Dinâmicas de interação na série Friends: um diálogo pragmático entre atos de ameaça à face e humor

Abstract

This qualitative-interpretivist article aims to observe, to identify and to describe the manifestation of face-threatening acts (FTAs) in an episode of the TV series Friends (1994), in addition to analyzing the relationship of the reported FTAs with the humor within threatening utterances. With that aim, Goffman’s (1967) theory about face, as well as of Brown & Levinson’s (1987) theory on face-threatening acts were employed. Therefore, we proposed to investigate: (i) which face-threatening acts can be identified in the episode under analysis; (ii) how humor is inserted in the face-threatening acts that were present, and (iii) how do interlocutors react to the face-threatening acts. The data was analyzed using Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) in which patterns within the FTAs were identified and, then, allocated into similar groups, allowing their quantification. A total of 29 FTAs were encountered; the most frequent one being related to the ridiculing of the receptor of the message, which builds to the humor the sitcom intends to cause. Furthermore, it can be stated that the majority of the FTAs did not cause a negative reaction in the interlocutors, probably because of the intimacy and, consequently, the absence of hierarchy between the interlocutors.