Lexical Dialogic Encapsulation in Conflict Mediation Interactions

Labelling the Others’ Discourse in Couples Therapy

Abstract

This article analyzes dialogical lexical encapsulation, nouns that encapsulate the content of what was said in a previous turn by another participant, in couples therapy. The analysis focuses on the most frequent dialogical encapsulations, pronounced by the therapist, and shows that these tend to be used to modify what was said by the parties in conflict and that such modification does not imply an axiological evaluation as much as it modifies the conceptual status of the encapsulated segment, altering its interpretation. This paper also explores the reactions or responses of the addresser of the encapsulated content to these anaphoric mechanisms. The results offer empirical evidence of the explicitness of encapsulators in a rhematic position, which are attended and responded by the addressee more often and constitute means to negotiate discourse interpretation in dialogical genres.