A Corpus-based Analysis Of English Multi-party Conflict Talk

This dissertation is a corpus-based discourse-analytic study of the basic sequencestructure and linguistic features of multi-party conflict talk with a socio-pragmaticorientation. The study aims to，firstly, using a self-designed computer program, describethe generic basic sequence organization of multi-party conflict talk, thus testing andverifying whether the organization is a two-move or a three-move structure, and secondly,to examine the cooperative processes between linguistic features occurring on differentmoves of sequence and the structural functions of the moves. Finally, the study attempts toexplore how the sequential organization and linguistic features vary according to social andpragmatic parameters, such as speech activity type, identity of participants, participationrole and institutional setting.The writer of this dissertation addresses the following four research questions:A. Is the three-move sequence proposed by Muntigl&Turnbull (1998)and Gruber（2001）the basic sequence structure of multi-party conflict talk?B. What is the difference in the basic sequence structure between two-party andmulti-party conflict talk?C. What is the relation between the distribution of linguistic features occurring on themoves of sequence and the sequence organization?D. What are the social contextual factors that influence the construction of basic sequenceand the distribution of linguistic features corresponding to the function of thesequence?In response to the research objectives, a corpus-based discourse-analytic approachwas adopted in the present study. A specialized spoken corpus of conflict talk, with47,982running words, was compiled out of the spoken part of the British National Corpus. Withthe help of the BNC Indexer by Lee (2003), altogether88episodes of conflict talk in thegenre of public debate were collected out of762context-governed samples, and annotatedmanually with the information of discourse moves. For the investigations of registervariations, the specialized corpus was further divided into three sub-corpora of TVdiscussion, Public meeting and Public inquiry according to the institutional settings.Besides Antconc, a written computer program was employed for corpus processing anddata collection. Antconc was used also to retrieve all the instances of different linguistic features and calculate their frequencies by means of concordancing.The research has yielded the following findings:(1) It has proved that the claim ofthree-move sequence organization by Muntigl&Turnbull (1998) and Gruber (2001) is thegeneric basic sequence structure for multi-party conflict talk. These basic sequences taketwo forms, the Adjacently Placed Sequence (APS) and the Non-Adjacently PlacedSequence (NAPS). It is found that frequent occurrences of the third move not only operateretrospectively but prospectively, resulting in more occurrences of basic sequence in theepisodes. This function of the third move proves that the third move is crucial forestablishing a conflict episode and accomplishing the arguing action.(2) The basicsequence structure for multi-party conflict talk differs from the two-party conflict talk inthat both NAPS and APS may occur in multi-party conflict talk while NAPS cannot intwo-party conflict talk.(3) The distribution of linguistic features is not only related tosocial factors but also to the functions of moves of the sequences and more importantly, tothe sequence actions. The frequency rise and fall in consistency with the basic function ofeach move in a sequential order. Perhaps it is reasonable to predict according to thefindings above, there are links, between the linguistic realization and the discoursestructure.(4) Social contextual factors in different settings, especially speech activity type,seem to exert some impact on the discourse structure and distribution of linguistic featuresassociated with the structure.In conclusion, the third move in a basic sequence is indispensable in establishingconflict and accomplishing arguing action and therefore, the basic sequence of multi-partyconflict talk is constructed by a3-move structure. The adjacency pair structure cannot beapplied in the description of multi-party conflict talk. The linguistic realization is inconsistent relation with the structural function of the move, which indicates the cooperativeand co-occurring relation existing between sub-systems of the language system. Thisrelation seems to be manifested more accurately by way of corpus-based methods. It seemsnecessary that Corpus Linguistic study should focus more on variations of specificresgisters and genres.From the point of view of social interaction, the study of multi-party conflict talk would help us understand the nature of the interactional, discursive mechanics of the socialconstruction of reality, to see how patterns of linguistic behavior of this special type oftalk-in-interaction are related to potential social order. In addition, the study would informus in the perspective of linguistic research, more of what particular multiple linguisticfeatures co-occurring within, and thus indexing the functions of multi-party conflict talk. Itwill consequently reveal the cooperative mechanics between the co-occurring patterning oflinguistic features of multi-party conflict talk and discourse functions. Furthermore, as theco-occurrence of linguistic features and structure is never a chance happening, takingsocial contextual factors into consideration in the exploration of the language system seemsto be more important. The study of multi-party conflict talk will have some pratical valueas well. The method may be applied in the field of natural language processing,specifically in mother-tongue Chinese multi-party conflict talk research. Students may beinformed of the relation between discourse structural function and linguistic realization, sothat they can improve their learning efficiency. They may be helped to raise the socialcognition level and become insightful members of the society. More practically, they canlearn to argue more effectively and know how to behave verbally in cross-culturecommunication and international disputes in future.