A chacun son tour: analyse comparative des styles conversationnels des néerlandophones et des francophones de Belgique dans des débats télévisés

Abstract

This paper offers a comparison of the conversation styles of Dutch speaking vs. French speaking Belgians as they appear in two comparable television debates, broadcast by the two Belgian public television channels (the Dutch one and the francophone one). Both the careful study of "openers" and of turn-taking (especially the number of overlapping syllables) show that the style of the Dutch speaking participants appears as more level-headed, more wavering and more consensual than the discourse style of the French speaking ones. These data confirm some of the findings discussed in the literature about the conversation style of (hexagonal) French speakers.