ABSTRACT

Conflict talk is the statement between the parties when one party of speech has an opponent of opinions or position with the other party. Recently, many woks about conflicts in parent-adolescent relationship become the hot topic in the screen and become one of the important aspects of conflict talk research. Generally speaking, handling conflict suitably resolution is the key to establishing a harmonious family. The study of conflict talk between parents and adolescents contributes to parents and adolescents relationship when dealing with conflict.

With the theoretical basis of speech activity type and politeness theory, this paper aims to analyze the conflict talk in parent-adolescent relationship, with of the conflict talk in parent-adolescent relationship in American TV play Modern Family. With four speech activity types: assertion, accusation, order and inquiry, as the basis, this paper also analyses the frequency of different speech activity types in conflict talk. Finally, we found that conflict talk between parent and adolescents has the following characteristics:

1. Conflict talk between parent and adolescents happens is frequently;

2. Among all speech activity types, accusation happens frequently;

3. There is more mother-adolescent conflict than father- adolescent conflict;

    The result of the study shows that ideology and opinion between parents and adolescents is the main reason of the parent-adolescent conflict talk. Conflict talks occur more if parents are strict, whereas, conflict talks between friend-parent and adolescents are less. In step-family, there are more conflict between step-child and parent. Parent and adolescents should increase communication and understanding to reduce conflict, thus promoting harmonious relationship in the family.

Keyword: conflict talk; parent-adolescent relationship; speech activity type; assertion; accusation; order; inquiry

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

摘要

Chapter One  INTRODUCTION1

Chapter Two  LITERATURE REVIEW3

2.1  Definition of conflict talk-3

2.1.1  Conflict-3

2.1.2  Conflict talk-4

2.1.3  Parent-adolescent conflict-5

2.1.4  Summary-5

2.2  Previous Study of Conflict Talk at Home and Abroad-5

2.2.1 Previous Study Abroad-5

2.2.2 Previous Study at Home-6

2.2.3 Parent-adolescent Conflict Study at Home and Abroad-7

2.3  Summary-8

Chapter Three   RESEARCH DESIGN9

3.1  Research Questions-9

3.2  Research Object-9

3.3  Research Method-10

3.4  Research Process-10

3.5  Summary-11

Chapter Four DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS12

4.1  Data Analysis-12

4.1.1  Qualitative Research: The Types of Speech Activity-12

4.1.1.1  Assertion-12

4.1.1.2  Accusation-14

4.1.1.3  Order-15

4.1.1.4  Inquiry-16

4.1.2  Quantitative Research-18

4.2  Findings-21

Chapter Five  CONCLUSION22

REFERENCES.24