A linguistic analysis of mechanisms underlying power in international political negotiations

This research provides a linguistic taxonomic analysis of the mechanisms underlying power in international political negotiations.;The main working hypotheses guiding the formulation of the discourse analysis model that this research introduces are: (1) An Interdisciplinarity hypothesis stipulating that researchers can bring a deep, global understanding of the dynamics of the concept of power and the discourse processes associated with it as 'it relates to the context of international political negotiations by analyzing it from the vantage points of linguistics, political science, and International Relations. (2) A Discourse Analysis hypothesis stipulating that the linguistic concepts of Speech Acts (in terms of illocutionary force and perlocutionary effect of utterances), Moves (strategic and tactical), and Topics (global and interactional) are tightly interwoven elements in "a linguistic negotiational cyclical cluster"; that each element may generate the other, and that the three elements must be all taken into account to provide an exact, coherent interpretation of a given negotiating situation.;The discourse analysis model of this research is intended to elaborate further on the notion of communicative competence which forms the premise on which this study bases its operational definition of power. It also provides theoretical refutation as well as modifications of the predominant classification of the bargaining moves in current literature of political science and International Relations.;The illustrative cases of negotiating situations to which this discourse analysis model is applied cover the major power mechanisms of coercion, authority, and influence in terms of initiation and responses.;In addition to presenting the discourse analysis model introduced in this research, this study also reanalyzes some of its examples from an ethno-linguistic perspective in chapter VII to illustrate the dynamic mechanism of power and culture. In this chapter, the issue of modes of argument across cultures vs. power perceptions is discussed. Discourse dimensions of some important power and culture-loaded concepts pertaining to communication across cultures in general and to the communication between Egyptian and American actors, in particular, are also treated.;The data upon which this research is based is referred to and justified as a data source called "track-two diplomacy data".