Bickering
A conflict speech behavior of close social distance
This paper studies a speech behavior commonly referred to as “bickering,” which occurs primarily among interlocutors of close
social distance (e.g. partners, spouses, siblings, roommates). Using ethnographic methodology, the study analyzes 100 naturally
occurring sequences of familial conflict conversation supplemented by ten open-ended interviews. These data enable the
disambiguation of “bickering” from other speech behaviors such as “complaining” and “nagging.” The analysis offers conclusions on
the typical topics, interlocutor relationships and speech behaviors inherent in the bickering event.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background
- 2.1Bickering in the context of conflict talk and family discourse research
- 2.2What is bickering?
- 2.3Beyond the dictionary: What is bickering?
- 3.Methodology
- 4.Results
- 4.1Analysis of interview data
- 4.2Dialogic data: Results and discussion
- 5.Concluding remarks
- Notes
-
References
References
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