An Analysis Of Conflict Talk In Chinese And American Sitcoms

Conflict talk is a common, natural and inevitable linguistic phenomenon in daily communication. Living in a society, everyone needs to interact with the surroundings. If there is a conflict between the communicators for opposing each other?s opinions or acts, and once the conflict is expressed in verbal forms, it is called the conflict talk. That is to say, conflict talk is the verbal reflection of the disputes between the participants.(Ran Yongping, 2010) The disputes in the communication would threat the other party?s face and do harm to their relationships. Therefore, the research of conflict talk can not only ease the tension of relationships, but also promote the communications. Meanwhile, it contributes to constructing a harmonious society.The research of conflict talk has been conducted in various areas, such as the linguistics, sociology, psychology and so on. In abroad, scholars in many disciplines have studied the conflict talk, and abundant accomplishments have been achieved(Grimshaw, 1990; Dorril, 1997; Kakava, 2001). While the domestic researches are carried on relatively late, the accomplishments are not enough both in width and depth. The domestic researches have been done mainly from the perspective of Conversation Analysis and Pragmatics(Zhao Yingling, 2004; Ran Yongping, 2010), and few researches have combined the Conversation Analysis with the cultural theories.The present study has adopted Conversation Analysis, Hofstede?s Cultural Theory(Grimshaw, 1990; Dorril, 1997; Kakava, 2001) and previous findings made by the pioneer researchers to make a contrastive study of the conflict talk between a Chinese sitcom Love Apartment and an American sitcom Friends with both the qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis. Firstly, the conflict formats during the initiating, maintaining and terminating phase are analyzed with Conversation Analysis. Then the similarities and differences in the contrasted qualitative data are explained with Hofestede?s Cultural Theory(Hofestede, 1991).The findings of this study are as follows. Firstly, in the initiating stage, Chinese and Americans all like to use the formats of Claim vs. Counter-claim and Provoking questions vs. Opposing, and the least choice for them is the format of Directive vs. Refusal. Meanwhile, compared with Chinese, Americans are inclined to have a high frequency of using the format of Directive vs. Refusal. Secondly, in the maintaining stage, Chinese and Americans tend to use the formats of Explanation, Each airing his or her views and Rhetorical questions. For Chinese, the two most infrequently used formats are Direct Confrontation and Non-obedience, and the format of Repetition has not been found. For Americans, the two most infrequently used formats are Repetition and Direct confrontation. Thirdly, in the terminating stage, Chinese and Americans are all prone to use the formats of Concession, Compromise and Withdrawal. For Chinese, they do not tend to use the format of Stand-off, and the format of Humor has not been found in the selected data. While for Americans, they are not inclined to use the formats of Humor and Third party intervention. Fourthly, about the similarities and differences that explained by Hofestede?s Cultural Theory, China is a collectivistic country, with high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation, thus Chinese are more indirect in expressing the conflicts and pay attention to avoid the conflicts. While America is an individualistic country, with low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance and short-term orientation, thus conflicts are more apt to be triggered and become fierce. Meanwhile, China and America are all masculine countries, so there are lots of similarities between the conflict formats in the two sitcoms.The study firstly certifies the applicability of adjacency pairs, turn-taking system and preference in Conversation Analysis in analysis of conflict talks again. Then it proves that there are lots of conflict episodes in the sitcoms. Finally, it illustrates that Hofested?s Cultural Theory is very important in explaining the cultural similarities and differences between China and western countries. It is expected that this study would enhance mutual understanding among people from different countries and provide more knowledge and skills for intercultural communication.This thesis consists of six chapters: Chapter One is an introduction, in which the research background is briefly introduced, the research questions are posed, the research objectives and significance are clarified and the structure of the thesis is laid out. Chapter Two briefly reviews the study on conflict talks, including the clarification of terms, classification of conflict talk, and previous studies of conflict talk at home and abroad. Chapter Three illustrates the theoretical framework of this study, in which the theoretical framework and Hofested?s Cultural Theory are presented. Chapter Four presents corpora establishment and analytical procedure of the study. The reasons and procedure of selection of the sitcom episodes and conflict episodes are also explained. Chapter Five presents the analytical results with the focus on similarities and differences of the conflict formats in the two sitcoms. Chapter Six is the conclusion, in which the findings of this research, the limitations of the study and suggestions for further study are concluded.