. English Teaching, 62(3), 265–288. https://doi.org/10.15858/engtea.62.3.200709.265
Sifianou, M. (2011). On the concept of face and politeness. In A. Trosborg (Ed.), Politeness across cultures (pp. 42–58). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Speer, S., Warren, P., & Schäfer, A. (2011). Situationally independent prosodic phrasing. Laboratory Phonology: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Phonology, 2(1), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.1515/labphon.2011.002
Stewart, H., Martinez, J., Perdew, A., Green, C., & Moore, D. (2020). Auditory cognition and perception of action video game players. Scientific Reports, 10(1), Article 635. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-71235-z
Sunendar, N., Sudana, D., & Gunawan, W. (2024). Face-saving acts of Indonesian public figures in responding to criticism on social media. In Proceedings of… (pp. 333–336). https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-376-4_42
Tagg, C. (2025). Mobile events: Exploring mobile conversations in context as communicative events. Language and Communication, 103, 108–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2025.04.008
Tian, L., Moore, J., & Lai, C. (2016). Recognizing emotions in spoken dialogue with hierarchically fused acoustic and lexical features. In Proceedings of SLT 2016 (pp. 565–572). https://doi.org/10.1109/SLT.2016.7846319
Ting Toomey, S. (1994). Face and facework: An introduction. In S. Ting Toomey (Ed.), The challenge of facework: Cross-cultural and interpersonal issues (pp. 1–14). SUNY Press.
Wang, T., & Yang, Q. (2018). Are pitch variation cues indispensable to distinguish vocal emotions? In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Speech Prosody (pp. “—pages not provided—”) Poznań, Poland. https://doi.org/10.21437/SpeechProsody.2018 66
Wright, K. B., & Bell, S. B. (2003). Health-related support groups on the internet: Linking empirical findings to social support and computer-mediated communication theory. Journal of Health Psychology, 8(1), 39–54. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105303008001429
Yasmin Khan, D., Nazar, S., & Tufail, H. (2024). Analysis of politeness strategies in the play Heat Lightening: A pragmatic perspective. Journal for Social Science Archives, 2(2), 110–123. https://doi.org/10.59075/jssa.v2i2.78
Zhao, Z., & Lai, M. (2023). Analysis of politeness based on naturally occurring and authentic conversations. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 19(3), 47–65. https://doi.org/10.52462/jlls.1975
Zojaji, S., Peters, C., & Pélachaud, C. (2020). Influence of virtual agent politeness behaviors on how users join small conversational groups. In Proceedings of the 20th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (pp. 1–8). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3383652.3423917
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
- Author retains the copyright and grants Elsya Journal the right of first publication of the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal
- The author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book) with the acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- The author is permitted and encouraged to post his/her work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of the published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Elsya Journal is licensed under 