The Orientation And Adjustment Of Speech Role In Power Conversation

At present, power conversation, as one of the important types of conversation in our life, is attracting more people’s attention. Power conversation is a non-parallel conversation in which social status of its participants is uneven. The orientation of speech role can influence people’s.communication, yet the process of the speech role’s orientation is very complicated in our daily life. There are many factors affecting the selection and adjustment of the speech roles in power conversations.Foucault’s power discourse theory indicates the conversation is controlled by power. In this thesis, the author analyzes the relationship between the two sides of participants in power conversation which is unequal, by discussing the verbal manifestation, paralinguistic manifestation as well as turn-takings controls and floor allocation. There is also a comprehensive illustration on the reasons for the switch of the participants’speech roles. The main reasons for the adjustment of the speech roles include the speakers’attempts to make adaptations to the communicative context, the topic of the communication, the importance of the communicative partner, the psychological needs and the communicative motivation.After analyzing the cases of some typical power conversation, the author also finds out some effective adjustment strategies to guide people’s communication and improves people’s communicative skills.