“Face” in Retrospective: A Survey of Thanking in Old Saxon and Old High German

Abstract

Despite being often criticized, the notion of face has recently begun to be applied in diachronic pragmatic investigations. These studies focus on speech acts such as explicit directives, requests, apologies, and terms of address. This trend suggests that “face” can be used as a valid tool to understand speakers’ behaviors in historical contexts. The present study also uses the notion of face to investigate the speech act of thanking in Old Saxon and Old High German, filling a long-standing gap in the literature. The results of this study suggest that, although the expression of gratitude was common and perceived in a positive way in these two societies, this speech act could only be found when the addresser was in a lower social position than the addressee. These findings provide evidence to the claim that the effects of a speech act on the speaker’s or hearer’s face are mostly situational rather than being an intrinsic property attached to it. The findings of this study also reflects the strictly hierarchical structures of the Old Saxon and Old High German societies, in which speakers were allowed to threat their own negative face only if they were in a lower social position than the hearers.