Conversation Analysis Of Chinese TV Talk Show

This thesis analyzes the conversational utterances that occur in Chinese TV talk showthrough conversation analysis (CA). The data used in this paper are drawn from threepopular TV talk show programs: Tell it as it is, Dialogue, and Life of art. Since talk showdiscourse is by nature a type of conversation, a conversation analysis of talk show discourseis expected to offer new insights into the understanding and appreciation of the program.One of the distinctive features of English TV talk show discourse is noticed assemi-institutional (Ilie, 2001). Talk show as a particular type of broadcasting discourseexhibits mixed characteristics of casual conversation and institutional discourse.Institutional discourse is generally distinguished by systematic turn-taking andconversational sequence.This thesis makes application of research findings in CA to the study of the regularitiesexhibiting in sequential organization and turn-taking operation of TV talk show discourse.Linguistic concepts like act, move and exchange are employed in this analytical framework.Three-part exchange is used as a basic organizational unit in this thesis for the descriptionand interpretation of TV talk show.The study reveals that the conversation between the host and the guest follows thesequence of I-R-F (initiating move, responding move and follow-up move), with the thirdpart the follow-up move being optional. In TV talk show there are mainly two types ofinitiating moves: the informative and the elicitation. The informative is mostly followed byexpression of acknowledgement and acceptance. The elicitation prospects a positiveresponse of the elicited information. The negative response and the temporization are rare inthe conversation between the show host and the guest. The optional part, follow-up move, isused to indicate attention and facilitate the interaction between the host and the guest. Thefollow-up move may occur recursively following one responding move. The challengingmoves and the combination of different moves are also observed. Researches show thatturn-taking operation in TV talk show is different from that of the ordinary conversation.This can be attributed to the host's control over the floor allocation and the topic shift bymeans of producing more initiating moves and nominations;and also the host may help theguest with an extended turn by means of producing supportive feedbacks. A study on thesequential organization and turn-taking operation in TV talk show will help betterappreciation of TV talk show and participation in the program.