ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the way in which the initial disagreeing or opposing move is itself very often triggered by some kind of offence on the part of another party and how construing the conduct of others as offensive can thus occasion conflict. It draws on attention to a number of key distinctions that are of particular import when studying the relationship between offence and conflict talk. The chapter focuses on the distinctions between “causing”/“giving” and “taking” offence, and with respect to the latter, between “feeling”/“being” offended as a kind of moral-affective stance and “taking” offence as a form of social action, that is, “claiming”/“indicating” that is offended. It also focuses on the way in which taking offence can lead to conflict in various kinds of situated discourse. The chapter reviews possible future avenues of research and importance of examining causing offence, claiming or taking offence, in a range of situated discourse settings in different languages and varieties therein.
