A Discourse-pragmatic Study On Empathy In Emotion Counseling Calls

Empathy is a significant mechanism of interpersonal communication.It has always been a popular topic and features prominently in the psychological field.In1977,Kuno introduced empathy into linguistics field.And in 1991,He Ziran expanded it and put forward pragmatic empathy.Since then different discourse is applied by the scholars,however,there are few studies focusing on empathy in emotion counseling calls and most of the domestic researches on empathy are analyzed from the perspective of adaptation theory.In addition,empathy is mostly illustrated from the degree of being triggered by the participant who provides help in the majority of researches.Fewer of them examine empathy from a more comprehensive point of view.Based on previous researches,this thesis tries to explore empathy in terms of discourse-pragmatic aspect in emotion counseling calls.In line with interpersonal pragmatics and its key element qing,this thesis adopts the methodology of conversation analysis.By using qualitative and quantitative research method,the study aims to conduct a relatively systematic survey on empathy from different dimensions.Three research questions need to be answered:(1)How are empathy expressions distributed in emotion counseling calls?(2)How does empathy display in emotion counseling calls?(3)What functions of empathy do emotion counseling calls have?This thesis selects Qingsu on Shanxi Art Broadcast;Xiaosheng on Jilin News Broadcast and Chenfeng Talk on Heilongjiang Broadcast as representative data.The author collects 203 valid recording pieces in total and analyzes them according to following steps: Firstly,based on the classification of empathy put forward by Pounds et all.(2018),the study firstly sorts empathy-related data into core and peripheral empathy.In the meantime,pieces under core empathy are distinguished between empathy-seeking and empathy-giving.Secondly,the frequencies of peripheral and core ECAs are counted and the empathy initiators are inferred.Thirdly,detailed uses of different empathic resources in the selected data are analyzed.Fourthly,on accountof prior analysis,the study analyzes the functions of empathy in emotion counseling calls.The following conclusions can be drawn through analysis:(1)The process of empathy can be triggered by both parties interchangeably instead of the host alone.The caller and the host act together in peripheral ECAs and contribute to empathy-seeking and empathy-giving respectively.(2)The sequential positions and resources employed in various dimensions of empathy are different,in which the frequency of empathy-seeking outnumbers empathy-giving.The host should increase empathic engagement in such emotion counseling calls for a better sense of people with problems.(3)Empathy has holistic function,peripheral empathy function and core empathy function in emotion counseling calls.On basis of analysis on empathy in emotion counseling calls,this study enriches the data of empathic researches to some extent and makes a feasible attempt to theoretical framework and research paradigm.At the same time,this study is hoped to make a contribution to further development of emotion counseling calls and the contribution of harmonious interpersonal relationship.