| The goal of this study was to locate and describe the linguistic features of adult face-to-face disagreements, and to determine if different types or patterns of disagreements exist. The data were four editions of the television news show Crossfire. The data yielded fifty-six disagreement sequences, for a total of 13,224 words.;The methodology used for the dissertation was both qualitative and quantitative. Locating the disagreement sequences involved an innovative methodology which allowed disagreement sequences to quantitatively emerge from the data. Fifteen linguistic features were investigated for the study: turn length, affixal and nonaffixal negation, overlapping, latching, questions, avoidance of topic uptake, repetition, discourse particles, indexical second-person pronouns, prediction modals, necessity modals, possibility modals, absolutes, emphatics, and bids for the floor.;Two disagreement types were discovered and named: backgrounded and foregrounded disagreements. These two types represent the poles of a continuum, with disagreements which share characteristics of both, named mixed disagreements, falling in between the two types. Backgrounded disagreements were disagreements marked by the use of lengthy turns, relatively few turns per disagreement, explanatory talk presenting multiple examples as evidence for a viewpoint, a strong use of implication and inferences, and a correspondingly lesser degree of explicit disagreement. These disagreements were characterized by a relatively calm, measured air. In contrast, foregrounded disagreements were characterized by many short turns, explicit opposition, negation, overlapping and latching, repetition, indexical second-person pronouns, discourse particles, questions, and modals. Within foregrounded disagreements, three different patterns were discovered, which manifest different configurations of linguistic features. These patterns, named Collegial Disagreements, Personal Challenge Disagreements, and Personal Attack Disagreements, seemed to form a continuum of increasing hostility.;The results of the study underscore the importance of empirically investigating language and of not perceiving speech acts such as disagreements as uniform and unidimensional. |
