Multimodal Analysis of Low-Stakes Conflicts: A Proposal for a Dynamic Model

Abstract

The chapter attempts to define a dynamic model for the analysis of conflictive processes caused by verbal aggression and impoliteness. The linguistic interest in verbal aggression is motivated by the illocutionary force and perlocutionary effects of aggressive utterances, i.e., by the performed acts associated with the interlocutor’s communicative behavior (“action-leading dimension”). The output hypothesis is that verbal aggression is an expression of non-dialogic communicative behavior aimed at gaining power and rejecting the other. It can be motivated by a variety of reasons (the need for power, hostile illocutions, asymmetries in knowledge, compensation mechanisms, etc.). Considering various attempts at classifying antidialogic behavior, made on the basis of Brown and Levinson’s concept of face, a new dynamic model of verbal aggression is proposed. This theoretical model puts interactional balance at the center of the analysis and takes into account the relational, interactional, and multimodal dimensions of conflictive acts. An exemplary analysis of a video recording will clarify how this method makes it possible to distinguish phases within conflict formation (the onset phase, the stroke phase, the offset phase, and possible phases in between) and to point to recurrent moments and specific cues at the verbal, vocal, and kinetic levels in each phase. The claim for interactional power can be retraced through the participants’ attempts to gain control of the informative structure and the topic of a conversation. Further accommodation processes are evident at the level of lexical choices, loudness, pitch, and movements of the head and body.