A Study Of Gender Differences In TV Talk Shows From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Gender differences have always been the center of linguistic studies, such as sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics. Since the appearance of pragmatics, gender differences have received a lot of attention in this field. Within the framework of pragmatics, Cooperative Principle, Politeness Principle and Face Theory are all used into this research. However, researches like linguistic, psychological and cognitive studies do not form a systematic and comprehensive framework.Traditionally, men's conversations are thought to be dominant and aggressive, while women's conversations are thought to be cooperative and supportive. To some extent, men's speeches show power and control; women's speeches show more about cooperation and support.Verschueren's adaptation theory takes pragmatics as a perspective on language, which covers the whole range of social, cultural and cognitive studies through language use. The use of language is a process of making choices, whether consciously or unconsciously; moreover, these choices-making happen as soon as language is used. In the course of communication, both the speaker and the listener should adapt to the mental world, social world and physical world. Gender differences are the inevitable results of choice making, and the necessary outcome of adaptation to factors of mental, social and physical worlds.This thesis tries to explain gender differences in talk shows from the perspective of Adaptation Theory. The systematic and comprehensive features of Adaptation Theory give strong power in the explanation of gender differences. With this thesis, Adaptation Theory will make gender language study more perfect; besides, this thesis will provide guidance for people in communication.