A Comparative Study Of Conversation Structures In English TV Talk Shows And Daily Conversations

TV Talk show discourse is by nature a type of conversation, but as media discourse it belongs to the category of institutional discourse, which is regarded as a combination of "interpersonal communication and media transmission". Based on the theories of Conversation Analysis (CA in short) proposed by Sacks and his associates, this thesis aims to reveal the distinctive conversational structure of TV talk shows by exploring the degree of similarity and dissimilarity between English TV talk shows and daily conversations in terms of global organization, turn-taking, adjacency pairs and repair system. Through the microanalysis of conversation structure it is revealed that some social factors such as status, power, etc. can significantly influence the construction of conversation.The present study indicates that TV talk show discourse resembles some characteristics of daily conversation and possesses many distinctive features as a particular type of institutional discourse:1. The global organization of English TV talk show is significantly different from the organization in daily conversation. The conversational sequence of opening, body and closing sections in TV talk shows are more systematic than those in daily conversations. The conversation in TV talk show is subjective to certain contexts which include the time, the place, the conditions, the objectives and the targets, and the topic is preset and the talks in the show have to confine to the time limit; In daily conversations, however, these become more random, the topics are changeable, the status of the participants are uncertain and no time limit for the talk.2. Turns in English TV talk shows generally adhere to the basic rules of turn-taking system operating in daily conversations. The unique feature lies in the turn allocation, the hosts who hold the floor and control topics determine the turn distribution while the guests are not in a position to do so, the hosts use nomination frequently to allocate turns to different guests; But in daily conversations the participants have equal rights and no one has the absolute advantage to the turn controlling.3. The adjacency pair organization in English TV talk show may restrict to the adjacency pair of Q-A format, the questioner and answerer is pre-allocated. The format mainly includes Q1-A1-Q2-A2-Qn-An...,Q-A1-A2-An...and Q1-A1+Q2-A2, but Q(Q1(Q2(Q3(Q4...(Qn-An)... A4)A3)A2)A1) rarely occurs; in daily conversations, however, not all adjacency pairs are adjacent, some may be separated by embedded utterances for certain communicative purposes, and the participants have equal rights for "questioning" and "answering."4. The four types of repair organizations in daily conversations namely "self-initiated self-repair" (SISR), "other-initiated self-repair" (OISR), "self-initiated other-repair" (SIOR) and "other-initiated other-repair" (OIOR) can be found in TV talk shows. The overall tendency is consistent with that in daily conversations with "self-initiated self-repair" (SISR) being most preferred and most common "other-initiated other-repair" (OIOR) most dispreferred and least common.Basing on the summary and classification of the obtained differences, the researcher finally discusses the social causes behind and concludes that institutional characteristics of TV talk shows may account for the unique features: The hosts, who are the main organizers and controllers of talk shows, have the most power in the talk shows; while the guests, who are the main subjects in story-telling and centers of the program acting, have certain degree of power as the subordinate parts controlled by the hosts.The study in the present paper reveals the conversation structural features of English TV talk shows, it aims to offer new insights into the audience's comprehension and appreciation of this new media genre, at the same time to enhance people's sensitivity and efficiency in language using especially for teachers in classroom teaching.