Pragmatic Failures and Implications of the Florasis Eyebrow Pencil Incident from the Perspective of the Politeness Principle

Qiong Zhang

doi:10.63313/LLCS.9134

Authors

Qiong Zhang College of Foreign Languages, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63313/LLCS.9134

Keywords:

Eyebrow pencil incident, Politeness Principle, Livestream, Streamer

Abstract

Guided by Leech’s Politeness Principle, this study analyzes the pragmatic failures in the Florasis eyebrow pencil incident. The findings reveal that as a lead anchor, Li Jiaqi’s sales discourse during the livestream violated the Politeness Principle, which includes tact, generosity, approbation, modesty, agreement, and sympathy maxims. Multiple violations of the Politeness Principle negatively impacted both his personal image and the reputation of the livestreaming industry. Therefore, the paper proposes some pragmatic suggestions for streamers based on the Politeness Principles, aiming to raise awareness of harmonious marketing communication between viewers and streamers and provide insights for improving livestreaming sales discourse.

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