Common Ground or Conceptual Reframing? A Study of the Common Elements in Conflicting Positions in French Interactions - Conflict and Multimodal Communication: Social Research and Machine Intelligence - page 141

that it can be interpreted in different ways depending on its conceptual frame. It can
be interpreted as the manifestation of lazy behaviour, if it appears as a specification
of [obstacle THEREFORE NEG to do], assuming that laziness corresponds to the
behaviour of people who do not work whenever the smallest obstacle intervenes,
and that the fact of being tired can function as an obstacle to action (Figs. 8.2 ). On
the contrary, if the conceptual frame is the concept [risk THEREFORE to avoid], not
working because of being tired is not to be lazy but to be careful ( 8.3 ). In Figs. 8.2
and 8.3 , the embedded concept specifies the “embedder ” , which acts as a frame. As
we shall see, the specification relationship may take, as the most specific concept:
(1) a concept that functions as the frame to another concept (so that specification
can be characterised as being recursive) as well as (2) two (or maybe more) different
concepts at the same time.
Conceptual specification plays an important role in Sarkozy's strategy. Let us
proceed step by step. Royal sets first a general concept that she associates with the
expression “the ethics of politics” and then gives a specific version that is no longer
general but specifically concerns Sarkozy, his responsibility as the leader of France
and hence his obligation to account for how things went in France (Fig. 8.4 ).
As we saw, Sarkozy does not oppose the general concept that defines “the
ethics of politics”, even recognising himself that he is partly responsible for the
current situation and accepting implicitly the possibility of accounting for it. Instead,
he proposes something close to a correction to Royal's more specific concept, a
correction that reframes Royal's position: Royal's demand to Sarkozy no longer
appears only as a specification of the ethics of politics, but also as specifying a
concept where Left and Right together are items of a responsibility which engenders
accounting for. Sarkozy's strategy consists in, on the one hand, maintaining the

Fig. 8.2 Not to work because
of being tired is to be lazy

Fig. 8.3 Not to work because
of being tired is to be careful

Fig. 8.4 A region of the conceptual space of the interaction as determined by Royal's intervention