Page 10 - AGREEMENT DISAGREEMENT (E-Modul)

DEFINITION

Agreement can be defined as a
concurring stance (verbal or
nonverbal) to a preceding action or
position taken by another speaker,
indicating that an addressee shares
the speaker’s attitude to, or opinion
of, that action or position. Conversely,
disagreement is defined as an
oppositional stance to a preceding
action or position taken by another
speaker. We may say that speaker S

disagrees when s/he considers untrue,
unfounded, or objectionable some
proposition P uttered or presumed to
be espoused by an addressee A and reacts with an utterance the propositional
content or implicature of which is not P.

Disagreement can take a number
of forms. It may be stated
explicitly, for example, I disagree
with you. In such cases a
tripartite turn-structure is
common: 1) claim by speaker A; 2)
speaker B disputes speaker A’s
claim; 3) speaker A disagrees with
speaker B by supporting the original claim or by directly contesting speaker B’s
disagreement (Muntigl & Turnbull, 1998). But disagreement may also emerge
over an extended section of talk in the course of one exchange, or even over a
series of interactions. It may or may not be verbalized, and its form may
incorporate a variety of affective markers to signal an emotional association.
Disagreement has been researched more extensively than agreement (for
reasons outlined below) and the focus of this article will reflect this

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