| In recent years,with the development of sociolinguistically oriented Conversation Analysis,a certain number of researchers have been paying attention to power relations and turn-taking strategies,mainly for either studying the turn-taking strategies employed in different forms of conversations,or analyzing the power relations reflected in chosen turn-taking strategies.But only a few of them explore further about the interactions between power relations and turn-taking strategies.Therefore,this thesis provided further empirical research and investigated more social variables and linguistic variables with more realistic and popular literary data from the futuristic novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood,which is both theoretically and practically significant.According to the previous studies on power relations and turn-taking strategies,this thesis has focused on exploring the interactions between power relations and turn-taking strategies by analyzing the selected conversations of 6 pairs of characters in The Handmaid’s Tale from Sociolinguistic perspective.Based on a mixed method that includes both quantitative and qualitative elements,this thesis started by interpreting the turn-taking strategies employed in each conversation,including initiation&topic control,turn number,turn length,turn type(initiation,response and interruption)and turn control(pre-sequence,space-making and paralinguistic features),so as to compare the differences of turn-taking strategies between/among characters during the interaction.Then this thesis continued by interpreting the power relations reflected in each conversation,including social status,social distance and affection involvements,so as to analyze the changes of power relations between/among characters during the interaction.Next this thesis moved on by examining the influences of power relations on turn-taking strategies and the functions of turn-taking strategies to construct power relations accordingly.Lastly this thesis concluded by summarizing the interactions between power relations and turn-taking strategies based on data collection and analysis with the following major findings:(1)Power relations have great influences on turn-taking strategies between/among unequal characters during the interaction in the aspects of social distance and affection involvements in particular.Turn-taking is controlled by the powerful in general,by the powerless sometimes,and by both the powerful and the powerless sometimes;(2)Turn-taking strategies have certain functions to construct power relations between/among unequal characters during the interaction in the aspects of initiation&topic control,turn number,turn length and turn type in particular.Power relations are constructed generally,changed accordingly,and built constantly in the process of turn-taking;(3)The interrelationship between power relations and turn-taking strategies is very complicated for the reason that turn-taking strategies are not only influenced by different power relations,but also used to construct various social relations under particular circumstances. |
