This article presents a qualitative analysis showing the dependency of effective collaborative argumentation on interpersonal relational aspects that develop during synchronous interaction. Four regulatory principles are proposed as propelling the interaction, and of these, autoregulation, or the conservative restraints within the existing relation, appears to be the dominant force. When using a structured dialogue system (SDS), instead of free chat, via roles and sentence-openers, the social

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... mension of the relation between participants disappears from the surface interaction. Even though using the SDS seems to foster a more focused and task-functional approach, argumentation appears to affect the relation between participants in a negative way, since after an argumentative sequence, repair of the relation takes place. It might even be argued that, because of relational stress, in many cases, argumentation is momentarily suspended. EXPLORING RELATIONAL REGULATION 195 Au: Provide article page range for ref. 2.