Abstract
This study perceives a dialogue to be a social event. Participants negotiate their positions (the dominant or submissive one) through communicative actions which are, at the same time, social actions.
Interactional dominance and the structure of the dialogue are examined through methods of conversation analysis and discourse analysis (Linell, Gustavsson & Juvonen 1988; Madsen 2003). The authentic interaction of pupils of a Czech and a German class during their excursion was analysed: 1.763 turns, 440 minutes.
Doing analysis turn by turn we follow three variables: communicative purpose - communicative action - speaker's position. I found that a simple communicative episode is composed of following communicative actions: proposal of a communicative purpose, its ratification or refusal, realization and evaluation.
Dominance is won by the speaker, whose purpose is enforced and realized.