Pragmatic Analysis Of Conflict Talk Among Teenagers In The American Television Series

Conflict talk is a very common and complex phenomenon in our daily life andworkplace, since1980s, linguists began to study it, scholars have analyzed and studied it fromdifferent perspectives, some scholars mainly focus on the its structural feature, conflict talk indifferent contexts and settings such as children’s disputes in a laboratory setting and in theclassroom; other scholars noticed other factors such as sex and social status that influenced it.Talk show programs become increasingly popular. For instance, Hutchby (1996) haveexamined argumentative talk radio shows, television talk shows, public affairs television talkshows, Honda (2002) have studied real life documentaries. However, few researches havebeen done on conflict talk about teenagers from the aspect of pragmatics.The thesis takes the teenagers conflict talk of Vampire Diaries as the data source andConversation Analysis and Face and Politeness theory as theoretical framework to study thefollowing questions:1. How does the conflict talk initiate, develop and end?2. How are the strategies of conflict talk in initiating stage, developing stage,terminating stage distributed?3. What are the possible reasons for causing the difference of the distribution ofdifferent strategies of conflict talk??After analyzing the data, the thesis reveals the following findings:Firstly, in the initiating stage and developing stage, we can find that people’sface-threatening act is the main reason for causing conflict talk. In terminating stage,compromise is the most proper way to solve the conflict; withdrawal and stand-off alsoresolve the conflict, but the two strategies do not mean that conflict is completely solved the conflict but the conflict is put aside temporarily.Secondly, according to the data, in the initiating stage, the face-threatening behaviors ofrequest and accusation account for80%of all; order shares40%of all. In the developingstage, the negation occupies for43%, opposing question is a major strategy while a fewpeople are inclined to choose negation, opposing question only accounts for12%of all.Besides that, there are19%of conflict talks ending without escalation. In the terminatingstage, compromise is the most proper way to solve the conflict, but teenager are more likely toadopt to withdrawal.Thirdly, the background of American culture and psychological characteristic ofteenagers are the main reasons for the results of the research. America is a country with lowpower distance, everyone could express freely and directly their own ideas and opinions, andAmerican do not consider the other side s status and identity. Teenagers are in the period ofadolescence, they are innocence, kind and straightforward so that they are apt to express theiranger, opposition and challenges; teenagers are young and egocentric so that they do notabsolutely allow to interfere with their free of action.The thesis helps English learners understand comprehensively the phenomenon ofconflict talk by analyzing strategies of initiation, maintenance, termination. It can also create amore harmonious and friendly relationship through avoiding, relieving, and solving conflict inconversations.