A Comparative Study Of Conflict Talk Between Chinese And American Couples Under Adaptation Theory

In the process of communication, if participants have different opinions or views on something, thenconflict talk will occur. As a kind of conflict talk, marital conflict talk has been paid much attention to. Scholarsat home and abroad have studied marital conflict talk from different perspectives. However, most of theprevious studies focus on the differences of language choosing between couples who share the same culturalbackground, and few studies are about conflict talk between couples living in different cultures. Therefore, thepresent study, obtaining linguistic corpus from both Chinese TV series Marriage Battle and American TV seriesDesperate Housewives, taking the Conversation Analysis and Adaptation Theory as the theoretical framework,proposes the following three research questions:(1) What are the linguistic patterns applied in each stage ofconflict talk between couples both in “MB” and “DH”? And what are the similarities and differences betweenthem?(2) What are the reasons that cause the conflict talk between couples both in “MB” and “DH” underAdaptation Theory? And what are the similarities and differences between them?(3) What are the pragmaticfunctions generated by conflict talk between couples both in “MB” and “DH”? And what are the similarities anddifferences between them?Both the qualitative and quantitative approaches are employed to solve these research questions. Firstly, allthe conflict talk fragments between couples from both TV series are identified and selected under the definitionof conflict talk given in chapter two. Secondly,100in total conflict talk fragments,50from “MB” and50from“DH”, have been selected randomly. Through analyzing the collected data, the author classified the linguisticpatterns, reasons and pragmatic functions of marital conflict talk under the framework of Conversation Analysisand Adaptation Theory. Thirdly, the frequency of each linguistic pattern, reason and pragmatic function ofconflict talk in “MB” and “DH” are worked out respectively and the percentage tables are drawn. Lastly,according to the percentage tables, the similarities and differences of conflict talk between Chinese couples andAmerican ones are presented. The reasons that may cause the similarities and differences are also explored.The major findings of this study are as follows:(1) The linguistic patterns applied in each stage of conflicttalk between couples are as follows: in initiating stage: claim vs. counter claim, directive vs. refusal andprovoking questions vs. opposing answer; in maintaining or escalating stage: argumentative, non-obedience,repetition, and rhetorical question; in terminating stage: one participant withdrawing, two participantswithdrawing, topic shifting, submission, third-party intervention, reconciliation and ending up with violence. Bycomparison, we found that there is no distinct difference of conflict talk between Chinese couples and American ones in initiating and maintaining stage. However, in terminating stage, Chinese couples are inclined to take anindirect way and leave the conflict talks unsolved. While the American couples prefer to solve their problems indirect and rational ways.(2) According to Adaptation Theory, if the couple fails to adapt to some contextualfactors such physical, social and mental world with each other, the conflict talk will occur between them. Bycomparison, there is no distinct difference on the reasons of conflict talk between Chinese couples and Americanones under the Adaptation Theory. The main reason why conflict talks occur between couples both in China andAmerica is that communicators don’t make adaptation to the mental and social world.(3) The pragmaticfunctions generated by conflict talk between couples are as follows: releasing negative feelings, maintainingidentity, face or power and preventing the other party from doing something. By comparison, there is almost nodifference on pragmatic functions of conflict talk between Chinese couples and American ones. The mainpragmatic function of marital conflict talk is releasing negative feelings both in China and America. The reasonsthat may cause the differences on conflict talk between Chinese couples and American ones might havesomething to do with culture differences.The study may enrich the previous studies of marital conflict talk. Meanwhile, it can make contribution tothe studies of cultural difference between two countries.