From disagreement to conflict: a linguistic analysis of couple arguments
Supporting Agencies
- This work was made possible thanks to funding obtained from the research projects Estrategias pragmático-retóricas en la interacción conversacional conflictiva entre íntimos y conocidos: intensificación, atenuación y gestión interaccional (PID2020-114805GB-I00) and ESPRINTER: estudio de las estructuras pragmático-interactivas de la comunicación conflictiva entre parejas en español: conversaciones y terapias de pareja en América y España (PID2024-156013NB-I00).
Abstract
This article analyses how the linguistic strategies used to express disagreement in everyday conversations in couples may contribute to conflict escalation. Using the ESPRINT-Conversation corpus, different linguistic resources are identified and classified according to their potential to generate unpleasant emotions, which leads to a conflict intensity continuum. The study shows two main patterns: the first type consists of versations with predominant low-conflict strategies, characterised by an indirect expression of disagreement or data-basedargumentative patterns; the second type includes conversations in which disagreement is based on reproaches or is accompanied by impolite expressions, which increases its conflict potential. Moreover, a correlation is observed between the density of digressive speech acts and conflict intensity. Overall, results suggest that conflict escalation in couples depends not only on the disagreement itself, but also on its form of expression, argumentation and reiteration.
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