This study analyzes bargaining interactions recorded in Ghana's Kumasi Central Market to examine how traders employ kasadϵ (‘sweet/persuasive talk’) in transactional exchanges. Kasadϵ—a compound noun derived from kasa (‘talk’ or ‘language’) and dϵ (‘sweet’)—is a genre of market speech that simultaneously incorporates Akan norms of verbal politeness and the art of persuasion. In interviews on the metapragmatics of kasadϵ, market women highlighted their use of complimentary address forms and deference markers to pamper (krɔkrɔ) potential and recurring customers. My analysis of recorded bargaining interactions, however, revealed that traders also wield rougher, more argumentative language—a style that violates the Akan ideal of politeness and blurs the boundaries between conflict and mock conflict talk. That is, while traders reported that kasadϵ denotes good, polite speech, actual trading talk incorporates a mixture of indirect, direct, antagonistic, and deferential forms. Using two recorded bargaining interactions, this paper presents a detailed analysis of these juxtaposed forms of marketplace talk. I argue that while both styles are critical in economic exchanges—one for maintaining customer relationships, the other for protecting transactional gains—each presents interactional and transactional risks. The tension between these competing motivations creates interactional ambiguity and requires moment by moment navigation.

本研究分析了加纳库马西中央市场记录的讨价还价互动，以检查交易者如何在交易交易中使用kasadϵ（“甜蜜/有说服力的谈话”）。Kasadϵ——源自kasa（“谈话”或“语言”）和dϵ（“甜蜜”）的复合名词——是一种市场演讲体裁，它同时融合了阿肯语的礼貌规范和说服艺术。在关于kasadϵ 元语用学的采访中，市场女性强调了她们使用互补的称呼形式和顺从标记来纵容（krɔkrɔ) 潜在客户和经常性客户。然而，我对有记录的讨价还价互动的分析表明，交易员还使用更粗鲁、更具争论性的语言——这种风格违反了阿寒的礼貌理想，并模糊了冲突和模拟冲突谈话之间的界限。也就是说，虽然交易员报告说kasadϵ表示良好、礼貌的演讲，实际的交易谈话包含间接、直接、敌对和恭顺的混合形式。本文使用两个记录的讨价还价互动，对这些并列的市场谈话形式进行了详细分析。我认为，虽然这两种风格在经济交易中都至关重要——一种用于维护客户关系，另一种用于保护交易收益——但每种风格都存在互动和交易风险。这些相互竞争的动机之间的紧张关系造成了交互的模糊性，需要时时刻刻的导航。