Frequency of personal pronouns and verbal endings as linguistic indicator of interactional tension in institutional discourse

Abstract

Integrating theoretical and methodological contributions from institutional discourse analysis and interactional sociolinguistics, we attempt to prove that the tasks and institutional identities determine the way pilots and air traffic controllers(P/C dyad) manage instances of negotiation, disagreement and, above all, interactional conflict. Based on data from interactions registered by observation-participant in Argentina, and also resorting to online resources that allow to expand the sample to other varieties of Spanish, the role of institutional constraints upon these non-standardized instances of the P/C interactional dynamic is corroborated. It is concluded that, given the limitations imposed by the highly regulated and standardized features of this institutional discourse, the explicit and emphatic signaling of persons in the discourse is a strategy that is preferred to manage and identify interactional tensions in this socio-technical field.

Keywords

• discurso institucional
• ámbitos socio-técnicos
• conflicto interaccional
• identidades institucionales
• usos pronominales