ABSTRACT
L. A. Camras says of conflict encounters that they are one form of social interaction where non-verbal cues play an important role. A powerful linguistic tool in conflict talk comes in the form of turn control. In political and judicial debates, turn overlapping and interruptions occur frequently during conflict talk, as interruptions have been linked to asserting dominance and power. This chapter argues that conflict arises from vocal and non-verbal cues as a result of misalignment in intention and interpretation of messages. Non-verbal misalignment in communication is also the link between predispositions to interlocutors and resultant attitudinal and behavioural responses. Cultures more prone to avoiding conflict tend to draw on somewhat less direct means, typically showing a preference for prosodic and non-verbal marking. The role multimodal cues play in the creation of conflict is twofold then; they can be employed deliberately or they can cause conflict unintentionally. Either way, their impact is forceful and repercussions can be great.
