Abstract

Studies of conflictual workplace discourse are rare, both in language-awareness research and discourse analysis more generally, owing partly to the difficulty in gaining access to such interactions, and arguably to the relative rarity of conflictual discourse occurring at work. The topic is therefore both under-analysed and under-theorised. Drawing on data in the form of meeting transcripts and spoken and written interview data from three separate corpora of workplace communication, this study analyses how conflict is linguistically and discursively constructed across a range of different professional contexts. Our contribution to language awareness, and to discourse analysis, is threefold. Firstly, the close analysis of meeting data pinpoints a range of linguistic features that can constitute conflict at work, which then form the basis for a novel categorisation. Secondly, the combination of interactional data with interview data demonstrates the awareness professionals may bring when considering the issue of communication and conflict, and its ramifications for successful collaborations. Finally, the proposed theory of conflict can provide explanatory depth to awareness of conflictual discourse, explicating why workplace discourse may be more likely to turn conflictual in certain contexts, and not in others.

摘要

在语言意识研究和话语分析中，很少有关于冲突性工作场所话语的研究，这在一定程度上是由于难以获得这种交互作用的缘故，并且可以说是由于工作中发生的冲突话语相对罕见。因此，该主题的分析和理论不足。这项研究利用来自三个独立的工作场所沟通语料的会议记录和口头和书面访谈数据的形式，分析了在各种不同专业背景下如何在语言和语调上构建冲突。我们对语言意识和话语分析的贡献是三方面的。首先，对会议数据的仔细分析指出了可能构成工作冲突的一系列语言特征，然后构成新颖分类的基础。其次，交互数据与访谈数据的结合表明，专业人员在考虑交流和冲突问题时可能会带来的意识及其对成功合作产生的影响。最后，提出的冲突理论可以为人们对冲突话语的认识提供解释性的深度，阐明为什么工作场所话语在某些情况下而不是在其他情况下更有可能变成冲突。