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- Title
Power, solidarity and tag questions in crisis negotiations.
- Authors
Rubin, Gabriela Beyatriz
- Abstract
This article examines the use of tag questions in five crisis negotiations to simultaneously minimise power asymmetries and assert influence over subjects. I utilise an Interactional Sociolinguistic approach to identify the discursive functions that different types of tag questions fulfil for the crisis negotiators. I find that facilitative tag questions reinforce a 'collaborative problem solving' frame (Tannen and Wallat 1993) and minimise the significance of the subject's negative actions, while softening tag questions turn orders into requests to influence the subject's decision-making. The successful use of tag questions for these purposes allows the negotiator to appear empathic while maintaining control of the overall situation. This article contributes to linguistic and practitioner understandings by 1) operationalising goals like 'rapport' and 'influence' and 2) identifying the functions that tag questions can serve in this high-stakes interactional context.
- Subjects
SOCIOLINGUISTICS; HOSTAGE negotiations; TAG questions; CRITICAL discourse analysis; NEGOTIATION
- Publication
International Journal of Speech, Language & the Law, 2017, Vol 24, Issue 1, p45
- ISSN
1748-8885
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1558/ijsll.31003