A Contrastive Analysis Of Conversations In Chinese And American Television Interviews

A contrastive analysis of conversation in Chinese and American TV interviews is made in this paper. The research adopts two typical programs"Oprah Winfrey Show"in the U.S. and"A Date with Luyu"in China, which enjoy the highest audience rating and could represent Chinese and American TV interviews respectively. The anchorpersons of the two programs are both female, and the interviewees are very important persons of social and political circles. The similar hosting styles and the guests invited make the two programs comparable. Therefore, this paper analyzes the similarities and differences between the two programs from"Opening and Closing","Turn-taking"and"Adjacency Pair"as well as related culture factors.Theories applied in this paper include: Conversational Analysis, Polite Principle, Turn-taking Theory, and Adjacency Pair. In addition to that, the related cultural factors are also analyzed to explain their influence on the host's style. The research has tried to find out, first of all, how the TV interview's conversation is different from the ordinary talking in daily life; Secondly, with the Chinese and American cultural backgrounds, what are the similarities and difference between"Oprah Winfrey Show"and"A Date with Luyu". Last but not least, how to explain the result of research from the angle of social culture. The second point is the most important aspect in the paper, that is, the similarities and differences between the two programs with Chinese and American cultural backgrounds.In"Opening and Closing", the author not only analyzed the over-all structure and introducing part in the opening, but also discussed the transiting termination in the end. In"Turn-taking"part, the discussion was made of two aspects"Rules of turn-taking"and"Strategies of turn management". Then, by the part of"Adjacency Pair", question and answer patterns were analyzed. Finally, the author explained the result in this research, concluding some problems and suggestions for the future from the social culture angle.