A Pragmatics-First Approach to Faces

• Published in: Topoi Vol. 41; no. 4; pp. 641 - 657
• Main Author: Scotto, Silvia Carolina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.09.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Communication; Education; Philosophy; Philosophy of Science; Philosophy of Technology; Conversational display; Pragmatics-first approach; Facial expressions; Social and behavioral; Nonverbal signals
• ISSN: 0167-7411; 1572-8749
• DOI: 10.1007/s11245-022-09821-1

This article aims to make a philosophical contribution to the understanding of the communicative dimensions and functions of faces and facial expressions (FEs). First, I will refer to the expressivist and socio-communicative theories of FEs, and to a proposal to unify them under a pragmatic approach based on the theory of speech acts. Subsequently, I will examine the characterization of faces and FEs as social and behavioral affordances , and I will identify their characteristics and communicative functions, especially in “conversational displays”, to justify why they are functionally special. I will then insert facial signals into the framework of a pragmatic perspective on human communication, both verbal and non-verbal, which is broader than speech act theory: a  Pragmatics-First Approach to Human Communication . I will argue that it provides an adequate understanding of the pragmatic-interactive foundations of human communication, where Facereading is a central component. Finally, I will refer to the relationship between Facereading and the Second-person Perspective of social cognition.