Positioning Oneself in Different roles: Structural and Lexical Measures of Power Relations Between Speakers in Map Task Corpus

Abstract This paper focuses on the process whereby speakers position themselves in jointly produced conversations. The expected degree of dominancy (degree of power realization) in the dialogues is derived by the independent variable of the role of a participant – a leader or a follower – in a Map Task setting. We examine the participants’ dominancy as reflected by a set of structural and lexical features. We then observe how the features are realized in four sex pairings: a female-leader with a female-follower (FF); a female-leader with a male-follower (FM); a male-leader with a male-follower (MM); a male-leader with a female-follower (MF). Since each pair of speakers participated twice, we also compare between the first and second sessions. Analysis of the power relations reveals that neither experience (first versus second sessions) nor sex-pairing affect the power relations as much as the role of the participants; also, we found evidence that females are more prominent when they have a male as their counterpart.