The Internal Types Of Question-Answer Pair In TV Talk Show

Question-answer pair is one of the most typical one among the various types of adjacency pairs. This study focuses on the internal types of question-answer pair in the aspects of information request and supply. Data are collected from the famous Chinese TV talk show Yang Lan One On One. Firstly, the investigation is conducted on examination of types of the interviewer's utterance one by one in the TV talk show. Then the study is carried on which type of questioning can elicit new information and the thesis makes a summary of it. Meanwhile, during the investigation of the patterns of answering, the occurrence of each answering pattern, which can supply information, is observed one by one. Finally the thesis synthesizes the investigation of types of questioning and patterns of answering, summarizing the corresponding relationship between them.According to the investigation's result towards the host's questioning, there are eight major types of questions and three minor types of non-questions to obtain new information. The eight major types of questions are:wh-question, declarative question, positive yes-no question, negative yes-no question, yes-no question with modal auxiliaries, X not X question, tag question, and alternative question. Meanwhile, the three minor types of question include direct request for information, topic shift and sound stretch. Compared with non-questions, the use of questions to induce new information from the interviewee has a much higher percentage. Among the different types of questions, wh-question and declarative question are most commonly used to acquire new information.On the other hand, the pattern of answering to supply information is various. The thesis classifies five major patterns of answering, which are interjections, concrete word, phrase, sentence, combination. Because the pattern of combination is very complex and complicated, the thesis gives a separate and detailed investigation on it. According to the investigation of combination, there are eleven patterns of combination. They are "concrete word+phrase+sentence"; "phrase+concrete word+sentence; phrase+sentence"; "concrete word+phrase"; "phrase+interjection+sentence"; "concrete word +sentence"; "sentence+phrase"; "interjection+sentence"; "concrete word+interjection+sentence"; "phrase+concrete word+phrase+sentence" and "interjection+phrase+sentence" respectively. Furthermore, besides the five major patterns of answers, there are still two minor patterns: evasion and silence, which do not supply information from superficial level but have a conversational implicature. The thesis gives a discussion on this phenomenon.Finally, by analysis of the relationship between types of questioning and patterns of answering, it is found that the type of declarative question has the most various selections for patterns of answering. Meanwhile, most types of questionings prefer to use the pattern of sentence to supply the information. The internal types of question-answer pair are very complicated and further study needs to be conducted. We hope that this thesis will contribute to the study of internal types of question-answer pair in the aspects of information elicitation and supply.