Exerting power through interruptions: A case study of arbitrators’ discourses in Chinese Arbitral Tribunals

Abstract

Applying conservation analysis, this article explicates the specific ways in which interruptions are strategized to adjust power relations in arbitration discourse. By analyzing the transcriptions of 18 authentic recordings of arbitration cases in Chinese mainland, this article ascertains the frequency and classification of interruptions, and further explains the discursive features of interruptions related to power. The analyses reveal that arbitrators in Chinese arbitral tribunals alternatively adopt the conflicting, conciliatory and emotional interruptions with/without discourse markers to represent variant degrees of arbitral power, satisfy the pragmatic needs of communication, and promote the arbitration proceedings. Discourse markers function as signals of interruptions and regulators of arbitral power, which are jointly adopted with interruptions by arbitrators to convey different communicative intentions. This study puts forward a new model of arbitrators’ interruptions and power which can be applied in the further studies of other professional domains, and the findings may have some important implications for arbitration discourse study in terms of the relationship between language and power.