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Article published In:
Closeness and conflict: The discourse of domestic discord across English and Spanish-speaking communities
Edited by Diana Boxer and María Elena Placencia
[Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 6:2] 2018
► pp. 177–202

Bickering

A conflict speech behavior of close social distance

| University of Florida
| University of Florida

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.

Keywords: family conflict talk, complaints, nagging, ethnography of speaking, bickering
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
      • 4.2.1The dialogic data
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 November 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00009.box
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