Constructing the expert as a public speaker: Face considerations on floor-claiming in Greek television discussion programs

This paper examines the conversational strategies through which experts in Greek television discussion programs initiate bids for the floor, or signal their intention to continue utterances that are already under way. In this context, the acts of floor-claiming and floor-maintenance are related to Brown and Levinson's concept of face, and are treated as face-threatening acts. It is shown that the preference features relating to the realization of these acts are shaped by the contextual properties of the mediated setting at hand. More specifically, experts modulate the devices used in the realization of floor-claiming and maintenance in principled ways so as to orient to the goals of communication set up by different programs, i.e. the display of public debate, or the provision of (specialized) information for the viewer audience. What is more, experts systematically deploy forms of mitigation of the acts of floor-claiming and floor-maintenance as conversational resources for performing the act of public dialogue, and, in so doing, they construct an identity as competent public speakers.