A Study On The Turn Choice Models In Conversation Among Urumqi Tri--Generational Uyghur Families And The Influence Of Social Factors On Their Turn Choice

This study has set out to examine language choice turn models of tri-generational Uyghur's daily conversation and how social factors influence Uyghur's language choice. The aim of this study is to provide a better understanding of the turn choice models and to find out the regularities of current turn choice models and the influence of social factors on these models.Firstly, 4 types of tri-generational Uyghur citizen family are chosen as target. The natural conversation between family members is recorded as data and 1844 turns are collected. An analysis and discussion are presented, using both qualitative and some simple quantitative techniques.Secondly, findings reveal that, there are mainly three turn choice models, including Model I (the first turn started with Uyghur), Model II (the second turn started with Uyghur -- Chinese code switching), and Model III (the third turn started with Chinese). And there are many different patterns of conversational round in each model. In Model I, there are four variations, with the feature of Uyghur dominant in each turn, and few Uyghur-Chinese code swiching turns. In Model II, there are also four variations, with the feature of Uyghur and Uyghur-Chinese code switching equally distributed. In Model III, there are three variations, with the feature of Chinese dominant in each turn, and few Uyghur-Chinese code switching turns. Model I is the most commonly used model. Model II is the second one. Model III is less frequently used. Due to different education types, age differentiation in each generation and different social network, the frequency and distribution of each model and variations show the complexity of turn choice models.Thirdly, the study also shows that conversational patterns in each model vary in different families with different education type and ages. On the one hand, four families with different education type show the general similar distribution trend in the choice of turn models. That is Model I is commonly used, Model II is the second, and Model III is the last. But due to the influencing of education type, these three models and many variations of each model are distributed with the similar trend. However, Model I is commonly used in Min Kao Min's family, Model II and Model III are frequently used in Min Kao Han's family.Meanwhile, age difference in family could show different turn choice model. Findings show Model I is commonly used in the conversation between grandparent and parent generation, and between grandparent and child generation. This shows that grandparent has strong sense of mother tongue maintenance. Vice versa, in the conversation between parent and grandparent generation, and between child and grandparent generation, Model I is also commonly used. This point could indicate the parent and child generation follows grandparent's language preference to show convergence between each other. In the conversation between parent and child generation Model I, Model II, and Model III are all frequently used by them. It shows that parent and child generation are influenced by their education type and social contact, the turn models used by them shows the diverse and complex trend.