Analysis Of Conflict Talk From The Perspective Of Memetics

Everything in the world is changing and developing in the universal relationshipand contradictions. Contradictions are source and power of things in the world, whichguarantee the survival and development of things in world. People living in societycan hardly avoid contradictions and conflict talk with each other. Conflicts andconflict talk always tend to block the successful communication among people;therefore, it is of great significance for people to comprehensively grasp the innerworking mechanism and reality of conflict talk. Based on linguistic standpoint ofbiological evolution, Memetics provides a brand new way to the study of variousphenomena of languages and cultures. In accordance with Memetics, conflict talk is adynamic process of language power among different conflict parties, which revealsthe essence of rivalry and reconstruction of memes in different meme domains. Theprocess of conflict talk thoroughly shows the dynamic selectivity and competitivenessof memes in meme domains.Conflict talk is a universal phenomenon, which is complicated, manifesting therestriction of its construction and collection of linguistic data. Conflicts are soul ofdramas and dramas come from real life; therefore, conflict talk in dramas shares adegree of similarity with that of natural one in daily life. Conflict talk in dramasprovides plenty of linguistic data of conflict talk for research, which makes up theshortage and restriction of conflict talk. With conflict talk of different people inThunderstorm as studying subject, the essay firstly classifies conflict talk inThunderstorm in accordance with Partington’s classification, and then tries to explorethe working mechanism of conflict talk from the perspective of Memetics withmethodologies of Literature Research, Qualitative Analysis, Theory with Practice andDiagrammatic Method, aiming to reveal the dynamic nature of memes in conflict talk.The essay is made up of three sections, which involves introduction, main bodyand conclusion, and main content of each section is listed as follows: The first section is a brief introduction of studying background on conflict talkfrom Memetics, which points out the objective, content, significance, methodologiesof the research as well as data collection.Next section is main body of the essay, which consists of three chapters, and theyare:The first chapter in main body is literature review, which chiefly makes a reviewon previous studies of conflict talk, covering some basic concepts of conflict talk,various classifications of conflict talk and different approaches and aspects of studieson it from scholars at home and abroad.The second chapter is theoretical framework of this essay, which introduces thetheory of Memetics, referring to basic conceptual framework of Memetics,transmission modes and directions of memes, life circle of memes, features of memesand meme domains as well as relationship between memes and languages. Concept of“meme domain” is brought in and it emphasizes the viewpoint of Luo Dijiang that“people recognize and experience the world with ‘meme domains’.” The essence ofcommunication is the mapping and selection of memes in different meme domains,which is bidirectional exchanges of energy and information of communicators. Andthen, with narration of memes’ life circle of Francis Heylighen, the essay revealsdynamic rivalry of memes and meme domains so as to pave a way for analyzingconflict talk below. Lastly, the essay makes a further illustration on the relationshipbetween memes and languages based on previous studies, which in the same wayprovides a solid theoretical framework for conflict talk analysis.The third chapter of this section is specific analysis of conflict talk inThunderstorm from Memetics. Based on Partington’s classification of conflict talkfrom contents, the essay categorizes typical examples of conflict talk in Thunderstorminto three groups, including ideational conflict talk, interpersonal conflict talk andtextual conflict talk, and then tries to analyze them in details, aiming to revealworking mechanism of memes in conflict talk and illustrating dynamiccompetitiveness of memes and conflict talk. The author expects that the essay is ableto expand the study angle of conflict talk in a sense and bring new vigor and vitality to the study of conflict talk.The third section is conclusion of the essay, in which research results andlimitations are pointed out. There still exists many deficiencies in this essay, and theauthor should overcome difficulties and make up deficiencies in later work, so as tomake a much more thorough and meticulous study, thus making a good progress.