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Agreeing to Argue: The Conventionalization of Swiss German School Children's Practices for Initiating Disaffiliating Arguments With Ja.

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Title: Agreeing to Argue: The Conventionalization of Swiss German School Children's Practices for Initiating Disaffiliating Arguments With Ja.
Authors: Spiess, Oliver (AUTHOR)
Source: Research on Children & Social Interaction. Feb2026, Vol. 9 Issue 2, p235-259. 25p.
Subjects: Children's language, Argument, German language, Pragmatics, Critical thinking studies, Conversation analysis, Corpora
Abstract: Turn-initial ja ('yes') becomes more frequent with age—and even more frequent than nein ('no')—in disaffiliating actions by Swiss German school children. But what are children actually doing when they say ja to begin disaffiliating? Using corpus-linguistic methods, this study shows that one bigram particularly contributes to the growing share of disaffiliating arguments initiated by ja: ja aber ('yes but'). This increasing reliance on a single linguistic device provides evidence that beginning a turn with ja (aber) is becoming a conventionalized way of addressing the recurring interactional challenge it is associated with. Sequential analyses illustrate how different uses of this bigram reflect varying levels of conversational argumentation skills. When used skillfully, ja aber displays agreement with engaging in the ongoing argumentative activity (alignment), while simultaneously projecting upcoming disaffiliation. This allows interactants to strategically and flexibly tailor their arguments to the contextual demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Research on Children & Social Interaction is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
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  Data: Agreeing to Argue: The Conventionalization of Swiss German School Children's Practices for Initiating Disaffiliating Arguments With Ja.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Research+on+Children+%26+Social+Interaction%22">Research on Children & Social Interaction</searchLink>. Feb2026, Vol. 9 Issue 2, p235-259. 25p.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Children's+language%22">Children's language</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Argument%22">Argument</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22German+language%22">German language</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Pragmatics%22">Pragmatics</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Critical+thinking+studies%22">Critical thinking studies</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Conversation+analysis%22">Conversation analysis</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Corpora%22">Corpora</searchLink>
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  Data: Turn-initial ja ('yes') becomes more frequent with age—and even more frequent than nein ('no')—in disaffiliating actions by Swiss German school children. But what are children actually doing when they say ja to begin disaffiliating? Using corpus-linguistic methods, this study shows that one bigram particularly contributes to the growing share of disaffiliating arguments initiated by ja: ja aber ('yes but'). This increasing reliance on a single linguistic device provides evidence that beginning a turn with ja (aber) is becoming a conventionalized way of addressing the recurring interactional challenge it is associated with. Sequential analyses illustrate how different uses of this bigram reflect varying levels of conversational argumentation skills. When used skillfully, ja aber displays agreement with engaging in the ongoing argumentative activity (alignment), while simultaneously projecting upcoming disaffiliation. This allows interactants to strategically and flexibly tailor their arguments to the contextual demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Research on Children & Social Interaction is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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        Value: 10.3138/rcsi-2025-0012
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        Text: English
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        Type: general
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      – SubjectFull: German language
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      – SubjectFull: Critical thinking studies
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      – SubjectFull: Conversation analysis
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              Text: Feb2026
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              Y: 2026
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