The Discourse Analysis of Psychological Factors Influencing Interest Contention in Business Dispute Settlement: A Perspective of Discourse Information Theory

Abstract

Interest contention which constitutes the kernel of business dispute settlement is one of the major issues to explore in the studies of business dispute and it structures the whole process of business dispute settlement from beginning to end. Under the influence of various factors, litigants with differing interest orientations and interest demands could make good use of a number of information resources for the purpose of communicating, defending and fighting for the interests of their own. The psychological factors in the context influence the distribution of discourse information resources in the interest contention in business dispute settlement. In view of this, the present study focuses on the discourse analysis of psychological factors influencing the interest contention in business dispute settlement at the stage of litigation from the perspective of Discourse Information Theory (DIT) (Du, 2007, 2013, 2015). It can be found that participants can utilize the psychological factors such as the intentions, consensus changes, and information sharing categories to affect interest contention in business dispute settlement.