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adopting a together stance. They are also expressing approval by saying that they
understand the suspect's wish to stay at the mall. In the preceding section, we also
showed that there is a strong link between the together stance, concepts underlying
rapport (particularly attention and positivity) and positive approval. In the corpus
fragment about the suspect staying at the mall, it is clear that both interaction
parties are paying a high degree of attention to each other. One of the police officers
is asking questions about the suspect's activities which yield immediate responses
from the suspect. There is, however, no uncomfortable atmosphere during this part
of the conversation, as both the officers and the suspect start laughing about this
topic. Thus, the concepts of a together stance, positive approval, and both attention
and positivity are displayed in this part of the conversation.
POLICE OFFICER
: Those girlfriends, eh, 'cause you said you go shopping with
your girlfriends. . .
SUSPECT
: Mm mm. [Confirmatory.]
P
: Do you have good friends? Tight friends?
S
: [Nods enthusiastically.] Yes.
P
:Y ?
S
:Y .
P
:
So what do you go and do with your friends?
S
:
Yeah, well, basically, we are often at the mall.
P
:
At the mall?
S
:
Yeah, one of those indoor malls.
P
:
And what do you do there?
S
:
[Softly:] Kind of hanging around. [Laughs.]
P
:
[Laughs.] Just chilling.
S
:
[Laughs.] Yeah!
An example of the strong link between an opposed stance and negative approval
can be found in the Wassink scenario (see transcript below). In this excerpt, Mrs
Wassink, the suspect, is asked whether she wants to cooperate with the police officer
by answering some of his questions, because he wants to form a picture of her
situation. Mrs Wassink does not comply and indicates that she does not see the
point of doing so.
POLICE OFFICER
: I don't know you and you don't know me either.
SUSPECT
:No.
P
:
But maybe it would be convenient if we would first discuss some things
about you—about who you actually are. Do you think that's OK?
S
:
Well...Why?
P
:
You don't think that's useful?
S
:
[Shrugs, shakes her head.] No, I don't know why I should tell you who I
am.
P
:
Yeah. [Short pause.] Well, I would like to know.
S
:
But what for?
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