A Pragmatic Study On Family Conflict Talk

Conflict talk, a general and complicated phenomenon, widely exists in dailyinterpersonal communication. The claim, criticism, blame, order, question andsuspicion of the speakers in the speech interaction may result in listeners’ collidingresponse. Those words that usually cause argument, quarrel, dispute, opposition, andretorting between both sides involved are called conflict talk. That is, communicators’disagreement on their views, attitudes, and opinions of the same matter is expressedas conflict in their discourse. At the early time, experts from abroad paid muchattention to the study of conflict talk in debate, while in recent years, more and moreresearches on conflict talk have appeared, and great fruits have been produced athome and abroad, with perspectives becoming diversified. The thesis attempts toanalyze family conflict talk from pragmatic perspective.The data of this study is derived from the TV program Qingyoukeyuan. Thepresent study is based on the data collected, following the usual procedure ofconversation analysis: first, the videos of the program are downloaded; second, thedata is transcribed with some marks; third, the transcribed data is analyzed, and lastlythe research findings are reported. The study applies Conversation Analysis Theory,Face Theory and Linguistic Adaptation Theory to analyze the conflict episodesamong family members.Based on the inductive procedure of data analysis, this study analyzes thefeatures of conflict talks with Conversation Analysis Theory, identifies the underlyingreasons of conflict talk, concludes the mitigative strategies adopted by the third party,and summarizes the pragmatic functions of these talks. Firstly, this thesis analyzes thefeatures of interpretation and overlapping, rhetorical questions, repetition, negation,and abusive and profane language of conflict talks by using Harvey Sacks and hisassociate’s(1992) Conversation Analysis Theory. Secondly, it aims at proving thatconflict talk is seen as the result of linguistic choice in adapting to contextualcorrelates: mental world, physical world and social world. Meanwhile, according tothe data, the thesis summarizes the strategies of third party (the hostess and the psychoanalyst) employed in terminating conflict talk, such as interruption andtopic-shifting, collaboration, solving problem and humor. Lastly, the thesis concludescertain pragmatic functions, such as releasing negative feelings, saving the speaker’sface, and seeking agreement.As for the pervasion and complexity of conflict talk between family membersand its important effect on family, it is necessary for us to do a thorough andsystematic research on it. The research will help us understand conflict talk easily andimprove the quality of our daily life so as to promote kinship relationship. Moreover,harmonious and happy families will be useful for the construction of a harmonioussociety.