ABSTRACT

This chapter describes how language is used pragmatically in strategic communication to achieve certain goals and how these language choices impact receivers of strategic communication. Many strategic communication instances are based on the goal to persuade. This implies that strategic communication may have different conversational assumptions, compared with interpersonal communication. Linguistic cooperation is also evident in consumer-to-consumer Word of Mouth. Conversational cooperation and resulting linguistic expectations may vary depending on context and other situational variables. Strategic Communication is traditionally seen as a one-way process, whereby marketers convey messages to consumers, adjusting the message to consumer needs, wants, culture etc. The main barrier for progress in computational analysis of the pragmatics of online communication today is that computational tools are relatively limited in their ability to detect linguistic cooperation and inferences of intended meaning. A vision of Strategic Communication through the linguistic-pragmatic lens suggests a Strategic Conversation account.