One Strait,Two Cultures——A Conversation Analysis Theory Based Comparative Study Of Talk Shows In Mainland China And Taiwan(China):Super Interview Vs. Kang Xi’s Show

The discipline of conversation analysis originates from Russia, well develops in Britain and America, and then spreads to China in1980s, thus its studies in China are in a rising period. Since the large amount of relative research and theories collected by the British and American scholars can provide the domestic scholars with direct application or further exploration, it could be said that they stand on the shoulder of giants. Together with the transition from static analysis to dynamic analysis which enlarges infinitely the corpus to contain all the conversations occurring in reality, conversation analysis in China are filled with more possibilities. So far, both abroad and domestic conversation analysis have concentrated on the institutional talks such as courtroom conversation, class conversation and doctor-patient conversation etc, few scholars trying to apply theories of conversation analysis to the study of the linguistic features of TV talk show. Since TV talk shows eventually occupy a steady significance in the program lists of many domestic TV stations and attract an increasing audience, their influence could not be underestimated. This thesis will continue with the present research and employ the relative theories in analyzing two of the most popular talk shows——Super Interview which is from Chinese mainland and Kang Xi’s Show which is from Taiwan area. Besides, through analyzing the two shows’ conversation contexts, it can be concluded that the influences given by the sosiolcultural and media contexts from both sides to the two shows, in other words, it can tell how the two shows embody respectively their sosiolcultural impacts.This thesis is going to analyze the micro distinctions of the two shows from three dimensions, scilicet topic, turn-taking and context. Topic analysis covers topic selection, topic shifting, topic development mode and topic connection; turn-taking analysis covers turn-allocation, turn-holding and conversation interruption; and context analysis covers sosiocultural context, media context and participant context.Through those analyses, it proves that the sosiolcultural backgrounds from both sides affect the two shows deeply. For Super Interview, its topics are usually associated with relationship and inspiration and developed with coherence and carefulness; its hosts strictly control the turn-taking, but seldom hold turns for a long period or interrupt the guest’s speech. To be different, in tems of Kang Xi, its topics are related to relaxation and humor and extended in a complex way; its hosts control the turn-taking loosely, often hold turns for a long period and interrupt the guest’s speech. The two shows both have their own style and high steady ratings, therefore, the former is a show of laugh and lesson; the latter is a show of absolute amusement.