Multimodal Analysis of Low-Stakes Conflicts: A Proposal for a Dynamic Model - Conflict and Multimodal Communication: Social Research and Machine Intelligence - page 258

Intonation Contours at Turn Completion

? Rising intonation

" A mid-turn sharp rise in intonation

# A mid-turn sharp fall in intonation

< h > High tone of voice

Characteristics of Speech Delivery

: A colon indicates extension of the preceding sound or syllable, e.g., tota:l

IST Capital letters indicate increased loudness for a focus, e.g., KINDERzimmer

_ Contraction, e.g., mir sind die trän_n gekomm_n

The Dynamics of Speech Delivery

< all > Fast manner of speaking
< acc > A speaker starts speaking faster
< f > A loud manner of speaking
< ff > A very loud manner of speaking

14.1 Theoretical Issues

The aim of this chapter is to propose a dynamic model for the multimodal analysis
of conflict situations caused by impoliteness and verbal aggression.
When we talk about conflicts, we have to distinguish between high-stakes
conflicts (as underlined by Ellen Giebels in her talk, http://klewel.com/conferences/
sspnet-roma-013/index.php?talkid=20 , see also Giebels et al. 2014 ), caused by
serious divergences, and low-stakes conflicts, which are common in everyday life
and are often caused merely by an improper dialogical attitude. Impoliteness and
verbal aggression are in effect forms of communicative behavior marked by a
struggle for (interactional) power, which leads to a lack of cooperation (according
to Grice 1975 : 45) and thus to conflict. 1

1 In this sense, we can outline a second-order framework, where politeness is seen as cooperative
behavior (Grice), and impoliteness is seen as uncooperative (non-dialogic) behavior, which may
lead to conflict and communication problems (communicative standstill, a fight, etc.). See in this
sense Lachenicht ( 1980 ), Culpeper ( 1996 , 2008 , 2011 ) Culpeper et al. ( 2003 ), Spencer-Oatley
( 2005 ), Bousfield ( 2008 ), for an overview see: Bonacchi ( 2013 ): 80ff.