A Study On Stance-taking In Dialogue:A Rapport Management Perspective

Discourse stance is one of the hot issues in discourse analysis in the past two decades.The related research has transitioned from the static study of single words to the use of natural authentic data,and dynamically examines the stance speech act during the conversation.However,few scholars pay attention to the interpersonal relationship caused by stance-taking.In addition,English takes the lead in the study of stance in the world’s languages.There are a number of monographs and collections about the study of stance in English.As far as Chinese is concerned,the related research is extremely inadequate.Therefore,this paper takes stance-taking in the Chinese conversation as the research object,selects data from the interview program Dialogue,and systematically analyzes the communication process of stance-taking in media discourse under the framework of Rapport Management Theory.The present study mainly uses the qualitative method.Specifically,this thesis explores in the interview context how stance-taking is initiated,how the interviewer negotiates stance in light of different rapport orientations,and what pragmatic functions stance-taking realizes.The present study discovers that in Dialogue,there are four types of speech acts that initiate stance-taking: representatives,directives,expressives,commissives.Stance-taking is rapport-oriented in interview discourse.The interviewer mainly uses seven types of strategies to negotiate stance and manage rapport: empathy,repetition,rhetorical questions,indirect questioning,resorting to a third party,addressing,deictic expressions,of which the first three realize rapport enhancement,and the others realize rapport maintenance.The functions of stance-taking can be generalized into two aspects.One is the effects on conversation and the other is the effects on interlocutors.To be more exact,the effects on conversation mainly include the following: opening and closing the interview,manipulating the turn of speech,and creating false conflict.The effects on interlocutors include the following: constructing good self-images and arousing resonance.From the perspective of Rapport Management Theory,this paper analyzes the verbal communication process of stance-taking in Dialogue,which shows the overall scene of stance construction and rapport management triggered by stance-taking in the interview context.The study is conducive to deepening our understanding of the characteristics of stance-taking in verbal communication and provides a new approach in research of discourse stance.