Abstract: Conflict talk is an opposed interactive behavior that happens between two or more parties. This paper attempts to analysis conflict talk among family members from a pragmatic perspective. This study is based on the data collected from the American sitcom Modern Family and conversation analysis(CA) has been adopted to help analyze the conflict talk data. It is expected that this paper could present a more comprehensive and logical illustration of this linguistic phenomenon. By understanding the cause and formats of conflict talks in the sitcom, it is also important to attract the attention of family members to avoid conflict and construct a harmonious living environment.

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   Key words: conflict talk; conversation analysis; Modern Family; pragmatic analysis

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 Conflict Talk-1

1.2 About Modern Family-2

1.3 Conversation Analysis-3

1.3.1 Turn-taking Structure-4

1.3.2 Adjacency Pairs-4

1.3.3 Preference Organization-5

1.3.4 Transcription Convention-6

2. The Initiation Stage-7

2.1 Counterclaim-8

2.2 Opposing Question-9

2.3 Contradiction-11

3. The Maintenance or Escalation Stage-12

3.1 Non-obedience Format-13

3.2 Argumentative Format-14

3.2.1 Declarative Negation Structure-14

3.2.2 Rhetorical Question Structure-16

3.2.3 Explanation-17

4. The Termination Stage-19

4.1 Third-party Intervention-19

4.2 Concession and Compromise-21

4.3 One Party Leaving-22

5. Conclusion-23

References-25