A Research Of Conflict Talk Between Mother-in-law And Daughter-in-law From The Perspective Of Politeness Principle And Face Theory

Conflict talk is a common linguistic phenomenon in everyday life. It can be usedin the narrow sense and broad sense. In the narrow sense, it refers to a type of speechact, such as disagreeing, opposing and arguing. In the broad sense, it refers to a typeof interaction in which hostile acts are exchanged between two or more parties due toparticipants’ differences in opinions, interests or desires. The oppositional argument,quarrel and dispute all belong to conflict talk. Many researchers have been conductedto analyze conflict talk from different perspectives. However, from the literatureavailable, it is found that researches on conflict talk between mother-in-law anddaughter-in-law in Chinese context are rather limited. Therefore, the study tries tomake a pragmatic analysis of conflict talk between mother-in-law and daughter-in-lawin Chinese context from the perspective of politeness principle and face theory, andattempts to find a better way to solve the conflict talk between mother-in-law anddaughter-in-law.On the basis of a review of previous researches on conflict talk and the theory ofpoliteness principle and face theory, the present research adopts to both quantitativeanalysis and qualitative analysis to analyze the conflict talks in the data collected fromthe TV play series Mother-in-law Is Coming. Quantitative research counts conflicttalk of violating politeness principle between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law inthe TV play series Mother-in-law Is Coming, and comparatively analyzes forms andfrequency of conflict talk by mother-in-law and daughter-in-law respectively.Qualitative researches is used to discuss the conflict talk of forms of violatingpoliteness principle and face threatening acts between mother-in-law anddaughter-in-law; and analyze the causes of producing conflict talk; and discuss somesolutions to the conflict talk. The thesis focuses on solving the following questions:what forms of conflict talk exist between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law under the circumstances of violating politeness principle? What are the face value existingin conflict talk between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law? What are the solutions ofconflict talk between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law from the perspective ofpoliteness principle and face theory?The thesis thinks that the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-lawis one of the most important family relations in China and also is the most delicateand easiest one to have problems. Findings of the detailed studies are as follows:Firstly, under the circumstance of violating politeness principle, conflict talk has thefollowing forms: violating tact and generosity maxims which contains refusal form,refutation form and scolding form; violating approbation and modesty maxim whichcontains accusation form, irony form, satire form and arrogant form; violatingagreement and sympathy maxim which contains opposition form, disobedience formand argumentative form. Secondly, when conflict talk occurred betweenmother-in-law and daughter-in-law, there would produce face threatening acts whichcontain positive face and negative face. Restricting factors of producing conflict talkbetween mother-in-law and daughter-in-law mainly reflected in different values,different personality characters and different desires, etc. How to solve the conflicttalk between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is a social issue that always deservesto be discussed. So dealing with problems of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, theyshould abide by politeness and face theory. Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law shouldmutually respect and care each other, daughter-in-law as the young generation shouldbe show filial respect for mother-in-law and mother-in-law should care fordaughter-in-law. Thirdly, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law give more positive faceto each other; while they also recognize that give other people face is to give her ownface in order to promote the harmonious relationship between mother-in-law anddaughter-in-law.The analysis of verbal expression of conflict talk between mother-in-law anddaughter-in-law from the perspective of Politeness Principle and Face Theory doesnot only analyzes conflict talk’s feature from pragmatic perspective in Chinese relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, but also offers somelinguistic strategies to build a good relationship between mother-in-law anddaughter-in-law. Due to different cultural background and habits of life, there alwayshas contradiction or conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. To solve thisproblem, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law need mutual understanding and trust.Only if the family realizes harmony, the society can achieve harmony.