（外国语言学及应用语言学专业论文）英语聊天室会话的话语权势研究.pdf

摘要 i 论文题目： 英语聊天室会话的话语权势研究 论文题目： 英语聊天室会话的话语权势研究 专 专 业：业： 外国语言学及应用语言学外国语言学及应用语言学 研研 究究 生：生： 薛薛 娜娜 指导教师：指导教师： 张张 喆喆 摘 要 摘 要 话语权势是批评语篇分析研究的重要课题。在吸取以 norman fairclough 为代 表的批评语篇分析家对话语权势基本观点的基础上，本文以廖美珍的问答互动理 论和 kuppevelt 的话题控制理论为框架，采用语篇分析方法，通过对语料进行定性 分析，对网络聊天室会话中的话语权势进行研究，从而发现网络聊天室会话在话 语权势方面有很多独特的地方, 特别是在这种特殊条件下的会话中话语权势转换 的特点和规律。 论文由六部分组成。第一章是前言，对话语权势和聊天室进行简单介绍，阐 述了论文的目的，结构，并说明了作者选择这个课题的原因。第二章是文献综述， 总结了目前对话语权势和网络聊天室会话的研究，发现对网络聊天的研究强调了 网络空间的匿名性和虚拟性，及由此带来的平等性和自由性，而忽视了网络交流 中存在的话语权势。论文还对话语权势的研究现状进行了回顾，指出目前对话语 权势的研究只有少数人对日常会话中的权势问题和表现形式做出专门研究，而对 网络聊天中的权势问题研究更是很少。第三章阐述了问答互动理论和话题控制理 论。第四章介绍了本论文使用的研究方法，重点介绍了语料收集。第五章是论文 主体。论文从两个方面讨论网络聊天中的权势建构行为：问答互动和话题控制。 在问答互动中，本文主要从三个方面进行分析：话轮转换，话题控制及不同问题 构建话语权势的等级。话题是衡量权势的一个重要方面，控制了话题也就控制了 交流方向。在话题控制部分，重点分析引发话题、维持话题、话题转移、话题结 束这四个方面的权势问题。由此,作者总结网络聊天室中的权势构建及特点：第一， 网络聊天室中权势的成功建构是双方共同完成的。第二，网络聊天室中话语权势 是局部的，互动的。第三，网络聊天室中的权势不是单一的,而是多方面的。总之， 由于网络的匿名性和虚拟性，运用语言建构权势的自由性高于其它日常会话和机 构话语。第六章对论文做了简要总结，并指出该研究的局限性和未来研究方向。 本论文的主要意义在于：在目前利用语言学理论对网络聊天这种新兴交流模 式研究尚不够全面系统的情况下，作者利用批评语篇分析理论对网络聊天室会话 进行了详细的分析，它不但有助于人们更好的理解网络聊天，而且初步提出了一 种较为合理的网络聊天分析方法，为进一步研究工作提供了一个可供参考的依据。 masters dissertation of henan university of science and technology ii 同时，它还对网络聊天室的设计也有一定的指导意义。 关关 键键 词：词：话语权势，网络聊天室，问答互动，话题控制 论文类型： 论文类型：应用研究 abstract iii subject: a study of power in english chatroom conversation specialty: foreign linguistics and applied linguistics name: xue na supervisor: zhang zhe abstract power is an important issue in the area of critical discourse analysis. this thesis has a qualitative analysis of power on internet chatroom conversation through conversation analysis of the collected data based on the basic ideas of critical discourse analysts represented by norman fairclough on discourse and power in order to find the unique characteristics of power in chatroom conversation, especially the characteristic and rule of power transition of this special condition, which takes question-response interaction theory of liao meizhen and topic control theory of kuppevelt as theoretical framework. this thesis is composed of five chapters. chapter one is the introduction to this thesis, which includes five parts, the introduction, the rationale of this thesis, the objective of the study, the research questions and the structure of the thesis, which has a brief introduction to power and chatroom and the reason of doing this research. chapter two is the review of relevant literature on the studies on power from institutional discourse and ordinary conversation, and chatroom conversation abroad and in china, finding that the research of internet chat put emphasis on the freedom and equality which results from the anonymity and virtuality of cyberspace, but ignored the power relations in online environments. this thesis also reviews the power study, finding that asymmetry exists in everyday conversation. power relations in everyday conversation have not been researched deeply and comprehensively. also few researchers have ever touched on the power relations in internet chat. chapter three presents the theoretical framework of question-response interaction and topic control model. chapter four is the methodology and data collection. chapter five is the main chapter of this thesis, and detailed investigation into power study in communicating in internet chatroom, and how power realized in internet chatroom through question-response interaction and topic control model are discussed in succession. in question-response interaction, this thesis mainly discusses in three parts: turn-taking control, topic control and degree of different questions realizing power. topic is an important indicator of power for it controls the direction of interaction. in the aspect of topic control, power relations in four kinds of masters dissertation of henan university of science and technology iv topic performances which are topic initiation, topic maintenance, topic shift and topic termination are the focus of my research. chapter six presents the conclusion of the present study. major findings from the study are summarized, and limitations, suggestions for further studies are provided. based on the analysis of the data, the author makes a conclusion on power construction and characteristics of power in internet chatroom, that is, firstly, the successful construction of power needs the co-operation of participant; secondly, power is locally and interactionally constructed in internet chat; thirdly, power is mufti-dimensionally constructed in internet chatroom. to sum up, the freedom of constructing power through the use of language is much greater than in other everyday conversation and institutional discourse due to the anonymity and virtuality of online environment. the significance of this thesis lies in that on condition of imperfect exploring of this new mode of communication by established linguistic theory, the author has a detailed analysis on power in internet chatroom conversation through critical discourse analysis theory, which may help people get a better understanding of chatroom conversations, and put foreword a reasonable way of analyzing internet chat for further study, and help participants to communicate more efficiently and effectively and networkers to design chatroom. this thesis studies the theory of power in new fields, and extends the research domains of the theory of cda. key words: power, chatroom conversation, question-response interaction, topic control dissertation type: applied research chapter one introduction 1 chapter one introduction 1.1 introduction anyone who reflects on everyday interactions may notice the fact that power can take many different forms, such as physical power, political power, military power, economic power and so on. for example, in courtroom trials, it is usually the judges and lawyers who have rights to interrupt others. defendants, accusers and witnesses seldom interrupt others. in doctor-patient interaction, the majority of questions are initiated by doctors, while patient-initiated questions are disprefered. in ordinary conversations, despite lack of constraints, the social inequalities, such as those between the rich and the poor, men and women, adults and children, influence the relationships between speakers. as drew and heritage (1992: 48) note, “if there were no asymmetries at all between people, i.e. if communicatively relevant inequalities of knowledge were non-existing, there would be little or no need for most kinds of communication.” compared with face-to-face interaction, online communication in cyberspace, especially the communication in internet chatroom, is regarded to be deprived of social constraints, where participants can communicate with each other equally and freely, because of its anonymous environment. people are less bothered by the fact that they have to consider whether their behaviors are appropriate to their social roles and identities. it is believed the anonymity and virtuality of cyberspace create the comparatively egalitarian communication environment and the freedom of online behaviors, which may lead to an assumption that in online communication, participatory rights are equally distributed among the participants. in spite of the freedom of online behaviors, power relations do exist in internet. power is quantifiable, which means that some people have more of it than others. the social relations of power can be reflected in the use of language. 1.2 the rationale of the study there are several reasons for conducting the research into power study in internet chatroom conversation by means of critical discourse analysis. firstly, critical discourse analysis (cda) has developed for more than thirty years as a new approach to discourse, which aims at demystifying naturalized discourse and showing that grammatical and semantic forms have close connections with ideology and power. nowadays cda has come to the new development, and has established its masters dissertation of henan university of science and technology 2 international fame. there are many scholars engaging in cda. the british school, represented by norman fairclough, has drawn upon foucaults theory of discourse and hallidays systemic linguistic theory and social semiotics. van dijk (2001), as the representative of dutch cda, adopts a cognitive approach to show how personal and social cognition mediates between social structures and discourse structures. cda has flourished in political discourse and media discourse, and gradually developed in more fields such as everyday conversation, but the studies are very limited. linell and luckmann (1991) talk about the asymmetry in everyday conversation, and some other studies have investigated dominance in everyday conversation. west and garcia (1988) have studied conversation dominance from the perspective of topic control. west and zimmerman (1983) have studied conversation dominance through violations of turn-taking rules in interruption and overlap. this thesis also tries to continue this research, and study internet chat in the field of computer-mediated communication (cmc) by cda. secondly, according to norman fairclough (1992), from the courtroom to the family dinner table, the language we use is always shaped by the material and social conditions, and their members practices are shaped in ways of which they are usually unaware by social structures, relations of power. power is a discursive phenomenon, which means the activity of talk itself can be a powerful phenomenon, and there are some ways of talking and some particular types of discursive actions to be considered more powerful than others. in internet chat, people are anonymous to each other. so the influence of social power relations is the least. it doesnt mean that power relation doesnt exist in internet chat. power relations just exist in different forms as a discursive phenomenon. this is why the author tries to study power in internet chatroom. how do people establish new power relations in interaction? the author adopts the method of cda to analyze the naturally occurring data turn-by-turn. thirdly, power as the central concern of cda has been studied in many fields. joanna thornborrow (2002) studies power in institutional settings such as doctor-patient interaction, courtroom trials, and classroom lessons. west and garcia (1988) have studied power in ordinary conversation. in the field of internet chat, qi lin (2003) studies the finitude of power in bbs, and xia xueying (2006) deals with the structure of power in bbs, wang yaolong (2006) studies the power in blog. the author tries to study power relations in internet chatroom, which the author thinks is a topic deserving attention. the chapter one introduction 3 thesis is going to explore this new and challenging field. by providing a new angle for the study of power, the tentative research is desired to make a contribution to the further researches of the power relations and the online interpersonal relations. the findings of this thesis will prove to be of practical value in the field of online communication. 1.3 objective of the study this thesis explores power in chatroom conversation by adopting the method of cda, aiming at power study in the communicating in the english internet chatroom. the author tries to find out whether there is power relation in the chatroom conversations, how power is established in internet chatroom through question-response interaction and topic control. this thesis also tries to find out the own characteristic of power construction in internet chatroom. with careful and detailed studies of this topic, it is also hoped that we can get a better understanding of the properties of internet, including its strength and uniqueness, and the features of internet chat, a natural language happened on line. the significance of this thesis lies in that on condition of imperfect exploring of this new mode of communication by established linguistic theory, the author has a detailed analysis on power in internet chatroom through critical discourse analysis theory, which may help people get a better understanding of chatroom conversations, and put foreword a reasonable way of analyzing internet chat for further study, and help participants to communicate more efficiently and effectively and networkers to design chatroom. this thesis studies the theory of power in new fields, and extends the research domains of the theory of cda. 1.4 research questions specifically, the author will try to search answers for the following questions. how is power constructed in english chatroom through question-response and topic control? what is the own characteristic of power in english chatroom? 1.5 the structure of the thesis the thesis consists of five parts, which are arranged as follows: chapter one is the introduction to this thesis, which include five parts, the introduction, the rationale, the objective of the study, the research questions and the masters dissertation of henan university of science and technology 4 structure of the thesis. chapter two is the review of relevant literature on the studies of power from institutional discourse and ordinary conversation, and chatroom conversation abroad and in china, and the relationship of power and chatroom conversation is also talked about. chapter three gives the theoretical framework of question-response interaction and topic control model of kuppevelt (1995). chapter four is the data collection and methodology, in which the author introduces a new way to collect data. chapter five has a detailed investigation into power study in communicating in internet chatroom, and how power realized in internet chatroom through questions, responses and topic control. chapter six presents the conclusion of the present study. major findings from the study are summarized, and limitations, suggestions for further studies are provided. chapter two literature review 5 chapter two literature review in this chapter, the author gives a literature review of study of power and chatroom conversation and the relation between them. this background chapter is designed to provide the readers with grounding in areas of relevance to the paper from a more technical perspective. 2.1 power study 2.1.1 different interpretations of power in the light of van dijks (2001: 352) description, cda is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. the emphasis of cda is on the exploration of the relation between linguistic form and ideology, and its concern is to demonstrate the ways various aspects of grammar are connected with power and control. therefore, the main task of cda is to demystify and uncover power, control and dominance, which are often hidden and blurred in linguistic structures, and to account for the relationship between discourse and social power. as a result, power is the central concern of cda in that the analytical approaches and the aims of cda all center on disclosing power and the exercise of power. in a commonsense way, power tends to be associated with rank and status, and hierarchies are built around these relative positions of social, professional and political power. we often talk about power as measurable in terms of the amount of physical power, political power, military power, disciplinary power, economic power and so on that people or organizations might possess. in fact, power has a much wider range. this thesis adopts the power theory in cda and views power as a discursive force to achieve ones aim. in fact, the pioneering work on power has been done by althusser (1971) and foucault (1980), and their attitudes towards power have a decisive influence on cda. althusser (1971: 127) describes power as a discursive phenomenon and holds that power operates through discourse by constructing particular subject positions for people to occupy. foucault (1980: 36) regards the concept of power as a complex and continuously evolving web of social and discursive relations. masters dissertation of henan university of science and technology 6 power has been studied as an ideological phenomenon at the macro-level and as a discursive phenomenon at the micro-level. the view of power as an ideological phenomenon is abstract, which means that power can shape peoples perception and cognition in such a way that people accept the existing order of things, the world as it is, as natural and unchangeable even though it may not be in their best interests. then the author describes power as a discursive phenomenon in detail for this part is the key point of this thesis. power is a discursive force to achieve ones aim at the micro-level. it is a key element in discussions of discourse. conversation analysts tend to use the term “asymmetry” instead of power. they take a different view of power. restricted by the empirical method, they hold that there are not pre-inscribed social relations of power. the asymmetry is locally and interactionally produced and transformable at any moment. however, conversation analysis approaches to asymmetry can mask the essential inequalities in speakers access to and effective use of discursive resources. critical discourse analysts like fairclough (1992) and van dijk (2001) tend to consider power as a discursive phenomenon, and hold that power is implicated and implemented by means of discursive practices in order to possess the capacity to achieve ones aims. van dijk (2001: 352) defines power as contr