Communicative Analysis of Dialogical Interaction: Methodology of Research

Abstract

Dialogue studies suggest keys to understanding communicative behavior. The purpose of this article is to put forth a more complex and comprehensive approach to the analysis of interaction that incorporates quantitative metrics to reveal its entire communicative depth. The methods of discourse-analysis, initiative-response analysis, a theory of speech acts, conversational, cognitive, stylistic, statistical analyses as well as descriptive and interpretative methods have been united in one system to interpret the procedure and results of the cooperative and conflict dialogues chosen as an example. The integrated methodology produces a broader investigative view of communication, also because it allows measuring the level of dominance of interlocutors and explaining it in terms of power relations. In this way, it contributes to a better understanding of the multifaceted nature of dialogue without any characteristics to be underestimated. The methodology is an open system and is suggested as a sample of dialogical communication research.