Linguistic features of disagreement in face-to-face encounters in university settings

The dissertation investigates linguistic features of disagreement in American university settings through analysis of natural data collected in university classrooms and academic talks, a survey administered to native speakers and non-native speakers of English, and ethnographic data collected in formal and informal interviews and discussions. The dissertation provides an in-depth examination of the speech act of disagreement in academic settings and offers the first steps to a fresh approach to understanding pragmatic rules. The research also has practical application for ESL teachers by providing a database of actual language use and pointing towards specific areas of instruction.; Natural data were analyzed and described according to the presence or absence of identifiable linguistic markers that served to soften or aggravate the illocutionary force of disagreement. Variables that influenced what linguistic features were used to express disagreement in the natural data extended beyond concerns of face maintenance based on variables of power and severity of disagreement to discourse level phenomena such as maintenance of coherence through verbal shadowing and management of disagreement for discovery learning in the elicitation sequence.; In American universities, the pragmatic rules of disagreement are based on a culturally-specific concept of an interactive classroom in which students and professors are expected to voice their opinions. However, as the natural data show, expressions of disagreement are commonly softened by at least one linguistic marker. The survey data show that judgmental vocabulary is generally considered socially unacceptable, while use of questions and choice of perspective inherent in pronoun use varies according to the relative power of interlocutors. Through an adaptation of principles and procedures used in Optimality Theory, these observations can be stated in terms of ranked constraints on the polite expression of disagreement.; These constraints differ for native speakers and non-native speakers of English. Indeed, international students differ from their American classmates in their concepts of students' and professors' roles in the classroom and how disagreement may be expressed.