Navigating Face-threatening Terrain: Questioning Strategies in Cross-cultural Military Training Scenarios

摘要

Previous research on interaction has shown that most questions demand a response, which imposes a questioner's will on their addressee, impinging on the addressee's freedom of action. We have identified ways that members of the military mitigate the imposition of their questions, using hedging, false starts, changes in questioning strategy, and what we call a “help frame.” Using interactional data from a role play-based Army adaptability training, we examine differences in mitigation strategies used across different interactional contexts, including meetings with village elders, a village police chief, civilians, and suspicious diggers. In each of these contexts, the trainees adapt their questions to the characteristics of the immediate situation.