Interactionally achieving face in criticism-criticism response exchanges

Arundale's Face Constituting Theory is used to examine the way face is conjointly co-constituted in criticism-criticism response exchanges in PhD vivas in Iran. This approach carried out in CA tradition on institutional talk makes it possible to explain how face is achieved in the manner grounded in the interactants' perspective. The analysis concentrates on two excerpts of talk drawn from a corpus of 12 PhD vivas. The findings show how interactants conjointly constitute meanings and social actions and at the same time establish relational connection and separation.