| Conflict Talk,often inevitable in interpersonal communication,is a complex linguistic phenomenon commonly found in social life.In order to better understand and cope with conflict discourse during interpersonal communication,it is necessary to conduct researches on conflict talk from multiple aspects.Considering that gathering oral material evidence of conflict talk in real life can prove difficult,the research corpus of this article comes from what is presented in the fifth and sixth seasons of the internet debate show U Can U Bibi,or Qi Pa Shuo.Based on Martin&White’s appraisal theory,combining the structure of conflict talk proposed by Muntigl and Turnbull,et al,this thesis performs a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the realization of multiple appraisal resources in the show,and delves into their specific conditions and compositional features.In addition,this study also compares the outcome of the last episodes with that of the overall corpus,thus revealing the change and characteristics of application of varied appraisal resources in the final stage of conflict talk.This research finds:1)the frequency of attitude resources employed in conflict talk is by and large equal to or slightly less than the sum of the frequencies of engagement resources and graduation resources,with the frequencies of these three close to a ratio of 5:2:3;2)considering attitude resources are often concerned with the topics of debate,this subsystem of resources are not necessarily related to the upgrading of conflict talk.Under attitude resources,furthermore,judgment resources are rather prominent in conflict talk,while affect resources and appreciation resources are secondary;3)engagement resources and graduation resources turn out even more important in conflict talk;specifically,dialogic contraction under engagement and force under graduation are more closely related to the escalating of conflict talk;4)an appropriate use of appraisal resources can help reduce conflictual intensity.Some principles are thus given:reduce the use of judgment resources;maintain or even enhance the use of affect resources;try to use more heteroglossic resources and limit dialogic contraction resources;apply graduation resources carefully,especially force;5)certain benefits can also be drawn after conflict talk,for instance,a more profound understanding of the opposite party shall be achieved,more focus is to be placed upon things rather than on people,more clarifications of one’s own views and a growing self-awareness will be observed.This paper consists of seven parts:Chapter One is introduction,which includes research background,research objectives,research methods,research significance,etc.Chapter Two is literature review,sketching out the domestic and foreign researches hitherto on appraisal theory and on conflictual discourse.Chapter Three is theoretical framework,which outlines the layers of appraisal theory,and briefly introduces the structure or sequence of conflict talk.Chapter Four illustrates the research methods as a combination of qualitative and quantitative ones,informing of research questions,data,procedure and instrument.Chapter Five mainly analyzes qualitatively the realization of multiple appraisal resources embodied in the material evidences of conflict talk in Qi Pa Shuo.Chapter Six presents the results and discussions,analyzes quantitatively the detailed distribution features of each appraisal resource,and investigates the change of appraisal resources amid the two final turns.Chapter Seven summarizes the main findings of the study,as well as its limitations and implications.Based on appraisal theory,utilizing the structure of conflict talk,this research enlarges the scope of the application of appraisal theory,demonstrates the distribution features and compositional characteristics of appraisal resources employed in conflict talk,and provides some insights on how to verbally mitigate conflictual intensity and how to persuade in a more acceptable way. |
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