Impoliteness strategies as properties that define controversial interactions

ABSTRACT Using theoretical-methodological contributions from interactionist Discourse Analysis, we start from the hypothesis that the polemical interactions have three characteristic structural properties: 1) expansion of interaction with negative reactions and counter-propositions, 2) lack of ratification and 3) secondary negotiation processes. With the study of an excerpt from a session of the Federal Superior Court, we verified that these properties function as impoliteness strategies that allow to characterize an interaction as controversial or conflictual.