Parent-Child Conlfict Talk Analysis In Modern Family

Conflict talk is a common linguistic phenomenon in life．It is a type of interactionin which hostile acts are exchanged between two or more parties．Parental-child conflictis a dyadic interpersonal event, which manifests primarily in the disagreement betweenparents and children.The present study makes an attempt to analyze conflict talk systematically from theperspective of discourse analysis. Methodologically speaking, the present study belongsto a both qualitative and quantitative study based on the data collected from Americanpopular sitcom Modern Family.The study is carried out in the following five chapters. After briefing the definitionof the conflict talk，Chapter one presents a review of previous studies on conflict talkand conflict talk between parents and kids．Chapter two lays down the theoreticalframework of the study, on the basis of speech act theory and politeness theory．ChapterThree introduces the research methodology and data collection．The television sitcomModern Family is chosen to build up a corpus with38conflict episodes between parentsand kids．Chapter four carries out the quantitative and qualitative data analysis.Pragmatic strategies used by parents and kids are identified with their frequencycomputed. Chapter five summarizes the results of the data analysis．Through analysis，three findings are obtained：1)In the three formats of initiatingphase，The parents and kids are inclined to choose formats of claim VS. counter claimand provoking VS. opposing．2) In the phase of maintaining, argumentation andnon-obedience are two major formats. Meanwhile within the four sub-formats ofargumentation, each airing his/her own views is the mostly used modes.3)Within thesix formats of the terminating phase，compromise, the third party intervention andwithdraw are three major ones．The main findings，4features of parent-child conflict from this study，are asfollows:1) Most parent-child conflicts occur during kids’ adolescence.2) mother-childconflicts are more common than father-child conflicts.3) The conflicts between parentsand children are often intensive, complex and durable. The cause and reason of theparent-child conflict manly lies in cognitive difference and difference in social culturedifference. The strategies for solving the parent-child conflict problem are various, suchas setting language rules, self-examination etc. The significance of parent-child conflictlies in promoting communication and strengthening parent-child bond.The thesis also probes into the social significance of the study on conflict talk byanalyzing formats of conflict talk and understanding the cause of conflict talk for thepurpose of achieving reunification and harmony in communication. This study also mayhelp facilitate the mutual understanding in families. It is significant for building upharmonious families and then a more harmonious society．...