A Comparative Study Between Chinese And American TV Talk Shows In Conversation Analysis And Cultural Values

For two decades,TV Talk Show has always enjoyed a widespread popularity and aroused a great interest in academic world.This dissertation targets at the exploration of TV Talk Show from the perspective of Conversation Analysis.In this thesis,ten episodes will be selected respectively from the American and Chinese TV talk shows: Ellen Show and Jin Xing Show,and the cultural comparative analysis will be carried out in accordance with Conversation Analysis.By applying both quantitative and qualitative research methods,this study attempts to discover similarities and differences in Ellen Show and Jin Xing Show with regards to turn-taking systems,like interruption,insert expansion and repair mechanism,and further to explore into the cultural values reflected in the analysis of the two talk shows.In terms of quantitative research,the data are examined on the basis of three different parameters in order to figure out the similarities and differences on interruption,insert expansion and conversational repair in these two shows.Three parameters include: 1)the number and the percentage of interruption in the two shows,2)the number and the percentage of the insert expansion in the shows and 3)the number of conversational repair in the shows.In terms of qualitative research,the data sources are transcribed and analyzed in the aspects of: interruption,insert expansion and conversational repair mechanism to figure out how they work in interactions.In light of the three cultural orientations—collectivism versus individualism,power distance and uncertainty avoidance,the cultural values lying behind the differences will be revealed after the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data sources.The study reveals that Ellen Show features higher frequency of interruption and insert expansion,while Jin Xing Show prefers adhering to the normal turn-taking patterns and question-answer sequence.According to the data and the theories of Hofstede‘s Cultural Dimensions,each show reveals corresponding culture values.The data sources collected from Ellen Show reveal the American values: individualism,low power distance and low uncertainty avoidance.Similarly,the data sources extracted from Jin Xing Show embody the typical Chinese culture with collectivism,high power distance and high uncertainty avoidance values.