Can a robotic arm lose face? | The linguistics of politeness

In this futuristic episode of Linguistics Behind the Scenes, Christina and Dominic investigate how we talk to machines – and what our language reveals about the way we see them.- Do we treat AI and robots like tools, teammates… or something in between?- Where did the insult “clanker” come from – and why might it stick?- Can robots have “face,” even without feelings?- What makes a request sound polite?- Why are humans typically less polite to robots than to other people?From Star Wars battle droids to robotic vacuum cleaners, from imperative commands to indirect requests, our hosts explore the evolving etiquette of human–machine interaction and why it matters how we speak to AI.Full episode transcript available here:https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/phil/english/sections/edling/sciencecommunication/podcast-transcripts.php#Episode20Full article available to read for free here: Do we mitigate face-threatening acts even when communicating with faceless robotic arms? Politeness strategies in human–robot vs. human–human interaction. By Sasha Genevieve Coelho, Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer, Sascha Kaden, Marina Beccard and Florian Röhrbein. https://jalis.uni-ruse.bg/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/JALIS_2026_Issue-6_Manuscript04_Coelho_et_al.pdf Mentioned in this episode:The Jetsons. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055683/