RELATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF LANGUAGE - ELABORATION AND DIFFERENTIATION IN MARITAL CONVERSATIONS

Our research considered how the language used in marital conversations reflects the nature and definition of close relationships. Two Lingui stic themes with broad relational implications were identified from pr evious work: (a) linguistic elaboration, and (b) personal reference. T hese features were assumed to reflect, respectively, the efficiency of communication and the degree of differentiation versus integration of identities in marriage. In order to test the presumed relational impl ications of language, me compared indicators of linguistic elaboration and personal reference with relationship characteristics, including m arital type, satisfaction, and age. One hundred-twenty conversations f rom three prior studies were coded for a number of linguistic and prag matic features. The results did not support expected associations betw een elaboration and other relationship characteristics. However, the r esearch mostly supported the presumed relational implications of perso nal reference. Traditional, satisfied, and older marriages were distin guished by a focus on joint versus individual identity, as reflected i n pronoun usage (i.e., ''we'' versus ''I/you'' pronouns), cross-refere ncing of language, and ''confirmation'' versus ''interpretation'' stat ements.