An Analysis Of Conflict Talk In Gossip Girl From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

As a universal and complicated language phenomenon,conflict talk frequently occurs in daily communication.The conflict talk refers to types of disputing speeches between participants during the process of communication.It happens naturally and inevitably but can't be ignored,creating barriers to successful communication.Hence,in an overwhelming majority of disciplines attention have been paid to and studies have been conducted from different respects such as anthropology,sociology,psychology,linguistics and so forth.Relevance Theory studies the human's communication from the perspective of cognitive science and is widely applied to the analysis of different conversations.But the analysis of the theory applied to conflict talk is rare.Guided by Relevance Theory,the present study aims to analyze the reasons for the occurrence of conflict talk from the cognitive perspective.According to Relevance Theory,communication is an ostensive-inferential process.The process of ostention and inference are regarded as one coin with two sides.From the communicator's point of view,communication is considered as an ostensive process.While for the audience,communication is thought of as an inferential process.At last,they will achieve successful communication.In addition,methodologically speaking,the present study adopts methods of literature research and qualitative analysis based on the data collected from American TV drama Gossip Girl.Through detailed study and analysis of data,the present study reveals the reasons for occurrence of conflict talk: that is to say,in the process of ostensive behavior,on the account of communicator's ambiguous ostention;in the inferential process,communicative intention failure from the audience's perspective;in the cognitive context such as discrepancy of background knowledge,incorrect comprehension on linguistic text,ignorance of both physical environment and dynamism of cognitive environment,lack of mutual manifestness of cognitive environment and lack of relevance caused by the violation of optimal relevance,which result in conflict talk.Obviously,Relevance Theory has great explanatory power of the reasons for the the occurrence of conflict talk.The present study on conflict talk has great theoretical significance and far-reaching social significance.Besides the deeper understanding of the reasons for the occurrence of conflict talk,it also expands the use of Relevance Theory,modifying and replenishing the theory of pragmatics.Meanwhile,the research on the mitigation or avoidance of conflict talk has a vital significance in our society.The construction of a harmonious society is advocated in China nowadays,with which conflicts are obviously inconsistent.It is important for us to grasp the reasons for the occurrence of conflict talk and try to avoid or mitigate it,which is beneficial to the improvement of the interpersonal relationship and the construction of the harmonious society.