AN INVESTIGATION INTO LINGUISTIC DEVICES USED FOR AVOIDING CONFLICT IN CONVERSATION

Abstract

In reality, to build and maintain the social relationship, the speakers often try to soften the difference and conflict between them and the hearers. To fulfill this, the speakers usually use the meaning of the entire discourse; however, we can know this through some markers and in some cases the hearers also recognize. While studying expressions to soften the conflict, in this research, we only pay attention to some markers which carry out this duty. With the aim to investigate linguistic devices used for avoiding conflict in conversations, the study is based on descriptive, contrastive, quantitative and qualitative methods. The films are collected and analyzed to examine the frequency of linguistic devices used for avoiding conflict in English and Vietnamese conversations. Moreover, the research tries to identify the similarities and differences in the use of language for avoiding conflict in English and Vietnamese.