Linguistic style refers to how individuals put their words together. This study offers the first application of linguistic style analysis to international multilateral diplomatic negotiations. We hypothesize that agreement in multilateral negotiations is characterized by convergence of diplomats’ linguistic styles whereas disagreement associates with divergence of linguistic styles. We test our claim using original data from the plenary sessions of the Constitutional Convention on the Future of the European Union (2002–2003). We evaluate linguistic style convergence by linguistic style matching (LSM) using the text analysis program Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). We find that linguistic style convergence among negotiators was higher in discussions on the legal personality of the European Union that ended with agreement and lower in negotiations on the definition of qualified majority voting that ended with disagreement. This study facilitates a richer understanding of how negotiators’ language use influences negotiation dynamics in international multilateral diplomacy and encourages negotiation and conflict resolution scholars and practitioners to pay attention to how diplomats express their policy position in addition to what they say.

中文翻译：

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外交变色龙：国际外交谈判中的语言风格匹配与协定

语言风格是指个人如何将自己的语言拼凑在一起。这项研究为国际多边外交谈判提供了语言风格分析的首次应用。我们假设在多边谈判中达成协议的特征是外交官的语言风格趋于一致，而分歧则与语言风格的趋异相关。我们使用《欧盟未来宪法公约》（2002-2003年）全体会议的原始数据来检验我们的主张。我们使用文本分析程序“语言查询和字数统计”（LIWC）通过语言样式匹配（LSM）评估语言样式的融合。我们发现，谈判者之间的语言风格趋同在以协议结尾的欧盟法人资格的讨论中较高，而在以反对意见结尾的合格多数表决的定义的谈判中较低。这项研究有助于人们更深入地了解谈判者的语言使用方式如何影响国际多边外交中的谈判动态，并鼓励谈判和解决冲突的学者和实践者除了讲自己的话外，还要注意外交官如何表达其政策立场。