Conversational Structure Of Conflict Talk Between The Couple

Conversational structure analysis, as one of the central parts of conversational analysis , has been successfully applied to the study of conversational structure of different genres of conversational discourse such as telephone conversation, classroom interaction, doctor-patient conversation, interview etc. Among them, the theory of three-part exchange structure proposed by Sinclair and Coulthard and the theory concerning turn-taking structure founded by Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson show their advantage.Therefore, the author of this thesis attempt to analyze the 167 conflict talk (CT) data collected from the American TV serial Desperate Housewives by applying the theories of three-part exchange structure and turn-taking structure to explore how the exchange structure and turn-taking structure of CT between the couple are constructed.Careful analysis of the 167 CT data in the serial Desperate Housewives indicates that: 1) the exchange structure of CT between the couple is mainly constructed by initiating and challenging move, or in terms of act patterns, the exchange structure is constructed in the form of such initiating acts as informative, elicitation, requesitive and directive followed by their corresponding challenging acts: negative response, challenging answer, non-compliance and non-compliance. The initiating move mainly contributes to the initiation of a conversation while the challenging move, by challenging the pragmatic presupposition of the initiating move, realizes the construction of the second part of an exchange structure in the CT and the initiation of a CT; 2) the turn-taking structure of CT between the couple is constructed by nomination which obeys the turn-taking rules. However, when the couple holds different views or shows no interest in the current topic or wants no mention of an embarrassing topic, it is interruption that contributes to the construction of the turn-taking structure of CT between the couple. This significance of this study is as follows: firstly, worthy applications of the theories on exchange structure and turn-taking structure to the analysis of the conversational structure of conflict talk between the couple (a rarely touched topic). Secondly, detailed analysis of the data colleted may help people better understand the conversational structure of conflict talk between the couple. Thirdly, exchange structure in terms of act patterns has been concluded based upon previous analytic framework but further classification.