A Pragmatic Study of Mitigating Strategies for Interpersonal Conflicts in Unequal Power Relations

Ji Xiyuan

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13

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A Pragmatic Study of Mitigating Strategies for Interpersonal Conflicts in Unequal Power Relations

Ji Xiyuan

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 6, Issue 4)

Received: 28 June 2018 Accepted: 9 July 2018 Published: 7 August 2018

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Abstract

Conflict talk is a common but complex interactional phenomenon, whose initiation, maintenance, termination, etc. have been explored by many scholars. However, the mitigating strategies of conflict talk have not attracted much attention for research. This paper is a pragmatic study of mitigating strategies for interpersonal conflicts on the basis of the collected data from a number of Chinese official novels within Verschueren’s theoretical framework of Linguistic Adaptation Theory. It then offers an account of the pragmatic motivations for interlocutors with unequal power relations to use mitigating strategies in verbal conflicts in Chinese official settings.

Published in	International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 6, Issue 4)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13
Page(s)	118-126
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2018. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Interpersonal Conflicts, Mitigating Strategies, Unequal Power Relations, Adaptation, Chinese Official Settings

References

[1]	Grimshaw, A. D. (1990). Conflict Talk: Sociolinguistic Investigations of Arguments in Conversations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[2]	Baker, P. (1998). A Conversation Analysis Approach to Conflict in Student-Lecture Talk. http://www.ling.lancs. ac.uk/ pubs/clsl/wpapers.
[3]	Honda, A. (2002). Conflict management in Japanese public affairs talk shows. Journal of Pragmatics 34, 573-608.
[4]	Leung, S. (2002). Conflict Talk: A Discourse Analytical Perspective. http://journals.tclibrary.org/index.php/tesol/articl- e/view/20/27.
[5]	Norrick, N. R., and Spitz, A. (2008). Humor as a resource for mitigating conflict in interaction. Journal of Pragmatics 40, 1661-1686.
[6]	Ran, Yongping. (2010a). A pragmatic study of the divergence orientation of conflict utterances). Modern Foreign Languages 2, 150-157.
[7]	Verschueren, J. (2000). Understanding Pragmatics. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press and London: Edward Arnold (Publishers) Limited.
[8]	Hartwick, J. and Barki, H. (2002). Conceptualizing the construct of interpersonal conflicts. The International Journal of Conflict Management 15, 216-244.
[9]	Morasso, S.G. (2008). The ontology of conflict. Pragmatics and cognition 16, 540-567.
[10]	Ran, Yongping. (2010b). A survey of the pragmatic studies about conflict talk in interaction. Foreign Language Teaching 1, 1-6.
[11]	Rees-Miller, J. (2000). Power, severity, and context in disagreement. Journal of Pragmatics 32, 1087-1111.
[12]	C. Caffi. (2007). On mitigation. Journal of Pragmatics 31, 881–909.
[13]	Fraser, B. (1980). Conversational Mitigation. Journal of Pragmatics 4, 341- 350.
[14]	Dennis, H. W. (2001). Power: Its Forms, Bases, and Uses. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
[15]	Spencer-Oatey, H. (1996). Reconsidering power and distance. Journal of Pragmatics 26, 1-24.
[16]	Pan, Yulin. (2000). Politeness in Chinese face-to-face Interaction. Stamford: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
[17]	Maynard, D. W. (1985). How children start arguments. Language in Society 14, 1-29.
[18]	Tannen, D. (2006). Intertextuality in action: Reframing family arguments in public and private. Text & Talk 26, 597–617.

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Ji Xiyuan. (2018). A Pragmatic Study of Mitigating Strategies for Interpersonal Conflicts in Unequal Power Relations. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 6(4), 118-126. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13

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ACS Style

Ji Xiyuan. A Pragmatic Study of Mitigating Strategies for Interpersonal Conflicts in Unequal Power Relations. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2018, 6(4), 118-126. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13

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AMA Style

Ji Xiyuan. A Pragmatic Study of Mitigating Strategies for Interpersonal Conflicts in Unequal Power Relations. Int J Lang Linguist. 2018;6(4):118-126. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13

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@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13,
  author = {Ji Xiyuan},
  title = {A Pragmatic Study of Mitigating Strategies for Interpersonal Conflicts in Unequal Power Relations},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {6},
  number = {4},
  pages = {118-126},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20180604.13},
  abstract = {Conflict talk is a common but complex interactional phenomenon, whose initiation, maintenance, termination, etc. have been explored by many scholars. However, the mitigating strategies of conflict talk have not attracted much attention for research. This paper is a pragmatic study of mitigating strategies for interpersonal conflicts on the basis of the collected data from a number of Chinese official novels within Verschueren’s theoretical framework of Linguistic Adaptation Theory. It then offers an account of the pragmatic motivations for interlocutors with unequal power relations to use mitigating strategies in verbal conflicts in Chinese official settings.},
 year = {2018}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - A Pragmatic Study of Mitigating Strategies for Interpersonal Conflicts in Unequal Power Relations
AU  - Ji Xiyuan
Y1  - 2018/08/07
PY  - 2018
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 118
EP  - 126
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13
AB  - Conflict talk is a common but complex interactional phenomenon, whose initiation, maintenance, termination, etc. have been explored by many scholars. However, the mitigating strategies of conflict talk have not attracted much attention for research. This paper is a pragmatic study of mitigating strategies for interpersonal conflicts on the basis of the collected data from a number of Chinese official novels within Verschueren’s theoretical framework of Linguistic Adaptation Theory. It then offers an account of the pragmatic motivations for interlocutors with unequal power relations to use mitigating strategies in verbal conflicts in Chinese official settings.
VL  - 6
IS  - 4
ER  -

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Author Information

Ji Xiyuan

College of Foreign Languages, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, China

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APA Style

Ji Xiyuan. (2018). A Pragmatic Study of Mitigating Strategies for Interpersonal Conflicts in Unequal Power Relations. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 6(4), 118-126. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13

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ACS Style

Ji Xiyuan. A Pragmatic Study of Mitigating Strategies for Interpersonal Conflicts in Unequal Power Relations. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2018, 6(4), 118-126. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Ji Xiyuan. A Pragmatic Study of Mitigating Strategies for Interpersonal Conflicts in Unequal Power Relations. Int J Lang Linguist. 2018;6(4):118-126. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13,
  author = {Ji Xiyuan},
  title = {A Pragmatic Study of Mitigating Strategies for Interpersonal Conflicts in Unequal Power Relations},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {6},
  number = {4},
  pages = {118-126},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20180604.13},
  abstract = {Conflict talk is a common but complex interactional phenomenon, whose initiation, maintenance, termination, etc. have been explored by many scholars. However, the mitigating strategies of conflict talk have not attracted much attention for research. This paper is a pragmatic study of mitigating strategies for interpersonal conflicts on the basis of the collected data from a number of Chinese official novels within Verschueren’s theoretical framework of Linguistic Adaptation Theory. It then offers an account of the pragmatic motivations for interlocutors with unequal power relations to use mitigating strategies in verbal conflicts in Chinese official settings.},
 year = {2018}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - A Pragmatic Study of Mitigating Strategies for Interpersonal Conflicts in Unequal Power Relations
AU  - Ji Xiyuan
Y1  - 2018/08/07
PY  - 2018
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 118
EP  - 126
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20180604.13
AB  - Conflict talk is a common but complex interactional phenomenon, whose initiation, maintenance, termination, etc. have been explored by many scholars. However, the mitigating strategies of conflict talk have not attracted much attention for research. This paper is a pragmatic study of mitigating strategies for interpersonal conflicts on the basis of the collected data from a number of Chinese official novels within Verschueren’s theoretical framework of Linguistic Adaptation Theory. It then offers an account of the pragmatic motivations for interlocutors with unequal power relations to use mitigating strategies in verbal conflicts in Chinese official settings.
VL  - 6
IS  - 4
ER  -

Copy | Download