A Contrastive Analysis Of English And Chinese Talk Show From The Perspective Of Burke's Theory Of New Rhetoric

Talk show, as a new kind of program, has been growing up since 1990s in China. As a program which contains and transmits large amounts of information, television talk show is influencing the way people live and think with the impact of the widespread TV media. Therefore, research on TV talk show, especially on the discourse of TV talk show, has atrracted serious concern of scholars.Based on Kenneth Burk's New Rhetoric, the present study aims to answer questions as:What are the rhetoric motives of TV talk show? What are the differences of rhetoric process between English and Chinese TV talk shows when hosts manage to realize their implicit motives? What are the possible causes of such differences?Through contrastive analysis of the three English samples and three Chinese samples, the major findings are as follows:(1) The general rhetoric motives of television talk show discourse are to convey information to the guests and the audience, to achieve the identification between the host and the guests, to shape the guests'and audiences' attitude and to induce their cooperation, and to lead the whole conversation in an expected way so as to establish a certain sense of worth and to arouse public concern.(2) The analysis of identification strategies indicates that Chinese talk show hosts tend to expose the harm to a group's interest so as to arouse people's awareness of common enemy when achieving identification by antithesis, while hosts in English talk shows prefer to stress on the harm of a certain problem to people's individual benefit. When inaccuracy strategy being applied, the frequency of first person collective pronouns in Chinese talk shows is higher than that of singular pronouns while in English talk shows the frequency of first person singular pronouns is much higher than that of first person collective pronouns. This result shows that in Chinese talk shows, the focus is usually laid on the feeling of togetherness in order to achieve identification via inaccuracy while in English talk shows, the power of personal image, such as telling story and sharing experience, is more likely to be used to make audiences convinced and persuaded.(3) In dramatistic analysis, the contrastive result shows the tendency that Chinese hosts endow the purpose with a universalized meaning and connect it with the interest with a collective group, which to some extent reflects the influence of ideology on people's subconsciousness and their reponse to symbols which makes them easier to be persuaded and motivated on purpose connected with the concept of collectiveness.(4) In logological analysis, the differences between English and Chinese talk shows lie in the real motives hidden behind the act of creating hierarchies. While in English talk shows the real motives of the hosts are always promoting a certain publication or introducing a particular idea, Chinese talk show hosts always aim at highlighting traditional virtues and maintaining the harmony of society and guiding people to form proper attitudes that will benefit the whole society, which shows the influence of traditional culture and value on the way people use language as symbols. It also reveals the emphasis laid on the educational and socializing function of talk show programs in China.(5) The differences in rhetoric process between English and Chinese TV talk shows reflect the fact that culture and ideology have significant influences on human beings'implicit motives during the process of communication, and they further influence the way people use language. On the one hand, through logological analysis, it can be revealed that hosts in Chinese TV talk shows are more likely to draw support from the charisma of traditional virtues which are deep-rooted in Chinese culture, so as to achieve their real motives. On the other hand, the results of identification analysis and dramatistic analysis show that the sense of collectivity plays an important role in applying identification strategies and the setting of purpose in Chinese TV talk shows, while ideology centered on individualism draws more concern in English TV talk shows. Thus culture and ideology are the possible causes of the differences between English and Chinese TV talk shows.Meanwhile, the study also offers some insights for EFL audiences and TV producers to better understand English talk show discourse from the perspective of rhetoric process and rhetoric motives.