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 143

In the next sections, I present two other kinds of strategies that involve presenting
a common concept as the frame to two conflicting positions, which tend to show
that connective concepts, specification and reframing might be useful tools to
reveal the nature of the operations performed in the conceptual space of conflicting
interactions.

8.4.2 External Reframing

We have just seen a first reply strategy in a conflicting interaction which consists
in making the adversary's position seem too specific, partial, local, with respect to
the real situation . This “real situation”, which is nothing but the replier's position,
becomes what I have called the frame of the opponent's position, a more abstract
concept that reinterprets the adversary's statement. This strategy is characterised
by the respect of the frame of the opponent's position, and that is why it can be
viewed as an internal reframing . The excerpts that we will analyse in this and the
following sections, concern two different kinds of external reframing, defined as
the strategy of setting the highest level frame for the reinterpreted position. The
two kinds of external reframing differ in that while the first replaces the frame
proposed by the opponent (substitutive reframing), the second encompasses it in
the new frame (comprehensive reframing).

8.4.2.1 Substitutive Reframing

The following interaction takes place on a forum of a French web site addressed to
women ( aufeminin.com ). A member of the forum, that we shall call “ONE”, starts a
“topic” by expressing concern about the growth of racism in France. The day after,
the user we call “TWO” replies to ONE by giving a different view of the situation.
Fragment 2
ONE 6 posted on 06/23/10:
With no intention of playing the lefty or run of the mill idealist, I think people are
becoming more and more racist in France. The French affirm particularly loudly and
clearly, their hatred of Blacks and Arabs [ ::: ] I don't know where we're going with these
mentalities, but it's frightening [ ::: ] I admit that there are problems in the suburbs, there
are the idiots that don't give a shit and provoke, but that doesn't excuse everything. Tone
down your language! You cannot love everyone, that's true, but I hope there are still tolerant
people in France? 7

6 The surnames of the participants have been changed.
7 Je ne vais pas jouer la gauchiste et idéaliste de bas étages mais je trouve que les gens sont de
plus en plus racistes en France. Les français affirment haut et fort leur haine anti-noirs et anti-
arabes en particulier [ ::: ] Je sais pas ou on va avec ces mentalités, mais ça fait peur [ ::: ]Jeveux
bien admettre qu'il y'a des problèmes en banlieue, y'a des petits cons qui foutent la merde et qui