A Study Of Conflict Talk Between The Elderly And Their Adullt Children From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Conflict talk is a common linguistic phenomenon in interpersonal communications.In recent years,this language phenomenon has received studies from different perspectives in many fields,for example,philosophy,sociology,psychology and linguistics.Domestic researchers mainly focus on conflict talks between couples and mostly use English corpus,however,few people have analyzed the conflict talk between generations.This thesis centers on the study of conflict talk between the elderly and their adult children in China,according to the adaptability of linguistic choice-making,to analyze the linguistic formats applied in each stage.At the same time,this thesis analyzes the causes of conflict between them based on Verschueren's Adaptation theory and then puts forward several strategies to mitigate or terminate the conflict talk.There are there major findings in this study.Firstly,the formats of conflict talk between the elderly and their adult children:(1)the initiation stage: expressive statement,order and question;(2)the maintenance and escalation stage: non-submission,argumentation and provocation;(3)the termination stage: stand-off,submission,compromise,one party's win,third-party intervention and withdrawal.Secondly,according to Adaptation theory,if they fail to adapt to some contextual factors such physical,social and mental world with each other,conflict talks will occur between them.Thirdly,strategies to mitigate or terminate the conflict talk: hedges,silence and topic-shifting.This thesis supplements existing studies of conflict talk and through a thorough analysis of the causes leading to the conflicts between two generation to ease and improve the relationship between the elderly and their adult children as well as the social harmony.