Institutional Power: Turn-taking In Radio Talk Shows

This thesis is a pragmatic analysis of turn-taking in radio talk shows, a particular type of institutional discourse, which is understood as a realization mechanism of the show hosts' and the show guests' adaptation to their own institutionally defined powers to achieve the goal of the program. The core of this study is the generation of an adaptation model of turn-taking analysis and a detailed analysis of the influence of institutional power on turn-taking in radio talk shows. Methodologically speaking, this study integrates both the qualitative and the quantitative research method to support the presentation of a more complete understanding of the turn-taking study. The theoretical framework of the present study is based on Jef Verschueren's Linguistic Adaptation Theory (1999).The show hosts' and the show guests' adaptation to their own institutional powers has been studied in the phase of turn initiation, turn development and turn ending. It is the show hosts but not the show guests who announce the starting and the ending of the talk show with particular institutional introductory and ending strategies. The influence of institutional power is exhibited through turn-type allocation and turn control strategies in the phase of turn development. The whole conversation goes mainly under question-answer adjacency pair. The differences and similarities of the turn-control strategies employed by the show hosts and the show guests have been investigated. It showed that both the show hosts and the show guests have well adopted the turn-control strategies to adapt to their own institutional powers.In short, turn-taking in radio talk shows exhibits features different from that in daily conversation. Institutional power has great influences on turn-taking in radio talk shows and both the show hosts and the show guests have adapted themselves to their own institutional powers in radio talk shows.