A Pragmatic Analysis Of Conflict Talk In Emotional TV Show Love Defense From The Dimension Of Role

Conflict talk refers to a language phenomenon in which the two parties of the communication hold different opinions and generate verbal conflicts.This language phenomenon is common and inevitable in daily interaction.Relevant literature shows that since the 1970 s scholars at home and abroad have explored conflict talk from different perspectives such as anthropology,psychology,sociology and linguistics,but relatively few studies have been conducted in linguistics on conflict talk between couples.In addition,when domestic scholars explore the conflict talk between couples,the corpus mostly comes from some popular TV series in China and America,such as Golden Marriage,Desperate Housewives,Modern Family and so on.Few studies have been conducted on the conflict talk between couples in emotional TV shows.In order to make up for this deficiency,this thesis chooses the popular emotional TV show Love Defense as the data source to conduct a pragmatic study of the conflict talk between couples.At the same time,according to the process setting and role arrangement of the program,this thesis makes a detailed analysis of the conflict talk in Love Defense from the dimension of role.Speech Act Theory and Conversation Analysis serve as the theoretical foundations of the present study.Through using a combination of qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis,this thesis conducts a pragmatic analysis of conflict talk in Love Defense.This thesis mainly answers the following three questions:(1)How is the conflict talk initiated and escalated by the couples in Love Defense?(2)How is the conflict talk terminated by the host in Love Defense?(3)How is the conflict talk commentated by the mentors in Love Defense?In light of the three research questions,this thesis explores the pragmatic strategies used by the couples when they initiate and escalate conflict talk as well as the pragmatic strategies adopted by the host when he terminates conflict talk.At the same time,the author also investigates the pragmatic strategies employed by the emotional mentors when they commentate on conflict talk.Through analysis and research,it is found that the couples in Love Defense mainly adopt four initiating strategies in conflict talk,including accusation,assertion,request and order.Among the four initiating strategies,accusation and assertion accounting for 50.0% and28.2% respectively,which are used much more frequently than the other two strategies.Secondly,this thesis also explores four strategies used by couples to escalate conflict talk,namely,opposing question,repetition,explanation and negation.Among them,opposing question is the most frequently used escalating strategy by the couples in Love Defense,which accounts for 33.7%.In addition,this thesis discusses four strategies employed by the host as a third party to terminate conflict talk: question,topic-shifting,collaboration and humor.It is found that the host is more inclined to use question strategy to end conflict talk,with a frequency of up to 60.9%.Finally,the present study summarizes three pragmatic strategies used by emotional mentors when they commentate on conflict talk,namely,pointing out the problem,analyzing the underlying reason and offering suggestion.This thesis conducts a pragmatic analysis of the conflict talk in emotional TV show Love Defense from the dimension of role,attempting to enrich the study of this language phenomenon to a certain extent.At the same time,the results of this study can promote mutual understanding between couples,and help to reduce conflicts in their love lives,thus enhancing the sense of happiness in their lives.