A Study Of Conflict Talk In English TV Dating Shows From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Language is a tool for communication, and also a medium of expressing ideas and feelings. Everyone is an independent individual and has a unique way of thinking. And due to the differences in gender, age, family background, educational background, identity, profession, social status, etc., different people may have different world outlooks, values, perspectives and attitudes of observing things, it is inevitable for them to meet disagreement while communicating, thus conflict talk occurs. To some extent, conflict talk is unavoidable in our daily conversation, which is also a common and complex linguistic phenomenon. Conflict talk may exert unexpected influence on interpersonal communication. Sometimes it may even deepen the contradictions and differences between each other, and make the communication suspended. With the escalation of disagreement, conflict talk will destroy communicative atmosphere and the contradiction may take a turn for the worse and bring severe consequences. Therefore, how to avoid negative effects of conflict talk on interpersonal communication, resolve conflict talk effectively and make it developing in direction more favorable to communication is not only the effective way of achieving successful communication, but also the focus that people are concerning with.In recent years, conflict talk attracts more and more attention of experts and scholars from all circles. Scholars at home and abroad have carried out extensive research concerning conflict talk, discussed and researched conflict talk in different angles. But the initial studies are more concentrated in the field of sociology and psychology, later turning to the field of linguistics. Achievements of research in the filed of linguistics are quite rich, and many explorations and attempts are conducted in different perspectives, such as from the perspectives of Relevance Theory, Meme Theory, Face Theory, Appraisal Theory and Adaptation Theory. The research is also conducted within a wide range of objects, such as: between husband and wife, between teacher and student, between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, between parent and child, between superior and subordinate and so on. In addition, where a conflict occurs also varies, such as: family, work, job interviews, television programs, office, classroom, courtroom and so on. However, from the perspective of Adaptation Theory, research on conflict talk in English television dating show is still blank.This thesis, taking Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory as the theoretical basis, male and female guests of English TV dating show Take Me Out as the research object, aims to study the linguistic features of conflict talk between this specific object, causes of conflict talk and methods and strategies to change conflict talk into mild talk. The research methodology is mainly observation method, case study method and qualitative analysis method. By collecting typical corpus in English TV dating show, and interpreting and analyzing corpus, conclusions are drawn. The linguistic features of conflict talk between blind dating men and women are primarily the use of direct negative, the use of indirect negative, the use of imperative sentences, the use of figures of speech, the use of slightly contemptuous silence, and the use of rhetorical questions. Through specific case studies, the conclusion is made that causes of conflict talk arise from the communicator’s adaptation to the contextual correlates in the physical, social and mental worlds respectively. Methods and strategies to mitigate conflict talk are mainly submission, using humor, using hedges, silence, focus-shifting and smile.The significance of the thesis is mainly reflected in the following aspects: First, the research is conducted from the perspective of linguistics, which enriches the linguistic research achievements; secondly, since there is hardly any research done from the perspective of Adaptation Theory on the conflict talk between men and women in English TV dating shows, this study fills the gaps and enriches the study objects of conflict talk; thirdly, this study gives some strategies for resolving the conflict, which will also provide some inspiration and reference to the way of interpersonal communication, enhance exchanges between people, provide guidelines for building a harmonious society, creating a harmonious family relations and achieving successful communication.