AStudyofTerminationStrategiesofParent—childConflictTalkinModernFamily

【Abstract】This paper explores how parent-child conflict talk ends in the American sitcom Modern Family of the sixth season. Based on speech act theory and face-threatening theory， the author analyzed 24 episodes of conflict talk and summarized six types of termination. Its concluded that children in the puberty tend to have conflict with their parents and withdrawal， submission and stand-off are more highly used in the conflicts.

【Key words】parent-child conflict talk； termination； Modern family

【作者簡介】董艺（1994- ），女，满族，学生，硕士，东北师范大学外国语学院，研究方向：英语语言文学。

I. Introduction

As a common phenomenon in daily life， conflict talk can occur in anywhere and anytime. The related studies mainly consist of the conflict talk analysis among different social status， genders， even intimate families and friends. This paper focuses on parent-conflict talk and explores how it ends in the American sitcom Modern Family of the sixth season.

II. Literature Review

Conflict talk refers to the verbal communication concerning different opinions like disagreement， quarrels， disputes and so on （Grimshaw， 1990）. According to Grimshaw， it can be divided into these types： the direct versus the indirect， emotional versus dispassionate， formal versus informal and so on. Zhao Yingling （2004） in her studies generally placed conflict talk into two sides： aggressive conflict talk and non-aggressive conflict talk.

As a branch of conflict talk， parent-child conflict research was started in 1980s. It often takes place in the interruption， attack or disagreement between parent and child. Many foreign scholars have focused conflict talk on parent-child relationship. Domestic researchers， however， have paid less attention. Therefore， the author based this paper on pragmatic theories， for expending relevant domestic research coverage.

III. Methodology

In this paper， 24 parent-child conflict episodes are selected for summarizing the terminating strategies. And then it is the analysis of the detailed illustration. The data come from the dramatic conversation of Modern Family， the sixth season. The theoretical framework here includes speech act theory and face-threatening theory.

IV. Results and Discussion

4.1 Parent-child Conflict in the Sitcom

It is found that the conflict talks mainly occur between the following four groups of parent-child：

Because Haley， Alex， Luke and Manny are in the puberty， it is easy for them to have disagreement with their parents. We can see that 71% of the parent-child conflict talks occur in the period of puberty.

4.2 Terminating Strategies in the Sitcom

There are six terminating strategies in the 24 parent-child conflict talks：

From the above table， we can draw the conclusion that the most frequently used strategies within these episodes are the strategy of withdrawal， submission and stand-off. The author will mainly illustrate these three strategies in the following parts.

Withdrawal

1. Clair： Oh， and what do we know about this young man？

2. Alex： Hes new to our school… Why am I even talking to you guys？ （Phil and Clair leave）

In this conflict， Claire and Phil dont believe Alex has a boyfriend， so Alex is irritated by her parents doubt. To cease the dispute and save Alexs face， Claire and Phil get out of the room. Here， the parents withdrawal is the termination of the long-turn conflict talk.

Submission

1.Luke： Good ol Andy.

2. Phil： Is something up， buddy？

3. Luke： I said “no” one time. And suddenly its all “Andy this” and “Andy that”.

…

13. Phil： Yeah， Id go to college with you… None of them would take us.

This conflict between Phil and Luke is ended by Lukes acceptance of Phil. The high frequency of Phils talking about Andy makes Luke feel bad and contributes to their quarrel. After Phils explanation， Luke accepts Phils saying and succeeds to save their faces.

Stand-off

1. Cam： Uh， well， s-sweetie， um， its just not your normal smile， which is so beautiful.

…

4. Lily： Just forget it！ … and Im never coming out of my room again！

This conflict is ended with stand-off. The daddies and Lily dont agree with each other. Lily believes her smile is normal， but her two fathers dont think so. The two sides all keep their own minds， with the unresolved disputation left.

V. Conclusion

Its concluded that parent-child conflict talks more usually happen in the families in which children are in the puberty. Besides， there are totally six types of termination in the sitcome， among which withdrawal， submission and stand-off strategies are more highly used. The limitation here is that only 24 episodes are used to analysis， which may not be that enough in quantity. In the following research， more data will be illustrated.

References：

[1]Grimshaw A D.Conflict talk：Sociolinguistic investigations in conversation[M].Cambridge：Cambridge University Press，1990.

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[3]赵英玲.冲突话语分析[J].外语学刊，2004，（5）：37-42.