The Collaborative Production of Proposals in Conversational Argument and Persuasion: A Study of Disagreement Regulation

Abstract

This study extends a line of research aimed at discovery of the rules which organize conversational argument and persuasion. Earlier studies have identified rules and structures which generate patterns of proposal advocacy—prototypes of O'Keefe's argument₁. This study examines a superficially different pattern, one characterized by collaboration in the production of a mutually agreeable proposal rather than advocacy of a fixed proposal. We argue that both proposal advocacy and proposal negotiation are generated by common underlying principles, concretized in rules of conversational sequencing and speech act rules.