Offering alternatives as a way of issuing directives to children: Putting the worse option last

Abstract

In a corpus of c. 250 hours of recorded interactions between young children and adults in USA and UK households, we found that children could be directed to change their course of action by three syntactic formats that offered alternatives: an imperative, or a modal declarative, plus a consequential alternative to non-compliance (e.g. come down at once or I shall send you straight to bed; you've got to stand here with it or it goes back in the cupboard), or an interrogative requiring a preference (e.g. do you want to put them neatly in the corner for mummy please or do you wanna go to bed). Formatted syntactically as or-alternatives, these can perform the actions both of warning and threatening. But they make a 'bad' course of action contiguous to the child's turn. We argue that adults choose this format because the interactional preference for contiguity makes the negative alternative the more salient one. This implies that adults attribute to children the ability to appreciate the flouting of preference organisation for deontic effect.Offering alternatives as a way of issuing directives to children: putting the worse option last REVISION 3 January 2015Length = 8108 words Charles Antaki (1) and Alexandra Kent (2) ( course of action contiguous to the child's turn. We argue that adults choose this format because the interactional preference for contiguity makes the negative alternative the more salient one. This implies that adults attribute to children the ability to appreciate the flouting of preference organisation for deontic effect. As Stevanovic and Svennevig (this volume) say, this Special Issue adds to the body of research by reporting new work on the epistemic and deontic subtleties of the ways in which directives can be issued. In this article we explore how adults use an utterance the syntactic form of which offers children alternative courses of action to choose between; but which, on inspection of their deployment, can be seen to perform a less neutral action.To prefigure the data that we shall analyse, examples of the three types of directives that we found in our survey of various data sources are: you've got to stand here with it or it goes back in the cupboard; come down at once or I shall send you straight to bed; and do you want to put them neatly in the corner for mummy please or do you wanna go to bed. These directives use different syntactic formats, but the common thread among them is the action that the adult is performing: issuing an utterance that confronts the child with two exclusive courses of action. One of these courses is favoured; the other, not. The effect of the utterance is to issue a recommendation at best, or a threat at worst; but in any case, it is a directive, claiming some form of deontic authority, in the terminology suggested by Stevanovic (2012), and Stevanovic and Peräkylä (2012). As we shall see, there is a puzzle about how the adults set out the alternatives in one of those formats, and solving it that will be the focus of our analysis. 4 Requests, dir...

The Search for Balance and Equilibrium of Negotiating Powers Under Distorted Market Competition

“…Also, when searching for new markets, it is important to identify the presence of monopsony power in smaller geographic areas with a smaller number of products, where a hypothetical monopsonist could influence the price drop in that territory. (Antaki & Kent, 2015, Petriwskyj et al, 2015, Przybyła-Kasperek & Wakulicz-Deja, 2016, Schaerer et al, 2016, Ghavami et al, 2016, Rufo et al, 2016, Jager et al, 2017 Ekonomicko-manazerske spektrum 2018, Volume 12, Issue 2, pp. 67-82 When the number of buyers and sellers is small, negotiations between buyers and sellers (according to their capabilities) may also take place regarding the possible excess profit.…”

“…Also, having more alternatives means expanding the existing market boundaries. (Antaki & Kent, 2015, Alavoine & Estieu, 2015, Kiryluk-Dryjska, 2016, Brett & Thompson, 2016 This can be achieved by examining similar or related markets, which may become potential supplier markets. Sometimes other market participants find it quite difficult to switch to another market.…”

International Business Negotiations: Search of the Balance and the Equilibrium of Negotiating Powers, under Distorting Market Conditions of Competition (Monopsony, Oligopsony and Monopoly Cases)

“…Other sellers can be in different geographical regions and may vary in their activity, may differ in their needs in the market, but the products can satisfy the same needs. Also in searching for new markets are important to identify the monopsonistic power of presence in smaller geographic areas, with a smaller number of products where a hypothetical monopsonist in that territory could affect the price drop (Antaki, Kent 2015;Petriwskyj et al 2015;Alavoine, Estieu 2015;Przybyła-Kasperek, Wakulicz-Deja 2016;Schaerer et al 2016;Ghavami et al 2016;Rufo et al 2016;Jäger et al 2017).…”

“…Also attaining to have more alternatives, it is necessary to expand the existing market boundaries (Antaki, Kent 2015;Alavoine, Estieu 2015;Kiryluk-Dryjska 2016;Brett, Thompson 2016). This can be done by examining similar or related markets, which can become a potential supplier's market.…”

“…In scientific literature, implementation of effective business negotiation strategies was dealt by the following authors: Moosmayer et al The importance of searching the alternatives for strengthening the negotiating power underlined a number of scientists: Antaki, Kent (2015); Petriwskyj et al (2015); Alavoine, Estieu (2015); Kiryluk-Dryjska (2016) ;Brett, Thompson (2016); Przybyła-Kasperek, Wakulicz-Deja (2016); Schaerer et al (2016); Ghavami et al (2016);Rufo et al (2016); Peleckis (2016);Jäger et al (2017).…”