A Study Of The Impoliteness Strategies Employed In The Conflict Talks Between Mother-in-law And Daughter-in-law

As a common phenomenon in life, conflict talk has attracted attention from scholars abroad and at home. The conflict talks between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law are noteworthy because the relationship between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law is quite complicated. Unlike the relationship between couples bonded by affection or the relationship between parents and children bonded by blood, the relationship between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law is formed by marriage and is rather unsteady.Due to the complexity of the conflict talks between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law, few scholars have researched it from the perspective of impoliteness. To fill this gap, the present study adopts the impoliteness model proposed by Culpepper (1996) as the theoretical framework in the analysis of the conflict talks between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law in the Chinese context. The data used in the current research are collected from three Chinese TV series:Ma La Po Xi (麻辣婆媳), Shuang Mian Jiao (双面胶) and Po Po Lai Le (婆婆来了).68episodes are collected and656examples are identified.Through careful analysis, five superstrategies are found:"Bold on Record Impoliteness","Positive Impoliteness","Negative Impoliteness","Sarcasm" and "Withhold Politeness". The superstrategy of "Positive Impoliteness" has twelve output strategies, including "Ignore, snub the other","Exclude the other from an activity","Disassociate from the other","Be disinterested, unconcerned and unsympathetic","Use inappropriate identity markers","Use obscure or secretive language","Make the other feel uncomfortable""Call the other names","Criticize","Challenge","Disagree with the other" and "Decline the other’s offer". Among the twelve output strategies for "Positive Impoliteness", two strategies-"Disagree with the other" and "Decline the other’s offer"-are newly found in the present study.Four output strategies for the superstrategy of "Negative Impoliteness" are identified, which are:"Frighten","Condescend, scorn or ridicule","Invade the other’s space" and "Hinder/Block". Besides, the present study newly finds two output strategies for the superstrategy of "Sarcasm"-"Insincerely compliment the other" and "Insincerely belittle self.The total frequency of impoliteness strategies employed by the mother-in-laws in the data is higher than that employed by the daughter-in-laws, which implies that generally the mother-in-laws are more powerful than the daughter-in-laws. The choice of impoliteness strategies is mainly influenced by three social factors:age, the economic situation and the educational background. Chinese traditional ethics is family-centered, which endows the elderly with the right to order other family members. Therefore, the mother-in-laws who are much older than the daughter-in-laws are more powerful. The daughter-in-laws who have jobs are economically independent while the mother-in-laws who are out of work have to economically depend on their sons and daughter-in-laws. Therefore, the daughter-in-laws have economic control over the mother-in-laws. Moreover, the daughter-in-laws have received modern college education, and hence they are influence by western self-centered ethics. They pursue equality, liberty and independence, and are reluctant to be controlled by their mother-in-laws.