Discourse Constructions And Mitigating Strategies For Cyber Conflict Talk

Due to the reason that netizens are given more freedom in cyberspace,cyber conflict talks appear more frequently compared to face-to-face communication,especially in Weibo,where conflict is quite severe.Previous linguistic studies on cyber conflict talk mainly focused on its language features,reasons,ways of termination,explicit signs and mitigating strategies.In this study,it is supposed that the inherent features of conflict talk can be better understood from the perspective of discourse construction.Conflicts can be settled accordingly.This study regards cyber conflict talk discourse as a whole and analyzes the discourse constructions of cyber conflict talk from a top-down perspective.The analysis on discourse constructions will be unfolded from two dimensions.First,schematic constructions represent the form of cyber conflict talk discourse.Second,substantive constructions,including morphemes,words and fixed expressions,represent the meaning of the discourse.There are three research questions to address.First,what are the schematic constructions and substantive constructions that constitute conflict talk in Weibo?Second,whether these discourse constructions explicit constructions for conflict talk in Weibo?Third,how to dissolve and mitigate the conflict by using linguistic strategies?Concerning the methodology,72 conflict talk discourses are selected from Weibo top searches,which are heated topics from January to February in 2020.As for the analytical framework,based on the research design of schematic and substantive discourse constructions by Antonopoulou,a qualitative analysis is carried out from two perspects,i.e.,for stance and communicative purposes.Twelve schematic constructions are summarized.A questionnaire is then designed to test whether these schematic constructions are explicit instructions in Weibo conflict talk.Finally,some linguistic strategies are provided accordingly.It is found that there are nine explicit schematic instructions,namely,rhetoric question,aggressive and might stance,irony,drawing a conclusion with no evidence,label attachment,authoritative perspective,disrespect of facts,accusation and abusive language.When it comes to the strategies to mitigate the conflict,for non-language strategies,both news media and netizens should be responsible for their speech and should respect the fact.For linguistic strategies,netizens should analyze the issues and express their ideas in a rational way and avoid being emotional.For instance,mitigating manners of speaking including indicated mood,hedges,politeness markers and Weibo emojis can be used.In addition,advisable and negotiable schematic instructions are better to be used to express the ideas while respecting others’.Label attachment and abusive language schematic constructions should be abandoned.As for reasonable accusation,the respondent should make some concessions.This study views cyber conflict talk from a new perspective-discourse construction.The findings will be significant to mitigate and dissolve Weibo conflict talk.