ABSTRACT
Conflict can stem from a wide spectrum of origins and is less easily definable than disagreement. Conflict markers are neither easy to detect nor define. However, if approached with a degree of sensitivity and perceptiveness, it is possible to identify individual conflict marking preferences, as they are fairly consistent and relatively limited within the same speaker’s repertoire. Besides preferences for particular linguistic strategies, cultures also differ with regard to their interpretation of the contextual factors that surround a given conflict situation. The detection of conflict markers borrows from the intercultural competence constructs of being attuned to one’s interlocutor and forensic stylometry, the notion that each person has an individualized, but fairly consistent style of speaking. Conflict works quite differently to disagreement, which is employed fairly consistently in line with national cultural standards and expectations. Filipino culture, with its heavy Spanish colonial influence and later American colonial influence, on the other hand, does not shy away from conflict easily.
